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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."
Control freaks like controlling.
The idea of a physical cable is that it is simple, robust and as long as the connectors fit, it should (given sane engineering) do what is expected. It is fascinating how they violate that simple and powerful idea in a complex way, just to make a few bucks more. It is also utterly repulsive to any principled engineer.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
...unless their cable broke (cables do wear our on occasion)
In which case Apple is just making a money grab by forcing people to buy their overpriced cables.
Many Apple users now have to use the official legal lightning cables included with their IPhone
Well, you don't say.
Luckily, I happen to have a bunch of legal charging cables for my Android phone scattered around the house. They kind of accumulate from miscellaneous gadgets.
Not having to keep track of a single magic cable is one less complication in my life.
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.
So artificial lockouts are a-ok, and it's the customer's fault for not bowing to the proper altar? Quit apologizing for apple. They don't need your help. Since when do people need 'authorization' to use their products how they see fit? Where is the authorization for apple to modify/reduce functionality post-sale?
Before you scream 'license agreement', the real issue is one of ethics. Well, if it's not ethical for the customer to use 'unauthorized' cables, then it's definitely unethical for apple to modify functionality post sale. This is a big problem that's getting worse as embedded computers spread to more and more devices.
Well I wonder how apple users will relate to this walled garden business now.
With post-hoc rationalization (and antipathy towards those who point it out).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Because the phone manufacturers who use standard usb connectors are having so much trouble...
I wonder how much all the headlines last month about the Chinese woman being electrocuted by an iphone, while apparently using a cheap unauthorized wall charger, had to do with this decision. Perhaps they decided that getting a bruised eye from the press and the public for being called greedy is the better trade-off in the long run.
To a degree, I can not blame them. Years ago I worked for a company that produced an embedded device. One of the largest categories of customer service calls came from people swapping out components with stuff they could by 'cheaper' at their local computer store, and it was OUR fault that it started behaving oddly. Then they would go on forums to complain about crappy our product was, leaving out that they were using some 3rd party cheapie instead of the hardware that we spent hundreds of man hours validating in various combinations.
It was extremely frustrating to deal with, but when we tried to lock down some of the more critical (and high call volume) pieces like hard drives they would then run to forums to complain about our money grab by locking out cheap replacement drives and charging high prices for replacement ones.. even though that high price came from (a) manufacturer custom settings/firmware and (b) a supply guarantee from the manufacturer that we would continue to receive the exact validated model well past it's consumer equivalent would be end of lifed.
So while as a consumer I agree it is annoying, as someone who has been on the other side I can sympathize with wanting to stop people from buying cheap unvalidated 3rd party crap.
Apple doesn't sell electricity. And electric companies don't sell consumer electronics. What's your fucking point? Oh, you didn't have one.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Even the term "authorized cable" is enough to make me cringe. It's a FUCKING CABLE. It's the very simplest of electronic devices (if you can even call it a "device"). It has connectors, connected by stranded wires. That's all there is to it. And yet even the humble CABLE can't escape Apple's walled garden. What's next? "Unauthorized" headphones?
Yeah, the charger that is so convenient you have to leave your phone on the floor to charge because the cable is so short you can't plug it into a wall socket and say, put the phone on a night table. I hear you can buy a (slightly) longer cable for $50 though. To which I say fuck you, Apple.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I love reading all the pissing and moaning comments. Last time I looked Apple was number one in customer satisfaction.
Conservative, mod down for violating
The only contract law required by a "free market" is laws preventing you from giving up your rights.
The reason the Free Market never works is that it requires rational actors with enlightened self interests. The average consumer (and most companies) do not meet that definition, so we can't, by definition, ever have a Free Market.
Learn to love Alaska
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.
Is free market supposed to solve the problem of antibiotic development? Note; its a lot better for the pharmacy companies to develop new medications for chronic conditions, very very profitable. Antibiotics are very unprofitable for them. Because of this there haven't been major developments in antibiotics since the '80s.
Since antibiotics have saved countless lives, our modern world is barely imaginable without them, failure to continue developing them is one of the biggest failures of the free market and potentially devastating for the development of the human race.
free market fails.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.