You know how those organizer pockets in backpacks and messenger bags usually include a few long, skinny pockets sized for pens and pencils? Raise your hand if you actually use those for pens and pencils. Yeah, me neither.

Aviiq’s Ready Clip cables are sized for those pockets, too: 4.7 inches long, just over half an inch wide, and pretty flat, just a quarter of an inch thick. One end is a standard USB 2 connector, and the other is either an Apple 30-pin dock connector, mini-USB, or micro-USB. (They come in two-packs, starting at $19.99, up to $29.99 for two 30-pin cables.) One end has a plastic clip, sort of like you’d find on a pen cap, so you can clip them to your bag’s pen holders--or a pocket protector, if you go for the ironic geek chic look.

The cables are short, and while they’re flexible they can’t bend or twist and stay put. Meaning, they’ll stick straight out from your Mac’s USB port, and your device will have to rest flat on the same surface, a few inches away. Most of the time that’s fine, unless you’re resting your Mac on your lap or an airline tray table, and you just don’t have room to have your device tethered in such a fixed location. But the cables will never tangle, and they also get points for durability; since they’re so solidly built, we’re not worried about the cable fraying or splitting where it meets the connector.
 
The bottom line. Apple seems poised to abandon its 30-pin connector pretty soon, although millions of still-functioning devices use it. These cables are novel and plenty functional, but 30-pin cables are only around $4 at www.monoprice.com (and if you fold them right you could still shove them in those pen pockets), so paying $30 for two seems extravagant, novelty aside.