Apple Revamps Thunderbolt Cable Lineup with Lower Pricing, Shorter Cable Option

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple today revamped its Thunderbolt cable lineup, dropping the price of the existing 2-meter cable from $49 to $39 and adding a new 0.5-meter cable priced at $29.

apple thunderbolt cablesThunderbolt cables remain relatively expensive due to the electronics included inside the cables to manage the multiple protocols supported by the standard. The complexity and expense has both slowed deployment of Thunderbolt peripherals and limited support mostly to high-end devices capable of absorbing the high cost premium.

Thunderbolt cables have so far been limited to traditional copper cabling, but vendors are just beginning production on optical cables for the standard. The optical cables will allow for much longer cable lengths, but will not be able to provide power to peripherals as copper cables can.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Production Will Reportedly Begin Ramping Up in October

Tuesday July 23, 2024 2:00 pm PDT by
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature

iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model

Monday July 22, 2024 4:33 am PDT by
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Kuo: Ultra-Thin iPhone 17 to Feature A19 Chip, Single Rear Camera, Semi-Titanium Frame, and More

Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
icloud private relay outage

iCloud Private Relay Experiencing Outage

Thursday July 25, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...

Top Rated Comments

ollyb Avatar
151 months ago
Cool. I'll buy one of these to connect to my.... nothing.
Score: 63 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topmounter Avatar
151 months ago
The guy at Best Buy told me the gold-plated ones are at least 100x faster.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlieegan3 Avatar
151 months ago
Shorter cable, same massive markup.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WildCowboy Avatar
151 months ago
This has been available for about a week. Come on guys.

If you've known about it for a week, it would have been helpful if you'd told us about it at any point. :)
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SDAVE Avatar
151 months ago
Thunderbolt is a dead non-starter. USB3 is on course to win the fight.
Not good for us.

TB can become a FireWire port, a Gigabit Port, an extension for the PCIe port to expand graphic card capabilities, etc, not to mention connect to a display and the display becomes a hub, etc.

USB3.0 cannot.

TB is a PCIe extension directly connected to the motherboard, kind of like the now dead ExpressCard.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Drinahn Avatar
151 months ago
Chill out peasants. It's only 50 bucks. If it offends you that much go buy something else.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)