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'Two Years Later, I Still Miss the Headphone Port' (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the in-hindsight dept.

An anonymous reader shares a column: I've been trying to figure out why the removal of the headphone port bugs me more than other ports that have been unceremoniously killed off, and I think it's because the headphone port almost always only made me happy. Using the headphone port meant listening to my favorite album, or using a free minute to catch the latest episode of a show, or passing an earbud to a friend to share some new tune. It enabled happy moments and never got in the way.

Now every time I want to use my headphones, I just find myself annoyed. Bluetooth? Whoops, forgot to charge them. Or whoops, they're trying to pair with my laptop even though my laptop is turned off and in my backpack. Dongle? Whoops, left it on my other pair of headphones at work. Or whoops, it fell off somewhere, and now I've got to go buy another one. I'll just buy a bunch of dongles, and put them on all my headphones! I'll keep extras in my bag for when I need to borrow a pair of headphones. That's just like five dongles at this point, problem solved! Oh, wait: now I want to listen to music while I fall asleep, but also charge my phone so it's not dead in the morning. That's a different, more expensive splitter dongle (many of which, I've found, are poorly made garbage).

13 of 566 comments (clear)

  1. I don't. by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because I don't buy phones that don't have one.
    Genius, isn't it?

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re: I don't. by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bluetooth headphones were made for making phone calls, not listening to music. Technically what you hear through them is not the music itself, but a compressed approximation of the music.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re: I don't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It would have been nice for an alternative evolution came out first. USB headphones have been around for years, but not in usb-c form and not as analog over usb.

      Like the beauty of the 3.5mm jack is that it doesnâ(TM)t fucking break. It rotates if itâ(TM)s an L-shape. USB? It will break off the PCB and since that is also your charging port, you just killed the phone.

    3. Re: I don't. by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The 3.5mm headphone jack was one of the greatest inventions ever. There were attempts at smaller, but the 2.5mm was just too fragile.

      After 50 years, the 3.5mm jack is damn near perfect. There are some potential problems with it, but nothing which is too much of a problem.

      If people want to use bluetooth, they're welcome to it. But I've gone iPhoneX and then back again. A major part of this was the headphone jack.

      What people often don't realize about the headphone jack is that it takes power. This is this real problem for companies these days. A small audio amplifier places a drain on the battery. It also requires space on the PCB. It's extremely difficult to design an audio amplifier with insanely good audio which fits within the real-estate constraints of a phone and also make it so there's no interference from all the surrounding radio circuits.

      So... the solution is to charge us more and remove the port.

      What Apple and the others seem to forget is that we like the choice. I don't like constantly losing headphones because they're not connected to the phone. Or constantly leaving my phone on the desk and being out of the building before I realize I forgot it... because the sound starts crackling. I don't like breaking expensive lightning to headphone dongles. I don't like having to constantly charge wireless headphones. I hate when my headphones run out of battery on the train.

      Now.. here's the REAL PROBLEM

      I don't like having to constantly pair and pair and pair and pair my damn headphones. I use my headphone with my PC to talk on Skype. I use my headphones on my phone to ... well everything. I use my headphone on my tablet to... well everything. I have one pair of headphones I simply plug or unplug. When I use bluetooth, I have to delete the device and repair it every time I switch. With proper headphones I can move the cable and click the button on the headphones to play. I don't even have to unlock the phone.

      I've been hoping Apple or Google will release a phone at some point called "The old fogey phone" for people who want all the features of the latest phone but are willing to live with lesser audio to get the headphone jack.

  2. I know this is too ideal, but ... by bobby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know I'm being unrealistic, but I wish free-market economics worked the way they theorize it should: that very few people would buy a product that doesn't have a 3.5mm port, and the demand would be filled by other manufacturers (unless you're Apple-addicted, then you're at their mercy). It bugs me to no end when the market bends and adapts to the supplier.

    1. Re:I know this is too ideal, but ... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The theory you are mentioning is actually called the Rational market theory. It works when an informed public acts rationally. Not altruistically, not socially responsibly, not any highflatulating weirdly. Simply rationally.

      And you apply it to iPhone market? That is the most irrational market there is.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:I know this is too ideal, but ... by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, smartphones aren't needed, either. Like them, it is a want. What's the user advantage of a thinner phone? Easier to break? Less room for battery capacity? An excuse to build in planned obsolescence with a non-user replaceable battery?

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:I know this is too ideal, but ... by kbg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So they can make the USB port waterproof but not the 3.5mm port? And the USB port has more wires and also has power, which the 3.5mm port doesn't

      I don't think so.

    4. Re: I know this is too ideal, but ... by dinfinity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Horseshit.

      Unless you define 'good' as 'unusably thin'.

  3. Re:Seriously? by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Insightful

    USB sticks are superior in every way to a floppy disk; therefore invalid comparison.

    Touch-tone phone ares superior in every way to a rotary phone; therefore invalid comparison.

    Verdict: Point missed.

  4. Want to know why it bugs you? by DrXym · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because removing the headphone jack was a cynical move by phone manufacturers to upsell you a pair of bluetooth headphones. There is virtually no benefit to the consumer of such a move.

  5. Revable batteries... by fbobraga · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... the lack of it was the first "fail" to me (it's a reason why I still keep my S5 [it shines with http://lineageos.org/ ] :P)

  6. How long will you have a choice? by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't buy phones that don't have one.

    Tell that to someone who resolved not to buy phones that lack a QWERTY keyboard.