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Apple's 2018 iPhones Are Rumored To Not Include Headphone Dongle In the Box (theverge.com)

Apple will reportedly ditch the 3.5mm to Lightning port headphone dongle with this year's iPhone models. Apple notoriously dropped the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016. It has included a headphone adapter with every iPhone since to help curb public unease. The Verge reports: The research note claims that Cirrus Logic, a supplier for the dongle has "confirmed" that it won't be included in the box alongside the new iPhones. Apple has been trying to transition away from wired headphones entirely with its AirPods and lineup of wireless Beats headphones, so the move isn't entirely surprising. The dongle was always meant as a stopgap while customers adjusted to the new, headphone jack-less reality that Apple imposed on the world. Apple will almost certainly continue to sell the dongle -- which costs $9 -- separately for users who still want it. But if the report is true (which, again, remains to be seen), it's hard to imagine that customers will take the news well. The Barclays research note was first spotted by Mac Rumors.

36 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Perfect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wireless is the way to go, let's not get stuck in the past like old folk but move forward.

    1) What is your beef with "old folk" ? I am 62 years old and I GUARANTEE I could kick your ass in hand to hand combat. And frankly I would enjoy
            doing so, because you sound like a stupid arrogant prick who would benefit from learning some respect for others.

    2) "Old" people know things they have learned based on experience. Obviously you have not yet learned that life lesson yet. With respect to electronic devices, new does NOT equate to "better". The foremost goal of a company like Apple is to SELL STUFF. And of course idiots like you gobble that shit up like it was steak. But make no mistake, it IS shit.

  2. Apple is Apple by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's natural: selling such a dongle separately increases your profits.

    1. Re:Apple is Apple by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I bet even more of them already have wired headphones.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Apple is Apple by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      How does having a jack on a phone prevent people from using Bluetooth?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  3. Re:How I loathe iOS by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 3, Informative

    Step 1: find a phone compatible with LineageOS.

    Step 2: buy it and install LineageOS/MicroG.

    Now Google doesn't vacuum anything.

    Also: you can perfectly use your Android phone without any modification/alteration and have none of your data shared with Google (except APKs which Google will regularly scan for malware): do not login, disable Google backup, do not use built-in Google applications like Google Play, Google Chrome, Google Music, etc. Even if you use these apps and features, Google will not identify you since you're not logged in.

  4. Still to use mine by seoras · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've had my iPhone X almost year now and I've not used the dongle yet.
    I do own the Air Pods which are excellent for all my music and phone call needs.
    I will use the dongle next month though when I fly home to the UK from NZ.
    My trusty Etymotic (.com) in ear plugs need a jack.
    I've been using them 20 years and they are superb. I keep the dongle in the Etymotic's pouch.
    As long as there's the option of a dongle I'm happy.

    1. Re:Still to use mine by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      As someone who has dabbled in Bluetooth headphones, this is exactly the reason I’ve never purchased a high-end Bluetooth set, yet have had several decent wired ones over the years. Why would I pay more for an otherwise-identical model that has an expiration date, thanks to its use of non-replaceable batteries? I don’t care as much on electronics that are unlikely to last long enough for the battery to become a concern, but good headphones can last decades, so those batteries need to be replaceable.

  5. Re:Perfect by Time_Ngler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Charge my phone, charge my watch, and now my headphones, too? That's FOUR things to keep track of how much charge they have! How could I ever be expected to remember to do that, let alone want to?

    Also, what about forgetting they're in and going for a swim, or a shower? What about bumping into someone or tripping down the stairs and losing them forever?

    What if I want headphones that have noise cancellation, or want earbud types? How much do I want to spend on specialized headphones that also have bluetooth machinery inside? With wired sets you could just plug them in and they were guaranteed to work. Now, what if the bluetooth implementations between the phone and the special headphones I got are incompatible?

    They suck!

  6. Watch out guys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...we're dealing with a bad ass over here.

  7. Re:Perfect by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    Give me wireless headphones with a battery that doesn't degrade faster than the electronics in the headphone and I would agree with you. I'm no environmental crusader, but it seems obvious that we should not be buying disposable electronics.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  8. Re:Perfect by blindseer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are wireless headphones even safe?

    Compared to the threat of getting a headphone cord wrapped around your neck? Yes, wireless headphones are safe.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  9. What about FM Radio? by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wasn't there a thing a while back about handset makers are required to unlock the fm radio on these things and without the wired headphones what are they going to use for an antenna now?

    1. Re:What about FM Radio? by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 2

      Apple's new logo... Paying more and getting less since 1976....The Apple Way...

  10. Re:Perfect by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 2

    BlueTooth maximum power: 100mW for class 1 devices (e.g. laptops) and just 2.5mW for most common class 2 devices (e.g. cell phones and BT headphones).

    CellPhones maximum RF transmit power: 2W (when reception is good it should be less than that).

    IOW, the average BT RF power is three orders of magnitude lower than of the cellphone under non-optimal conditions.

  11. Headphone snob here... by cormandy · · Score: 2

    Although I havenâ(TM)t tried Beats, I am invested in a pair of Shure SE535s which I love, and which have the 3.5mm connector and need a reasonable amount of ampification to sound great. Sorry apple, but I very much miss the old headphone jack... May I add that as I have no choice but to use the lightening to 3.5mm analogue converter dongle, has anyone performed a study on the quality of audio coming out of it?

    1. Re:Headphone snob here... by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      Welcome to Android :)

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Headphone snob here... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      The audio coming out of the Lightning adapter will always be the same. Apple mandates than ANY analog audio adapter for the Lightning connector must use the Lightning Audio Module (LAM), that is designed and built and sourced only from Apple. You must also include the iAP2 chip, and the appropriate licensing. And then it must be built at only an Apple-approved manufacturer. Meaning - you're always going to have the same audio quality AND the same manufacturing quality (and the ~$13 minimum price paid for the LAM, iAP2, and licensing - that's the "Apple Tax" for making a wired headphone adapter for the Lightning port).

      The way around it is to use a Lightning camera adapter, that turns the Lightning port into a "generic" USB port. THEN you can use external USB DACs like those from Audioquest (the Dragonfly red is pretty sweet). Of course, now instead of just a dongle, you are carrying a dongle AND a DAC. But hey - it's Apple.

      If you want a really good audio platform, consider the LG V30. That thing sounds - and measures - phenomenally when you turn on the built-in quad DACs and high-current output amplifier. As good as most $1000 digital audio players. And it will play all high res formats as well as MQA - unlike any iOS device.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  12. Re: Perfect by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thatâ(TM)s my concern too.

    Sigh. We really need better science education. Or are this many people just failing to absorb basic facts and thinking skills?

  13. Re:Perfect by Pseudonym · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Also, what about forgetting they're in and going for a swim, or a shower? What about bumping into someone or tripping down the stairs and losing them forever?

    I always figure that anyone who think wireless peripherals are a good idea have no kids. Kids are pretty good at looking after the phone itself, but peripherals should be considered disposable.

    I lost count how many times earbuds have been lost or destroyed by various means; death by laundry cycle is a very common one. I'd be upset about this if they cost more than $10 to replace.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  14. Missing the plug by DrYak · · Score: 2

    Exact reverse thing noticed here.

    I and most of my friends own good speaker sets in our home.

    Up until recently, playing music (e.g.: at a party) basically meant plugging the cable into the jack of whatever device (the hosts' laptop, the smartphone of whomever has a nicr playlist the want to share).

    Now suddenly, there is a bunch of people who simply cannot plug their music. Those with the "courageous" iPhones, or with the Chinese copycats that decided to follow the trend without muxh thinking.

    (Okay, for some idiots with weird musical taste, you're actually happy that they can't subject their music to all the innocent bystanders)

    Now its fumbling around to find the adequate dongle (Lightning, USB-C) to plug into (and hope the device still has enough battery).
    Or trying to find which service to use to share the music (oh, you're using Spotify? But I have all my playlist on Apple music / ad youtube playlists).
    Or you need to buy a cheap BT receiver module, except you don't want to pay 500â for it, so you get it from aliexpress and now need to hope that it will work as intended.
    Or you need to buy a new set of speakers with built in Bluetooth receiver, that will cost more and be less durable and shittier than the one you have.

    (and then hope that the Bluetooth connection will work as intended).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  15. Re: Perfect by Joce640k · · Score: 2

    You meant 'courageous', surely.

    --
    No sig today...
  16. IT Crowd meets John Wick by geekmux · · Score: 2

    Are wireless headphones even safe?

    Compared to the threat of getting a headphone cord wrapped around your neck? Yes, wireless headphones are safe.

    The "threat" of strangulation by headphone has me visualizing a mash-up between IT Crowd and John Wick for some reason.

    I mean c'mon, strangling evil hipsters by their old-fashioned cords would be one hell of a signature move for a super-nerd assassin...

  17. Re:But still comes with wired headphones by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Great.. a set of headphones that doesn't work with anything but one device.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  18. Re: Perfect by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is a handshake. Part of the time they are transmitting.

  19. Acceptance by StormReaver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it's hard to imagine that customers will take the news well.

    Seriously!? Has the writer not paid attention to the Apple customer profile for the last 20 years? Not only will Apple customers take the abuse well, they will drop their pants, bend over, and ask to be anally abused with 1 grit sandpaper. Then they will kindly ask Apple to include rougher sandpaper (and charge an extra $80 for it), because 1 grit isn't edgy enough.

    1. Re:Acceptance by daftna · · Score: 2

      I was a loyal Apple user since the 80's. Counter to what was said a lot here in the earlier age of OS X it was basically a really good GUI over FreeBSD and was really stable and easy for me to use. It "Just worked". However, I have completely lost faith in the Apple brand over the last few years. They have moved from making good products to just making good profits. All of my computers and devices seem to arbitrarily slow down. You can't upgrade one piece of the software without upgrading the whole thing which then breaks your old hardware and you have to buy the new, crappier hardware with the same frickin specs as the old hardware. I'd rather just buy the new software that should obviously work on my slightly-older hardware. Their biggest lock-in is iMessage but hopefully one of my computers can continue to sync my phone as I move to Linux (still distro shopping). I haven't upgraded my phone OS in years because I see my friends dealing with more and more issues. It's unfortunate because the software used to be the big selling point. It was so stable and both easy to use and also easy to tweak. The other day I went to ftp an image to a webserver (that doesn't have SFTP enabled) and I learned that apple had removed ftp for 'security reasons'. this is OUTGOING ftp .. not incoming!! and who, that knows how to use the command line, doesn't know the security risk already? I use computers professionally and they seem to be making shiny toys that aren't really meant to do anything except grocery lists and checking the stock market. If they wanted graphic designers they wouldn't dump FTP. If they wanted music professionals they wouldn't make compatibility such a chore. Pro tools is my "killer app" and it runs better on Windows now. I loved your products for 30 years, Apple, but you betrayed me by wasting my time in all the preventable troubleshooting I've had to endure in the past 5 years.

  20. Re: Perfect by BronsCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do they pair with the phone? How do they let the phone know they're present, operational, and waiting for audio? How do they let the phone know you've just pressed the pause button? Idiot, they're not just receivers, they're also transmitters. The lack of understanding of technology on this tech site recently is fucking astounding.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  21. Re:Can they get rid of the charger next? by freeze128 · · Score: 2

    I volunteer at a non-profit that recycles and repurposes electronics and computers. Your unneeded VGA cable is a great help for us. Sometimes we get monitors with NO cables, and we can make use of your VGA cable. Even if we cannot, we can recycle it for it's base components (Copper). If you decide not to donate your cables to a recycler, they can often be given to friends and family members who can make use of them. There is really no need to just throw it in the trash.

  22. Re:Perfect by BronsCon · · Score: 2

    It's also the distance and duration. An earbud in your ear is putting half its power directly into your head (the other half is directed away from you). Not only is more than half of a phone's power radiated away from your head (through the back and sides, that power is spread over a larger area simply by the fact that the antenna is larger. Then, you factor in distance, taking into account the fact that electromagnetic radiation propagates through 3d space, and you quickly find that the amount of radiation reaching any part of the body is less than that of the earbuds.

    Quick math:
    Earbuds: 2.5mw x 2 = 5mw
    Divide by 2 to account for roughly half the radiation being directed away from you = 2.5mw
    The portion of the earbud that goes into your ear is going to have a surface area of roughly 1 square centimeter. There are two of them, so we divide by that to determine exposure per square centimeter: 2.5/2 = 1.25mW

    Non-ideal phone: 2000mw x 1 = 2000mw
    Only radiation emitted from one of six faces of the device reaches the head: 2000/6 = 333.3mw
    The dimensions of that face (we'll use an iPhone 8, not even the + model, to make it more fair to Artem's argument) are 6.73cm by 13.84cm, yielding a surface area of 93.1432cm^2. We'll round this down to 90 to account for the rounded corners. 333.3/90 = 3.7mw per cm^2
    Now, to remain fair to Artem's argument (and keep the math simple, since there are too many viariables, such as the angle at which you're holding the phone, the size of your head, and the exact distance at which you hold it), we'll ignore that a portion of that is going to radiate around your head. This is fine by me, we're talking worst case, after all. Now, if you hold the phone 1cm from your ear, that puts it 2cm from the closest part of your cheek, and at least 3cm away from the farthest. Following the law of inverse squares, at 1cm you get 3.7^0.5mw, or 1.92mw per cm^2; at 2cm you get 1.92^0.5mw, or 1.39mw per cm^2; and at 3cm you get 1.39^0.5mw, or 1.18mw per cm^2.
    If we assume the average ear is roughly oval and roughly 2.5x3.5cm, we get an area of roughly 24cm^2. Since the ear is a 3d structure, we'll halve this and say 12cm^2 of the phone is 1cm away, and assume half of the remaining surface (90 - 12 = 78; 78/2 = 39) is 2cm away and the rest (39) is 3cm away, we get the following:
    (12 * 1.92) + (39 * 1.39) + (39 * 1.18) = 123.27mw reaching you head, spread over 90cm^2, which yields an average of 123.27/90 = 1.37mw per cm^2.

    Right, so under the absolute worst case conditions, and with estimates and assumptions favoring Artem's argument, that phone is dumping a whole 0.12mw (e.g. rounding error) more into your head, despite its transmit power being orders of magnitude higher.

    As for duration: The average phone user will have their phone to their ear for an hour a day (most are much less, a handful are much more, but it averages out to an hour), while the average headphone user will have them on for 4 hours.

    Roughly equal exposure assuming roughly equal exposure duration; but the headphone users will see roughly 4x the exposure in the real world.

    Now, we've got studies linking cellphone radiation and ADHD. I haven't read them, I don't know how conclusive they are, but I'm assuming not very since they seem to be relatively early studies. They're enough, however, to suggest that EM radiation may not be as harmless as we all think; and that's at frequencies that aren't right next to the one your microwave uses to boil water. Bluetooth is your microwave's little cousin. As you so astutely point out, that matters; a lot.

    Yes, more research is needed. Right now, I don't believe they're unsafe, but I don't have enough data to be meaningfully certain of that; I simply don't use them because they sound like shit to me. Yes, even Apt-X and (because most of my music is not encoded in AAC, so there are re-encoding artifacts that are very audible) AAC. That's fine for a noisy

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  23. Re:But still comes with wired headphones by BronsCon · · Score: 2

    ... or sound all that great. Better than the $2 pairs that come with most phones, but garbage compared to the AKGs that came with my S8, and complete shit compared to anything I'd buy (the same applies to the AKGs, by the way). In fact, all the lightning (or USB, for that matter) headphones I've encountered in the $200 price range have been complete shit compared to the $170 headphones I use daily; the same is said of bluetooth, as well.

    Funny how that works out, no? A $200 price point used to mean speakers and cans worth $200. Now, $190 of that goes to the radio, the DAC, the amplifier, the battery to power it all, and the "new shiny", and you're left with $10 headphones. For 20x the price.

    Progress.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  24. Re:Of course by Spamalope · · Score: 2

    How soon before it only works with an Apple licensed headphone too, just like they did with the docks?

  25. Re: More courage! by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    Why do you troll?

    What you call "trolling" others call "well earned criticism". We both know that Apple's headphone decision had nothing to do with courage and everything to do with selling those overpriced Beats headphones.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  26. Re: Perfect by datavirtue · · Score: 3, Funny

    I heard that Apple will not be including a phone the next iPhone box. This will make it so much easier for iPhone customers to function and have a normal, uplifting life. Pure genius.

    --
    I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  27. Re: Perfect by BronsCon · · Score: 2

    Wow, I should buy Apple stock shortly before the release, and sell shortly after. Launch day profits will be phenomenal, which will shoot the stock through the roof, but I expect it to tank shortly after.

    If only what you said were true... and I had enough cash on hand to buy a few thousand shares.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  28. Re:Perfect by BronsCon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What you are forgetting is that they're actually constantly transmitting acknowledgment packets so the device knows they're still there. If you have a pair with removable batteries, try pulling the battery sometime while they're playing music, and count how long it takes the phone to realize they're no longer there and stop playback. It's almost instantaneous, because there is a constant flow of ACK packets (to borrow a term from the TCP stack) being sent.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  29. Re:How I loathe iOS by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    Apple does the exact same thing. What makes you think they are any better than google?

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.