15 October, 2008

Apple iPhone 3G dock

To dock – or not to dock?

If you did your homework, I’m guessing you found out before buying the iPhone 3G, that an iPhone 3G compatible dock doesn’t come “included in the box”.

Worse still, if you found out just after getting it home to play with your shiny new iPhone 3G, I’m guessing there were a few choice words directed at Apple? Not that it’s an outright necessity, but it can make your life a little easier.

So, why not include it in the box? Guess it’s just another Apple money making gimic.

“Why do I need an iPhone 3G compatible dock?”

Not all Apple products are created equally!

As the iPhone 3G’s shape changed slightly from the original first generation iPhone, it means it won’t fit in the dock supplied with the original iPhone properly.

Most importantly – Some other iPod accessories firewire pins output is 12 volts, whereas the iPhone only uses 5 volts. So you shouldn’t use others, unless you check the voltage first.

I imagine you don’t want to try saving a few bucks, to then kill your iPhone – costing you SO much more!

Other “selling” points:

With the iPhone 3G Dock, you get easy access to a USB port for syncing or charging and an audio line out port for connecting to powered speakers.
You can keep your USB to dock connector cable connected to your computer all the time if you wish, then just put your iPhone into the dock as needed.
You can conduct speakerphone calls with your iPhone 3G in its dock.
Connect the dock to a stereo or speakers using an AV cable or a stereo audio cable to play music from iPhone 3G.