Here's What a Headphone Jack to Lightning Adapter Looks Like

[CJM]

I'm all for it if the replacement is an improvement. Bundling an adapter with the regular earbuds would be a farce. (Unless the point of bundling the adapter is really so people can use their own existing cans)

I know Apple has made some tough decisions in the past, when they've been the right choice, but expecting users to buy Lightning headphones would be utterly daft. If a wireless standard is the replacement, then fair enough.

 

[friedmud]

Same here. I find it extremely shortsighted from Apple to remove the jack. In matter of fact, Apple products have very good quality internal DAC's. Removing the jack makes no sense what so ever. I have heard the waterproof argument. However, if Samsung and Sony can make waterproof phone with 3.5mm jack then Apple should be able to do the same.

In what way could it be "short-sight"? I could entertain too "long-sighted"... i.e. making a change before it's time to make that change.

It's actually YOU (And many others) that are shortsighted. The 3.5mm jack WILL NOT survive forever. It will eventually be retired just like every other port that's ever been on a computing decice. "When" that should happen is up for debate... but the plug will be pulled at some point in the future (see what I did there? ;-)

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I believe it'll still have to go through a DAC; we hear in analog, not digital. Or are you saying the Lightning plug contains a DAC?

It does. Our ears only hear analog. What this does is shifts the Digital-to-Analog conversion a few millimeters down the pipe.

Some of us are either confused or just being sly to try to make this seem like another case of digital > analog. If one is trying to pump music over many meters, preserving a digital signal over those meters may actually matter. Here, the difference is millimeters... but "we're" trying to spin it anyway... or are just confused about how our ears work... or some of us are androids and can actually "hear" digital.

 

[KPandian1]

Same here. I am totally looking forward to ditching this primitive port.

You can ditch the port even now - don't use it!

Let the others who want it continue to use the headphones they have now!

If you want to water-proof the phone stick a rubber plug into it - just like the current bulky waterproof cases.

 

[friedmud]

When every phone in existence has the jack removed then there will be wireless standard capable of delivering reliable and good quality audio (current BT revision is not there yet). Until there is such wireless standard Apple should keep the jack. Regarding Sony, some of them have rubber stoppers and some of them don't. Regarding Samsung S7, no flaps and still waterproof.

Apple always removes ports before the rest of the industry... by doing so they drive innovation in whatever the "new" standard is. See floppy->cdrom and ethernet->wifi (in laptops).

Bluetooth is very good right now... it will get even better once it receives a lot more attention and marketshare due to removal of this port.

 

[SvP]

4... You will be an idiot to buy it.

Straight. I'm a number 4, who happened to have his headphone-port closed with a dust protective thingy because the bluetooth headphones are portable, easy, smarter, and just.. not annoying. Personally, i don't really care if they take it away, but as a dust collecting hole the entire thing it's not going to be missed.

PS: it's ironic that people who talk about other people's lower intelligence are, in fact, the people who fail to understand the true motives that drive the sales of Apple.

Not one single person is going to look at an apple user, with wireless headphones listening to music and think "haha, how dumb, he's not even having a wire dangling to his iphone"

 

[Soccertess]

As long as Apple introduces earbuds that are bluetooth 5.0, all these whiners will look silly.

If they introduced wireless charging and those ear buds also charged wirelessly, than Apple would have won the war against 3.5MM.

However, this isn't Apple, It's Tim Cook. So we will probably get Ear buds with Lightning that only play Apple approved music, and only charge to Apple produced electricity.

 

[jblagden]

Or, y'know, something simple and discrete like Apple will actually do?

View attachment 637582

That would actually be somewhat tolerable, albeit a little annoying.

 

[Jimmy James]

All it means is that I need to buy and use an extra adapters to listen to my better wired headphones. And for my wife. And possibly an extra adapter with pass through charging (we could share one). And I'll need to buy adapters for the line out in both of our cars (cheaper than buying a new head unit) so we have a permanent solution there. 5 adapters.

 

[SvP]

I will only accept this if the lightening connector plays back lossless quality sound with lossless quality headphones from Apple.

Bad news; won't happen.

On a different note: i think it's a missed opportunity for headphone makers they never made a headset with a built in music storage: it's not a huge computing effort and storage is tiny, it would eliminate wires, no connectivity problems..etc...

 

[CarlJ]

Sorry for being so negative but common guys, really?!

Who are these "common guys" of which you speak and what do they have to do with headphones or Lightning connectors?

 

[jblagden]

While I'm not against removing the headphone, Apple should have moved the iPhone to USB-C (as those headphones would eventually be usable between different devices (new Macs or non-Apple devices). Lighting headphone are DOA except for those extremely loyal to Apple.

Yeah, especially since Macs will never have a Lightning port. You’d end up needing at least two pairs of headphones - one for iOS devices and other pair for Macs, older iOS devices and non-Apple devices.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

In what way could it be "short-sight"? I could entertain too "long-sighted"... i.e. making a change before it's time to make that change.

It's actually YOU (And many others) that are shortsighted. The 3.5mm jack WILL NOT survive forever. It will eventually be retired just like every other port that's ever been on a computing decice. "When" that should happen is up for debate... but the plug will be pulled at some point in the future (see what I did there? ;-)

I'd be willing to bet just about anything that Lightning will be "retired" by Apple long before 3.5mm is retired everywhere it is used. Again, tip up your iDevice right now and look at the current state of "thinner" vs. the thickness of Lightning. How long until Apple is rolling out the "thinner" Lightning 2?

And I don't think people are absolutely married to 3.5mm. I think the choice of replacement is driving some of the angst. 3.5mm is thoroughly ubiquitous, "just works", and has no proprietary licensing of consequence. I'm pretty vocal against ejecting it here but I could personally swallow this kind of change much easier if Apple was adopting USB3 in place of Lightning. Yes, that would still involve adapters but at least it would be a mainstream, non-proprietary move that would be the most likely replacement to have a chance at becoming as ubiquitous as 3.5mm. As is, Lightning has virtually no chance of ever becoming as ubiquitous as 3.5mm or as USB3 will be. Lightning (1) pretty much means adapters for the life of the next iDevices unless a person can get every bit of their audio consumption out of only that iDevice(s). As soon as one wants to plug into anything else, they better have an adapter or another set of headphones.

 

[prowlmedia]

Same here. I find it extremely shortsighted from Apple to remove the jack. In matter of fact, Apple products have very good quality internal DAC's. Removing the jack makes no sense what so ever. I have heard the waterproof argument. However, if Samsung and Sony can make waterproof phone with 3.5mm jack then Apple should be able to do the same.

Except it's technically huge and as a simple 2 wire port and a massive waste of space. What people need to do is actually do make a better open connector that's not 52 years old.

It is a shame that USB-C wasn't around when they made the Lightning switch. Especially as Apple had s lot to do with the USB-C design and definitely a better overall design.

I wouldn't want to go back to the weird proprietory Nokia or sony mobile headphones connectors I used to have but to be fair I only use Bluetooth headphones for mobile use so guess I am in the who gives a crap camp.

 

[friedmud]

All it means is that I need to buy and use an extra adapters to listen to my better wired headphones. And for my wife. And possibly an extra adapter with pass through charging (we could share one). And I'll need to buy adapters for the line out in both of our cars (cheaper than buying a new head unit) so we have a permanent solution there. 5 adapters.

For your car: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=car+bluetooth

Your wife won't complain when you upgrade her to bluetooth headphones/earbuds because she won't have to deal with wires anymore.

You'll need an adaptor.

1 Adapter

 

[ferrous]

IMHO a stupid move.
It's a phone, music device, convenience is a key for me. If I have to buy another adapter or switch all my headphones to use a new phone, I may as well give Samsung s7 edge a good look. It's waterproof, too.

 

[anova]

"The Verge's Nilay Patel has called the move 'user-hostile and stupid', while Steve Streza...said the decision is good for Apple but bad for the consumer."

Whiners. People said the same thing when Apple switched from the 30-pin connector to Lightning. Does anyone still regret that move? I know I don't.

well if you knew anything about audio you would know that wired is STILL much better than a wireless connection in terms of sound quality/audio loss. What about the extra costs/care of needing to charge headphones? What about the hundreds of $$ that the average consumer spent on high end headphones that are now made useless? Foolish move by apple to make something already too thin even thinner simply so they can CLAIM to be innovating. Ya, who cares about user experience and battery life. Hey Apple, we're all laughing at you!!!

 

[oplix]

Apple is probably hedging on entering the bluetooth headset market. That's realistically the only way this make sense. Their long term marketing strategy of reducing the thickness marginally every year is at this point irrelevant. The phone without a case is almost thin enough to be uncomfortable to hold. I suppose it's either that or they know they have an iron grip on the female demographics which would make the thinning strategy viable.

 

[Nuvi]

Apple always removes ports before the rest of the industry... by doing so they drive innovation in whatever the "new" standard is. See floppy->cdrom and ethernet->wifi (in laptops).

Bluetooth is very good right now... it will get even better once it receives a lot more attention and marketshare due to removal of this port.

You practically answered your own question here. Apple removed floppy because you could either use the email, USB stick or CD-ROM to transfer the data. Ethernet port was removed when WiFi was on par with gigabit Ethernet and almost everyone used only WiFi. However, there is no better or equally good replacement for 3.5mm jack available. Regarding BT, it's pure **** if you want high quality audio. When BT standard gets there then it's time to remove the jack.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Apple always removes ports before the rest of the industry... by doing so they drive innovation in whatever the "new" standard is. See floppy->cdrom and ethernet->wifi (in laptops)..

What is the fundamental difference between cdrom, ethernet, wifi and Lightning? Those other changes had THAT fundamental working for them even BEFORE Apple decided to lead the charge of change.

 

[EricTheHalfBee]

I hope Apple does this. Not just because I want better headphones with built-in DAC/AMP/DSP, but just to see the simulated outrage that will occur by a bunch of whiners that do not represent the actual population who buys iPhones in the first place. And then watch them wonder how come the next iPhone didn't fail because it's missing a "dealbreaker headphone jack".

BTW, $70 is too much. Audeze charges $50 for their Cipher Lightning cable for their Sine headphones, which not only includes the DAC and AMP, but also a programmable DSP which lets you tailor the EQ settings. The cable even allows firmware upgrades. And this is from a high-end company. Wait until mainstream companies start making adaptors and watch the prices fall.

 

[clarencet]

Poor decision on Apple's part. Perhaps not for the majority of users, but this certainly alienates users such as myself who care deeply about audio. This to me does not improve audio quality, but rather degrade it for those who already have a good (expensive) setup. Furthermore, I have no intention of using (or purchasing) more useless extraneous adapters just because Apple decided so.

As it has been stated before, there are many of us who have already invested $1000's in headphones and external DACs. Forcing me to use an inferior headphone with a cheap built-in DAC would simply be a deal breaker. Wireless audio quality (for music) has been, and still is, unacceptably poor compared to a wire connection.

I have already switched away from the iPhone for other reasons and this move ensures that I will not be coming back.

 

[anova]

Stop crying everyone. The future is zero cables. Wirelessly charging and wirelessly syncing (if you still sync from your computer LOL). The iPhone 8 might not have a cable port for all we know and I'm totally excited!

so how to you charge and use your phone if its restricted to being wireless charged on a flat surface?

 

[sofila]

Or, y'know, something simple and discrete like Apple will actually do?

View attachment 637582

people will need the other way around, my 2 cents

 

[friedmud]

If you sprnt hundreds and truly care that much about sound quality then you won't mind an adapter.

The other 99.999% of the world that uses crappy earbuds anyway won't care... they will just carry on with the bluetooth earbuds Apple provides in the box with the new iPhone.

All of you guys screaming "Quality!" have to remember what an incredible minority you represent. There are hundreds of millions of iPhone users... and only a fraction of a percent of those have "quality" wired headphones. You are simply not a large enough set of customers to worry about when making long term design decisions...