alright, how many headphone jacks have you guys cut already?

[ErnestS]

Feedback / interference?

So I chopped off part of my car cable (connects iPod to an aux port on the front), and it seems to work alright ... except that I'm getting a lot of feedback on my car stereo.

Has anyone else experienced this? I know that when you connect the iPhone to an old iPod accessory, it prompts the user to enter airplane mode. However, I was wondering if this is more of an issue with the iPhone or the actually altered cable that I'm using. Also, are the new iPhone audio cables supposed to have more shielding?

 

[boss1]

You nailed the million dollar question friend. At least that's my suspicion anyway.

QWhy did Apple make the headphone jack so slim?

ANot necessarily that other headphones don't sound better or work better.
Partly because they want you to use their headphones, However you get mixed results when you try to use that line as audio out to non headphone speakers.

Not only is there the potential to get a ton of uncontrollable feedback depending on the users speaker set up, but when you get a phone call the speakers voice goes to whatever speaker set up you have

EX: From my short experiences trying this with different speaker set ups the callers voice can be extremely low at times. So I turn it up a notch or 2 or 10, and when the call hangs up? prepare for your ear drums to get blown away because iPhone resumes iPod play after you have the volume cranked +70db more than before the call came in.


You notice theres a very simple audio out jack (3.5mm) on the white dock that came with the iPhone? When using that audio out the callers voice doesn't go through the 3.5mm port. it goes through the iPhone speaker or the Apple headset connected to the top of the device.

Strange I thought. Why go through the trouble of disabling audio out through the PIN connector rendering most accessories that work with iPod useless other than charging and including an audio out port on the dock that came with the iPhone?. uncontrollable feedback and incoming call volume.

Thats my guess anway.

So I chopped off part of my car cable (connects iPod to an aux port on the front), and it seems to work alright ... except that I'm getting a lot of feedback on my car stereo.

Has anyone else experienced this? I know that when you connect the iPhone to an old iPod accessory, it prompts the user to enter airplane mode. However, I was wondering if this is more of an issue with the iPhone or the actually altered cable that I'm using. Also, are the new iPhone audio cables supposed to have more shielding?

 

[boss1]

to the Original topic:

I've shaved 3 headphone jacks so far. The razor blade is about $20 cheaper than the adapter

 

[janey]

http://www.v-moda.com/collection/modaphones/vibe duo.aspx would be one of the first iPhone-specific headphones out now. At apple stores too, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Avatar74]

Honestly I think it's because of the design. They didn't want to break up the silhouette of the iPhone so they recessed it.

Actually I think its purpose is twofold...

There's the aesthetics, you're right on about that... Apple is very particular about industrial design and a surface-mounted port would look awful.

There's also damage protection... I was thinking about this the other day, and it occurred to me, as it probably has occurred to a number of people by now, the shoulders around the jack keep the plastic sheath firmly in place.

One of the biggest complaints I have about the older non-magsafe power adapters is that yanking the cord will invariably loosen and eventually break the $80 power cable right at the point where the plastic shielding ends and the metal shielding begins.

This would be the same case if you snagged your earphone on a surface-mounted jack... it could end up breaking the metal tip off, which would get stuck in the phone, and then you're screwed out of $30 for the headphones and god knows what for a repair to disassemble the entire phone to get the metal out... because if you've ever seen headphone jacks they're generally soldered to the board and you have to remove plenty of internal components in a case as tightly packed as the iPhone (or the MacBook for that matter) just to get at it.

I nearly lost the tip of my power cable (the jack of which is also soldered to the motherboard) and they managed to get it out in the store, but if the Mac Geniuses couldn't have, it would have been around $200 labor.

I imagine with the iPhone being less "friendly" to disassemble (lacking any visible screws, etc. on the outside casing) the labor to fix such a disaster would be just as bad... if not worse, depending on whether or not it damages the internal jack... and that doesn't begin to compensate you for time and productivity lost if you have to be sans iPhone for a couple weeks due to a friggin broken stereo miniplug.

So, IMO, Apple was actually pretty damned smart to design it this way.

The inconvenience of getting an extender/adapter is far less than the inconvenience of xbreaking your brand spanking new iPhone.

 

[zap2]

None!

 

[Bunsen]

I've shaved down the plug of my old Bose Quiet Comfort headphones (I always use them on the plane) and the plug on a cheap y-adaptor that I can use to adapt everything else.

Posted from my iPhone