For years, Apple fans could rely on cheap Chinese accessories to take the place of the expensive cables Apple sold for their iOS devices. The 30-pin connector that was in use up until the new iPad has been replicated time and time again. Apple changed all that with the Lightning connector by requiring an authentication chip that would prevent third party accessories from working. That authentication may soon be a think of the past.
The folks at iPhone5mod, a Chinese manufacturer, announced a new lightning cable that circumvents Apple’s own authentication chips. Their new cable is called the iPhone 5 Flash Lightning Dock. According to MacRumors, the current cables use Apple’s own authentication chips, but later models will use cracked chips. Even better, the third-party is way better than Apple’s simple cable.
Check out the video below to see for yourself:
The most impressive part about the new cable is how it lights during syncing or charging. The lights even become slower as the phone nears being fully charged. It’s a genius addition that even a company like Apple would be envious of.
So how much is this third-party Lightning cable going to cost you? The company is only asking for $39.99 for both the cable and dock. Each component is sold separately for $19.99. It’s the same price as Apple’s cable, but can you put a cost on freedom?
The cable is cool, but its implications are even better. This proves that Apple’s new authentication chip can be cracked. After this, we can expect to see a flood of third-party Lightning cable clones to hit the market at ridiculously low prices. Any clones should also be impervious to intervention on behalf of Apple as its hardware related. The only fix would be to implement a new kind of dock connector with the iPhone 6.
iPhone5mod’s site is currently down due to the massive amounts of people clamoring to get ahold of their cheap, yet stylish, Lightning cable. The company’s YouTube channel says that the site will be back up in a few hours. At that point, you can grab your very own glowing cable.
[h/t: M.I.C. Gadget]