What’s Inside The Lightning To 30-pin Adapter?

Yesterday and today saw those who ordered the Lightning to 30-pin Adapter get theirs delivered — but what’s going on inside this nifty bit of tech to justify the $29 price? Double Helix cables has done a teardown of the adapter, which is posted at Gizmodo, and like every other piece of current Apple technology, it’s incredibly difficult to take apart.

Double Helix is the same group that first showed us the insides of the Lightning cable, and they were hoping to use the adapter as a base for after market mods. Here’s what they have to say about that idea now:

The dock connector is hyperdelicate when removed from its moorings. It is literally floating there with just its pins attaching it, and the pins are ultra fine as usual. Again, good luck modding this thing. Even if you did mod it, making something that would be appealing to look at and profitable to sell, is essentially not going to happen. I really had high hopes that I could get into this thing and attach an audio output cable, but I should have known better. This thing is even more fearsomely reinforced than the Lightning USB cord, by a factor of 10, surely to thwart those that want to hack it, and also so that it cannot break easily. Nobody should balk at paying $29 for this after they see what is inside, though. The $39 cabled version of this should be similar, with the lightning end simply distanced from the dock circuitry by a cable.

So, unfortunately, heres another extremely tricky piece of technology from Apple. However, given the rapid speed that it appears the Lightning cable has been cracked, I’m sure after-party alternatives will be out in the very near future.