Apple won’t include free dongles with new iPhones

Hollis Johnson/Business
Insider

• After Apple stopped building iPhones with a headphone
  jack, the company chose to include a free dongle headphone
  adapter with new iPhone purchases. 
• The dongle allows iPhone owners to use a 3.5mm
  headphone plug with the Lightning port — otherwise,
  non-bluetooth and non-Lighting enabled headphones aren’t
  compatible with phones without a jack. 
• However, Apple won’t be including the dongle with
  newly-purchased iPhones — and each dongle costs $9
  each. 

Apple’s new iPhones pack all sorts of nifty new features. But
there’s one important item you won’t get with the new iPhone: a
headphone dongle.

Apple will no longer include include a free 3.5mm jack conversion
dongle with newly-purchased iPhones. 

The clunky, white doodad doesn’t get much love from consumers.
It’s dorky-looking and easily lost. But it’s an essential item
for a lot of people.

That’s because Apple removed the traditional 3.5mm analog
headphone jack from its iPhones in 2016, and replaced it with the
proprietary “lightning” jack. Listening to music, or taking
hands-free calls on an iPhone, now requires newer lightning
compatible headphones, or wireless headphones — or, the converter
dongle that lets your old headphones connect with the lightning
jack. 

Until now, Apple has included the dongle as a complimentary item
with new iPhones. After all, it was Apple’s decision to make the
change, so it makes sense that the company would provide the
necessary equipment so that customers could continue to use their
old headphones. 

But apparently Apple believes that two years is enough time for
the world to have adapted to the new reality. 

The company did not formally announce that it is no longer
offering the free dongle with iPhones, but a look at the Apple
site that details everything that’s included with the latest
iPhones reveals the dongle’s conspicuous absence. 

For those who are still attached to their old headphones though,
there’s still a way to connect them to the iPhone — but it will
cost $9. The dongles
can be purchased on Apple’s website, on physically in-store.