Lightning

Besides being highly recognizable brands the world over, it turns out Apple and Harley-Davidson share an interest in one trademark. You may have heard of Lightning, Apple's 8-pin connector that debuted on the iPhone 5. Patently Apple has discovered European Union documents indicating that Apple acquired a partial transfer of Lightning from original owner Harley-Davidson.

H-D Michigan Incorporated is the intellectual property arm of Harley-Davidson, which owned the Lightning trademark to cover various items including motorcycle electrical parts, turn signals, eye glasses and helmets. Lightning also covered television sets, computer game programs and more. According to the report, Apple seems to have acquired only those parts of the Lightning name relevant to its business.

JBL is now accepting pre-orders for two new iPhone 5 speaker docks with built in Lightning connectors. The OnBeat Micro is a portable speaker dock with up to five hours of battery life. It also features a USB port for compatibility with other devices, and it weights just 0.8 pounds for easy travel. It's compatible with all current iPhone and iPod models.

The OnBeat Venue Lightning is a wireless speaker with Lightning connector for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. The Venue can wirelessly stream music from any Bluetooth device, and features HARMAN TrueStream audio technology.

The OnBeat Micro is priced at $99.95 and the OnBeat Venue Lighning will set you back $199.95.

If you weren't into the illuminated Lightning cable with dock previously offered by iPhone5mod, they now have more official looking products in the works. The first third-party Lightning cable manufacturer will be launching its version of the Lightning USB cable and adapters at a discount price on November 3.

This will be a relief for iPhone 5 users who aren't interested in paying full price for an Apple cable. The basic connector cable starts at $9.90, undercutting the Apple Store by almost $10. Of course, shipping is not included and could add up quickly. Still, iPhone5mod offers several other products, including an iPhone 5 docking station.

Until now there haven't been any third-party Lightning accessories on the market. Apparently, it doesn't take long to clone the authentication chip embedded in Apple's new 8-pin connector. iPhone5mod has hit the market with a cable that does more than just connect your iPhone 5 or iPod touch 5G to the computer.

As you can see in the video above, the Flash Lightning Dock will hold the iPhone 5 upright to connect. The cool part is that as the iPhone is charging or syncing the cable animates its lights to show how much the battery is charged or that data is being transferred to the iOS device. Sure, it may be a gimmick, but it's not one that Apple is likely to manufacture.

The Apple Lightning connector launched alongside the iPhone 5 has several advantages over its 30-pin predecessor, that is unless you own a variety of older accessories that aren't compatible. Besides a smaller footprint and simpler, reversible operation, the Lightning connector has also proven to be difficult for third-party manufacturers to replicate. The current adapter sold by Apple retails for $29.

Apple could be working on an easier way to connect 30-pin dock accessories and the iPhone 5 if a patent revealed by Apple Insider means anything. The ability to wirelessly send data to any accessory would improve the functionality of the iPhone 5 with previous-generation docks.