If you kill the headphone jack, you need to replace it with something better

If the headphone jack is the new floppy drive, what's the new CD-RW?

Read the whole story

 

[operagost]

efbrazil[/url]":3l6s26h9]Plug in headphone experience- buy cheap headphones, plug them in, sound comes out.

Bluetooth headphone experience- buy expensive headphones, charge them, pair them. For each use you need to charge them, turn them on, unlock the iphone, open the settings app, open bluetooth settings, wait for the device list to show up, click the device to connect to (e.g. "CMT-BX5BT" or "HWS-BTA2W"), wait for the connection to happen, then toggle back to podcasts or your streaming program.

On top of the inherently sucky things about Bluetooth, the Apple Bluetooth user experience super-sucks.

This isn't quite the scenario I run into with my iPhone 6, but it does seem like I usually have to turn my Motorola earpiece on and off multiple times before the phone will re-pair. And it seems like if I don't use it for a few hours, it needs to re-pair and I'll hear sound coming out of the phone for a few seconds before this process completes. But I don't have this problem with my LG phone. It's really a software issue.

 

[Rudypuddinpop]

JonnyBoy[/url]":17hkgpru]Anyone who uses their phones to provide music or entertainment while exercising is probably going to run into problems. I use cheap ($7), reasonable quality earbuds because I can massacre them and not care about them. I've never gone with Bluetooth or high-end audio because I and most other people I know who use them exercising obliterate their devices with sweat. Until the market is offers me a cheap, disposable USB or bluetooth earbud, there simply is not an adequate substitute. I've already scratched the Moto Z from consideration for this reason.

The market is now offering what you seek. http://www.itechdeals.com/metal-in-ear- ... ign=101512

That, above, is not a particularly good bluetooth headphone. But there are many good-enough options on amazon and elsewhere in the $10-30 range. I was in the same spot as you a month ago. I'm now a post-cord exerciser, and loving it. Battery life was the big thing I feared. It hasn't been an issue, though; with 6+ hours of use I've found it not too much of a hassle to recharge.

 

[Oletros]

psiclone[/url]":76nsgxcx]It's called progress. If people are allowed to hold onto older tech, they will. Bluetooth capable phones have been around for ages now. It's time to give up the wires.

Can you tell me the advantages of BT over 3.5mm jack?

 

[jfutral]

GreyAreaUk[/url]":1gkehkfj]

jfutral[/url]":1gkehkfj]I say ditch the lightning port and make a combo power/audio jack. I can't remember the last time I connected anything to my iPhone other than my AmpKit/iRig, headphones, and a power source. Not even a computer. I can't figure out why a Lightning port is even necessary.

Joe

For those of us that do connect other stuff to their iPhones, including computers.

Well, those of us who _do_ use the headphones jack seem pretty expendable. Why not everyone else?
(To be clear, I think both should stick around. But it seems that is not an option. This is merely a point of arbitrariness.)

Joe

 

[Flaming Sasquatch]

Batmanuel[/url]":1g6avgd5]

skiierguy[/url]":1g6avgd5]Reminds me of the very first iPhone where the headphone jack was recessed. None of my headphones (ER-4P, HD580, another pair of Shure IEMs) had plugs skinny enough to fit into the recessed socket. Had to carry an adapter with me at all times, which annoyed the crap out of me.

Granted, the phone wasn't nearly as versatile as current models and didn't have much internal storage. But at the time, the iPhone was revolutionary enough that I dealt with it.

Times have changed. Unless there's a better solution that none of us are seeing, I can't imagine myself purchasing a smartphone that lacks a headphone jack in the foreseeable future.

What's weird is that it seems like almost all all new headphone and aux cables are designed to fit in that recessed jack, despite Apple not making a phone with that design for several years.

But a lot of phone cases cause the same problem, and not just on iPhones.

 

[Kurotetsu]

This could actually wind up being a boon for smartphone modularity.

Take a look at the upcoming Lenovo Moto Z for example. The base body is ridiculously thin, resulting in a highly protruding camera hump, and lacks a headphone jack. However when you attach one of the modular backs the camera hump suddenly becomes flush. It was clearly designed with the assumption that you’ll have a module attached at all times. It doesn’t take a genius to then imagine someone (say, an audio device manufacturer) creating a module with a built-in high quality DAC, a headphone jack, and perhaps some extra battery built-in. This was already done with LG’s significantly worse implementation of modules.

Lenovo gets to have its super thin smartphone with the headphone jack removed, but because of their implementation of modules the end user is given the freedom to add a headphone jack if they want it (without having to rely on a stupid dongle). THAT is how it should be done.

 

[pjcamp]

You're going to get USB C because it supports DRM. This, in turn, protects iTunes revenue, and that reason, not convenience, not technical superiority, it the only reason Apple is making this move.

 

[Golgo1]

Silly consumer
"You're holding porting it wrong"

 

[Statistical]

You're going to get USB C because it supports DRM. This, in turn, protects iTunes revenue, and that reason, not convenience, not technical superiority, it the only reason Apple is making this move.

No chance Apple drops lightning (and there exclusively Apple licensed connectors, cables, and peripherals) for the open usb-c standard.

 

[ColdWetDog]

wobbleworks[/url]":1io2g96j]

Jousle[/url]":1io2g96j]Maybe some weird magnetic solution might do the trick.

I agree. I think it could simply be a magnetic contact jack, similar to the way the iPad Pro keyboard cover attaches. A small, simple dongle could provide a 1/8" jack on one end and a magnetic connector on the other. Snap the dongle on the end of your favorite headphones and they're now compatible with the new connector.

For all the downvotes, this is an excellent idea. The major drawback of the wire is that it gets all entangled in things. Just like the pre magsafe power cords. A simple adapter (to add to our already impressive collections) isn't really a big deal, especially if it offers some additional utility.

Magnets! Magic!

 

[efbrazil]

operagost[/url]":3u5s0ucp]

efbrazil[/url]":3u5s0ucp]Plug in headphone experience- buy cheap headphones, plug them in, sound comes out.

Bluetooth headphone experience- buy expensive headphones, charge them, pair them. For each use you need to charge them, turn them on, unlock the iphone, open the settings app, open bluetooth settings, wait for the device list to show up, click the device to connect to (e.g. "CMT-BX5BT" or "HWS-BTA2W"), wait for the connection to happen, then toggle back to podcasts or your streaming program.

On top of the inherently sucky things about Bluetooth, the Apple Bluetooth user experience super-sucks.

This isn't quite the scenario I run into with my iPhone 6, but it does seem like I usually have to turn my Motorola earpiece on and off multiple times before the phone will re-pair. And it seems like if I don't use it for a few hours, it needs to re-pair and I'll hear sound coming out of the phone for a few seconds before this process completes. But I don't have this problem with my LG phone. It's really a software issue.

You probably have bluetooth configured to autoconnect, which is flaky at best. We had bluetooth in our car configured to autoconnect to the phone, but then each time my wife turned on the car it would grab the bluetooth connection away from my headphones in the house, and of course our phones would fight over which one got to connect to the car. I'm not sure if Android has better solutions for all these issues, but ios sucks at bluetooth.

In general, the argument for owning ios over android is already in decline and this is just going to accelerate the market share decline of Apple. It's becoming harder and harder to rationalize spending 50% more for an idevice over a nexus.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

pjcamp[/url]":ke260hn4]You're going to get USB C because it supports DRM. This, in turn, protects iTunes revenue, and that reason, not convenience, not technical superiority, it the only reason Apple is making this move.

This would be the same iTunes that doesn't actually use DRM, yes?

 

[oldmac31310]

daemonios[/url]":5y3xds32]Unless we're getting headphones that use a multi-purpose port such as USB, I'd love to see something like the Pebble's magnetic charging connector. I suppose you only need 2 wires for headphones, which is also the number of connectors on the Pebble. It's waterproof, doesn't take much space inside the device, you can't break the connector by yanking it yet given adequate magnets it shouldn't come off too easily...

Just two wires? So you're suggesting mono headphones? Very clever I'm sure!

 

[nbs2]

When Apple was waging war against the FBI, I declared that I was their man, for life. If this is no-3.5 rumor is true, I'm worried I may have a shorter lifespan than I imagined.

 

[remydlc]

I, for one, will not buy or request an iphone via my employer if they drop the headphone jack for something proprietary. It would not over pay them for something just because they want to satisfy shareholders.

This is going to be a make or break situation for Apple. Should the go with proprietary solution, there are going to be a lot of unhappy customers. Those that already bought 100+ wired solutions for their audio listening needs. There is no way in hell im buying a $50 accessory from Apple to listen to music on my phone. This might be my last iPhone. I have bluetooth/wired headphones but what happens if you are going to need to use them for over 5+ hours? You are doomed. There are many instances where this could happen, long flights, playing poker where you could be away for 8+ hours, etc.

 

[Dr.Appleseed]

houkoholic[/url]"hjeriw4]

Dr.Appleseed[/url]"hjeriw4]
But you don't understand special breed of people who is called "Audiophile". Ordinary people can not tell difference between 256kbps MP3 and FLAC audio encoding or difference between 16 bit 44KHz CD PCM vs 24 bit 192KHz HD audio format or any recent development of audio technology. But the "Audiophile" cares such minute improvement of audio quality so that they are willing to buy $200 "oxygen-free" (analog) speaker cable.

I "get" the "audiophile" market just fine because I would very much be called one if I show my gears to an audiophile, just for on the go I have 2 pairs of custom IEMs with a third pair coming in that I swap between depending on my mood, and I haven't talked about my home setup yet, so yeah, I'm more than qualified to say I know "audiophiles" and the audiophile market.

However those are also the same people (not all, but majority) that don't know much about technology, digital audio, signal processing etc and can fall victim to all sorts of snake all - such as the whole lossy/lossless and "hi-res" stuff you've just thrown around now (pro-tip: hi-res audio isn't better due to the the superiority of the format, it's actually only because hi-res audio is mixed more carefully/less loud than CDs, and the perceived differences in audio quality is completely human induced due to the quality of the mixing, not because of the format enabling a higher quality of recording). And in the end shuffling around the DACs/amp from inside the phone to the headphone while claiming it is going to be "better" is preciously the type of snake oil "audiofoolary" that I hate.

And for ordinary people, the digital USB audio interface will abolish all the various legacy analog interfaces and cables once and for all and ease headache from chaotic tangled cable bunch of consumer home audio sets, TV's, sound bar, and portable audio devices.

Ah yes that magical digital cable - we already have that for home theatre and it's call HDMI, yet crawl to the back of the cabinet you still have a mass of analog cables spaghetti running that last mile from the amp to the speaker. Are you proposing that each speaker should now be self-powered each with its own build in DAC/AMP and WiFI connection to achieve that complete wireless utopia? If so you can keep that because that's a shitty future.

Again, you seemed to be overall very confused about how stuff is really done in the real world.

For snake oil "audiofoolary" that you hate, yes digital audio cable (or earphone cord) may be some snake oil like "oxygen-free" speaker cable. But what do you think about the optical "S/PDIF" cable that runs between your CD player and your main amp? Do you think that the S/PDIF cable is snake oil too? I don't think so. S/PDIF is back bone or modern digital home audio system. But its tech is quite rudimentary based on 1980 era CD technology.

We need better digital cable than S/PDIF so we invented the HDMI cable, all-in-one cable that will solve all of our audio/video interface needs. But alas, it is somewhat too heavy and expensive solution for audio only stream like earphone. Because HDMI should hand very high bit rate of digital video of giga bit range, HDMI cable is too thick and too big and too expensive interface to handle audio interfacing ( of 100's of K bps ~ few M bps range) ordinary phone or portable music player.

We need some new interface better than S/PDIF, but lighter and less expensive than HDMI interface. Here comes my suggestion of using old USB 2.0 based audio interface. It is inexpensive, light and mature technology. It can replace all of S/PDIF and old RCA audio cable. What I suggest is to replace the last remaining analog connection of our audio system, the 3.5 mm pin jack for earphone/head phone, with the USB audio interface as I suggested.

 

[Marlor_AU]

Dr.Appleseed[/url]":277usyoi]What I suggest is to replace the last remaining analog connection of our audio system, the 3.5 mm pin jack for earphone/head phone, with the USB audio interface as I suggested.

Headphones are inherently analog. There needs to be an D-A conversion at some point. Why do this in each pair of headphones (where light weight is critical), when it can be implemented in the audio source instead?

 

[Degru]

daemonios[/url]":1z45hbd1]Unless we're getting headphones that use a multi-purpose port such as USB, I'd love to see something like the Pebble's magnetic charging connector. I suppose you only need 2 wires for headphones, which is also the number of connectors on the Pebble. It's waterproof, doesn't take much space inside the device, you can't break the connector by yanking it yet given adequate magnets it shouldn't come off too easily...

Yanking on a connection and jostling it around in your pocket are two very different things. The thing about Magsafe and magnet watch chargers is that you aren't putting stress on them all the time; they just sit there. A magnetic headphone jack would very quickly disconnect if you are doing anything active.

Also, headphones require at least 3 pins (unless they're mono headphones): left, right, and ground. If you add a mic and buttons, that's 4 pins.

 

[unequivocal]

Keokil[/url]":3657asgl]

unequivocal[/url]":3657asgl]I use this device: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MJ ... UTF8&psc=1

Plugged into my ear buds.

It solves the bulk of annoyances for me. I put on my ear buds and turn this thing on and put it all in my pocket. That stays in place until I get where I'm going.

My phone is totally cord free and connected to the dongle. The thing is small and light and easy to recharge (unlike B/T ear buds). Also if the thing runs out of battery, then I can just plug my ear buds directly into my phone as a backup, which you can't do with B/T ear buds.

I haven't found a better solution yet!

Forgive me, for once I haven't read thru all the comments before posting, but how do you plug this into both your earbuds and phone at the same time?

Especially as the imaged connector is male?

That photo is misleading. The male connector is a dongle plugged into the device. The device actually has a female 3.5mm jack (aka headphone). You plug your ear buds into the device (male earbuds -> female B/T thing). Then you connect your phone to the B/T thing via bluetooth.

 

[obir73]

Megaqwerty[/url]":2gpnfag7]
Almost all audio solutions that do not use the 3.5 mm jack are not objectively superior to a simple cable out. The reasons are plethora, but the fact is that removing the 3.5 mm jack is not an improvement in nearly all use cases, unlike with obsoleted media drives.

Perhaps Apple's vision, or line of thinking (not that I agree with it) is that bluetooth is better, because you don't need a cable? Similiar to how wifi is inferior to ethernet from a technical point of view, but that the lack of needing to plug in a cable is worth the tradeoff in most situations?

 

[bobbie424242]

Hawt towpeak.

Even hawter than Emoji, the pinnacle of 40 years of OS evolution.

 

[Deleted member 174040]

carcharoth[/url]":2pwufz5u]its not broken, why change it

What if it's not broken, but it's also not as good as it could be?

 

[Goblynn93]

Stone[/url]":2zcl4xc5]

rick*d[/url]":2zcl4xc5]First of all, replacing DVDs with USB did not solve everything. I've got some huge files here that I have to put into a .zip file split over several physical files smaller than 4G each, move those to my USB, and then re-assemble them on the target PC's hard drive. Why? Because the files are too large for FAT32. What are these large files? DVD .iso files, of course! Stuff still comes that way, you know.

That aside, if Apple eliminates headphone jacks they're going to drive every Square customer to Android.

Format your flash drive to NTFS.

And most of Apple's customers will make excuses to stay with Apple, this won't drive them away, just like any of Apple's other decisions did. Adapters/dongles will (awkwardly) solve the problem for most people.

Don't use NTFS.

Use exFAT.

exFAT allows huge file sizes, it's built into both Mac and PC and easily installed into Linux.

 

[heavyboots]

This is a great, common-sense article. Would have loved to see it address the use case of trying to use your headphones while charging the phone too.

 

[adamsc]

psiclone[/url]":1dzw3gkm]It's called progress. If people are allowed to hold onto older tech, they will. Bluetooth capable phones have been around for ages now. It's time to give up the wires.

Can you tell me the advantages of BT over 3.5mm jack?

Here's the only one I've been able to come up with: I wouldn't rip my headphones off accidentally while doing yard-work, and I guess it could be a little easier to protect the phone from water. That's certainly nice but could be solved with the simple magsafe-style coupling people have been suggesting and it's otherwise all downside, starting with the need to charge your headphones and the no-QA zone which is the average Bluetooth stack (I shouldn't need to toggle Bluetooth on/off, kill blued/reboot, etc. just to play music but that kind of hassle has been universal to every Mac, iOS, and Android device I've ever used), not to mention bizarre UX fails like the way OS X uncontrollably launches iTunes every time my iPhone grabs the Bluetooth speaker to play a sound.

 

[malloc64]

houkoholic[/url]":btkg7cna]

Apptree[/url]":btkg7cna]

houkoholic[/url]":btkg7cna]

Physically moving the "last mile" isn't doing anything to improve audio quality, period.

No, but it does allow it to become wireless altogether, which is a huge bonus.

Yes I know that, but it also comes with its own set of issues, such as charging another set of gear, not being able to use it on the plane etc. It's a bonus in some ways but also a hindrance in others. Ideally you should have both so people can pick and choose depending on the situation, removing one of the option is being hostile to consumers.

But they're not removing an option even if they remove the jack!

No one will be forced to use crappy Bluetooth headsets or buy Apple-only headphones just because the audio jack isn't built in anymore. No one had to stop using floppy disks or CDs or ethernet or serial ports or parallel ports or USB Type A.

If you want to complain about dongles being annoying and there being no benefit to removing the headphone jack, have at it. But stop pretending like removing the option to use normal headphones is even on the table.

 

[RT81]

I just read the thing on Daring Fireball about this being a "short-term annoyance" for a "long-term gain".

A gain for who? A gain for...what exactly? Smart phones? Please.

Gruber's point only makes sense if you assume the only thing that uses headphones is smart phones and tablets. It's like he doesn't realize that there's an entire world out there that would laugh at the idea of "wireless" audio. The very iPhone he probably has in his pocket has all sorts of creative content that was produced by people with wired audio.

We're not talking about universal standards for data storage or interfacing a wide range of devices with computers. We're talking about things that you hear sound with. Thinking that somehow Apple all by themselves is going to pull everyone forward out of this fictional audio Dark Age we're in is the stupidest idea I've heard in a long, long time.

Come back and tell me that when Apogee and Focusrite start using this miraculous wireless technology in their audio interfaces. Let me know when Genelec or Focal puts out their amazing new wireless studio monitors. Then I'll agree that Apple sure as heck did an amazing thing and saved us all from our backwards selves!

As a Mac and iPhone user, I hope this decision knocks Apple for a loop they'll remember for years before making such an idiotic decision again.

EDIT: typo

 

[Deleted member 174040]

RT81[/url]":3ck9c8i9]Apogee and Focusrite

Niche.

 

[RT81]

RockDaMan[/url]":178dtxce]

RT81[/url]":178dtxce]Apogee and Focusrite

Niche.

You're missing my point.

This change is utterly pointless. This isn't going to be another case of Apple doing away with an old standard and getting to claim some sort of hand in advancing technology forward. This is Apple fiddling with design and making a change for change's sake.

This is going to be Apple removing a headphone jack, upsetting some of their customers, other's not caring, and the rest of the world shrugs and goes on and uses wired headphones, monitors, microphones, etc. for the next 100 years.

To be clear, I don't even use headphones with my iPhone. This change will mean nothing to me. It's just unbelievably stupid on an intellectual level.

 

[Papewaio]

jfutral[/url]":z385fk1f]What's ridiculous is reading Gruber talk about eliminating "analog" headphones. There is no such thing as non-analog headphones. Sound is analog. There is no getting away from analog headphones. Somewhere the signal gets turned into analog electrical to analog drivers.

What is ironic is that if Bluetooth is the answer, Gruber has been cynical about Bluetooth for a while. So maybe Apple has finally helped next year be the year for Bluetooth.

As the article points out, with the other technologies there were already better solutions that just needed adopting. There is not better audio connections. This is not just inconvenience, it is wishful thinking.

Joe

TDM = Time Division Multiplexing. Essentially all phone calls are sampled and not a true analog range. Once you sample enough points on a waveform a human ear cannot pick up the difference between analog and digital. It as the equivalent of not being able to see pixels on a picture if the density is high enough and you are far enough away from the picture.

 

[mdrejhon]

In addition to something "superior than a headphone jack" - I would not mind flapless IP68 waterproof: To me, that will be a fair trade. Safe to bring iphone while in swimming pool.

A "Smart Connector" and the TouchID button can be designed to not need a water flap like USB/Lightning/Headphones jacks does...easily forgotten when submerging with a smartphone in your swim trunks pocket.

 

[Deleted member 174040]

RT81[/url]":2sz9joto]

RockDaMan[/url]":2sz9joto]

RT81[/url]":2sz9joto]Apogee and Focusrite

Niche.

You're missing my point.

This change is utterly pointless.

so is this thread. Apple will do what they want to do and in the end inertia will drag everyone else along with them...willing or not.

 

[larry91403]

I must be an anomaly but I usually toss out the included headphones and use bluetooth ones. So don't care if Apple (or anyone else) gets rid of the jack. Good riddance! Why anyone still wants a wire connecting their head to their phones is beyond me. I always wound up forgetting it was connected and knocking it to floor, off the table, etc...

 

[Deleted member 441963]

larry91403[/url]":31x8yp1w]
Why anyone still wants a wire connecting their head to their phones is beyond me. I always wound up forgetting it was connected and knocking it to floor, off the table, etc...

If you forget you laid your head on the table you have a bigger problem than the wire connecting your head to the phone in your pocket.

/s

 

[chriz74]

They will replace it with an iJack

 

[isparavanje]

mdrejhon[/url]":sveuy700]In addition to something "superior than a headphone jack" - I would not mind flapless IP68 waterproof: To me, that will be a fair trade. Safe to bring iphone while in swimming pool.

A "Smart Connector" and the TouchID button can be designed to not need a water flap like USB/Lightning/Headphones jacks does...easily forgotten when submerging with a smartphone in your swim trunks pocket.

Current water resistant smartphones don't have a flap for the ports. The ports are sealed inside.

 

[RT81]

RockDaMan[/url]":1vyq3p1y]

RT81[/url]":1vyq3p1y]

RockDaMan[/url]":1vyq3p1y]

RT81[/url]":1vyq3p1y]Apogee and Focusrite

Niche.

You're missing my point.

This change is utterly pointless.

so is this thread. Apple will do what they want to do and in the end inertia will drag everyone else along with them...willing or not.

We'll see. For consumer electronics based around content consumption and light productivity, perhaps. I highly doubt this will pan out the way it has for them before.

Customers who want the latest and greatest iPhone may not care, but in this case I'd seriously put more stock in them revolutionizing the automobile industry and putting recharging stations on every block than I would them affecting any real change here. That's how set in place the standard headphone jack is, in my opinion.

 

[malloc64]

Papewaio[/url]":2tdcb4d8]

jfutral[/url]":2tdcb4d8]What's ridiculous is reading Gruber talk about eliminating "analog" headphones. There is no such thing as non-analog headphones. Sound is analog. There is no getting away from analog headphones. Somewhere the signal gets turned into analog electrical to analog drivers.

What is ironic is that if Bluetooth is the answer, Gruber has been cynical about Bluetooth for a while. So maybe Apple has finally helped next year be the year for Bluetooth.

As the article points out, with the other technologies there were already better solutions that just needed adopting. There is not better audio connections. This is not just inconvenience, it is wishful thinking.

Joe

TDM = Time Division Multiplexing. Essentially all phone calls are sampled and not a true analog range. Once you sample enough points on a waveform a human ear cannot pick up the difference between analog and digital.

Yes, you always can, because a living being's ear can't register "digital" sound. It is a physical impossibility. You can't close the "analog hole" with a speaker involved. It's a necessary physical property to cognition, whether that final conversion into an analog signal occurs after or before the cord.

Audio can be digitized and manipulated/stored/transmitted digitally. But it must always be played at full fidelity on an analog mechanism that causes vibration in air or another media.

Neither Apple nor anyone else can DRM the last step of an audio output system without first turning humans into cyborgs. Likewise, even if they wanted to, they can't prevent the creation of an accessory to use normal headphones. That last wire, to the tiny speaker in the headphone, is always and necessarily an analog wire.

There is so much nonsense in this thread. It's mass hysteria over nothing at all.

 

[infected]

lazarus0000[/url]"iuvubbx]I don't want to get involved in an iOS vs Android flame war here but a couple of points I feel need to be made (pissing off a few people in the process, I'm sure and sorry to say...)

1) Android has won. Apple just isn't anything for a technically savvy person. If you're old and still bitching about how phones used to have cords and no one knew what the hell an answering machine (OMG! Don't get me started on that...) was - if you didn't answer, you didn't get the damn call, then iPhone is your perfect solution. But if you're into adaptability and GTD, then Android is the only way to go.

2) This is just Apple being Apple... This is a way to needlessly and without any obvious benefit, differentiate their product with something that will look very fashionable while being offered at a ridiculous price - all while having n00bs talk about how this is "so much better than that 3-whatever millimeter thingy...."

So this is likely going to happen. And I'll need to buy more duct tape to keep my head from exploding as I listen to all these arrogant morons talk about the high bias or low distortion or inherent non-differential sound variability or whatever else the reality distortion field comes up with to explain how a tried and true, still extraordinarily useful and ubiquitous technology is inherently flawed and needs to be replaced with the $117.95 piece of advanced technology that is just sssooo much better sounding and useful than...

I Wouldn't say Android has won, and Apple lost anything. they are basically playing different games.

Apple makes a premium product and makes an absurd amount of profit doing so. and I personally believe Apple could do pretty much anything and people would still buy iphones.

A myriad of Android OEM's make phones to fill every other portion of the market and make a lot less money doing so.

 

[BloodNinja]

GreyAreaUk[/url]":21v2omet]

BloodNinja[/url]":21v2omet]

RodoBobJon[/url]":21v2omet]This move might turn out to be a mistake, but I doubt the motivation for it is to nickel and dime their customers on adapters. That was a ridiculous theory when Apple was replacing the 30-pin connector and it's a ridiculous theory now. Apple's entire business is predicated on users loving their products, and they are not going to intentionally make the experience worse to earn an extra $29.99 per customer. They won't do this unless they have a long term benefit in mind that will ultimately outweigh the short term pain of breaking from a widespread standard.

My guess is that if Apple is really doing this then it's because they believe they have a new solution that will make for a better experience using the device. They absolutely have no problem eschewing standards, making people buy adapters, or throw out existing equipment, but only if the resulting experience of actually using the product is improved. So I'm guessing they have some kind of bespoke wireless audio solution that makes for simpler pairing and better audio quality than Bluetooth. The purpose of removing the 3.5 jack is probably not to make the device thinner/waterproof/whatever, but rather just to make sure everyone moves on to the new and ostensibly better technology. As much as I would personally prefer a transition period where both technologies could co-exist, forcing the issue would be right out of the Apple playbook. It also gives Apple a strong incentive not to screw up the new thing.

If the replacement turns out to just be wired lightning headphones or standard Bluetooth, then I will be very disappointed. That would be a huge blunder, in my opinion.

Objectively and measurably untrue. How does the single port MacBook improve the experience for people? Or the mouse that charges upside down? Or the pencil sticking out of the ipad's anus?

Your first example - the single-port MacBook - might have merit.

The other two do not. In fact I have one of those mice and the whole 'charge upside-down' aspect is a non-problem because it charges very quickly and the charge lasts a long, long time. I can't remember the last time I charged mine. Wasn't recently.

And the Stylus charge is actually very good, based on what I've heard from people that actually have one.

Perhaps. But for a company that values appearance so highly, the pencil in the iPad and the upside down mouse look ridiculous. If Microsoft or Logitech had done it, there would be no end to the public ridicule. But Apple can do no wrong, even when they do. And they do, frequently.