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Apple Starts Blocking Unauthorized Lightning Cables With iOS 7

Posted by timothy on from the there-there's-smoke dept.

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."

15 of 663 comments (clear)

  1. Dear Apple by vadim_t · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thanks for reminding me of another reason why I don't buy your products

  2. Confused as usual. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Informative

    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!
    1. Re:Confused as usual. by cas2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

      > There is also the fact that a micro-USB charging port is
      > mandatory in the EU on mobile phones, just so that people
      > do not have to buy the expensive ones from the phone vendor.

      and so that they don't have to buy a new charger when they get a new phone; and so that they don't need multiple different and separate chargers (home,work,car,etc) for each device (phone, tablet,etc); and, most importantly, so that they don't have to throw away the old chargers. a big part of the reason for the law was to reduce electronic waste.

      most phone/tablet/gadget manufacturers responded by making mini-usb or micro-usb charging ports standard in every country. not apple. they met the requirement in europe with an adaptor while keeping their high-priced proprietary (and disposable) charger everywhere else.

      it's also clear that apple's designs deliberately encourage waste and disposal rather than re-use and repair. iphones and ipads are cheaper / more convenient to replace than repair if the screen or glass is cracked.

      more obviously, their all-in-one imacs with a beautiful high-resolution 27" or 30" screen built-in are intended to be disposed of rather than upgraded. the screen is probably the single most expensive component in the unit, and the one that has the most potential longevity (i.e. it's less likely to need replacing/upgrading as technology improves). but you can't upgrade the CPU in the imac. you're supposed to discard the entire thing in a year or two and buy a new one. a huge amount of unneccessary waste.

  3. Re: Walled garden got a roof by alen · · Score: 4, Informative

    We won't care

  4. Re:Load of crock by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Informative

    "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
  5. Re:In other news by Stumbles · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its called; broken by design.

    --
    My karma is not a Chameleon.
  6. Re:In other news by Stumbles · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  7. Re:In other news by arbiter1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    i was just thinkin if MS did this crap, how long would it be til DOJ federal investigation kicked off.

  8. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uhh why not just use an established standard like say ooohh micro USB??

  9. Re:God f-ing DAMMIT Slashdot, really? by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."

    It is you that has the reading/comprehension problem. From the first paragraph of the article:

    In a move possibly triggered by stories of deadly electrical shocks coming from Apple iPhone and Apple iPad units, the Cupertino based tech giant is blocking the use of unauthorized third party Lightning cables with iOS 7.

    See that: "is blocking"?. Not probably.
    Where you quote "probably", you have taken that sentence out of context. Let's put it back in:

    There is word going around that some unauthorized cables with cracked chips have been working with iOS 7. Apple will probably shut the door on the usage of the latter in a future update.

    "the latter" clearly refers to "some unauthorized cables with cracked chips".

    You take the warning "may not work reliably" and extrapolate this to mean: "will probably work". According to this page you cannot actually dismiss the dialog and get the cable to work. Users actually report that cables that used to work with beta releases of IOS7 do not work with the the production release of IOS7. Of course it is possible that with millions of cables in use, some just happened to fail between IOS7 beta and IOS production releases, nevertheless, your claims are not supported by any reports.

    So, get off the Apple fanboi train and learn to read.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  10. Re:In other news by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  11. Re:In other news by upuv · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  12. Re:In other news by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  13. Re: In other news by futuresheep · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  14. Re:In other news by grahammm · · Score: 5, Informative

    IBM did try this with the PS/2 range which used the proprietary Micro-channel slots instead of ISA. This was a spectacular flop.