Nerds being nerds, everything about the iPhone 5 has been torn apart like a frog in a biology class that suddenly goes horribly wrong and turns into a re-enactment of ancient torture methods. High school was rough, man.
Anyway, the point is, these prized devices have been ruthlessly dissected. Even the power cord was taken apart.
And it’s a good thing too, because one of these field-stripping nerds came across something incredibly weird inside the iPhone 5 power cord, tied to the new Lightning connector.
It’s a chip, and it’s not a cheap one either. Nobody knows why it’s there or what it does, but there are only a few things it could be doing, and none of them are that great.
There’s a strong possibility here, as Gizmodo points out, that it’s designed to keep Chinese companies from turning out knock-off Lightning 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. These kind of authentication chips aren’t uncommon in more sophisticated accessories, but this is the first time one has shown up in something as basic as a charging cable, smack in the middle of the power line.
One thing that is clear is that this cord won’t work without this chip, so, intentionally or not, it is rendering most third-party peripherals useless.
I’ve ranted about Apple’s incredibly stupid and backwards arguments for keeping up a proprietary connector before, and frankly, this is a compelling reason, right here, for dumping the iPhone completely. I’m skeptical that Apple is just straight up trying to control the entire peripheral market, let alone that they’d do this without signposting it in detail. They’re evil, not stupid. But nonetheless, they’ve now got another PR mess on their hands.
No matter what it is, there’s no excuse for this. The Apple faithful are insisting that Lightning somehow fulfills a need that micro-USB can’t, mostly to do with data, which would make sense if this were 1995 and WiFi and Bluetooth were fantasy technologies. Which they aren’t, since we live in the twenty-first century.
It’s looking more and more like Apple is the only company living in the past. Hopefully the iPhone 6 caves to the inevitable, but until then, I might recommend getting a good Android.
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I’m not a pro Apple guy, though I do own and iPhone4, but I’m not going to fault them for not wanting China to copy and sell something that they have spent millions in R&D on.
They’ll partner with plenty of companies (Bose, automakers, etc), they just want to get paid for their labors.
Right, but some people don’t want to shell out $300 for an alarm clock to plug their iPhone into. It also sabotages a lot of innovation in the indie tech sector.
Then those people need not buy iPhones. There’s no entitlement to a tech that you desire. If you want to buy Apple products you know going in what the deal is. If you want a range of features then you’ll have to pay for it. If you don’t want to pay then there are alternatives out there. The Samsung Galaxy III is pretty impressive and it doesn’t require as much peripheral cost as an iPhone. I’m an Apple guy, but that mentality only extends to the use of their products. I don’t like how vigorously people defend their every move, as if they aren’t total dicks like everyone else. I’m sure in the nerd world this revelation is big news but to the rest of us it’s simply not that important. Your argument about them keeping their proprietary connector was good, btw, it’s just that most of us don’t care all that much. We’re accustomed to the inconvenience, like taking off your shoes at an airport. We just live with it because the trade-off is one that we’re willing to make.
Here’s the thing, though: Why do you limit innovation? That’s what bothers me here. Go to Kickstarter, there’s dozens of ideas from the ridiculous to the sublime using the iPhone, and now Apple has choked so, so many of them off for no good reason.
Plus I hate to say it… Adapter. Spend 30 bucks and keep it handy, then use any older 30 pin dock device you want.
Oh and I agree 300 for a glorified speaker is BS, and that from a guy who owns (and loves) the Bose Noise Cancelling headphones
I don’t think Apple views it as limiting innovation. I think they look at everyone who isn’t them as a competitor and potential threat (which, given their market cap is flat-out insane) and they need to extinguish them. That said there are a ton of very wealthy innovators because Apple just bought them out. Yeah, it bugs me that their devices are so goddamn specific, but I live with it because the ease of use and access to good apps is worth the trouble. But then I’m 30, have a demanding job and don’t use my phone nearly as much as others. If I was a semi-broke 22 year old college kid I’d be pissed that my new $500 phone required an additional $30 adaptor. I get it, I just don’t care that much.
Tim Cook said that the Lightning connection is digitally negotiated, which is what allows for the plug to be reversible. That chip may be there to support that, allowing for more space inside the phone itself. Or it may be there to allow a firmware upgrade to change the Lightning cables to support USB 3. (there are a ton of reasons that doesnt add up though, such as the SSD being too slow, and apple would rather just sell you a NEW lightning cable and make more cash).
The only “good” reason to not support micro-usb is because the connection is reversible. I actually think that’s a good idea, and the only reason current USB doesnt move to reversible connections is for backwards compatibility. Other than that it should really surprise no one Apple uses proprietary connections; this is a decade old story.
EDIT: also don’t worry, a $2.99 lightning cable will be on monoprice soon enough.
Not to get into too techy stuff, because my editor gets hate mail from nerds, but I do agree that USB desperately needs an update.
That said, you can’t tell me with a straight face Apple couldn’t lick this problem with software and just use a USB port. The entire cellular industry, except Apple, has moved away from proprietary connections because they found it annoys customers and limits innovation.
Limiting innovation is a bit of a stretch. We’ll see 3rd party cables soon enough.
I agree man, there is no good reason for apple to do this other than $$. However, if these proprietary connections really annoyed customers, Apple would be seeing a decline in sales. Their customers just dont care that much.
Jobs would be turning over in his grave if his precious iPhone had a usb interface and a piece of Android associated hardware could be used to power it.
While I certainly appreciate the convenience of reversibility in the lightning connector, I have about half a dozen micro usb devices that I only need one cable for.
I know Apple has a control freak nature but even the most rabid evangelists have to give in to the inevitable eventually.
“rabid evangelists have to give in to the inevitable eventually”
Two words… Adobe Flash
Where is the “chip”. The picture only shows a pcb with solder on it. I do not see a chip. I am sure it’s there but at least post the part number or datasheet with some hint of it’s capabilities.
Now this is a micro “chip” [img.gawkerassets.com]
Well, I didn’t know that there was a fancy chip in the white power plug. When it didn’t onnect to the power source, I took out the cheap black foldable pin power plug I use with my iPod Touch 2nd Gen a, took the removable cable out and plugged in the new usb cable from my iPhone 5. No problem–worked fine. Next whine, please.