@waffffle I think it's fairly obvious that this has already been used for some time now for other "accessories" only there it made at least somewhat sense in my opinion, but for headphones, I really think it would be better if they avoided it. The proof of the chip? How else do iPods know if they're compatible (or what apple deems "compatible") with an accessorie and then either tell you about it and work somewhat, or well, don't work, although you should think at least. just pipeing through the audio shouldn't be a problem (and at least in some cases isn't althought the device complains) and it's also why the iphone doesn't work with many accessories that work with the ipod touch, which is the most annoying thing ever.