I've been reading SOME of the replies to what Merlin1128 said. He is accurate to a degree. And so are many other comments. And this reply of mine may have been made somewhere in this discussion, I don't have time to go through hundreds of comments to check and see.
Please don't take my capitilization as SCREAMING. It is ONLY for emphasis on certain points, just like you would place empasis on certain parts of a sentence in normal conversation (not screaming to do it).
HERE IS SOMETHING TO ADDRESS. The devices do have internal regulators. And the voltage of pin 5 is a part of that regulation system. Apple says the iPad charger is compatible with . . . (a multitude of devices), and that is true.
HOWEVER, when you go to buy a charger for a 12 volt battery, WHY would you want to buy one with a "TRICKLE" CHARGE??? The charger that DOES NOT HAVE TRICKLE CHARGE will work just fine. BOTH ARE "COMPATIBLE" but BOTH are NOT equal in the "QUALITY" of the charge to the batteries.
HOWEVER (again) the situation is because of the "NATURE" (I'm not as educated as many of you) of BATTERIES! EVEN the lithium batteries!
ANY battery charged with the PROPER (COMPATIBLE) rating for the battery will charge the battery. BUT a TRICKLE charge will be BETTER FOR THE BATTERY BEING CHARGED!
Thus the battery of the iPhone will suffer (to some extent) when charge with the FASTER charge. AND the iPad battery MAY actually last LONGER when charged with the iPhone charger (TRICKLE CHARGE). Yes, it will take longer to charge the iPad battery, but without the extra heat and thus damage(maybe not really damage), but NOT a shortened life span as charging the iPhone with the iPad charger will do. So, you may want to call it damage anyway, depending on how each individual wants to express the shortened life.
You can call my comment uneducated (unlettered and ordinary) but I'm 60 years old and have worked around batteries for about 50 of those years. I may not know WHY batteries respond this way to a charge, but working in the HVAC industry for about the last 18 years, I KNOW THAT "HEAT" is the "WORST" enemy to any electrical component, (short of water damage) whether it be a relay, a wire, a coil, a BATTERY (ANY KIND). IF heat be removed from any OPERATING component IT WILL LAST LONGER. If not mistaken, that's why they RATE electical components to ONLY be allowed to operate to a LIMITED amout of current (amp rating). If you exceed this it will shorten the life of(or FRY) the component whatever it is. If someone could build a "REGULATOR" that would absolutely not allow but a certain amount of current to pass through it (such as the pin 5 of the regulating system of the chargers in discussion) regardless of what excess current that is applied to it (WITHOUT HEAT AND DAMAGE) they would be a millionaire. Then you could apply 600 volts and whatever current it might carry, to charge ANY small device (iPad, iPod, iPhone)!
Again, please don't take my capitilization as SCREAMING. It is ONLY for emphasis on certain points, just like you would place empasis on certain parts of a sentence in normal conversation (not screaming to do it).
With all due respect,
ronhenderson2