I'm still using those stupid white dongles to connect my minijack headphones to my iPhone 7.

Companies like Apple, with their outsized influence on the product design space, set the tone for the future direction of user experience. But because the company takes such leaps and bounds--getting rid of first floppy discs, then CDs, and ditching various connectors--consumers are always left in the lurch during that transition, where they need to mate old technology with Apple's latest gewgaw.

Into this breach rush third-party companies whose designers are tasked with making our lives easier, not in two years, but right now. A good example of this is Twelve South's PlugBug Duo, which piggybacks that all-precious traditional USB connectivity to a MacBook or MacBook Pro adapter.

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The PlugBug Duo comes with five different plug adapters, so you international jetsetters will be covered no matter what weird configuration your latest destination has in their outlets.

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I'll concede that Apple is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to their ditching of old technology and connectors--but it still irks me every time they make a change and leave me stuck. So I'm thankful that companies like Twelve South are there to fill the gap.