MicFlip Is A Fully Reversible USB-A To Micro-USB Cable

Indiegogo and other such crowdfunding websites are home to a large number of ambitious projects, hoping to pique consumer-investor curiosity and turn dreams into entrepreneurial ventures. Not all such projects are feasible, nor all such projects funded. But some projects do stand out of the crowd.

This is the MicFlip.

Overlooking the cringeworthy YouTube ad, MicFlip is a rather interesting take on the first world problem of plugging in the cable the wrong way.

As the Indiegogo project page states, MicFlip is the world’s first fully reversible USB-A to Micro-USB cable. Featuring “an ultra-strong braided nylon lead, a robust aluminum shell and gold-plated plugs to prevent corrosion”, the MicFlip tries to improve upon traditional cables by giving us what we need: reversibility on existing products.

So far, all the Android smartphone flagships that have been released, have come along with the familiar micro USB port. On the other end of the spectrum (or cable, as you may), USB Type A ports have been the de-facto way of how “host” devices have communicated with smartphones and other accessories. Such is their ubiquity, that there is a good chance that you, as a reader on XDA Developers, may be in possession of at least two USB (A) to Micro USB cables.

The annoying part of both USB Type A as well as micro USB is that both have a fixed orientation of the port, in the sense that you can not mindlessly plug in a cable and have it fit correctly, without any damage. MicFlip aims to fix this, as it allows reversibility on both ends of the cable.

The Indiegogo project page does not detail the exact mechanism of how this is achieved. However, taking a guess from one of the product images, this reversibility may have been achieved by thinning the plastic tongue inside the plug and allowing the electrical contacts to be present on either side of the tongue. The tongue may operate on a hinge-like mechanism, thereby allowing “reversibility” in connecting the plug into the usb receptacles.

As a plus point, the MicFlip also uses braided nylon for the cable, giving extra durability to the cable. Not a standing point in its entirety, but such durability would be a decent addition to a product that aims to provide convenience.

Granted, USB Type C is just round the corner, featuring reversible plug connectors. Even the new OnePlus Two will come with USB Type C. However, the fact is, wide scale adoption of USB Type C is still quite some time away. In the meanwhile, MicFlip aims to serve your needs.

The project has already raised 528% ($31,698) of its $6,000 funding goal within 5 days, so there is no doubt that the MicFlip is indeed a product needed by many. Shipping is expected to start in August, with the official deadline being September 1st, 2015. The product will retail for $20 after its campaign, but you can early bird pre-order one for $15 now.

MicFlip as a product is an innovative way to tackle a problem which was one of the reasons that eventually led to the development of USB Type C. It makes the tinfoil hat totting conspiracy theorists in us to think of USB Type C as a way of achieving planned obsolescence in today’s money oriented world.

Source:XDA

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Karbonn Titanium S5i listed online for Rs 7,999

Indian smartphone vendor Karbonn is readying a new variant of the Titanium S5 smartphone, called the Titanium S5i. The smartphone is listed on certain Indian e-commerce websites with a price tag of Rs 7,999.

Karbonn Titanium S5i comes with a 5-inch TFT display with a 480×854 (FWVGA) pixels resolution. The smartphone is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor paired with 512MB of RAM. The handset comes with a 4GB in-built storage, and can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card. The Karbonn Titanium S5i offers dual-SIM (GSM-GSM) support, and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The smartphone sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front camera. Connectivity options include  3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB, and GPS. It is backed by a 2000mAh battery, and is currently available in Deep Blue colour variant at HomeShop18. The smartphone was first spotted by New Gyaan.

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Surface 2 unveiled : first impression

Today Microsoft announced the specifications and price points for its new Surface tablet hybrids. Microsoft’s Surface tablet was supposed to usher in a new generation of Windows RT products, targeted to compete more with iOS and Android tablets than full-featured laptops. The Surface 2 is a

ACER ASPIRE S7-392 :REVIEW

Acer recently released an update to the S7, aptly called the S7-392. With the launch of Intel’s new 4th-Generation Core (Haswell) CPUs, Acer is revisiting the device in the form of the S7-392, bestowing not only a new processor,

HTC One Max to come with Sense 5.5 and Android 4.3

New rumor regarding the HTC One Max phablet has arrived hailing from China. HTC’s first ever phablet is expected to be unveiled in the coming months, there have been conflicting reports about its launch.

According to the new leak, the Taiwanese manufacturer’s phablet will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with its custom Sense 5.5 UI on top. The changes that Sense 5.5 UI is expected to bring have not been revealed as yet.

 On the hardware side, HTC One Max is now rumored to have a 2.1 megapixel front cameraand a rear UltraPixel camera. According to previous rumors, the One Max is expected to have a 5.9 inch 1080p Super LCD3 display, a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB RAM and a 3,000 mAh battery. The device is also said to come with support for TD-LTE, which is China’s homegrown version of the high-speed standard, but there’s little doubt that the international version of the device will also sport 4G LTE support. A dual-SIM, dual-standby version of the HTC One Max will be also made available to target Asian customers.

Pricing of the phablet remains unknown, but the official launch of the device could arrive in the next few weeks.

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