Posted on by Terry White

Shorter cables are better for travel

short usb

As a frequent traveler, one of the things I'm constantly trying to do is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get through airport security. One of those ways is to either reduce the amount of electronics I travel with (not likely to happen) or make them more TSA friendly.

If you have a cable mess in your bag it's going to be harder to xray therefore likely yield you a "bag check" so that they can take a closer look.

 

Three Cables I Can't Live Without
 

I've narrowed my cable usage down to 3-4 cables that I can't live without. One is a Firewire 800 cable and the other two are a USB Mini Cable and a USB Micro cable. There is actually a 4th cable and that's an iPhone/iPod sync cable, but I haven't found a short one that I really like yet. However, I was able to find all 3 shorter cables (in most cases 6 inches or less) at usbfirewire.com

 

What about those cool retractable cables?

retractable

Retractable cables are OK and I really haven't had any issues with them. However, keep in mind that they are very thin by nature and since you're going to be constantly pulling on them and retracting them that they will tend to break easily. Also they have less shielding and could present problems with data transfers. On the plus side they should be fine for charging in general. So here are some good choices:

Here's a USB one with multiple tips. Here's a micro USB one. Lastly here's one for your iPhone/iPod.

6 Replies to “Shorter cables are better for travel”

  1. Recently, I had to grab some new USB Mini cables for my portable drives, as most of mine were acting flakey. Fry’s had some of these HP/Monster Cable co-branded USB cables on sale for under $15, and I picked up a couple. So far, I’ve been VERY impressed with the data rates. Not a big believer in cable hype, but these do seem faster when I transfer large files.

    http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=5371

    At ~6 inches in length, they also travel really well.

  3. Hey Terry,
    I discovered the short cables about a year or so ago. I use the ZIO short cables. They are 12″ and come in all combinations of USB connections. At Cyberguys.com they are only about $3.65 each so the price is good too.

    They also have a 12″ Ipod cable too!

    Enjoy your site.

    Take Care,
    Randy

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