Hasta La Gadget!

Cuba may only be positioned 100 or so miles from Key West, but the US embargo meant an undersea fiber link to North America hasn’t been a possibility. Earlier this week, though, we began to see discussion regarding traffic passing through a connection to Venezuela, and ETECSA, a government-owned telecom provider, has now confirmed that a 994-mile cable has been operational since August, though in a limited capacity. On January 10th, ETECSA stepped up its utilization, testing the connection using “real traffic.”

The $70-million Alba-1 cable, which has a reported lifespan of 25 years, was completed in February 2011, though it’s not clear when, or if, citizens will see any benefit — a statement explained that it “will not automatically mean an increase in access.” That’s not great news for Cubans, but at least Hugo Chavez now has the possibility of a direct link to his home country — with a Netflix subscription and a VPN tunnel to the good ole US of A, his recovery could be a little more speedy.

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Source: AFP

You know what I have a lot of? Old iPhone cables. You know what I don’t have a lot of? Old iPhones. So here are some cheap(er) adapters so your bogus cords are actually useful. More »

If you thought screens were where glass started and finished in gadgets, think again. Corning, the company behind Gorilla Glass, has also started making optical USB and Thunderbolt cables—and they’re super, super long. More »

This week the folks at Sumitomo Electric Industries have announced that they’re the first group in the world to receive certification from Intel to produce optical Thunderbolt cables – time to get long! This means that once they get moving with production, SEI will be able to produce cords up to 100 feet in length rather than the approximately 10 foot length they’re limited to today. While today’s Thunderbolt cable requires metal components that limit their length to about the size of a desk, we’ll soon be rolling out across the whole room with optical builds.

The announcement from Sumitomo Electric Industries notes that they’ll be able to keep the full 10 Gbps speeds that the metal cables have shown. They also mention that even if the cables they’re producing are “tangled or pinched” up to 180 degrees, they’ll retain their signal fully. These cables have been assured to be as thin as the current standard metal-carrying Thunderbolt cables while their heads will be ever-so-slightly modified.

Each new Sumitomo Electric Industries optical Thunderbolt cable will have a 38mm connection head rather than the original metal cable’s 28mm. This and the fact that these new optical cables will not be able to power devices such as hard drives may be a hinderance for many hoping to continue their Thunderbolt access across their home, but for those already using separate power supplies, the game is on.

The Sumitomo Electric Industries team has made it clear that all Apple computers and devices shipped with standard Thunderbolt cable compatibility on the market thus far will be working with their new cords. They’ve not yet announced pricing or availability, but you can bet you’ll be seeing these cords before 2013 is ended (especially since they started shipping sample products back in April of 2012.)

[via Sumitomo Electric]

Thunderbolt cables go fiber optic (up to 100 feet long!) is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Third-party accessory maker Griffin has announced the first major third-party Lightning cables to hit the market. While we’ve already seen a few Lightning accessories come our way, there hasn’t been a third-party Lightning cable option other than what Apple offers themselves. Finally, though, our options are starting to spread out a little.

Griffin is offering the cables in four different lengths and styles. A 2-foot cable will cost $16.99, a 3-foot cable for $18.99, a 4-foot coiled cable for $24.99, and a 3-meter (9.7 feet) cable for $29.99. To compare, Apple sells a 3.5-foot Lightning cable for $19, so Griffin isn’t really undercutting the price too much.

However, it’s nice to now have more options when it comes to shopping for Lightning cables, especially if you prefer a black color scheme and a shorter or longer cable than what Apple offers. Because of this, we’re sure these third-party products will find their audience even if they aren’t necessarily cheaper than Apple’s offering.

Griffin says that all of these new cables will be shipping sometime in the first week of December, so only a few days from now, give or take a day or two. Plus, you can pair the cables with a USB car adapter so that you can charge up your new Apple devices while on the go. Griffin has plenty of those as well.

Griffin announces third-party Lightning cables is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.