There’s a difference between sequencing the genome of DNA, which the article talks about, and retrieving DNA strands intact. The latter is akin to getting the book, the former is akin to reading it. This is likely to account for the discrepancy.
The comment you're replying to makes the point that if you already had a charger, you could use the old charger and the old cable. There is no requirement to use the new cable that it came with.
If you agree that people probably already had one from a few years ago, then they already had everything they needed to charge the phone. The 'new cable' did not stop anything from working that previously worked.