Last year, Apple killed the headphone jack with the launch of the iPhone 7. For those with a trusty pair of beloved headphones, the move—whether you’re on an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 now—is still incredibly annoying. Seriously, what are you supposed to do when you need to charge your phone and want to listen to audio?
Belkin’s latest adapter solves that issue. The company released a new Lightning dongle, the 3.5mm Audio + Charge RockStar, that includes a Lightning charging port as well as a standard USB jack. Until now, you’ve either had to decide whether you want to charge your phone or listen to music. Or, you had to daisy chain two dongles from your iPhone’s Lightning port—which is patently absurd.
With this adapter, you can only charge or sync your phone with its Lightning port. Audio duties are then exclusively dedicated to either your phone’s speakers, or the 3.5mm port. If you have other Lightning accessories that handle audio, you likely won’t be able to use them with this particular adapter.
Belkin’s dongle isn’t petite, but it gets the job done. The cable on this dongle is also thicker and less flexible than the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter that comes with an iPhone, The Verge points out. You won’t want to bend it around too much.
According to Belkin, the adapter will work with devices running iOS 9 or later. You can grab the 3.5mm Audio + Charge RockStar dongle for $34.95 through Apple’s website, or $34.99 through Belkin’s.
H/T The Verge
