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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.
The Ford Motor Company has reprogrammed all recent model Ford cars and light trucks to prevent them from being refueled from Texaco gas pumps. Film at eleven.
Well I wonder how apple users will relate to this walled garden business now.
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!
From the comments: TFA is wrong. You can still charge. Postpone your panic.
You're saying it's OK for a company like Apple to block everyone else from making "non-authorized" support products? Who cares about free market right?
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.
Many Apple users now have to use the official legal lightning cables included with their IPhone, they are not without a way to charge their phones.
Well, this news is about the people who do NOT have official cables. I guess you missed that part.
But that is their problem, cheap doesn't always equal better!!!
Neither does expensive. In fact, why do you assume there is any difference in quality in the first place? Apple's cables only have the extra chip which does not increase quality at all.
"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
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.
Their phones DO come with a cable. It's not like you have to pay extra to get one. They are just trying to protect their customers from dying because they buy cheap knockoffs.
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.
I'm not sure whom I dislike more, Apple for having the unmitigated audacity to try the Lightning Pin4/Pin8 con job, or Monster Cables, a company that undoubtedly wishes they had thought it up first. I sure hope some independent lab tests will be done soon that show no harm from third party controllers. It would be a real treat to watch consumer legal actions if we knew for certain that the special Apple cables have no technically unique purpose other than to cause consumers to buy them out of FUD.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
A person can still use an overpriced official cable from Apple but used a dangerous charger and the dangerous conductive surface of the iPhone. The cable isn't the cause of the safety issue but the cable is what's overpriced so iOS 7 is forcing you to buy the overpriced cables. The official Apple chargers aren't *that* overpriced.
1) Electrically shocked when using a malfunctioning generic cable
2) Financially shocked when you learn what Apple charges for a genuine cable
because their customers expect highly inoperable, competitively priced products from a company that respects them.
Increases the quality of apple's profit margins...
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!
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.
Except it is the charger not the cable that can be traded. Moron.
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.
He's not necessarily a moron. He's just a fanboi. To so many deluded people Apple is akin to religion, and like the Church is to a fanatic can do no wrong.
Many Apple users now have to use the official legal lightning cables included with their IPhone
Well, you don't say.
It's still beyond me.
I frankly have expected Apple to fork/extend/etc the Micro-USB to kill three/more birds with one stone. And I would have most likely applauded the effort.
But they decides to anchor their users with the stone instead.
Jobs gone. There is nobody to guide the engineers.... There is nobody to fend off the MBAs....
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Haha an apple UPS to clean our dirty electricity?
People buying over-priced cell phones that are locked to a carrier so if they decide to change carriers they may or may not be able to use their over-priced cell phones are now going to have to pay for over-priced cables.
Why is anyone surprised by this? Why does anyone other than those who own knockoff cables give a damn?
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I think this is illegal. After all if I am disabled and depend on my "non-iphone" cable to work, this unfairly discriminates against me.
- d
does not let them pull BS like that.
there are two free market solutions. One is the loudly proclaimed "don't buy an Apple iPhone!" which I have no problem with. The other is for cable manufacturers to negotiate a license that allows them to manufacture authorized cables with the correct chips built in to allow them to work with these devices.
Of course the latter relies on Apple allowing the companies to negotiate a price per cable that allows the manufacturers to still earn a profit, and still undercut Apple's product prices. My own suggestion is that for some time the production runs have a higher per unit cost that covers any liability related to expected failure rates, and that after some period the license fees go down if the manufacturer demonstrates high quality production. The understanding being that if at some point the failure rate exceeds a certain value, Apple will voide that license, and devices that get software updates from Apple will recognize the cable as no longer valid, pop up a message advising the customer to take the cable to an Apple Store for a replacement, and the cost of replacement will be bour by the licensee of the cables.
And if no-one wants to agree to those negotiated fees, then the market can always revert to the former suggestion.
You never know...
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)
Now, if you had something about aftermarket parts you might have had a valid analogy.
And such an analogy would have two key words: Magnuson-Moss.
The free market is meant to solve every problem, but in fact solves a small subset of problems.
Just like any religion.
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?
Since when do people need 'authorization' to use their products how they see fit?
Since DVDs with CSS encryption and region locking forced you to play your purchased disc on a particular set of devices sold in a particular part of the world - perhaps sooner. Things have been going downhill from there.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
This whole custom connector thing is bullshit in the first place. Shouldn't all the data synchronization just happen over the air on your mobile phone? So, what is the primary function of this connector? Charging!
Maybe, they wanted to get rid off the overly complex iPod connector, but why didn't they just replace it with a standard issue Micro-USB connector?
Why not? Because they're dickheads, that's why.
As opposed to the solution that solves all problems? Just what would that be? Other than allowing people to make their own choices??
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.
FTFY
Check the price of an Apple charger/cable and a perfectly okay ordinary USB charger/cable.
And who can blame them? They know their audience and that they will pay for it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
What free market? If there was a free market you wouldn't need a license to make a competitive cable.
The free market assumes all sorts of property and contract law which considerably limits everyone's power to freely make choices.
...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.
The cables are covered by the included warranty and also by AppleCare.
This is a way to crowd out a gaggle of perfectly-good $2 cables in favor of their $20 cables. Personally, I don't like to have to take my cable with my everywhere I go, and I don't want to worry about damaging or losing said, sole cable. I have a charger on my nightstand, one fished in behind the dashboard in my car (so I can use the GPS software, which would otherwise render the battery dead in short order), and one on my desk at work, plus one in my travel bag.
Apple is really pushing to get me onto Android when I'm due for an update next summer.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
What else can you say? What can you say about a company that charges $20 for a fucking usb charging cable and then blocks everyone else from making legally compatible cheaper fucking charger cables. Oh right it's for safety... . So now if I upgrade to IOS 7 I have to spend $60 on new cables? This is douchebaggery on a whole other level.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I think that the "free market" he's talking about is the one that is filled with $5 to $10 MicroUSB chargers for Android phones on Amazon and eBay.
Sure, many of them are cheap generic Chinese clones of the OEM chargers made from Motorola, Samsung, and HTC. Odds are that some of those will likely fail in a few weeks due to poor build quality, but at least you have to option to buy one if you're willing to take the risk.
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. >:-|
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
Apple did this to me on my old 3gs years ago. Cables worked fine one day, update, then they stop.
They can kiss my butt. FCC should be involved.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Unauthorized works for usb to my computer. I have not tried it charging. I have a mac cable (that came with my ipad) for charging and a cheap cable to hook up usb.
I remember a little while ago someone managed to electrocute themselves with an unauthorized cable/charger on an iphone. That may have played into them doing this with IOS7.
AdFuel
I hated Apple during many years but they always seem to produce the most interesting devices. What I don't understand is why Apple haters care about the price of a lightning connector if the don't even have Apple products.
This is why I propose Apple should not only block unauthorized and dangerous cables, they should start selling Apple certified electrical outlets with computer chips in them that authenticate them as being the real deal. This will not only prevent people from using dangerous counterfeit electrical outlets, but give Apple an opportunity to block dangerous counterfeit smartphones from being charged on the safe and authentic electrical outlets.
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
Subject says it all. Vote with your wallet and don't buy this stuff.
You couldn't PAY ME to use anything Apple makes.
I have to ask the same thing - is there something seriously wrong and dangerous about Apple products??
Three Squirrels
The #1 reason I don't use Apple products summed up in one article.
That is incorrect and doesn't make any logical sense?
Sucks to be you, I suppose. But, hey, run with it.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Evil.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
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.
Get a USB extension cable, duh.
nebulo
Another marvelous reason to skip Apple products.
They just keep coming.
When they have a monopoly.. Which they don't.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
No, no, no! The correct response is 'hire an electrician and carpenter to put in more electrical outlets around your room at all of the levels you expect to plug things in. Those locations should be 'every 2 feet in each direction across the floor so you can plug in your vacuume to clean the floor; one foot above the floor every 2 feet along the wall; 2 feet off the floor every 2 feet along the wall, (this one to support end tables being placed at any location along the wall); 3 feet off the floor every 6 inches, so people can plug things in that are siting on desks; and 5 feet off the floor so that people can install permanent lighting fixtures and mount wall clocks, these can be spread every 6 feet apart to reduce the appearance of clutter at 'eye level' for Steve Jobs family.
Remember to install only as many outlets on a circuit breaker as code allows, and that the sum of the possible current load of all of the circuit breakers for distribution from the circuit breaker box may not violate the code limits of the load for that box. (some regulatory districts provide for an 'oversubscription' allowance of 50% on the expectation that you are not going to put a full load on every circuit off of a breaker, but check with your electrician.)
You never know...
I am curious as to why there are far fewer cries of "evil" about this reduction of functionality post-sale than there were about the Sony OtherOS removal... even though this cable restriction is more fundamental to the device and affects more use cases. It's almost as if there is some fanboy bias holding a portion of commenters back...
They let people trade the knockoff chargers because those chargers were failing in catastrophic and dangerous ways and it was a good PR move for them to offer a no-cost remedy for their users. The cables, not so much.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
We care about the lockdown, which is why we don't own Apple products. Well, most of us do, actually; I, for example, love my MacBook Pro, which I can still use however I damned well please; we just don't own the locked-down shit Apple peddles.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I love reading all the pissing and moaning comments. Last time I looked Apple was number one in customer satisfaction.
http://ondeviceresearch.com/blog/iphone-5-ranked-fifth-in-user-satisfaction%2C-behind-four-android-powered-devices#sthash.sahmO01X.dpbs here is the iPhone coming 5th behind four android models.
And I suspect that someone circumventing Apple's cable DRM can use this case as a precedent;
Utter, utter, utter ****s
My UID is prime!
You're right, it's not like anyone was electrocuted by using an unauthorized cable. It was a knockoff charger and, most likely, the cable used was the one that shipped with the phone.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
And sadly most of the time the only people who profit from class-action suits are the lawyers involved...
Why yes, there are a few.
Apple already licenses it to third-party manufacturers. There are cheaper, legit third-party lightning cables all over the place.
> 1. A lightning connector has the capability to muliplex most of the 30 pins of the old dock connector down to 4 pins. It has to support a lot more functionality for backward compatibility with peripherals than USB sync and charge. The only functionality the dropped with lightning was their old car kit integration, which has been replaced by BT integration and iTunes in the Car. Everything else still works on a lightning cable with an adapter. Pretending that its a 1:1 functionality match to a micro-USB cable is a misrepresentation of what the cable does.
And yet, Android phones as well as many DSLRs and camcorders manage to do the same exact thing (for AV, HDMI (see: MHL), control lines, etc.) as well as provide USB host mode (something Apple still can't seem to figure out ;)) via mini-usb and micro-usb. I fail to see where the lightning port gives an advantage there. Another great thing some Android makers have done is extended Micro USB further to 11 connectors for additional functionality and video bandwidth (while preserving 100% compatibility with micro USB).
>2. Crappy 3rd party accessories generate support calls,fail in nasty intermittent and hard to track down ways, and in some cases injure and kill people.
Does the genuine Apple-branded USB->lightning cable authenticate against the USB port and ensure it is connected only to an Apple charger or a Mac? if no, and it will pass current from third-party USB ports, your entire argument for #2 is moot.
>3. They aren't blocking 3rd party cables or removing functionality after the fact (they COULD, but their actions so far are not). They throw a dialog if the devices thinks the cable isn't one that went through their Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod licensing and certification program - which means it presents an invalid vendor ID from the multiplexor. Thats it. Why would they do this ? [....] Almost all cases of damage and injury to their very likely come from cheap copy cables and chargers. [that's bullshit btw]
The same reason Microsoft engaged in FUD when Microsoft was fighting against Linux servers and losing big time - if you cannot innovate, threaten and scare the customer to get them to continue buying more product from you.
> Maybe it is to make the users aware that they AREN'T using an licensed cable.
who gives a shit? If the Apple-branded cable will pass line voltage from a faulty USB port into an iPhone wielded by a fool holding it in a bathtub, it doesn't matter whether the cable is an Apple-branded cable or a third-party one, there is a high chance of electrocution either way. Why take on the liability of displaying that warning if in fact the Apple cable is actually no safer than the third-party cable in this regard? Or, is Apple's charging cable hard-wired to an Apple chargers now? (they're not). It's all about the money - and Apple is engaging in anti-competitive tactics here. That is THE ONLY reason they refuse to go the standardized Mini/Micro USB route like everyone else on the planet has.
> For one thing, as iPads can pull 12 W/2.1 A on full charge, a cheap cable designed for 500 mW USB connectivity may fail over time in a way that something that took this into account did not.
2100mw / 5v = .42 a
Current capacity for 22ga wire: 4.42 amps
How is the cable in a knock-off charger anywhere near any danger threshold?!?! Based on cheap 22AWG wire, there is a 10x safety margin.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
And sadly most of the time the only people who profit from class-action suits are the lawyers involved...
That makes sense, because the lawyers are selling their labor for profit.
The plaintiff in a lawsuit isn't supposed to profit: they're supposed to be paid the amount required to compensate for their loss; the reasonable cost required to hire a lawyer is part of the loss.
That's a delusional point of view... Apple is forcing users to buy cables at an artificially increased price. This is price fixing/gouging at its finest. There isn't/wasn't anything wrong with the cables the users we using. The manufacturers just didn't pay an apple tax which creates a more expensive product that functions absolutely no better than the cheaper "unauthorized" alternative.
This is anti-competitive and anti-consumer. It's another reason on the pile for while I quit buying apple products, and will continue to avoid them.
It's unlikely most people will realize that risk includes being electrocuted. . .
They can only do it now because of the auth chip in lightning cables, old style 30 pins cables have no method of checking for authenticity. You may have had old cables that charged via firewire, which wouldn't work with newer devices though. There were plenty of third party cables you could buy for dirt cheap (seriously, shipping is and was more then the cables!), and the firewire variety weren't common after the first ipods got usb charging capability.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Speaking of that, what devices do we plug in at floor level anyway? Floor-lamps, maybe, but it'd still be a hell of a lot more convent if the outlet was 2 feet or so off the ground so that you didn't have to get on you hands and knees just to plug the damn thing in.
Apple and innovation certainly don't seem to be friends anymore.
Another /. Link that attracts anti apple people who don't RTFA.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
It *IS* USB. The adapter you speak of receives data, via the USB protocol, from the phone and decodes it to the correct outputs for the various pins of the 30 pin connector, much like the cable receives data, via the USB protocol, from the phone and passes it along to the USB connector on the other end. The video-out connector is a neat trick involving reassigning the pins; something consumer-grade cameras and Android phones have been doing for years by now. The only thing the lightning connector is bringing to the table is DRM, the ability to plug in either way, and a complete lack of protection from shorting (the *LIVE* contacts are exposed, unlike any other consumer device).
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
The article is titles "Apple blocks unauthorized Lightning cables with iOS 7" but presents no evidence of blocking. The last sentence of the first paragraph is "Apple will probably shut the door on the usage of the latter in a future update." which implies that they have not done so already.
The article plainly LIES.
Years ago i owned a 1GB iPod Shuffle... here in New Zealand it cost $75 (not too bad i thought).
Somehow the plug which goes into the audio plug on the Shuffle to charge it, broke... so i looked at replacement chargers... $60 from Apple (yes the player with charger was $75)
heres a picture of the charger if anyone isnt sure what i meant http://i.imgur.com/n8QEUwJ.jpg
It's not FUD article, it's a LYING article.
"Perhaps sooner"? Well, you had VHS tapes that were only playable in certain parts of the world. (Although many PAL players can play NTSC VHS tapes, but that was a more recent development). You also had NES and Sega Genesis games that would only play in the "authorized" part of the world the cartridge was made for...
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Agreed. That is why I do not buy Apple devices.
Which is a risk orders of magnitude lower than dying in your next car trip.
Property and contract law do not limit your ability to make choices for yourself in any way. They do limit your ability to make choices for others, but then, doing so would also take away their ability to make their own choices, so it's not like the overall ability to choose is decreasing. It's just being placed where it belongs, with those most affected.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
The free market cannot solve ALL problems, but it probably can solve THIS problem.
As long the government stops intervening and heavily regulating the market it is doable. Some regulation is necessary, but the costs added by the current government set of regulation and bureaucracy guarantee that no company smaller than Pfizer or Roche will ever enter the market.
That said, I have to disagree with you. The free market didn't fail here. Almost all antibiotics we use to this day were developed by private companies. The government has a very poor history in R&D of anything and especially in medicines.
The fact that the private sector is getting worse in providing what is needed from it is not fault of the Free-Market, but a fault of the increasing absence of a Free-Market due to regulations created mainly to avoid competition.
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.
And you think this is the result of a free market? The incentive for pharmaceutical companies are mostly determined by the rules surrounding patents, which also play a role in inhibiting R&D by anyone other than the established pharmacy companies whose interests, as you say, do not always align with those of patients. State-granted monopolies like patents are the antithesis of a free market.
Without patents R&D would have to be funded separately from the manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceuticals, and for the most part would be in the hands of the patients themselves, eliminating the conflict of interest.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
Oh and there have been many major antibiotics developments since the 80's, just a lot less that would be necessary to keep with the building resistance. One of the main problems is the increasingly costly and time consuming processes for approval of such drugs. Currently there are 9 major antibiotics waiting for FDA approval, but the chances of them being approved before 2020 are almost zero. By then they will be insufficient to deal with the increasing resistance of bacteria.
So again I must point you that the major cause of the problem is not the free market, but as usual, the government.
I thought that Apple had agreed some time ago to the microUSB standard as a joint effort by phone manufacturers to reduce waste. It shouldn't be called the Lightning cable.. it should be called the 'fuck you planet' cable... Forgive me while I quietly giggle from the outside at all the people who buy into the closed off system, he said, typing from his Linux machine.
In this case, you can buy a cable that overcomes the loss of functionality. In the case of the OtherOS removal, some games would update the firmware, and there was no way to get back what you had lost.
The phone comes with an authorized cable. So no one should be without a way to charge their phone.
And beyond that, the article says unauthorized cables aren't locked out, just a warning comes up. The summary incorrectly changes this to say the cables are locked out.
Pathetic coverage, slashdot.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
"Many users with clone cables are now without the ability to charge their iPhones."
Why is that, did they all just throw away the cables that came with their phone? I'm sure there are a few people who lost theirs, but overall that statement is unfounded.
My third party cables work fine in ios 7. Imagine if someone posted this same article about Samsung. It would be as much bullshit as this one.
Long time reader, no account, but I just had to write something here regarding the comments posted thus far.
I have owned the iPhone 5 for one year now. It came with a wall plug and lightning cable. It has never broken, and works perfectly. When I wanted an extra one to keep in my car, I picked up one from FutureShop (here) when it went on sale for $12.99. The price was so good for a MFi (Made For iDevice) certified cable, that I bought two of them. Neither have broken. I treat them well. One stays in the car and the other stays at work.
I could have easily bought 10 for $0.89 USD each (here) from China but my experience with the cheap cables from China is that they work for a while then just suddenly stop. They don't handle wear and tear quite so well and the wires inside break near either end. Sometimes the Chinese cables only allow syncing and sometimes they only allow charging. It all depends on the supplier. I've ordered enough of these over the years to know a bad product when I see one.
For my American friends, hit up Monoprice: here or here will have you up and running with a MFi certified cable (so no blocking with iOS 7), and it'll cost you $12. This is a totally reasonable price considering the quality of almost everything Monoprice carries. They run an honest business and I even go so far as to pay the shipping, handling, and import duties just to get their products into Canada.
For the haters out there, I also own several other phones: a BlackBerry Curve (OS 7), a Samsung Galaxy S (CyanogenMod), LG Optimus Windows Phone (OS 7.8). All of those phones charge by standard micro USB but for spare cables and wall plugs I use exclusively BlackBerry chargers. Why? Because without the packaging, they're $12.99 in Canada. The cable itself is thick and sturdy, and the wall plug isn't one of those cheap knock-offs that puts out more noise than anything else, nor does it heat up to the point of discolouring the USB cable. Yes, I've used wall chargers like that.
It's an expensive device and you want to charge it via the magic of electricity. Spend the money and get the right cable.
Not to interrupt all the bitching with facts, but I just plugged my cheap knock off lightning cable into my iPhone 5, recently updated to iOS 7, and it works just fine.
Apparently, the risk of electrocution is only with iPhones. Nobody is complaining about getting electrocuted when charging Android, or even Windows Phones.
Stating charging cable would be more correct.
And denying use completely would be incorrect because that will just irritate everyone trying to charge their device through USB outlets in cars etc.
What they can do is to instead have a blacklist of known bad/dangerous devices combined with a warning for unknown.
And it will just raise the stakes for Chinese copies to use cloned ID chips too.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
The problem is: people already bought their iphones.
I thought Apple people were used to being pressured to continuously buy expensive apple stuff.
The software update will "brick their device", by making it incapable of being charged, by the power adapter that worked fine before.
Blocking use of an unsanctioned cable is not "bricking their device".
This is likely to result in a class action suit against Apple; potentially with a demand to repair/replace hardware that was rendered inoperable.
Apple exists in a state of constant litigation. What would be weird is if they didn't get sued or sue others.
(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)
How about just don't upgrade to IOS7. Or better yet stop buying iphones in the future if you don't like being treated like shit.
You are not entitled to an iphone or IOS made to your preferred specifications, you are only entitled to choose what you buy. This is what the free market is.
The market does not assume the rules, it IS the rules.
A "market" is not a building, it's a set of rules governing trade, therefore a market free of regulation is an oxymoron.
If anyone can play the market then it's a "free" market.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Can you give an example of a law assumed by the free market that limits people's ability to make choices?
I don't agree that people should be free to make competitive cables, but that doesn't mean the market isn't free. If anything this is a DMCA issue involving the restriction of the circumvention of technical protection measures.
If this is evidence that the market isn't free than so is the fact that it is illegal to sell pirated DVDs at Walmart.
The free market does not solve the tragedy of the commons problem. That does not make the free market bad or a failure. It is just not the right tool for that problem. For rewarding good investments and setting prices of goods and services, the free market works great. We should be using government regulation where that works best and the free market where that works best.
It is only ideologues who either claim the free market solves everything or that the free market solves nothing.
It requires *perfectly informed* rational self-interested actors. That's the part that's the bugger.
Yes, the barriers to entry must be zero and the cost of information must also be zero. Both are so far from what we have now it would be rejected instantly, without consideration. At least some of the "lesser" requirements, like "rational actors" with "enlightened self interest" would be less obviously false.
It's funny how many advocates of the free market don't know what it is.
It would be a good system, if anyone ever tried it, but it'd take too much regulation. Having to force companies to play fair.
Learn to love Alaska
It also requires those rational actors to be well informed. I can hardly believe that one's true.
Is apple collecting a database of device serial numbers used with un- authorised devices so they can deny warranty claims?
Also useful to avoid paying funeral expenses
I can think of several things that may take advantager of a floor based outlet. The example I gave initially was a vacuume cleaner, which is somewhat facitious, as no one in their right mind would manufacture a corded vacuume with a cord so short that you had to find a new outlet to plug it in as often as I suggest. That said, if the room is large enough to have tables, couches, etc, positioned in the middle of the room, away from a wall, having an outlet to plug a lamp, or a laptop charger in seems to me to be a better investment than having an outlet stuck behind the couch over at the wall that you now have to stretch an extension cord from to use.
This also provides a recommendation for a ceiling based power outlet in that you may have a good reason to mount a projector there. In this case I really recommend treating that project as a built-in solution specific to the projector, but it may be used for other purposes, such as a wifi repeater.
You never know...
Last item first, if you work with a general contractor, you should get the best results. Hiring a licensed electrician is a good idea, but you may also need to file paperwork with your city hall to have, or do, the work, documenting who is doing the work, any licenses required, when the work will be done, and schedule an electrician to confirm that the work performed meets any code requirements. I've lived in cities where skipping that would leave you liable for significant legal problems, and in counties where the only reason to file such paperwork was to have a record on file that the work was done, and the county didn't inspect because there was no budget for an inspector.
Next to last, this is one reason for the 'at desk level' outlets. I've gone as far as building a desk that had a power strip on a level between the desk and the wall for plugging things into, yet not sitting on the desktop. That solution also includes a shelf above the desk for equipment under test, stuff on display, and as a book-shelf for development tool references.
I do like the idea of the outlets 2 feet above the desk to plug things into behind the monitors. That said, I also like the idea of outlets being immediately behind computer monitors to allow you to plug those monitors in, without draging those power cords across a desk, or having to dig around under a desk for the power cord later on. Granted I like to mount flat panel monitors directly on the wall, and that can generate airflow tolerance issues, but then I'm not re-wiring the office either.
You never know...
Are you the lawyer I was alluding to?
Kid-proof tablet..
What are you blabbering on about? A "free" market requires "absolute" property, and that most definitely regulates my choice to lie on "your" lawn.
the apple approved cable costs 169 Swedish kronor and the one not approved by apple costs 25 Swedish kronor
Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
The point of marketing is to misinform to the greatest amount legal. Information would never be shared in a manner required for a free market to work. The companies have too much of an interest in doing the opposite.
Learn to love Alaska
Where is the authorization for apple to modify/reduce functionality post-sale?
definitely unethical for apple to modify functionality post sale
I can see why Android handset manufacturers are so ethical. They don't provide any OS updates.
Look, OS upgrades inherently modify functionality post-sale. The user authorized them to do that. Oh, so you'd then want to argue that they didn't *warn* the user? Yes, I'll probably scream license agreement then, because before you know it your pea-brain theory of post-sale-ethics would require a thousand pages of fine print detailing ALL the changes in the OS upgrades that the user might or might not miss.
Unless of course, the user doesn't have an option to downgrade the OS to the backup.
What's your complaint again?
And to you mods who gave this idiot a +1, were you thinking with your brain, or did Apple Hatred burn through all your neurons?
Don't quote me on this.
In a strong move in favor of consumer protection today Apple stopped counterfeit lighting cables from connection to Apple devices. "This should remove all the risks Apple user face when using these cables, like electrical damage, snooping and viruses. ...err strike that last one, it's not supposed to be possible on iPhone."
I will wait 10 months for it in the rain in the cold, standing in line.
Yeah sure, fanboy. Stop bitching about having bought the most expensive phone on the market and buy more stuff because their engineers are incapable of thought they're too busy spending all that money.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Right, which is why libertarian ideology boils down to social Darwinism.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
equally powerful rational actors with enlightened self interests.
Libertards tend to ignore the first bit. Clearly this is because they don't mind being serfs if God ordained it, and not because they fantasize that without the evil commnust gubmint to stop them they'd be the ones in power.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Caller on line 1 talking about salt mines. Says his name's Joe Stalin.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Come on, that wouldn't harmonise visually.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I purchased Lightning to USB cables on Dealyup.com last week during a sale for a whopping $2 each, and guess what - as of right now, even after the latest update, they work fine for both charging and syncing.
If Apple is on the warpath about anything, it's the actual wall charger. The woman that was electrocuted in China three weeks ago was killed by a shoddily made third party wall charger that exposed her to full outlet current - not 5 volt USB.
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Two birds with one stone there. Get a safety reputation by those who arent cynical enough to look for ulterior motives and maybe get a few good headlines in the process... And kill off cheap competitors cutting into margin
Actually, Apple aren't doing the pin-reassigning chip for video out; instead they're compressing the video output until it fits down a USB connection and including an entire ARM SoC in the Lightning AV Adapter to decompress it again. So Lightning is really less capable in the multiplexing department than many Android phones' micro-USB connectors.
A "free" market requires "absolute" property, and that most definitely regulates my choice to lie on "your" lawn.
Naturally, because your choice to lie on my lawn is also a choice regarding the use of my lawn, which is properly my decision as the owner, not yours. Either way the choice of how to use the lawn must lie with someone (or it can never be used); there is no reason why that choice should belong to you, as opposed to the one who invested their own efforts and resources into purchasing and/or cultivating the property.
Property rights are inherent in nature due to scarcity. They are not a consequence of free markets; someone must have the (necessarily exclusive) right to consume the property, which at the point of consumption makes them the de facto property owner. The only question is how to assign ownership, and the free market is the only answer to that question which is both practical and equitable—which both allows the property to be used, and applies the same rules to everyone without exception or bias.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
Apple 0.5 meter Lightning - USB-A cable for iPhone 5: http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME291ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-cable $19
Apple 2.0 meter Lightning - USB-A cable for iPhone 5: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD819ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-cable-2-m $29
Google (LG) 1.2 meter USB-Micro to USB-A cable for Nexus 4: https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_4_Micro_USB_Cable?id=nexus_4_usb_cable $9.99
Note that if your Nexus 4 cable breaks you can go and get a standard USB-Micro to USB-A cable at walgreens, most grocery stores, the home depot, most anywhere -- your mom probably has one in her junk drawer. The apple stuff is harder to find, and more expensive.
Also consider the cost to replace the power brick for a macbook pro, with that stupid mag-safe connector. Another proprietary nightmare at $79.
If I want a power brick for a ThinkPad, Amazon's got 'em for $39. And the ThinkPad power brick uses an industry-standard IEC C5 power connector on the input side, if I want to travel abroad with my ThinkPad, all I need to get is a local power cord.
Oh yeah, I can replace the battery in my ThinkPads myself in seconds. The Macbook Pro? Maybe in an hour, if I don't loose any of the screws.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
ours. Either way the choice of how to use the lawn must lie with someone (or it can never be used)
Eh? Land can only not be used if there is someone who wants to do something which makes it unusable, and no one else to stop them. Now, to stop someone doing that, you could let only one person decide whether it can be made unusable, or you could create rules for sharing the land between everyone, or something in between. You can supplement this with community decency. For example, in England, occasional trespass over private land is almost never criminal - and in Scotland you can't do shit about people walking over land which isn't part of a garden as long as you don't cause damage. It's hardly ever a problem, because the Right To Roam is something understood and respected. My partner's family have had a small farm in Scotland for nearly 30 years, and *not once* has this legal absence of "absolute right" to outdoor property caused a problem.
For another example, this home office is shared between me and another, but it would be unworkable if everyone got to share time on the machines in here; meanwhile the hills 2 minutes to the north are free for anyone to roam and pick wild fruits from, as long as they don't cause damage, and every year I am able to pick a huge amount of fruit while still leaving a lot more for others (the "tragedy of the commons" would only apply if people in some community are selfish dicks, but here they're not).
Property rights are inherent
No, they're not. They're no more inherent than the existence of a god. Handwave as much as you want. Lots of species have existed for a lot longer with us, with no conception of property rights.
Isn't this practice pretty much de facto "tying", which is illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Act? I mean, if the company blocks non-Apple cables, isn't that awfully close to the "mandatory purchase" scenario that those two laws prohibit? Any lawyers care to opine?
http://macdailynews.com/2013/07/15/apple-to-probe-electric-shock-death-of-chinese-woman-who-used-iphone-5-while-it-was-charging/
How isn't this anti-competitive?
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
I don't deny that you can accept personal property while rejecting real and private property.
But the "free market" depends on private property, and a great deal of it involves real property too.
You're right, it is completely ridiculous. It's not like someone might be electrocuted because they used an unofficial cable.
Find that same story about an android phone....go on, I'll wait. If apple didn't insist on using overpriced propriety rubbish they wouldn't have this issue to begin with. When was the last time a micro usb cable from anywhere electrocuted someone in this way.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
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I'm pretty sure this got pushed faster because of the incident of the electrocution happen a few weeks ago.
Good thing this doesn't happen with Google devotees (in the name of Brin the Blessed, may he live forever).
It happens with devotees of most things. It's generally always deluded. Like most religious people are.
Apple Inc. has lost MUCH talent in the last 14 months!
Turnover can kill a great company!
So you're saying investors be wary of the (sunglasses) Apple turnover?
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
But... but... but... it's so much better than USB!
I almost died the day someone tried to tell me their iPhone synched to their computer (via the USB port on their computer) faster than USB because of lightning. Yes. I almost died. Laughing.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
The software update will "brick their device", by making it incapable of being charged, by the power adapter that worked fine before.
that's not what brick means
Like anyone can even know that