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Apple Unlikely to Make Big Changes for Next iPhone
The next iPhone isn't going to look much different from the last year's iPhone 6s, or 2014's iPhone 6. According to a WSJ report (paywalled; alternate source), Apple will release two new iPhone models with screen sizes 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch, and both the models will look pretty much similar to the last two year's models. There won't be any 3.5mm headphone port in the new iPhone, though, the report adds. The Cupertino-based company plans to introduce major design changes in its next iPhone, using OLED display and eliminating the home button to use the display for fingerprint scanning. From the report: For years, Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive has expressed a desire for the iPhone to appear like a single sheet of glass, according to people familiar with the matter. The current design ideas for the 2017 iPhones are expected to push the handsets in that direction by eliminating much of the bezel around the display, with the OLED screen.
It's the same phone, but faster. And it won't work with almost all of my headphones. Then why would I buy it?
This isn't a surprise. The next Intel chip won't be much different than the last one either. The next computer you own will be very similar to the one you owned 5 years prior. We have really reached an end of the digital road now. You won't likely see huge progress like we have seen in the past due to limitations of physics and power concerns. I know people will scream "Moores Law!!!" but that doesn't apply in 2016. It looks like the Star Trek type future won't be happening.
Apple is preparing the distracted world for disappointment. But I know what will make me happy.
If Siri makes all the calls necessary to all her stripper friends for my bachelor party, I would die a happy man.
Which is it?
...why release a new one? I guess for suckers like my friend who has bought every single new version of the iPhone since day 1.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
As someone who was starting to look at upgrading his phone (5s going strong so far), I know that the lack of headphone jack is going to make me sit right back down and wait on the purchase.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Apple is releasing a new product with little to no changes compared to the previous model, and yet still expects people to shell out hundreds of dollars for the new version? Sounds like they've finally figured out their customer base! Steve Jobs would be so proud ...
I can't believe that the next iPhone won't have a headphone jack. I think the world really isn't ready for this change. Personally I use Bluetooth headphones 80% of the time, but I think going that last 20% would be problematic. And if their headphone adapters are as resilient as their charging cables, this is going to end up being a major problem. I don't think that most people would go for a phone without a headphone jack. Even if they don't use it most of the time.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
My kids iPhones have pretty consistently later 2.5 years. After that they get slower and slower until they're junk. Oh, and can we please get some gorilla glass? Every time she drops the damn thing it's $250 for a new screen.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I was a bit skeptical but then I remembered I haven't used the headphone jack as my primary audio source since like the iPhone 4.
The headphone jack is like the only component on an iPhone I ever had issues with. It would always end up staticy and sometimes replacing the headphones was enough but normally it was the port itself.
Once I switched to Bluetooth I haven't looked back.... except for when I forget my wireless headphones. Once a month or so I'll use the headphone jack with my spare wired headphones I keep in my car for when I forget to bring my wireless ones. It's this situation that is the only reason I'd still want a headphone jack.
But if it means thinner phone/more screen I'd still be OK with maybe once a month not being able to use headphones.
As someone who was starting to look at upgrading his phone (5s going strong so far), I know that the lack of headphone jack is going to make me sit right back down and wait on the purchase.
I bet you said the same about PS2 ports, floppy drives and the recently defunct CDROM drives too.
As someone who was starting to look at upgrading his phone (5s going strong so far), I know that the lack of headphone jack is going to make me sit right back down and wait on the purchase.
Depends on how they handle this.
You DO realize that Apple has a pretty long and successful track record of getting excoriated for getting rid of "legacy" ports and peripherals, only to have the rest of the industry follow suit in the next year or so, right?
USB-C supports using the connector as an analog headphone jack. You just need a specific resistor on a specific pin and it will switch over to analog headphone mode on one of the pins. You wouldn't even need an adapter with the right set of headphones. There's a strong likelihood that they're finally going to kill their proprietary connector on the iPhone in favor of USB-C.
So there is your precious analog headphone jack.
moox. for a new generation.
Apple has said that they will have an adapter that you can use the 3.5 headphones on. It will plug into the charging/data port. Of course being Apple the adapter will be way over priced.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
We want you to break and repair it more.
Get a Nexus 6P.
You'll _never_ look back.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
Single sheet of glass huh? I'm not sure that's a good way to describe how you'd want a phone. Hopefully it doesn't break like a single sheet of glass!
Except I *do* use the jack on my phone as input for the stereo in my car. "Use bluetooth" you say... fine. Maybe my next car purchase in 10-12 years I'll remember to include BT for the stereo system...
This is all good for me though since it should drop prices on the SE I've been wanting as an upgrade/replacemetn for my 4 ...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Still not waterproof, still no wireless charging? Why would I want an iPhone, went they haven't yet adopted features that Samsung has been offering for years? And yes, the minimum memory size SHOULD be 32GB, except that Apple makes money selling you iCloud storage. 5GB free? Hint: the iPhone backup takes up 4.9 GB!
I built a bluetooth receiver for my car out of a Raspberry Pi. You can buy them too, except they cost $80 instead of the $20 I paid. It's much nicer than an audio cable.
And fuck you, editors, for allowing this non-story that is neither news nor stuff that matters.
You realize the Raspberry Pi on board audio has terrible quality right? I hope you somehow included a good usb sound adapter for that $20.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Maybe my next car purchase in 10-12 years I'll remember to include BT for the stereo system...
It's a cheap and decidedly worthwhile upgrade to existing tech / cars. I stuck a Grom unit behind the stock radio in my '04 E46M3, and in my 21-year-old 1995 Jeep Wrangler I simply swapped in a sub-$100 new head unit (Clarion but there are so many options). Much better solution than wrestling with a 1/8" cord constantly, especially with the wear and tear those cords get in an automotive environment (jiggle it just right to get audio out of both channels...).
geek. lawyer.
This one is a pretty big leap. Most people who buy headphones I want them compatible with everything. I have some devices I plug into that are 10 years old and will still be used long into the future, and this means an audio cable. While I have an audio cable anyway, why would I want to pay a premium for in-headset bluetooth and at the cost of having to charge them all the time. When flash drives came out, USB was already prevelent and that was fine. I haven't looked for a thunderbolt hub for quite awhile but last I checked they were still a lot harder to find than usb hubs. Finally, I swear at apple every time I have to find my displayport adapter. I still have three working VGA monitors and the macbook is so far the only PC I have without a VGA or HDMI port.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If you a) plan on driving the same car for 10 years and b) listen to a lot of music in it, it would be a worthwhile investment.
I'm sure if you can afford the $700 iPhone, you should have no problem paying for the $25 new adpater, or find one for $3 on ebay.
Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/GOgroov...
Oh, and if you don't happen to have a car stereo with a line in because it's so old, here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Audio-C...
You can also order a nice USB-powered BT audio receiver (TSBT35A24) and a cigar lighter to USB adapter from China for less than $5 shipped.
Look, I bought an Apple iPhone 5 and it worked fine for almost 5 years. When it finally stopped working, I bought an iPhone 5 SE. Same size.
But they try not to sell them in America.
Why? Because the little n00bZ in their marketing and sales departments apparently don't have useful Business degrees like I do. Ones that tell you to listen to your customers and if they want smaller phones, sell them smaller phones.
Here's a free message to Apple: listen to your customers. And stop trying to sell grandpa and grandma phones. They don't buy new phones. Sure, they have money, but they're not your market.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
There's a big difference between replacing a simple, ubiquitous, general purpose, analog headphone jack and replacing the special-purpose PS/2 with USB. The PS/2 port had one function, whereas the headphone jack can interconnect nearly any audio device going back 40 years.
The headphone jack is small and simple, and compatible with just about everything out there. Headphones aren't magically obsolete just because they are 10 or 20 years old. (Dropping the jack to make the phone even thinner is just silly.
Do people really want their phones even thinner than they are now? Judging by the bulky cases people buy for their phones, I am not so sure. Pretty soon we'll have phones as thin as a sheet of paper and we'll keep them in our wallets or pocket, and then they'll provide a bluetooth headset that looks like an old nokia candy bar phone to keep it useable and we'll have come full circle.
Apple is so stagnated I'm bringing back the stagnated "<THING> is stagnated!" troll.
You have to get a whole new car if you want bluetooth?
Every machine I buy will have a PS/2 port. It'll also have an optical drive to read and write the latest BluRay/whatever format. Floppies are dead for me, though.
Removing headphone jacks, because they're costing us a $8 royalty on every headphone produced. Fuck off, Apple.
So now you need new headphones, or a $30 adapter. And another thing if you want to charge the phone at the same time, use an OTG device, or whatever.
His Steviness the Jobs didn't make Apple what it is by doing the same thing over and over again.
Be bold! Make the corners pointed. Heck, stick bloody great spikes on them! Or even make them in black!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What car built since the turn of the millennium has a radio that can be (affordably) replaced without losing functionality of an existing system as well as retaining a semi-stock appearance of the dash? In other words, what vehicles still have an actual DIN radios?
Every vehicle I've ridden in for a long time has had a radio that is fairly well integrated into the dash. My Honda Accord for instance has to resort to something like this if you want to keep climate control functionality which is integrated into the display. Plus none of the original radio work, nor steering wheel control, despite all still being present.
Headphone jacks are an "analog hole" and Apple is getting further involved as a streaming music provider. They could next switch to a more "secured" form of bluetooth connection.
The current iPhone wasn't that bad, other than the 2GB of RAM, a travesty. I guess they are just going to let everyone breeze past them again.
We knew Apple had to reach this point eventually....
This one is a pretty big leap. Most people who buy headphones I want them compatible with everything. I have some devices I plug into that are 10 years old and will still be used long into the future, and this means an audio cable. While I have an audio cable anyway, why would I want to pay a premium for in-headset bluetooth and at the cost of having to charge them all the time. When flash drives came out, USB was already prevelent and that was fine. I haven't looked for a thunderbolt hub for quite awhile but last I checked they were still a lot harder to find than usb hubs. Finally, I swear at apple every time I have to find my displayport adapter. I still have three working VGA monitors and the macbook is so far the only PC I have without a VGA or HDMI port.
As I said: Depends on how they handle it.
Like everyone else, I have several headphone/earbud sets that have either 3.5mm or 1/4" plugs on them. I would imagine that Apple will go wireless on the next iPhone, with Bluetooth 5 being used (with possible failover to older BT standards). I would NOT expect them to simply switch to using the Lightning connector and keeping the headphone/earbud user TETHERED to the device. What's the sense in that?
If that (Bluetooth) happens, Apple and a zillion other companies will rush to market with receiver/DAC dongles that you can plug analog 'phones into, and Apple and a zillion other companies will start (continue) making BT headphones/earbuds, and as time goes on, the 3.5mm jack will start being the thing you have to have an adapter for, for everything; rather than the other way around.
I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.
As far as your Thunderbolt/DisplayPort issues go, that has more to do with when you bought your last PC and monitors than anything else, and with things like the Surface Pro and others switching to either MiniDisplayPort/Thunderbolt or USB-C, the days of the VGA connector are pretty much OVER. Even Slashdot has admitted it. But don't get me wrong, I have multiple things that are VGA, and so, having something like MiniDisplayPort actually allows me to have VGA compatibility for FAR longer than if I had to depend on a built-in VGA Port or some hinky, expensive, half-assed "converter box". (Been there, done that with HDMI -> Component Video. $70 for something that barely worked, and then failed after about a year)...
I personally like having the TB/MiniDisplayPort connector and Dongle setup; because 1) VGA (and DVI) Connectors, like the Universe itself, are BIG, REALLY BIG; 2) With just a little planning, I can output to a variety of Displays, without having to worry about having a particular Port available on the computer itself (and with an aftermarket TB display adapter, I don't even have to have 3 separate dongles; instead I can have ONE dongle that costs about HALF that Apple's dongles and has VGA, DVI and HDMI on the same dongle, how cool is that?); and 3) There is a modicum of protection afforded by having an active "dongle" b
It's bluetooth audio, in a car. It doesn't have to be great. If you like spending money then yes, you could absolutely spend whatever you like, from $2 to $10,000 on a DAC.
Nice, thanks for the link. When I built the Pi solution the only other reasonable way I found to do that was to take apart a pair of Sony bluetooth earbuds. The car Pi also does some other stuff, like interfacing with OBD, but a cheap bluetooth receiver is handy.
Apple was the first major digital audio seller to go DRM-free. Your fantasies need updating.
Get a Bluetooth car adapter. I use a one from Kinivo that Amazon sells for $35.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Why do journalists need to say where a corporation is based? They could just say "the company" instead of the "Cupertino based company".
The 3.5mm jack has been used for decades and is standard on many audio devices.
Apple, as usual, is all "fuck standards".
A number of companies offer kits to add Bluetooth to your stock head units. We added Bluetooth, hands free phone and audio streaming to our 2007 Honda Odyssey with no impact to the head unit or steering wheel controls. The only change was a button I had to add to the dash (to answer calls, or initiate voice dialing) and a microphone above the driver side a-frame for hands free calls. Cost me ~$100
Only douchebag and stupid assholes drive around with headphones on.
Optical is dead for me but for stupid reasons : tax on blank media, lack of enough SATA or IDE ports on some machines.
On the other hand, gimme dual PS/2. I even made sure to have dual DVI-I for now (not DVI-D)
In reality it was Amazon, in shitty memory Apple does all the good stuff first.
Man you are really fishing for something to complain about today, huh? It would be a $2 adapter, or you can just build your own with a $0.05 resistor and an old USB-C cable. It's a really, really simple device. The 3.5mm analog jack is ready to be put out to pasture, long live the 2.4mm analog jack (USB-C).
Re: charging, with fast charging and/or modern battery life it's really not an issue.
moox. for a new generation.
My cars (early 2000 models) don't have any sort of aux/headphone jack/input port. Is there some way to make this work?
Why would you want a thinner phone? No, really. They're already so thin that human skin doesn't provide enough friction to keep it in your hand if your hands are sweaty. These things are a usability disaster because they're already way too thin.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
First mobile phone: 2008 (flip phone)
Second mobile phone: 2015 (smartphone)
Looks like hopefully I'll replace my phone in 2022 if all goes well
I don't like spending money for nothing. I don't like being a sucker.
I guarantee that if I owned an iPhone with no headphone jack, I would not have been able to plug my iPhone in to play a song over the speakers at a jam session last week. Everybody else had Android phones. I reached over and plugged my iPhone in, and everything just worked, because my iPhone 6S is actually standards-compliant, using an industry-standard connector. When Apple requires me to carry a proprietary adapter just for their devices, suddenly access to audio output is not ubiquitous, and suddenly I have to plan a day in advance to pack that adapter in my car or whatever.
So basically unless Apple ditches their proprietary dock connector at the same time, and if they're wrong about all the Android companies following suit, they'll have a situation where iPhone users are at a decided disadvantage over Android users, which is likely to make a number of users switch to Android.
It's too bad Bluetooth provides such a bad user experience on iOS, with multi-second playback delays (at least in my personal experience, with all brand new hardware). Otherwise, that would make ditching the headphone jack would at least suck a little less.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
You don't travel to conferences, do you? I have just been to a conference in the Czech Republic and had to plug in my laptop into the projector to give a presentation. Which standard did the projector use? That's right, VGA. I just plugged the cable directly in my laptop, whereas all the macfags had to fumble around with adaptors.
entropy happens
...There's a strong likelihood that they're finally going to kill their proprietary connector on the iPhone in favor of USB-C.
HAHAHA Apple kill a proprietary connector??
The only way they could handle this would be to bundle in headphone jack adapter with the phone. It ought to be a cost wash with the shitty headphones, which they really ought to stop including anyway.
Anything else is a massive failure of good will.
I'm bitter about the death of VGA. It is not being replaced by a reliable standard, but by a mess of DisplayPort, miniDisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, and USB-C. I still have a VGA laptop, and it still works everywhere I go. But in a few years I'll have to buy a laptop with the least non-standard port and carry with me a bunch of adaptors. Sigh.
entropy happens
I think I'm the only one that isn't ready to burn down Cupertino over the headphone jack. Yes I'd sorta rather have it than not, but I really don't physically plug my phone into anything other than to charge it. I either use my suppplied earbuds or I use bluetooth.
I will concede, though, that if they remove it something interesting should be put in its place. I don't need a better speaker, which is what it sounds like they're doing. You've got me there, I'd be frustrated if they dumped the headphone jack for that. But if they used that space for more battery, or maybe somehow that extra space got it a better camera, I'd toss that jack away in a heart beat.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Except that the jack connector is far from obsolete.
It is used on new products everywhere, in all price ranges, even Apple's earbuds use it. Quality-wise, it is more than enough for stereo audio signals within the range of human hearing, in fact you will be hard pressed to find a high-end headset that uses something else.
Only douchebag and stupid assholes drive around with headphones on.
As long as you aren't driving around with a pair of these on, you should be able to hear with most earbuds just as well as you can with your stereo turned up to a reasonable listening level (let's say around 80-90 dB SPL or so).
Yes, but Amazon did it using plain old MP3s you can play everywhere while Apple did it with some crappy Apple-only format that only worked on iPods, so ...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
I built a bluetooth receiver for my car out of a Raspberry Pi. You can buy them too, except they cost $80 instead of the $20 I paid. It's much nicer than an audio cable.
It wasn't $20 after that Bluetooth adapter, or if it was a Raspberry Pi3 B, then those cost about $35-$40, not $20. And of course that all made sense because your time is worthless, right?
If you don't have line-in, look for "car fm transmitter". There are also some with BT, like "BC09 car Bluetooth charger FM transmitter".
I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.
I'm curious how you could do that?
The only devices I have with HDMI are the Bluray player and the TV.
The XBOX 360 has an optical audio out.
But all the other equipment is RCA only, both for video and audio. I'm talking about the Wii, a turntable, a tapedeck, a CD player, the small 3.5mm to RCA lead we use to plug phone/tablets/mp3 players in the receiver (no pairing, no lost connection, no authentication problem... Instant plug and play).
Where can you find a turntable with a TOSLINK out? Or a tapedeck with TOSLINK in/out?
Try it! Library of Babel
You don't travel to conferences, do you? I have just been to a conference in the Czech Republic and had to plug in my laptop into the projector to give a presentation. Which standard did the projector use? That's right, VGA. I just plugged the cable directly in my laptop, whereas all the macfags had to fumble around with adaptors.
And you don't know much about electricity, do you?
So when a ground-loop or other electrical potential between that Projector and your laptop, eats the built-in VGA port on said laptop, you'll WISH you had an interposing "adapter" to serve as a buffer between that projector and your precious laptop's motherboard. Because, if that happens to me, I can go to any largish electronics store and for $30, buy another VGA "adapter" for my "Macfag" laptop, while yours is now TOAST. Forever.
The only way they could handle this would be to bundle in headphone jack adapter with the phone. It ought to be a cost wash with the shitty headphones, which they really ought to stop including anyway.
Anything else is a massive failure of good will.
Who says they won't?
Oh Slashdot. How far you have fallen.
I have had an Iphone since the 3G model, but if they remove the headphone jack I will consider an Android.
I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.
I'm curious how you could do that?
The only devices I have with HDMI are the Bluray player and the TV.
The XBOX 360 has an optical audio out.
But all the other equipment is RCA only, both for video and audio. I'm talking about the Wii, a turntable, a tapedeck, a CD player, the small 3.5mm to RCA lead we use to plug phone/tablets/mp3 players in the receiver (no pairing, no lost connection, no authentication problem... Instant plug and play).
Where can you find a turntable with a TOSLINK out? Or a tapedeck with TOSLINK in/out?
Well, every setup is of course, different. My TV has HDMI (obviously).
My DVD player has HDMI (and RCAs and TOSLink).
I took my VCR out of the system because it had a bad power supply, and because I hadn't used it in about 5 years.
My cable box has HDMI (and RCA (and TOSLink I think)).
I purchased a 4-port HDMI switch box to replace the 3 port RCA switch box I was using to consolidate ports. (I had also been using my VCR to do some signal-routing; but I had long-ago bypassed (literally) that.
The computer I use (an old G5 Tower) as an iTunes server has TOSLink out, so that goes over to one of the Optical inputs on the A/V Receiver.
The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.
As for your tape deck, unfortunately, most modern receivers don't have a "Tape Loop" anymore (mine does, both analog and TOSLink). But you can get from RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these, and once it is all TOSLink, there are any number of Switches, or if you have a "modern" receiver, it will likely have enough TOSLink inputs to obviate the need for an external TOSLink switch box.
DId I forget anything? Oh yes, Turntable. Well, my Thorens TD160 has been sitting in quiet repose in my "storage room" for over 20 years; but my Receiver also still has a forest of RCAs (and I believe a Mag-Phono input), in case I ever want to hook it up again. Or, I could just get one of these thingies. I am sure there are less-expensive ones; but that is what I found in 0.5 secs of Googling for "Magnetic Phono to TOSLink".
As I said, every setup is different, and presents different challenges. The more "legacy" media (tape and vinyl) you want to support, the more "shopping" you need to do; but it is still possible in any event.
I'd like to see Apple price the adapter at $2. Build your own? Most people can't solder, and most people who can solder can't solder on something as tiny as a USB-C cable's wires. Stripping the cable and the individual wires alone is a test of patience and dexterity. And an old USB-C cable? How many people out there have spare USB-C cables laying around?
The 3.5mm jack isn't ready to be put out to pasture any more than RJ45 or NEMA 5-15.
You can purchase a bluetooth receiver for your car for less than $5 on AliExpress.
http://www.aliexpress.com/af/c...
Congratulations to owning a - probably one inch thick - laptop computer that is so old that it can directly connect to an antique East European video projector.
Personally the car is the only place I listen, so that's usually where I care the most about the sound. Car speakers tend to have a lot more fidelity than you're average home stereo; in the vehicles I buy, at least.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Antique? Since when projectors with VGA connectors are antique? I have never even seen a projector without a VGA connector!
And my laptop is a T440s, bought in 2014, and a bit thinner than one inch.
entropy happens
Wow. So you like adaptors to protect against ground loops. Do you also walk around with shark-repellant bat-spray, just in case?
For your information, I'm a physicist, so I actually know more about electricity than you ever will. And my professional advice is that you should worry more about being hit by a lightning than about having your motherboard fried by a ground loop.
entropy happens
How did you like your free lightning to 30 pin adapter?
Wow. So you like adaptors to protect against ground loops. Do you also walk around with shark-repellant bat-spray, just in case?
For your information, I'm a physicist, so I actually know more about electricity than you ever will. And my professional advice is that you should worry more about being hit by a lightning than about having your motherboard fried by a ground loop.
For your information, I have been an Embedded hardware/software developer for almost 40 years.
So, you definitely know more about the Second Law of Thermodynamics than I ever will; but I'll bet I've had my hands on more electronics than you will ever have, you insufferable snot.
Oh, and at one point in my youth, I was a professional audio engineer, and have personally experienced what a ground loop (or other potential caused by disparate power sources) can do, when I plugged in the non-isolated preamp-out of a guitar amp that was powered by the stage power into an audio input (also non-isolated) of a mixer that was running on "house" power. An op-amp IC in the guitar amp lost that battle, instantly, and with a nice SNAP and a satisfying little curl if smoke. This was all on stuff running on plain ol' 120 VAC.
So, in the hypothetical example with a Projector, if the Projector was mounted on the ceiling (as many are), instead of sitting on a conference table, it is not at ALL unheard of that the Projector could be sitting as much as 192 VAC away from the power that the computer was running on. In fact, around 50 VAC mismatches are rather common. It just depends on how much CURRENT can flow through that unintended "circuit".
And if you think what I am saying is so rare, tell that to all the people who have laptops and desktops with one or more fried ports. It is unfortunately all too common. Especially laptops, because they tend to get hooked up to every crazy thing in every crazy electrical environment. And also likely because they are designed with smaller, lower-wattage components; so a mismatch that just makes a nice, fat 0804 SMT 1/4W resistor kinda warm in a desktop is death to the teeny 0201 1/16 W resistor in the laptop.
How did you like your free lightning to 30 pin adapter?
Never needed one.
The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.
RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these
That's very interesting, didn't know that these converter existed.
Thanks for the reply.
Try it! Library of Babel
The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.
RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these
That's very interesting, didn't know that these converter existed.
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, there's all kinds of converters and extractors and switches, and combination-devices thereof. Amazon and eBay seem to be good sources of stuff, and also B&H Photo.
You just have to plan it all out a bit, and be willing to re-think parts or the whole thing to get to what you want, as your research turns up devices that may suggest a better way to do things. Try to make sure anything that has multiple inputs also has a Remote.
Speaking of Remotes, For me, the other thing that made it all make sense was the purchase of a Harmony Remote for $52 on Amazon. It "knew" every one of my kinda obscure Audio and Video devices except for my WAAAY off-brand Chinese HDMI Switch. But defining it only took about 5 minutes. But having a " scriptable" Remote takes ALL the "set this to that input, set that to this input, and set the other to another input" stuff and turns it into a one-button "Watch a DVD" or "Listen to Tape" or "Watch the Computer" "Activity", while also providing full and separate control of each device. I think it took me all of a half hour to set everything as far as the "Add Devices" and "Create Activites" goes, and then, I was actually just using the thing!
What like my $350 Bose noise cancelling headphones?
Two things. Number one, I can't understand why "thin" is so damn desirable for a phone. I mean, up to a point - you don't want to carry a brick in your pocket - but they're already plenty thin enough for me.
As for the mini-jack, this is a problem for me. For one thing, I won't be able to connect the thing to my stereo, which is analog. Presumably, I'd have to buy a DAC, or some kind of wireless receiver, neither of which I'm planning on doing. Nor would it be convenient, perhaps not even possible, to use the iPhone with my truck's stereo. In my Peterbilt, the stereo, GPS, and other things are all integrated into one touch-screen display. It does have an interface to operate an MP3 player, but it's not designed for Apple devices, and it's a pretty piss-poor interface. It has no way to deal with podcasts, except as MP3 files, so I already have to work around that. Much easier to use the mini-jack and the Apple device's interface.
Here's another thing. I'm glad my old iPod "Classic" is still working. I looked at getting a new iPod, but the hard drive sizes are all smaller. As it is, I can't fit all my music on the 160 GB hard drive I have. Aren't we supposed to be getting more storage with newer devices, not less?
It seems people either love to bash Apple, or they're fawning fanboys, but here's my take after using their products for thirty years: Great products, (usually), bad corporation. I've always hated Apple, but I certainly wouldn't switch to Windows.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
I don't have a USB-C cable, the local super market that sell all kinds of cables doesn't have USB-C, I have never seen a USB-C even in the wild before... Where exactly do you live again?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Based off your description, won't you just need a single adapter to VGA at worst?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I have to admit, it's been years since I've been in a car that didn't have a fully integrated radio dashboard thing. I forgot those even existed. Do you think the grandparent has a swappable radio unit like you?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Nowadays, yes, but soon the VGA ports will disappear from the projectors as well.
entropy happens
Correct me if im wrong, but doesn't the compression algorithm for wireless (Bluetooth) sound diminish the quality of the music? It might be good for "average Joe" but music buff's wont like the removal of the headphone jack?
Bluetooth sucks in general, and it eats battery life.
Are they going to put on a second lightning port? Listening to Music or any audio uses up the battery quickly. its nice to be able to listen with the audio jack, AND have it plugged into a power source at the same time!
My cars (early 2000 models) don't have any sort of aux/headphone jack/input port.
Your car's radio doesn't have an aux jack.
The car ifself has probably something that looks a bit like the ATX power connector of your desktop PC and is the standard connection interface between a car and a car-radio.
From that point:
- check if the car's radio doesn't have an external input *on* the back.
either stereo audio + button commands (in some industrial connector too) to control a multi-CD music jukebox.
or a stereo audio + audio mute (might be industrial, might be simple screw-on) to connect to an external in-car phone dock (but in practice, actually used for bluetooth receiver)
- if the radio has no such connectors on its back, but only power and speakers:
then most car electronics shop sell some spliter cable with a relay that you can use to interconnect the bluetooth receiver between the radio and the speakers and mute the audio.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
As someone who was starting to look at upgrading his phone (5s going strong so far), I know that the lack of headphone jack is going to make me sit right back down and wait on the purchase.
I bet you said the same about PS2 ports, floppy drives and the recently defunct CDROM drives too.
Since you asked (assuming you mean the removal of those technologies):
1) PS2 ports were fine for the Keyboard and Mouse, but honestly USB was a great technology to replace both those and the Serial Parallel ports (and honestly one I looked forward to since it simplified cabling and wiring). The removal of the PS2 ports happened gradually though, after USB had a chance to appear. There were also more options available at the time in terms of Windows computers. Hardly a comparable comparison.
2) Floppy Drives were a bane. I certainly picked up a USB version for the rare times when I needed one, but it wasn't something that affected my buying choices.
3) The recently "defunct" CDROM drives? Honestly, I can't remember the last time I bought a CDROM drive, probably ~1999. Since then its been CDR/DVD/Combo drives all the way. If you're referring to the removal of generic Disc drives, then I'd also point out that this wasn't something that happened all at once. My laptop from 6 years ago came with a disc drive. It also supported USB. The transition to flash drives and everywhere internet access is what drove and allowed the removal to not affect most people. External optical drives also allowed those who wanted/needed one to keep using one.
Yes, assuming Apple does away with the headphone jack in favor of a Lightning connector, I am sure there will be adapters available, however the main reason for the previous changes you listed were because the technologies listed (PS2, Floppy, CDROM) had been obsoleted by existing newer technologies.
In this case, Lightning headphones are a recent niche innovation, solely related to iOS portable devices, and the change will impact the majority of people who use those devices.
Further while the change may certainly make the iPhone slightly thinner (is anyone really calling it fat?), the change also means Apple gets to cut the jack, the DAC and all the ansillary circuitry from the new iPhone, which I'm sure help drive costs down a little bit.
Will it ultimately allow them to make the phone thinner, more waterproof, and allow them to deploy a full wrap-around screen (as some analysts think)? Maybe, and I can understand why it might be good for Apple to implement this technology NOW to help get the market ready for those changes, but I'm less confident that adding a new adapter is going to be that great for the consumer (but for Apple, yeah sure, great move).
Will that alone mean I don't get a new iPhone?
Honestly, dunno. I was on the fence as it was. The additional space and speed would be nice, but as Apple's iPhone sales have shown, existing phone technologies are sufficient for lots of people to not need the latest and greatest as fast as they used to (similar to how computer technologies have advanced to the point that most people don't need to refresh them every 2 years).
If I have to add more costs and changes to the phone purchase (new headphones? adapters of uncertain longevity?) I may take my usual stance on any of Apple's (or any companies) new "innovations".
Wait a revision or two for them to iron out some of the small problems that will almost inevitably crop up. By that time either the market will embrace the change, bringing with it more choice in headphones and adapters at lots of quality and price points and with the added design experience from lots of real world trials (I'm looking at you original iPhone headphone jack), or the market will reject the idea and we'll see the re-introduction of the headphone jack to the next iPhone model.
Honestly I doubt they will revert the decision (if it has even been made, since no one knows apple's plans but apple), but it seems so silly that at the point that everyone (including airlines) have adopted the headphone form factor, Apple has decided to remove it from their lineup.
tl;dr I need lunch :)
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