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This $20 device can turn any wired headphones wireless

Jeff Dunn   

This $20 device can turn any wired headphones wireless
Tech1 min read

griffin itrip clip headphone adapter

Griffin

The Griffin iTrip Clip.

The headphone jack appears to be on death row in Apple land, and accessory makers are looking to capitalize, even before the iPhone 7 pulls the plug for good.

Griffin is one such eager beaver, as it this week announced the iTrip Clipa tiny $20 adapter that gives any 3.5mm headphone Bluetooth functionality.

The whole thing looks to be fairly straightforward. You plug your traditional wired headphones in one end, then connect the Clip to a smart device over Bluetooth 4.1. There's a built-in mic for taking calls, a handful of playback buttons on the device's front, and a shirt clip on its back.

Griffin says the Clip's battery will get six hours of talk time, and that it'll keep a connection from 30 feet away.

Griffin is far from the first company to make one of these things, but it does seem to be the first to explicitly market such a device with the death of the headphone jack in mind. Though something like this could technically work with any phone, the Nashville company outright says the Clip is good for the jack-less Motorola Moto Z, along with "future devices without the headphone jack." That's your cue to look in Apple's direction.

It's also worth noting this is a dongle, and dongles are kind of the worstThough the Clip won't flop around the end of your phone, it is another thing to charge - over the aging microUSB standard, no less - and it'll technically make your headphones sound worse than they would with a 3.5mm connection. Plus, it's another $20 to spend.

Whether or not Apple is packaging its own adapter with the iPhone 7 won't be clear until it unveils the phone(s) on September 7Either way, though, it appears our great dongle apocalypse is starting to take shape.

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