The new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus made waves last month when they were introduced sans headphone jack. Instead, Apple's new earbuds plug into the Lightning jack, which is problematic if you want to use them while also charging the phone at the same time. Nearly 3,000 users have already turned to a US$10 adapter on Kickstarter to solve the issue, raising over twelve times the campaign's initial goal with three weeks left to go.
The iLDock (for iPhone Lightning Dock) is a really simple dongle that plugs into the Lightning port on the iPhone on one end and sports a Lightning port and an old-school headphone jack on the other side, allowing you to once again charge and listen simultaneously like in the good old days.
There is a catch, though. When you use the dock, you also lose the in-line volume and track control Apple introduced with its Lightning-based earbuds as well as data synchronization capability through the Lightning port.
Otherwise, iLDock is a pretty simple and straightforward adapter for those that aren't quite ready to do things Apple's way just yet.
The dock works with any Apple device with a Lightning port and comes in some additional configurations as well. If you want to be able to charge and listen via the new Lightning-based earbuds simultaneously, there's an adapter called iLDock Duo that gives you two Lightning ports. The iLDock Plus gives you a headphone jack, Lightning port, USB port and memory card slots all in a single adapter for iPhone power users.
That's quite a lot more flexibility than other solutions we've seen like the Fuze case that incorporates a headphone jack and battery into a iPhone 7 case.
The iLDock team claims they started working on their products several months ago when rumors started swirling that the headphone jack might disappear from the new iPhones. As a result, they hope to be ready to ship to Kickstarter backers in November.
But as with any crowdfunding campaign, be sure to proceed with caution, as it's quite common for such promises to be put off and there's very little recourse to get that donation back when campaigns choose not to honor their pledges.
That said, ten bucks isn't much to risk to add a little more functionality to your pricey new iPhone.
The iLDock comes in colors that match the iPhone colors. It can be had for as little as a $10 contribution, or $20 for the iLDock Plus. You can see it in action in the campaign video below.
Source: Kickstarter
