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Apple Replaced the Headphone Jack On the iPhone 7 With a Fake Speaker Grill (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the truth-is-out-there dept.

Not long ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained why the company felt a need to remove the headphone jack from the new iPhones -- the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. He said, "that jack takes up a lot of space in the phone, a lot of space. And there's a lot of more important things we can provide for the consumer than that jack." His colleague Phil Schiller cited "courage" for the same. As people learn to live in a world where they have to use a dongle to use their existing pair of headphones, gadget repair community iFixit found today that Apple isn't really using that "extra space" it got after getting rid of the headphone jack. BusinessInsider reports: "In place of the headphone jack, we find a component that seems to channel sound from outside the phone into the microphone... or from the Taptic Engine out," they write. Yep -- in the place where the headphone jack used to be there's a piece of molded plastic. "No fancy electronics here, just some well-designed acoustics and molded plastic," iFixit writes.iFixit adds, "Closer inspection shows a new, second lower speaker grille that leads ... nowhere? Interesting." Update: 09/16 21:21 GMT by M : Apple says it's a "barometric vent." The Verge reports: Apparently adding all the waterproofing to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus meant that it was more of a sealed box, and so to be able to have an accurate and working barometer, Apple used that space. The barometer is the thing that allows a phone to measure altitude, and Apple points out that on the iPhone 7 it can measure even minor changes like climbing a flight of stairs.

7 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. As an iPhone buyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You absolutely need to know how high you are.

  2. So in other words it's used and is useful by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    Having a barometer built into a phone is more useful than you would think, especially when measuring elevation changes.

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    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:So in other words it's used and is useful by Grim+Beefer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Guess how much more useful that bullshit is than a 3.5mm headphone jack? That's called a downgrade.

    2. Re:So in other words it's used and is useful by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wouldn't it have been better to keep the headphone jack and sell a bluetooth barometer?

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    3. Re:So in other words it's used and is useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You can't know if its a downgrade or an upgrade unless you have a barometer!

  3. "Barometric vent" by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that Apple-speak for "hot air"?

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  4. Re:Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes by geoskd · · Score: 1, Funny

    You know what's even more retarded? Not using barometer data to measure slight changes in elevation when combined with an initial GPS pull.

    I agree 100%! I can't even begin to count the number of times I have been climbing a flight of stairs and thinking to myself "I wish my phone had a barometer so I could effectively measure how far I am moving along the Z axis".

    You know what Steve Jobs thinks of the Barometer in his new iPhone7? He's pissed off because the only useful thing it can tell him is that he's 6 feet under... Steve Jobs was an exceptional visionary, Tim cook is a no talent hack who's going to run that company into the ground Balmer style.

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