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Bought bumper now car chargers don't fit

S

scottuf

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 2, 2009
364
21
NPB, FL
just like the title says, i bought a bumper today, and now my Griffin iTrip AutoPilot and my generic car chargers don't fit. since the i4 is thinner, the opening on the bumper is narrower and since the bozos at Griffin (and probably other mfgs) made the plastic part of the connector wider than the standard apple plug.

this might be an issue for other FM tuners/chargers as well.

guess i'll be filing down the plastic to get it to fit. fun fun
 
I had the same issue with all of our griffin car chargers. Bummer. :(

Were you able to file down the plastic? Thinking of returning the bumper and waiting for something else.
 
I've got a Belkin one and it works fine... its identically the same as Apple's charger
 
I've got the same problem with my Griffin iTrip AutoPilot. The dock plug is huge compared to the official Apple cable, and doesn't come close to fitting with the Apple Bumper case on.

Unfortunately, modifying the case to fit the plug would require removing all the hard plastic in the area, leaving only the rubber. My assumption is that this will considerably impact the integrity of the case, and it may no longer fit the phone (without the hard plastic along the bottom, the rubber would be free to stretch much further with almost no support or shape to hold to).

Doubly unfortunate, modifying the iTrip doesn't look much more promising to me - the black plastic appears to be a shell of roughly the same thickness that would need to be removed to mimic the Apple cable size. Trying to file that down could, in my paranoid estimation, expose the underlying pieces. I don't really want to mod a dock connector on a $75 device with non-replaceable cables, I've barely owned it half a year!

Has anyone found an adapter similar to what the original iPhone required for headphones (back when headphone plugs were too wide to fit, and needed a fat-to-skinny adapter), but for dock plugs?
 
You're worried about third party connectors?? Apple's own i4 dock doesn't fit at all with the bumper on. And they just designed the thing!! :mad:
 
you could always get the sendstation dock extender, its like $26 on ebay.
 
I dremeled out the plastic a bit to allow it to fit. Bumper still fits perfectly and I can use my other cables.

Even the 30 pin extender wouldn't fit without dremeling.
 
Also, the older iPhone and iPod Apple USB cables do not fit in the hole space in the bottom of the bumper. Only the newer cable that comes with the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 4 dock will fit with the bumper, the new cable connector's plastic piece is actually thinner so it is made to fit. The older cables for iPhones and iPods have a thicker plastic and don't even fit. Kinda sucks.
 
MassiveAttack said:
Another manufacturing blunder by apple.
Click to expand...

How Apple is able to keep the lights on in Cuppertino with all these manufacturing blunders all these years is mind boggling! Thank goodness for them there are tens of millions of blind, fanboy sheepile that don't care if they are being fooled by Evil Steve the Capitalist Pig!!!!!
Thank you for waking me out of my Apple FanBoy hypnotic Trance and saving me from The Dark Lord!!!!!
 
Ronnoco said:
How Apple is able to keep the lights on in Cuppertino with all these manufacturing blunders all these years is mind boggling! Thank goodness for them there are tens of millions of blind, fanboy sheepile that don't care if they are being fooled by Evil Steve the Capitalist Pig!!!!!
Thank you for waking me out of my Apple FanBoy hypnotic Trance and saving me from The Dark Lord!!!!!
Click to expand...

Don't thank me you just have common sense something Apple fan boys seriously lack.
 
MassiveAttack said:
Don't thank me you just have common sense something Apple fan boys seriously lack.
Click to expand...

No, seriously, thank you! You've awakened me! You are CLEARLY the Morpheus of the Apple Matrix!!!! I'm selling all my Apple junk and buying a cheap PC and an Android phone! I'll be much happier and I won't be supporting the selfish Capitalist Pigs at evil Apple! Google is not evil!, they only collect personal information of evil Apple FanBoys!!!! :)
 
Givmeabrek said:
You're worried about third party connectors?? Apple's own i4 dock doesn't fit at all with the bumper on. And they just designed the thing!! :mad:
Click to expand...

How could a single dock shaped to exactly fit a phone alone possibly ALSO work with a phone that has a case? I agree that Apple should remind people of this in the dock and case descriptions, but it IS pretty obvious, and has always been true of every dock and case. No matter who makes it, a case is still made of physical matter. If it had two shapes, or interchangeable tops or something, that would have been made clear.

But all is not lost: on the support forums, some have suggested using a Universal Dock instead, and simply not using an adapter insert. That way you get a bigger hole, and can fit many cases. Supposedly including the bumpers. If I get one, I’ll test it. (Or... just take the case off. Some cases are easy to put on/off, and that’s one thing I’m hoping is true of the bumpers.)

Anyway... is this the iTrip that doesn’t work with the bumper case?

Griffin iTrip AutoPilot with SmartScan
griffin-itrip-autopilot.jpg


Just checking. They’ve made a ton of variations, but that’s the one I have.

Thanks!
 
nagromme said:
How could a single dock shaped to exactly fit a phone alone possibly ALSO work with a phone that has a case? I agree that Apple should remind people of this in the dock and case descriptions, but it IS pretty obvious, and has always been true of every dock and case.
Click to expand...
You just hit the nail on the head. I'm not upset that Apple tries to force it's users into using their proprietary connectors or that they keep changing the design to obsolete existing third-party devices. My problem is that they don't warn anyone about it. Why doesn't it say on the box that the bumper "will not work with most third-party cables or with older versions of Apple sync cables"? It would save everyone a lot of trouble.

There is no way I could ever use the bumper with my existing configuration. I have a DICE interface in my car and that plug is ginormous.
 
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