Please remind me how people solved problems before the Internet was invented? Didn’t they all just throw their hands up in the air, and give up? That’s what I was about to do, when I couldn’t get any of my Lightning Cables to connect reliabily with my iPhone. Naturally, my first reaction was to start writing a post about the worrisome number of Apple products with which I’ve had trouble over the past two years. Then I remembered this thing called Google, and figured what better way to solve an issue with an Apple product than turning to Google.

A Google search led me to several forum posts and blog articles where users discussed a simple solution – clean out the opening to the Lightning connector on the bottom of your iPhone. The tools most commonly suggested where a toothpick or the reverse end of a needle. Having neither at my office, I used the end of a paperclip. I was a bit worried about using a metal object, but those fears ended up being unfounded. With the paperclip, I dug out enough lint to stuff a bed comforter. Well, a bit less than that, but the amount of lint that I recovered really was surprising. After that, the cables fit snugly.

So my iPhone is fine. That means I’m two for four with my most recent Apple purchases. I had to exchange my iPad and MacBook Pro for issues that were present right out of the box (a defective video camera, and a frequently non-responsive key on the keyboard), but my iPhone and MacBook Air (now belonging to my wife) have been flawless.

Lint photo by Thorsten Hartmann.