Smartphone dongles and adapter can tend to get a bad rap , check as unsightly and unnecessary hyperkinetic syndrome - ons that deflower the curved esthetic of a smartphone , and become just one more thing to forget or lose . But used mighty these plug - in peripherals can help you do more with your telephone set than you ever thought possible , here are five issues dongles actually solve .
1. Getting your phone on the big screen
With tech like the Chromecast and Apple AirPlay around , you ’ve generate plenty of choice for get your smartphone display up on a big screen , whether you want to watch video or play game . induce a pumped-up setup together can often prove faster and more reliable though , and works away from your home wireless local area connection too .
Behold theApple Lightning Digital AV Adapter , yours for $ 49 , which provide the miss link between your iPhone and the HDMI cable’s length give chase out of your 4 kelvin TV ( or your office projector ) . you could beam apps , presentation , website , moving-picture show , tv set show and more , though you ’re limited to 1080p resolution .
For Android you need something similar but for microUSB or USB - C. This$50 USB - C to HDMI adapterfrom Samsung will do the job , and like the iPhone your Android equipment will mechanically discover the new connection and start mirroring content accordingly .
Photo: Eleanor Fye (Gizmodo)
You do involve to check your phone ’s specs though — the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL , for example , simply will not output picture over their USB - C port wine , maybe to encourage you to go and buy a Chromecast rather . If you ’re last to need this sort of functionality on your phone , you call for to make certain it ’s support .
2. Record decent audio for once
Microphones may not precisely qualify as dongle or adapters but we ’re going to include them anyway as compact accessories that can quickly hike up the capableness of your smartphone . Unfortunately the demise of the earpiece manual laborer means it ’s currently rather tricky to find seemly theoretical account .
If the 3.5 mm audio port is still present and correcton your phone , then something like the$40 iRig Mic Castwill get you substantially better audio than your phone ’s build - in mike can , particularly if what you ’re recording is more than a few foot off . If you ’re recording someone or something in particular , look at a shotgun pick like the$55 Movo Shotgun Mic(it comes with a take handle too ) .
For iPhones , many a mic will plug directly into the Lightning port , withthe Shure MV88one of the most widely commend choices – it ’s expensive at nearly $ 190 but it come with a windjammer and will get you good results . If you do a lot of field recording with your iPhone it might be deserving invest in .
If your phone has neither a 3.5 millimeter headphone squat or a Lightning port , you ’ll struggle to get something suitable ( the USB - C portable mic market seems to have been slow to take off ) . Your best option might be to bribe a USB - C to 3.5 millimetre adapter and then touch base up a mike to your smartphone that way .
3. Freeing up some phone storage
Did you know you could stop up USB storage devices straight into many Android phones ? You do now . For older microUSB telephone set you need an On The Go ( OTG ) adapter cable television – likethis $ 5.49 oneon Amazon – and you could then just plug one end into your phone and the other into a USB stick or portable drive .
With a USB - C port on your earphone , you may either bribe an arranger that converts USB - carbon to the more conventional USB - A connector eccentric , or get a USB - C driving force and cut out the interlocutor — this 128 GB memory stickfrom SanDisk would do the job and is less than $ 35 from Amazon at the time of writing .
Android actually supports these memory devices natively , so you could see the driving force , its folders , and its files in any file handler you have installed on your gimmick . Some storage parkway manufacturers ( including SanDisk ) also provide their own apps for apace set out files off your phone and freeing up blank space .
When it comes to iPhones your selection are a little more limited — you necessitate to pick up a twist specifically made for the iPhone , likethe $ 80 Leef iBridge 3 , with 64 GB of remembering . This gimmick and others like it issue forth with an app to help you manage repositing and files : You could , for example , load up some film for the Kid to check on a escape .
4. Keeping your old headphones
No one would say it ’s idealistic having to plug in a dongle between your phone and your headphones , but it does at least let you keep using those gamy - conclusion , expensive wired headphones that you ’ve get so fond of . If you ’ve paid several hundred dollars for them then you do n’t necessarily want to go out andbuy AirPods too .
Not only that , it lets you expend the same couplet of headphones across multiple gadget – you just call for the right dongle for each one . It ’s instant , authentic , wired audio frequency , and no motive to charge up your headphone every other twenty-four hour period onward of your commute . As an added bonus you may plug your telephone into your hi - fi organization at home as well .
As you may have image , Google just inaugurate a new and improved USB - C to 3.5 millimetre adapter for its Pixel telephone set . Sure , it looks very exchangeable to the original , but Google promises miserable latency and less of a power draw play foryour extra $ 3 . If you ’ve got an Android phone with USB - C , it ’s deserving paying a lilliputian more for a cable television you’re able to in reality rely on .
On the Apple side of the fence you wo n’t get a Lightning to 3.5 millimeter adaptor with this year ’s iPhones , but Apple will sell youone for $ 9(even if it would much rather you furcate out the $ 160 for some AirPods ) . It ’s going to be interesting to see exactly which ports Apple include on the nextiPad Pros .
5. Using your phone as a computer
Today ’s top - ending smartphones are powerful enough to enable you to get on with some serious computing , and this year’sSamsung flagshipsonce again support the DeX protocol for addict them up to a shiner , keyboard , and varan .
DeX has been simplify with theGalaxy Note 9 — now you only need a USB - coke to HDMI transcriber or cable to do the job ( yours for $ 50 ) , whereas on older Samsung phones you required a full - on dock ( yours for $ 70 ) . you’re able to still use the sour grass on the Note 9 if you need , because you do get some redundant ports out of it .
As you would expect consider Samsung has made such a noise about the feature , everything works automatically once the cable are link and the monitor and peripherals are find . By default you just see a duplication of your phone ’s screen , but you’re able to switch to DeX mode using the menu that come along on screen .
Huawei is another manufacturer exploring this kind of tech : Huawei Desktop Mode can execute DeX - like tricks on the troupe ’s flagship speech sound from the Mate 10 ahead . Again , you just require a monitor and a USB - vitamin C to HDMI overseas telegram to get it localize up .
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