A minor but persistent complaint about the iPhone 5 is the lack of a standing dock for charging and data transfer. Apple’s VP of Marketing, Peter Schiller, said that Apple does “not plan on making a dock connector for the iPhone 5,” because according to Apple, “most people who use docks use them with speaker or clock systems.” Despite this, we now know that the iPhone User Guide for iOS 6 provided by Apple says that the Lightning To USB Cable “can also be used with the iPhone Dock (sold separately).

Not sold separately.

The Dock for the iPhone 5 currently doesn’t exist, at least not in a form you can purchase at retail. The inconsistency in the iPhone’s User Guide suggests that Apple was planning, at one point, to release a dock accessory for the iPhone 5. The wording of the User’s Guide for iOS 6 is different than the previous edition, which means a sloppy ‘⌘-C, ⌘-V’ error is unlikely.

Fans of standing docks have taken the task into to their own hands (including HBO and YouTube filmmaker Casey Neistat). Making a basic standing dock for syncing and charging isn’t too hard – it’s essentially a cable attached to a stand. Making a dock compatible with a stereo is a bit trickier, since the thunderbolt adapter is all digital; A basic homemade standing dock won’t have a port for line-out audio to match the iPhone 4/4S’ $29 Dock accessory. That said, you could get creative and jury-rig the Thunderbolt-to-30-Pin adapter with components from the iPhone 4S’s Dock… or skip the trouble and use a bluetooth receiver.

How important is a standing dock to you? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.