Slashdot Mirror
Samsung Kills Headphone Jack After Mocking Apple (macrumors.com)
Last week, Samsung introduced its latest smartphone, the Galaxy A8s. Not only is it the first phone of theirs with a laser-drilled hole in the display for the front-facing camera sensor, but it is also their first phone to ditch the headphone jack. Slashdot reader TheFakeTimCook shares a report from Mac Rumors that takes a closer look at the move and the hypocrisy behind it: [The A8s] is also Samsung's first smartphone without a headphone jack, much to the amusement of iPhone users, as Samsung has mocked Apple for over two years over its decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016, a trend that has continued through to the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. While on stage unveiling the new Galaxy Note 7 in 2016, for example, Samsung executive Justin Denison made sure to point out that the device came with a headphone jack. "Want to know what else it comes with?" he asked. "An audio jack. I'm just saying," he answered, smirking as the audience laughed. And earlier this year, Samsung mocked the iPhone X's lack of a headphone jack in one of its "Ingenius" ads promoting the Galaxy S9. Samsung isn't the first tech giant to mock Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack, only to follow suit. Google poked fun at the iPhone 7's lack of headphone jack while unveiling its original Pixel smartphone in 2016, and then the Pixel 2 launched without one just a year later.
Could just be them testing the waters. If there isn't a decline in sales, expect this change to come to other models in the future.
Some recent android devices without headphone jacks use the same antenna for both WiFi and Bluetooth, and this is a huge problem if you are streaming content over WiFi and want to listen to the audio via Bluetooth headphones. I nearly pulled the trigger on the purchase of a Huawei android tablet before I found a bunch of online reviews of people who claim the device fails at streaming standard definition content (Netflix, YouTube, etc) when using Bluetooth headphones. Don't pre-order devices and make sure to read those one star reviews.
Serious question: do you know about the "Live Listen" capability of Airpods?
Here's a good article on it: https://www.imore.com/how-make...
It essentially turns AirPods into hearing boosters.
Check it out and see if it fits your needs. Yeah, you'll have to charge them, but that's pretty painless and the case keeps them charged pretty well.
Y'know, if you could mix and match features from about ten different Samsung phones, you'd get one pretty decent phone that didn't suck. Take the J-series for example, a range of phones so badly crippled they can't even update their own firmware because there's no space on the system partition, but it does have a headphone jack. Then there's the A8 without the headphone jack. And there are others, all crippled in various ways so they won't compete with each other. Drop a few thousand on various Samsung phones and pretty soon you've got the feature set for a single actually useful phone.
Same here. Not to mention the possible security implications of using Bluetooth.
Apple went through a whole marketing song and dance about how great and necessary magsafe was and now admitted actually you don't need it
Are you kidding? Magsafe WAS the greatest, and a laptop owner DOES need it. USB-C is sadly more all-around functional, but there's not getting around it absolutely is inferior to MagSafe for charging... the only reason why it's tolerable is that modern laptop batteries last longer so you can go for. quite a while without attaching the trippin' cord.
I've not talked to one newer MacBook owner that does not miss it.
It's so great in fact that people are making MagSafe USB-C cables.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley