faceless007
Member
I've seen $2 knockoff chargers at Fry's made to look like exactly like the Apple white cube, so it's understandable that they're a little worried about brand confusion.
Apple announce 'USB power adapter takeback Program'
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Yeah I have a third party iPhone 5 USB charger and my MacBook says it's drawing too much power sometimes and it often doesn't work at all.
I wish they would just make their chargers cheaper, then I wouldn't think to buy a counterfit one. They're $10 with this program, but normally they charge $19 just for the lightning to USB cable, $30 for the lightning/30 pin adaptor, $10 for the AC adaptor. I have tons of now useless 30 pin cables. Why the fuck are the adaptors more money than a new cable?!
They should have a 30 pin adaptor buyback program.
I wish they would just make their chargers cheaper, then I wouldn't think to buy a counterfit one. They're $10 with this program, but normally they charge $19 just for the lightning to USB cable, $30 for the lightning/30 pin adaptor, $10 for the AC adaptor. I have tons of now useless 30 pin cables. Why the fuck are the adaptors more money than a new cable?!
They should have a 30 pin adaptor buyback program.
USB is proprietary?
Apple's implementation is, yes.
They don't, they use an alternate proprietary scheme that relies on the data pins to negotiate power draw above 500ma. Standard chargers have the data pins shorted out and devices are only limited by the rated output
it is when the other end is a lightning connector...
It's mostly because the lightning plug is cinfigurable as to what each pin does as there are only, what, 8 pins essentially? Lightning adapters have to have circuitry to change what each pin does to adapt to what you are adapting, be it just a charge cable, a sync cable, an audio out etc.
The actual USB to lightning cable doesn't have to do thus and us probably hard-wired for syncing and charge and doesn't need the circuitry to switch pin activity.
Tenacious-V
Thinks his PR is better than yours.
Apple forces you to either:
1) Buy an expensive Apple proprietary USB Lightning cable.
2) Buy an expensive Apple proprietary USB to Lightning adapter accessory.
While every other phone out there, you take your dirt cheap, buy anywhere USB cable, and stick it in the damn phone.
I don't think it is proprietary, anyone can use that method, and it allows higher charging levels than the latest specification, which maxes out at 1.8A, while the 12V USB charger can supply 2.4A.
That's the cable. This is just a USB power adapter.
This article is about the USB to power adapter.
I was reading this article about micro-USB vs lightning:
http://www.pocketables.com/2012/12/...ightning-connector-vs-microusb-connector.html
While it is a proprietary connector, there are done reasons that are advantageous, mostly amounting to being universally more useful across Apple devices , ie iPad and iPhone and being a but more 'future-proof'. After all, this will be the cable that all future apple devices will use for some time. It also points out that the USB standard has had more changes over the years than the iPod dock connector, so if apple sticks with the same lightning design fur another 10 years, there's definitely an advantage there.
This doesn't make any sense.
They can**, but it is not compatible with the standard. Most 3rd party chargers already do support the apple scheme to support ipad, but then non-apple devices are limited to 500ma unless you open it up and short out the pins. Some manufacturers give you 2 ports (1 apple 1 non-apple) though. Device manufacturers could probably start using Apple's scheme, but then their devices would stop working properly with compliant chargers. Normal 2+A chargers are not compliant but they are perfectly compatible with compliant devices, unlike Apple's solution. It really is a pain in the ass if you're not apple-exclusive. If you go on Amazon and look at any usb charger or outlet you'll see people dealing with this issue
** Through reverse engineering -- Apple only provides info on how it works under NDA through their mfi program
edit: this is the mess you end up with (first result for a usb charger on amazon)
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