Update: works fine here on Xcode 4.6.1, though the #pragma align statements are no longer supported by clang; use
#pragma pack(push,2)
…
#pragma pack(pop)
instead.
Let’s take this to email?

I did a work-around by pasting the xml of the plist into a static string constant in the code, a la:
static char *plistXMLString = “\
\n\
…
and replacing the getsectdata call with:
char *licplist = plistXMLString;
licpsize = strlen(licplist);

I have no idea if the source file-embedded unicode ends up encoded correctly in the property list. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not and so would prefer to get your original solution working.

Have anyone heard of this problem, or know any reason why getsectdata would return a bad pointer? Thanks again RB.
: p

The encoded information can be digital or analog but all signals are analog in nature on our macro level.
In case of these differential signals they encode bits just as much as a non-differential signal. The only difference is that in the normal case the signal balances around a fixed potential and in the differential case the signal balances against it’s antipotential.
It is just a trick for reducing outside interference.

To be frank, I’m just seeing a lot of pro-apple bias in this article, how much did they pay you?

The only negative thing I see about the micro USB 3.0 over the lighting is perhaps the size, so maybe apple miniaturized the micro usb connector, big whoop! Reversibility? Since when is that even an issue? there are two little teeth on the flat side of the micro USB, the other side has no teeth, and it’s chamfered. The teeth are always pointed towards the back of the phone, I mean come on, even a blind person could figure out how to put it in.

I’m pretty sure Apple is just trying to appeal to an audience who have such empty heads that they could fit the ipod classic generation 1 in their skull and still have space left over. Give me a magsafe USB 3.0 and I’ll be happy, that magsafe is just about the only useful thing Apple has done recently.

A question, what about a serial protocol, like on the old iDevices? It is in there? Do I need a different lightning chipset? Do you know anything about that?
Thank you.

A few things though:

1) You’re right, ‘authentication chip’ is a misnomer – there’s no way to provide all the connectivity required from 8 connections without needing some intelligence on the outside too. I’m still, however, struggling to understand why there couldn’t be some simple dumb-cable fallback option provided – as other commenters here have suggested.

Even just plain ‘ole USB2 – only 4 conductors required; surely the controller in the phone (which will have sensibly disconnected all the internal connections when it sensed a plug being inserted) could detect a ‘dumb’ cable, check if there was 5v present on a certain pin, and if so it could pass the appropriate signals to the right pins? This seems like a software thing to me, not hardware.

“If communications with the lightning chip in the newly-inserted cable fail, and there’s 5 volts on pin 1, go into USB/charge mode”.

2) Note that the maximum power an iDevice may need from a charger is now up to 2A; the newer iPads (if they detect the right voltages on D+ and D-, ie they recognise a capable charger) will suck up 10 watts when they’re in bulk absorption mode, usually when charging from 10-90% of capacity.

This is probably a bit much for a single connection on the lightning connector, hence the need to employ more than one pin for charging. (Again, though, this doesn’t mean a ‘dumb cable fallback’ facility wouldn’t work – just assign more pins to power and ground)

3) The whole “reversible” plug thing – although the pads on top and bottom of the new plug are connected together internally on the cables we’ve seen so far, meaning you couldn’t pass 16 separate signals down it, there’s no reason that future iDevices with larger charge current requirements couldn’t employ a socket that had contacts at top and bottom to double up. Speaking of which, I take it someone’s looked at the sockets and checked whether there are only contacts on one side?

4) Really looking forward to someone getting a buspirate or scope on one of these things so we can see a bit more of what’s going on protocol-wise. It’d be nice to think we’ll be adding Lightning connectors to Arduino projects if we wanted…