Tools like the iPad have brought us lots of nice new things – day-long batteries, ultra-thin lightweight devices, beautiful touchable apps, less time spent troubleshooting. But then they’ve also forced us to make weird choices. Do you want electricity or do you want accessories. (Um, both? Wait, what?!)
And so it is that I’m writing this piece of news. Now, you can plug into a wall for electricity! (Wow!) And, you can use USB accessories! And you don’t have to choose!
We knew this should work in theory, but it was time to test it in real life. Here, Christian Blomert (a developer behind touchAble and Modstep) demonstrates that you can now plug a single dongle into the iPad’s Lightning port, and get:
1. USB for bus-powered accessories.
2. Power (via a second Lightning port) for your iPad.
Where wonders never cease.
Some USB gadgets will need more power, and of course if you want more than one USB accessory, you’ll want a hub. But in the past, even that wasn’t a solution, because the Lightning-to-USB connection blocked the use of that same port for power.
Also good: Apple says the accessory is compatible with any iPad with a Lightning connection. (30-pin adapters should work, too, but then I’ve seen third-party accessories already that do what this does for 30-pin.)
Now, let commenters say I’m hyping this up. They’re right, of course. (Next time on CDM, watch me plug a hairdryer into a wall!)
US$39.
But that’s okay, I’ve got some instant ramen here and now look forward to some extended production time. Go:
Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter [Apple.com Shop]