Belkin has a new 3.5mm to Lightning cable out, which is, I suppose, a good thing. After all, Apple only recently gave companies the green light to actually make approved cables in that format, and they’re probably pretty useful for using newer iPhones that don’t have headphone jacks with wired headphones or speakers.
And Belkin’s cables — which cost $29.99 for a three-foot version, or $34.99 for a six-foot-long cord — are definitely cheaper than the first 3.5mm to Lightning cables from Master & Dynamic, which cost a $69 (although they include an in-line remote and microphone, unlike the Belkin cords).
But mostly, the whole thing just makes me feel tired. Apple’s $9 dongles are still cheaper than any of the Apple-approved MFi cables out there, and the idea of buying a separate expensive cord so I can use my speakers when the Bluetooth connection craps out or my wireless headphones when the battery dies is just frustrating. How did we get here? Does anyone really believe that this is truly a better system?
Comments
What a complete joke this whole situation is…
Put the 3.5mm plug back on the phone please
By timvanbeveren on 05.22.18 2:21pm
I’d actually be perfectly happy with the 2.5mm headset jack. Or better yet, dual USB Type-C ports, one for charging, the other for music. I don’t get why the cables are so expensive… it’s not like they have a DAC built in.
You could use the second Type-C port for a VR headset
By Oldarney on 05.22.18 2:32pm
They have both a DAC and amp built in, Lightning doesn’t have analog audio pins
By chitinid on 05.22.18 2:36pm
I was thinking about USB-C… a lot of phones (Pixel 2) are coming without audio pass through. I think Google wants Qualcomm to start making faster/cheaper chips without DACs… forcing the speakers/cables them selves to have the DAC in exchange for a faster more profitable phone that can come slightly closer to iPhone performance. In fact, that might be enough to close the gap in performance between the 845 and A11x. Despite the 845 being much smaller, taking less silicon and thus being more profitable.
Gone are the days of $6 jbuds that sound amazing and just work
By Oldarney on 05.23.18 2:12pm
Ummmmm…. yeah, they do.
By starxd on 05.22.18 6:35pm
$30 for a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter? Why can’t you use the Apple dongle ($9, also your phone came with one in the box) paired with a standard 3.5mm stereo cable ($3, if you don’t already have a pile of them sitting around)? Functionally identical, maybe it doesn’t look as slick but that isn’t worth this crazy price.
My biggest complaint about the whole debacle is losing the ability to charge the phone and use audio output at the same time. I solved this with an inexpensive "splitter" dongle that I found on Amazon (provides one Lightning port for charging and one for audio), but the quality seems a bit shoddy even though it works… I wish Apple would produce an official one, but they’d rather push everyone towards wireless.
By aaron44126 on 05.22.18 2:35pm
There is a solution that is better quality but it sounds like you want a cheaper solution. The old adage you get what you pay for sometimes is true.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Belkin-Lightning-Audio-Charge-RockStar-for-iPhone-7-and-iPhone-7-Plus/485886143?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=519&adid=22222222227135647555&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=244153832796&wl4=pla-402848442955&wl5=9015694&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=112550073&wl11=online&wl12=485886143&wl13=&veh=sem
By recoilduke on 05.22.18 2:42pm
There is this also.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Belkin-3-5-mm-Audio-Charge-RockStar/240511424?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1631&adid=22222222227108919412&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=224894688652&wl4=pla-368250388051&wl5=9015694&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113509192&wl11=online&wl12=240511424&wl13=&veh=sem
By recoilduke on 05.22.18 2:43pm
Indeed, that seems a bit steep for what should be simple functionality…
The one I am using now is this ($12) and despite the poor reviews it seems to be working OK for me to listen to sounds while my phone charges at night. Hopefully it keeps working.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078ZDWDCX
Mostly, I’m complaining because Apple took away functionality during an "upgrade" (the ability to charge the phone and use wired audio at the same time) and didn’t provide any reasonable way to get it back (relying solely on third parties for such dongles). If they can make a lightning-audio adapter for $9, surely they can make a lightning-audio-charge adapter for not much more and you know there’d be a market for it.
By aaron44126 on 05.22.18 2:52pm
This isn’t an adapter, it’s a cable.
By starxd on 05.22.18 6:34pm
It’s a digital-to-analogue converter, and possibly an amplifier. More than just a cable.
By The Artgineer on 05.23.18 10:39am
Lol. Yes, I know all that. I was responding to someone who called it an adapter. It is not an adapter, it is a cable that, like the adapters, includes those components you mention.
By starxd on 05.23.18 1:11pm
All adapters are cables, then.
By The Artgineer on 05.23.18 2:45pm
No they are not. Very different form factors.
By starxd on 05.23.18 3:56pm
You can’t blame belkin for wanting to capitalise on the use of 3.5mm jack’s..
Having no 3.5mm jack is clearly an issue for a lot of people, or belkin and other companies wouldn’t bother making products like this or silly "dongles" to try and ail the issue with the lack of a jack.
By Akuza on 05.22.18 3:15pm
Complain all you want. Life goes on.
For the record, I am extremely unhappy that I have to clip my keys to my belt because they can no longer plug into the steering column. I also hate that direct tv keeps making me learn new guide menus. And I’m none too thrilled that I have to keep teaching my entire family where crap is every year when a new iOS or Android is released.
Life is hard. Waiting for the comet to hit us.
By jimmy.hauser.18 on 05.22.18 3:16pm
First person I’ve heard of who considers keyless entry inconvenient.
Less secure, maybe. Less convenient, just no.
By SquareMelon on 05.23.18 2:37am
How do you hold your keys when you’re not in your car? Do the same thing in your car.
By The Artgineer on 05.23.18 10:40am
I never understood why Apple didn’t make a beats branded RemoteTalk cable that shipped with Studio or Solo headphones – And then they could sell at a huge markup.
By Costellomusic on 05.22.18 3:46pm
Waiting for Anker to make one of these…
By cocosnack on 05.22.18 3:55pm
Agreed, I’d like a black version of the Apple dongle to match most of the headphone cables out there.
By TheFringe on 05.23.18 11:01am
Yes, it’s better, because it by eliminating the 3.5mm headphone port the iPhone has more space inside, which gives it an advantage over other phones with the headphone jack. It allows for a slimmer and smaller form factor. It’s only a matter of time that other phones will do the same, because they’re wasting space.
Apple is not attacking other devices with these dongles, it’s only doing it when it feels like it benefits the product. In this case, only the iPhone is losing the 3.5mm headphone jack. Other products, like the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro have kept the 3.5mm headphone jack, although if they ever need to go thinner on the iPad Pro, I may see them perhaps eliminating it, but maybe not. However, their current inclusion in these newer devices, shows that it’s really a space constrain issue and not necessarily Apple changing things for the sake of change. The iPhone needs the extra space. The iPad/MacBook/iMac, however, have more space to work with.
By peartechlish on 05.22.18 4:12pm
Welcome to the RDF my friend
By timvanbeveren on 05.22.18 4:26pm
Someone did a teardown of the first iPhone to not include a headphone jack. The space under the headphone jack where "the rest of it" would be "under the hood" was literally empty. Completely empty. They replaced it with an empty space.
Maybe in theory the absence of a headphone jack could allow Apple to use the interior space saved for something else, but in actuality, at least as of the first edition, Apple did not use the space.
I don’t know if they found a use for it on subsequent iPhones. That’s the sort of thing that would be hard to demonstrate- if it’s just empty like the first one, we know they didn’t find a use for it, but if it’s filled, that wouldn’t necessarily be absolute proof that they needed the extra space for whatever they put there- it might just be a case of re-configuring components so it doesn’t make it obvious that they aren’t using the space and could have kept the headphone jack when someone cracks open the case and looks inside and posts the pictures to the Internet.
Also, I would say that the iPhone is already too thin. Remember "Bendgate"? Okay, let’s leave Bendgate aside and say that they fixed that issue (Which they probably did). However, the fact remains that phones are too thin. Apple isn’t the only company with that issue. Samsung and most Android manufacturers have it also.
Now, I know, people are saying "too thin", is that just some weird subjectively stylistic preference you have to own a phone with heft? No. In fact, I agree that slimmer phones look cool. The problem is, if you are at all prone to dropping your phone (Which I am, and a significant portion of the phone market is. If you’re not, good for you, but some of us are clumsier than others), a thin phone generally is easier to break. So, to protect your phone, you immediately buy a case. Then it’s not very thin. And, typically, if the phone had just been thicker and built in some shock absorption and such, it would have given you the advantages of a case, but looked better than the rubber or whatever a case is made out of.
Like, I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I’ve been using it for over 2 years. Nice phone, especially for it’s time when it came out. However, you know, the betzel-less sides aren’t really betzel-less in practice, because I have a case that adds betzels, Similarly, people talk about eliminating the top and/or bottom betzels on newer phones, and sure, some phones have, but the case adds them back in, essentially, making that feature in terms of practical use of the phone if you feel like you’re going to break it without a case kind of questionable.
So, for the most part, if they need to make phones a little thicker to keep the headphone jack or add something really cool, I’m for it. If they remove the headphone jack or skip having something really cool to make an already thin phone even thinner, that doesn’t appeal to me as a consumer. It just gives me fewer features I want and a more breakable phone that is going to look basically the same as it would look if it were 1mm thinner when I put it in a case anyway.
The thinness wars are costing us things like larger batteries (A lot of flagships are actually decreasing their battery capacities from year to year), headphone jacks, and a whole bunch of stuff, while making phones that cost people a small fortune that they are often stuck paying off over 2 years whether it continues to work or not, much more breakable than they could otherwise be.
Phones do not need be thinner than the current Apple and Samsung flagships. In fact, they could use to be a little thicker. Of course, there comes a point where even I would say a phone is too thick and brick-like, but this is the opposite extreme. They’d have to like at least double the thickness of the phones if not more before it would seem too thick to me.
By CharmCityCrab on 05.22.18 5:40pm
yeah that’s not exactly true and was cleared up in this verge article actually. The taptic engine is also bigger and would have not been made bigger unless the headphone jack was removed.
By Shoumik Pennathur on 05.23.18 1:15am