From Left: Apple Pro Keyboard (Black), 2007 Dock Connector, 2011 Dock Connector, 2012 Lightning Connector

It may not be all that glamorous, but Apple does bother improving (or at least, shrinking) the USB end of its cables. The white part around the Lightning cable is only barely bigger than the pins, compared to that old keyboard cable which is huge (sorry I don’t have a white one – I only bought PowerBooks during the white era and went out of my way to purchase new old black Pro Keyboards until the chiclet (are we calling this “unibody”?) keyboard came out).

When you buy a new Dell keyboard today, I wonder how big the connector is. Surely, cables don’t need to be as minimalist as Apple is going for, maybe even the Pro Keyboard size is easier to work with. But Apple is probably the only company that’s even giving this consideration. It certainly looks like Monoprice isn’t interested in trimming the connector any. (btw I LOVE monoprice and give them tons of cost-effective money all the time)