Steve Wozniak Says Apple Must Fix iPhone 7 Bluetooth Or Revive Its Headphone Jack (afr.com)

We've talked extensively about the missing headphone jack on the upcoming iPhone. While some say that the move will ruin user experience -- something that has already started to seem that way in the real world -- a few argue that someone needs to push the needle to move the technology forward. Now Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has something to say about the missing legacy audio jack as well. He is asking Apple to fix the Bluetooth first if the company intends to give users to move to wireless headphones. From a Financial Review report: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has warned Apple is going to frustrate a lot of customers if it removes the headphone jack from the upcoming iPhone 7. [...] Customers wanting to use their existing, wired earbuds and headphones might have to buy an adaptor that attaches to the iPhone's Lightning port, or to whatever port does remain on the phone. "If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people," Mr Wozniak told The Australian Financial Review. "I would not use Bluetooth ... I don't like wireless. I have cars where you can plug in the music, or go through Bluetooth, and Bluetooth just sounds so flat for the same music." Mr Wozniak said he would probably use the adaptor to connect his existing earphones to his next iPhone, and said that, like many other users he is attached to the accessories that he uses alongside the phone. "Mine have custom ear implants, they fit in so comfortably, I can sleep on them and everything. And they only come out with one kind of jack, so ''ll have to go through the adaptor," he said. "If there's a Bluetooth 2 that has higher bandwidth and better quality, that sounds like real music, I would use it. But we'll see. Apple is good at moving towards the future, and I like to follow that."

Comments

Re:This is the same guy

[David_Hart]

Doesn't mean he isn't right.

Maybe, but he should do some research on Bluetooth before making recommendations. It appears that Bluetooth 5.0 may provide support for higher quality audio.

From Wiki: Bluetooth 5 was announced in June 2016. It will quadruple the range, double the speed, and an eight-fold increase in data broadcasting capacity of low energy Bluetooth connections, in addition to adding functionality for connection-less services like location-relevant information and navigation

Re: i'd like a water proof phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony has made numerous waterproof phones with exposed headphone Jacks. Removing it is not a requirement.

Re:Here's the problem with stereo Bluetooth:

[AncalagonTotof]

To add details to your answer : first point, look at your source : is it FLAC or MP3 (or any equivalent). If the source is bad, it cannot be better at the other end.

AFAIK, Bluetooth uses an A2DP pipe and this pipe allows the transmission of data using 4 codecs :
- SBC : the first historically, the worst in quality
- AAC
- MP3
- aptX

SBC, AAC and MP3 are lossy codecs. I never saw a product that accept AAC or MP3. There must be a license to pay to use MP3; may be also for AAC.
aptX is both lossy and lossless. And most source devices (smartphones, computers ...) are aptX ready.

So, the technology already here to allow a much better quality than what we know (as long as one can force the use of the lossless variant of aptX, which is ... well, you know ... Obfuscated to say the least).

Then what ?
Then CSR : the dominating Bluetooth chips manufacturer. More than 70% of the chips last time I heard.
CSR has patents on aptX.
And patents are meant to make money (yes; were you told otherwise ?).

So, the sink devices (BT speakers, car audio systems, ...) are aptX ready only if the manufacturer paid CSR. I'm not sure, may be $1 per product. That's a lot compared to the rest of the BOM. A BT speaker you pay $150 cost less than half when leaving the Chinese factory.

And guess what : manufacturers like profit, so they don't pay CSR for aptX and stick to SBC.
The hardware is always ready, the firmware may contain the aptX codec, but if the license key, linked to the BT MAC address of the chip, is not present in the firmware, aptX won't be negotiated as an available codec with the source device. Only SBC will be used, even if your source device can do aptX.

By the way, if you like your music, listen to it on real speakers in your living room !