The first iPhone models inherited the 30-pin connector from the iPod, and it was only with the iPhone 5 launched in 2012 that Apple introduced its reversible Lightning connector (since replaced by USB-C on the iPhone 15 in 2023). Before the launch, Apple had to test prototypes of different accessories and @nyan_satan got his hands on an ingenious setup which ended up in the wild fourteen years later: we can see a video adapter under the name “Tiger-PRO 1” whose Lightning connector is hidden… inside a fake 30-pin connector!
Before its launch, the future iPhone connector was therefore able to travel incognito between Cupertino and Apple’s subcontractors, in this case the Taiwanese company Foxlink which manufactures various cables and chargers on behalf of Apple. DIYers from Cupertino are accustomed to this, the most famous case being undoubtedly the Apple Watch prototype camouflaged in a case aping the iPod nano, with dummy buttons.
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