Bending the battery: Using a dock extender to flex your iPhone

Do you use a bottom-connector battery extender? Have you been bothered by the awkward phone geometry that involves? For me, I've found it really hard to deal with the added length, especially with the (tiny!) storage compartment on the top handle of my Jeep stroller. For me, the longer phone-plus-battery length simply doesn't work, which means I can't fit the phone in.

That's awkward because I like to use TrailGuru as I walk to go pick up my youngest from school in the afternoon. After a bit of hunting, I've located a way to detach the battery from the phone to create a bending solution that does fit.

I recently picked up a Male-to-Female dock extender from DealExtreme for under four bucks (with shipping included). The cable lets me "fold" the battery into place for afternoon walks or stick it into my pocket while using the iPhone on a tether.

As far as stroller and backpack use goes, it seems to be working quite well. As for tethering, it's a fairly thick cable, and brings with it all the standard tethered irritations. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of tethered use but when you need that extra battery charge, it's a slight improvement over having the battery pack stuck directly into the bottom of the unit.

DealExtreme ships from HongKong, so it generally takes a week or so for packages to arrive. I've bought lots of things from them and they've been reliable shippers. When purchasing from Chinese suppliers, do keep in mind that the individual item fail rate is going to be higher than you might expect: not a constant issue, but something you should factor into your purchases, and something I've certainly experienced.

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Source: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20628

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Do you use a bottom-connector battery extender? Have you been bothered by the awkward phone geometry that involves? For me, I've found it...

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Unknown

It's a bit more expensive, but folks who want a US-based extender can get one from CableJive and avoid the overseas shipping:

http://www.cablejive.com/products/Dock-Extender-Cable.html

April 15 2010 at 10:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mibaksh

hello, I have the same problem as above. I should have read the comments before buying, well the updated ones :P

It works otherwise but i don't need it other than for what the post described, that is to be able to use my phone comfortable while juicing up. I have my Monoprice 2200mAh model as well and it didnt pick it up.

It worked on the standard charger, but i dont need it for that as i have a 6ft from monoprice.

Ohh well.

April 13 2010 at 4:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

no name

as soon as i saw this article i purchased 2 of these.
1 for my car, as a way to extend an extremely fragile and very short $75 BMW iPod adapter cable. And another one to use exactly the same way as shown on the picture above. iPhone 3Gs with Monoprice battery packs.

Unfortunately these cables did not work for either purpose.
I have 2 different Monoprice battery. One like shown on the photo above (1900mA), and a "fancier" one 2200mA. Neither one is detected with these cables, but works when attached directly. Does not work in my car either. It just does not detect my iPhone when attached via one of these cables, but works directly. I tried a few different 3Gs and 3G iPhones with the same result.

I figured these cheap cables may be defective, but both of them work just fine when used to extend the OEM iPhone/iPod USB cable.

Not sure how this worked for Erica, but I wasn't able to get it to work as she described...

Oh well, $8 is not a big deal...

February 16 2010 at 5:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to no name's comment

So far I've had the same experience. I have the 2200mA battery as well, and will work when I plug it directly into my phone or any of my iPods. However, when I try to use the cable, it doesn't see the battery. Only reason I bought this was to use it like Erica did in the picture. But the cable does allow me to sync. It also doesn't work to extend the connector on my 3rd party home accessory. Boo. Oh well it was only like $4.

February 20 2010 at 6:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

iPhoneToo

I just noticed the other day that you can have your iPhone completely upside down...with the connector port on top and the screen just flips completely around. This is just great because then you can put your iphone into a cupholder or whatever and still have the connector dock with whatever is attached to the dock facing up, the speakers out (up) and the screen facing up too!

February 03 2010 at 11:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jbrown510

Thanks for this Erica. Does TUAW not let you include more than one photo? It took me a minute to figure out that the cable shown wasn't just male-to-male... Maybe it's just me beig a little slow today, but a photo with the cable unplugged next to the iPhone and battery would have been more clear to me.

February 03 2010 at 11:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to jbrown510's comment

jbrown510

Just to be clear. When you wrote male to female dock extender I assumed that it was a dongle NOT a cable... so I thought what I should ve lookin for was something between the cable connector and the iPhone... Something like a right angle connector or something.

Ironically this would have been clear if I'd followed the link, but I'm on an iPhone at the momment and didn't want to yet....

February 03 2010 at 11:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

LifeSux

just be careful with dealxtreme. they ship from asia so if you need to return something, they have this crazy rma procedure that asks you to send it back there with return receipt proof (which can run up to $20) and then days later send you another email with a US address to mail it back to. then they claim they never received it. and you can't dispute the charges if you used paypal because the only thing paypal will refund you for is if you don't receive something, and they have proof you received it. and their customer service doesn't really speak or understand english. so good deals yes. just be prepared to spend a lot of time sorting things out if an order goes wrong (look up some online reviews of the place if you think I'm making this up)

February 03 2010 at 6:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ned

the smart consumer buys a USB portable battery pack and uses the iphone sync/charge cable

February 02 2010 at 10:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

divigation

Thank you thank you Erica, as always you improve my life with my favorite device. I love having my battery but hate the awkwardness of the iPhone when it is charging. Ordered my cable and am so happy you pointed out this solution.

February 02 2010 at 8:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Think of the calories you could burn: splice this sucker in to your standard 12v jumper cables and mount an extra car battery in the undercarrage of the BOB stroller.

Viola.

or, BOOM.

February 02 2010 at 7:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

SIP

This extender cable is just what I have been looking for.

Just visited DealExtreme, and under the Weird Stuffs category they've got a brilliant stress reliever:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10544

February 02 2010 at 6:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply