Some people will be happy with the standard headphones, charger, and syncing dock that come with the iPhone. Others love to accessorize. Whether you’re looking to protect your iPhone from damage with a screen protector or case, integrate it into your home with a stereo dock, or improve your iPod experience on-the-go with a better set of headphones, you can’t go wrong if you’re searching in the right place. In this chapter, we’ll highlight some of our favorite accessories along with our favorite places to get them—as well as what you should look for in your own iPhone gear.
Although many accessories—including iPod accessories—will work flawlessly with the iPhone, even a refurbished phones for sale NZ, the only way you can be absolutely sure an accessory was designed specifically for the iPhone is if it carries the Works with iPhone label. This label ensures that there’s minimal interference between an accessory’s functions (docking, music speakers) and the iPhone’s communication functions (calling, Internet).
The iPhone has many different types of phone accessories designed to do different things. Here’s a brief, consolidated list:
Headphones
The iPhone actually comes with a fairly decent set of headphones. As a headset for making calls, it’s quite good, but as headphones for audio, it’s not all that great. We recommend that you use your own third-party headphones from companies like Shure (with the Shure iPhone adapter) and V-Moda in order to get the highest quality audio out of your iPhone. Models like the V-Moda Vibe Duo Control are made especially for the iPhone’s recessed headset jack. If you already have a favorite pair of headphones, the recessed headphone jack rules out plugging in many headphones directly into the iPhone, but there are a few headphone adapters available that fix this oversight.
Headphone Adapters
Because of the recessed headset jack on your iPhone, most headphones just won’t fit in all the way. Adapters from Belkin and Shure have a male end that goes into the iPhone and a female end that allows you to plug in any headphones. The Shure adapter also has an on-board microphone, which essentially turns any headphones you have into ones that can make calls as well.
Docks
iPhone docks, such as the one that comes packaged with your phone, allow you to connect the phone to your computer easily without having to fiddle with a cable each time. You can both sync your phone and charge its battery while it’s docked. The dock usually consists of two pieces: the dock itself and the USB to iPhone connector cable that goes into your computer. There’s even a line-out port on the dock that comes with your iPhone, and that allows you to connect your iPhone to a set of speakers when it’s docked. If you own an official Apple Bluetooth headset, it also comes with a special dock that charges both the iPhone and the headset, and actually automatically pairs the two together when they’re both docked.