37 
If you bought yourself an iPhone 5, and are looking for a cheap, third-party lightning adapter to save a couple of pounds, you might want to hold off. There’s an authenticator chip in the official adapters, and third-party adapters probably won’t work without it.
Peter from Double Helix Cables found the obnoxious little chip while dissecting one of the new, official Lighting cables. Positioned between the cord’s USB contact and the power pin on the Lightning plug, the chip seems to be the key to keeping Lighting cables and adapters proprietary.
“There is basically no way [third-party adapters] are functional cables,” Peter told Apple Insider. “You can’t just build a Lightning cable by making something with the same shape and connectivity.” That means that all those third-party connectors out there will fit the ports on your devices, sure, but they probably aren’t going to actually work. What looks like a £10, £20, or £30 could very well wind up being a waste, so if you’re in a hurry, official adapters are probably the best bet. If you aren’t, you’ll want to sit tight until someone figures out how to fake those chips. [Apple Insider]
Some Third-Party Apps Look Crappy on the New MBP Retina Display
Cheap Third-Party Lightning Cables Are On The Way for Your iPhone 5
The First Third-Party Lightning Accessories Are a Car Charger and a Stupid Dock
I would put a Nelson Haha here.. But I think the Apple fans are probably getting a bit sick of that by now
If this turns out to be true, then it’s a lame move by Apple. Wouldn’t be so bad if you got a free adaptor with each iPhone 5, but this is only going to make existing loyal customers angry. Sadly, I would not be surprised if this was true.
Someone called KevBot on Gizmodo US posted this when the adaptor was first shown:
“The adapter has 2 microcontrollers in it, since the lightning connector no longer has analog audio output. The micros inside have to do the digital-to-analog conversion, as well as propagate the pause/next/last signals from the accessory back up the via usb to the iphone. (I know this since my company bid (and lost) to supply the micrcontrollers to Apple.) Don’t expect cheaper versions for awhile.”
http://gizmodo.com/5942710/fuck-that-goddamn-iphone-adapter-costs-30-bucks?post=52613237
It seems more believable than it being an authentication chip…
Exactly.
Also, if the authors of the original post or of this post had put aside the hysteria and took a look at the websites selling the cheap cables and adaptors they make it VERY clear these cables and the 30 pin adaptor are for charging only and will NOT work for data or audio transfer.
These products are meant to give you a cheap charging alternative, not to replace data cables supplied by Apple…
Is it legal for a company to make cables for the iphone without apples blessing (paying a licence fee). If not, is there really anything wrong with stopping this behavior?
I’m not saying over charging for a propitiatory cable isn’t a douch move of course.
Why would they need apples permission?
Let’s nip this in the bud. There’s no such thing as an “authenticator chip”. The Lightning connector is all-digital. The Dock Connector audio video outputs supported by the adaptor are analogue. You need a DSP, which is the chip in question, to translate between the two.
We went through the same nonsense about the chip in the iPhone headphones, which turned out to be the very essential component for reading the button clicks and sending them down the mic cable.
Does Apple control both components? Almost certainly. Are they putting a component in there purely to stop people maki g adapters? No. That would be stupid and wasteful in a business where a cent’s worth of components per unit becomes a million dollar loss.
No such thing as “authentication chip” So what you call it?
When you design your own protocol and put chip translating standard protocols onto yours proprietary one it will be still “authentication chip”
If you won’t believe, just check Apple headset. Of course you may say, it’s just for remote control, sure..
Ever tried to transfer data from an old Xbox 360 hard-drive? Microsoft data-transfer cables have a similar chip that allows a straight transfer from an old hard-drive. Any third-party cables lack the chip so can’t do the transfer. Basically the same principle would apply here.
So yes, there is such thing as an “authenticator chip”.
Wait you can’t convert from A to D without some electronics? Who knew?
And apparently even then there will be no audio or video out.
ALL OF YOUR ACCESSORIES ARE NOW WORTHLESS!
Why can’t they all just use micro USB?
Hands up everyone that’s surprised by this.
What, nobody?
Apple. Going proprietary since 1976…….. April 1st no less!
The EU has at least forced apple to produce the micro USB to lightning adapter, so that any micro USB data/power cable can be used.
Therefore, if there are any chips, they must be in this adapter otherwise it’ll never work.
So, anyone researching this issue should start there.
Do you get an adaptor with the phone or do you have to buy one of those too?
PSA,
If the authors of the original post or of this post had put aside the hysteria and took a look at the websites selling the cheap cables and adaptors they make it VERY clear these cables and the 30 pin adaptor are for charging only and will NOT work for data or audio transfer.
These products are meant to give you a cheap charging alternative, not to replace data cables supplied by Apple…
To be fair (and I very rarely feel inclined to be fair to Apple) quite a lot of phones struggle or struggled with the problem of third-party cables able to only do charging, not data transfer.
Still a dick move to not have one free adapter with the phone, though.