Sweet! Finally, Silly apple and those earphones that dont stay in,,

Great, now how long before it disintegrates?

I just wish someone would make some halfway comfortable non-bud headphones with an iphone mic/remote attached. The shure thing looks cool but that adds a TON of cord to deal with.

I solved iPhone's stupid headphone jack problem with a dremel. Works perfect.

read:
[forums.macrumors.com]

You can easily replace the buds of the iphone's earbuds, keeping the mini remote\mic. I just bought shure e2c's for $40 and going to replace the buds with those. You can replace them with most ear buds.

I also have an adaptor from the old iPod Shuffle sport case. Its white and apple-like. You can find them for 5-6 shipped on ebay.

Sorry, I don't have an iphone.

What exactly is the issue?

This one looks much better than the Belkin one, which is way bulkier than necessary and gets to be kind of irritating when watching video. But I'd still like one that is the minimum possible size--maybe an inch long, if that, that gets the job done with no dongoling around.

That said, I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and perform minor surgery on my headphone jacks so as not to worry about it at all.

That picture looks like a standard 4 pin jack, same as my (not iphone) phone.

@Kaiser-Machead: Great, now how long before it disintegrates?

It should last as long as the $10 one from Griffin. Even if it only lasts half as long, it's less then half the price. You can buy two, and with free shipping you will still be ahead of the $10 one.

But really adapters like this one rarely break. I don't think paying $10 for one makes it any more likely to last. If you get it tangled and it breaks, the $10 one would also break.

--Deamion

I'm surprised it took this long. It's about a buck in parts from your local Radio Shack and 10 minutes of time soldering to make one yourself...

You know, maybe I should start making some and selling them on eBay. Question: is the iPhone's jack smaller than standard, or is it just being recessed that's the issue?

Sweet!! Yay for third party manufacturers, but quality is definetely an issue.

@schrosa:
The iPhone has a weird recessed headphone jack to accomodate for the special earbud/microphone setup. Thing is, it's recessed a little to where you can't use any other headphones without an adaptor

@lolec: I'd love to see your handy work. Post a pic somewhere and give us some love.
I was thinking of this too, but I wasn't sure how thick the alum housing is around the headphone jack and the SIM card.

Also, iFrogz, makers of some great iPod cases now sells their own headphone adapter, the iFitz. I have no idea what the hell that means, but it's only $3.99 with $1 to ship. www.ifrogz.com I bought one, and it works great, but the wire does seem thin, so I'll see if it holds up.

@Ranova

I'm trying to do the same thing, picked up the ec deal like you, but am not an expert. I am hoping to get it done though, maybe you can help. If you can, email me grem28[at]gmail.com thanx.

i dont knwo what this iphone thing is

@lolec: Agree with Halfro, post up a pic. Did you dremel the iPhone or your headphone jack is my big question tho?

I succesfully shaved down a headphone with an exacto.

Also, regarding adapters in general, I saw some on a webpage being advertised which were one solid piece, as long as two 1/8" plugs. They looked like standard adapters used to go from 1/4" to 1/8". Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the page and can't find them again! Anyone see these? They were reasonably priced @ $5-6 I think.

@Keebler: I dremel the headphone not the iPhone. ill post a pic.
also i think you are talking about apple adapter. [store.apple.com]

"$3.99 Canadian, which is just about the same as US dollars these days, and for a while the company's offering free shipping"

It is the same these days. On Thursday, the US Dollar reached parity with the Canadian dollar for the first time in 30 years. The Euro also reached an all-time high against the dollar, and the British pound still has roughly a 2:1 ratio.

@ConstyXIV: I don't think the recessed style has anything to do with the microphone. Standard iPod earbuds work just fine in the iPhone, and the iPhone earbuds work just fine in other iPods/computers/etc (without the microphone and click functionality, of course). Presumably the recessed design was chosen because it was the only way to fit the internal circuitry for the jack within the iPhone's form factor (the ends slope too much to push the jack out to the surface without adding some sort of bump on the case).

The problem is just that the plastic molding around the jack does not allow most standard styles of headphone plug to be plugged all the way in, including the 90-degree bent jack used by most mid-range headphones as well as bulker versions of a straight plug found in some higher-end models.

Shaving away enough of the plastic around the plug (the "minor surgery" I mentioned) in order to be fit the plug into the recessed jack will solve the problem, but runs the risk of damaging the actual cable inside the plastic casing.

i have a well developed opinion about this headphone jack that everyone has been inconvenienced by. i think its actually a GOOD IDEA to have the jack like this, the way its designed keeps the headphone tip secure in the machine and doesn't allow for it to turn such that the internal port gets damaged. i don't really know what i'm talking about, i'm sorta making up a story, but i like it, it makes me feel ok that apple reinvented the wheel again. i love fucking apple sauce!

I've bought Fitz adapter from iFrogz for $4,99. Very good quality and low price. [ifrogz.com]

@ConstyXIV: The iPhone has a weird recessed headphone jack to accomodate for the special earbud/microphone setup.

That is just utter BS. The reason for the recessing is much simpler.

If you put the port on the surface, that port's edges would have to be rounded front-to-back to fit the profile of the iPhone. If a headphone jack were plugged into such a port, the body of the jack would be resting against a curved surface, giving it support on only one axis (left-to-right). Bend the plug the along the front-to-back axis, and it could easily cause damage to the iPhone, the plug, or both.

You can see this if you plug a dock connector directly into the iPhone, and look down the length of the bottom edge. You'll see the flat edge of the connector is very unstable, front to back, resting against the curved profile of the iPhone. You certainly wouldn't want to apply any force to it.

Now, Apple could have certainly created a flat spot on the top of the iPhone for the headphone jack. It would have been ugly. They could have also made the recess hole larger, but that would have decreased its strength. Also, since most people use the stock headphones with the device, debris would have collected more readily in the gap.

I think Apple has done their best to come up with the best compromise, and they didn't make an adapter for the same reason they don't make a case for it: 3rd-party opportunities. My Shure canalphones, for example, will have an adapter available very soon, adding a built-in microphone to my E500s.

The main point here is that Apple didn't recess the port to lock you in to anything, or force you to do anything. They recessed the port to avoid damaged iPhones, and the resulting expense of tech-support calls and replacement units.

i got one from iFrogz for buck more

[ifrogz.com]

@omg-ponies: omg-that's-depressing

(particularly since I'm a tourist not an exporter)

$3.99? RIPOFF!

$1.50 from monoprice.com I just bought four of 'em to adapt everything (bedroom stereo, car stereo, etc etc) I could think of to work with the dumb jack. It's one piece, not a flexible cable, but it works fine, sounds great, and is much closer to the fifty cents a part like this really costs.

[www.phonedog.com]

@92BuickLeSabre: What's more depressing is that even if you were an exporter, it wouldn't matter. A lot of countries slap tariffs on imported goods, diminishing gains to be had.

The Times had an article on this on Thursday, noting that the phrase "dollar crisis" is being avoided.

But hey, you could be here in NYC and enjoy the endless hordes of European tourists invading Manhattan like so many Visigoths...

It wouldn't process my credit card, the bastards!
All I've been doing is cutting the plastic/rubber on my headphones back about 1/16th of an inch and everything fits. It's not really a necessity that you get an adapter.

Regardless of WHY apple made this ludicrous design choice, they did, and someone else has to come up with a 'hack' to make it work like most people want it to work. It's amazing the same kind of people who think apple is godlike in their perfection are the same ones that think they couldn't make their product compatible with industry standards.

Plain and simple, Apple likes controlling their own ecosystem. When they license FairPlay, then I'll believe they have the consumer in mind.

Sold out!

I've posted about this before, but i bought an original iPod Shuffle Sport case off amazon for $.99US and it came with a thin, white adapter that works beautifully with the iPhone.

Seen here:
[playlistmag.com]

I completely agree that this whole thing with the adapter on the iPhone is rather dumb...

Since Helium's offer has now completely sold out we thought that you might like to know about another iPhone headphone adapter deal from the iPhoniacs Store.

Simply add any iPhone accessory of your choice + the SPE iPhone Headphone Adapter [store.iphoniacs.com] to your cart then Checkout and on the Billing Info page enter the coupon code IPHONIACS to get the headphone adapter completely FREE... ;-)

Happy iPhoning!

I had the headphone jack on my 3rd gen iPod go from wear and tear. I think the iPhone jack might make it a little stronger. Which is what I would hope for from (well at least when I bought) $600 phone. My shure mpa 3-c + shure se210s work great with the iphone and the cable length ain't an issue.

@nk126:
Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for.

@macserv:
I don't think you're right regarding Apple's reasons for doing this. The back case could have been made slightly un-round to provide support from all sides.

My guess is that the PCB could not be extended to the end of the phone for some reason, therefore the jack could not be mounted flush. That's not to say I think it's an acceptable reason.... but still.

@omg-ponies: What article was that? That's a pretty quick set of tariff slaps to keep up with the dropping dollar.