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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."
Per a Buzzfeed interview, summarized by MacRumors:
The idea for the removal of the headphone jack was raised during the development of the iPhone 7. In a nutshell, the "driver ledge" for the display and backlight, traditionally placed near the camera, was interfering with the new camera systems in the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, leading Apple to explore other placement options. It was moved near the audio jack, but it also caused interference with various components, including the audio jack itself, so Apple engineers toyed with the elimination of the jack altogether.
When the headphone jack was removed, Apple realized it was easier to install the new Taptic Engine for the pressure-sensitive Home button, implement a bigger battery, and reach an IP7 water resistance rating, so the elimination of the headphone jack became essential for all of the other features in the iPhone 7.
Apple executives also believe the headphone jack is outdated technology that needed to go to make room for new advancements. According to Dan Riccio, it was holding Apple back "from a number of things" the company wanted to add to the iPhone, taking up space that could be used for camera improvements, battery, and processors.
"The audio connector is more than 100 years old," Joswiak says. "It had its last big innovation about 50 years ago. You know what that was? They made it smaller. It hasn't been touched since then. It's a dinosaur. It's time to move on." [...]
For Dan Riccio, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, the iPhone's 3.5-millimeter audio jack has felt something like the last months of an ill-fated if amicable relationship: familiar and comfortable, but ultimately an impediment to a better life ahead. "We've got this 50-year-old connector -- just a hole filled with air -- and it's just sitting there taking up space, really valuable space," he says.
According to Apple's Phil Schiller, there's no ulterior motive behind the move away from the 3.5mm headphone jack. "We are removing the audio jack because we have developed a better way to deliver audio. It has nothing to do with content management or DRM -- that's pure, paranoid conspiracy theory," he said.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Not that I care, as I do not own any apple stuff, but I have not seen a bluetooth headset that was not absolute shit.
I had a phone earpeice thing from plantronics that was worse than simply using the speakerphone in the car. When the thing would actually stay connected the speaker was inaudible. When I could hear the other side, my mic would not pick up.
Bought some LG headphones, failed within 2 months. And in those 2 months it was nearly impossible to get the things to stay connected. Press the connect button, beeps loudly, searches for phone, gives up. Bought earbuds, returned the next day. Worthless.
Bluetooth audio is complete garbage.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I can't believe people are still trotting out this pack of rubbish. It has been proven time and time again that Apple didn't Pioneer things like the GUI or the touch screen, et cetera. They stole them and claimed them as their own and their PR convinced us that they're the brave little selfless people that develops all the new tech. If Apple pioneered anything it's the destructive and oppressive business methods that has now spread like cancer. Theft, misinformation and greed have been spread thanks to Apple. And hissy fits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... suggests several sources.
Drank the Kool-aid, eh? Sure, Apple pushed the keyboard back on laptops. Inline headset control wasn't new with Apple. HP created the 3.5" floppy. Ethernet, which is preponderant, pre-dated LocalTalk, which is long gone. Bonjour isn't significantly different than SSDP. People were ripping CDs long before iTunes (which itself originated outside of Apple).
There was once a time when Apple sucked less. Now they just suck.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
There are some other little niche devices that used the headphone jack as well, for example some company made a diabetes tester that did so, which meant it could be compatible with other smartphones. But now they're making a lightning port version to replace it.
Though based on my own experience on logging health stats from another (non diabetes) chronic condition, I have to say that I've found smartphone based devices to be overall less convenient than using traditional devices combined with my own custom Google Sheets based logging system.
Courage would be USB spec ditching their obsession with fragile tongue-on-equipment configuration and going with lightning type design. Not keen on everything Apple does but the lightning connector is good engineering against human incompetence. Empirically* micro / USB-C are a lot more prone to user-damage, hell people manage to break USB-A sockets.. how the hell!?
(*Phone & PC repair shop)
You'll wait quite a while for that adapter. Per the Apple Accessory Interface Specifcation (R25) you cannot make splitter cables. Ever. One connection on each end of the cable, and only certain combinations at that. IF you find such a cable, it's using grey-market chips from some random Chinese vendor - and who knows how well or how long it will work. But as it exists today (and at least for the next 2 months), splitter cables are forbidden. So it's going to be cables and hub, not just a cable.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Because unlike Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora and other online streaming services... FM does not require the use of an internet connection. A lot of cellphone service providers charge for the service based on data transferred (unlike wired internet connections where you usually pay for the connection bandwidth (like 300mbps or whatever), but then can use it 100% and will not need to pay more).
Also, FM radio receiver can use very little power, compared to the cellphone transmitter which needs to be active to use the internet connection.
FYI (and believe me, I realize how tiny a nitpick this is), it's the FDA who requires the Epi-Pen to be sold in 2-packs, since something like 8% of children require a second dose. It's one of the few things that's not a pure profit-grab my Mylan. Look it up if you don't believe me, but it's not fair to blame it on money and greed.
Square's mag-stripe card reader is obsolete - it can't read chip & PIN cards, or contactless.
I have a Square card reader that does chip & PIN using the headphone jack: https://squareup.com/au/reader