Hasta La Gadget!

A bit of investigation done on Apple’s iPhone 5 and the Lightning cord and docking port this week has turned up an oddity: the pins on both sides are not the same as one another. It would appear, according to Double Helix Cables’ own pro Peter that the 8-pin lineup is not in the same order on both sides of the cord’s head. Because of his discovery that one pin does the same as the pin that’s directly behind it, Peter has proven that Apple must be using some sort of process to dynamically identify which pin order the cord is currently using – depending on which side is up and which is down, that is.

The Apple Lighting cord you’ll be getting – or have already gotten – with your future Apple mobile products is indeed reversible. You can plug it in without looking and you’ll always be putting it in the right way up. With the new cord working one way or the other like this, one would expect the order of the pins to be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 no matter which side is up – but what Peter has discovered is that the same signals are coming from pin 2 on one side and pin 7 on the other. In other words, if you could see straight through from one side to the other, each pin would be the same straight through.

Only that’s not exactly it – it’s not that simple. The pins instead appear to line up 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 to 1 7 6 8 5 3 2 4. His sketches here make it a bit more clear, if you’d like. Also above you’re seeing the chip inside the cord that does the dirty work.

Peter also discovered this Authentication Chip in the Lighting cord – this means that anyone hoping to create 3rd party cords will be having one whole heck of a lot more trouble doing so than they did with past generations. Each cord has a chip, each chip more than likely lets the device it’s plugging into what it’ll be delivering through which pin. The complexity of each element in the Apple mobile universe continues to expand – let us know what you think of it!

[via Apple Insider]

Apple Lighting port not identical on both sides is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Kim Dotcom is rather well-known for having created MegaUpload, one of the most popular file-sharing websites that was recently taken down by the authorities. While the case between the U.S. authorities and Dotcom continues, the latter hasn’t been sitting idle. According to him, he has been working on a whole host of new services that will be launched soon.

Among them is Megabox, which is a music-sharing service. It hasn’t been launched yet and the philosophy behind Megabox is to let the artists sell their music directly to the consumers who can, in turn, download the music straight from the website. Dotcom released a video today, teasing at the features Megabox is going to pack. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes Intro+Gameplay Video, Video: Bar-Worker Falls Down Ten Foot Hole,

The FTC claims that up to 7 rental companies as well as a software firm agreed to cease the usage of spyware which actually obtained unauthorized, recorded confidential and personal information, ranging from logged computer keystrokes to something closer to home – captured webcam images of children, individuals in partially undressed poses, as well as the goings-on behind bedroom doors.

The rent-to-own companies actually used software that was provided by now-defunct software firm DesignerWare LLC in order to assist in the tracking and recovering of rented computers. The FTC claimed that these companies had breached more than just customers’ trust, as they went beyond searching for stolen computers, touting that “an agreement to rent a computer doesn’t give a company license to access consumers’ private emails.”

Perhaps it would be prudent to just make sure that the webcam on your laptop remains taped over as you can never quite tell who might be watching.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Dell Vostro 3360, 3460 and 3560, Toshiba Portégé Z935 Light 13.3-inch Ultrabook,

For a different kind of light in your pocket, swap out your official Zippo for this lookalike that has the flint wheel and wick replaced with a set of ultra-bright white LEDs. It will never get even remotely hot enough to light a cigarette, but should help you find a more reliable source of fire when it’s dark out. More »

If you were looking for another reason to pick up a new Nook tablet – revealed earlier today – you’ll find it in Barnes & Noble’s announcement of Nook Video, a streaming service they’re set to release to fight Netflix and Amazon’s efforts in the video universe. While Amazon does indeed have a tablet competitor for the Nook line in their own Kindle Fire HD (and the rest), they don’t have the same key-word that Barnes & Noble is coming up with: UltraViolet – and the same, basically, goes for Netflix. With HBO, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, and Starz already signing up for the Nook Video team, there very well could be some clout to the book company’s claims.

What we’ve got here, according to Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating speaking with Business Week, is “a complete library from all the leading studios.” With the introduction to this initiative showing off next to no final details as far as pricing goes, investors have been left in the dark. Amazon Prime Instant Videos makes the Kindle Fire a beast to be reckoned with, and every single Android tablet and the Apple iPad are able to work with Netflix – that’s a monster of a market to deal with.

The Nook Video service will be launching this Fall along with the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+. Take a peek at our hands-on with that duo of next-generation content-filled tablets right this minute. Then hear this: Nook Video will also be launching in the UK by the winter holidays. This means a global launch may not be that far behind. What we’ve got on our hands here is a real effort by the book-smiths to enter the video content market with the tablet, which came first.

In this way, Barnes & Noble are aiming to becomes another content and hardware company in an already multi-armed market that includes the Kindle Fire and the iPad as well as Google’s own Google Play media market. Will Barnes & Noble be able to keep up the way they’ve done with the ebook industry? We shall see!

Nook Video aims to jab Netflix and Amazon all at once is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.