John Gruber:

Here’s a thread on Reddit asking why there aren’t any USB-C to Lightning cables from reliable, certified companies like Anker, Monoprice, and Amazon. It’s a year-old thread and the situation is unchanged. This stinks now that all MacBooks and the new iPad Pros have gone to USB-C, along with chargers that output by USB-C.

Here’s a link to the Reddit thread.

This goes to the heart of my complaints about the USB-C standard. There are plenty of cables out there with Lightning at one end and USB-C at the other. But they are far from all the same. The Apple cable seems to be the only one that does all the things you’d want, including reliable, consistent support for fast charging and data transfer.

I’d love the ability to plug in a cable and get a report on exactly what the cable supports. As I understand it, the USB-C standard requires supported ports and connectors to self-report. At the very least, I wish the USB-C standard had some sort of code (like the ROYGBIV standard for labeling resistors) that told you what a cable was capable of.