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Apple Is Letting Companies Make 3.5mm To Lightning Cables Now (9to5mac.com)
Apple has updated the specs for its Made-For-iPhone accessories program, letting accessory makers put USB-C ports on licensed devices, as well as create 3.5mm to Lightning cables for the first time. 9to5Mac reports: With the new specs, companies in the MFi program can now include USB-C receptacles on their officially certified iOS and Mac accessories for charging. That allows users to charge MFi accessories with a USB-C cable and or power adapter they might already have, for example, and also draw power from the USB port on a Mac using the same cable. It also has other advantages for manufacturers. Apple's documentation for the new specs lists battery packs and speakers as products that could benefit from using a USB-C receptacle. Products are also allowed to bundle USB-C cables with the MFi accessories, but manufacturers can opt to not include a cable or adapter and reduce their costs and or price in the process. Unlike with Lightning receptacles, Apple does not allow the port to be used for passthrough charging or sync of an iOS device. Also, new for accessory makers is the ability to create a Lightning to 3.5mm stereo analog audio output plug, which would allow users to go direct from the Lightning port to a 3.5mm input on another device.
Some years ago a clever inventor developed and marketed the EtherKiller. The development of new connectors and better batteries brought researchers to the development of the USB kill, a device that - among other advantages - can be operated without mains connection. This makes devices of the USB kill series ideal for testing modern equipment in an off-the-grid environment.
Now that Apple updated the specs for the Lighting connector, we can reasonably expect the prompt delivery to the market of the Applekiller, for properly testing iPhones and similar equipments released by the well known firm in Cupertino. It is worth to note that probably the developers of the iPhone had exactly this in mind, when they nicknamed the new connector as "Lightning".
Visionary? Magical? Great innovation?
Reinventing the wheel might be great, unless of course all you need is a wheel.
3.5mm jack just works. It's cheap it does what it needs to do. No real need to change it yet.
If they really want to do something new with sound they should make their stupid music app play FLAC. Isnt that the whole point of getting sound over W1 headphones? (AKA"special blutetooth")
Seriously, for such an innovator this is rubbish.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
It sounds as if Apple is worried that malicious devices will attempt to MITM the connections from iTunes to the device. Even if none of the certified devices do this, making iOS users expect other bits of hardware to be on the line in the nominally secure path makes it easier for uncertified devices to find their way into common use. In theory, everything is encrypted, but there may well be timing attacks that work if you can interpose some hardware.
It also sounds as if they're also worried that things won't correctly forward the power control signals or manipulate them to account for the drain of the device on the line and so the iOS device will get more or (more likely) less power than it expects. This is important with regards to the throttling that they do: peak power consumption for an unthrottled iPhone is more than the peak power output of an old battery. This isn't normally a problem on mains power, but it is if the mains power is lower than advertised.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
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Alternate headline: Apple creeping towards a USB-C future. This move sounds suspiciously like the lead-up to a surprise announcement that they're courageously killing Lightning and replacing it with USB-C. Long overdue, IMO. Lightning is still limited to USB 2.0 speeds, and the latest revision of Thunderbolt uses the USB-C connector. Macbooks use USB-C as well, so iDevices are the only Apple things not yet using that connector... and would have much to gain by doing so. One of the last pieces of the puzzle was digital audio over USB... which had an official protocol finalized in the past year or so. Now that 3rd party manufacturers can produce licensed iDevice compatible gadgets with USB-C ports, everything is in place. Sure they'd have to include a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle instead of the Lightning one, but switching over sooner would be pulling the band-aid off quickly. People who bought those Lightning headphones would have to get a USB-C to Lightning adapter, as well.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
As an embedded developer I think USB-C is a pretty good standard (cobbled together for sure, but not overly expensive and lots of good backwards compatibility). The connector is also a nice size/shape and should serve us well for many years to come. Apple was definitely on the right track when it pushed USB-C over other connectors on its 2016 Macbook pros. But why on earth has it taken them nearly two years to allow accessory makers to use this through MFi?
Having worked for some big companies, it feels like they pushed USB-C into the MBP on ideology (and to be fair, they have pulled these shifts off before), but then lost interest in following through with developing the eco-system. Some junior engineer probably got given the job of trawling the not-inconsiderable USB-3.1 spec to come up with a policy document for MFi, and they've only just managed to get it sorted out.
They seem to be dropping the ball on a lot of stuff like this recently. Homepod was delayed. The air charging mat is not here yet. The delays on the Airpods. I know that no big company lasts forever, but surely all that work they did to infuse the organisation with 'steve jobs think' could keep the magic going a bit longer. Personally I feel that Cook has and always will act as a caretaker, wanting to make the smallest changes possible in the belief that the spirit of Jobs lives on. But the technology market moves at an immense pace. They still make great products, but without strong ideas and assertive changes of direction, the company is increasingly getting left behind.
You claim he's wrong, and back it up with exactly zero evidence, giving only hater conjecture.
His pass-through reasoning is probably right on - they are looking to prevent someone from creating an "iTunes cache device" that makes perfect digital copies of the all-you-can-eat iTunes subscription, so that you can turn off the subscription and still have all the music you aren't supposed to have. That explains the data pass-through restriction quite nicely.
The charging bit is more of a mystery - if it was really about variable power delivery they could have put specifications around it - your device must accept these signals from the phone about power utilization and be able to step up / down the charge being delivered accordingly, etc. After all, this is a device certification program - if the device can't do it or doesn't do it properly when tested, it's not certified.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I think this story should serve for non-technical buyers to provide greater awareness of the amount of CONTROL that Apple wields upon their ecosystem. Many users are completely unaware that Apple effectively sets what you can, and often CANNOT, buy to interface with your iDevice. And consumers should know... because when they can't get that accessory they want, or they blame a vendor when a device uses a USB micro-B port/cable instead of Lightning, often their ire is misplaced at the vendors when 90% of the time it is Apple that has denied them the solution they desire. And considering how many vendors "take it on the chin" and never publicly inform the buyers of this, I can only assume there is a non-disparagement clause in the MFi license as well. From the amount of abuse that some vendors take and still remain silent, Apple might be the biggest "abuser" in the relationship. Certainly Apple took advantage with their passthrough Lightning port-to-Lightning plug used in the "bandaid" iPhone battery cases; they even used the fact that their case had it as a competitive finger in the eye to their partners... all without mentioning that they themselves prohibited the vendors from using such a port/plug combination. Mophie has remained silent, still can't use the part. Oddly, tech "journalists" reported the "marketing", knocking MFi partners in reviews for not having the port rather than reporting to buyers about Apple's shenanigans. I've not read a single review yet where this control over ports/options has been exposed.
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
After getting a good pair of studio monitors I would never go back to Bluetooth headphones.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
With my Samsung I carry a usb cable and power adapter, and a pair of headphones.
To get the same functionality with the iPhone I need a half dozen dongles, which come at a premium price, and if they break when I'm on the road can't be easily replaced at any random corner store.
Not sure why you're trying to defend Apple in this. All they're doing is trying to take over the standards with their own proprietary format, and it's not giving you anything other than a headache and a lighter wallet.
Hyperbole, much, Anonymous Apple Hater?
"Half a dozen dongles".
Well, if you don't have BT or don't want to use the Lightning-based Earbuds that came FREE with your iPhone, you can use the Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter that came FREE with your iPhone. Done. If you need/want an additional Apple-branded Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter, those are available for the princely sum of $9. And while they may not be available "at the corner store", most people in the U.S. live within a short drive to a Walmart store, which not only sells Apple Lightning to 3.5 mm adapters, but actually STOCKS them IN STOREs, and for lower than list price:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lig...
So, blow me, Hater. Next time check your facts before you prove yourself to be not only Anonymous and a Coward; but also an IDIOT.