Apple's Lightning Cable Contains TI Chip 'Likely' to Have Security Features

[Swift]

Good Lord

It's been a whole month after the launch of a brand-new world phone, to get that up and launched. So your first new cables will be $19 and $30. OWC, or someone, will bring them out for $15 dollars. And you know, demand will pick up supplies.

I'm sure it would have been better to have had lots of 3rd-parties designing and making cheaper alternatives. How late did Apple stop the testing of the new cable?

But they didn't quite make it. In three months, these complaints will be stale and the cables plentiful.

 

[NightFox]

But his point is that nobody can get one. The damn phone has been out for a month, and I still can't walk into the store and buy the adapter. Should have had these ready to go when the phone was released.

But when you realize that would have equated to "Shouldn't have released the iPhone until the adapters were ready to go" you can see that maybe Apple did do the right thing. Apple threw its resources at iPhone production, it would have been silly to shift some of those resources to allow production of adapters to catch up.

 

[janderson0719]

Blah, blah, blah....

My AT&T car charger has an USB connector. I can just connect my Lightning cable to that. No need for an adapter or some 3rd party to hack Apple's chip.

 

[macs4nw]

The Apple Store here is limiting purchases of the Lightning to USB cable to 1 per person, as they had trouble keeping them in stock otherwise. Seems like the price is not a concern.

Considering the Tech inside, the price does not seem that much outa line.

Apple, we love you, but you shot yourself in the foot on this one!

I think this is less about $$, than about protecting the user-experience. If it was all about the money, they wouln't be allowing third party manufacturing. Cheap, flimsy Lightning accessories that are not up to par, could ruin the reputation of the Lightning standard.

 

[Tritons]

or make affordable and available or let others do

It's kind of funny that you can buy such a pricey phone with no problems but can't afford a cable?

 

[nutjob]

It's been a whole month after the launch of a brand-new world phone, to get that up and launched. So your first new cables will be $19 and $30. OWC, or someone, will bring them out for $15 dollars. And you know, demand will pick up supplies.

I'm sure it would have been better to have had lots of 3rd-parties designing and making cheaper alternatives. How late did Apple stop the testing of the new cable?

But they didn't quite make it. In three months, these complaints will be stale and the cables plentiful.

You forgot the bit where Apple sues everyone who makes compatible cables.

 

[b0ned0me]

and...

i have this new cable, new phone, and a new car (hyundai ix35)

somewhere there is a "lack of compatibility"...

it just keeps making the charge noise every five seconds and nothing else happens...

tried two cables, same issue...

annoying...

I had the exact same thing with a rental hyundai and my 3GS(!) until I found the weird-ass proprietary cable in the glove compartment that had a 30-pin on one end with a USB AND audio jack on the other. A normal 30-pin cable just did the 5-second freakout - I assume there is something dodgy about the USB ports Hyundai puts in their dashboards.

 

[haravikk]

Why even bother trying to secure the cable if the implementation is half-assed enough to be cracked so quickly? Or is the presence of the chip purely so Apple can cite circumvention of security if a third party tries to make their own cables?

It's kind of funny that you can buy such a pricey phone with no problems but can't afford a cable?

That's not really a fair statement as most people get iPhones on contracts where the phone itself is "free". The current price of the cables is around the price that many high end contracts are charging per month, it's pretty ridiculous. As much as I hate micro-USB on other phones, I much prefer it's compatibility; if Lightning were open so other phone manufacturers could eventually adopt then that's be great, but I suspect Apple is pulling every dirty trick they can to make sure iPhone accessories remain iPhone only, which doesn't speak volumes of their confidence in the quality of the iPhone itself though…

 

[baryon]

Still don't get why there must be chips in a freaking cable. Surely the iPod firmware could do the pin reassigning inside the device itself?

I don't even see why more than 4 pins are necessary at all, since USB only has 4 pins anyway, and that's the place you'll be plugging it in 99% of the time. As for accessories, all they do most of the time is play audio and control the iPod, which could also be done through USB anyway, so once again, 4 pins. Why is 8 still not enough then??

 

[auero]

One problem apple faced I believe was using cheap cables that destroyed the dock connector. My parents did this by using cheap cables and it started chipping the circuit board in the port. Apple replaced it under warranty but firmly said it was a one time thing. Both my mother and faster had their phones replaced for this. I on the other hand don't need more than two cables so I don't mind having OEM. I never had an issue.

Another problem is people want longer cables and while I understand that, they don't understand the reason why the cable isn't longer. Syncing and charging speeds start going down hill. I'm not sure how that affects the battery by not charging at the correct voltage.

 

[Gnomepatrol]

Wait a bit longer and there will be cables everywhere online for $5

 

[dfcster]

iPhone5Mod

Just ordered the cable only; looks promising;
they have it with a dock for $40..

The lightning charging/data cable has illuminated flow..
Looks cool, paid with paypal so if not as described will get cash back..
Fingers crossed does as advertised, I want the cable not the cash!

Check It Out Here:
http://iphone5mod.com/shop/illuminated-lightning-cable-and-iphone-5-dock/

Cheers

 

[mabhatter]

Price is never a concern to an Apple customer.

Seriously, people don't HAVE to run out and buy iPhone 5 today.... Nobody is forcing them. The price if the cable from Apple is about the same as usual. It's just the hacks aren't available yet...

The big problem I see is that Apple hasn't gotten out there to get accessory makers specs... There are a lot of gadgets that are in limbo, do they get an adapter, can their cable be reworked? Apple isn't really getting the word out here.

 

[stepmuel]

The new connecter theoretically allows for cheeper cables and adapters, once the prices for the chips go down. Chips can be manufactured cheaper than large plugs.

Also, the new plug is very future proof. They can add adapters to support USB 3, Thunderbolt or any other net technology in the future while keeping them compatibility with old phones and adapters. Micro USB can't even support USB 3 without adding additional wires.

 

[nick_elt]

Then it's safe to assume that you are against Apple's lawsuits against Samsung and it's battle with Android?

Not necessarily. As long as its justified which I think a lot of that court case was. There was evidence of blatant copying But to make a fkn cable with security measures. Thats taking the piss out of the consumers a bit. And for a fan boy to then get a hard on about it and hope that they take whoever to court is a joke.

 

[hifromtomorrow]

I had the exact same thing with a rental hyundai and my 3GS(!) until I found the weird-ass proprietary cable in the glove compartment that had a 30-pin on one end with a USB AND audio jack on the other. A normal 30-pin cable just did the 5-second freakout - I assume there is something dodgy about the USB ports Hyundai puts in their dashboards.

Cheers mate, I hope the lightening to 30 pin adapter works, I checked my glove box and the cable you mentioned was indeed still in the wrapper in there, just waiting for my adapter to arrive then its the big test...

 

[subsonix]

DRM is NOT a security feature.

They haven't even found this particular chip, but noted that chips with a similar part number had a CRC check, which has nothing to do with DRM. It has more to do with data integrity than security if anything.

 

[jchung]

CRC is now a security feature? People are stretching on this one.

Exactly what I was thinking as I was reading the article.

----------

Cheers mate, I hope the lightening to 30 pin adapter works, I checked my glove box and the cable you mentioned was indeed still in the wrapper in there, just waiting for my adapter to arrive then its the big test...

The adapter works fine for me on my iPhone5 and my Genesis. Hopefully works as perfectly for you.

 

[Boatboy24]

The biggest complaint I'm hearing is paying $19 just for a second cable to keep in the office or car to charge your phone.

I could see someone making a cheap "charging only" cable. That would solve a lot of problems.

That's all I want. If I'm really desperate to download or synch something, there's wifi everywhere. But frankly, there is nothing that's so important that it cant wait until I get home.

 

[sofila]

but I suspect Apple is pulling every dirty trick they can to make sure iPhone accessories remain iPhone only.

Smart thought indeed, I 99% agree with you.
1% difference is that you suspect, I am sure of this.

 

[racer1441]

This is good. It will drive the cheap third party market away.

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Still don't get why there must be chips in a freaking cable. Surely the iPod firmware could do the pin reassigning inside the device itself?

I don't even see why more than 4 pins are necessary at all, since USB only has 4 pins anyway, and that's the place you'll be plugging it in 99% of the time. As for accessories, all they do most of the time is play audio and control the iPod, which could also be done through USB anyway, so once again, 4 pins. Why is 8 still not enough then??

USB limits all the really good stuff we can do with the devices.

 

[Plutonius]

Wait a bit longer and there will be cables everywhere online for $5

Never going to happen. Did you read where the cable requires 4 chips ?

 

[canyonblue737]

Look I don't care about the new connector, its fine.

I also understand that Apple doesn't pre announce the specs on things like this so there was bound to be a delay before we saw accessories.

What I DON'T UNDERSTAND is how a month after the phone launches there are still apparently NO approved 3rd parties being allowed to make docks, speaker docks etc. I assume it is coming but why is Apple not immediately approving major companies like Belkin, Targus, Bose, Griffin etc. to make products based on the new Lighting connector?

It's a first world problem to be sure, but the single biggest annoyance of the new phones is that my wife and I no longer have a side by side Griffin dock charger for our phones at the bedside. While I wasn't counting on one by now I fully expected that they would be announced and I would have one on order but instead there is this deafening silence and I just don't get Apple's angle here... I know these bigger companies are more than willing to pay the license fees on the new connector design.

 

[zorinlynx]

Apple Store dadeland and Apple Store Lincoln Road here in Miami have an entire wall full of lightning to USB cables... Yet they're hard to find in other places? I have a feeling Apple isn't distributing these very evenly according to demand!

 

[Rocketman]

There is discussion of TI ($32B market cap PE ratio 21) being taken over by Amazon ($110B market cap PE ratio 299). There is a related rumor TI is selling its portable chip business to Amazon, so it can get into the portable device business more fully to compete with Apple and Samsung, for a couple billion dollars. That would make more sense.

Remember when AOL took over Time-Warner? I do.

Rocketman

cite:

"In 2000, AOL purchased Time Warner for US$164 billion.[12] The deal, announced on January 10, 2000[13] and officially filed on February 11, 2000,[14] employed a merger structure in which each original company merged into a newly created entity. The Federal Trade Commission cleared the deal on December 14, 2000,[15] and gave final approval on January 11, 2001; the company completed the merger later that day.[16] The deal was approved on the same day by the Federal Communications Commission,[14] and had already been cleared by the European Commission on October 11, 2000.[17] Due to the larger market capitalization of AOL, they would own 55% of the new company while Time Warner shareholders owned only 45%, so in actual practice AOL had acquired Time Warner, even though AOL had far less assets and revenues.[13]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Time_Warner