Review: The Dock Extender Cable from CableJive
There are many reasons you might want to use an extender cable to dock your iPhone or iPod – the most obvious of course being the Apple-supplied dock cable is too short for your needs. But for me a far more common issue is having an older accessory with a dock connection (speaker, car charger, stereo etc.) that I wish to to hook up my iPhone to, and it just doesn’t fit. That’s where the Dock Extender Cable comes to the rescue.
Above: A thing of beauty. My 1st gen Mophie Juice Pack charging my 3G iPhone
Many of us who fell in love with our Mophie Juice Packs for our first gen iPhones were saddened to see that Apple’s curved-back 3G model no longer fits in the device. As Mophie continues to push back shipping deadlines on its 3G model, I have found the extender cable does the trick in a pinch, and I can use it to charge my 3G iPhone via the Juice Pack while driving or while the kids play games on it. Sure, it ain’t pretty, and you aren’t going to shove this in your pocket, but I can throw my iPhone in my bag and let it charge on the way to a meeting. Works like a charm.
Above: Both the connectors and the cable itself is a bit thicker than on Apple’s cable.
The extender cable comes in both black and white, and in lengths of either 2 or 6 feet. So far in my testing with various devices, the cable works flawlessly. In connecting my iPhone to an old iHome alarm clock I initially experienced some static in the audio playback, but it turns out I did not have the cable situated properly, so be aware you may have to push a little harder than usual to make the connections secure, which leads my to my first issue.
Issues
One problem with the cable is it is physically much thicker than the Apple-branded cable, both the cable itself and the “heads” of the cable. This means the cable is heavier and less bendable than a regular iPod cable, so if you have it connected to a dockable stereo (like the iHome alarm clock) with a dock on the top, the cable may pop out slightly due to the cable’s “memory” and weight if your iPod or iPhone is laying flat on the table. So just be aware to double check each end is connected securely if you have any issues.
The only other potential issue some may run into is that the Extender Cable does not support S-Video output or audio in for recording. Regular composite video played back fine though in our tests with an RCA-dock cable, so really only true videophiles will care about the lack of S-Video, and (let’s be honest here) true videophiles aren’t using an iPod and S-Video to connect to anything anyway.
Conclusion
CableJive’s Dock Extender cable is a great way to connect your iPod or iPhone to your old (and new) peripherals for those times when you need to put some distance between the two. While it does not support S-Video out, it is ideal for extending the range of computer to iPod/iPhone syncing, audio playback, composite video playback, and power charging, and the cable worked as advertised in our tests.
The Dock Extender Cable from CableJive
Price: $26 for the 2 foot cable (available in black and white), $32 for the 6-foot (available in black only)
Pros: Can be used to extend the distance between an iPod/iPhone and a peripheral, or to hook an “incompatible” device to an older device. Supports charging, syncing, and composite video and audio playback
Cons: A little thick, no S-Video playback (does support composite video)
Does anyone know if this device allows you to charge an iPhone 3G off of an older device that is fire-wire based for charging? I have several devices which won’t charge my new iPhone and want to know if this will solve the issue,
Jordan: I can’t answer that, but Cable Jive is working on a device that does that:
http://cablejive.com/iphone_3g_charge_converter.html
They say they’ll start accepting orders next week (Sept 22), and begin shipping the first of October.
If you just need to extend the dock from your mac (or PC), get a USB extension cable – Belkin sells a 6 foot one for $6
It’s worth noting that the Apple cable pictured is for connecting via USB, which requires a 4-conductor wire. The CableJive cable connects 16 different pins, requiring 4x as many wires and a housing that can ensure those wires are connected correctly. This is why the cable and housing is slightly larger than the Apple USB sync cable.
Does anyone know how the dock extender works with a Volkswagen iPod dock? I’d like to control my iPod by hand, not with the VW stereo controls (very limited functionality); the VW dock not only makes this nearly impossible, but the AUX port is removed on cars that have the iPod dock.
An even better solution for me (I didn’t want the extra cable) was the DockExtender Boost I found at http://www.gagdetboost.com/Extender I also got a couple of the colored extenders to match the bumpers I bought for my iPhone. Small, easy….yea