I have never seen an usb of fw cable with such a black box. :D
I think there could two options:
1) To stop electromagnetic interference
2) To make the cable shorter. You know, an automatic cable rolling system. Its easy to store or take such cables with you.
These magnets are not common now, they were introduced with older versions of USBs & Firewires to reduce noise/interference. They only came with camcorders & audio devices that can be connected to computer for voice transfer.
If you are still buying these types of cables then I'd suggest look around for better options.
I have never seen an usb of fw cable with such a black box. :D
I think there could two options:
1) To stop electromagnetic interference
2) To make the cable shorter. You know, an automatic cable rolling system. Its easy to store or take such cables with you.
Well , there are such cables, don't know how you didn't see that..However the first answer is near to right.
The second is not right cause I am not talking about the role type box.:D