CableJive xlSync review
The iPad’s battery life is great. Still, it won’t last you a full day if you do performance heavy tasks (like play graphics heavy games, watch video with full brightness, or use it as a night stand). I use my iPad more or less like a second computer, so I leave it plugged in with the screen on pretty much the entire day. What has annoyed me when doing so is that the included charge cable is very short if you want to maneuver a bit. Luckily, there is a solution, the CableJive xlSync USB cable.
This is going to be one of those funny reviews where a link and a comment saying “it does what it says” would frankly do the job. I mean, we’re talking about a sync and charge cable here. It’s 2 meters long which is about double that of the included cable, which is the whole point. You can plug it into your charge and move twice as far away from it as you could before.
Design-wise it’s a lot like the original iPad cable, especially in that it has the low profile dock connector rather than the much bugger one that e.g the Griffin 3m dock cable has. That combined with the cost of the Griffin ($30 compared to $13 for the CableJive cable) made me choose the xlSync despite the 1m extra length of the Griffin. Also worth noting (though obvious from the pictures) is that the xlSync is available in black (as well as white), which in my opinion goes better with a black iPad.
Quality-wise I have nothing to complain about. The connector is both secure yet easy to insert and remove and you don’t run the risk of it staying in there forever (which is actually quite a problem with cheap nobrandcables). The cable is both thick enough to last and flexible enough to bend. The big problem with the low profile cable design however is that the cable often splits open near the dock connector or USB connector. I’ve had it happen to original Apple cables and it might happen to this as well, while it’s less of a risk with the larger connectors.
Again, there isn’t a whole lot to say about this cable other than that it works. The cable is cheap, durable and very useful, which is pretty much a description for all of CableJive’s products. For those who don’t know them, CableJive is a great company that has a lot of nice semi-niche cables for the iPad, such as split cables (one USB connector, two dock connectors), 30 pin extension cables, tiny dock extenders (e.g. for using iPads in iPhone docks) and several others. It’s a great little Internet treasure for iPad cables and the best thing is that they’re both cheap and offer cheap international shipping.
