What happens when you plug a USB-C iPad into an iPod Hi-Fi? Let's find out!

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Steve Jobs Ipod Hifi
Steve Jobs Ipod Hifi (Image credit: Lou Dematteis/Reuters)

What you need to know

  • Someone wanted to see if a USB-C iPad mini would work with the iPod Hi-Fi.
  • The iPod Hi-Fi was released in 2006 and used a 30-pin dock connector.

The iPod Hi-Fi is still one of the most beloved Apple products to date, partially because it was just so .... odd. A giant box of speakers that you plopped your iPod on top of? Sure, why not. And it cost $350 because of course it did. It's weird, it's whacky, and it works with USB-C iPads.

Yes, really.

YouTube channel Will it Work? wanted to see what would happen when a USB-C iPad mini was plugged into a rather fetching iPod Hi-Fi. But they didn't just want it to work — they wanted to be able o listen to music, charge the iPad, and even control the audio using the iPod Hi-Fi's remote control. That all sounds like a bridge too far for something that was released before some of the people reading this were even born.

So really, there's only one question — will it work? Let's find out!

As amazing as that all is, it's fair to say most people aren't going to go through the hassle of making their iPad mini work with an aging speaker but it's good to know that they could if they really wanted to. This of course isn't the first time an iPod Hi-Fi has been paired with something it was never designed for. We've already seen a Nintendo 3DS do sterling work, but there's something about an iPad mini that makes this video even more impressive.

There's little doubt that the latest iPad mini is the best iPad for a ton of people. Now we know that it's the best iPad for those who own a 16-year-old iPod Hi-Fi, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.