Tag: lightning connector

There’s a lot to love about the new iPhone 5. The slim and sleek design with the beautiful aluminium back, the larger Retina Display and the fast A6 chip. However one big change Apple made with iPhone 5 was the new Lightning connector. New connector means all accessories made for the iPhone that used the old 30 pin connector will no longer be compatible with the new iPhone 5, and that’s a lot of accessories.

Fortunately for buyers of iPhone 5 Apple promised the availability of 30 pin to Lightning adaptors. Initially it was rumoured that these would be free of cost bundled with the iPhone 5. But free of cost has never been Apple’s thing and as a result the 30 pin to Lightning adapters were available for $29 on Apple’s website. Those who ordered are now receiving confirmation of shipping directly from Apple. That means they’re available for purchase and delivery as of now. The email above is from Apple in Australia but availability should be world wide.

At this point it’s advisable to buy from Apple only as reports of 3rd party 30 pin to Lightning adapters not being compatible with the iPhone 5 have recently surfaced. The $30 adaptor with a short cable is also available for purchase and delivery.

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.