How to use unofficial cables and accessories on iOS

To the majority of readers (and editors) of Actualidad iPhone You like Apple products. The products that come to us from Cupertino usually have a great design and offer a very good user experience. But we must recognize that not everything related to apples is good. The “dictatorship” they impose has its positive side, such as greater security than in other operating systems or that everything, whether developed by Apple or third parties, functions in a similar way. But, on the other hand, the apple's impositions may not always please users, as it can when they force us to use accessories official or MFi on our iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

In this article we will try to clear up many of the doubts related to iPhone accessories, both those created by Apple, those that are MFi certified and those that neither one nor the other. Although there is one thing that you probably already know: the apple accessories They are the most expensive, followed by those that are MFi certified and then there are other accessories that are much cheaper, but are more dangerous.

What is the difference between an official accessory and an unofficial one?

Aioneus iPhone Cable 1M...

No ratings

4,99 €

View deals See features

The answer is simple: depends. For example, there are cables from accessory manufacturers that are very similar, almost exact, to the official ones, but there are also others that, as the saying goes, “look like an egg to a chestnut”. Both the egg and the chestnut have an ovoid shape, but neither the shell nor the interior has anything to do with it.

As much in the accessories of Apple as of any other manufacturer, there is one thing that we can be clear: the company that makes a device knows exactly the process that has followed to create it, its dimensions and what are its weak points. What I mean by this is that if we use an official accessory, such as covers, it is more difficult for them to cause damage to the device. If we use an unofficial accessory, it is possible that this accessory forces some point of the device, something that, if it happens, in the best case will scratch some point of it.

In the case of cable lightning + iOS, the cable has a chip that will detect if the accessory is official or has been manufactured by an authorized company, which will grant it the MFi (Made For iPhone) certification. If iOS doesn't detect an approved chip, it won't work.

What happens if I use a non-original cable to charge the iPhone?

The answer is the same as in the previous question: it depends. Nothing may happen And, in fact, this is what happens in most cases. But we can take risks, such as some of those mentioned above or a more serious one: there have been cases of deaths for using unofficial cables. It must be clear that the reason is not that they are not official, but that there are unofficial cables that are very very bad, which can result in poor insulation and we may suffer an electric shock.

On the other hand, and also putting ourselves in the worst case, a poor quality cable may not charge well And this can cause short circuits and the battery lasts much less time, so it is not worth buying accessories from unpopular companies to use them in a device that exceeds € 600, don't you think?

How to know if an original cable or accessory is MFi certified?

The best thing we can do to find out if a cable or accessory is MFi certified is look in the container. As you can see in the image, a third-party MFi accessory must have a label in which we will read “Made for” and below “iPod, iPhone, iPad”.

If you want to identify an original Apple Lightning cable, you have to look at the cord put "Designed by Applein California" and "Assembled in China," "Assembed in Vietnam," or "Indústria Brasileira" at a distance of about 18cm (7 inches) measured from the USB connector, followed by a 12-digit number.

As a tip, I would say that it is worth buying in physical stores that enjoy some fame. The most important online store in the world for me is Amazon, but it also manages third party sales, so we could buy something that is not (as it happened to me, I bought a network cable like CAT6 and it was CAT5e) . But, on the other hand, it is also more difficult for this to happen to us if what we buy is a product Amazon Basics.

Do non-original accessories work on the iPhone?

Short answer: no. Although it depends on what is understood as "original". The originals are the cables that Apple creates, but there are also non-original cables, also known as third, they do work. For an accessory to work on an iPhone it has to meet a requirement, which is none other than having the MFi (Made For iPhone) certification. If a manufacturer wants to use their accessories with an iOS device, they have to contact Apple and create it as they are told from Cupertino. Once all that Tim Cook and company asks of the accessory manufacturer has been done, the accessory in question (just that one) will receive MFi certification and will work without problems.

At this point we are talking about accessories, not just cables. There are bluetooth accessories (such as headsets or game controllers) that do not require MFi certification to function.

What to do if the message “This cable or accessory is not certified” appears

Surely you have ever connected an accessory to the iPhone or iPad and the following message has come out:

This cable or accessory is not certified so it may not work with this iphone

The first thing we will do if we see the previous message is to pray that the accessory we have bought is not very expensive. But there may be a solution, as long as we have the jailbreak made to our device or we have installed a version vulnerable to the jailbreak.

If we have already done the jailbreak, we will simply do the following:

1. We open Cydia.
2. We search and install the tweak Support Unsupported Accessories 8.
3. If you don't ask us at the end of installation, we reboot the device.
4. And to enjoy our unofficial accessory.

El tweak mentioned es free and is available in the BigBoss repository. Once installed, we can use the unofficial accessories as if they were manufactured by Apple itself and it will leave us the message that this cable or accessory is not certified.

Why won't Apple let you use fake accessories on the iPhone?

I think there are two main reasons:

Security

As we have mentioned before, one of the reasons is security, both of the device and the user. The cases of deaths from using unofficial accessories are a sample of what can happen if we use a poor quality cable, something that we have also explained is not because they are not official, but because of their poor manufacture.

In addition, as we have also mentioned, it is also to protect our devices, since we can use a cable that contains a "pirate" chip and our information could be stolen thanks to that modified chip.

Business

The other main reason is money, of course. If we buy everything in Apple stores, either in physical stores or the Apple Store Online, Apple will make much more money. In fact, the sale of accessories brings many benefits to the Cupertino company, to which the price premium on these also contributes.

It is clear that nobody likes to be told what accessories to use, but buying them from Apple we forget about problems. Although yes, at a higher price. What do you think? Do you prefer original or non-original accessories?

If you have problems with a charging cable or accessory, we recommend that you look at these iPhone cable deals and load it without problem of any kind.