Lightning EarPods - Adapter to Connect to Mac

[jgibson24]

One scenario that I find myself in often is needing to connect by headset to my Mac. I use the included EarPods and therefore will be using Lightning EarPods when my iPhone arrives. Is there an adapter - either 3.5mm or USB that will allow the EarPods to be usable on a Mac? Hoping I just need to have an adapter with my Mac rather than having to remember I need to have a separate headset for Mac and iPhone.

 

[pudcraft]

One scenario that I find myself in often is needing to connect by headset to my Mac. I use the included EarPods and therefore will be using Lightning EarPods when my iPhone arrives. Is there an adapter - either 3.5mm or USB that will allow the EarPods to be usable on a Mac? Hoping I just need to have an adapter with my Mac rather than having to remember I need to have a separate headset for Mac and iPhone.

Not sure if you read what comes in the box, but there IS an adapter that is included in the box. So just use the adapter to connect to your Mac.

 

[nickosbad]

Not sure if you read what comes in the box, but there IS an adapter that is included in the box. So just use the adapter to connect to your Mac.

Not sure if you read the original post......like me the OP is looking for an adapter to connect lightning headphones to a device that does not have a lightning port (stupidly.....this includes MacBooks!!!!)

 

[steve knight]

why not buy a older set of earpods and not worry about it?

 

[ActionableMango]

I use the included EarPods

So why don't you keep using those EarPods?

 

[Mac 128]

One scenario that I find myself in often is needing to connect by headset to my Mac. I use the included EarPods and therefore will be using Lightning EarPods when my iPhone arrives. Is there an adapter - either 3.5mm or USB that will allow the EarPods to be usable on a Mac? Hoping I just need to have an adapter with my Mac rather than having to remember I need to have a separate headset for Mac and iPhone.

No. there is no lightning female to 3.5mm or Thunderbolt, or even USB-C adapter.

Apple totally did not think this through. You will need to use the 3.5mm adapter with an old pair of headphones if you want compatibility with your Mac, or any non-iOS device.

You might as well stick those Lightning EarPods in a drawer for now.

Apple totally botched this.

 

[pudcraft]

Not sure if you read what comes in the box, but there IS an adapter that is included in the box. So just use the adapter to connect to your Mac.

I completely derp'd that! I now understand what you are looking for. Unfortunately, I'm sure Apple will make an adapter for it. I'm just going to stick to my Bluetooth headphones...not happy having to carry around adapter after adapter after adapter for every Apple product.

 

[Mac 128]

I completely derp'd that! I now understand what you are looking for. Unfortunately, I'm sure Apple will make an adapter for it. I'm just going to stick to my Bluetooth headphones...not happy having to carry around adapter after adapter after adapter for every Apple product.

I'm not sure Apple will make one. They may leave it to third parties. I do expect them to add one to the Mac when they announce the new MBP and MBA later this October. It's just too bad they didn't have one from the beginning to encourage use of the Lightning headphones. They way they did it, they basically prompted the continued use of the headphone jack with a customers old headphones, adding insult to injury, that they couldn't even use their new Lighthing EarPods with their Mac, not even the Retina MacBook!

This particular adapter is problematic. While the USB and Thunderbolt adapters should be pretty straight forward, the 3.5mm adapter presents challenges unless Apple updates MFi specs to accommodate it. Essentially any 3.5mm adapter will require a power source to convert the analogue signal to digital to go into the Lightning connector, where it is then reconverted to analogue. So that makes it kind of a redundant and bulky solution, that has to be regularly charged. Unless, Apple updates the MFi specs to allow for a Lightning connector to receive an analogue input which does not need to be converted for use by the device, like headphones. In theory, the adapter would have a Lightning chip that tells the Lightning headphones there's an incoming analogue signal, and to bypass the internal DAC and send the signal directly to the transducers. That's definitely possible, without upsetting Apple's digital Apple cart, and makes the most sense. And, perhaps explains why we haven't seen this particular adapter yet.

But maybe Apple will introduce the adapter with the new Macs ...