When Apple announced that the iPhone 7 wouldn't have a standard headphone jack, I wrote an article saying that I would never buy this phone until a battery case brought the jack back. Since that post I have been contacted by four different manufacturers currently working on this very concept. Yesterday we actually received a working unit in the mail.
The iStand 7 is the name of the case and it is exactly what I've been hoping for. This case adds additional battery life to the phone for all day use and also adds a headphone jack and lightning jack to the bottom of the phone. Our review unit didn't work perfectly but we have been told by the manufacturer that our issues will be fixed in the final release.
You would expect that this would be end of this insane dilemma but it appears that Apple is purposefully blocking this case and others from reaching the market by blocking "MFI" (made for iPhone) certification. This certification guarantees that the product has been approved by Apple and will work correctly even after updates.
The iStand 7 has been built to Apple's standards but Apple will not approve it. A similar product, the Fuze case, is not built to Apple's exact standards and is set to ship in the next few weeks without MFI certification.
The theory is that Apple doesn't want these products to hit the market before the new Air Pods and potentially hurt their profits. Some people have suggested that Apple may never certify these cases to continue to push their users toward wireless options.
The iStand 7 will probably come to market without a MFI certification but may get it eventually if Apple decides to allow it. The Fuze case should be shipping to those to crowd funded it in the next few weeks and hopefully it will come to the open market after that. The current version cannot be certified under Apple's current standards but they told me they will be creating another version eventually that will be up to Apple's standards.
As Apple continues to push its customers away, these case manufacturers are doing their best to keep us buying new iPhones. I actually would have purchased an iPhone 7 if it had a headphone jack or if a case like the iStand 7 was available. If I can't easily plug all of my headphones or microphones into my smartphone I will have to switch to Android. I would assume that Apple wants to keep others like me as a customer and therefore I think it would be great for all parties involved if these cases were certified and were brought to market quickly.
Hey Lee, don't make me throw a snowball at you! As the editor-in-chief of fstoppers, please, for the sake of our children (and our children's children), learn the difference between it's and its!
And another snowball will be coming your way for publishing content that's not related to photography in the slightest.
Have you really made it your mission to consistently defame a brand everyone knows you hate, and use this forum as a means of voicing your opinion?
Please tell me I'm wrong. fstoppers gained a following from publishing useful BTS videos. I can't even tell you how much of an editorial departure these constant Apple-bashing posts are.
Headphone jack whine #13. Come on!
Not related to photography? One of the main reasons I wanted to buy the iPhone 7 was because the camera's low light ability to film indoors. So much of our BTS and even our video production is shot on the iPhone that this upgrade was really necessary. I stand by my ground and say that the lack of a headphone jack is a deal breaker for me but as long as this case works I'm going to continue on down the iPhone road (for now at least). Ironically, the featured image for this post was shot on an iphone too :0
Haha that's fair. I certainly know the difference but I still let it slip all the time. I blame the person who edited this post before it went live... Chelsey!!
As for the content, we use our iPhone's almost every single day professionally to take pictures and video. Our entire BTS series that we create is shot with our iPhones.
As for me hating Apple I will say that my iPhone is my most prized possession. I would probably give up any other possession before giving up my iPhone. That's probably why I care so much when Apple makes these crazy decisions.
Are you seriously blaming Chelsey, for your grammatical mistakes..?
Is your own spellchecker not working then..?
Also, talking about things not working, did you not get a lightning to jack adapter with your iPhone..? I did and it works fine.
All this fuss over a headphone jack.... Jeeezzzz :/
Good lord it's a joke people
Which bit... Blaming Chelsey, or constantly complaining about Apple..?
Complaining about Apple is a joke. I'm going to fire Chelsey
Some people don't get jokes. Really sad.
Do you get paid per article or something?
If you really need a phone with a headphone jack don't buy the iPhone 7. I do not understand this obsession over the bloody headphone jack. I own a 7 and guess what!? I use Bluetooth headphones.
Honestly lee for a photographer you are clueless about tech it seems. No professionals buy something that doesn't work for them. Stop these stupid apple articles. Go out and shoot and write about that.
No, I own the website.
I currently use so many different headphone peripherals that a dongle for every single one isn't a feasible option AND since I use my phone for professional photos and video I want the top of the line camera. Why is that offensive to you?
I admit, I'm not like most people. I'm sure most people have only one set of headphones or maybe they only use Bluetooth. But I also know there are many people like me who are interested in having the newest iPhone and they want it to continue to work with their headphone jack peripherals OR perhaps they just want to charge their phone and listen to music at the same time.
Nothing about this article is clickbaity. This post is only for people who are interested in a iPhone 7 case with a headphone jack. If you don't care about that why would you click on it let alone leave an angry comment?
It's not offensive to me and it's your site so obviously do you want you want. My point(and I know others agree with me) is that this site has become less and less about photography in the last little bit. These kind of articles are things all of us probably already know about/can find from other websites that aren't photography related. I could see writing about the camera on the iphone 7 but another article about the iphone and it's lack of headphone jack gets tiring for the readers. Diversity is a good thing but not when it's constantly about apple. Apple is fed to us from every other website.
I just hate to see this site become a tech review site rather than interesting/educational photography information. I apologize for seeming angry but seriously man the constant apple stuff is hard to swallow and I own all apple stuff.
It just seems you have more bad things to say about the phone than good so i'm just curious, even though you say you love it, why not switch if it's that bad? You wouldn't buy a camera that doesn't suit your needs would you? Plenty of phones have amazing cameras in them.
again sorry for sounding angry but I miss some of the awesome stuff this website used to have.
I understand but this isn't some negative opinion piece. We are literally one of the only people in the US with a working case like this. That's news. Maybe not interesting news to you but some people have been waiting a while for this.
As a communications professional I share your frustration. Sometimes a huge rig isn't practical. With modern gimbals and microphones, iPhones can be incredibly valuable for live reporting or on-the-fly documentaries. Their change frustrated me like crazy too, and hopefully there are good solutions in the future. The iPhone is a camera, and a good one. If canon made stupid decisions, the commentary would be welcome here I'm sure. Oddly enough, iPhones seem to be more popular on the camera front than a Canon. My one cent (my opinion isn't worth two cents).
ok fair enough. i have the phone and personally love it and don't really find i would need something like this. i like the phone thin and small and this just seems clunky to me. The aux input was never a really great technology anyway so i'm glad apple took the chance to get rid of it and with samsung doing it on their next phone it looks like it will become the norm. It's something we'll all have to get used to being without.
this one just hit me ... where is the button to erase me from this site ?...i like you guys but your are loosing your self in crap .. especially there is only one guy which is writing interesting stuff and it is Quentin Decaillet . Please step back and write stuff correlated to photography and stop with this trash like 10 thinks which your make a better donkey..... or this article..... or the one about audio speakers....
On the front page there are 15 articles that are entirely photography-specific, and this ONE article about the new iPhone which is something a huge majority of the site's audience uses. I'd say many things about the site before I'd say that it's "loosing (sic) itself in crap." In fact I think the content has been outstanding lately!
Please erase me from all MPK posts please!
where is the button to fire the writer of this article
And the biggest shame is it still about the apple shit... there are more brands and products . if you are hating apple please stop writing articles about it ! and of course stop using them .
That's pretty cool Zach Galifianakis took the time to help you out with the review Lee...;) Apple's decisions lately are seriously dumbfounding. I think ii'll just stick my iphone 6 for now.
Twelve minutes for an iPhone 7 case review? I rated this a -1, not for your review, but because of Apples insistence to make those iSheep buy their products. Their ear buds or what ever they are called are a revenue stream for Apple since there is no capture mechanism to prevent them from being lost on the sidewalk or other places.
Apple, as one that works in the technology industry, takes pride in proprietary systems that forces users into their ecosystem.
Our household owns no Apple products.
Can we stop featuring apple on fstoppers please? Or focus on different things? Like actual usefull hardware and setups for photographers that actually want GOOD machines? And not fancy looking ones? I'm not talking for myself, but I can feel that a lot of people want this. Apple has lost it's touch after thr launch of 4s and the first or second iMac and integration with AMD instead of nVidia. But ok. Keep cheering.
I'm afraid as long as they continue to make the most popular computers and cameras in the world we are not going to be able to ignore them.
How sadly true, Lee :)
And I'm afraid that you are not helping the Apple brand disappear by prominently featuring them on your website on a regular basis.
It's like Trump. I have yet to meet a true Trump supporter, yet the media (and people) can't stop talking about him day after day. I'd say that some effective self-marketing! It certainly helped him get in the office. You're helping him stay there :-)
I'm certainly not trying to stop apple from succeeding. I own a bunch of their stock.
If anything this post is giving a bunch of people like me more of a reason to buy the new iPhone.
Most popular computers and cameras? I'm not sure what metric you are using but I don't think either of those are true.
Ok you got me, your click bait article got to me to sit up and go huh!?
"as apple keeps pushing their customers away...."
...and selling MORE phones and laptops despite all the ludites out there......
Awesome you NEED a headphone jack soooo bad you will switch to android, an inferior, buggy, knock off, and malware full platform just because you hate the fact they wanted to make your phone water proof!! right!
there is ACTUALLY a real reason NOT driven by money for this hardware choice ...but nah let just say apple (most profitable company in the world over exxon) is gonna nickel and dime you to death just because. that will get more clicks! (got mine!)
So Great Lee, enjoy your EXPLODING phone that has a headphone jack (but only for about a year).....you see ANDROID is a knock off and whatever apple does so will the android clones.
so the exploding samsungs will have no headphone jack in a year too. same with the HTC POSs. or the google wanna bes. or the LG not quite enoughs....
but you just keep writing those click bait articles and we will keep clicking. someone needs to call out your BS.
btw this article is click bait because of the slant you have against the hardware decision being solely money driven. and the assumptions your making about the approval especially the speculation about the ear pods on apples side. fact is you have no proof on either of those things it's all speculation from a third party manufatuter no less.
this case would be a great addition for the ludites of the world. knowing this i will get on making a case that has these things and allows for hard line land lines calls too, since why not go back to the 80's all together right! the only thing this case needs is a rotary phone attachment "stylus" for an extra fifty bucks! i think i smell tech dino gold here!
So you do or do not like Apple products?
The Google Pixel phone does not explode and is every bit as good as an iPhone. I don't own one, but don't have my head so far up Apple's ass that I can't appreciate another good piece of tech.
The most important reason Apple do these things is to sell licensed products and so make more money.
You can be sure that they will get a nice sum for every item sold with their patented connection.
There are of course other brands out there.
When you write articles about Apple I think you really like to watch the world burn... :) I agree with you about Apple's weird decisions but you know it's like talking about evolution to creationists
Haha wow.. So much hate on an Apple post.
I personally thought this was a great little piece in between the regular gear/tips and tricks posts. We are fortunate that we are able to have phones that actually have usable cameras. While they aren't always the most professional piece of equipment, they get the job done when your camera isn't in reach.
Buying the iPhone 7 might get some of the haters those likes and followers they are pining for on Instagram.
Hey guys, here is a tip for you if you don't like the content :
- offer to write "better" posts ;)
- remember it's free
- feel free to skip an article (wow what an effort) or event the whole website
@Lee and @Patrick thanks for both informing and entertaining us with a wide range of photo related posts... Not always in line with your opinions, but so cool to be able to access so much diverse content and for free, from the other side of the world!
Thanks for the kind words Emmanuel!
The article was good but the comments were better lol, maybe i'm just in the minority but I already own 2/3 pairs of headphone and I drive an old car aka aux cord only. I'm suppose to not only spend several hundred on a phone, another couple hundred on headphones, then swap out my stereo in my car too just so I can listen to music/podcast and charge my phone? I'm actually more surprised at all the people who don't have this issue lol.
I just got my sister's iphone 6 for the meantime (i tend to skip a generation) to see what happens but right now I'm leaning android not only for this but for google fi which works out better for international travel.