Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter
The downside of this workaround is the amount of gear involved: a USB cable from Apple’s adapter to the hub and the hub’s beefy charging brick. I’d prefer not to travel with such a collection. Plus, the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter supports only USB 2.0 speeds, which aren’t ideal for transferring data quickly.
So I (figuratively) kicked myself when I learned that Apple sells another Lightning to USB adapter that works better for this scenario: the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter. It costs only $10 more and supports USB 3.0 speeds, at least on iPad Pro models. More importantly, it features both a USB-A port and a Lightning passthrough port. The Lightning passthrough port is helpful because you can connect a normal Lightning cable to it, and plug that Lightning cable into one of Apple’s tiny USB wall chargers. Then it can both charge your device and power accessories like thumb drives.
Seems like they should stop selling the old adapter so people don’t buy the wrong one.
Below are some immediate gripes and comments I have regarding external keyboard implementation in the current beta of iPadOS 13[…]
Previously:
I use the smaller adaptor occasionally with a Dragonfly DAC to listen to music on the go. The smaller size is nice. I do agree though that Apple should clear about what the smaller unit is cable of doing.