Pursuit of Slenderness May Mean No More Headphone Jack In iPhone 7 (pcmag.com)

An intriguing rumor reported by PC Mag (and initially reported in this Japanese blog) holds that Apple may drop the standard headphone jack from the next revision of the iPhone, in favor of Bluetooth and Lightning connectors. From PC Mag's article: The big question is just how such a move might affect all the other headphones one can buy, as well as the other devices Apple makes. While we can envision some manufacturers making iPhone-exclusive variants of their headphones, we doubt that Apple's potential decision to chop out the headphone jack is going to suddenly make for a market full of Lightning-only headphones and earbuds. There are, after all, plenty of non-iPhone devices that still use the 3.5mm connection. And, of course, you could just pair any ol' pair of Bluetooth headphones or earbuds with the iPhone 7.

Comments

converter

[Anonymous Coward]

As with virtually any apple device, there will be a $75 piece manufactured for 85 cents that will be a lightning to headphone jack connection.

As with the other lightning connectors, if you plug it into your mac it will crash when it wakes on sleep.

Re:converter

[Zontar The Mindless]

I can buy a wired headset that plugs into just about any device that's been manufactured in the last 40 years for about 1/20 the price of a wireless one. SO it seems to me your message is actually more like, "You should spend heaps more money to accomplish the same task, because... um... because I said so, dammit!"

Real bad news

[cfalcon]

Really excellent headphones use the standard jacks, and will not be converting over. Grado, Audiotechnica, and many others simply do not have a funny little iphone connector, and likely never will. While I'm sure there will be some dumb converter you can buy, who wants to keep that crap in their pocket, or attached to their headphones (which you will have to track carefully when plugged into a normal outlet).

It's true that mostly I listen on little crappy remote earbuds, but that's absolutely not the case that this is ALL I want to listen to.

Moving to this will remove my ability to use real headphones on Apple phones. That's totally shit.

Re:Real bad news

[sd4f]

I think this is the main thing, the inertia on quality headphones using 3.5mm plugs just makes this a silly decision. Additionally, there's just a point where getting a phone thinner is just being silly. Give me better battery life over a thinner device. Problem is the industry appears to be dead set against progressing beyond a 1 day battery.

Stop making super thin phones you idiots!

[laserhead]

We need more battery life!

What else is there left to do on smartphones?

[areusche]

I miss the good 'ol days of 2004-5 when smartphone innovation was huge. Nowadays what's left to innovate? There isn't much room left for Apple to do anything nifty besides up the memory and processor speed. Smartphones are so boring these days. The last phone I was excited for was the Droid 4 and iPhone 4 and the marginal software updates for each applicable platform. What is a mobile hardware geek to do?

I'd love it if some phone manufacturer made a device that was truly secure and could detect when it was being connected to a StingRay device used by law enforcement. Now that's an exciting innovation!

Brb, checking out the Blackberry Priv.

Re:3.5mm?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Meh. Keep the 3.5mm connector, shrink the rest of the phone down,and fill the remaining space with extra battery. Seriously, how much thinner do phones need to be? I'd prefer some extra battery life, thanks.