Apple Introduces Lightning Cable MFi Specifications for Headphones

[Joshsand]

audio in as well

Just bought new iMac and was shocked to find the audio in was gone.
Used to connect electronic organ and record to garage band.
Internet users confused too.
Apple should not just ditch BASIC stuff like this.

 

[Eric E. Schmidt]

What governments want to do is reduce wastage. Including yet another adaptor does not acomplish this.

removing a port, supplying a secondary cable over a period. i'd call it almost even.

 

[weckart]

If I were in the market for a quality music player I would not even be looking at Apple's subpar players, of which I have owned enough of to know better now.

Let Apple bring out its iPods and iPhones that only accept Beats headphones with lightning cables. All the 'cool' kids will waste money on them, meanwhile there are an increasing number of of high end players already capable of 192Khz /24bit playback that do not limit your choice of headphones.

I can forsee other problems with the lightning port - the lightning jack is flimsy compared with a 3.5mm audio jack. Typically when charging you do not move your iDevice around. With a lightning jack inserted and moving around in your pocket I can imagine more than a few snapped connectors being brought to the Genius bar for extraction.

 

[nascimento]

necessary?

Another thing to distract apple from its core business.

 

[juanm]

I guess that means high-end headphones will be able to use their own DAC in order to produce better sound, since the one in the iPhone, while not bad per se, is of course limited by cost and size constraints.

I think it's just a matter of overengineering on something different in a pathetic attempt to justify the cost.

 

[Equestris]

"The Lightning headphones will be capable of receiving lossless stereo 48 kHz digital audio output from Apple devices"

Excellent! 🙂

 

[cube]

Apple had ample market research done. You only need the optical drive in one odd case, where you want to watch HD movies on a laptop without an Internet connection or any way to download and save the video for later. If Apple were to leave the optical drives in, we'd all be carrying around laptops as thick as the 2009 MBP so a few people like you can watch Blu Ray. And Apple can't go against its hugely pre-established way of keeping the number of product types small by adding a new line of MBPs with optical drives.

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It could be done with the current connector, which can already play/pause, skip, and change the volume over the extra pair of pins. It's easy to send and receive digital commands over one pair.

A product line can be simple without being pathetic.

 

[iMacBooked]

Still not sure if this is a good idea. Can't imagine not being able to charge it while listening.

 

[MH01]

Kind of like removing the CD/DVD drive from computers? 🙂

Progress..

removing the headphone jack off your iphone is nothing like removing CD/DVD players.

So your going to move the DAC into the headphones? no thanks, I do not need bigger headphones with batteries in side them.

Apple is not that stupid anyway, the headphone jack will remain.

 

[Jambalaya]

If headphones only connect via lightening I see lots of broken lightening connectors and lots of very unhappy iPhone customers who have an unusable device. The headphone jack is pretty robust and it needs to be if you run etc using your headphones/phone combination for music. The current lightening connectors are just too flimsy.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Just bought new iMac and was shocked to find the audio in was gone.
Used to connect electronic organ and record to garage band.
Internet users confused too.
Apple should not just ditch BASIC stuff like this.

The audio jack on Macs is both audio in and audio out.

 

[Jambalaya]

Bose: 1. Apple: 0. Beats: -1.

This summarises the situation perfectly for me

 

[MH01]

You mean like silly idea to remove floppy disk or optical drive?
Lets get real for an ipod nano or future iphones to get thinner and with better audio they need to remove 3.5 jack and use lightning

The DAC mate, you want to purchase headphones that have a DAC build it, well Apple is going to love you when you pay $$$$$$$$ for these headphones 😉

The headphone jack will remain.

 

[mrples]

"The Lightning headphones will be capable of receiving lossless stereo 48 kHz digital audio output from Apple devices"

Excellent! 🙂

You're lapping up the marketing talk...

There is no need to use the frickin lightning cable for HD sound. Just put the converte into the phone and don't offload the cost to the headphone guys. How do you think audiophiles listened to music so far?
It's about establishing a de facto monopoly:
"The beauty about standards is, there are so many to chose from these days..."

+1

 

[Number 9]

Welcome to the future, where you have to buy new headphones if you switch to Android 🙄

You'll get interchangeable cables, not a big deal.

 

[djgamble]

A new series of Lightning-enabled super-headphones:

Lightning by Beats by Dre by Apple

😀

AKA USB headphones?

 

[twochoicestom]

Just bought new iMac and was shocked to find the audio in was gone.
Used to connect electronic organ and record to garage band.
Internet users confused too.
Apple should not just ditch BASIC stuff like this.

That input is both in AND out!

 

[iZac]

I envisage a massive aftermarket for lightning to 3.5mm headphone jacks in the very near future.

 

[Michael Scrip]

AKA USB headphones?

Ummmm yeah.

But my comment was more of a silly play on the "Beats by Dre" brand name... as the previous comment said Lightning Beats.

 

[BvizioN]

No thanks lighting cables are way to fragile. I have went through 4 official lighting cables this year just with it being used as charger at my bedside. I couldn't imagine throwing it in a bag or pocket, they would break in like a day. The 30 pins would work even when the damn things were nearly falling apart, the lightings get one little kink in the cable and they are trash.

But who wants headphones with a propriety jack?

very strange! Got my lightning cable since 2 years ago and still using it with no problems. Same with the iPad one, never had it replaced. Lighting cable was one of the best changes Apple did IMO.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Yawn. Apple is behind the times again. Music is played out. Apple really needs to shift its focus to the medium of the 21st century, video.

People said that before back in the 20th century, that television would kill radio. It never happened. Music will always have its place.

 

[genovelle]

There is already an optical audio combo port on the macbook pros. I wonder why they just don't use that standard already in place.

Sounds like it can do a lot more.

 

[Gutwrench]

Be honest, how many of us, on a regular basis, actually use headphones while charging an iDevice? That being said, I hope doesn't charge an arm and a leg for a lightning to 3.5 adapter.

I do, for one. Every single work day.

 

[MH01]

very strange! Got my lightning cable since 2 years ago and still using it with no problems. Same with the iPad one, never had it replaced. Lighting cable was one of the best changes Apple did IMO.

I agree, but there must be a serious problem with them, cause of the 182 reviews on Apple.com, the cable has 1.5 stars rating. Looks like most people are having an issue with their durability

http://store.apple.com/us/product/M...s&cp=k2-iphone+-lightning+to+usb+cable+(0.5 m)

 

[genovelle]

You can't charge your iphone at the same time as listen to headphones? Hope this is good and not a disadvantage 🙁

Sounds like you charge via the headphones