iLDock brings charging, headphone use back to iPhone 7 for $10

The new iPhone 7 has been available for just over two weeks now, and if there's one trend that's becoming immediately apparent, it's ways to restore a standard 3.5mm headphone jack to Apple's latest smartphone. The 3.5mm to Lightning adapter included in the iPhone 7's box might be enough for some users that plan to stick with wired headphones, but for many other there's still the dilemma of charging and listening to music at the same time.

We've already seen the Fuze case for iPhone 7 that adds a headphone jack to a battery case, as well as a dongle from Belkin that plugs into the Lightning port, offering two additional Lightning ports that can be used at the same time. If you want to use 3.5mm wired headphones with the latter, you'll end up with this monstrosity:

The iLDock is a slightly simpler solution that undercuts both those in price. The small Lightning adapter offers both a headphone jack for traditional headphones and a Lightning port for charging at the same time — and it's priced at just $10. It's still in the Kickstarter funding phase, mind you, but after only launching four days ago backers have pledged over $33,000 towards the $5,000 funding goal.

If you really want to connect a bunch of stuff to your iPhone 7 at the same time, they're also offering a iLDock Plus, which, again, plugs into the Lightning port, and offers ports for USB, microSD, SD card, 3.5mm jack, and Lightning. This larger model is priced at $20 during the funding campaign.

Both models of the iLDock are made from aluminum, with the smaller version available in iPhone-matching colors including silver, gold, rose gold, and space grey (Apple has retired the latter color from the iPhone, of course, but there's no Black or Jet Black option for the iLDock).

The Kickstarter campaign says they plan to start shipping in November, which may be a bit ambitious since there's just under four weeks of funding left and manufacturing has yet to start. However, if you're desperate to be able to charge your iPhone 7 and listen to music at the same time, this is both the simplest and cheapest solution we've seen thus far.

SOURCE Kickstarter