No more free audio jack dongles with the Apple iPhones

It seems that the iPhone users will soon live in a dongle-free world. Or, at least a future in which audio jack dongles will no longer be bundled with the device. According to a report by MacRumors, the new 2018 iPhones will not be bundled with the lightning port-to-headphone jack adapter. The maker of the dongle, Cirrus Logic, apparently confirmed the change to Barclays.

"Cirrus didn't update its FY19 guide... but they did finally confirm the dongle loss, adding more support for our below estimates," the Barclays note reads.

Apple introduced the dongle alongside the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in 2016. The same year it decided to do away with the audio jack, in an attempt to move towards a wireless future. But the dongle has been a source of ire and annoyance to a lot of users. It only allows one port for the phone to juice up, headphones, or connect to anything such as a car, has led to total dongle dependence. It's also very easy to lose, considering the size of the dongle is small. The wireless future is certainly coming, but it's not here yet. This also means that users will have to spend the $9 if they want to be a part of the dongle world.

Besides, the company recently became the first company in the US to hit the one trillion worth mark. But soon after that, the company was also slapped with a $145 million fine over patent infringement. The patents deal with wireless communication technology. Apple has also confirmed that it plans to appeal against the decision. The company previously rejected the claims of infringement during the pre-trial filings.

This dates back to 2013 when US jury ruled in favor of the Cupertino giant in which WiLan had sought $248 million in damages. This time around both the companies are in a patent infringement case. There isn't much known about the lawsuit, so it remains unclear whether the firms reach a conclusion.

Previous, Apple was ordered to pay $502.6 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. after the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit. The verdict was announced by the grand jury in Texas after finding that Apple infringed patents that were related to secure communications