Shorter cables are better for travel
February 25th, 2010
As a frequent traveler, one of the things I'm constantly trying to do is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get through airport security. One of those ways is to either reduce the amount of electronics I travel with (not likely to happen) or make them more TSA friendly.
If you have a cable mess in your bag it's going to be harder to xray therefore likely yield you a "bag check" so that they can take a closer look.
Three Cables I Can't Live Without
I've narrowed my cable usage down to 3-4 cables that I can't live without. One is a Firewire 800 cable and the other two are a USB Mini Cable and a USB Micro cable. There is actually a 4th cable and that's an iPhone/iPod sync cable, but I haven't found a short one that I really like yet. However, I was able to find all 3 shorter cables (in most cases 6 inches or less) at usbfirewire.com
What about those cool retractable cables?
Retractable cables are OK and I really haven't had any issues with them. However, keep in mind that they are very thin by nature and since you're going to be constantly pulling on them and retracting them that they will tend to break easily. Also they have less shielding and could present problems with data transfers. On the plus side they should be fine for charging in general. So here are some good choices:
Here's a USB one with multiple tips. Here's a micro USB one. Lastly here's one for your iPhone/iPod.
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Posted in Iphone Nano