It is fairly common for people to have purchased some type of music device that included an “iPod Dock”. It may have been small speakers, an alarm clock or even an adapter connected to a stereo. It worked great…until Apple changed the connected. It also wasn’t any help for people who didn’t own an Apple device. That’s where adapters can come into play.

The first adapter is the CableJive dockBoss which plugs into the old docks and gives you a 3.5mm headphone plug that works in most any phone or tablet. I might just have to get one of these to add to my travel bag so I can connect my Android phone or tablet when staying someplace that has an old iPod dock.

Heck, even the charging cables from the past no longer work. Sure, you can buy the official Apple Lightning to USB Cable for $22, though that seems excessive for a simple cable. Amazon makes their own version that is “Apple Certified” and sells for $13.99 (as of this writing). There are other cables that cost much less, but it is possible they won’t work. One example is a Zeimax cable that sells for $5.99 though some customers report that it didn’t work on their Apple device. One benefit of non-Apple devices is that almost all of them use the universal microUSB plugs where inexpensive cables are plentiful. Regardless of your device, it is always a good idea to have an extra cable or two.