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

mdelvecchio said:
pretty simple: because they dont feel like selling one.

why wont you be able to get a third-party dock when theyre released?
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Notice the word officially.
Current third-party docks are bootlegged from Apple's supply chain, and are not licensed from Apple to use the connector.
 
Prodo123 said:
Notice the word officially.
Current third-party docks are bootlegged from Apple's supply chain, and are not licensed from Apple to use the connector.
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you will officially be able to get an iphone5 dock when one of the licensed third-party manufacturers sells one. im not sure i understand the confusion... apple doesnt feel like making docks themselves. nor bumpers, nor all sorts of accessory stuff. doesnt mean you wont be able to have one.
 
Gnomepatrol said:
Wait a bit longer and there will be cables everywhere online for $5
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Gnomepatrol said:
Are you underestimating the ability of the Chinese to reverse engineer a cable and make a cheap alternative? If you are, you have ignored China for the last 20 years.
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The problem is that it's not just a cable. Can the Chinese reverse engineer it - Yes. Can the Chinese sell it cheaper - Yes. Can the Chinese produce one for $5 - No.

I'm actually of the belief that Apple is selling the $29 adapter near cost.
 
mdelvecchio said:
you will officially be able to get an iphone5 dock when one of the licensed third-party manufacturers sells one. im not sure i understand the confusion... apple doesnt feel like making docks themselves. nor bumpers, nor all sorts of accessory stuff. doesnt mean you wont be able to have one.
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Yeah, you're misunderstanding.
Apple has clearly stated its intent to avoid licensing the Lightning connector to other companies; even with bootlegged parts, third party companies need the Apple authorization code for the Lightning connector to work, and Apple is definitely not willing to give that away. That, combined with the lack of an Apple dock, means that there will practically be no Apple-sanctioned docks available on the market.
Sure, Chinese knockoff companies can reverse engineer the cable. Then again, we all know how trigger-happy Apple is when it comes to litigation.


Plutonius said:
The problem is that it's not just a cable. Can the Chinese reverse engineer it - Yes. Can the Chinese sell it cheaper - Yes. Can the Chinese produce one for $5 - No.

I'm actually of the belief that Apple is selling the $29 adapter near cost.
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I agree, the price of the gold contacts, meticulous construction, miniature controllers and the technology put into the cable should be near the price it is sold at.
 
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Prodo123 said:
Yeah, you're misunderstanding.
Apple has clearly stated its intent to avoid licensing the Lightning connector to other companies; even with bootlegged parts, third party companies need the Apple authorization code for the Lightning connector to work, and Apple is definitely not willing to give that away. That, combined with the lack of an Apple dock, means that there will practically be no Apple-sanctioned docks available on the market.
Sure, Chinese knockoff companies can reverse engineer the cable. Then again, we all know how trigger-happy Apple is when it comes to litigation.
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There is no "Authentication Code" it is rumor and it is completely false.

Why is it so hard for you people to understand that the people writing these blog posts about these chips have no idea what they are talking about. There have been multiple electrical engineers (myself included) that have tried to make that clear.

There are many things Apple would have done very easily to add copy protection to this "cable." Many of them with the push of button. Apple used off the shelf parts from TI to create an adaptive connector that could be used for multiple uses, and be reversible.

Within a few months you will see multiple 3rd party docks, chargers, and other devices. They won't be as cheap as before because the solution is more complex.
 
Prodo123 said:
Yeah, you're misunderstanding.
Apple has clearly stated its intent to avoid licensing the Lightning connector to other companies;
Click to expand...

oh really? where is this apple policy published? because what youre suggesting is that theyre discontinuing the "Made for iPhone" licensing program, and i think youre 100% wrong on this. i think the program is continuing and there will be, as always, a plethora of profitable third-party products licensed by apple and sold everywhere, including in apple's own retail outlets.

maybe im mistaken but i havent seen anything published that indicates theyre ending the program. if you have, please share it.
 
mdelvecchio said:
oh really? where is this apple policy published? because what youre suggesting is that theyre discontinuing the "Made for iPhone" licensing program, and i think youre 100% wrong on this. i think the program is continuing and there will be, as always, a plethora of profitable third-party products licensed by apple and sold everywhere, including in apple's own retail outlets.

maybe im mistaken but i havent seen anything published that indicates theyre ending the program. if you have, please share it.
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You are correct, Apple is not terminating the MFi program. (I'm on it.)

You are also correct that in time, third parties on the MFi program will be releasing Apple-authorized accessories.

The delay has been because of the fact that the Lightning specifications were not available to MFi partners until immediately after the iPhone 5 announcement. It takes time to develop products.
 
brainzilla said:
They should have just made a port where you can plug in any garden-variety mini-USB cable plus slots on each side of that to accept their own, wider connector.

OR make the whole thing CHEAP and OPEN so everyone else can adopt it.
It IS a nice connector, but it will generate equal amounts of FAIL as thunderbolt.

What's next?
A combined power-/ethernet-plug?
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What would a mini-USB port accomplish?

And I hate to tell you, but there is such a thing as Power Over Ethernet, and it's widely used in most offices for telephone systems.
 
Rocketman said:
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.
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Cripe, does Amazon even remember who they are anymore? They're Wallmart in the Cloud-- why can't they just focus on being the best damned retailer they can be?
 
Plutonius said:
The problem is that it's not just a cable. Can the Chinese reverse engineer it - Yes. Can the Chinese sell it cheaper - Yes. Can the Chinese produce one for $5 - No.
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The Chinese manufacturer that I spoke with this week said that they now have them in stock and are going for $8 in lots of 100. But that was just one, there are dozens of them, I might get a better deal somewhere else.
 
nick_elt said:
read the headline, or maybe you are smarter than everyone else.
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I'm certainly smart enough to know that CRC is not a security feature. CRC stands for "Cyclic redundancy check", see here for how it's nothing to do with authentication or securty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_redundancy_check). Given the only reason they are claiming that there is authentication is because "other similar chips" from the same company have the ability to calculate a CRC the statement is outright unfounded. Quite simply it's FUD. If you don't know what FUD is see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
 
iKen1 said:
I'm certainly smart enough to know that CRC is not a security feature. CRC stands for "Cyclic redundancy check", see here for how it's nothing to do with authentication or securty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_redundancy_check). Given the only reason they are claiming that there is authentication is because "other similar chips" from the same company have the ability to calculate a CRC the statement is outright unfounded. Quite simply it's FUD. If you don't know what FUD is see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
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there seems to be alot of people claiming this. I am sure you are right. Bit misleading article for us non-techies.
 
come on now, these cables haven't cost me any extra money

Because the stores near me STILL DON'T HAVE ANY SO I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO BUY ONE YET
 
brainzilla said:
What's next?
A combined power-/ethernet-plug?
Click to expand...

That actually exists. I guess that just goes to show how informed you are. 🙄
(And I just noticed that someone else has already pointed out Power Over Ethernet before I did.)



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nick_elt said:
there seems to be alot of people claiming this. I am sure you are right. Bit misleading article for us non-techies.
Click to expand...

Actually, yes. The article *is* misleading for non-techies. That's why us techies have been providing corrections. 😀
 
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