Lightning Cable Authentication Chip Already Cloned, Knock-offs On The Way

Getting cheap Lightning cables for your iPhone 5 wasn’t something many of us expected to be possible. That’s because Apple put an authentication chip into their cables, making it extremely difficult for third party vendors to provide cheap alternatives to Apple’s branded cables. Yeah, turns out that won’t be much of a problem after all. M.I.C Gadget has published a report that indicates that someone has already cloned the authentication chip.

It looks like we’re about to be bombarded with cheap Lightning cable knockoffs and replacements. That’s pretty much a win for consumers, considering a Lightning cable costs $19.00. Although, let’s be honest here, it’s only a matter of time until we all have dozens of these cables cluttering up our desk drawers. I probably have ten 30-pin dock connector cables kicking around my office. I may buy a couple more Lightning cables just in case I end up leaving a cable behind at a coffee shop or meeting, but this lack of cable problem won’t last much longer. One iPad upgrade here, an iPhone upgrade there and next thing you know we’ll all be drowning in Lightning cables.

Via: TUAW

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.