12 
Now that Apple’s shoved some security chips in its iDevice Lightning connectors it can pretty much charge what it likes for cables and accessories. Thankfully, nothing stops Chinese ingenuity. And yes, £3 Chinese knock-offs work just fine, so Apple can go stuff it’s £15 Lightning cable.
Toxic Cables’ Frank Donghi picked up a counterfeit Lightning cable and put it through its paces. Yes, it’s cheap and a bit crap — “there’s no shielding of any sort” — but it works fine, and for a fraction of the price. A word to the wise though, with no shielding, any audio applications are going to be riddled with noise, but if you just want to charge and sync your iPhone 5 or iPad 4, then these suckers should be more than up to the task. [Apple Insider]
“A word to the wise though, with no shielding, any audio applications are going to be riddled with noise”
I thought lightning connectors were fully digital so that won’t be an issue surely (at least not much of one)?
That “digg-idigg-digg-idigg-digg-idigg” sound you hear when you put your phone too close to an amp is from the GSM/CDMA signal… which is digital. A shielded cable can cause enough interference that when placed on a trackpad or touch screen, can do the same job as your finger. So I bet an unshielded one could cause noise interference with an amp (at close proximity of course).
And due to Apple’s faffing around with the certification process it’s going to be a while before any legitimate 3rd party cables are available. Brilliant own goal Apple, you’ve just made the knock off artists job easier.
Yes but when those third party cables come out they’ll the best cables ever!
What, better that Apple’s?
No no no, Apple’s will be The Best Cables Ever
I don’t think Apple will allow any third-party cables, probably accessories, but not this kind of cable.
£12 more for peace of mind, there’s quite a few people who’d be willing to pay.
So Apple users are stuck with paying £15 a time if they wan’t to use a legitimate product? That’s insane. No doubt better shielded, higher quality knockoffs will become available shortly. Meanwhile those of us on Micro USB can laugh ourselves silly.
Commences laughing.
Or you can just buy the microsd adapter and use a microsd lead that you can pick up for pence. The thing is tiny and just gets chucked in my wallet.
Micro USB even, not sure where microsd came from.
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-micro-usb-adapter
£15, bit pricey
At the risk of sounding pedantic, I don’t see how buying a £15 official adaptor and a £1 USB cable is any better than buying a £15 official cable. In fact to my eyes it is, in fact, MORE expensive. £1 more expensive.
For me it’s a one off £15, I’ve a ton of micro usb cables that are bundled with gadgets or you can buy then for next to nothing from amazon or ebay.
I guess it depends if you take your cable with you, I tend to have 1 at home for charging next to my bed, 1 on my computer, 1 at work, 1 in the car.
Plus if you go somewhere without your cable you can usually find someone with an microusb android/blackberry/camera cable to use.
Not a bad solution for those with an iPhone 5 or newer iPad. just chuck it your back, wallet, pocket, whatever and away you go. The annoying thing for me is that generally I can find an apple charger at a friends house but with the 5 that won’t help any more.
Having said that the adapter and micro usb adapter would still work just fine with a wall charger surely?
im sure apple will release an update of some sort to render the cables useless
No doubt. Then again anyone who has experience with jail breaking is already used to this.
Can Gizmodo tell me where I can buy counterfeit blue-ray discs?
£15 might be a little steep for a cable but so is £15 for a 1.5 hour movie I’ll probably only watch once.
What makes these cables anymore socially acceptable than any other counterfeit product?
Apple and oranges
I think you mean Apples and Androids.
Oh…where’s Taf
What they have changed is the security chip
does the word SECURITY not scream out to anyone else?
Who know what other nefarious firmware they could apply to the chip
Regardless of the name you choose to describe it, it’s just an interface chip. It communicates with the phone and allows a USB interface to be created across the Lightning protocol. It’s really nothing secretive or nefarious.