Kind of a ****** thing to do. I do have a bluetooth headphone that I use 90% of the time, I just don't know what Im going to to with my other 3 headsets.
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Here's What a Headphone Jack to Lightning Adapter Looks Like
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I spent my commute to work today thinking about this and I've come to a personal conclusion.
I connect my phone to my car with a USB to lightning cable as is, or if I'm not going to be in long I use BT. The only thing that I'd be missing (or having to carry around an adapter for) is for my favorite headphones. I tend to only use them at home anyway. So I could make the transition fairly easily.
In the end I'd be willing to give up the nearly universal compatibility of the 1/8" for nothing less than 3 out of 4 of:
1. An actual water-resistant iPhone that is advertised as such.
2. Wireless and/or very fast charging so I can use headphones and charge my phone or get 40% more battery life after a quick 5 minute charge.
3. Getting rid of the proprietary Lightning connector in favor of USB-C.
4. Getting a dang adapter from Lightning or USB-C to 1/8" for free with the phone.
I think 2 and 4 are most likely. 2 because a glass back would mean wireless charging would work well and 4 because it would be universally stupid not to. 1 is up in the air at best, but would definitely be worthwhile to do to get customers to upgrade. 4 doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell since Apple loves proprietary things too much, but it would be invaluable down the road.
I connect my phone to my car with a USB to lightning cable as is, or if I'm not going to be in long I use BT. The only thing that I'd be missing (or having to carry around an adapter for) is for my favorite headphones. I tend to only use them at home anyway. So I could make the transition fairly easily.
In the end I'd be willing to give up the nearly universal compatibility of the 1/8" for nothing less than 3 out of 4 of:
1. An actual water-resistant iPhone that is advertised as such.
2. Wireless and/or very fast charging so I can use headphones and charge my phone or get 40% more battery life after a quick 5 minute charge.
3. Getting rid of the proprietary Lightning connector in favor of USB-C.
4. Getting a dang adapter from Lightning or USB-C to 1/8" for free with the phone.
I think 2 and 4 are most likely. 2 because a glass back would mean wireless charging would work well and 4 because it would be universally stupid not to. 1 is up in the air at best, but would definitely be worthwhile to do to get customers to upgrade. 4 doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell since Apple loves proprietary things too much, but it would be invaluable down the road.
It also produces heat - probably a combination of the dissipating battery and the radio which makes for a sweaty ear. I don't know the health risks of bluetooth radios that close to you (or if it's even regulated) but I do know some radios are much more powerful than others.
I signed up for this stupid forum specifically to reply to this article. As someone else said so eloquently, "screw off Apple" I suppose this will only bother people who listen with quality headphones and no I am not talking about **** Beats headphones, another in a longer and longer list of Apple mistakes a la Tim Cook. What a vision less ass-hat.
What about Square credit card readers and other gizmos that make unconventional use of the headphone jack? The current reader costs under $2.00; will Apple give them a break on the license fees for the Lightning connector embedded chipset? If not, a replacement reader could end up costing 10x as much.
Apple is one of the leaders in the technology industry not wireless. But yes, they have a good hand in wireless too. And just because someone changes technology does't mean they have to give you free things to make up for it. Removing old technology to make way for new technology is just progression. Get some BT headphones for $30 at BestBuy and be happy.
hehe..Deff
neat little thing ...at least this beats having a dongle hanging off your device..
Reminds me of the old RCA to type adapters i would get just to record VCR's into a laptop.
I was thinking of something like :-
neat little thing ...at least this beats having a dongle hanging off your device..
Reminds me of the old RCA to type adapters i would get just to record VCR's into a laptop.
I was thinking of something like :-
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There are probably just as many examples where it didn't take off at all. FireWire and Thunderbolt come to mind, though there may be more.
Perhaps I am too closed minded, but I don't see how moving from an industry standard to a proprietary format is going to move the industry forward. Do I expect this to be a disaster? Probably not. At least not immediately. Apple has an unstoppable inertia right now.
It will be really frustrating to know there's a totally reasonable DAC in the phone, but I can't listen to it (excluding the low quality built in speaker).
And can we stop comparing to the Floppy, VGA port or 30 pin port already.
And can we stop comparing to the Floppy, VGA port or 30 pin port already.
I do think that they have a responsibility as a company to inform their buyers that something they've likely been using for decades will no longer be compatible with their hardware, barring that they do ship with an appropriate adapter. I have no idea whether one or perhaps both of these will happen, but I am throwing that out there. I can see someone like my mom picking up an iPhone in two years time and being completely baffled why her headphones no longer plug in.
There's a key difference which I feel makes this often espoused analogy incorrect.
High quality Audiophile technology (1) costs a fortune, (2) lasts for decades, (3) has a stable format that hasn't changed in almost a century, and (4) is as good in performance as anything this new format could ever offer.
When Apple removed the floppy drive, they provided other ways to easily store and transfer data, and in the worse case, we had to copy data over to the new format and then had identical functionality with more storage capacity.
When Apple removed the DVD drive, it was very inconvenient to use an external drive, but it was possible - we don't need to pop DVDs in and out all the time - instead we often do it in fixed places. And there was at least a plausible argument that we got some weight savings in our laptop.
In this case, a lot of people listen to music as one of the primary uses of an iPhone - something they do many hours every day. And I can't imagine any valid case for removing a port. I can't see it allowing the phone to be thinner (and if it did, just do the camera thing and have a headphone jack bulge), and without 2 ports you can't charge and use the phone at the same time.
I would mind a lot less if they replaced the headphone jack with a second digital port, or if they pushed through a new wireless standard that would hold a connection.
But here's the main pain point - Apple will suffer some for this. There will be lower iPhone7 sales for sure (and more iPhone SE sales). And all this for what? Because someone at apple thought iPhones look asymmetric with a headphone jack?
Well, Apple has made some whopper of mistakes in the past (e.g. the fat iPad Nano), and has actually gone back on them in the next generation, so we'll see how this plays out... maybe the new Apple can admit to making wrong decisions and correct them.
Maybe this is just because Apple bought Beats and wants a reason people need to buy new headphones?
The other flaw in the argument is this "new technology" angle. This *only* applies when the new technology is significantly better than the old one. Else, all you're doing is isolating your product from the rest of the world because you don't want to support the high quality solutions people already have. I'd be excited if Apple had a higher quality solution here, but I see zero evidence of that.
High quality Audiophile technology (1) costs a fortune, (2) lasts for decades, (3) has a stable format that hasn't changed in almost a century, and (4) is as good in performance as anything this new format could ever offer.
When Apple removed the floppy drive, they provided other ways to easily store and transfer data, and in the worse case, we had to copy data over to the new format and then had identical functionality with more storage capacity.
When Apple removed the DVD drive, it was very inconvenient to use an external drive, but it was possible - we don't need to pop DVDs in and out all the time - instead we often do it in fixed places. And there was at least a plausible argument that we got some weight savings in our laptop.
In this case, a lot of people listen to music as one of the primary uses of an iPhone - something they do many hours every day. And I can't imagine any valid case for removing a port. I can't see it allowing the phone to be thinner (and if it did, just do the camera thing and have a headphone jack bulge), and without 2 ports you can't charge and use the phone at the same time.
I would mind a lot less if they replaced the headphone jack with a second digital port, or if they pushed through a new wireless standard that would hold a connection.
But here's the main pain point - Apple will suffer some for this. There will be lower iPhone7 sales for sure (and more iPhone SE sales). And all this for what? Because someone at apple thought iPhones look asymmetric with a headphone jack?
Well, Apple has made some whopper of mistakes in the past (e.g. the fat iPad Nano), and has actually gone back on them in the next generation, so we'll see how this plays out... maybe the new Apple can admit to making wrong decisions and correct them.
Maybe this is just because Apple bought Beats and wants a reason people need to buy new headphones?
The other flaw in the argument is this "new technology" angle. This *only* applies when the new technology is significantly better than the old one. Else, all you're doing is isolating your product from the rest of the world because you don't want to support the high quality solutions people already have. I'd be excited if Apple had a higher quality solution here, but I see zero evidence of that.
Bad idea. Doesn't rotate, is platform captive and about 50x more expensive. So yeah, Tim's Apple is going to do it.
thats what they all say. and then it comes out and they secretly buy it a month later on the dl
FireWire was a huge success. There's abut a decade's worth of professional video equipment that used it. From DVCAM cameras to DVCPRO decks and a dozen other things in between. Sony, Panasonic, JVC... they ALL used FireWire.
It helped maintain Macs as the "go-to" computers in the video world since you knew they'd have 6-pin FireWire built in, something that wasn't a given in the PC world.
I've seen Windows make big gains in the video world in the last 5 years as Apple loses interest in the Mac Pro. I'm betting this slide would have happened 15 years earlier except for FireWire.
Doubtful on the licensing fee break, but I'll also add that I don't see paying a mere $20 to be unreasonable to be able to essentially have an at home credit card reader.
I got a square reader many years ago and if I recall they simply charged me but gave me that money in credit towards my fees. So let's say it's bumped to $20, I essentially still get the reader for free so long as I eventually accrue $20 in teas action fees. Is that not how it's done anymore?
This may be the best option we have, but now, thanks to Apple, we have to lug around something on par with the size of the original iPhone, because the iPhone no longer has such functionality. This reminds me of the reviews of the 12" Macbook - that it was a whole lot less portable than Macbook Pros because you had to carry around a bunch of extra adapters to use it that used to be build in.
Our adapter cost upwards of $70, but we expect to see a greater number of adapters on the market following the launch of the iPhone 7, which will drive prices down quite a bit. It's also likely Apple will develop its own Lightning to 3.5mm jack adapter and we can expect to see that sold for around $20-$30 based on the pricing of other types of adapters.
Yay. 70 bucks for the delightfully degraded bluetooth sound. Can't wait to pay to make my nice headphones sound worse.
I was thinking more along the lines of private use. I realize in the professional and or hobbyist field it was very successful, but that doesn't make up the majority of users. It remained unpopular and expensive for the average joe.
There's a reason why USB has always been King and a reason why Apple even moved their iPod over to USB whe they decided to branch out their consumer base.
The removal of ports is stupid. I'd rather have everything that I use built in then have to carry adapters. Yes the product is self is now smaller, but now I have bulges over my laptop bag. Put in ports and if other components get smaller. Give me a bigger battery! I don't want an anorexic laptop!
