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Impacts of removing the headphone jack [MERGED]
- Thread starter Appleaker
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What makes you think that these manufacturers got rid of the headphone jack because of an Apple rumor? The designs were most likely finalized before the rumors of the iPhone 7 even came out. Both of these devices use USB C, which can transmit audio (like lightning), so it is not surprising that they opted to get rid of the headphone jack. Especially since USB is a more open standard than lightning, so there will hopefully be some reasonably priced USB C headphones. Honestly I'm surprised Apple didn't kill of the headphone jack in the new MacBook. I wouldn't be surprised if the next update of that laptop gets it knocked out, to make it just have one port.
I didn't read through the entire 9 page thread, so forgive me if this has been mentioned, but one issue that might crop up with no headphone jack is in battery cases. People that use battery cases daily wouldn't have any way to get audio out of their phone except wirelessly. Since all of the MFi battery cases (excluding Apple's own) use micro USB, there wouldn't be any possibility of audio out. Even if they moved up to using USB C I kinda doubt that would pass through the audio signal (although it seems feasible).
That is true. If you have a battery case on then what. And I agree with you that to suggest that a manufacturer did something just because a rumor came out from Apple is non sense as you stated.
Phone designs happens a long time before their rumored and especially better their announced and released. Motorola Z is out now without a headphone jack. So Apple was not the first. And I'm willing to bet the idea was thought up before the show rumors.
My guess is that the majority of iPhone owners will not be pushed to an alternative brand/eco-system because of the headphone jack. My entire family uses Apple products, phones, tablets, computers, Apple TV, Airport, iCloud etc... and the reason we do is because it all works together with minimal hassle. We're not going to throw that away over a 3.5mm connector.
Assuming they ship the next iPad with Lightning EarPods, before you know it you'll have unopened sets of them lying around the house and you'll laugh when you dig out a pair with a 3.5mm jack. I was at my parents house a couple of months ago and noticed a 30 pin dock connector to FW400 cable in a box...
My question is will there be the same or better audio quality using the lighting port for headphones??
Apple got rid of the floppy when the CD was fully established and 1.44 Megabytes of data could be stored on a hard drive for pennies. They got rid of the CD/DVD drive when the standard internal hard drive could store 250+ CDs of information and external drives could archive a DVD for cheaper than the price of a blank DVD. They were both replaced by something objectively better, at a time when the existing technologies were clearly outdated. They were also large devices removed from devices where space was at a major premium.
The headphone jack doesn't take up nearly as much space or energy relatively. It's also being replaced with a dongle.
Also, while it was pretty painless to archive floppies on CDs or hard drives and DVDs on external hard drives, nobody really wants to "archive" their $300 Grados or Shure In-Ears in lieu of AirPods, nobody wants their phone to force a car stereo or home stereo upgrade, nobody wants to use dongles on any device they own, and nobody wants to have to choose between listening to music/watching movies/playing games or charging their device.
This may not be a big deal, but now you can't charge and have headphones in at the same time.
Wireless changing would have been nice to mitigate that. Fortunately I don't find that I do that very often.
I agree. I don't need to do it often - but until wireless charging comes to the iPhone, those days are gone.
That's true because, as you say, the majority of iPhone users can't afford (not in terms of cost) to switch. But those who recently switched to iPhone or who may have been thinking of switching to Android may want to switch to Android. It shouldn't affect sales since the new colors will sell and appeal to more people.
The lightning connector will be long gone in 10-20 years and the 3.5mm jack will still be here...
If they've just used the same or similar DAC and amp, but put it in the cable or dongle instead of the phone, the quality will be the same. If headphones use a cheaper DAC or amp than previous iPhones, it will be worse. High impedance headphones using a quality DAC and stronger amp than in previous iPhones will sound better than if equivalent phones were plugged directly into a previous iPhone.
tl;dr It depends...
That the iPhone 7 does not have a headphone port is a deal breaker for me. I listen to music qute a bit, and keep a pair of headphones at work, in my car, at my desk etc. With no headphone port, I either also have to have a dongle with me (or buy several) or, replace all headphones. Which brings another problem, they have to be charged! That is silly!
This is a lame "solution" by Apple, IMHO.
This is a lame "solution" by Apple, IMHO.
I think this thread is more applicable to my solution to the problem-
I can see a huge market NOW for specialised mini bluetooth music receiver very lightweight excellent 24 hours battery life - to mod a set of your favourite headphones
send them in 48 hour return they are wireless $or£49.99 inc delivery
nb
Half the size of one in picture, lightweight, fixed, fast charge via micro or lightning
I can see a huge market NOW for specialised mini bluetooth music receiver very lightweight excellent 24 hours battery life - to mod a set of your favourite headphones
send them in 48 hour return they are wireless $or£49.99 inc delivery
nb
Half the size of one in picture, lightweight, fixed, fast charge via micro or lightning
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Yes, by removing the 3.5 mm jack it has become possible to make the iPhone more water resistant. I know of several cases where an iPhone landed up in a swimming pool, toilet bowl, a lake or the sea….. a costly mistake.
Whilst I agree the lightening connector will be long gone in 10-20 years, so will the 3.5mm jack
Won't matter to me because BT tech will be even better in 10-20 years, so I'll be using it then as I am using it now.
So meh.....still won't be using 3.5mm jack anymore.
I agree the 3.5mm won't be around forever but Apples timing is poor. Pods charging... I'd rather not. Happy to have the 6s for another year!
-1 out of 10 for artist ability
but my view on apples £/$15 workaround for 0% battery and wired headphone.
One thing I'm certain someone else can do a better image! its meant to be all while BTW!!
but my view on apples £/$15 workaround for 0% battery and wired headphone.
One thing I'm certain someone else can do a better image! its meant to be all while BTW!!
I am torn with the headphone jack. I use headphones all the time. Hours and hours per day. So charging is going to be a challenge. I also am excited for a good working set of bluetooth ear buds. I have jumped on the Kickstarter bandwagon for a few different ones that have been dragging there feet to be released. Kanoa is one that I am most excited about. The issue with the wireless BT earbuds is the tech isn't there yet. Braggi has had there earbuds out for a while and they have had a lot of updates in the software due to poor connection between the two ear buds. Hopefully apple ora 3rd party releases a dongle that will allow 3.5 jack and charging. but who knows. I like the specs of the new ip7+ and would love to upgrade. The headphone/Charging questions is one thing that is giving me pause.
Bothers me that Samsung and Sony have iP68 water certified phones that kept the headphone jack.
I think the pain will be short-lived. Next year the air pods will probably get 7-8 hours on a single charge and wireless charging is around the corner. I think it's a pain in the butt until they playback time increases and wireless charging is available, just my thoughts.
Apple will need to start including the air pods with iPhones for that to work, otherwise you'll still have lots of people stuck with either headphones that don't work on their phone without an adapter or won't work on anything but their phone.
The only way I'll consider an iPhone again without them putting the headphone jack back is if they get completely wireless charging for both the air pods and the phone, and the air pods are included with the phone instead of being $160. Lightning is not a usable option for headphones.
No, they could have kept it and made it water resistance. I don't understand why some people are in this Apple only bubble - there are phones that are equally or even more water-proof.. and guess what? They have a headphone jack!
The fact they didn't have to make the jack water-proof was an added bonus of removing it. It didn't require the jack to be gone in any way.
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