Chinese accessory maker claims to have 'permanently cracked' Apple's Lightning authentication
A Chinese accessory maker claims to have "permanently" cracked the Lightning authentication feature built into Apple's iOS 7 operating system, opening up the possibility for a wide range of manufacturers to make Lightning-compatible iPad and iPod accessories without Apple's approval.
Chinese manufacturer iPhone5mod was already noted for offering non-Apple approved Lightning accessories last year even as the Cupertino company was still working out the details of manufacturer authorization. Now the accessory maker claims that it has developed a solution that keeps iOS 7 from warning users when they're using uncertified Lightning cables.
iPhone5mod's Lightning crack is said to be hardware-based. According to the company, Apple cannot negate the crack without reworking its own Lightning hardware.
So confident is the company in its circumvention of Apple's restrictions that it is offering money-back guarantees that its new cables will work with the final build of iOS 7.
The manufacturer now lists five cables on its homepage as "for iOS 7.0." These include a standard white Lightning cable,two iPhone 5 docks, and a Lightning extension cable.
iPhone5mod has drawn Apple's attention in the past. In August of last year, Apple sent the manufacturer a takedown notice warning it to stop offering a case modification that made an iPhone 4S look like an iPhone 5. The mod used both Apple's logo and the iPhone name, two factors that Apple said amounted to counterfeiting.
The Lightning connector standard made it possible for Apple to exert a much greater level of control over many of its accessory suppliers. With the built-in authentication chips ? first noted by AppleInsider last September ? the company is able to make sure that participants in its Made For iPhone/iPad program are making products of a certain quality.
Chinese manufacturer iPhone5mod was already noted for offering non-Apple approved Lightning accessories last year even as the Cupertino company was still working out the details of manufacturer authorization. Now the accessory maker claims that it has developed a solution that keeps iOS 7 from warning users when they're using uncertified Lightning cables.
iPhone5mod's Lightning crack is said to be hardware-based. According to the company, Apple cannot negate the crack without reworking its own Lightning hardware.
So confident is the company in its circumvention of Apple's restrictions that it is offering money-back guarantees that its new cables will work with the final build of iOS 7.
The manufacturer now lists five cables on its homepage as "for iOS 7.0." These include a standard white Lightning cable,two iPhone 5 docks, and a Lightning extension cable.
iPhone5mod has drawn Apple's attention in the past. In August of last year, Apple sent the manufacturer a takedown notice warning it to stop offering a case modification that made an iPhone 4S look like an iPhone 5. The mod used both Apple's logo and the iPhone name, two factors that Apple said amounted to counterfeiting.
The Lightning connector standard made it possible for Apple to exert a much greater level of control over many of its accessory suppliers. With the built-in authentication chips ? first noted by AppleInsider last September ? the company is able to make sure that participants in its Made For iPhone/iPad program are making products of a certain quality.
Comments
We know that Apple and Amazon are not friends these days so I wonder is Apple will attempt to force Amazon from letting the no name Chinese companies who sell the crap.
Waiting for Chinese residents denying patent and copyright abuse in China.
Waiting for non-Chinese, generic anti-Apple people to claim how evil and horrible Lighting is in the first place.
Well, it's China after all. Like they even remotely care about IP.
And Apple will soon announce that they have a software fix to permanently crack the permanently cracked cables.
hmm - maybe Apple approved cables have extra insulation - so that non Apple approved cables can have excess voltage pumped through them and cause a fire then no one will buy the cheap stuff again - or is it amps that do the trick?
Amps
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin Huber
Isn't this a legitimate patent issue?
Sure seems like one to me.....
It's one of the consequences of US business shipping 50,000 factories (and jobs) overseas. The chinese are stealing our IP and not just cables, but defense, aerospace, etc., etc.
Ugh!
Or 'pwease inert corwectry'
Quote:
Originally Posted by christopher126
It's one of the consequences of US business shipping 50,000 factories (and jobs) overseas. The chinese are stealing our IP and not just cables, but defense, aerospace, etc., etc.
Products can be reverse engineered without needing to be produced in the same country. Once you put a successful product out there, chances are someone will figure out how to recreate it cheaper.
The real problem is that there are a lot of technically adept people in China, but not enough innovative companies to put their skills to good use (i.e. creating new products rather than reverse engineering and recreating existing products). Then again, this phenomenon isn't exactly unique to China.
That is a very good question and frankly I'm not convinced that the answer is clear. Mainly because there are some protections in place for interoperability. Frankly i think Apple has gone off the deep end with Lightening anyways as it is more of a disincentive than a positive feature. We will see how this plays out long term. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that there is much in the Lightening port that is patentable as new technology.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
And then 6.1.5 bypasses it.
Nope, wrong again. This is a hardware encoding and the point version of an iOS update would never block use of a lightning cable since that would also potentially block legitimate cables or people that had not updated. Besides the fact that the encoding and authentication in lightning has nothing whatsoever to do with an iOS point release.