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Apple Cites 'Courage' As Reason To Remove 3.5mm Headphone Jack (arstechnica.com)
It didn't come as much of a surprise when Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller revealed that the iPhone 7 doesn't feature a headphone jack, since rumors have mentioned this possibility months before the announcement. In fact, what some may find more surprising is Apple's justification. The company cited three reasons why they decided to eighty-six the port, as well as one word: "courage." Ars Technica reports: "[Schiller said] the company can't justify the continued use of an 'ancient' single-use port. He described the amount of technology packed into the iPhone, saying each element in Apple's phones is fighting for space, and it's at a premium. Schiller explained that no company has tried to deliver a wireless experience between your devices and your headphones that fixes the things that are currently difficult to do -- and since there's only one major industry-wide wireless-audio standard, it's easy to assume that he's talking about Bluetooth there (though he didn't say the B-word out loud). To promote Apple's wireless-audio push, Schiller announced the new AirPods, which look mostly identical to the last official Apple earbud model, only with a small piece of plastic replacing the full cord. While Schiller and Apple designer Jonny Ive talked a lot about wireless being 'the future' of audio devices -- and thus being the reason for Apple's 'courage' to move on from the 3.5mm standard -- Apple is curiously not packing those AirPods into new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus boxes. Instead, those devices will ship with the updated Lightning EarPods by default. AirPods will begin shipping in late October and will cost $159."
Geez people - if a 3.5mm analog jack built into the phone is so important, buy any one of the many, many, Android devices on the market - or any other iPhone that Apple still sells, or just use the stupid adapter that comes with the phone.
This phony outrage is ridiculous.
1) apple has popularized the GUI, the touch screen, the smart phone, the form factor for pretty much every laptop sold today (look at the first PowerBook, then look at all Windows laptops before it). Apple has given us volume controls on the headphone line - yes, the same tech that people bitch that apple will pull, Apple finally made super useful with volume and logic controls. I go nuts with headphones that don't have these controls - a non-ironic Thanks Apple here.
2) apple has given us the 3.5 inch floppy, then removed it. It gave us the first easy to use networking (Appletalk over LocalTalk, or more likely PhoneNet) then removed it for TCP/IP Rendezvous/Bonjour. It has essentially removed all CDs from it's devices, so it gave us iTunes to rip CDs, now no CD player to rip from. It dropped the Motorola 68000, then dropped PowerPC.
3) It's not even the first jack free phone - motorola beat them to it, with a phone that (sadly - Motorola was once a Lion) no one will buy so Apple will be seen as the first.
So, Apple regularly adds and/or removes tech. It's part of their DNA. They've radically moved computing forward and sometimes they're the first to cut ties to an old past. Whether you like them removing it or not, doesn't mean it's a "hey they're GREEDY" everytime they change something. Remember that soon, your iOS9 phone will become an iOS10 phone and do more things. They're not charging you for that. For free, your mac will do more new things. The headphone jack is long, the headphone jack is thick, and the headphone jack makes it harder to waterproof. Why is everyone complaining? because bluetooth headphones suck. Well, here's Apple designing a future to make them suck less.
You brainless fucking douche. The FM radio incurs no data charges.