Available in five metallic finishes, Apple’s new US$49 iPhone Lightning Dock perfectly matches your iPhone. Choose from black, space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold.
You can use it to charge and sync any iPhone that has a Lightning connector, but it’s especially useful for Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus which eschew the antiquated 3.5mm headphone jack.
Your iPhone sits upright in the dock as it syncs or charges, so it’s ideal for a desk or countertop. Even when your iPhone is in an Apple-designed case, it’s easy to dock. And you can unlock iPhone or use Touch ID without having to remove it from the dock.
Here are some ways you can use the iPhone Lightning Dock:
• Connect your headphones to the dock so you can listen to music while you sync and charge.
• Connect the dock to powered speakers or a stereo using a 3.5 mm cable to play music and podcasts from your iPhone.
• Connect the dock to your computer with the USB cable included with your iPhone to sync iPhone and charge its battery.
• Connect the dock to an electrical outlet using the Apple USB Power Adapter included with your iPhone to charge the battery.
• Place your iPhone in the dock and enjoy clear audio during speakerphone calls.
More info here.
SEE ALSO:
Apple VP calls 3.5mm headphone jack ‘a dinosaur,’ says ‘it’s time to move on’ – September 8, 2016
Apple kills the headphone jack – September 7, 2016
Apple reinvents the wireless headphone with AirPods – September 7, 2016
Apple’s iPhone reveal: Death of antiquated 3.5mm headphone jack heightens anticipation – September 7, 2016
But how can I do it, on the go, with a Battery Pack plugged in?
hey, true fanboys don’t point out this kind of stuff.
Suck it up!
Hell if you were in control we would still be using CD walkman because of all the whining should we be unable to use CDs on the go, and you know I expect there are still some who think that that method would still be an advantage… you one of them? Still missing that floppy drive? Scuzzy? I bet some still do and are still fuming about it, others like to progress to a better future.
Simple. Someone will market a battery pack with a headphone jack or pass-through. The market when it sees a need usually fills it.
Apple did not fail just because they do not support your particular edge case.
I think you are a bit confused. The headphones are called AirPods, and the shitty movie you’re referring to is probably Air Bud (I couldn’t find a movie with a name even remotely similar to AirPod).
It is really very tiresome, reading the same misguided (or disingenuous) trope about purported greed of Apple. The reasons for removing 3.5mm jack will be debated for a long time, but one of them which is most definitely, most certainly NOT among them is Apple’s purported greed. The amount of money Apple will save on eliminating the jack is definitely significantly smaller than the unrealised revenue/profit from lost sales to guys like yourself.
Let’s not forget; every iPhone 7/7+ comes with bundled EarPods (the wired ones, with Lightning connector). And Apple’s AirPods are certainly NOT the only wireless Bluetooth headphones on the market today.
Your response is a painful testament to how technically and intellectually challenged you are. “Greed?” Obviously not, troll.
Apple LEADS. The Rest FOLLOW.
Keep a close eye on the Android phone & accessory market over this next year.
ScamScum has some explosive deals going on right now. So explosive, they are recalling 2.5 MILLION Note 7’s at an estimated cost to the company of over $5 BIIIIIIIIIIILLION Dollars. NOW THAT IS INNOVATIVE. gmafb
Let’s stop calling the headphone jack antiquated. It’s been an industry standard long before Apple was even around.
I can accept the change, and understand the requirement for an included adapter, however let’s be frank: The 3.5mm jack is not going away any time soon.
I’m still baffled how someone in Apple’s Engineering dept didn’t think that these wireless airpods were going to fall out of peoples ears without some kind of silicon retainer, especially for athletes. Unless they plan on selling these separately in customizable colors like their watch bands?? We’ll be spending an additional $20 for slip on ear retainers? $39 for a wraparound retainer?
It’s simple, you lose them, you pony up another $159. Apple wins again!
Beats completed the wireless line with other plugs with all kinds of retainers, over ear, around ear, etc…. this plugs ar for people moving around, walking, and currently use airpots with NO issues, like me, I never had issues with them falling
At the risk of sounding like a true apologetic evangelist, I have to say, having iPhone since the 5 (and some androids before that), Apple’s wired earpods (or whatever they are called today) have never fallen out of my ear so far. I don’t use any other brand; these are my listening devices, and I use them on my daily commute, on weekends while biking, and for all other outdoor activities.
Obviously, this is precisely one of those “your mileage may vary”, “one size does NOT fit all” kinds of things, but human anatomy being somewhat consistent, the shape of those earbuds seems to be designed in such a way so that it fits rather snugly into most people’s ears.
The new AirPods seem to have the same (or very similar) shape.
I’m a musician too and have always hated the 3.5mm miniplugs. Physically, they’ve always been the weakest part of every smartphone or device the has them. That said, I’ve fished out many a broken lightning connector from iPhones. They’re weak too, in my opinion.
Silicon covers in multiple covers are already here: earskinz.com.
$11.00 a pair
I use them for my iPhone 6S EarPods; they work well.
But these only solve part of the Airpod problem: they don’t help if an Airpod falls out or your ear.
Apple is trying to kill plug and play unless its their plug. Vote with your dollars and don’t buy this phone. (Pause for everyone calling me a troll/hater/samsung employee etc, etc – even though I purchased the iPhone update every year. Not this time. Buying a otterbox, so my current iPhone will last ) Send a clear message, that we don’t want to be forced to buy beats and/or more accessories to make our phones work like they do right now.
Your message sounded genuine and even possibly righteous, right up until the last sentence, when it crumbled in dishonest bluster.
…”Send a clear message, that we don’t want to be forced to buy beats“…
The phone comes with a 3.5mm adapter. You don’t have to buy ANYTHING in order to make it work like your current phone does. If you don’t like he bundled EarPods, you can plug in whatever headphones you currently have. And you most definitely DON’T have to buy Beats. 3rd-party stereo bluetooth headphones start from $15 on Amazon, and go up to $1,500. There is an immense variety of choice there, not just Beats (or AirPods).
Wrong. Unless they license the technology from Apple, I will be forced (after losing the adaptor to maintain present functionality) to use Bluetooth to listen to music which is an inferior tech or buy beats. Or keep your current phone and listen anyway you want. Not sure why stating this is a dishonest blunder. I prefer the existing standard in favor of a home button that wiggles. Not righteous just my view.
Again, a bit dishonest.
You can use your CURRENT headphones by plugging them into the included adapter. You aren’t forced to lose the adaptor to maintain present functionality. That sentence makes absolutely no sense. And you certainly aren’t forced to buy (or use) Bluetooth headphones.
About the only thing I can see is that if you are one of those clumsy people who end up losing the adapter, you can always buy a new one for $9 from Apple (and I’m sure, in few weeks, MonoPrice will have one for $5).
Look, I completely understand that you prefer to have 3.5mm jack; many people do. Apple chose to eliminate it for various reasons (saving internal space, easier to make device water proof, eliminating ugly port that disrupts pristine smooth design lines and curves…), but your argument would be much stronger if it didn’t introduce falsehoods. Just saying that you prefer the jack and are profoundly disappointed by this is more than enough. you don’t have to make up this scenario that you are now forced to buy something.
My solution:
If and when I replace my iPhone 6 with an iPhone 7 (or 7S next year), I will take my excellent Klipsch headphones and plug them into the Apple adapter. Then I will take 6″ of black heat shrink tubing and seal the damn Apple connector permanently to the end of my existing headphones.
For home use, I will be looking for a 3rd party dock that actually accommodates a phone in its a case while simultaneously charging and passing through audio to the stereo.
For car use, it appears yet another special dock is required that will plug into 12V power while passing through analog audio into the car’s Aux jack.
Bluetooth is a pain in the ass and will not be used.
Does this sound simpler, higher quality, and less expensive for the user? I think not. Thus, there is absolutely no rush to get an iPhone 7.
I’m not sure yours is the most optimal solution, as it will then prevent you from using your Klipsch headphones with any other non-iOS device.
I think you’re a bit confused. It was never about less expensive for the user. Nor was it necessarily about higher quality, although eliminating the 3.5mm will finally motivate high-end headphone makers to finally start making high-end 24-bit D/A converters. As decent as the built-in iPhone D/A converters are, they are still not quite good enough for some high-end users, and even though lightning port made it possible (and fairly simple) to pass digital audio out of the phone and into another device for D/A conversion, there currently are barely a dozen high-end models with their own D/A conversion (and the lightning plug).
To get back on the point, the main reason behind port elimination has always been design esthetics. Jobs, Ive and Apple in general always passionately hated ports, jacks, connectors and slots along the surface and edges of Apple devices. Throughout the decades, they’ve been mercilessly and relentlessly getting rid of any and all for which the functionality could be replaced by another, more universal one. It was now the headphone jack’s turn. Tomorrow, it will be the lightning port itself, forcing wireless-only operation.
Apple does these things, losing angry customers in the process, but apparently, these moves never had a negative effect on their bottom line. I have a feeling, with all the noise about the 3.5mm jack (four stories on MDN in two hours), we’ll see iPhone 7 break sales records again.
They introduced a “numbered” update weaker than previous “S” updates. Pass.
How is this update weaker than previous ‘S’ versions?? As for that, how were ‘S’ versions weak???
Plenty people have argued (successfully, I’d say) that the ‘s’ versions were bigger leaps than the cardinal ones (other than the visual appearance, not much has changed). 4s brought us Siri; 5s brought us TouchID; 6s brought us 3D touch; and now, 7 makes it water-proof. These are just individual, high-profile improvements that leaped over prior versions, as well as competition; there were numerous other additional features.
There persists this meme that Apple did little in the ‘S’ years. Obviously, it doesn’t help when Apple calls the phone the same (and just adds ‘S’), AND makes it looks the same, but a very short trip to google reveals the significant improvements of S years.
I don’t think your “S years are better” claim rings true. Look at the sales trends. The numbered years introduced the new body styles, the bigger batteries, and the fastest chips, and received huge sales jumps as pent-up demand overwhelmed the operations genius. “S” year sales bumps are tiny in comparison with number changes, zero backlogs in stores. 6S sales actually declined from the 6 year. Why? Perhaps because Siri sucks, 3D/Force Touch is annoying?
Let’s just see what the 7 does in the marketplace. If Apple’s internal 7 redesign whiffs, then macbone may be right, the Market will see Apple as just moving to a 3-year chassis redesign cycle and skip another year of buying. There is no doubt the 7 takes away functionality that some people want and need, while offering features that most people don’t really need.
In claiming that the “S” years are bigger leaps than the incremental number years, then you are essentially saying that someone who owns a 6S model shouldn’t upgrade this year to a 7. Fair enough, many of us don’t intend to do so. For many of us, the 7 just isn’t a compelling replacement for existing iPhones.
I disagree. The sales numbers reveal the mistake that even MDN has been trying to hammer in for years: naming the phones with the ‘S’ was signaling to the buying public that this phone is same as last year’s, only marginally better.
Every year, Apple put a new, faster, better processor in their phones, regardless of whether it was an ‘S’ year or a cardinal year. Every year, they added more megapixels into the camera, again, regardless of model. The only thing that didn’t get a significant upgrade was the exterior. And the model name (other than the ‘S’).
As for sales number for S years, your assertion isn’t backed up with data (except for 6S). And about the 6S, the reason its numbers were lower than 6 are quite obvious: iPhone6 has taken over a massive number of Android phablet and large-phone users who previously gave up on Apple ever making a big-screen phone. When 6s came out, those people were still on their contract and not due for replacement yet. In other words, iPhone 6 sold not only to all 5 users who upgraded, but to millions of Android users who had larger screens. Mind you, those iPhone 6 contracts are now coming up and I won’t be surprised if majority of them went with waterproof iPhone 7.
Look, I’m not saying that the number years are significantly inferior to the S years; all I’m saying that the S years are at least as good, and arguably even better upgrades of hardware, and because of Apple’s stupid naming (and exterior design) philosophy, the blogosphere doesn’t see that.
soo… if the new headphones that Apple thoughtfully provides with the new iPhone have a lightning connector, and there’s only one lightning port on the new dock (that is especially designed for the new iPhone) and i use THAT port for the charging cable, then how do i listen…?
Speaker. HAHA.
huh. this won’t work in my car, where i need to keep the phone plugged in while using my GPS app or it drains the battery rapidly.
You need wired earphones in a car?
You need a better car.
BTW I cannot play CD’s in my latest Tesla Model S that cost over $120 grand. You might think, “Whats with that?”, I however, think nothing of it.
If jackspratt’s car is anything like mine or most other peoples’, it has a perfectly functional and convenient analog input jack. Bluetooth, on the other hand, is inferior in quality and flaky to link. And if you use GPS on any iPhone, then you have to charge it to keep the battery from being quicklly drained.
Perhaps you never go anywhere in your snazzy exploding Tesla, but the rest of the world has cars that work great. They are not looking to replace their $25k, $50k, $75k+ car in order to bow to whatever “courageou$$$” design decision Apple shoves down their throats. This latest change just forces another round of overpriced Lightning accessories sales.
Then get an iPhone adapter that provides a Lightning cable to both charge the iPhone and pipe audio through it. They all support USB connectivity, so a regular Lightning to USB cable does the trick. Audiovox sells their MediaBridge (widely available for $150 or less) that will do that.
Problem solved.
Yes, I need wired earphones in a car. Because I’m a soccer mom and I still drive my 2006 minivan that doesn’t have bluetooth in it. And if I’m buying the new iPhone, I can’t afford to buy a new car. But I digress….
I like to charge my phone when I get in my car. And i put one headphone in my ear NOT to listen to music but to hear over the sounds of my kids: 1) Waze tell me about police up ahead, and 2) the phone ring which I then can answer and talk hands-free with my headphones and hear the caller better than on speaker.
I’ll be interested to hear how people fare with the airpods once they come out. Yes, I was one who was bummed when no optical drive was put in the MacBookPro and guess what- I haven’t missed it. So maybe this is something Apple has pegged that I don’t realize. But don’t cut some of us luddites out, k?
Not being catty, just genuinely curious. Isn’t it illegal to wear earphones in a car while driving?
An excellent question! Find out if your state does: http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/headsets/
Maryland says you can’t have them in both ears. So I just have one in- to allow me to talk into the microphone if necessary. I don’t listen to music on my iPhone while driving. I have yet to be pulled over for it- but thanks for letting me ask the Internet to see where it is legal.
I love not having to deal with wires. My car has wireless changing. It took me a while but I figured out the best solution for the best adapter to enable my iPhone to charge wirelessly. Now I charge wirelessly at home and in the car.
It also took several products before I found the best sports wireless headphones (jaybirds x2). They have good battery life and don’t breakdown easily.
Apple are now coming out with numerous versions (with the beats options) so something will work for everyone. Third party solutions will of course fill any gaps.
Saw the dock and instantly said no..
There is no support for the iPhone, just the lightning connection as it supports the entire weight of the iPhone.
Bent/broken connections will happen. That’s why all the aftermarket ones have a support behind the plug.
Personally I’m going Bluetooth and not buying airpods, the included EarPods will be backups. (Along with the dongle, if I don’t lose it…)
The dock has been out for over 2 years.
Reports of bent/broken Lightning connectors during that time: ZERO
probably because no one buys it.
Idiot
Just looked online at the white version… 2 star reviews on apples site, due to breakage.
Guess you’re wrong.
Maybe some year they will figure out some way to patent their version of inductive charging that has been around forever.
Been using BT headphones for months now. I love it. I may get the new ones from Apple if the sound is just as good as the wired ones.
Hilarious!!! MDN trashes and trashes the 3.5mm headphone jack and their solution for the folks that wants to charge their iPhone and listen at the same time is a $50 dock with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
I happen to have this device right here on my desk and the only problem with issue I have with it is that volume is attenuated when listening through the dock’s headphone jack.
Apple did alright by me for charging $9.99 for the lightning to 3.5mm jack dongle.
It’s not only the smallest adapter they ever built, but also the lowest cost.
The Lightning EarPods is one thing.
The Bluetooth AirPods is one thing.
They work with all Lighting enabled phones and all Bluetooth enabled phones, unless I am mistaken about that. But these are all mutually exclusive.
You can find many Bluetooth headphones for $20 and up that also have a 3.5mm jack that allow those headphones to work with any legacy device. Bonus, that same 3.5mm jack will allow you to share the Bluetooth audio source with a friend.
Lost of options, not to mention 3.5mm to Bluetooth adaptors for your high end headphones. You just have to get a high end Bluetooth adaptor to accommodate HD Audio. Look for CSR 8600 series chipsets, and AptX for lossless compression of the audio signal. Keep in mind, all of the audio files on the iPhone are already compressed one way or another. Lossless compression should not alter the source any more than it already had.
$49 to get an iPhone 7 do what an iPhone 6S can do out of the box. This is not progress.
Stereo speakers built in maybe I’ll listen through those.
The problem is, moving forward should let us do more things. Apple moved backwards, because if I buy the iPhone, and just the iPhone, I will NOT! Be able to listen with headphones, something I must do to keep privacy, as I use voiceover, and charge at the same time. The world has moved on, folks. Apple has become bloated with its own success.