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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."
Speakers, microphone and volume control are all the same thing.
We can't justify an ancient single use port... Not unlike our proprietary power connectors
"Courage" would be to stop making the phone thinner with less battery life and forcing owners to purchase overpriced items. Of course, Apple gets paid by any company that licenses their "Lightning Port" design. Courage? NO, more like GREED.
Courage!.... Cowardly Lion: You can say that again.
Courage is what others can judge you to have shown.
Ego is when you call your own decision "courage".
If they had a good reason they should have said it. Self-claiming courage is a coward move.
E
The dongle comes with the phone.
I still think the idea is stupid, though... but I'm not in the market for a new phone, in any case.
#DeleteChrome
This move is to get $$$ of every lightening(R) connected peripheral sold, and to eventually force DRM down our throats good and hard.
Courage my ass. IS is courage to sell a pair of crappy headphones for $159, that ONLY get 5 freakin hours of use per charge? My wired headphones can last years with ZERO charge.
Liars!
Subject says it all. Pure, unadulterated greed with the chutzpah to convince the fanbois that it's worth it...
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?
Microsoft, Oracle, SCO, and Comcast have the courage to screw over customers and society and not let anger, complaints, and societal degradation distract or discourage them.
Table-ized A.I.
Switching from PowerPC to Intel was a bigger deal. Fortunately, Rosetta made it work. Now, sadly, that's gone so a handful of still useful yet defunct programs are relegated to old machines.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
The hangover always follows.
When did 86 become a verb?
Something like aptX (but sadly, likely to be proprietary)?
IMHO the 4s was the best iphone and it has been going downhill ever since. They made the phone more difficult to hold and got rid of a perfectly good connector. I never had the old style connector wear out but I have thrown out more lightning cables then I can count. Now I need to plugin my headphones into it? I've always felt locked into apple because of the investment in apps and music, but now with this latest move I believe iphone won't be my next phone. Looking forward to Xiaomi.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
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
There are no issues of fidelity with an analog connector, no batteries, no sync, no wireless interference, and no extra money involved to have a need for the most ubiquitous interface in electronics worldwide to disappear.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's a computer. Can't say for the Apple, but the Android phones do computer things even better for me sometimes than a laptop or desktop. I can have 90 tabs open on the things. My one without what they are now calling RAM doesn't keep track of what's in textareas too well so avoid those. My Huawei Valient was a bit... okay very sketchy and its first battery stopped working fast and after I stopped using it, the second battery decided to swell up, but that was about three years ago. The Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL had power button issues. LG makes them so thin they decided to put the power and volume buttons on the back. I have more of an issue with my fingers accidentally brushing the screen because of the thinness rather than battery life. I forget which phone my mom has, but it developed dialing program problems. You want a phone with 8GB of storage, "RAM", and preferably support for MicroSDXC cards, but those things can be very capable computers.
Building the iPhone 7 is almost exactly like storming the beach at Normandy, except with a lot more butt sex.
You are welcome on my lawn.
actually, they include the dongle with the phone. If you lose it, or want more than one, they are $9.
You can buy a $4 BlueTooth to 3.5mm converter and a $4 for a 3.5 F/F coupler. Why spend $150 on AirPods when you can use what you already have with an $8 fix? Not ideal, but at least I'd have my analog out that I can plug in to whatever I want.
Also they did that with Thunderbolt, and look at the plethora of peripherals available toda.. oh, wait..
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
My eyes are ancient single use ports. Does this mean Phil hopes to do away with them too?
The headphone jack has long since been a misnomer, it actually has much more capability than just the "headphones" associated with it.
Apple just want to restrict the port with DRM so devices cannot transceive audio signals such as gaming device hacks, bank readers et al
Screw you apple. This 6 is my last iphone. The competition will be fierce over this one. Legacy does not always need replacing, only for profit; no more royalty payments on that one is more why they did it.
Another problem is that there is only ONE single use port. I usually listen to music while my phone is plugged in, and to my knowledge there is no way to both listen with the headphone dongle and have the device plugged in.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If this leads to the abandonment of a2dp, I am all for it.
It's actually quite embarrassing that a2dp is still a standard in widespread use. The very fact you can't bidirectionally stream audio at a high bitrate is so 90s.
If this move brings on 6ch, 320kbit bidirectional audio, I'm all for it (even as an Android user).
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
This is different than merely changing a connector or protocol. Now headphones have gone from a passive device to an active device that needs its own power source. How long does the battery last on these earpods? Can it easily be changed?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
That's going to be fun when you're sitting between two other guys on a plane with iPhone 7s as well. Even if you can't hear what they're listening to, there is bound to be interference.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
It takes Courage when you are asking your customers to bend over again.
yet another device to charge, what will the autonomy be on these $160 suckers ?
With a corresponding 4-port USB hub, since machines don't come with enough ports for the 'power user'.
Hubs exist for Android phones with USB-OTG and MHL/Slimport passthrough. So I'd expect 3rd parties to oblige for Apple's connector, perhaps even with Lightning USB OTG support for existing USB audio solutions.
I'm sure there are a lot of idiots that will stand in line for the chance of paying $160 for some airbutts.
This is a site specifically for mac compatible stuff, and even they only have 4 categories under 'Thunderbolt'. There is only one hub to choose from, and it is $218.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Fanboi much?
When you break your iPhone 7-specific Lightning earbuds, are you going to enjoy spending $30 to replace them instead of the $10 it currently costs for a cheapo pair of earbuds with a 3.5mm jack?
My inner electrical engineer is boggled at the colossal stupidity of that decision. Almost any other decision would have been better, including keeping the connector analog and shrinking it to 2.5mm or 2.0mm and shortening the plug. That way in about 6 months every phone would have that connector and any set of earbuds would work with it. Earbuds requiring a Lightning connector just scream "PS/2 MCA expansion slot" and we all know how well that turned out for IBM - and IBM had the advantage that MCA was light-years beyond ISA connectors at the time.
>The dongle comes with the phone.
So what?
You will never have it when you need it unexpectedly.
The thing is going to stick out, interfering with carrying the phone, making it bulky and unruly.
It is likely to break or get lost.
It is just plain irritating.
It is a good thing I have no interest in "iphones", I just hope the other phone makers reject this stupid idea.
The concern is that all the other manufacturers will do the same, and everyone's earbuds/headsets will be useless or need adapters.
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
Yeah, that's my plan.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Apparently if I want the new iPhone I'll need the courage to let my battery drain while I listen through headphones.
they are getting the hate for the Bullshit explanation. It takes Arrogance not courage to do something like that and not provide an explanation why you are screwing everyone over.
They did; you just weren't listening.
I read on Slashdot only a few days ago of some utopian hamlet in New Hampshire where one can pay for everything in bitcoin. :)
It is spelled GREED not courage. Courage would be releasing their custom bluetooth standard along with open sourcing the head phone design so that it can be easily copied by other manufacturers and become the industry standard. Nice try though Apple...
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
But the fucking supplied dongle is worthless since it doesn't have a lightning passthrough so I can charge my phone.
Ever heard of Microsoft?
phone-yness, I see what you did there! :)
The high grade silver/gold/platinum is only plating on the connector. You've got crappy copper and lead-free tin solder the rest of the way.
Hey, don't get me wrong. I use my wired headphones/earbuds exclusively and I feel sorry for anyone that has to charge their headphones and drain their battery on their phone just to use them, but hey, someone has to make the leap into the future, and this is it! Now that Apple, the leader in innovation (cough) has done away with the headphone cables, everyone else will follow. We will soon see Bluetooth headsets that are better than even I can imagine. They will power themselves over Bluetooth soon so no charging. Once all the bugs are worked out and the competitors realize people hate wires as much as Steve Job's ghost, we will have this fantastic technology in our cars, our alarm clocks, and our intercom systems (don't you have one?). Someone has to take the leap to show people just how great it can be. I think it should be Apple. On the other hand... Why the fuck don't wireless repeaters work well with different brands? Why is upload speed so shitty when I pay $60 a month? Why does VoIP have such problems with different firewalls? Does everyone set UDP timeouts so fucking low? Why are hotels so obviously throttling bandwidth? Why can't I get a goddamn USB jack on the airplane to charge my Kindle? And why does my Kindle suck at managing shows on the SD card? WHAT THE FUCK! Well, I can say one thing. My wired headphones always work, even with that little button that answers and hangs up calls. I love it.
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.
No shit.
The original iPhone had a 3.5" screen, and it had a 3.5mm audio connector. So why can't it fit in the iPhone 7 which has a 4.7 or 5.5 inch screen?
https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnp...
Eh, that's not the real issue. To listen to my existing headphones and charge the phone at the same time, I'd have to buy a Lightning splitter. Neither the earbuds nor the adapter has an extra Lightning port, and they take up the only Lightning port on the device.
So now I'm out more money, and have to keep up with two additional things (the adapter and the splitter).
That doesn't necessarily make the 7 worthless, but I doubt most people would buy it if given the option to have an identical 7 or 7 Plus containing a traditional headphone jack. They do have the option of the 6S with that jack.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
The dongle comes with the phone.
This is all familiar - NOKIA did it back in the twenty-zeros!
Remember the N-Series Symbian phones? No audio jack! You could use bluetooth (on some models) or a headphone with proprietary connector.
But the phone came with a dongle to let you use standard headphones.
Remember all the fuss back then? All the media attention on Nokia?
Neither do I. But eventually, Nokia came to their senses and reinstated the 3.5mm socket.
Nothing is new under the sun. Innovation? Ha.
Courage to proceed in the face of condemnation and disdain... courage which your slashdot posts so bravely exemplify.
"[Schiller said] the company can't justify the continued use of an 'ancient' single-use port."
There is nothing at all that would prevent the simultaneous use of the head phone check and of bluetooth.
Except SPACE, which, in a device where every square mm counts, is a pretty compelling reason. They were able to repurpose a jack that every iPhone was carrying around all day; but which was going completely unused 99% of the time, while simultaneously eliminating a relatively huge connector, which not only gave them more space to move stuff around so they could do things that weren't possible without making the "Pkus" versions too large to fit comfortably in A shirt pocket (which they surprisingly do). And along the way, then also picked up an easy way to get to IPx7 water resistance, which is undeniably a very nice thing to offer.
You do realize how completely unalike those two examples are, right?
Removing the floppy drive wasn't a big deal because USB floppy drives provided a viable alternative, and internal floppy drives were still available for portable devices for three or four years after Apple removed them from the desktop (all the way through the Pismo).
Adapters for portable devices suck. Adapters for ultraportable devices like phones suck absolutely.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Yes I checked other sites, they all seem to have the same hub at a similar price. My point is that the market isn't working if you only have one to pick from at one price level. Sounds like you might enjoy communism.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
No, they provided a copout. It came down to a choice between slightly better speakers that most people will never use anyway (because it is usually rude) or a headphone jack that lots of people use every day, and they made the wrong call. I've already (since the announcement) heard three people who have used iOS for years say that they're seriously considering switching to Android because of this. That number represents about 50% of the iPhone users in my team at work, and 100% of the iPhone users who were present at the time. I know that anecdotes aren't data, but if Apple's upper management isn't absolutely scared sh**less right now, then they don't deserve to be there.
From where I'm sitting, if the case manufacturers don't save Apple from themselves by building cases with built-in headphone jacks, this will probably mark a turning point where Apple rapidly accelerated their descent into niche-playerdom. There's a very small chance I'm wrong, and that the iOS users that I know are all just the 1% of power users that Apple doesn't care about anymore. For the sake of my Apple stock, I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
There are multiple to pick from from multiple price levels. Just because it's not a price level YOU spend money in doesn't mean others don't.
I'd hate to see your incessant whining with what embedded development tools cost. $300 and even $1000 is a drop in the bucket.
I just don't see any selection anywhere. That's all I'm saying. I'm accustomed to a lot more selection.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Since your google seems to still be broken.
http://thewirecutter.com/revie...
That's the CalDigit’s Thunderbolt Station 2, StarTech’s Thunderbolt Laptop Station, Elgato’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock, Kanex’s Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock, StarTech’s Thunderbolt 2 Docking Station, and OWC’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock.
6 by my count.
And these guys reviewed 7: http://www.omnicoreagency.com/...
At least that's just proprietary software. Grab yourself a Windows PC, download a USB bus dumper app, install the Windows drivers, send a few MIDI commands to it, figure out how the commands correspond with the original MIDI commands, and write an OS X driver that initializes the device and sends and receives messages. It is probably not much more than a week's work. Then sell the driver for $25 a copy.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
And they all look the same to me. Same number of ports, same use pattern. No variance. Like they're all copying one another.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Not only that, but everyone hated floppy's. They were slow, had poor capacity, and were unreliable. When USB storage came on the scene it was a massive improvement and has only continued to get better.
By comparison I dont know many people who have a problem with wired headphones. I've had a few wireless sets over the year and for portable applications they've mostly sucked due to having two batteries to worry about.
OK, I've converted to a cell phone. No landline any more. So when I'm on a long conference call using my headset so people on the other end can hear me, how do I charge my phone for the long call?
It's not courage. It's gall.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Or you Buy an Android phone, which costs less than the Apple Earbuds.
aaaaaaa
Yeah. I've been using bluetooth headsets (for voice, as well as listening) for over 7 years but sometimes the battery goes and.. I just take the audio cable out of the headset case and attach it to the headset and the phone.
All the convenience of both solutions, although it means I have to carry an audio cable around with me. But I'd have to do that if I didn't use bluetooth anyway.
On at least two occasions, I ended up saving people's work by copying and pasting data from a floppy disk to a new file using a raw block editor. The floppy disk absolutely sucked immeasurably if used for anything more permanent than carrying a file from your hard disk at work to home or vice versa, and the emergence of the Internet largely relegated it to the dustbin of history.
USB sticks, unfortunately, are misused in the same way that floppies were, often with similarly unhappy endings. Worse, they are largely unserviceable when they do fail. Honestly, I almost think we'd be better off if those had never been invented at all, but maybe that's just me being cynical.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Annnd those are all ugly pieces of junk that I wouldn't want sharing desk space with my mixer board and dual monitors.
Also, they're clones of each other. Internally it's almost identical hardware, minus ports and shell, on four of those units.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
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!
6 is nothing.
Stupidity more like it... I do understand apples drive to maximize profits by moving to proprietary custom BT chips, with added bonus of tieing customers even more to apple products, etc... but i dont undestand why remve good reliable connector. It can be water proofed if wanted, so thats just xcuse of bad manufacturing and engineering..
How many USB Mice were there in 1998? Keyboards? Printers?
"The tire is almost 200 years old. It had its last big innovation about 70 years ago (radial tires)."
I guess you forgot about run-flat tires and the countless innovations in compound and tread design. Whereas it's not a NASCAR type thing, watch F1 to see how tires are constantly bring improved.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Hey Apple lawyers, what happens when Apple discovers Bluetooth bud users get brain cancer?
Given the iMac was released in 1998, and the lightning connector in 2012 (4 years ago), the correct question would be: "How many USB Mice were there in 2002?" and the answer to that is: quite a few! Windows XP came out in 2001, and I distinctly remember new computers being delivered with USB mice and USB keyboards. For the record, USB 2.0 was released in 2000, and it's really with USB 2.0, that USB took off.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
It's simply a way to force people onto their own proprietary connectors, standards and peripherals. There is absolutely no sound technical reason to eliminate a head phone jack.
What's this new trend of water-proof phones? Are we preparing for a post-global-warming world where we live in water, like that Kevin Costner's movie?
The dongle comes with the phone.
I still think the idea is stupid, though... but I'm not in the market for a new phone, in any case.
I doubt it, they'll expect to you use the shitty lighting ones they package. Using non approved/standard bits cost you extra.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
But if you want a phone with a 3.5mm Jack, don't look to Android to save you. There won't be 3 Android phones with a 3.5mm Jack by this time next year, and none of them will be Flagship phones.
The fuck are you smoking? Can I have some? You think every manufacturer is going to blindly follow whatever apple do? They all going to switch to lightning and airbuds too or all conspire to push usb headphones? Just no.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
In the universe I live in, I can't leave my house without seeing a kid using wired ear buds. They're ubiquitous. Current market statistics say that almost half of those people are using iPhones.
What universe do you live in? I've never been there.
Why is Snark Required?
There is a morality issue here: a company is trying to sell a product with the purpose of limiting and removing a traditional method that people use it.
This also is the first step in closing the analogue loop, as a proof of concept, which may inhibit fair use, not just Apple fans, but for everyone.
Human beings do not need to use natural resources to make new heaphones just because a marketing person decides to do something different.
I know there are a lot of Apple fans out there. If you are not a fan boy, have the courage to skip this product.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Even though I do not care about the phone at all, if all of this excitement over one port somehow leads to a new standard for wireless audio, that would be awesome.
Bluetooth sucks for anything above skype calls.
Bluetooth hifi-headphones are a joke. The better the headphone, the more you realize how horribly bluetooth compression mangles the sound quality.
Because of this, every manufacturer is running their own wireless audio format. Your typical audio sources (phone, pc, hi-fi system) do not support any of them. Adapters everywhere...
I guess now we have yet another standard with Apple's... But maybe they can push theirs to more devices than just their phones? Any chance of something Apple to ever become an open standard?
You can give it the spin you want, but what you cannot say is that the earphones plug has fallen into disuse. I think it's the single most used phone accessory nowadays, with no second competitor in sight.
So you remove a widely used feature, and you provide a worse alternative, or rather, you simply point out that an alternative has always existed. The glaring fact that practically nobody used that existing alternative is gloriously lost on you. Or rather, you don't care.
So basically you are doing something to screw your users, thinking that it will improve your company. Again the glaring fact that your company is nothing without your clients, is lost in the glare of your new shiny state-of-the-art office.
Let's see how it plays out. People can be really dumb that way, and certainly that's not a deal breaker. Also, there is always the possibility of backtracking. Never underestimate the marketing department ingenuity of selling an Apple 7 Super Plus "With earphones plug!!!", only for 100$ more. But IMHO, Apple is accumulating small mistakes with a sore lack of the former big hits that could ,in past times, have covered them.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
... away from the audio jack. It makes sense in quite a few ways and I trust that Apple knows what it's doing when it intruduces a new wireless audio standard.
However, I do the potential of this failing if they don't open up the standard for everybody to implement for free. ... I'm curious to where this is headed.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
A smaller version of the headphone jack already exist, I had it in my Nokia phone 6 years ago. And guess what an adapter for that cost 3$ instead of 30$
this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
You have to be pretty courageous to call yourself "courageous" in the first place.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Slashdot Commentor Cites 'Stupidity' As Reason To Remove 3.5mm Headphone Jack
But then, I honestly don't care as I don't use their products. I just hope nobody is stupid enough to follow suit like they did with the no-expansion-card thing and then had to backtrack.
To be honest, if I was Samsung, I'd now release a phone with TWO headphone sockets. Because almost every kid I know has a headphone doubler or does the "one-earbud-for-you, one-for-your-friend" thing. And then let the market decide.
But I'd have to do that if I didn't use bluetooth anyway.
But then you didn't have to carry the bluetooth headset with you.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
"A most courageous decision, if I may say so Minister"
"Oh god no - it's not is it?"
Copper is not 'crappy', it is a better conductor than gold.
You only use gold on the contacts because it does not corrode. If copper was precious metal, you'd use it all the way through.
There are already Android phones without headphone jacks. Apple is not the leader in this field.
All it will take is for the iPhone 7 to sell reasonably well and all manufacturers will be ditching the headphone jack as a way to cut costs.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Perhaps there is a way to build the dongle into the phone itself
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
To listen to my existing headphones and charge the phone at the same time, I'd have to buy a Lightning splitter. Neither the earbuds nor the adapter has an extra Lightning port, and they take up the only Lightning port on the device.
Apple missed a HUGE opportunity to bank on the Wireless charging craze.
They could have even not needed to go with Qi like everybody else, but invent their own peculiar standard as usual (as Palm did with TouchStone back when Qi wasn't a thing yet).
Call-it "iCharge", require an Apple-cryptographically signed NFC chip inside (à la MFI) and bingo, they got a reason for their fan to yet again rebuy all of their accessories (new docks).
Also, I don't understand at all this craze of making smartphone so thin that you can cut cheese with them... the things got screen wider than a paperback book, and users who don't want to break them within 1 month after buying will put them in a cover/case any way.
Keeping smartphone a couple of milimeters thicker would allow not only for extremely useful legacy connectors like the analog audio port, but would even increase space for bigger battery (and add a LED at the bottom of the audio connector so it can double as a digital-out, like some minidisc players used to do).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
So close to the truth, but more accurately NPH: Not Patented Here.
That way in about 6 months every phone would have that connector and any set of earbuds would work with it.
"Any set of earbuds" working with iPhone was clearly killing Apple. That's precisely the 'problem' they set out to solve - how do we stop people using headphones with our phones that they didn't buy from us?
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Yeah there are, but as they're out they're obviously not following apple. Some more might ditch it sure, but all of them? Within a year? Not a chance.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I frequently have to bring large files (ISOs and the like) to sites that have no internet (yet) or shit internet. In those instances a USB (on a key ring) is a lifesaver. Don't use them a whole lot the rest of the time.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I'll probably just stick with phones that let me use whatever headphones I like. Charge phone at same time if need be. Nice option to have. Oh no, my phone isn't sightly thinner. Guess I'll cope.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
The dongle is simply a "security blanket" for people like you that whine and gnash your teeth at change. In a year or two, they'll drop the dongle completely because people that use headphones with their iPhone will all be using the wireless ear buds.
Other phone manufacturers will follow suit and the headphone jack will be gone from all new phones by 2020.
So in a year or two you expect everyone to have spent another $150 for the headphones? And you also expect every other manufacturer to copy them because that's what already happens....oh wait, no it doesn't especially when apple try to sue you for having a device that looks kind of similar. No doubt they'll patent a one connection design. Next year after that they'll drop that in favour of wireless charging and wireless file transfer and have no holes at all! All the ifans will gush like its the best thing ever and put up with it because the love getting ifucked by apple.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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And they all look the same to me. Same number of ports, same use pattern. No variance. Like they're all copying one another.
As is the apple way.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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The mac on the other desk at work has a wireless mouse (apple built) that has the charge port on the bottom of it! What genius though of that? Gave us a good laugh that did when it came in.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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Balls of milled aluminium....
where are the Long term studies of radio waves in the ear please? Do we know what bluetooth does to the brain with a radio strapped to the back of your head for years? I'm sure this will be all fine.
Hmm, perhaps this will turn out like the movie "The Jerk". Glasses anyone? Apple should follow Monsanto's lead and bribe congress for a personal protection rider.
Apple said the batteries in the headphones last about 5 hours -- not a full workday, and often less time than you can expect to spend getting from one state to another (even by airplane, once you factor in time on the ground at both ends of a trip). And replaceable batteries? This is Apple -- if you want to listen longer, just pay another $160 for a second pair.
The phono jack, in it's 3.5mm, 2.5mm and 1/4" incarnations, is the standard for analog audio connectivity for a good reason. It's the oldest electrical connector still in use for a good reason. It works fantastically well! They're cutting themselves out of the audio market, and it's a dumb move. That jack could, with a $5 adapter, connect a phone to virtually any other audio device as input or output. You could plug a guitar into it, you could plug it into a mixing board, a car, a microphone, an instrument amp, a stereo amp, anything. A DJ could entertain a crowd with just a phone and a sound system, any sound system.
Didn't a bunch of libertarians move up there as a mass movement to change the state?
Sure, and Apple ignored innovation by companies like Square -- using the 3.5mm jack for data transfer. It's all about the semantics of what counts as a "big" innovation. Apple doesn't want to admit anyone else has innovated since it was founded, so it makes silly claims like the last "big innovation" in the audio jack being 50 years ago.
They'll sell a special tethering cord for them if you need more than 5 hours. It's a slim cable that is shaped like a Y, and connects to the end of each airpod. the third end plugs into the bottom of the phone, making the whole thing powered by the iPhone. Wireless *and* infinite battery life*. I realize that this is a radical departure from normal wireless headphone usage, but that's what makes Apple such an innovator in the space.
*life limited to the endurance of the transmirting device
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I believe so.
The discussion was on Apple bothering to whitelist cryptocurrencies. A point was stated that bitcoin was a scam only used by money laundering criminals on the dark web. But apparently in Keene, NH *everyone* uses it for real world transactions!
Courage and stupidity are often correlated.
Maybe I don't understand the place that Thunderbolt is supposed to fill. I thought it was supposed to be a faster USB. So I would expect the number of USB devices available multiplied by four or so. As I see here, it has just become a niche to connect a large disk to a laptop. For a tower you could just use eSATA or network anyway.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Why do people get so upset over this? The new phones come WITH a 3.5mm adapter. So who really cares? Use the adapter if you really want a stereo mini TRS. They wanted to make it smaller so they did. I really don't see the big deal. It's their choice. It cuts down on a connector. That's good engineering in my book. Buy another phone if you are really that concerned. And seriously, if Apple still had that big ass flat connector wouldn't you think it looked "ancient". Lightning cables aren't very expensive and there are plenty of third party ones out there. Bottom line, you can use a FREE adapter if you want, or you buy another phone. Stop bitching about it. This is a stupid argument.
They aren't wrong. They're going to get a lot of crap for this, and if they brought it on themselves knowingly but did it anyway, that does indeed take courage.
However, I'd also imagine it takes courage to publicly be a White Supremacist these days. Those public-area preachers who call random passing women "whores" while their husbands/fathers/sons are with them are being pretty courageous too. Just because you are showing "courage" doesn't mean you doing the right thing, or that you aren't also being a total asshole.
Has anybody seen my AirPod? One of them dropped out of my ear and I didn't even know it! $160 for those things, and now I've lost one. If you seen my AirPod, please send them to me. Thanks!
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
They don't supply a lightning headset. They supply a headset with a 3.5mm jack.
Also, if the dongle is taking up the port, does that mean you cannot charge the phone (say with a USB battery in your pocket) while listening to music?
Once upon a time they got rid of two proprietary* standards (ADB and their mini-DIN8 RS-422 serial port) with a cross-platform standard. Now they're removing a standard port and offering two proprietary standards instead (Lightning and W1 wireless). Not quite parallel.
* Neither RS-422 signalling nor the mini-DIN8 connector are proprietary in and of themselves, but that particular configuration was, to my knowledge, exclusive to Apple. Sun also used mini-DIN8 on machines like the IPC, but the pinout was completely different.)
It sounds like they are equating courage with bravery...
Wasn't there an expression about bravery... something about a "fine line" and "stupidity"
hmmm...
And of course I get modded "Troll" for that one. Great job guys, keep it up. Anyone who disagrees must be a troll.
That's awful... who wants to have to recharge their phone, watch and earbuds...
love is just extroverted narcissism
Not to mention the addition of the short ground to add an extra pin for a microphone, the addition of short detection on the mic line to detect plug/unplug and clicking of the button, the addition of sideband data on the microphone to provide more complex controls, The advent of low-removal-force jacks that minimize damage, the advent of jacks that use the case as part of the jack to make the jack thinner....
Incidentally, run-flat tires have existed in one form or another since the 1930s; technically, the concept predates radial tires, if not the specific modern implementation.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Most, if not all, phones use the wire for your earbuds/headphones wire as the antenna for the FM radio. Usually can't use the FM radio with bluetooth because no
antenna wire.
hearing is still analog. I don't want that analog output removed.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
That's why Apple has to keep reminding everyone they're different.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
My Galaxy S7 also uses the headphone as its radio antenna (FM radio, etc.)
Hopefully, Samsung won't follow Apple into this particular stupidity zone. However, even if they do, it'll be at least few years before I have to deal with such idiocy.
You know, as an owner of lots of Macs, it's been painful to watch them fumble the Mac Pro and Mac Mini lines so badly, while ignoring the middle tower market completely; now the iPhone sings a little louder in this symphony of screw-ups with its latest really serious dysfunctional hardware choice...
Be a trip if they managed to get someone to the head of the company who understood hardware better.
Oh well. Lots of other things to do than worry about Apple these days.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
AC signs his post as someone who "still buys desktop PCs with floppy drives"... which isn't likely and almost impossible.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
"There's no simple explanation
For anything important any of us do.
And, yeah, the human tragedy consists in the necessity of living with the consequences.
Under pressure
Courage, my word. It didn't come. It doesn't matter."
(Yeah that's right just buy the device and deal with it. If you're lucky enough we'll shove some Tragically Hip down your throats this time.)
120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
Welcome to 3D.
The dongle comes with the phone.
I still think the idea is stupid, though... but I'm not in the market for a new phone, in any case.
So just use the SUPPLIED Lightnng headset, or buy a third party set. There are already several, and sure to be more in 3...2...1
With it being more complex than a simple analog connection the problem with 3rd party sets is that Apple will be able to change the protocol behind the scenes and lock out 3rd parties they don't like. Something I'm sure has never ever happened before...
https://apple.slashdot.org/sto...
never.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Have you ever taken a phone apart? Most of it is battery. Will removing the headphone jack really make a significant difference in the battery life?
F1 is a funny example. F1 tires are deliberately crap; it's part of the contract that the manufacturer isn't allowed to deliver good tires.
If Formula 1 teams could buy any tires they want, the tires would have better grip, work over a wider range of temperatures, and there would be no tire changes during a race. But that would be boring.
For quality tires, look at endurance racing.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
Nokia is not specifically an exemple to follow...
Microsoft paid dearly with Windows 8 when their arrogance made them ignore all pleas and protests over their decision to remove the Start Menu and replace it with the godawful Start Screen. I think Apple is about to learn a similar lesson.
Proof.
echo Courage | tr 'aeCougr' 'ntInsia' | sed -e "s/t/ty/"
John_Chalisque
(1) ... Apple made a phone with no mechanical keyboard.
(2) ... Apple gave up trying to get Flash to run on iPhone.
(3) ... Microsoft killed off XP.
(4) ... Oracle bought Sun and took over Java.
(add your own thoughts)
I still remember when Sony Ericsson used their own special connector (kinda like the old iPhone connector) headphones in the K series phones. Of course could have the privilege of paying an extra $100 or more to get the same exact hardware with an audio jack on a W series phone...
I doubt it. There are still plenty of other audio applications, consumer and professional, that will use the old-style analog connectors. Nearly all of them, really. And there will be people with more money than sense who will continue to pay the Apple tax. Their phones are going to use some functionality, but those people typically don't use it anyway. People who buy a phone for pragmatic, functional reasons are already buying Androids, and those manufacturers will continue to cater to the power users.
How come nobody ever brings up EM spectrum pollution when companies push for wireless everything? Or the old-fashioned pollution that comes from all these peripherals suddenly needing to have batteries? Particularly stuff like headphones where there is a negligible benefit to going wireless. (I'd consider it the opposite of a benefit, but I seem to be outside the reality distortion field. Or maybe i'm just not "courageous" enough.)
I mean, it wasn't quite 5 seconds, but I think that Belkin has you covered here, per this Engadget post.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
"The tire is almost 200 years old. It had its last big innovation about 70 years ago (radial tires)."
I guess you forgot about run-flat tires and the countless innovations in compound and tread design. Whereas it's not a NASCAR type thing, watch F1 to see how tires are constantly bring improved.
Stupid argument - all those innovations you list don't prevent compatibility between 70 year old cars and new cars. The Apple "innovation" (and I use that word very loosely when talking about Apple products) does remove compatibility.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
One of the stated reasons for the removal of the headphone jack is to improve water resistance.
Yet "Liquid damage not covered under warranty" (quote from the official site).
It seems that Apple used up all its courage, there is none left to back up its claims.
The dongle comes with the phone.
I still think the idea is stupid, though... but I'm not in the market for a new phone, in any case.
So just use the SUPPLIED Lightnng headset, or buy a third party set. There are already several, and sure to be more in 3...2...1
You know, mods, "Disagree" is NOT a reason moderate something "Troll".
Eh, that's not the real issue. To listen to my existing headphones and charge the phone at the same time, I'd have to buy a Lightning splitter. Neither the earbuds nor the adapter has an extra Lightning port, and they take up the only Lightning port on the device.
That's the only semi-legit reason for disliking the Lightning solution; however, I think that it will be about 5 nanoseconds before someone comes up with an adaptor/splitter combo cable. And quite frankly, the iPhone lasts long enough on batteries (my 6+ typically lasts about 4 days), that I could deal with the occasional inconvenience. It just means you have to be a little more diligent about not going out of the house with 20% of battery left. Meh.
You know, mods, "Disagree" is NOT a reason to mark something as "-1 Troll".
Look at the sheer volume of hate Apple has received today, on Slashdot alone...
Hey man, that's NOTHING!
In ONE DAY, have been Punish-Modded from "Excellent" to "Positive" Karma ON MODS FROM COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE ALONE.
And BTW, that is now the FOURTH time in my Slashdot History that that has happened when I went to bat for Apple. I've dug myself back up from "Poor" to "Excellent" three times now.
And yet, you know what? When I get mod points, I ALMOST NEVER downvote ANYONE, and I NEVER post Anonymously.
But I think that might change...
And, by the way, Macs for all? You'll NEVER force your fucking obsolete garbage on me. If you gave me a Mac for free, I'd smash it into little pieces with a sledgehammer and jam every single last shard directly into your asshole. But, I'm sure you'd like that, you faggot. FUCK YOU, your whore mother, loser father, and any women desperate and drunk enough to get within 20 meters of you.
Wow. Just. Wow.
Slashdot: THIS is why AC Posting MUST END!!!
Seriously; is that anything even APPROACHING "rational discourse"? Does that add ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to the Conversation?
And yet, that post is "left alone" (surprised it wasn't upmodded to "+5 Insightful"), while post after post of MINE were SYSTEMATICALLY marked either "Flamebait" or "Troll", NO MATTER WHAT.
Slashdot's Moderation system only works if people use it REASONABLY. It has LONG SINCE jumped that particular Shark, and it is HIGH TIME FOR AC POSTING TO GO. These COWARDS would NEVER Post that INSANE SHIT if they had to "sign their name" to it. NEV-ER. Because, afterall, THEY ARE COWARDS, JUST LIKE ALL BULLIES...
"which was going completely unused 99% of the time"
In the universe I live in, I can't leave my house without seeing a kid using wired ear buds. They're ubiquitous. Current market statistics say that almost half of those people are using iPhones.
What universe do you live in? I've never been there.
Sorry if I was unclear: I meant the Lightning connector is unused most of the time. They just decided to make it "more used" an simultaneously got more room and better water-resistance as part of the bargain.
As far as "Costs" go, right now it is a LOSS, because Apple had to redesign the Ear Pods to be Lightning (when they COUL have just said "Use the Adapter", AND include an Adapter. And they are selling that Adapter as a separate piece for only NINE DOLLARS; so no one should be able to accuse them of a money-grab here.
They truly ARE trying to push everyone forward. And they will succeed.
"Buy our wireless headphones, which of course will be the only ones that really work well with it."
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
n/t
Its looking like a pretty good phone. But of course, the whole outrage thing is more about the ford versus chevy arguments over Android versus iPhone. The most outraged arn't going to buy one anyhow.
Its such a pity that there are absolutely no options that don't depend on that little phone jack.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I'll buy another 6 before a 7. This time the glass spaceship rolled snake eyes in their innovation quest. The sales will tell the story.
Real courage would've been changing the iPhone connector to USB-C.