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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. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Control freaks like controlling.

    1. Re:In other news by lagomorpha2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple: Not Even Once

    2. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its called; broken by design.

      And, all the fanbois think Microsoft is the definition of evil.

    3. Re:In other news by narcc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, yes I do.

      So does just about everyone else.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    4. Re:In other news by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You have stories like these [huffingtonpost.com], where people are getting electrocuted by iphone chargers.

      This has nothing to do with the chargers. It has to do with the cables. It's not about safety, it's about control.

      If they could, they wouldn't let anybody else sell you a screen protector or a stylus without it having "Apple" on it.

      I used to love this company. Their stock helped me put my kid through college. But now they are way up there on the list of companies that suck ass. And their stock price is reflecting that, which is a good thing.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:In other news by Garridan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I saw three of these things blow last week at my local hackspace (we were using them for Raspberry Pi's, but whatever). Bottom line: if you're going to make a cubic-inch transformer that steps 120v down to 5v, and put out an amp, you need to use quality materials. This isn't altruism on Apple's part, nor is it greed. This is them covering their asses. They can say "hey, look, we did everything we can -- the user bypassed warnings, and hacked her OS just to use a faulty charger". And they get zero fault.

    6. Re:In other news by BronsCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The authentication chip authenticates the cable, not the charger, to the phone. You can still just as easily use an aftermarket charger with an "authentic" Apple cable, so that's not why they do this.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    7. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This, right here, is why I will never carry an Apple phone. Not only to they eschew standards, now they are deliberately working to eliminate interoperability with non-Apple products. Fuck them very much.

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

      Ill never own one either, but keep in mind those chargers are shit and break. Its not that hard off the beaten trail to assume they are trying to protect their brand by eliminating the levels of suck.

  2. Wow, they managed to break the idea of a cable! by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Wow, they managed to break the idea of a cable! by makomk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't worry - even though the only benefits of Apple's Lightning connector over Micro USB are being able to insert it upside down and a hardware-enforced requirement to pay Apple a cut on any Lightning cables, there were plenty of fanbois in the media ready to portray it as some super-futureproof, all digital miracle. (In fact it's shown exactly the same futureproof, all-digital ability to support new interfaces without hardware changes as bog standard USB. Even the Lightning video out is a hack that compresses the video to the point it could be send over USB, and in fact probably is.)

    2. Re:Wow, they managed to break the idea of a cable! by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. Their greed seems to have eradicate all instances of the KISS-principle in their people. If you do not follow KISS, you cannot be taken seriously as an engineer.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. Re:Load of crock by lagomorpha2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...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.

  4. Re:Load of crock by epyT-R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Minor Sympathy. by jythie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.