While Apple’s modern iPhones pack a lot of battery power, some users still have a valid need to both charge and listen to their iPhone at the same time — something that’s been trickier with Apple’s recent removal of the headphone jack. While adapters have been available for a while that split the Lightning port in two or provide a Lightning and 3.5mm audio jack, Vinpok’s new Duo 2 Cable takes a more interesting approach; rather than simply providing the ports and requiring you to supply your own Lightning cables, the Duo 2 Cable is a three-foot USB to Lightning cable for charging your iPhone that simply provides an inline Lighting port so you can connect your headphones or headphone adapter.
While it may not be quite as versatile as simply providing two ports and letting the user decide what to do with them, we think that Duo 2 Cable has the right idea here — addressing the most common need for such an adapter, which is to be able to charge/sync your iPhone while also listening to audio, all through the same Lightning port.
The cable itself is made out of braided nylon fabric, making it durable and tangle-free, and most significantly you can also actually sync your iPhone using this cable while listening to music — a feature that few other adapters provide. Standard headphone play/pause, track, and volume controls pass through without any issue either, both from Apple’s own EarPods or any MFi-compatible headphones connected via Apple’s Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter, and the Duo 2 Cable supports full 48 kHz, 24-bit audio output.
Duo 2 Cable is an Indiegogo project in the “Prototype” stage, however it has been fully funded, and the sample that we received was completely functional and had no issues. Duo 2 Cable will retail for $59 when released, however early backers can still get one for as little as $19 while the campaign is ongoing.
