Eons ago, when my girlfriend an I moved in together and bought iPhone 3G’s on the same, brand new AT&T plan (awwww) I bought us some brand of dual dock (not this exact one, but pretty close). She always used a case which was great because it fits in if you don’t use one of the “universal” sized thingies in it.

This thing has been in our bedroom since late 2008 or early 2009 and continues to work well (*except it sometimes gives that incompatibility nag and one of the LEDs is out, but we turn them off anyway). Up until last wednesday it held both of our iPhone 4S’s every night.

Then my iPhone 5 arrived

She has no qualms about waiting until the 5S or whatever to get the fully subsidized price so for the rest of the term on her 4S we’re stuck needing separate chargers. When we both have phones that have a lightning connector I hope I can find a new dual dock. I have both a lightning adapter and lightning adapter extension cable on order (“ships October”) but until then I’ve actually adopted an interesting ritual.

I keep one lightning cable in my bag and one attached to my headless MacMini Server (which holds all of my iTunes content). The Mini is on a shelf next to the couch so I plug the iPhone in there during the evening and actually let if discharge overnight on the nightstand. Usually I wake up with it between 60-80% depending on if I actually got it to 100%, how many times it had to vibrate because I kept snoozing it, and how much sleep I actually got. Note: it being cold out and a nearby window cracked probably has some effect too.

Whatever charge it has left is more than enough to get me to work listening to a podcast or something and maybe some light usage. I walk to work so other than the long crosswalk waits on primary roads I generally just leave it in my pocket. When I finally get to work, I top it off via my Lightning cable from my bag, unplug it at lunch, and don’t plug it in again until the cycle repeats at night.

You’d think that I only need to top it off once, and maybe that’s true, but I’m used to using the phone for 16 hours and charging for 8, now I’m “using” it for 20-22 (discontinuous) and charging for 2-4 (discontinuous) so it’s a little different.

Before you go suggesting the obvious, the lightning cable is too short to reach the wall plug. There’s just no elegant solution until I get a dock with Lightning.