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Last I heard, the cable uses some proprietary Apple chip that does some sort of authentication. I could be wrong.

If only there was some country with good electronics copying abilities and no regard for intellectual property...

The prevalence of off brand cables that work with these devices make me wonder about the allegations of a proprietary crypto chip.

I use modern iOS devices and the worst that's happened to me is one would claim that something wasn't an "authorized" cable when I plugged it into a USB port that didn't provide enough current. (plugging it into one that does-- totally off brand USB power plug) works, though.

The crypto chip lets the iOS device use some alternate signaling protocol over the dock connector. Charging is unrelated.

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