Apple To Unveil 'AirPods' That Use Custom Bluetooth Chip (macrumors.com)

It's no secret that Apple is planning to remove the headphone jack in its upcoming flagship smartphones. A new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, which confirms rumors that Apple will indeed remove the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 to improve the device's water resistance, suggests that Apple is developing earbuds called "AirPods" that will employ its own Bluetooth-like communication chip. Mac Rumors reports: "First and foremost, as has been rumored, Kuo suggests Apple is working on its own Bluetooth-like communication chip and its own Bluetooth headphones. Previous information suggests the Bluetooth chip will improve battery performance for longer battery life. The chip may be included in the wireless earbuds Apple has in development, which are said to be Bragi Dash-style wireless Bluetooth earbuds that are entirely wire free. The earbuds will be called "AirPods," based on trademark filings that have been discovered, and the product could be unveiled as early as September 7 alongside the iPhone 7. According to Kuo, Apple will sell its Apple-branded Bluetooth headphones alongside its Beats line of headphones, targeting the high-end market with the "AirPods" and the mid-range market with the Beats headphones. Kuo does not believe the company will package Bluetooth headphones with the iPhone 7. Instead, Apple is likely to ship the iPhone 7 with Lightning-based EarPods that feature a Lightning connector instead of a 3.5mm headphone jack."

Comments

Basically

[Kartu]

"Earlier, everyone could sell headphones for our devices, now we found a way to 'fix' that to 'improve device's water resistance'".

Brilliant

[DogDude]

It's brilliant and simple. Apple customers will buy anything. They buy ridiculous "special" Apple chargers now. Why wouldn't they also buy "special" Apple headphones? Of course they will. By the tens of millions. Apple will make hundreds of millions on just these dumb, superfluous gadgets.

Re:Brilliant

[stealth_finger]

What's more assuming is the /. hypocrisy. Sony try to change the game by going proprietary and are vilified, Apple do the exact same thing are are worshipped like some bizarre cult. Xenophobic much?

Do you read /.? Basically everytime apple are mentioned it's more slagging off with a few defenders. The very post you replied to is negative towards apple yet you claim they are worshipped like some bizarre cult. That's just the apple reality distortion field and it's not native to slashdot at all.

Oh yeah this'll be good.

[serviscope_minor]

Lightning based headphones are just going to be an unreliable PITA.

OK, the 3.5mm jack isn't perfect. However they are pretty solid. Actually these days they're really really solid. The lighting connector is pretty well known for reliability issues. Now compare how the two are used. The 3.5mm jack is used while listening to music, often carrying the phone, where it gets knocked. It still works. The lightning connector is not unknown for breaking and that's used for charging where the phone tends to be on the desk.

Yes, I know neither of those are universals, but the common case for the 3.5mm jack is much harsher than the common case for the lightning connector and yet the former is still much more reliable than the latter.

Personally I reckon we'll be hearing about lots of broken and unreliable headphones when the go that route.

Or there's bluetooth ones. They've been around for years and while they're available, they are not currently anything like as popular as analog headphones despite just about any system now supporting both fine. Because among other things, they're more expensive and it's super fun when your headphones run out of charge too.

Re:Oh yeah this'll be good.

[serviscope_minor]

I guess you've been lucky. There are plenty of reports of it breaking with all sorts of guides as to how to reduce breakage and etc. Secondly, the generaly usage of lightning ports (charging) is not as mechanically abusive as headphone ports (in a pocket).

Also, finally, 3.5mm jacks are physically larger and have far fewer, larger pins. This makes it mechanically and electrically more sound. On the plus side they can apparently route analogue signals, so the jack will have the same benign temopray failure modes.

And OK, I'll tell you the real problem I have with it. I am an engineer, and I've been on projects where shitty connectors have been the bane of my existence. I've kind of come to the conclusion that the budget for connectors sould be at least as large as the personel budget. Well OK not really, but you get the idea. Shitty connectors are cheap and hateful, frankly. Part of me wishes basically everything was connected by one of these

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

or these

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

or maybe something by ODU. The lighning connector is not the shittiest connector invented *cough* USB micro *cough* SATA *cough*, but it simply isn't that good. It's pretty cheapass, not that robust, and Apple have a fetish for really tiny cable boots just to make them all the less reliable. 3.5mm connectors aren't the best either, but there are some really pretty solid ones out there. Having a 3.5mm connector on some piece of kit doesn't give me the screaming heebie jeebies and make me want to murderize the vendor.

What problems do people have with it?

um gee, replacing a standard, physically robust port for which tens of thousands of commodity options are available for with a proprietary, less robust one for which currently precisely zero options are available for, all to save 0.5mm of thickness which no one cares about.

No I can't think of any reason why this is a bad idea.

Re: horseshit

[BarbaraHudson]

Let's not forget that Apple is no longer driven by the idea of making better products. Nobody is screaming that they want better water resistance - most would probably want them to take a step backwards and offer larger, replaceable batteries. That, of course, would mean more people keeping their phones longer. Seriously, did anyone that that a nonreplaceable battery was an advantage to anyone except Apple? If it's so great, why not do it with their laptops. This should properly be framed as a restraint of trade issue.