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Taking the Headphone Jack Off Phones Is User-Hostile and Stupid (theverge.com)
A WSJ report on Tuesday claimed that the next iPhone won't have the 3.5mm headphone port. A handful of smartphones such as LeEco's Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2 that have launched this year already don't have a headphone jack. The Verge's Nilay Patel has an opinion piece in which he argues that smartphone companies shouldn't ditch headphone ports as it helps no consumer. He lists six reasons:
1. Digital audio means DRM audio :Restricting audio output to a purely digital connection means that music publishers and streaming companies can start to insist on digital copyright enforcement mechanisms. We moved our video systems to HDMI and got HDCP, remember? Copyright enforcement technology never stops piracy and always hurts the people who most rely on legal fair use, but you can bet the music industry is going to start cracking down on "unauthorized" playback and recording devices anyway.2. Wireless headphones and speakers are fine, not great.
3. Dongles are stupid, especially when they require other dongles.
4. Ditching a deeply established standard will disproportionately impact accessibility.:The headphone jack might be less good on some metrics than Lightning or USB-C audio, but it is spectacularly better than anything else in the world at being accessible, enabling, open, and democratizing. A change that will cost every iPhone user at least $29 extra for a dongle (or more for new headphones) is not a change designed to benefit everyone.5. Making Android and iPhone headphones incompatible is incredibly arrogant and stupid.
6. No one is asking for this.
1. Digital audio means DRM audio :Restricting audio output to a purely digital connection means that music publishers and streaming companies can start to insist on digital copyright enforcement mechanisms. We moved our video systems to HDMI and got HDCP, remember? Copyright enforcement technology never stops piracy and always hurts the people who most rely on legal fair use, but you can bet the music industry is going to start cracking down on "unauthorized" playback and recording devices anyway.2. Wireless headphones and speakers are fine, not great.
3. Dongles are stupid, especially when they require other dongles.
4. Ditching a deeply established standard will disproportionately impact accessibility.:The headphone jack might be less good on some metrics than Lightning or USB-C audio, but it is spectacularly better than anything else in the world at being accessible, enabling, open, and democratizing. A change that will cost every iPhone user at least $29 extra for a dongle (or more for new headphones) is not a change designed to benefit everyone.5. Making Android and iPhone headphones incompatible is incredibly arrogant and stupid.
6. No one is asking for this.
That's what's wrong with Slashdot anymore, all the damn kids running around. You should shave your beard off and get rid of the wide-rimmed glasses, boy. Go fuck yourself. Fuck you!
they moved to lightning to more cables and adapters, not because the internals may be smaller or thinner than ordinary micro usb... just like the 'dock' connector of previous generations was also not usb but proprietary. to sell more shit, make more money. in the end, that's all it is about... making more money.. fucking over the customer is just 'acceptable collateral damage'. apple has enough people brainwashed into buying whatever they're selling, so they will get away with it.. regardless of how stupid it is.
You ignorant little fuck.
The 30 pin Dock connector was more akin to the "Dock" connectors of legacy laptops than anything else. It had:
USB, FireWire, "RS-232-like" Serial I/O, analog audio out L/R, Analog Audio In?, Analog Video out, Power, and a few other signals I can't remember right now.
The Lightning connector, which is an all-digital interface, was created to solve two issues: 1) Size. The 30 pin connector is huge. 2) Orientation-Agnostic capability. You can insert a Lightning connector either way (unlike those maddening USB conns), and it automagically re-routes the signals to match.
They take new stuff that already exists, make it better, package it well, market it well, charge a premium. Nothing revolutionary about that.
As long as their competitors keep producing inferior quality products, they can keep pulling this kind of stuff on their customers. They only need to keep the quality bar very high, and they are safe.
It's the exact opposite. They take stuff that already exists, make it worse and market the hell out of it as new and revolutionary. While they initially had some lead in the "shiny shiny" metric, for many years other manufacturers have surpassed them in both quality and features.
Apple is a jewellery manufacturer. They just happen to make electronic jewellery, but it's main selling point is the 18 karat Apple logo on the back and the impractically luxurious glass and metal case. Like other high end brands (Bang and Olufsen TVs, Louis Vitton handbags etc.) what's inside isn't particularly good, probably a few years old in fact, but that's not why you buy it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC