Apple makes 23 different dongles - and it would cost you $857 to buy them all

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iPhone 7 headphone dongle plugged in

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Last September, Apple forced new iPhone owners to accept a new reality: If you wanted to connect wired headphones to the iPhone 7, the first iPhone without a headphone jack, you'd have to use a tiny adapter.

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Unofficially called a dongle, the Lightning-to-headphone-jack adapter came free with new iPhones, or cost an extra $9 on Apple's online store.

The latest iPhone isn't the only Apple product that needs an array of dongles to become its most useful self. You need a dongle to connect your MacBook Air to an ethernet cable. You'll also need a dongle if you'd like a second screen for your computer, or if you'd like to import photos from an SD card. If you were hoping to plug a flash drive right into your new MacBook, think again: You're going to need a USB to USB-C dongle for that.

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Apple dongles

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A sampling of Apple's many dongles.

That got us thinking: How many Apple dongles are there? And if you happened to need all of them, how much would that cost you?

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We took a look through Apple's online store in an attempt to nail down the complete dongle lineup. We eliminated all the dongles not made by Apple (although Belkin makes this particularly useful adapter), and didn't count standard power cables, chargers, or plugs.

We counted a grand total of 23 dongles on Apple's website, which would cost $857 (not including tax) to buy them all. Take a look: