Apple quietly revives iPhone charging and syncing docks

Apple has quietly reintroduced an iPhone accessory that was discontinued when the iPhone 5 was unveiled last September: the lowly but in some quarters much-missed charging and syncing dock. Apparently, Apple didn't want to clutter up its Tuesday-morning rollout of the iPhone 5C and 5S with a mention of such a quotidian piece …

[JeffyPoooh]

"...it's not clear how that's accomplished."

Duh, it's Apple. It'll be accomplished in the most technically-complicated possible way, that excludes the aftermarket.

Something like Bluetooth 5.0+ from the phone to two tiny hidden micro speakers in the dock.

Instead of having 'ugly' holes to let the sound through.

[LarsG]

No good

If you use a case, if you don't use a case it gets scratched.

[davemcwish]

Re: No good

Yup, its for this reason that a lot of 3rd party cables won't work with my 4s/lifeproof case combination due to the size of the plastic round the male dock connector. I do use 3rd party cables as Apple's offering is too short/expensive (£15 for 1m).

[moylan]

miss docks

when i had a palm pda the dock was such a useful addon for syncing and charging the later models. it's odd that with the terrible battery lifes of modern smart phones that they are shunned so much. plus with all the weather/stock/slide show apps it can be a constant stream of info beside your main computer.

me i'll stick to my crappy new nokia feature phone that needs charging once a week. :-)

[Jolyon Smith]

5s on top/at the back | 5c below/in front

Did I win ? Where do I collect my prize ? :)

[Winkypop]

$29.99!

Does that include the koolaid or not?

[Dan 55]

Only Apple

One lightning connector, two different docks which look identical for three different phones (5/5S and 5C). What happens if you plug the wrong phone in, does it explode or something?

Offices? Homes with more than one iPhone? Two indistinguishable docks for you then.

Impressive even for them.

[stucs201]

Re: Only Apple

I too can't see a good reason for not also bringing back the changeable insert of the old 'universal' dock (I wonder if that name combined with the 5's incompatible connector was why they tried to get rid of docks?)

[monkeyfish]

Re: Only Apple

No, it just wont fit. The top one has square corners at the back, presumably for the 5S, and the bottom one has rounded corners for the 5C. Quite why they couldn't make it fit both I have no idea.

[peter 45]

Re: Only Apple

Apple.....square corners....nnnooooooooo

[VinceH]

Re: Only Apple

"Apple.....square corners....nnnooooooooo"

They heard rumours that there's a company out there that thinks they own rounded corners... oh, wait.

[Adrian Midgley 1]

Good on Palm

and the device just dropped in. I also miss it, although not with an iPhone now.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Unfortunately for the true stylista, however, they are still waiting to understand what style and class is." After all, they can never obtain it by purchasing a device.

[majorursa]

Why Sync?

I don't get it. Since I switched from my beloved Palm's to Android I haven't felt the need to sync anything with a PC, let alone through a docking station and wire. Am I missing something?

[100113.1537]

Re: Why Sync?

Because for some of us, having everything in the Cloud is not an option. I have had to get 3rd party software to keep synchronizing with my PC and I really really really miss the ease of the Palm in this respect (although they did get annoying when they changed connectors with every model as Apple seem to be doing now).

The other good point raised above was having the phone sitting next to your PC as as separate item, showing other information. Bit like a second (third - fourth even) screen.

[Captain Scarlet]

Docks

I assume the more rounded dock is for the feature phone?

The less rounded one will likely cause Apple to get sued by another company who has patented less rounded objects.

[Darren Barratt]

So last decade...

Some of us are so happy using the wireless charging on our phones that we didn't even think about a "dock"

[Hogwam]

3.5mm jack connector on the rear?

I thought Apple had removed the option to output analogue audio with the lightning connector and the attached device had to do the DAC itself?

[Lallabalalla]

Audio output

AFAIK there is still audio output through the cable, but NO VIDEO. This FWIW is why I'm not interested in a 5/5C/5S, as I like to dump my phone on my hifi - which has a DOCK... and links to my TV, so I can download and watch movies from it. I *suppose* I can continue to use my old iPod for that when my phone finally dies and needs replacing. Going to be a good few years yet though touch wood.

[DaveyG]

Lightning connector

I wonder how long it will take for the flimsy lightning connector to break in that doc.

[Darryl]

Two dollar words

'quotidian'?

(looks it up)

Well, to be fair, they spent a lot of time on another quotidian plastic product - the 5C