Apple's Lightning Authentication Reportedly Cracked, Unauthorized Third-Party Cables Coming

840quadra · Oct 9, 2012

jrbdmb said:
Bingo. I want a standard length cable or two for home, a short cable for the car, and a longer cable for at work where the 3' cable is too short. And I'd like them all in black to match my black iPhone.

Unfortunately, Apple only offers a single length cable in white. Based on history they will offer no other choices, and they are apparently in no hurry to let 3rd parties make official "made for iPhone" cables.

Welcome to 2003.

Had the same problem back when I got this guy with regards to cables for attaching it to various items. But in this case, I needed both Firewire, and USB. There really wasn't any 3rd party options for the first few months after the 3rd gen Dock connector iPod came out. Many of us missed the standard Firewire cable the earlier iPods had back then too.

I understand their published need for a proprietary connection (hey even Samsung has their own cables for some devices), it is just hard as a consumer to agree with the decision when we need an emergency cable to charge our device.

a.gomez · Oct 9, 2012

you know when the kids show up - you get cables with idiotic lights on them.

KnightWRX · Oct 9, 2012

tbrinkma said:
Ok, let's play for a moment.
I've got a charging/syncing cable that needs USB protocol over it.
I've got a dock device which provides power but wants digital audio/video signals.

If there's no chip ('smarts') in the cable or dock connector, how does the phone tell the difference between 1 lightning connector and the next?

The same way... It doesn't matter where the chip is.

tbrinkma said:
Remember, the phone can't *see* the dock or cable, it can only tell what's at the other end of the connector if something can tell *it*.

Exactly. And placing that "smartchip" on the cable end or in the phone end doesn't change crap.

Look.

Code:

C: connector, SC: SmartChip, P: Phone, CTL: Controller.

C------SC--C-P-----CTL
C-------C-P--SC----CTL

Same thing (oh, except #2 makes for darn cheaper cables)

Anyway, the "dynamic pin out" is not at issue, the chip in the Lightning cable is not a smartchip to configure pins based on protocol, that's just insane design. The Lightning cable chip is an authentication chip, basically a cryptography device that ensures the cable is Apple approved :

http://www.slashgear.com/apple-lightning-cables-have-an-authentication-chip-inside-25249169/

That's just a vendor ensuring proprietary lock-in. That's not even a technical requirement.

jayducharme · Oct 9, 2012

Shade12 said:
Will the new iPhone 5 cable connect to my car stero ? Help guys

That's my big concern. The best solution currently seems to be Bluetooth-to-FM (though not completely reliable) or just headphone-to-accessory-jack. There are several cheap power accessories with USB jacks, so powering the iPhone in the car isn't a problem. But the manufacturers haven't had enough time to make Lightning car accessories yet. That's caused my hesitation in getting the iPhone 5 -- I use my iPhone in my car all the time for listening to music. I don't want to give that up while I wait for manufacturers to play catch-up.

Hustler1337 · Oct 9, 2012

Makes for great Christmas decorations

Beezzy · Oct 9, 2012

I stick to buying Apple Lighting cables for now. I need two more.

xriderx11 · Oct 9, 2012

Icaras said:
Wow. Look at the size of that USB connector.

Its the size of the "tabs" key width wise. It looks bigger in the video but its actually not big.

carlos916 · Oct 9, 2012

U you think if u would just splice the cable b4 the USB and lightning tip and mod the cable it wouldn't be detected by the chip and to make a dock u can just make a home made adapter to extend the conector also by wires and a homemade board ?

N e who I like I wana buy lol

jclardy · Oct 9, 2012

I hope so. Having only one cable to charge/sync/debug on your phone is not fun when you are a developer.

Plus before I could just bring my phone/wallet/keys to a friends house, and 95% of the time I could locate a 30-pin cable as nearly everyone has one from some kind of iPhone/iPod/iPad. With lightning not so much. Maybe in a few more years.

I went to the Apple store the other day to get my phone replaced (No sound during calls.) Lightning cables were sold out. Maybe Apple should extend their iPhone reservation system to lightning cables as well.

ipedro · Oct 9, 2012

I'm known in my group of friends to be a big Apple proponent so my negative view on this says something about how Apple has certainly failed on the launch of Lightning.

If 3rd party hackers can get a product to production months before official ones, there's a big problem with how Apple is handling this. Releasing the iPhone 5 without any accessories is bad enough, not having ANY vendors ready for shipment of accessories within a month at the latest is a critical problem.

What's worse, Apple is alledgedly more than a month away from even putting down the ground rules to accessory makers. Having no accessories available for months for a product with a 1 year release cycle does not look good on Apple.

Between this and not having vendors ready for Passbook on launch day, Tim Cook is certainly showing that he's no Steve Jobs. I had faith in him because Steve certainly thought he was capable but day by day, I'm beginning to doubt that he has the kind of obsessive perfectionism and microscopic attention to detail that has made Apple what it is. He may have been a great COO, but Apple may need another ruthless perfectionist running things.

A multi-billion dollar 3rd party industry is losing millions every day that new iPhone 5 users can't buy accessories for their new phone.

jeffreyropp · Oct 9, 2012

That's what she said....

Icaras said:
Wow. Look at the size of that USB connector.

That's what she said....

balamw · Oct 9, 2012

KnightWRX said:
Anyway, the "dynamic pin out" is not at issue, the chip in the Lightning cable is not a smartchip to configure pins based on protocol, that's just insane design.

Everything I've seen implies that it is just a pin-remapping chip. i.e. insane design.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12...ally_assigns_pins_to_allow_for_reversible_use

EDIT: More in our own article: https://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/2...chnology-to-dynamically-assign-pin-functions/

Do you have anything but this first link to support the authentication angle?

B

nagromme · Oct 9, 2012

Do we have actual evidence that Apple uses authentication chips?

Yes, theres a chipits a connector that adapts to different signals and couldnt exist without a chip. But does it actually have some secret code? Does it serve a true authentication function? As near as I can tell, such claims (so far) have simply been made-up assumptions.

Now, Apple failing to authorize factories for their Made for iPhone program is a separate question. There have always been official Made for iPod/etc. accessories and there have been ones that didnt participate in Apples program but some still worked fine. It seems there may be new requirements to get that stamp of approval, and that may or may not be a good thing.

But thats entirely different from saying Apple has taken extra measures (authentication codes) to block companies from making accessories at all! Is there some evidence I have missed on that front? Or just the usual Apple-related fictions?

Is this latest news much the same as any other third-party NON-participating (non-made for official logo) product from years past?

Shade12 · Oct 9, 2012

jayducharme said:
That's my big concern. The best solution currently seems to be Bluetooth-to-FM (though not completely reliable) or just headphone-to-accessory-jack. There are several cheap power accessories with USB jacks, so powering the iPhone in the car isn't a problem. But the manufacturers haven't had enough time to make Lightning car accessories yet. That's caused my hesitation in getting the iPhone 5 -- I use my iPhone in my car all the time for listening to music. I don't want to give that up while I wait for manufacturers to play catch-up.

true i charge and listen to music from my iphone 4s if my iphone 5 cable wont work i guess i have to sell the iphone 5

kemal · Oct 9, 2012

Rogue cabling to connect my phone. How Blade Runner-ish. Will Apple send a magic bullet to disable unauthorized wiring someday?

jonnysods · Oct 9, 2012

Yes! Crank them out!

simplymuzik3 · Oct 9, 2012

If it didn't have the ugly light up wire, I might actually have considered it.

macchiato2009 · Oct 9, 2012

i've already seen 3rd-party dock connector cables burning

i would never risk buying something else other than a genuine cable

iGrip · Oct 9, 2012

shanmugam said:
cannot blame these knock offs apple is greedy!

Apple is NOT greedy. They invented it and they deserve to get all of the profits from it.

If Apple wanted to license third parties, they would have done so. Nobody is forced to buy a cable or an adapter. If they don't like Apple products, there are plenty of choices. But if you want the best, you stick with Apple.

Anybody who buys one of these ripoff products should be ashamed of themselves. It is no different from going into an apple store and shoplifting!

lazard · Oct 9, 2012

iGrip said:
Apple is NOT greedy. They invented it and they deserve to get all of the profits from it.

If Apple wanted to license third parties, they would have done so. Nobody is forced to buy a cable or an adapter. If they don't like Apple products, there are plenty of choices. But if you want the best, you stick with Apple.

Anybody who buys one of these ripoff products should be ashamed of themselves. It is no different from going into an apple store and shoplifting!

I'll have one of whatever you're smoking.

Neebee · Oct 9, 2012

I dunno if it was already mentioned. But one of the group buy sites has it listed for $15! Anyone want to take a risk? The feedback from the site says they've tested it to be working, whatever it means.

Well, one of the Group buy sites has it up already. I dunno if it is legit. Any one wanna take a risk? http://www.tastygo.com/Vancouver_1715?aid=dbd

sweetbrat · Oct 9, 2012

iGrip said:
Apple is NOT greedy. They invented it and they deserve to get all of the profits from it.

If Apple wanted to license third parties, they would have done so. Nobody is forced to buy a cable or an adapter. If they don't like Apple products, there are plenty of choices. But if you want the best, you stick with Apple.

Anybody who buys one of these ripoff products should be ashamed of themselves. It is no different from going into an apple store and shoplifting!

Wow...I had no problem with the whole rant about Apple not having to license to third parties...that's true. But this is way, way far off from walking into a store and shoplifting.

iGrip · Oct 9, 2012

KnightWRX said:
If that chip is used to negotiate pin activation based on accessories, then it's ok to have it. If however it's simply an authentication chip used to prevent 3rd parties for deploying cheaper cables as reported by the same reputable news sources, then that's downright nasty on Apple's part.

Why? Apple is in business to funnel profits to Wall Street, and not to satisfy some urge of yours for access to crap-quality accessories.

If you want to buy crap, then buy Android. If you want Apple, accept that they only make the highest quality items possible.

kas23 · Oct 9, 2012

Can someone tell me what an iPhone dock is for? What does it do, just stand your iPhone upright?

Ashin · Oct 9, 2012

Is a boatload on eBay now, prices falling fast!

£4 each

Apple's Lightning Authentication Reportedly Cracked, Unauthorized Third-Party Cables Coming

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