It is usually correct to ridicule Apple Pencil accessories. This hand-stitched leather sleeve for the Pencil, for instance, is absurd. But some Apple pencil accessories are almost essential, including today’s selection, the Fintie cap holder, nib cover, and Lightning cable adapter tether. At first glance, these may look as pointless as a the pencil case, but after some study, you’ll see they’re essential to fix Apple’s own design mistakes.

The trouble with Apple Pencil

The Apple Pencil is fantastic, and when it finally gets inductive (“wireless”) charging then it will be almost perfect, because its flaws will solve themselves. But until then, the Pencil has some of the worst hardware problems of any current Apple product. It comes with not one, not two, but three essential parts, all of which re easy to lose. Or rather, all of which are virtually impossible not to lose.

Those parts are, in ascending order of lose-ability:

• The pencil tip
• The end cap
• The Lightning adapter

Of these, the end cap matters least. Lose that and everything still works fine. Lose the pencil tip and there you still have the spare that came in the box with the Apple Pencil. Also, the tip doesn’t tend to unscrew itself. But the Lightning adapter, which is utterly essential to the Pencil, seems like Jony Ive designed it to be easily lost. And you cannot just buy a replacement. According to this Apple Support Forums thread, you have to get in touch with AppleCare to purchase it.

Fintie Apple Pencil accessory kit

Into this fray comes Fintie’s accessory set, a cheap silicone kit comprising two essential widgets, and one pointless one. The pointless one is the cap that covers the tip of the Apple Pencil. The useful ones are a tethered holder for the cap that covers the Pencil’s Lightning plug, and a tether that secures the charger adapter to one of your Lightning cables.

It’s hard to see why an Apple Pencil owner wouldn’t want these, especially when the set is so cheap. It even comes in a variety of hideous and not-so-hideous colors so you can ruin/complement your ice-white Pencil. I’m going to order a set right now.

Buy from: Amazon — $5.99