5 ms·

The adapter flashes a QR code on your monitor. It's not plug-n-play.

by fckgw 3y ago

RetroTechie 3y ago
Requiring the use of an app, in order to use some kind of adapter cable? I must be getting old, feel like I've just crawled from under a rock... :-) That would also mean this cable becomes useless the moment URL encoded in the QR disappears? As for the app: even if it's total crap, if only 50% of cable-buyers proceed to install the app, that 50% is still gained as potentially spied-upon subjects. There's a new please-spy-on-me sucker born every day, so to speak.
- MBCook 3y ago
  Does it really matter? This isn’t a real product. It’s a scam product to trick people trying to buy a real Apple part and con them into the app’s clutches. The real part doesn’t need anything. Plug and go.
- bitwize 3y ago
  It's not really an adapter cable. It's got a little SOC in there that streams your iPhone's display from the app to the HDMI port. Meanwhile, your personal data is being streamed back to China...
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    Part of me is looking forward to the time when a government activates a significant part of all the spyware/adware/backdoors/etc in the world as part of a cyberwar. COVID would be a child's game compared to that, but that disaster would at last make people understand how bad tech has become at this point. Double points if the operation is started by another state/group that stole those backdoors.
    - eastbound 3y ago
      The worst part of adult life is realizing you already live in a world where this happens. Regularly. And no-one bats an eye. And you try to maintain sanity by adding hypothesis (“But I mean, with the government giving the keys to…”) and all of the evil you can think of, also exists.
  - ThatPlayer 3y ago
    The official Apple HDMI adapter does the same thing with an SoC in there. The difference is native iOS support instead of a 3rd party app needed to support it.
    - MBCook 3y ago
      I still find it hilarious that that’s how the old cable worked, the iPhone encoded an H.264 video stream and sent it to the dongle, which decoded it and sent it down HDMI. Now that iPhones have USB-C they no longer need a custom adapter. A standard USB-C to HDMI cable is supposed to work. I believe.
      - bitwize 3y ago
        Thing is, I thought Lightning had that too? HDMI or DP over the wire? Guess I was wrong...
        MBCook 3y ago
        Nope. I don’t know if it put itself in some kind of analog mode for composite. I can’t remember if that was a thing around the switch to lightning. But the cool hack has always been how the HDMI adapter worked.
      - somat 3y ago
        Probably to work around a usb(lightning is usb2 based right?) link not fast enough to keep up with the phone graphics. However, I note that there are usb graphics card descriptors[1] and I assume usb graphics cards, that is, graphics over the normal usb data pins, not a display port pass through. These descriptors are what I would naively assume a usb to hdmi "adaptor" to be, a usb graphics card. I am finding it hard to hunt down low level information on how these "adaptors" work. Does anyone know what type descriptors they use? and what a iphone does if you plug one in(I am assuming the lightning to usb physical connector is trivial) https://www.usb.org/defined-class-codes#anchor_BaseClass13h https://www.usb.org/defined-class-codes#anchor_BaseClass13h update: I found these reverse engineering documents on synaptics displaylink chips. They appear to be a popular manufacturer of such dongles. And it looks like compression is needed there as well. https://github.com/floe/tubecable/tree/master/doc https://github.com/floe/tubecable/tree/master/doc
- eastbound 3y ago
  The nice thing about such a cable is that it could connect to the cloud to display that screen without plugging the other end.
numpad0 3y ago
I think I've come across this specific screen. In my case, this was its equivalent of "No Signal" screen, and the app was only needed to update the firmware if needed, not to connect. It seemed to exploit AirPlay somehow and therefore finicky unlike official dongles.

The adapter flashes a QR code on your monitor. It's not plug-n-play.

by fckgw 3y ago

The adapter flashes a QR code on your monitor. It's not plug-n-play.

Requiring the use of an app, in order to use some kind of adapter cable? I must be getting old, feel like I've just crawled from under a rock... :-) That would also mean this cable becomes useless the moment URL encoded in the QR disappears? As for the app: even if it's total crap, if only 50% of cable-buyers proceed to install the app, that 50% is still gained as potentially spied-upon subjects. There's a new please-spy-on-me sucker born every day, so to speak.

MBCook 3y ago
Does it really matter? This isn’t a real product. It’s a scam product to trick people trying to buy a real Apple part and con them into the app’s clutches. The real part doesn’t need anything. Plug and go.
bitwize 3y ago
It's not really an adapter cable. It's got a little SOC in there that streams your iPhone's display from the app to the HDMI port. Meanwhile, your personal data is being streamed back to China...
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  Part of me is looking forward to the time when a government activates a significant part of all the spyware/adware/backdoors/etc in the world as part of a cyberwar. COVID would be a child's game compared to that, but that disaster would at last make people understand how bad tech has become at this point. Double points if the operation is started by another state/group that stole those backdoors.
  - eastbound 3y ago
    The worst part of adult life is realizing you already live in a world where this happens. Regularly. And no-one bats an eye. And you try to maintain sanity by adding hypothesis (“But I mean, with the government giving the keys to…”) and all of the evil you can think of, also exists.
- ThatPlayer 3y ago
  The official Apple HDMI adapter does the same thing with an SoC in there. The difference is native iOS support instead of a 3rd party app needed to support it.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    I still find it hilarious that that’s how the old cable worked, the iPhone encoded an H.264 video stream and sent it to the dongle, which decoded it and sent it down HDMI. Now that iPhones have USB-C they no longer need a custom adapter. A standard USB-C to HDMI cable is supposed to work. I believe.
    - bitwize 3y ago
      Thing is, I thought Lightning had that too? HDMI or DP over the wire? Guess I was wrong...
      - MBCook 3y ago
        Nope. I don’t know if it put itself in some kind of analog mode for composite. I can’t remember if that was a thing around the switch to lightning. But the cool hack has always been how the HDMI adapter worked.
    - somat 3y ago
      Probably to work around a usb(lightning is usb2 based right?) link not fast enough to keep up with the phone graphics. However, I note that there are usb graphics card descriptors[1] and I assume usb graphics cards, that is, graphics over the normal usb data pins, not a display port pass through. These descriptors are what I would naively assume a usb to hdmi "adaptor" to be, a usb graphics card. I am finding it hard to hunt down low level information on how these "adaptors" work. Does anyone know what type descriptors they use? and what a iphone does if you plug one in(I am assuming the lightning to usb physical connector is trivial) https://www.usb.org/defined-class-codes#anchor_BaseClass13h https://www.usb.org/defined-class-codes#anchor_BaseClass13h update: I found these reverse engineering documents on synaptics displaylink chips. They appear to be a popular manufacturer of such dongles. And it looks like compression is needed there as well. https://github.com/floe/tubecable/tree/master/doc https://github.com/floe/tubecable/tree/master/doc
eastbound 3y ago
The nice thing about such a cable is that it could connect to the cloud to display that screen without plugging the other end.

numpad0 3y ago

I think I've come across this specific screen. In my case, this was its equivalent of "No Signal" screen, and the app was only needed to update the firmware if needed, not to connect. It seemed to exploit AirPlay somehow and therefore finicky unlike official dongles.