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Apple Patents Cutting 3.5mm Jack in Half
An anonymous reader writes with an article on a recent patent application by Apple. From the article: "Apple likes thin devices and considers the depth of the iPod, iPhone and iPad as critical component of the aesthetic appearance of a product and has been very aggressive in finding ways to trim fat from its portable devices: The 3.5 mm audio-connector stands in the way of future design improvements: Apple suggests to simply cut it in half."
Is apple trying to patent an actual invention?
Won't a thinner connector make it much easier to snap off ?
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Great, so this will necessitate lugging around even more adaptors for Apple products in addition to the five (exaggerating) different video port adaptors? I find it unlikely that the 3.5mm jack is the limiting factor in device thickness, so it seems a bit odd to abandon the standard...
Fear the penguin.
Bluetooth headphones work fine for me so I'd have no problem with a change in the headphone jacks. The hard part would be finding a case that covers it.
didnt the blackberry pearl basically have this?
Years ago some guy had a bright idea on how to save a matchbox company lots of money. They looked at matchbox design and couldn't find a way of saving any costs. His solution was to remove one of the two ignition strips on the box. He died rich.
I'm beginning to hate Apple more and more as each day passes by mostly because Steve Jobs has this elitist simplicity gig going when he wasn't even the first. Jobs doesn't own the principles and I think it's a good idea if people learn for themselves.
I'm surprised they didn't just drop it altogether and use bluetooth.
How about an audio connector with a break before make connection, where the ground connection is made first, and doesnt pop and blow speakers when you forget to turn off your ipod before plugging it into your amp?
How about involving an electrician, same for RCA plugs, and just about any analog coupling used in audio.
Seriously, whats the fucking deal with this? This has been a problem since the 50s!
Also I'd have expected to see digital headphones with a 15 cent dsp in the earbud by now. Not from apple, of course, they only deal in substandard hardware.
Wireless devices ought to be wireless. They already have several radios, including Bluetooth. Headphones and docking should be wireless. So should charging. which should be inductive. Then you can have a sealed, waterproof unit with no annoying connector holes.
I'm surprised Apple hasn't already gone that way on aesthetic grounds. Why should those perfect forms have holes in them?
I want to write a patent about taking a perfectly good standard, making a useless variation on the original that is patented to keep anyone else from making anything that connects to your device.
They get to collect license payments for anyone who uses this jack. Open standards? What's that?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Great.
After only recently being able to plug in most phones with the same USB cable and FINALLY having 3.5 jacks a standard on said phones, Apple now wants to go fuck with the standards.
Jerks.
The whole point of the jack connector is that it can rotate. Using a semicircle destroys this ability and any rotation will break something.
It would be better to use a flat multipin connector.
Of all the things we don't need modified is the audio connector. Right now, we have two types that work well, the 1/4" jack for pro equipment, and the 3.5mm jack for everything else. The 2.5mm jack is pretty much not around anymore which is good.
Of course, cutting a plug in half is good for Apple. Same reason the 30 pin connector is also good. It forces accessory makers to do it Apple's way which other people cannot duplicate due to patents. Already, almost all docking stations out there sport an Apple 30 pin plug. With this "invention", it just means that accessory makers either make their stuff for only Apple products, or not make for Apple at all.
Isn't the EU breathing down Apple's neck for them refusing to heed to the single USB connector style? Now Apple wants to fragment and make earphone makers either choose Apple's way or the highway.
Oh well, guess everyone will need a $20 half moon to full round adapter so they can use a $3 pair of earbuds with their non-Apple branded stuff.
No, the port works with existing 3.5mm headphones - you didn't read the article very well, did you?
The Patent system needs to be reformed.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
It is easily recognized that a 3.5mm TRS jack eats a substantial fraction of the internal volume budget in a modern phone or portable media player. It is thus understandable that Apple would want to replace it with something smaller. However, basing it on the current standard is perhaps the worst possible way to go about it. The standard 3.5mm headphone connector shorts the contacts on the plug to the wrong contacts on the jack all willy nilly. Given the opportunity to push a new design, they should go for a modern connector that mates the grounds first, and allows the signal contacts to mate only to their proper counterparts.
And don't try to tell me it's for backwards compatibility. The patented design allows semi-TRS plugs to mate with standard jacks, but does not permit the connection of standard headphones to the Apple design--what people will actually want to do, given the poor quality of the usual bundled earbuds.
With a smaller battery :(
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Interesting I just applied for a patent to remove the jack completely I call it 'microquiet audio' due to the fact it passes no audio.
Oops did I give away my proprietary idea before my patent was approved!!!
never mind, please forget I said anyhing.
-PSH
Another advantage which they omitted from the article -- this invention will help you insert the plug the right way round.
With the current circular 3.5mm jacks, it's actually impossible to know whether you've rotated the plug correctly. Sure, you can try to figure out if you've got it right by listening to the resultant sound quality, but that's inexact and most people don't even have the equipment. Now with Apple's invention, everyone will be able to insert it with the right rotation -- first time, and every time.
Great, as if the potential fragility of a 2.5mm and 3.5mm phono plug wasn't enough, he effectively is puting teeth on a phono plug that only fit on his devices.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, these corporations embraced homebrew computer-club standards early, and intentionally silenced them after saturating the market with all the slave-made foreign Chinese products. The more I see "AID" and "economy stimulus" jobs is when I run away screaming, no different than how this phono plug is doing to prior open standards. Shit like this is why Radio Shack is a store with useless inventory of electrical components and an expansive inventory of consumer foreign-made communications equipment.
Jobs could have invented a shortrange FM transmitter into that small device so people can listen on their sterio equipment tuned to that FM frequency, and we could listen on our choice of audio equipment like what a Jupiter Jack or Belkin FM TX could achieve, but no...we get another wired device. They could've used a USB audio-port solution, but no. Not even an only Bluetooth solution, but no. How about a streaming WIFI audio server, but no.
More butchery to come, say goodbye to your listening faculties, because now you will be unable to listen to anything without a chip in your ear.
It was kind of hard to do given that they used the term "jack" to mean "plug" and the term "port" to mean "jack" or "receptacle"....
BTW, has anyone ever actually seen an audio plug (other than the old telephone switchboard plugs from the early-to-mid-1900s) that contained any significant amount of ferrous metal? I'd be curious to know how someone could think that standard audio plugs can be held in place by a magnet. I'm assuming, based on the fact that the person who wrote this story got basic terminology wrong, that the author also misunderstood that aspect of the patent....
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
However, basing it on the current standard is perhaps the worst possible way to go about it.
Only if you do not care about cutting out hundreds of millions of existing (some very expensive) headphones.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They could eliminate a connector and sell REALLY expensive and proprietary headsets, too. Win! Win! for Apple.
Wouldn't it be cool if it had a FM Transmitter in the device that you can sit next to your stereo to play loud or just strap Job's device onto your micro FM receiver to listen on your choice of audio equipment?
NEVER! NO! YOU MUST BUY THIS TO LISTEN!
Will this header be available in a consumer electrical components store --- NO!
Can we get away with some injection moulding process to make our own receivers for this keyed plug --- NO!
We'll sue yuh!
Bow to the LSD addicts' mascot, the decapitated puppy.
I would be worried about the plug strength. let alone there being 1/2 the material, by cutting it in half, it will far easier to bend it on the flat side.
Conservative, mod down for violating
Avoid all iCrap like the plague!!!
... someone call Guinness Book Of World Records!
I don't care how small Jack is you shouldn't cut him in half!!!
I think you're right, but this is confusing and not explained well at all in the article. I had assumed the article was mixing up "plug" and "port," because it doesn't make much sense for the jack/port to be large enough to accept an existing plug - if you're trying to make it thinner by cutting the plug in half, you're not going to keep using a 3.5mm cylinder for the jack. I can't find the patent application with the illustrations, but it sounds like they're covering a bunch of applications including a jack that has large and small ports, small-port only jacks, and magnets in the large port hole to keep a half-plug held captive?
I wonder if Jack factored this into the business plan... time to re-issue a whole lot of square readers... that's assuming he doesn't have to pay a license to use the new patented jack
Mohels have been doing this for millennia...
#DeleteChrome
Just use a magnetic connector that has the traditional 3.5mm jack on it like what the HP Veer uses. Apple uses magnetic connectors for their laptops already, so one would think that it would be the next logical step for them.
Most of them are steel, with either a gold coating or uncoated. It should be sufficient to hold it to the port.
Seriously, what?
This is worse than patents that boil down to "a system for doing some thing well known but with a computer".
This is a system for taking a well defined connection and cutting it in half, with a magnet to keep it in place, and putting a rubber thingy on it to make it look pretty. Worse, it's more like "a system to make a cylinder narrower by cutting it in half longitudinally while still retaining all of the connection properties of the original device".
How the hell is this patentable? There is no "invention" here.
And, of course, no longer being a cylinder, it's going to lose rigidity and there will be constant problems with these things bending and/or shearing off.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The tips of the lil buggers break off inside the socket like the mating tactic of some insects. Cheap 3.5mm plugs are weak.
Fix her equipment: bend 1mm or so at the tip of a smallish very thin safety pin (safety first!) Insert into the socket, alongside the busted bit using the spring loaded tab inside the socket to your advantage. Pull it back to remove the plug. It might take a couple minutes. Chicks love it when you do this.
Repair shops advocate motherboard replacement. You could however; delay your "repair sucess" until after a meal is served.
The jack comes after the DAC, thus what goes through the jack and plug is analog signal. The less surface area between connectors, the less analog signal, the more noise, the worse the audio quality. 1/4" inch TRS connections deliver better fidelity than 3.5mm TRS, and 3.5mm TRS will deliver better fidelity than this new scheme. Seems to me Apple would be better served perfecting (even over-engineering, and going (no!) entirely proprietary), the Bluetooth audio standards for fidelity and doing away with the jack altogether.
The Admin and the Engineer
This is an application, not a patent.
No, the idea is for a surface mount 3.5mm port that a half-width plug will sit in flush, but a normal 3.5mm plug will sit in but be proud of the surface, both held in place by a magnet. The patent also specifies an optional cover to make it look more aesthetically pleasing (or as a structural element of the port, depending on magnet strength).
Reducing connector size means reducing the cable size, and reducing reliability. I don't want a phone a millimeter thinner if the cost is a smaller headphone connector, and a connector with Apple proprietary technology. I usually burn through 4 or 5 headphones through the life of my phone. Mostly the cable to connector connection breaks after about 6 months (I walk with my phone in the pocket, while listening to music through headphones ...
In my case, making the connector smaller would mean my headphones last a much shorter time.
This is a recipe for disaster. TRS connectors are very susceptible to hum: when you touch a live TRS connector, your skin conducts enough to make a circuit between the connector poles.
With the connector exposed on the surface of the device, you'd get loud noises every time you accidentally touched the connector. For this to work, the connector has to be covered, negating at least part of the thickness reduction they're seeking.
Also the magnet they propose for keeping the plug in place is going to have to be pretty strong to withstand normal jostling etc. of the device in a pocket. Unlike the Magsafe power connector, this jack need to be kept in place without interruptions. The tiniest shift between the plug and socket results in crackles and other loud noises.
Go for it. Piss off your customers when they figure out you can't find any standard headphones to match (except for Apple's expensive phones or adapter). Shoot yourselves in the foot; drive more customers to Android. Just like you're driving more customers away from Final Cut Pro X to Adobe Premiere Pro (FTW!).
How do they work?
As if the standard connector was not weak enough, they want to cut it in half!
Why not just use a standard connector that has been about for YEARS that is 1/2 the diameter of the "standard" connector?
You have the large 6.35mm (1/4") jack
You have the medium 3.5mm
Then there is the small 2.5mm jack
OR apple could just make a specialized connector that is flat (like Micro USB) and then include an adapter to allow people to use standard headphones.
Could you have a magnet powerful enough to hold this half-plug securely in its half-cradle while not interfering in any way with the tiny electrical signals being sent through said half-plug? Or might we need to surround the plug-jack assembly with several mm of insulation to isolate it from the magnet assembly?
I see it now, that's exactly right. Good work, your single sentence clearly described what two pages of patent claims couldn't.
Why not cut a little less than 1/2 and then the port could still hold an old jack w/o magnets?
Or ports. Or plugs.
Sorry, had to be said.
no more to say.... Its a joke.
Only if you do not care about cutting out hundreds of millions of existing (some very expensive) headphones.
Except by doing this, they are already cutting out hundreds of millions of existing headphones.
After 'why are manholes fully round' you can ask why Apple's headphone jack is half round.
Seriously this is like the scene in Idiocracy where the 'normal' people are cheating on which hole the round peg fits into. A half round shape is the smallest that fits perfectly in a fully round hole. Jesus, of course half-round connectors would fit into existing fully-round jacks.
Why don't they just use the 2.5mm jack? Its already a standard and has been around forever.
Why not simply use a micro-usb port instead? You could also use that port for charging, thus killing two stones with one bird.
Who will patent the other half?
Why would a static magnetic field interfere with the electrical signal?
Why make a proprietary jack while it's only cut the size in half when you can cut more than that and go wireless. Apple could make improvement on wireless standard like Bluetooth A2DP and don't have to worry about the jack size at all yet it does anyway. If not about making new proprietary connection so Apple can patent, own it and lock its customers in to make make more money then what else could it be?
develop and integrate a wireless audio transmitter that won't screw with the other electronics in the phone, then sell a decent pair of headphones instead of the typical dollar store quality apple ear-buds. Then you have no jack to worry about :p.
I'll probably move to android when they decide to add this. Sounds like much more of an annoyance than anything. Is the magnet going to be strong enough to not pull out every time I twist even slightly, or snag on clothing, or jog, etc..? Unlikely.
Why have extra jacks on the devices to begin with? Some phones I've had in the past used the usb port for a earpiece. Why not just do that instead of having the 3.5mm port to begin with? Hell, make a cheapo adapter that extends the usb port with a 3.5mm port that splits off of it for legacy support/the headphones of your choice. That way you can charge and listen to headphones at the same time like you can currently with the two separate ports.
About ports, jacks, and connectors.
The article is somewhat unclear, but the patent application is pretty clear.
The reason Apple is proposing this solution is that it offers the maximum backwards compatibility.
A connector is what most people call the plug.
A jack is the entire female assembly (including housing) that can receive a connector/plug.
A port is the electrical portions of the jack (i.e. the electrical connectors in a specific configuration).
Apple's solution WILL allow the use of standard 3.5mm plugs / connectors.
Here's the exact relevant bit from the patent application:
16. The plug connector of claim 11 wherein the plug is cylindrical in shape, and wherein when the plug is inserted into the longitudinal passage, the plug extends at least partially through the second opening.
For full size plugs / connectors Apple proposes a cap of similar looking material to the device case, which will increase the profile of the device with a sort of bubble around the connector.
I like Apple's approach to standards... embrace and extend.
When the problem is the plug is too big, how is the answer, "make it smaller," not obvious and, therefore, patentable subject matter?
Why not just use WiFi/Bluetooth or some other type of PAN?
Good luck keeping each device on the PAN charged.
if the car is only compatible with AirPlay, that'll make people think twice before buying
...such a car. I don't know a single driver who doesn't use the FM radio. In fact, some even listen to AM talk or AM oldies.
Apple has been using the power/USB connector for headphones since the iPod shuffle 2.
We did this all the time to test cell phones on manufacturing lines. We sold the equipment to major cell phone manufacturers. I can show prior art...CAD files, pictures, etc., from 1999. It was done to allow fast connect/disconnect with a robotic tester.
Screw ports, I'm all about BlueTooth or WiFi for audio out of my iPhone.
Maybe it's time to patent the half-cylindrical shape.
Make new plugs with the top and bottom shaved off. Make the ipod case thinner but the part around the port flexible so that it can bulge when using the old style plug.
Won't a thinner connector make it much easier to snap off ?
It will fall off, not snap off. Its like the MagSafe power connector. It will hang on the outside of the case due to the magnets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe
It seems to me that if your device can't fit a 3.5mm jack, then your device is *too freaking thin*
...and why is he going to be cut in half? :(
I hated how current cell phones finally started moving towards using a standard headphone jack. I hate not having to buy proprietary things, like headphones, just because some company want to have similar standards with the other guys.
Prevents use of all current accessories without purchasing an adapter.... check
Provides no improvement in the actual function of the connector... check
Accessories using new standard will have limited or awkward compatibility with all existing devices.. check
Yep, this could fine it's way into an Apple product soon.
-Lod
I don't see how a 3.5mm audio connector should restrict the thickness of a device until it attempts to get under ~4/4.5mm. Which is crazy thin.
Why use a jack at all?
Apple could make a tiny bluetooth headset that slides into the iPhone. Slide it out and it can attach "magically" to an embedded magnet in your earlobe, like jewelry. Should be easy for the multiple-piercing crowd.
I've been in plenty of cars with an FM radio and no line-in; a lot of them were manufactured before the iPod and other digital audio players became popular. For those, I plug a Jupiter Jack FM transmitter into my digital audio player.
Can I patent the 1/4 jack? Then after that the 1/8, then the 1/16? Then for some real excitement I could go after the 1/3 and 2/5 market, so often over looked by the major electronics companies.
The next evolution of plugs shouldn't be thinner plugs. It should be no plugs - go wireless and start making wireless accessories that don't suck.
Most companies would recognize the problem, and develop a cheap, reusable adapter to take a 3.5mm jack and plug it into a smaller hole. Guess that approach wouldn't look good enough for Apple. That, or when your tiny adapter breaks, its more logical to just buy a new set of headphones than a new $0.50 adapter.
And patent that!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Most connectors have two important factors determining whether or not they will be successful in the market place: (1) functionality, and (2) adoptability. If wide-spread adoption is important to making it successful, why would they bother patenting it? If other makers can't use this connector, this will disincentive people from buying the iPhone and going with a competing maker that sticks with the standards. Further, it will piss-off their more loyal customers who now are forced to buy head phones that only work with the iPhone or iPod, unless they want to stick with the pair that comes with the device when you buy it. Unless they intend to make the patents available royalty-free, this connector is dead before it got off the ground.
If they wanted something thinner, why not simply use 2.5 mm jacks...?
I think this is just a diversion, and the next iPod will in fact come with dual XLR connectors to go after the audiophile market.
I can't be bothered to run around the house with a magnet and check, so take this with a grain of salt, but:
Cheap audio connectors are often (not always) steel, because steel is cheaper than brass. Expensive audio connectors are often (not always) brass, because brass conducts better but is more expensive than steel.
In either case: Various platings are applied for prettiness or corrosion resistance or both (with nickel being cheap and durable, and gold being expensive and pretty).
(Please note that I avoided inferring that any combination of these materials is in some way better than any other combination. My own single-data-point worth of experience with gold-plated steel connectors is that they can rust in normal use, while no other combination of materials ever does so.)
Kid-proof tablet..
Apple has a few options to choose from: Apple's 30 pin connector already has audio out. Why not just remove the 3.5mm jack and either provide an adapter that converts the 30 pin male to a 3.5mm female or have headphones that come with a 30 pin connector. Someone mentioned bluetooth. I like the idea of going cordless. Another option that I like, since we are talking about modifying the standard 3.5mm jack, is to reinvent an external audio connection much like Apple's MagSafe power cord. It would significantly reduce the space taken up by a 3.5mm jack since the audio magnetic jack would be outside the device. An adapter could be easily created for 3.5mm headphone jacks too.
Does anyone else think the term "Razor-Thin" has become devalued?
Or am I just a pedant?
Interfaces should not be patentable. Look at the misery that came from the patents on the FAT (file allocation table) design.
It is just bad for the overall market.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
http://m.xkcd.com/927/
This is a bad idea, as anything smaller will break.
Why not move to using bluetooth headphones? No more connections needed, and by integrating bluetooth, you have more seamless connectivity options (home/car stereo) than before.
I swear to god ... I'm going to patent pedantic arguing over trivial minutiae by patent obsessed slashdotters. I'll be a fucking billionaire before the ink is dry on the application.
Even after all of the corrections, still you are confused...
You are not Anonymous Coward, you are Anonymous Clueless.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
why dont Apple simply piss off ? ...
So it means the iPhone 6 will be the size of a credit card?