But the take-home lesson here shouldn't be that if you avoid those you're good. The lesson is that in the end, you're taking every provider's word for security. Certainly some are good and some aren't, but there is literally no way for you to be able to tell which ones are good.
Here's why I don't fear that future (even if it happens): I generate a one-time-use CC# for every online purchase, so I use a different credit card number every time. The browser (or website) can store it as long as it wants. Once the charge clears, the number is no longer valid.
The problem with oauth and the like is that they are a bit like keeping all your eggs in one basket. If the auth provider is breached, it is theoretically possible for credentials to be forged. Unlikely, but possible. It's generally better to compartmentalize, so a breach at one place won't make you vulnerable anywhere else.
On the other hand, people really don't like doing passwords in a secure way. It is, admittedly, a real hassle. If you aren't going to do passwords securely, then you're much better off using an auth provider.
It wouldn't be a big deal, except that people generally have terrible password habits. The main issue here will be people who tend to use the same password in multiple places.
The risk is if the hashes are cracked (which is doable if someone thinks it's worth the effort). If that's done, then there will be a sizable percentage of people who use the same email address combined with the same password on other sites too. Potentially banking sites, ebay accounts, etc. Thieves know people do this, and look for it.
And that adapter uses the USB slot, so it can't be used for other things. That's a loss of functionality. You could, of course, use a USB-C hub to connect multiple devices, but then you've added yet another thing to carry around. That's a loss of functionality. Plus, the Pixel 2 doesn't do analog audio through USB-C, so any audio device you plug into it has to has its own DAC. That's a loss of functionality.
An argument could be (and has been) made that the loss of functionality is minor enough that people should just deal with it. But an argument that there's no loss of functionality is simply false.
Please point me to wireless earbuds that sound as good as comparably priced wired ones and have good battery life. I've been unable to find any (and I've tried quite a few).
I'm not terribly price sensitive, by the way, but I am value sensitive. In other words, I don't mind a high price tag if the value I'm getting justifies it.
I agree with this. There are absolutely situations where Bluetooth is the better way to go. There are other situations where wired is the way to do.
For years now, phones have been able to support both use cases. It sucks that some manufacturers have decided that one of those use cases is no longer important.
You're probably using over-the-ear headphones. I don't use those except at home (where I'm not using my phone to play music). Even the earbuds with the longest battery life won't even last a day, let alone a week.
For most things I've seen on Amazon, they can ship via USPS. Where I live, the mailboxes are on the street and have lockboxes to hold packages, so if it's shipped via USPS then they put it in the lockbox, and it's waiting for me when I get home from work. It's secure, and I don't have to go to some pick up center.
This is one of the reasons I strongly prefer USPS to FedEx or UPS, who just leave the packages on my door or (worse) leave a note telling me to pick the packages up from their distribution center.
There were a number of different instances, and they were all around selling some car (I forget which one). All the ones I saw involved the characters sitting in the car, stopping any story-related activities, then having one character express astonishment at some feature or another and the other one explaining it and how wonderful it it. This would go on for 30 seconds or so before the story resumed.
That's just for Bones. Other shows have done similar things for other products.
Unless the failure is on the dongle itself, which is more likely.
Surely, though, you recognize that an extra jack and the associated space can be used to improve the phone in some other way?
Of course, and if the space were actually used to make other things about the phone better, that would change the equation. But -- at least so far -- it isn't.
Eventually most earphones will come with Bluetooth and/or a bulit-in USB-C port and it'll be a moot point.
It'll only be a moot point if they sound decent. I've not found any that actually do, though.
Listen, as I've said multiple times in my various comments on this topic, I won't mind the lack of the headphone jack if there were some sort of replacement to it that was at least as good. Someday, I'm sure, there will be -- and when that day comes, I'll stop complaining. But that day isn't here yet, and I've not seen any real signs that it is coming soon.
In the meantime, I just won't be buying phones without the jack, simple as that.
I'm going to dismiss that, as people who care about the sound that much have some pretty bulky headphones.
Consider me the exception, then. I use earbuds with my phone (admittedly high-quality ones, but earbuds nonetheless). I'm no audiophile, I just want the sounds quality to be reasonably good.
1/8" headphone connections are pretty darned unreliable. Probably 99% of my headphones have developed a problem at the plug.
Over the decades, I've had exactly one socket go bad. In every other case, what goes bad is the cable on the earphone side where it leads into the plug. That is trivial to repair with earphones, but much more difficult to repair with dongles and adapters in my experience.
Yes, they are definitely an additional step that audiophiles did not previously need to take
Again, I'm no audiophile. And the pain in the ass part isn't the "extra step".
They don't offer YOU an advantage
Yes. All of my comments are about what I want. I thought that was obvious. I couldn't care less what other people want from their phones, since I am not them.
Also, as my current phone amply demonstrates, you can have a super thin phone and an audio jack, so thinness isn't an advantage to removing it.
I mean smartphones. The store I mentioned sells both sorts.
Since I replace the operating system on my phones anyway, I don't care about security (or other) patches. I won't be using them anyway, as I just upgrade the OS myself.
All arguments against removing the headphone jack ironically seem to be complaining because users now have more choices, not less... listen to what you are saying people!
Your statement would be true if people were complaining that phones support Bluetooth audio. But nobody is complaining about that.
What we're complaining about is the loss of functionality, not the existence of other technologies. In other words, the complaint really is about having less choice.
Slashdot Mirror
And WANSecurity.
But the take-home lesson here shouldn't be that if you avoid those you're good. The lesson is that in the end, you're taking every provider's word for security. Certainly some are good and some aren't, but there is literally no way for you to be able to tell which ones are good.
This is a good reminder that you shouldn't put much faith in the claims made by service providers.
perhaps even compulsory.
Here's why I don't fear that future (even if it happens): I generate a one-time-use CC# for every online purchase, so I use a different credit card number every time. The browser (or website) can store it as long as it wants. Once the charge clears, the number is no longer valid.
It's YOUR browser. It's as safe as you are.
This is the funniest thing I've read today.
But the alternative to your browser storing your CC# is that it is stored by every online merchant you buy from.
No, the alternative to your browser storing it is that you type it in every time you buy something -- just like with passwords.
How is it implausible that this would be worse than not storing your CC numbers in your computer?
I don't let my browsers remember my passwords. I'm absolutely not going to let them remember credit card numbers.
The problem with oauth and the like is that they are a bit like keeping all your eggs in one basket. If the auth provider is breached, it is theoretically possible for credentials to be forged. Unlikely, but possible. It's generally better to compartmentalize, so a breach at one place won't make you vulnerable anywhere else.
On the other hand, people really don't like doing passwords in a secure way. It is, admittedly, a real hassle. If you aren't going to do passwords securely, then you're much better off using an auth provider.
Yep. I use the notifications from that site to remind me when it's time to change all my important passwords.
Yes, you're right. I totally missed that!
It wouldn't be a big deal, except that people generally have terrible password habits. The main issue here will be people who tend to use the same password in multiple places.
The risk is if the hashes are cracked (which is doable if someone thinks it's worth the effort). If that's done, then there will be a sizable percentage of people who use the same email address combined with the same password on other sites too. Potentially banking sites, ebay accounts, etc. Thieves know people do this, and look for it.
Those people are at severe risk and need to know.
And that adapter uses the USB slot, so it can't be used for other things. That's a loss of functionality.
You could, of course, use a USB-C hub to connect multiple devices, but then you've added yet another thing to carry around. That's a loss of functionality.
Plus, the Pixel 2 doesn't do analog audio through USB-C, so any audio device you plug into it has to has its own DAC. That's a loss of functionality.
An argument could be (and has been) made that the loss of functionality is minor enough that people should just deal with it. But an argument that there's no loss of functionality is simply false.
None of this makes Bluetooth sound any more appealing. Rather, it sounds like a minefield where you can spend a lot of time and still easily go wrong.
So let me add another benefit of wired earphones that we're losing: relatively simple buying decisions.
Please point me to wireless earbuds that sound as good as comparably priced wired ones and have good battery life. I've been unable to find any (and I've tried quite a few).
I'm not terribly price sensitive, by the way, but I am value sensitive. In other words, I don't mind a high price tag if the value I'm getting justifies it.
I agree with this. There are absolutely situations where Bluetooth is the better way to go. There are other situations where wired is the way to do.
For years now, phones have been able to support both use cases. It sucks that some manufacturers have decided that one of those use cases is no longer important.
You're probably using over-the-ear headphones. I don't use those except at home (where I'm not using my phone to play music). Even the earbuds with the longest battery life won't even last a day, let alone a week.
For most things I've seen on Amazon, they can ship via USPS. Where I live, the mailboxes are on the street and have lockboxes to hold packages, so if it's shipped via USPS then they put it in the lockbox, and it's waiting for me when I get home from work. It's secure, and I don't have to go to some pick up center.
This is one of the reasons I strongly prefer USPS to FedEx or UPS, who just leave the packages on my door or (worse) leave a note telling me to pick the packages up from their distribution center.
There were a number of different instances, and they were all around selling some car (I forget which one). All the ones I saw involved the characters sitting in the car, stopping any story-related activities, then having one character express astonishment at some feature or another and the other one explaining it and how wonderful it it. This would go on for 30 seconds or so before the story resumed.
That's just for Bones. Other shows have done similar things for other products.
it just can only do one of those things at a time (not multitask capable)
Yes, this is exactly what I was talking about.
The failure will still be on the headphones side.
Unless the failure is on the dongle itself, which is more likely.
Surely, though, you recognize that an extra jack and the associated space can be used to improve the phone in some other way?
Of course, and if the space were actually used to make other things about the phone better, that would change the equation. But -- at least so far -- it isn't.
Eventually most earphones will come with Bluetooth and/or a bulit-in USB-C port and it'll be a moot point.
It'll only be a moot point if they sound decent. I've not found any that actually do, though.
Listen, as I've said multiple times in my various comments on this topic, I won't mind the lack of the headphone jack if there were some sort of replacement to it that was at least as good. Someday, I'm sure, there will be -- and when that day comes, I'll stop complaining. But that day isn't here yet, and I've not seen any real signs that it is coming soon.
In the meantime, I just won't be buying phones without the jack, simple as that.
I'm going to dismiss that, as people who care about the sound that much have some pretty bulky headphones.
Consider me the exception, then. I use earbuds with my phone (admittedly high-quality ones, but earbuds nonetheless). I'm no audiophile, I just want the sounds quality to be reasonably good.
1/8" headphone connections are pretty darned unreliable. Probably 99% of my headphones have developed a problem at the plug.
Over the decades, I've had exactly one socket go bad. In every other case, what goes bad is the cable on the earphone side where it leads into the plug. That is trivial to repair with earphones, but much more difficult to repair with dongles and adapters in my experience.
Yes, they are definitely an additional step that audiophiles did not previously need to take
Again, I'm no audiophile. And the pain in the ass part isn't the "extra step".
They don't offer YOU an advantage
Yes. All of my comments are about what I want. I thought that was obvious. I couldn't care less what other people want from their phones, since I am not them.
Also, as my current phone amply demonstrates, you can have a super thin phone and an audio jack, so thinness isn't an advantage to removing it.
I mean smartphones. The store I mentioned sells both sorts.
Since I replace the operating system on my phones anyway, I don't care about security (or other) patches. I won't be using them anyway, as I just upgrade the OS myself.
All arguments against removing the headphone jack ironically seem to be complaining because users now have more choices, not less... listen to what you are saying people!
Your statement would be true if people were complaining that phones support Bluetooth audio. But nobody is complaining about that.
What we're complaining about is the loss of functionality, not the existence of other technologies. In other words, the complaint really is about having less choice.
Yeah, but then you can't use the USB jack for anything else. We're still talking about a loss of functionality.
Oh, and I forgot one of the major problems with the dongles: they use up the USB connector.