Not saying I have any information to refute the above, but IMHO the speculation about "Apple certification" seems a bit off.
CEntrance would have already received Apple certification for the lightning cable to work with the USB A port, true?
and that an iDevice with Lightning cable into USB A does delivers standard 16/44 already to the M8.
not sure why CEntrance would need Apple certification again (if the above is true) for the M8 to accept 24/96 and/or higher.
IIRC,
the last technical reason from Michael we had on "why there's no iDevice hi-rez flowing directly into USB A port" was some difficult to code or implement update to the M8 chips itself.
that nut appeared to be cracked awhile back (or am I only day dreaming....) and Kenny/CEntrance said (24 Jan approx) "something soon" (ie. field upgradable method) would be happening.
then MixerFace took over and here we sit...
I have no specific information to the contrary of the points you have made, however the initial MFi certification CEntrance received was likely not for 24/96 capability, so it stands to reason they would need an additional Apple approval for the following reasons.
Apple bases much of this certification on whether or not the technology or feature set the MFi device offers, in their own lofty view, passes muster for what they call the expected level of customer experience.
Time and again, Apple rejects things that don't offer the level of performance they feel is necessary, or performance that would somehow detract from the overall user experience.
This can take many forms, chief among them is effect on battery life. If what you are trying to do whacks their battery too hard, they won't allow it to be MFi certified. I'm not referring to the MFi device actually draining their battery directly, but simply in concert with their iDevice does the battery drain too fast. This was the primary reason they never allowed Adobe Flash on iOS, despite what all of the conspiracy theorists thought.
Lastly, this update won't work with all iDevices, as many of the earlier generation units don't have the necessary on-board hardware and processing power. This suggests that the current Apple DAP protocol would need to be modified for only those devices they feel can reliably work with 24/96 files. I have a hunch that would mean those devices receive an iOS/firmware update to unlock them. Almost like a jail break, except officially Apple sanctioned.
Maybe Michael Goodman or another CEntrance contact on this forum is able to elaborate on my conjecture without breaking any NDAs or revealing competitive secrets?
