Things that baffle me… July 2014 edition

When Apple first introduced the Lightning cable, the interwebs were afire with people bitching about paying $29 for a cable.  Soon prices dropped, 3rd parties ponied up for licencing and now you can get Lighting cables from Amazon for under $15.  Still people bitch about the price.  The cable has 2 gigs of ram in it and a CPU, but hey… people still bitch.

 
Now comes along a Indigogo project for an iphone cable that sold out at $25, has $30 and up tiers selling quickly and will retail for more than that.  
 
HUH??? It’s a cable. Do people do something with their cables that makes paying a premium for this worth while? 
 
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/statement-wkw-extreme-charge-and-data-cable-for-iphone-ipod-and-ipad
 
I don’t.
 
Next up… My Samsung Galaxy Tab 7. 
It’s been dead for months. Won’t charge. Nada. I thought maybe it just doesn’t play well with Apple wall warts, and I tried basic Apple 1st gen iphone warts. Nada. I tried the Amazon Kindle wart. Nothing. I tried 3rd party chargers…zip.
 
I had given it up for dead. 
 
Then today I needed a cable and was digging around the bonus room when I came across the original Samsung wart that came with the tablet. I glimmer of suspicion rose up at the back of my mind. “nah…they have to use standard USB charging, no way they went that proprietary in their battle against the walled garden” I said to myself.  But I figured what the hell, lets rule it out at least.
 
I plugged it in and boom! The tablet powered up! 
 
You have got to be fucking kidding me.  
 
In my book this makes Samsung far bigger hypocrites. I’ve never NOT been able to charge any iDevice I have from ANY USB charger. I may not get full power speed from a non 2.x charger but they work.  
 
Samsung you really baffle me.

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