Most Docks Should Work With The Lightning Adapter And iPhone 5

A bit of good news among the seeming rubble that is the iPhone 5 launch: the $30 adapter you have to buy to connect your Lightning iPhone 5 to your old and busted iPod dock should stream audio without problem. The folks at audio company Line 6 did some “preliminary tests” and found that:

Line 6 is still testing their accessories with iPhone 5, but founder Marcus Ryle tells CDM, “Based on what’s been announced, for audio products that operate using USB Host mode and follow Apple approved methods such as CoreAudio and CoreMIDI, I would not expect there to be any technical issue.” I asked if they had anything to say about future Lightning support, but Ryle responded, “We continue to be excited about providing music-making devices for iOS devices, but we can’t comment on what additional products might be upcoming.”

Note the weasel words here (“Based on what’s been announced”). While we’re still in Schrodinger’s Cat territory with the adapter and dock combo, it seems that a reputable company is standing by the position that the new adapter will work with standard audio devices. However, the jury is still clearly out.

Core Audio is an Apple standard for playing sound on Macs and iPods/iPhones. Some docks may require special features that can’t be replicated through lightning, but the chances of that are slim. In the end, I guess we just have to wait and hope our devices survive the transition.

via Giz