Slashdot Mirror
Apple Starts Blocking Unauthorized Lightning Cables With iOS 7
beltsbear writes "Your formerly working clone Lightning cable could stop working with the latest iOS update. Previously the beta version allowed these cables to charge with a warning message but the final release actually stops many cables from working. Apples Lightning connector system is locked with authentication chips that can verify if a cable is authorized by Apple. Many users with clone cables are now without the ability to charge their iPhones."
Thanks for reminding me of another reason why I don't buy your products
TFA talks about Apple''s desire not to have it's customers electrocute themselves with dodgy, cheap chargers.
TFA (and TFS) talk about the evils of unlicensed cables.
I can get where Apple might come down on the dodgy chargers. At least some had clearances that allowed mains voltages to jump to the charging cable and thence to the unfortunate Apple Fritter. I don't see where the cable itself is involved. I'm thinking that if you put mains voltage on the Official Lightning Cable (TM) it's going to happily conduct the electricity to whatever it's connected to. Or do official cables have a ground fault interrupt circuit in them?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
We won't care
"cheap doesn't always equal better!!!"
I guess that's why Apple makes their products in China...........
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Third party/unauthorized cables are still working just fine, they are just popping up the warning. You can see the warning image in the article. It clearly doesn't say anything about blocking the connection, just that it may not work reliably, which is true.
This is just a crap website trying to stir up drama for hits. It goes ever farther by coming up with ridiculous speculation that Apple "may" block more stuff in the future.
Scorta futuere amo!
Its called; broken by design.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
Except it is the charger not the cable that can be traded. Moron.
This is one of those problem the free market is meant to solve by itself - people are meant to stop buying iphones in response. Me, I'm perfectly happy with my Samsung Galaxy.
The problem is: people already bought their iphones.
The software update will "brick their device", by making it incapable of being charged, by the power adapter that worked fine before.
This is likely to result in a class action suit against Apple; potentially with a demand to repair/replace hardware that was rendered inoperable.
(E.g. Replace customers' iPhones with new ones, that will work with all their charging cables, or pay the cost of replacement for all the 3rd party charging cables consumers had purchased, PLUS the price difference for any new cables the customer would have purchased from a 3rd party)
Regarding low quality goods being produced in china, the majority of these goods come into existence this way:
1. Company calls up a Chinese manufacturer to get a price quote for a doodad they designed.
2. Chinese manufacturer replies with a quote.
3. Company asks if they can make it cheaper.
4. Chinese manufacturer says yes
5. Company asks how cheap
6. Chinese manufacturer quotes a bottom price
7. Company says great, you got a deal.
8. Market is flooded with cheap and crappy doodads.
There is often a disconnect between western companies and Chinese manufacturers regarding how they negotiate and do business which leads to the above situation. Then there is those who really just want to manufacture really cheap doodads to make a quick buck.
--- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
True. But Apple has shinier baubles so in their mind that's OK. Not to take anything away from Microsoft. They earned their evil tag.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
i was just thinkin if MS did this crap, how long would it be til DOJ federal investigation kicked off.
Damn it, Slashdot, I come here for anti-FUD, not FUD. This is just about the worst confused, untrue FUD article I've ever seen posted here.
Apple are unequivocally NOT "blocking" the use of unauthorized third-party Lightning cables. The summary/title is absolutely 100% bullshit. The article says, and I quote: "Apple will probably shut the door on the usage of [unauthorized third-party Lightning cables] in a future update." (Emphasis mine.) Which is of course a completely baseless supposition by the article author in order to get outrage-clicks. The article also clearly includes a screenshot of the actual informative warning message that pops up, which simply says, "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone." With a single button that says "Dismiss".
The article also throws third-party USB chargers into the mix which has absolutely nothing to do with the cables, just adding to the confusion. Apple has no way of blocking the use of any kind of USB charger, so it doesn't even belong in this discussion. After the death and coma incidents in China they instituted a trade-in program to garner public good will, where you can buy an Apple charger at half price if you bring in a third-party USB charger, but that is neither here nor there with regard to the Lightning cables.
Look, I will be quite happy to come here and spew hatred and vitriol at Apple along with the rest of you anytime Apple ever actually does something as monumentally stupid as trying to block unauthorized Lightning cables from charging your iPhones. But until then is it really too much to ask that we only spew hatred and vitriol about things that are actually true? This is like spewing hatred at Microsoft because somebody posted a summary claiming Microsoft has kept Elvis imprisoned in their basement in Redmond for the last 40 years, while linking to an article that claims nothing of the sort. *insert WTF face here*
Really, Slashdot? Is this audience really that easy to manipulate into getting outraged by total factless bullshit that isn't even supported by the only link in the summary? Are the editors really not capable of reading a couple of short paragraphs before posting obvious bullshit summaries? (Yeah, I know, must be new around here.)
Slashdot, today, I am disappoint. >:-|
Uhh why not just use an established standard like say ooohh micro USB??
The problem is the mini wall chargers. Cheap ones are made of cheap materials. If your transformer shorts at the wrong point (likely, since it's made on the cheap), you deliver 120VAC to your device that's built to handle 5VDC. And then whoever is holding on to the metal case gets a shock. And to anybody who's like "but why is the case connected to anything anyway?" It probably wasn't. But when you dump 120V into a 5V hole, and the phone is milimeters thin, an air gap just doesn't offer that much resistance.
http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html
That guy tore a part a bunch of USB chargers and rated them based on the materials inside. The 'cheap' ones are indeed VERY cheap and dangerous.
This counterfeit charger has so much noise in the output that I had to double the scale on the left to get it to fit. Note the very large spikes in the output (yellow). ... This counterfeit charger shows extremely poor regulation, as shown by the very wide yellow line. It's hard to fit a voltage-current curve to this picture. The amount of power supplied by this charger seems almost random.
Finally a reader that realized that the electrocution from the charger has nothing do with the cables. The charger and the cable are separate things.
People the cable is a separate thing from the charger. If you used one of the dodgy chargers with a genuine apple cable you are still as likely to be electrocuted.
Other readers please stop spreading the FUD that it's about safety. It's not.
And guess what Lightning is not an international standard. It is a variation on a standard. And Apple can do anything they want with it. It's called a proprietary connector. There is nothing at all illegal about what Apple is doing. It's entirely self defeating.
Is it greedy? Yes
Does it have anything to do with safety? No
Is Apple doing the right thing for it's customers? No
That is an example of getting electrocuted by the bad charger, not by the cable. The official cable plugged into that same bad charger will still result in electrocution.
Just by charging them. She has two cables in the house, one connected to her laptop, and one connected to a wall charger in the bedroom. Both pretty much stay in the charging device full time, the only change is when the iphone is plugged in and unplugged. Nothing any more stressful happens to the cables other than your standard plug and unplug like you'd do with a USB cable.
The 30 pin cables were great, the new cables are crap.
IBM did try this with the PS/2 range which used the proprietary Micro-channel slots instead of ISA. This was a spectacular flop.