Hacker News Reader

Comment by LordHumungous | Hacker News Reader

The other thing about that though- you can't listen to your headphones or hook up aux speakers while your phone is charging.

View on HN

The port is data and charge. So I recon it's only a matter of time before there's a split plug for charge and audio.

my pockets are going to be very full with all these things I need to buy/carry around for my iPhone

OK. Mine aren't. I already carry a small bag over my shoulder on the way to and from work; it has a spare battery in case I somehow need it (unusual, since I fully charge my phone every night while I'm asleep), plus my Kindle, sunglasses, and other daily useful things. My pockets tend to be used for keys and phone.

Am I that weird?

I wouldn't say "weird", but I am curious how you manage to swap your iPhone battery to the spare you carry.

I'm sure GP means an external USB battery pack.

"It's European!"... lots of people carry bags, so I wouldn't say weird. I just don't want to start because of a phone.

I carry it regardless. I carry it because I have a commute of almost an hour and a half, much of it on a train, and I like having my Kindle and my sunglasses and other things, but don't carry my laptop to/from the office (thus no laptop bag). So I have a small shoulder bag that I put stuff in and bring with me.

So any time I'm going to be out long enough to have to theoretically carry full kit for my phone (in a hypothetical multiple-dongle world), I'm also going to have that bag with me, or some equivalent object for carrying things (i.e., extended outings not involving going to work), and not have to stuff everything in my pockets.

Apparently this is weird enough to be downvoted into negative-score territory.

Out of interest, is there a noticeable difference between the USA and Europe for bag use? Here in the UK, a bag is sensible and I could imagine going to work without one (for my lunch, spare USB cable, iPad etc).

I had never thought of it being a significant cultural difference.

Thats ok, they made it so THIN

I don't understand your point.

Wouldn't the dongle just be permanently attached to your headphones ?

Naw, not if I want to get to work and then hook them up to my computer. Or I want to connect my phone to my car via an aux cable.

That's assuming I ever use only one pair of headphones and don't need connecting to aux cables / external speakers.

Or that my headphones are always used with just iPhones.

Basically, no more plug-and-play. This is exactly why 3.5mm was good: universal plug-and-play.

> The port is data and charge. So I recon it's only a matter of time before there's a split plug for charge and audio.

When your[1] answer to a dongle problem is "add more dongles", you really need to rethink the situation.

1. The generic "you", not specifically you, Phillip.

this is what "one" is for... (instead of generic "you")

Which is just as weird, one == everyone.

It's not another dongle, but a dongle with two ports rather than one.

> It's not another dongle, but a dongle with two ports rather than one.

Sounds like another dongle to me! The last half of your sentence contradicts the first half.

When I said "It's not another dongle" I meant that if you buy a dongle with two ports, you can use it instead of Apple's dongle, not in addition to.

...that begs the question, why not just do that in the first place though?

Ah yes, the double dongle. The kind of elegant, problem-solving design I expect from Apple.

Designed in California.

I laughed, because so many decisions in California are based on compromise.

They shipped with a double firewire/USB cord for one of the iPod generations!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6FT-Genuine-Apple-iPod-Dual-USB-Fire...

So if the lightning to audio dongle is $9, whats the double dongle gonna be? $20? $30?

Or being on long (support) conference calls whilst keeping your phone charged.

You can do that with the lightning dock, it has a 3.5mm out and lightning input for power.

Yes, for $39.

So you can't listen with the new EarPods with Lightning connector while charging with the Lightning dock.

I'm getting a lot of mixed messages from Apple here...

How often do you do that?

Whenever I'm listening to something and the phone is about to die.

Edit: also in the car (I have an older car with just an AUX jack).

There are 2.1A lighter-socket USB adapters.

The point is that you can only hook up audio OR power, not both simultaneously.

I imagine it's fairly common, since streaming music (even over WiFi) drains the battery.

My own setup for a while now, when playing music for long periods, has been to connect the phone to charge using the lightning cable, and then connect to a (wireless) Bluetooth speaker which itself is also plugged in and charging using its own USB cable connected to a USB charger. It has much the same effect as having a "charging dock", but just requires two powered USB ports rather than a custom piece of equipment.

This setup is becoming more and more similar. My own system is my iPhone just plugged into whatever Lightning cable I want (laptop, bedside left, bedside right), with either Bluetooth or Spotify Connect to the Amazon Echo on my shelf.

This is the wireless future they're talking about. We shouldn't have to have a device to charge and listen through at the same time. We should charge wired and listen "wirelessly" (even if the audio device is wired for power).

Most of the time when I'm driving I have my phone connected to my car with an aux cable and charging via lightning.

I had an old iPod that was unlistenable while it was charging, because noise from the charger leaked into the audio. I tried again recently with an Android phone and found the same problem to a lesser degree. Nice to hear that people are able to do this without trouble.

Sounds like you may need a ground loop isolator.

I've got portable speakers that sound absolutely terrible when actively charging. Do you reckon this would help?

Ground loops are very odd phenomena that can be hard to debug, but it will probably work.

(The stupid option is to lift the ground on your mains adapter, but you really shouldn't do that, somebody might get killed.)

Nearly every day in the car.

I do quite regularly.

Often enough, actually, when I'm driving. My car has a stereo-USB connection that works very well most of the time, allowing me to charge my phone and cycle through my music collection. Its charging speed is slow though, going only at maybe what, 500mA, 1A if I'm lucky? It takes even longer if I'm using Google Maps. To counteract this problem, I've recently started using a power converter, that I normally have for charging my laptop, to charge my phone because it offers a 2.1A USB port that works a LOT better for me.

Why does this matter? Because I can still have my phone's audio going to the car by way of an AUX cable.

I do almost every day in my (circa 2007) car which has a 3.5mm aux jack and no Bluetooth.

There are lighter-plug Bluetooth receivers that have an analog out specifically for cars, I'll likely have to buy one of I end up getting the 7.

very often, it's a great way to dj to an arbitrary device, plug 3.5mm aux cable and charger, apply shuffle, enjoy music. i would hate to drain my battery playing music with my phone when it's sitting next to an outlet and is only incapable of charging due to poor design decisions.

maybe they'll make a lightning hub/splitter so you can do both?

I do that quite frequently. When I take a road trip, generally I have my phone plugged in, doing the navigation, and providing music. I use the headphone jack to connect to my car's audio system (no Bluetooth) and a 12V to USB adapter for power.

Just my view but I do it daily while at work.

I do this all day, every day. Long skype conference calls tend to drain the battery pretty fast.

This is huge for cars. Power and Podcasts via a single Plug.

All the time at work

Every night while falling asleep to a podcast.

Yea, that does suck.

Hopefully with the improved power features of the new CPU, the amount of time when you want to simultaneously listen and charge is reduced.

Don't need to. iPhone 7 gets way better battery life than any other iPhone before.

(Sarcasm)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com