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Blorzoga

macrumors 68030
May 21, 2010
2,560
66
Fail.

Apple is not "fleecing" you, or anyone else (in this case). Apple is simply notifying its costumers that an accessory has not been through the authorized quality assurance program, and as a result, may not work correctly.

It would have been just as easy to disable the connector, forcing you to go buy 4 more authorized cables.

Furthermore, Apples financial practices make sense. Apple is going to make sure the profit margin is where it needs to be. Making Apple pay more in taxes just makes you pay more for your next iDevice.

If you don't like that Apple did not pay as much as you think they should, feel free to donate some of your money to the IRS (they need it to send federal employees to more conferences).

Certainly, Apple should be allowed to warn you that your cable is not official, but you should be able to disable the warning and not have to see it each and every time you attach your cable.
 

Tiger8

macrumors 68020
May 23, 2011
2,479
649
Good, should make some users think twice about buying a $1.99 cable that might fry their device, or burn down their house.

You paid $400+ for your device, a $20 cable is hardly being robbed.

LOL, hillarious. You remind me of people who pay $100 to get a 'certified' HDMI cable for their TV at BestBuy, while they are sold for $5 online. The BestBuy guy will give you unbias advice right?
 

theanonymousbob

macrumors newbie
Jan 8, 2013
17
0
Fail.

Apple is not "fleecing" you, or anyone else (in this case). Apple is simply notifying its costumers that an accessory has not been through the authorized quality assurance program, and as a result, may not work correctly.

The fleecing happens when you go to replace your charger and you have to buy the plug and the cable separately. It's not the $20 cable that pisses me off, it's the $50 for the whole thing that actually makes charging it possible.
 

MrNomNoms

macrumors 65816
Jan 25, 2011
1,156
294
Wellington, New Zealand
I think it's akin to the genetic vs monster hdmi cables. Yea, it's highway robbery.

For the record I use micro usb lightning adaptor that I got from china for 4 bucks shipped. Works great to charge my phone in the car.

This is also no different than my honda dealer telling me to use genuine honda oil filters, which are re labeled fram filters. No thanks.

You do realise that you can purchase generic cables that have been certified by Apple and cheaper than the official ones? I've got a generic third party one here that was half the price and certified by Apple thus there really art excuses other than penny pinchers who will whine about a $20 cable but then go out and do something extraordinarily expensive like having a child without even considering the costs. Heck, reminds me of that Oatmeal comic of people who penny pinch over spending $0.99 on an app but don't think twice when buying a $400 smart phone.
 

parish

macrumors 65816
Apr 14, 2009
1,082
2
Wilts., UK
LOL, hillarious. You remind me of people who pay $100 to get a 'certified' HDMI cable for their TV at BestBuy, while they are sold for $5 online. The BestBuy guy will give you unbias advice right?

The difference is that things like HDMI are published specifications, the Apple dock connectors aren't so unauthorized ones are made by reverse-engineering. As the manufacturers don't know the specs the components could easily be out of tolerance, e.g. the resistance, capacitance, inductance etc., which could cause them to draw too much current and damage your device.
 

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,035
8,405
New Hampshire, USA
LOL, hillarious. You remind me of people who pay $100 to get a 'certified' HDMI cable for their TV at BestBuy, while they are sold for $5 online. The BestBuy guy will give you unbias advice right?

The cable that Apple is referring to includes electronics that could theoretically damage your device if not designed properly.
 

mchart

macrumors member
Feb 13, 2013
71
91
The OK box method that Apple chooses is inept. As stated, there should be a way in the options to basically shut the box off. I remember this stupid notification back in my 3G days when I was using an 'unsupported accessory' (my car stereo). It was -really- annoying as i'd have to hit the stupid OK button every time I plugged my 3G into my car to then use it to play music.

I understand and appreciate the notification. It's the fact that it NEVER subsides that is the issue.
 

Smartass

macrumors 65816
Dec 18, 2012
1,450
1,701
eh these warnings for "non official apple cables" existed even in iOS 4.X, i had that iphone to fm adapter from belkin and everytime i connected it i got a warning saying that it may not work properly since its not "legit" or whatever the word was...
 

acorntoy

macrumors 68010
May 25, 2010
2,003
2,221
I used one of the scariest cables ever after asking a friend to borrow his. It barely fit into my 5 and it was falling apart in my hands. Good on Apple to do this. If you want to cheap out on your $600 device then fine, but don't complain if something goes wrong.
 

DTphonehome

macrumors 68000
Apr 4, 2003
1,914
3,377
NYC
Can't keep fleecing customers my ass!

I've got 4, including two great travel/car retractable cables and got some for a lot of the people at work. No problems. Stop being so greedy, it's enough you're hoarding money overseas.

If they can detect third-party cables, they could easily disable them from working altogether. That they don't suggests to me that Apple is more interested in preserving a reliable user experience than "fleecing customers". If a junky cable causes problems with charging or data syncing, and Apple didn't warn the user, they might think something was wrong with their device.
 

Nickpocalypse

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2011
106
7
Vancouver, BC, CA
That's a ridiculous comment. If someone buys a cheaper cable, they do it at their own risk. No need for Apple to scold them. Just another way to get people to overpay for Apple accessories.

You're absolutely correct, they do it at their own risk and Apple shouldn't scold them.

The problem is that 99% of consumers might find it more difficult to know which accessories come from Apple, and which ones come from third party manufacturers. Apple isn't scolding anyone with this message, they're simply letting them know that the cable their using isn't made by Apple, and that they use it at their own risk. Exactly as you said.

If someone who isn't tech-knowledgeable has an iPhone and buys a $3 lightning cable off eBay, and the worst happens, albeit highly unlikely, the phone is damaged through use of the cable, you can absolutely bet the consumer will chase down Apple, instead of whoever manufactured the cable. This message is there purely so Apple doesn't have to pay for the damages maybe caused by potentially shoddy products any one of a thousand other cable manufacturers provide.
 
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clibinarius

macrumors 6502a
Aug 26, 2010
671
70
NY
I suggested this idea myself and Im glad they put it in, because I am sick to death of people buy fake Lightning cables that may not be guaranteed to work properly beyond charging and may short out the phone as well. This naturally won't be covered under warranty. Its well known if the make of the cable is not MFI certified, these may cause damage to the phone, especially with voltage. All these fools buying $2 cables which are obvious fakes and don't have the genuine authentication chip, should be immediately excluded from any technical support in any manner if not using genuine cables.

Why exactly do you care what OTHER people do?
 

djdj

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2008
104
138
Good, should make some users think twice about buying a $1.99 cable that might fry their device, or burn down their house.

You paid $400+ for your device, a $20 cable is hardly being robbed.

A USB port can't deliver anywhere near enough current to start a fire.
 

iThinkIt

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2012
164
0
Florida, USA
makes you wonder if apple is tracking the number of times a user plugs in an unauthorized cable... tracking how you use the device.. if it pops up a message it can be tracked. :mad:
 

bkribbs

macrumors 65816
Jan 15, 2012
1,178
0
You're absolutely correct, they do it at their own risk and Apple shouldn't scold them.

I disagree to a certain extent. When I was maybe 13, I bought a cord and adapter for my ipod touch 3g. Within a few months, my accelerameter (however you spell it...) quit working. I'd assume due to those things.

While every time a cord is plugged in is too much, they at least should be warned.
 

Primejimbo

macrumors 68040
Aug 10, 2008
3,295
131
Around
I had a cheap cable with my old 3G and it gave my iPhone issues. I wonder if the phone will keep track of these pop ups so when you go into the Apple Store for warranty repairs they can look and see "well your phone warned you 300 times this isn't an authorized cable, so your phone isn't covered under warranty"

I just buy Apple cables now and just be done with it.
 

Botts85

macrumors regular
Feb 9, 2007
218
164
Yeah it's very annoying.. I have two "Apple" lighting cables and 3 non-apple. It's even doing it on my one officially licensed cable as well. Not happy, hope I can turn it off on the final version.

Get that Apple cable swapped. Usually if a Mac pops up a cable warning, or the iPhone pops up a message it can be indicative that the cable is failing. This is extremely common on even "Apple" lightning cables.
 

djdj

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2008
104
138
If they can detect third-party cables, they could easily disable them from working altogether. That they don't suggests to me that Apple is more interested in preserving a reliable user experience than "fleecing customers". If a junky cable causes problems with charging or data syncing, and Apple didn't warn the user, they might think something was wrong with their device.

Historically we get notifications first, then in a future software update the devices just quit working altogether (for no technical reason whatsoever). I've never seen a non-Apple device complain about a USB cable, let alone for one to not work.

----------

This wouldn't bug me so much if Apple produced a wide range of cables that actually met people's needs at a fair price. For example, in my living room we like to plug in iPhones/iPods/iPads to charge while we're sitting on a couch. But the closest outlet is more than 3 feet away. So I bought a 10-foot cable so we can actually reach the nearest power strip from any of the seating positions. Apple, of course, does not sell a 10-foot lightning cable.

So now I'm getting a warning each time I plug in my iPhone because Apple doesn't even produce the cable that I need. Their fault, not mine.

If cables were destroying their devices, I could understand them caring. But considering that that is not the case here, they are being rather belligerent about a non-issue. It is annoying.
 
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