Apple May Replace 3.5mm Headphone Jack on iPhone 7 With All-in-One Lightning Connector

[Toltepeceno]

My watch would beg to differ.

Regarding the headphone jack, I'd be very upset to see the jack gone. It's the standard. I can go buy a nice set of headphones and use it with anything that has a headphone jack, whether it be my iPhone, my personal laptop, my work laptop (a Dell), my work cell phone, etc. Removing the jack removes usability. I can't believe Apple would be so foolish, and hopefully there's nothing to this rumor.

That guy makes some outlandish claims. The apple watch has nfc but it was the headphone jack in the iphone holding it up.

Yes, the Apple Watch features built-in NFC capabilities. This means payments can be made using just the Apple Watch.

By this picture (The small chips outlined in green and pink) the headphone jack is CLEARLY the reason they waited for the iphone 6 to attach them to the logic board and not that it wasn't ready yet. Not to mention android puts them in much smaller phones.

 

[Parasprite]

And then converted to digital for transmission over the auditory nerve to the brain.

This comment is amazing; I'm totally stealing this for later use.

 

[Mac 128]

if Macs don't get Lightning ports added at the same time, it would be another obstacle for consumers.

I'd say you'll see the same kind of upgrade pattern as the new Retina MacBook, which is currently the only Apple device with a native USB-C connector (TV notwithstanding). After the iPhone 7 is announced, shortly after that, you'll see the MacBooks updated with a Lightning connector, and for those that aren't a Thunderbolt to Lightning adapter will be available, which makes much more sense now that Lightning is likely to support USB 3 standards.

Nobody will hear any improvement from a new connector. There simply isn't any improvement to be made there.

Thanks for providing the well documented stats to back up that unfounded claim. /s

My watch would beg to differ.

Regarding the headphone jack, I'd be very upset to see the jack gone. It's the standard. I can go buy a nice set of headphones and use it with anything that has a headphone jack, whether it be my iPhone, my personal laptop, my work laptop (a Dell), my work cell phone, etc. Removing the jack removes usability. I can't believe Apple would be so foolish, and hopefully there's nothing to this rumor.

Let me just say about the watch that not only is it thicker than the iPhone and requires significantly less battery to power the display and radios, but, the technology to fit the NFC components into the iPhone 6 was developed before the watch, which naturally benefitted from it, and possible even greater size reductions over the iPhone 6. That said, I have no idea whether the NFC implementation for Pay could fit inside an iPhone 5-sized case. I am surprised they didn't add it to the iPod Touch upgrade, but that could have been for numerous reasons. Again, I used it as an example of how future technologies of which we are not presently aware could expand and use the space currently occupied by the rather large headphone jack, while simultaneously shrinking the overall product, in much the same way as the elimination of the 30-pin connector opened up a lot of new internal real estate, possibly for Touch ID.

As for your traditional headphones, they will still work perfectly fine with with your Dell, and your non-Lightning equipped devices. Only potentially on your iPhone 7 would you need an adapter. In the end, I have to wonder how many customers like you there are compared to how many use wireless headphones, only with Apple's free earbuds with their iDevice, or no headphones at all. If there's any truth to this rumor, which would suit my headphone use just fine, you can bet it's because Apple has done their research and knows that this decision will affect a minority of their current customers.

 

[kdarling]

Pay was just an example of new features Apple may introduce in the future -- you don't see Pay on anything smaller than an iPhone 6 do you -- which suggests they may have needed the extra size to make it all fit.

The Apple Watch is a lot smaller than an iPhone 6

Apple is not going to create a new standard for audio jacks that themselves need an adapter without providing some other benefit.

A primary benefit is that proprietary connectors help Apple keep people from easily jumping ship.

Considering the precedent of other ugly kludges like the AV adapters for lightning ports, as a matter of fact I don't.

+1

USB was an improvement over previous alternatives. Any replacement to the headphone jack is still going to result in the output of stereo analog audio, different technology but no improvement in the sound that comes out.

USB is also non-proprietary.

 

[Misaki]

Apple is planning to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on the next-generation iPhone in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector, according to often-reliable Japanese website Mac Otakara.

I hope this is incredibly wrong. Just look at the clam-shell design GBA design and how much combining the charging port and headphone port didn't go over well. While I do certainly think it's high time we got rid of the 3.5mm jack, it should be replaced with an electrical-optical 2.5mm jack if anything.

 

[QquegChristian]

Thanks for providing the well documented stats to back up that unfounded claim. /s

If you think that a standard headphone cable transmits audio in any way that is different from the wiring in ALL headphones, including Bluetooth, you'd be mistaken. What do you think is sending the audio from one ear to the other in this photo?

High resolution audio travels through analog cables without issue. How do you think they record that audio? Microphones are not digital, just as headphones and speakers are not digital. High resolution audio exists today in many devices with headphone jacks, even phones. It exists in devices that ONLY have headphone jacks even.

The headphone jack hasn't been replaced because it can transmit audio that far exceeds the limits of human hearing.

Floppy drives, CD, then DVD, then bluray... Dialup, cable, then fiber. USB generations... These are things that became obsolete due to transfer speeds or storage limits.

As long as a cable can transmit audio that far exceeds human hearing... It is pretty hard to improve that. You can shrink it or change the connector shape, but you don't need to go digital when the analog wiring will still exist in the headphones and HAS to exist.

We are just now starting to get close to reaching the limits of human vision with displays, so I think it is hard for people to understand that we surpassed the limit with audio decades ago.

One day we will probably have digital implants, etc. that's when we can switch to true digital. That's when there will be an actual benefit. When we've got NFC chips under our skin, implants in our brains... All of that crazy stuff. When our ears are no longer the bottleneck.

Edit: It will also be several years before Bluetooth can exceed human hearing. Unlike a headphone jack, bandwidth is still a huge bottleneck with Bluetooth.

 

[akaPeach]

and have a DAC, or digital-to-audio converter, for backwards compatibility

It's called a digital-to-analog converter

 

[Bubba Satori]

It's called a digital-to-analog converter

I'm reporting you to the mods for bringing facts into this thread.
It goes completely against my deeply held comedic instincts.
Roll Tide.

 

[Abazigal]

Not sure if this has been reported, but another smartphone already did this last year.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/29/7091055/this-android-smartphone-is-too-thin-for-a-headphone-jack

People didn't raise a stink back then. Why are people suddenly crying about the sky falling now? When I read this article back then, I pretty much guessed that it was only a matter of time before Apple took a similar route.

 

[Mac 128]

If you think that a standard headphone cable transmits audio in any way that is different from the wiring in ALL headphones, including Bluetooth, you'd be mistaken. What do you think is sending the audio from one ear to the other in this photo?

View attachment 603085

High resolution audio travels through analog cables without issue. How do you think they record that audio? Microphones are not digital, just as headphones and speakers are not digital. High resolution audio exists today in many devices with headphone jacks, even phones. It exists in devices that ONLY have headphone jacks even.

The headphone jack hasn't been replaced because it can transmit audio that far exceeds the limits of human hearing.

Floppy drives, CD, then DVD, then bluray... Dialup, cable, then fiber. USB generations... These are things that became obsolete due to transfer speeds or storage limits.

As long as a cable can transmit audio that far exceeds human hearing... It is pretty hard to improve that. You can shrink it or change the connector shape, but you don't need to go digital when the analog wiring will still exist in the headphones and HAS to exist.

We are just now starting to get close to reaching the limits of human vision with displays, so I think it is hard for people to understand that we surpassed the limit with audio decades ago.

One day we will probably have digital implants, etc. that's when we can switch to true digital. That's when there will be an actual benefit. When we've got NFC chips under our skin, implants in our brains... All of that crazy stuff. When our ears are no longer the bottleneck.

Edit: It will also be several years before Bluetooth can exceed human hearing. Unlike a headphone jack, bandwidth is still a huge bottleneck with Bluetooth.

I'm not contesting that the medium isn't capable of transmitting high quality audio. And frankly I'm not even sure why you're bringing that up. The issue is not with the medium, it's with the conversion. MP3s are already a highly compromised standard, before people start converting their mp3s to 128bit to save room on their device. And then there's audio streaming. Even CDs are an inferior standard as far as HQ audio is concerned. Add to that the quality of DAC and internal amps, and you degrade the signal further. Regardless of the quality of the headphones, that mini-phone jack capable of producing the highest quality audio known to man, is not going to be able to make up for garbage going into it. By moving the DAC outside the box, the audiophile actually has a chance to improve a significant aspect of the hardware that reproduces the sound going into their headphones. So yes, the audio a person can get out of an iPhone built-in headphone jack can be improved significantly by extracting it digitally outside the phone.

Considering most of Apple's customers are listening to lower quality compressed digital files, there is absolutely no need for significantly higher quality than Bluetooth currently provides, nor the free Apple earbuds they get with the purchase of every iPhone. If someone wants to delude themselves that buying those premium headphones is going to improve the quality of audio coming out of their iPhone, then what difference does it really make? But if an audiophile wants the best quality they can get, then they won't use the built-in headphone jack at all, regardless of whether it's capable of transmitting higher quality audio than it does. So if they don't use it, then why keep it on the phone when Apple could do something else with that space, and drive those same people buying expensive headphones to a wireless standard which won't sound any different than what they currently experience with their compressed sound files and consumer grade DAC to play them?

 

[Toltepeceno]

Not sure if this has been reported, but another smartphone already did this last year.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/29/7091055/this-android-smartphone-is-too-thin-for-a-headphone-jack

People didn't raise a stink back then. Why are people suddenly crying about the sky falling now? When I read this article back then, I pretty much guessed that it was only a matter of time before Apple took a similar route.

How do you know nobody raised a stink? Since when are android phones discussed here? WTF does that have to do with apple doing it anyway. Why do the usual suspects get butt hurt and start crying when some do not like what apple does?

You do know that there are a lot of new androids, nearly all of them, that have headphone jacks still and if apple does it that means there will be no new ios phones with them so the comparison is beyond silly.

 

[Abazigal]

How do you know nobody raised a stink? Since when are android phones discussed here? WTF does that have to do with apple doing it anyway. Why do the usual suspects get butt hurt and start crying when some do not like what apple does?

Because if you read the article and its comments, TheVerge was pretty ambivalent about it, and while there were some sniggers in the comments section, the crowd too was largely indifferent.

It could be because this was just one niche smartphone model that people could well avoid if they didn't want what it offered (as compared to the iPhone, which has a much larger user base and will therefore have a much larger impact).

The thing is - Apple didn't get to where it was today by stubbornly clinging on to old antiquated tech and refusing to change. Instead, Apple prospered precisely because its leaders could see what was wrong with the way in which the world handled technology, and offer a better alternative, even when it meant some inconvenience in the short term. Yet I see people groaning and whining over every change made by Apple.

As Apple product users, we are supposed to not just see problems, but potential opportunities as well. Yet over 35+ pages of comments, I have seen scant little of the latter, and all too much of the former.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Because if you read the article and its comments, TheVerge was pretty ambivalent about it, and while there were some sniggers in the comments section, the crowd too was largely indifferent.

It could be because this was just one niche smartphone model that people could well avoid if they didn't want what it offered (as compared to the iPhone, which has a much larger user base and will therefore have a much larger impact).

Exactly, this is one phone out of a lot and to be honest I had never heard of it so it must not have revolutionised anything.

I was editing my post above when you posted, but said the same thing. If one android phone does it, oppo which is not even a major player, there are still tons of choices out there. If apple does it everyone has to change that wants an iphone. Far from the same thing and you WILL see more complaints on this type of move.

If for some reason google required that all manufacturers did away with the 3.5 then you would see the same amount, maybe even more, yelling. THEN it would be the same thing.

I would also say that with 2 reviews on amazon it didn't go over real well.

http://www.amazon.com/OPPO-Unlocked-Octa-Core-ColorOS-R8106/dp/B00RWYAHW8

 

[QquegChristian]

Not sure if this has been reported, but another smartphone already did this last year.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/29/7091055/this-android-smartphone-is-too-thin-for-a-headphone-jack

People didn't raise a stink back then. Why are people suddenly crying about the sky falling now? When I read this article back then, I pretty much guessed that it was only a matter of time before Apple took a similar route.

Umm, that whole article is pretty negative:

"however the small 2,000mAh battery and the absence of a headphone jack mark significant drawbacks for the R5."

"the single-minded pursuit of making them thinner is now leading us down a path of carrying more equipment, whether it be battery cases or headphone adapters, rather than less."

 

[scottsjack]

Great. Another change for the sake of change (and marketing) from Apple. I've gone an unheard of twelve months without buying anything from Apple. My three 2012 Macs are doing fine. I'm so done with Tim's Apple.

 

[scottsjack]

They already screwed the headphone jack up by putting it on the bottom instead of the top. Hey, let's plug something into the bottom edge so the phone cannot be leaned up against something. The silliness just continues. Steve had his list of goofy but different stuff like the worthless Apple mice. The new Apple has taken goofiness to a whole, new low level.

 

[\-V-/]

Personally I think this thread needs to be shut down. There is no reason to debate any further if people ignorantly post any drivel without having absorbed or comprehended the tiniest amount of information which was posted before. It's getting beyond ridiculous and frightening at the same time.

[Yup, the 3.5 mm jack is holding back sound quality; that's it. Not the DAC built in the phone. Probably Apple really desperately wanted to deliver a better sound all along but because of the outdated but unfortunately world standard 3.5 mm jack, they thought: "**** it!" and caved, decided not to improve on the DAC and shipped the phone with ****** headphones, too. Because any better headphones would have been wasted on the outdated 3.5 mm jack anyway.

But next year is the year when Tim Cook will grow some balls and will change the wold for the better. Again! Just like he did with the latest Mac Mini and the upgraded iMac line.

And a digital output via Lightning is much better, anyway. It's digital! Sound quality will jump 20% on average - with Classical Music probably more. The Chellos especially come out a bit more crisp with its sounds tending to hover more freely in space using digital connectors. We just plug in our new digital headphones (another 20% increment in sound quality - AT LEAST!!) and we finally hear the light and are wondering how could we have ever lived before in the dark ages of analog headphones and analog connectors. Apple has done it again - a bold step forward into the world for modern people.

And imagine what could be done with the space saved by not having the outdated jack. We could fill in with something useful. Maybe even brain matter just in case the modern phone user has a lack of it!

Maybe the 3.5 mm jack is the real reason why the iPhone can't record videos in stereo sound. The 3.5 mm jack was blocking the space for a second microphone!!!!

And the phone could finally be made thinner. 6.1 mm! Maybe even 6 mm. What a marvellous achievement (Let's ignore the fact that the iPod Nano is just over 5mm WITH A 3.5 mm JACK)]/S

The sarcasm in this is magical.

 

[Abazigal]

They already screwed the headphone jack up by putting it on the bottom instead of the top. Hey, let's plug something into the bottom edge so the phone cannot be leaned up against something. The silliness just continues. Steve had his list of goofy but different stuff like the worthless Apple mice. The new Apple has taken goofiness to a whole, new low level.

Am I the only one who thinks it makes perfect sense to put the headphone jack at the bottom of the phone?

Think about it. With Touch-ID, your phone is typically resting upside-down in your pants pocket. This way, I can take my phone out of my pocket and unlock it with my finger in one fluid motion. And in this state of rest, it feels logical to put the audio jack in a position that is naturally "facing up" when you want to plug in your headphones.

But yes, I agree that there are drawbacks as well, such as me being unable to charge my phone on a dock and listen to headphones at the same time.

I think this just goes to show there is no one perfect answer for every problem. Even the seemingly simply question of where to put the headphone jack has more than 1 answer, each with its share of pros and cons. And different people will weigh these pros and cons differently. That's why we pay Apple to make these decisions and tradeoffs on our behalf, because we believe that they know better than us.

Do you remember when iOS first banned flash? Sure, people were inconvenienced in the short run (and till today, we actually still are). But the removal of flash helped spur the creation of native apps optimised for touch and direct input, and consumers were better off in the long run because those native apps allowed for a better user experience overall.

Same with removing the audio jack. Who is to say we are not looking at a flash 2.0 here? People have rightfully pointed out that the audio jack is decades old. You mean to tell me that in all this time, no one has come up with a technology that is better? Or is it simply that no one has bothered trying, because that would mean having to challenge and displace what they view to be a deeply entrenched technological standard, something they consider to be a fool's errand?

Yes, removing the audio jack might mean an additional inconvenient adaptor, or having to switch over to bluetooth headphones, or even something as innocuous as not being able to plug in the audio cable from a VGA cable (because the lightning-to-VGA adaptor would already occupy the lightning port). But I want to believe that there are legitimate benefits to be had if only we could be free to experiment with new standards, and perhaps the only way to do this is if we could be free of the shackles of older standards.

And perhaps only Apple has the balls to pull such a stunt and the customer goodwill necessary to not only get away, but prosper from it.

If you are reading this, Apple, just go ahead. I am behind you every step of the way.

 

[farewelwilliams]

But when u think about it Samsung already has Wireless charging, a faster charger, and a head phone jack so apple really doesn't need to remove it.

uh what? removing a 3.5mm jack means there's no need for digital/analog converter for that port inside the phone.

 

[justinhu8]

Maybe if you swapped lightning with USB-C because then at least you have an open standard. If Apple did this it would clearly be for the glorious glorious thing, known as profits!

 

[trip1ex]

This would suck as far as charging goes, but this rumor fits in with the AirPods rumor aka Apple wireless ear pods.

 

[G-News]

As long as the new connector is not as sturdy as the 3.5mm jack and does not rotate, I'm not having it. The 3.5mm jack is engineering brilliance, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted for decades and proven superior to countless attemps of replacing it with something else.

 

[JulianL]

As long as the new connector is not as sturdy as the 3.5mm jack and does not rotate, I'm not having it. The 3.5mm jack is engineering brilliance, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted for decades and proven superior to countless attemps of replacing it with something else.

The irony is that this whole rumour is probably a mis-translation from the original report. I think what they actually meant is that Apple is planning to ditch the lightning connector in favour of a unified 3.5mm jack for audio, charging and sync .

 

[anshuvorty]

As long as the new connector is not as sturdy as the 3.5mm jack and does not rotate, I'm not having it. The 3.5mm jack is engineering brilliance, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted for decades and proven superior to countless attemps of replacing it with something else.

Agreed!

 

[draugminaion]

Here's an interesting twist: Rumors say iPhone 7 will have USB-C. Which will do audio at least as well as Lightning.
Except for the physical connector, USB-C and Lightning can do pretty much the same things. (The iPad Pro has USB3 circuitry behind the Lightning connector, by the way.)

So USB-C headphones is where we are going.
Maybe.

Apple's has a large presence in the USB standards organisation. Quite a bit of the USB-C connector and USB3 protocols are the way they are because Apple liked it that way.