The launch of iPhone 5 brought in many new features, but perhaps the one that has gotten the widest coverage is the new lightning connector. Apple shrunk the 30 pin connector to nearly one-fifth its size and effectively made more than a million accessories incompatible with iPhone 5. But they did promise to provide an adaptor, which is now shipping. There’s a catch though, for now the $30 adaptor from Apple was the only way to go because Apple included a Lightning connector authentication chip. This Lightning connector authentication chip ensured no 3rd party adaptors were possible. Until now.
Chinese hackers from iPhonemold.com have been able to crack whatever this Lightning connector authentication chip was protecting and as a result have been able to make a Lightning cable that does exactly what the official Apple cable does. They’ve gone one step further and made the cable illuminate when its connected. The iPhone 5 dock and Lightning cable for $19,90 each, or you can buy both as a package for $39.90.
With the Lightning connector authentication chip cracked it opens doors for cheap third party vendors to provide cost effective solutions for those people who do not want to spend another $30 to use accessories that they could before for free.