Say goodbye to tangled charge cables with Echo Connect Key
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Echo Connect Key
Written by Young Jeohn
Chargers and cables. Forgetting to bring these (seemingly minor) peripherals causes more grief and despair than changing in a gym locker room and realizing you haven't got any underpants on. You're suddenly flooded with a feeling of dread, knowing sooner or later you'll have to sheepishly ask around for a loaner. From a complete stranger. Ew.
It's times like these you wish you had the Connect Key, the first MFi certified dual connector (meaning it's got Apple's full blessing) for use in charging both lightning and micro USB devices. What this means is that you no longer have to worry about which cable to bring for which phone. Samsung with Android? No problem. iPhone 6? Got it covered. Echo, the UK company that's developed this technology has effectively killed two birds with one stone.
Anatomy of the key
The Echo Connect Key is designed to mimic the look of... well, a key. It physically looks like one, with the blade feeling like it should be inserted into something. The bow has a key hole letting you add it to your existing set of house keys. What makes it different from its metal siblings is the rubber and plastic that hides the wires within, and three familiar looking plugs. On the blade end is the larger USB tip that's typically plugged into a computer or charger. On the other end, the bow splits left and right to hold the lighting tip on one side and micro USB on the other. All tips are reinforced with a firm, hard plastic for rigid stability, then enclosed in TPU, or Thermoplastic polyurethane.
Thermo-poly what???
TPU is a material that makes this thing virtually indestructible, and able to withstand the abuse of everyday life as it jangles day in and day out next to a bunch of metal keys. I've also found the TPU material to be bendy and extremely flexible. To find out just how durable it was, I tried bending the key as far as I was able to; and continued doing this every day for a week. The question was, would it still work after this kind of punishment? I mean, you wouldn't intentionally -and repeatedly- bend a regular charging cable in half without expecting it to fail at some point. It'd be the equivalent of forcing someone who couldn't touch their toes - to touch their toes.
Well, here's the good news. No matter how hard I'd try, the key would simply straighten back to its original shape. No bends, no marks, no signs that I'd done anything to it at all. And the bad news? I don't have any for you. At least not yet.
USAGE
Being that it weighs next to nothing, it's easy to forget that you even have it. Using it is simple, you basically plug it into a wall charger or a laptop and then plug in whatever it is you want to charge. But there are a couple of things to note beforehand. The Connect Key being what it is physically, is best used on a flat surface for maximum safety. Plug it into a charger on a wall and your phone will be dangling in the air with no support. You'd risk the terrifying noise of a cracked screen, followed soon after by much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Having said that, I feel the need to disclose the fact that I'm guilty of doing the very thing I'm advising you not to. I've found that for some reason, the physics of the bending key seems to add an additional level of friction that holds the phone in place. This is at least true of the micro USB port (if you have an iPhone to lend me for testing the lightning connector, do get in touch.) I've never once had my phone fall out, though I do admit that being an overly cautious fellow, I'd put a bag or something equally soft'ish underneath it for the first few trials, just in case.
The second thing is, you probably won't be using your phone while it charges. Cables inherently give you some slack, but that luxury doesn't exist with the key since it's only like 2 inches in length. But what does that matter? The point of all this is to feed my hungry phone when it starts grumbling for power. The Connect Key does just that in a tiny package.
NOT ONLY POWER, BUT DATA!
In addition to charging, the Echo Connect Key allows transferring of data from one device to another. Now obviously there's no data to pull when connected to a wall outlet, but it's a different story when connected to a computer. And let me tell you that not all cables can do both. Some are wired only to charge (won't even recognize devices) and some only to transfer data (will absolutely not charge). The Connect Key does both effortlessly, distinguishing it from the wanna-bes and the el-cheapo, no-name products sold on ebay.
The more technically minded among you will find it useful to know that transfer speeds go as fast as USB 2 and there's a built in mechanism to prevent the possibility of stolen data called the "Either Or" switch. It's an automatic function that allows only one device to charge or sync data (either the iPhone or Android device, but not both.) Echo needn't have worried though, as they also seem to have taken hardware precautions against this as well. I was meeting a friend who I noticed had an iPhone, so I tried (and failed) to plug in two devices simultaneously. The lightning and micro USB tips at the bow end were too close for the phones to be plugged in together, and after trying to unsuccessfully bend the key, discovered the area between the two tips were encased in rigid material, preventing me from bending it.
Clearly this double protection is Echo's way of saying "Don't even bother trying."
I'd like to add that products like this are quite special, especially once you realize that it's functioning as a splitter. Keep in mind that it's no small feat to split a cable to transfer both power and data into two different types of plugs; in this case into lightning and micro USB. Add to that the ability to disable one end from working when the other is plugged in and you have a piece of kit that requires quite a bit of engineering and design work (which is probably why you haven't seen many products like these in existence - until now.)
CONCLUSION
The Connect Key is a light, durable and tangle-free product with the potential to replace the charge cords you currently carry around. With the ability to work with both lightning and micro USB for charging and data transfer, you have a great product that you can't forget to walk out the door with (unless you've also forgotten to bring your house keys, in which case you've got bigger issues to worry about!)
You can pick up the Echo Connect Key on their website in one of four colors (black, white, blue and purple) and a two year warranty for 20 British pounds (around US$29).
They also have an exciting, new Indiegogo campaign for a new product they're calling "IronWire" for iPhone; a lighting cable strong enough to pull a car AND comes with a lifetime warranty. A lifetime warranty for a product that can pull a car? This is something you have to see to believe - http://igg.me/at/ironwire/x/9384662
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