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Apple Discontinues iPhone X, No Longer Sells iPhones With Headphone Jacks (theverge.com)
Apple just killed the iPhone's headphone jack for good. Not only is the company no longer selling iPhones with headphone jacks, as they've removed the iPhone SE and 6s from their website, but they're no longer including a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter with the purchase of a new 2018 iPhone. The Verge also reports that the company is discontinuing the iPhone X with the introduction of its three new iPhones today. From the report: With the iPhone XS starting at a price of $999, and the addition of the cheaper $749 iPhone XR announced today, the iPhone X has become redundant. [...] There's no longer a good reason to shell out for the more expensive iPhone X, except maybe the exclusivity of owning a phone that was ushered in with the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone. It was the first to introduce the now-ubiquitous notch that's influenced the entire mobile industry with a wave of copycat designs, and the first iPhone with Face ID. It introduced intuitive gesture controls and with the phone came wireless charging, plus AirPods.
Apple's removal of the 1/8" headphone jack isn't about headphone jacks, nor is it about updating to new technology. It's about control and is just one small front in the war to erode the user controlling their own data. Headphone jacks are completely audio, analog, and offer no form of DRM. They are something Apple can't control once the signal is on the jack. You can do anything with it. Re-digitize it (this isn't the 80's where duping a cassette tape lead to rapid quality degradation), or pipe it to any device. The sound was yours once it got to that jack. Apple really doesn't like that, and they are basically tossing an invite to the entire industry to follow along and start down a more restrictive path. Follow us and you can get in on the action too. Erode what you can do with your audio one tiny tenth of a step at a time.
If anyone thinks that it's about device jack real estate, upgrading with the times, or innovation, they are hopelessly naive.
I have been what you might call an Apple fanboy since before OS X was introduced.
But the current so-called leadership at Apple is a bunch of arrogant clueless jerks.
No more Apple products for me, that's it. I'm not looking forward to switching and having to learn how to use all new stuff, but honestly, the way
Apple continues to cripple its products makes learning the new hardware seem like the least annoying option.
God damn you, Steve Jobs, you stupid prick. WHY did you appoint someone as clueless as Tim Cook to lead your company ?
Where ever you are, Jobs, fuck you.
I wish I had never bought any Apple products. I feel betrayed. Companies that betray me earn my lasting contempt. You had better believe I am going to tell everyone I know to avoid buying Apple, and within my peer group my opinion carries weight, so Apple just lost more than one customer.