If there's one word a PR person can use that
really gets my attention, it's bulletproof. Actually,
I suppose that's two words either way. Cable manufacturer
Nanda threw down the gauntlet, asking what the bulletproof
vests and our charging cable have in common. The
Zeus Kevlar cable is currently in the middle of a
successful CROWDFUNDING campaign, having so far raised about$140,000
on an initial$10,000 goal. The cable comes in
USB, Type C, micro USB or Apple Lightning
, and the company has issued a challenge to its
customers. Come up with creative ways to test what
their marketing copy calls the toughest charging cable in the
world. We've come to the arms room here in
the League City, Texas, for our own creative
way to test these cables with bullets. We're going
to be using this semiautomatic FN 57 pistol. Keen
eyed viewers may note that this is actually the same
pistol used on Battlestar Galactica. Although I don't have
the grenade launcher attachment that they had on the show
. The weapon fires 5.7 by 28 millimeter shells.
They're actually a little bigger than a 22 caliber shell
, but they have a boat tail on the end
of them, and the cartridges are neck like a
rifle cartridge. We're gonna be shooting downrange at the
Zeus cable, which we've got to fix to a
piece of poster board here. And we're gonna see
how well the 57 rounds, uh, impact the
cable. So this should be interesting. We've got
our cable fixed to, Supposed to board downrange,
and it's time to shoot it. Yeah, yeah
, animistic Here we go. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Mhm, yeah
! Mhm, Mhm Poor little cable. And that
was the Zeus iPhone charging cable Not exactly bulletproof.
And to be fair, they don't really bill it
as a bulletproof cable merely as a cable that incorporates
some of the same technology as bulletproof vests. It's
that Kevlar core ng inside the cable that gives it
Tense Island, then strength. Unfortunately, it did
not give it enough strength to stand up to my
mighty bullets. I want to give a big shout
out to the arms room in League City for allowing
us to come out here and shoot. Thanks,
guys. Li Hutchinson for Ars Technica. I'll see
you all later