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

[jblagden]

So there's a noticeable difference between SATA and NVMe, you just don't feel it's very important.



I don't like the soldering either. The iMac did have instructions, maybe the mac mini too.. but i don't think they considered it replaceable by the user in mbp etc.


The rest of you should just buy an adaptor. I don't have to suffer for you demands. Sarcasm aside: the majority (probably) woudln't mind, if they can use the headphones included. Speculation on my side; i'd guess apple has better usage data.


I know, i own a pair. I don't see you r point, but for me, if the music sounds good, it's good. If i want more perfection in reproduction, i need more than headphones. Well built speakers, a room with a good sound profile, etc.. A phone is not an audiophile's best source.


I knowl; they do. But they're annoying too. They have a wire, you have to be careful.. obvious things. And you still get to use them, with an adapter. Audioplug's bigger version needs that too, so it's not that far fetched (esp for an audio connoisseur, they use those already)


That's just irrational. Your usage of aa phone to play music is contradicting your fear too.

3. Apple doesn’t have to eliminate the headphone jack for you to use Bluetooth or the Lightning port for headphones. If you want to use one of those two connections for phones, go ahead - but don’t make the rest of us suffer. If Apple just leaves headphone jack, those of us who want to use it can, and those who don’t want to use it can just use Lighting headphones or Bluetooth headphones - then everybody’s happy. Why should I have to buy an adaptor to use something that was taken away for no good reason - because some people think that the 3.5mm jack has to be taken away just so you can use Lighting or wireless headphones?



5. I know what you mean about the wire getting in the way. I have three pairs of wired headphones and two pairs of Bluetooth headphones. If I’m going to be moving around a lot, I’ll either use my Bluetooth headphones, or I’ll have the wire go under my shirt. But if I’m going to be sitting down in a car or at my desk, I’ll use my wired headphones.



6. I only have the phone up to my head during a phone call. Otherwise, it’s at least a couple away from my head. I’m just trying to avoid brain tumors.

 

[SvP]

3. Apple doesn’t have to eliminate the headphone jack for you to use Bluetooth or the Lightning port for headphones. If you want to use one of those two connections for phones, go ahead - but don’t make the rest of us suffer. If Apple just leaves headphone jack, those of us who want to use it can, and those who don’t want to use it can just use Lighting headphones or Bluetooth headphones - then everybody’s happy. Why should I have to buy an adaptor to use something that was taken away for no good reason - because some people think that the 3.5mm jack has to be taken away just so you can use Lighting or wireless headphones?



5. I know what you mean about the wire getting in the way. I have three pairs of wired headphones and two pairs of Bluetooth headphones. If I’m going to be moving around a lot, I’ll either use my Bluetooth headphones, or I’ll have the wire go under my shirt. But if I’m going to be sitting down in a car or at my desk, I’ll use my wired headphones.



6. I only have the phone up to my head during a phone call. Otherwise, it’s at least a couple away from my head. I’m just trying to avoid brain tumors.

3: good point but you're forgetting; you get the adapter... You lose nothing substantial. 6: im sorry, but it's an irrational fear. Of course it's your right to want or not want something, but as a fact supporting an argument it's useless.

So, I guess we're down to preference. I wouldnt hate it if they didn't lose the port, I'm just principally opposed to keep things because of loss aversion or other emotional things (not saying.thats what you heave, just something that drives me) We'll see what happens.

 

[Freida]

Put 3.5 mm jack next to lighting cable and you should immediately see what is wrong with it. In fact, I feel that even lighting can be improved. 3.5mm is OLD OLD technology. Lets clear it out and move on. Sure, some audiophiles will be using it and so will some professionals but progress is progress. Some people are still using DVDs or VGA screens and its ok for them but that doesn't mean that we will say "ok, 3.5mm is fine so lets not try to improve it". Everything can be improved - its this mentality that keeps us moving forward rather than stay still.
Can you imagine what would happen if the desire to improve wasn't there?

 

[05barbs]

Removing the headphone jack is fine as long as there is a wireless earbud option coming as well. If not, **** you Apple.

Also, they better be replacing that space with another speaker.

I would agree but add an additional requirement. That they provide (in the box) a small adapter for lightning to headphone jack that is two small plastic components joined by a wire and extra adapters are available for a small fee ($10 region). Furthermore I would recommend headphone producers offer a removable headphone jack which can be swapped for a lightning version (if the cable is removable).

 

[jblagden]

3: good point but you're forgetting; you get the adapter... You lose nothing substantial. 6: im sorry, but it's an irrational fear. Of course it's your right to want or not want something, but as a fact supporting an argument it's useless.

So, I guess we're down to preference. I wouldnt hate it if they didn't lose the port, I'm just principally opposed to keep things because of loss aversion or other emotional things (not saying.thats what you heave, just something that drives me) We'll see what happens.

But I don't want an adapter! I want the built-in headphone jack that I've always had. You don't have to remove the headphone jack just to use Bluetooth or Lightning headphones.

If you just want to get rid of the 3.5mm jack for better waterproofing, use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Du...467051662&sr=8-1&keywords=headphone+jack+plug

 

[diamond.g]

Too bad Apple isn't going to support aptX.

 

[ENduro]

Put 3.5 mm jack next to lighting cable and you should immediately see what is wrong with it. In fact, I feel that even lighting can be improved. 3.5mm is OLD OLD technology. Lets clear it out and move on. Sure, some audiophiles will be using it and so will some professionals but progress is progress. Some people are still using DVDs or VGA screens and its ok for them but that doesn't mean that we will say "ok, 3.5mm is fine so lets not try to improve it". Everything can be improved - its this mentality that keeps us moving forward rather than stay still.
Can you imagine what would happen if the desire to improve wasn't there?

Okay, so let's breakdown your statement. You think the lightning cable can be improved yet are trumpeting that it should be the only connection on the phone. You say 3.5mm is "OLD OLD" tech yet admit that audiophiles will still be using it as will some professionals but "progress is progress." How is an inferior solution progress? You're admitting that this is audiophile quality and used by professionals but just want it removed because it is "OLD OLD?" DVD and VGA are also bad examples. DVDs and VGA have been usurped by a better tech that does the same thing. 3.5mm may be old but it still learning new tricks - controls, Square readers, IR blasters and most of all it is a standard and 99% of homes have a pair of headphones that will work, right away without having to charge or install drivers right away, out of the box. Adapters suck.

Sorry to pick on your comment but I've yet to see a compelling argument for this omission isn't written from the perspective of an iSycophant. They already tried this by having the original iPod use Firewire instead of USB. How is Thunderbolt doing? A user hostile money grab is exactly what this is. They are taking advantage of loyal customers just to drive Beats sales and jack up the price of iPhones with a cheap adapter.

 

[Larry-K]

Everything can be improved - its this mentality that keeps us moving forward rather than stay still.

Everything CAN be improved, but it's rare that Anything actually is.

 

[d00d]

Yet.

So, the transition to lightning will be good for people primarily using Apple products, but only if they're continually upgrading? This is also known as not good for most people, even a majority of people that primarily use Apple products. Based on your interaction with fpnc, I'm pretty the best outcome of any discussion with you is "agreeing to disagree", so whatever, your arguments don't have to make sense for you to keep believing in them.

 

[zhenya]

Put 3.5 mm jack next to lighting cable and you should immediately see what is wrong with it. In fact, I feel that even lighting can be improved. 3.5mm is OLD OLD technology. Lets clear it out and move on. Sure, some audiophiles will be using it and so will some professionals but progress is progress. Some people are still using DVDs or VGA screens and its ok for them but that doesn't mean that we will say "ok, 3.5mm is fine so lets not try to improve it". Everything can be improved - its this mentality that keeps us moving forward rather than stay still.
Can you imagine what would happen if the desire to improve wasn't there?

Do you understand the implications of this or what the 3.5mm jack actually does? The 3.5mm jack is really just a user-removable connection for a piece of wire. So when you say progress is progress you really mean that wire is OLD OLD technology. Now there is a reasonable claim that we should be moving to wireless headphones, but there are also strong arguments against that. First, wireless headphones have been around for many, many years, and not really taken over in any meaningful way. The reasons for this are wide - but they range from the fact that wireless headphones aren't really wireless, as they still need to be charged (and frequently at that). Sound quality is lower. Interference is a problem (somewhere as close as your back pocket can cause dropouts). Cost of components, as now your simple cheap headphones now also need to include a battery, Bluetooth chip, amplifier and DAC all for that same $25. Quality isn't going to get better when that happens.

The reality is that wired headphones have been so successful because they are incredibly reliable and totally ubiquitous. This is nothing at all like the change away from VGA or DVD where there were real, concrete advantages to moving to the new technology.

 

[bobob]

Just to take a little break from the name calling and doomsaying, here's a short article analyzing the options that Apple has if they decide to go ahead with this change.

"If Apple removes the headphone jack from the next iPhone, we’re going to need some new headphones. Let’s explore the possible options Apple has for pairing and charging to see if we can come up with the best strategy before Apple tells it to us.

Wired
It is possible the new headphones will be wired and will plug into the Lightning port on your iPhone. This will work great for your phone, but ideally you would still be able to plug into your Mac.

I don’t know the technical aspects of how thick the wire between the earpieces and the iPhone would need to be, but if it were as thick as the standard USB-Lightning charging cable, that would be pretty obnoxious. On the plus side, it would not tangle easily.

Option 1
The iPhone 7 box contains the iPhone, the USB-Lightning charger, and the headphones. The headphones can only be plugged into your iPhone. Nothing else.

Perhaps Apple has data that shows the current EarPods are plugged into a Mac for 2% of all EarPods usage, and Apple is ok with those people carrying around an old pair of EarPods to listen to their Mac.

Plausibility: High.

Option 2
Apple provides a female-female Lightning adapter (same one that is shipped with the Pencil) with the headphones. This allows you to listen to your Mac by plugging the headphones into the adapter, and the standard USB-Lightning cable between your Mac and the adapter. Apple has already shown it is willing to ship an adapter just like this, but there will be much complaining about how easy it is to lose. This also assumes you’ll have a USB-Lightning cable on you when you want to listen to your Mac, but that seems like a reasonable assumption on Apple’s part.

Plausibility: Medium.

Option 3
Apple does not give us an adapter, but the next generation of Macs will have a female Lightning port. Certainly possible, but I don’t see this happening. Unless a female Lightning port on the Mac has some other use, it’s hard to see it getting added.

Plausibility: Low.

Wireless
The biggest challenge here is being able to quickly pair the headphones with the device you want to use. Gruber makes some good points thinking through the Pencil pairing and charging strategy.

Option 1
Headphones have a male Lightning plug. Charging and pairing to your phone are a snap with this option. Charging via anything else is going to require the female-female adapter mentioned in the Wired Option 2. Pairing will require that same adapter or the old-fashioned method of going through System Preferences. This option seems the most likely to me. Apple should prioritize the ease of connecting/charging to an iPhone more than any other device.

Plausibility: High.

Option 2
Headphones have a female Lightning port. This is the best option for easy charging. Plug them into the wall or a Mac with the USB-Lightning cable everyone already has. Apple could then provide a male-male Lightning cable to support charging via an iPhone. If that cable is long enough to reach from your pocket to your head, listening while charging is now possible. Pairing works by plugging them into whichever device you want to listen to.

Plausibility: Medium.

Option 3
Headphones include both a female and male connection. This solves the charging and pairing problems with no additional adapters or cables, but it’s so inelegant. I don’t see it happening.

@joshuamarino envisioned a unique approach:

@gruber @jsnell like so. pic.twitter.com/sinbtdUie3

But that introduces a new problem. If each side acts independently, and either the male or female side can be used to charge and pair, one now has to charge/pair both halves.

I may be mistaking @joshuamarino’s intent here and he’s only try to show off a way to get a male Lightning plug into the headphones. If that’s the case, this is more reasonable.

Plausibility: Low.

Option 4
Charging base. This would provide inductive charging for the headphones like the Watch. As long as the headphones are resting on the base, they are charging. The base itself would probably feature a female port like the Magic Mouse.

This option makes pairing the most difficult. Do the headphones pair with whichever device the base is plugged into? I doubt it. If someone has a base, it will often be in the same place on their desk, plugged into their Mac to provide a consistent charging location. This means pairing is done manually via System Preferences.

If the base does provide pairing to whichever device it is plugged into, it will either need a male Lightning plug, or a male-male cable to enable pairing with your iPhone.

Plausibility: Low.

The Answer
I’ll tell you in September! I’d love to see wireless headphones from Apple and Option 1 looks to be the most likely. I love my Jaybird X bluetooth headphones, but I’ve stopped trying to pair them to my laptop because un-pairing and re-pairing is such a pain. If Apple can make pairing as simple as the Pencil, I’ll be very happy, and I promise not to lose whatever adapter I’ll need to make it happen."​

 

[zhenya]

Just to take a little break from the name calling and doomsaying, here's a short article analyzing the options that Apple has if they decide to go ahead with this change.

"If Apple removes the headphone jack from the next iPhone, we’re going to need some new headphones. Let’s explore the possible options Apple has for pairing and charging to see if we can come up with the best strategy before Apple tells it to us.

Wired
It is possible the new headphones will be wired and will plug into the Lightning port on your iPhone. This will work great for your phone, but ideally you would still be able to plug into your Mac.

I don’t know the technical aspects of how thick the wire between the earpieces and the iPhone would need to be, but if it were as thick as the standard USB-Lightning charging cable, that would be pretty obnoxious. On the plus side, it would not tangle easily.

Option 1
The iPhone 7 box contains the iPhone, the USB-Lightning charger, and the headphones. The headphones can only be plugged into your iPhone. Nothing else.

Perhaps Apple has data that shows the current EarPods are plugged into a Mac for 2% of all EarPods usage, and Apple is ok with those people carrying around an old pair of EarPods to listen to their Mac.

Plausibility: High.

Option 2
Apple provides a female-female Lightning adapter (same one that is shipped with the Pencil) with the headphones. This allows you to listen to your Mac by plugging the headphones into the adapter, and the standard USB-Lightning cable between your Mac and the adapter. Apple has already shown it is willing to ship an adapter just like this, but there will be much complaining about how easy it is to lose. This also assumes you’ll have a USB-Lightning cable on you when you want to listen to your Mac, but that seems like a reasonable assumption on Apple’s part.

Plausibility: Medium.

Option 3
Apple does not give us an adapter, but the next generation of Macs will have a female Lightning port. Certainly possible, but I don’t see this happening. Unless a female Lightning port on the Mac has some other use, it’s hard to see it getting added.

Plausibility: Low.

Wireless
The biggest challenge here is being able to quickly pair the headphones with the device you want to use. Gruber makes some good points thinking through the Pencil pairing and charging strategy.

Option 1
Headphones have a male Lightning plug. Charging and pairing to your phone are a snap with this option. Charging via anything else is going to require the female-female adapter mentioned in the Wired Option 2. Pairing will require that same adapter or the old-fashioned method of going through System Preferences. This option seems the most likely to me. Apple should prioritize the ease of connecting/charging to an iPhone more than any other device.

Plausibility: High.

Option 2
Headphones have a female Lightning port. This is the best option for easy charging. Plug them into the wall or a Mac with the USB-Lightning cable everyone already has. Apple could then provide a male-male Lightning cable to support charging via an iPhone. If that cable is long enough to reach from your pocket to your head, listening while charging is now possible. Pairing works by plugging them into whichever device you want to listen to.

Plausibility: Medium.

Option 3
Headphones include both a female and male connection. This solves the charging and pairing problems with no additional adapters or cables, but it’s so inelegant. I don’t see it happening.

@joshuamarino envisioned a unique approach:

@gruber @jsnell like so. pic.twitter.com/sinbtdUie3

But that introduces a new problem. If each side acts independently, and either the male or female side can be used to charge and pair, one now has to charge/pair both halves.

I may be mistaking @joshuamarino’s intent here and he’s only try to show off a way to get a male Lightning plug into the headphones. If that’s the case, this is more reasonable.

Plausibility: Low.

Option 4
Charging base. This would provide inductive charging for the headphones like the Watch. As long as the headphones are resting on the base, they are charging. The base itself would probably feature a female port like the Magic Mouse.

This option makes pairing the most difficult. Do the headphones pair with whichever device the base is plugged into? I doubt it. If someone has a base, it will often be in the same place on their desk, plugged into their Mac to provide a consistent charging location. This means pairing is done manually via System Preferences.

If the base does provide pairing to whichever device it is plugged into, it will either need a male Lightning plug, or a male-male cable to enable pairing with your iPhone.

Plausibility: Low.

The Answer
I’ll tell you in September! I’d love to see wireless headphones from Apple and Option 1 looks to be the most likely. I love my Jaybird X bluetooth headphones, but I’ve stopped trying to pair them to my laptop because un-pairing and re-pairing is such a pain. If Apple can make pairing as simple as the Pencil, I’ll be very happy, and I promise not to lose whatever adapter I’ll need to make it happen."​

Option 5
Wireless headphones with a female USB-c port. Cable in the box is USB-c to lightning which is used for charging the phone or the headphones. The headphones can also be plugged into the phone this way, which pairs them, charges them, and allows for wired listening. If you want to listen on your Mac, you use the USB-c to USB-C cable that your new Mac charges with. This also pairs the headphones to your Mac and allows for wireless listening.

The above is the only plausible scenario I can come up with that keeps the relative simplicity of use that Apple is known for, and allows for the headphones to be easily used with a Mac. I don't believe for a second new Macs will have a lightning port.

I am not, however, completely convinced that the current Apple won't choose the much stupider option 2 from above and just provide that tiny female to female lightning adapter.

 

[oldmacs]

you get the adapter... You lose nothing substantial

No we lose convenience. No more just plugging my headphones in - having to have an adaptor just to use an industry standard connector. Thats an adaptor you have to take on and off when using different devices, thats an extra expense for an adaptor, an extra bulky inconvenience, an extra thing to break and a bad environmental effect.

 

[bobob]

No we loose convenience.

Yes it's true - - Apple is attempting to loose convenience upon the world.

 

[oldmacs]

Yes it's true - - Apple is attempting to loose convenience upon the world.

Oops - I'm tired...

 

[maxsix]

Apple is not the leader of the wireless world. Just think about wireless charging.

Very true.

Apple has always been a follower in wireless. They kept the iPhone tethered via wire to the computer via iTunes, long after Android phones were wireless.

It's as though they fear being wireless.

 

[Mac 128]

Just to take a little break from the name calling and doomsaying,here's a short article analyzing the options that Apple has if theydecide to go ahead with this change.

I agree Option 1 is the most likely scenario.

But these options are not mutually exclusive:

OPTION 3 -- while I believe we'll get Lightning earbuds in the box, I also believe the Mac will get a Lightning port.

Not only will it allow native compatibility with the included earbuds with Apples most successful product, but it also adds charging using the same cable for the iPhone, as well as USB 3 data transfer speeds, including immediate compatibility with Lightning adapters and accessories -- all of which leaves the USB-C ports free. The rMB is the perfect example. They could put another USB-C port in place of the 3.5mm Jack, but then any of the 500 million + iPhone users that want to use their Lightning headphones on their new Mac, will have to buy an adapter just to listen to music. Apple has already marketed the rMB as only needing one port, and doubled down on it with the 2nd gen model. Adding a Lightning port which serves as the defacto headphone jack, preserves that perception while making the rMB much more versatile, and adding significant convenience Apple customers expect between their devices. IOS & macOS are converging, so why not the hardware? Add to that Apple has always included their own proprietary ports on Macs, whether they were in widespread adoption or not, so why not add a Lightning port? For those who don't use it, it won't be any bigger a distraction than the unused Thunderbolt port on many customers MacBooks. But for those who do, it will be incredibly useful.

Wireless:

All digital headphones will have removable cables going forward. That way, if they contain a battery they can still be used as analogue headphones if they run out of juice, and with a simple cable swap they can move from 3.5mm, to USB-C, to Lightning, to wireless, or whatever else comes in the future ...

As for the kind of port, I could see Apple following a Beats model which has a pass through port so your friends can hook up and listen to whatever you're listening to. So for larger headphones, I can see a USB-C and a Lightning port both. That way, you can plug in with whatever cable you might have, but in using the USB-C to Lightning cable, that plugs into your Mac, a buddy can come along and plug into the Lightning port on your headphones and share your music. Also, on the iPhone, it would enable you to plug in a charger to charge your phone and headphones in pass through while you listen.

And while the Lightning pairing method is virtually assured, it's going to have to be a lot easier than that. I'm hoping Apple is going to fix this once and for all. Pairing should support multiple pairings at once, so you and your friends can all listen at the touch of a button (which would go a long way toward pushing kids toward wireless), and establish reliable connections every time. In other words, they have to make it as simple as plugging in your headphones is now. And of course wireless is going to have to have better, more reliable audio -- something I'm hopeful BT 5 will bring. It's no small coincidence that Apple joined the BT SIG board a couple of years ago. Not only do they bring their input, but also get a jump on implementing the technology.

 

[typeadam]

Wireless is great and all but some of us, sometimes like to watch videos on our devices. And other than using a full-featured app like VLC on a Mac or Windows machine, there's always an AV sync issue...

 

[InuNacho]

Why can't Apple just remove the home button? I'm sure removing an ancient analog part like that can easily free up some space for a bigger battery. Pressing a physical button is so 20th century.

 

[bobob]

Pressing a physical button is so 20th century.

Got the push button blues?

 

[imajica]

A couple of things...

- How would one charge the phone AND use wired headphones at the same time?

- Bluetooth earphones are pricey and just means one more thing that needs to get charged on a regular basis. I cannot use in ear buds, so i need to use the ones that rest just on the inside of the ears.

- Having to pay $20-30 for an adapter so I can use my cheap $10 earbuds seems silly. Not to mention the chances of losing the adapter is relatively high.

 

[Mac 128]

A couple of things...

- How would one charge the phone AND use wired headphones at the same time?

- Bluetooth earphones are pricey and just means one more thing that needs to get charged on a regular basis. I cannot use in ear buds, so i need to use the ones that rest just on the inside of the ears.

- Having to pay $20-30 for an adapter so I can use my cheap $10 earbuds seems silly. Not to mention the chances of losing the adapter is relatively high.

Congratulations on posting 3 of the most common and ridiculous internet memes circulating against the removal of the jack. THere's 21 pages of posts here, and I'd be surprised if all three of these complaints aren't mentioned at least once on each page.

 

[SvP]

Wireless is great and all but some of us, sometimes like to watch videos on our devices. And other than using a full-featured app like VLC on a Mac or Windows machine, there's always an AV sync issue...

This was solved in 2010 or so.. seriously: using BT since 2013 exclusively and never had this problem.

I don't even connect my laptop speakers with a wire, and i'm watching movies on it all the time

 

[MichaelThwaite]

Can you be more specific about the perceived audio quality difference. The DAC in the iPhone 6 appears to be near perfect - volume level isn't an indicator of quality, just power.

Looking at the measurements here, and listening myself, the iPhone6 appears to be beyond reproach: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements

Thoughts?

 

[Mac 128]

Can you be more specific about the perceived audio quality difference. The DAC in the iPhone 6 appears to be near perfect - volume level isn't an indicator of quality, just power.

Looking at the measurements here, and listening myself, the iPhone6 appears to be beyond reproach: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements

Thoughts?

The DAC is not necessarily the issue in the iPhone. The DSP & Amp are far more important for producing high quality sound then the DAC in this case. That is not to say that the DAC cannot be improved.