This is a picture of the new mini dock cable for iPhone 5

We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that this is a photo of the mini-dock cable for Apple’s new iPhone, coming 12 September.

It’s pretty much in line with what we’ve come to expect. Slashgear has gone all CSI on the photo and picked out tiny details normal mortals would have otherwise missed.

The cord is two-sided, with eight pins on each side. Conclusion: unlike USB, the cord can go in from any direction, as long as it’s up or down. That’s exactly like the the magnetic pin dock connector for daddy MacBook Pro.

Also, and even we can pick this out, there’s a QR code on the USB head. And we’re not sure, but the cord seems to be a lot longer than the old iPhone USB cable. Now there’s two reasons for this, as Slashgear points out. One, the cord is longer because it’s not an offical iPhone 5 cable, but a third-party cord of irregular length. Two, Apple may have decided to lengthen its cord and in that case, more power to it. We hope it’s an official cord, Apple will decimate the third party cord market if its cables are lengthy by default.

One more thing: the cord may not be magnetic, but it sure as hell will snap off easier than the cables of old. We’re not a fan of tripping over cables and pulling the whole damn iDevice to the floor. Just keep 12 September marked on your calendars, the barrage of rumours is starting to wear a bit thin.