There’s not a lot of room for innovation when it comes to Dock Connector and USB cables, but a few manufacturers have decided to at least play with the form and go with flat cords, rather than round ones. That’s precisely what Aviiiq has done with its Ready Clips; measuring about 5.5″ from tip to tip, these cables have hard plastic casings at the plug ends — including a raised clip at the Dock Connector, Micro-USB, or Mini-USB side — and semi-hard rubber in between. They are available only in pairs with packages ranging from $20 to $30
Ready Clips have some advantages over traditional cables, but also some drawbacks.
They’re certainly better suited for use with a laptop than a desktop computer such as an iMac and particularly make a lot of sense for those who travel. Rather than having to wrap up a multi-foot long cord and hope it doesn’t become undone or tangled, one can simply toss the flat cable into a bag or clip it on to a pocket. When plugged in, however, it’s more difficult to use the connected device as there’s not a lot of give; this would likely be more of an issue for an iPhone or iPad compared to other accessories that might be connected with the Mini- or Micro-USB cords.
It’s worth mentioning as well that our testing showed that the Dock Connector version does carry 2.1 Amps for full-speed iPad charging.
However, we did find two more serious problems with Aviiq’s cables. Firstly, the glue where the plastic and hard rubber meet has a tendency to snap almost instantly when the cable is bent; this doesn’t seem to affect overall performance, but it’s not a great sign right out of the box. This happened with all three of the cables we received for review, and at both ends of each.
