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Apple Proposes Using Pogo Pins to Shrink Headphone Jacks
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I don't really get it: The jack is already as small as it can get, since the hole has to be at least the size of the connector. Unless they make a new jack system with new, smaller connectors, they can't make the hole any smaller.
By the way, I think Jacks are the best connectors ever, and I don't understand why every connector (USB, FireWire, DisplayPort, Ethernet) is not already a jack. There is no wrong way to connect it, and as Apple has proved it with the Shuffle, a USB connection can easily be routed through a special jack. It's thin, elegant and looks great. So what's will all the idiotic awkward connections, such as FireWire 800?
By the way, I think Jacks are the best connectors ever, and I don't understand why every connector (USB, FireWire, DisplayPort, Ethernet) is not already a jack. There is no wrong way to connect it, and as Apple has proved it with the Shuffle, a USB connection can easily be routed through a special jack. It's thin, elegant and looks great. So what's will all the idiotic awkward connections, such as FireWire 800?
They aren't making the HOLE smaller - just the assembly that contains the contacts which link up with the plug.
They need all those jacks so Belkin can sell you $75 adapters. The Connector Adapter Lobby has DEEP POCKETS!
As we can see already Apple got annoyed enough to look into this.
The 3.5 mm standard is the next thing to go.
When they start experimenting with liquid metal, they will find a way to make a thin connector (like a blade or paper clip) that will do the "Jobs"
It would seem that Apple is on some sort of mission to make everything as small as possible. Sometimes this works, and sometimes...not.
Take the Shuffle, the limiting factor will be the buttons (which were reinstated due to overwhelming consumer demand) not the headphone jack.
And by making the headphone jack smaller the headphone cord will be skinnier, the connector skinnier, and more prone to being bent, and even failure, due to the wire/connector junction being smaller.
Steve and Jonny's "holy grail" would be a small do everything device that is no bigger than a finger nail with a tiny touch screen on which you can't do anyhting without a magnifying glass. But hey, it will be "magical".....ad nauseum.
At some point I fear that Apple's rabid pursuit of miniaturization and "simplification" will surpass the boundaries of common sense and practicality.
These arguments are more than a little silly. Apple, like everyone else in the world, has no perfect idea of what customers want. They think of what they want, they ask focus groups, they do their best to project forward. And sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they fail. Some non-obvious ideas (make the iPad a lot thicker and heavier than necessary by giving it a ginormous battery) actually work out very very well, and really tap into what people want.
But to claim that they are blindly making thing smaller regardless of people's desires is stupid. People appeared not to like the square 3rd gen iPod nano (though I did) so they reverted to the old shape. People didn't like the buttons-free shuffle, so they brought the buttons back. If the new nano does not sell well, or generates lots of complaints about the touch screen, I expect next year's version will have physical buttons on the back or something.
And, as I said, the iPad is an obvious counter-example to the claim that Apple pursues thinness at the expense of functionality.
Finally, the MacBook Air IS NOT DESIGNED FOR YOU if you think the lack of performance and optical drive are a big issue. If you are in the market for a MacBook Pro, complaining that the MacBook Air is not a clone of the Pro is stupid. For me the Air is what I want --- a lightweight platform on which I can type using LyX, with fast enough performance that TeX runs acceptably.
Of course, in a perfect world I wish it were 4x as fast and had 8GB of RAM --- but if speed and RAM were my highest priorities, I would have bought a Pro. One has to make compromises; the intelligent thing to do is figure out which set of compromises best fits your needs.
A much more intelligent set of complaints would be regarding features that have not been added to iPods (regardless of their size or smallness) of which the most obvious is Bluetooth for the nano. But I don't think any of us know enough about the cost and size of BT chips+antennae, and their power budget, to usefully comment on how much adding them to a nano would affect the nano's size, battery life, and cost.
So basically they just want more space inside the device, so that the jack doesn't waste space that could be used for internal components I guess?
Yeah... If only once *someone*
apple:??) would revolutionize the connector industry and make every connector super small, compact, strong, good looking, easy to connect, cheap to make, abundant and simple... But until we keep having things like MiniDVI, Mini DisplayPort, FireWire 800 (that isn't compatible with FireWire 400 only with an adapter or special cable), this isn't going to happen...Imagine if you had 10 jack ports on your Mac, and they could all be used for whatever you plug into them. Then I wouldn't have to struggle with only TWO USB ports on my MacBook Pro, so close together that I can only use ONE at a time with an annoying bulky and ugly USB Hub that doesn't even allow me to connect anything that uses any kind of power...
And what is your justification for this claim? Has Apple EVER modified iTunes to not sync with older iPods? Having settled on the 30pin connector, they have been EXCEEDINGLY slow to introduce changes to it, so that when they finally removed FW power from the connector pretty much no-one was affected.
The world is full of iPods that are many years old --- I and my brother are both using 1st gen nanos, my mother is using a 1st gen touch, my friend a second gen nano. All work just fine.
If you are going to make insinuations about how awful Apple is, how about attacking something that is, you know, actually BAD, that Apple does? Otherwise you just look like an idiot.
While I agree with the comment in principle, it's just not currently practical. We then are stuck with continually recharging or replacing the batteries in the wireless devices. Once a better battery can be made, it may be more practical.
That pogo-style connector seems like it would be really fragile and would wear out quickly. I'd rather see an end to the idea of a jack. What about a small flat connector (like a tiny stethoscope) that attaches to the body of the device through magnetism and transmits the signal that way?
You're joking! They are an abomination! They may be thin and elegant, but because of this they provide a lot of leverage on the internal connections due to the manufacturing tolerances, ie. you can "wiggle them around". They are nothing but trouble and are always the first connectors to fail!
This (Apple) design looks like an improvement, in that it could be made more rigid, but I would prefer something entirely different!
Just looked in the mirror - nope, no idiot there.
I never said they broke older stuff. But I bet they wouldn't mind if they broke on themselves.
This won't make the device *thinner* as the included photos try to allude to. The device will still have to accept a 3.5 mm headphone jack. So the device cannot be any thinner than 3.5 mm + housing thickness.
The room *inside* the device becomes more comfortable and spacious with the new design. This allows them to add more storage/cpu/whatever to the device.
They could, however, make the hinge of a device the 3.5mm headphone receptacle....
The room *inside* the device becomes more comfortable and spacious with the new design. This allows them to add more storage/cpu/whatever to the device.
They could, however, make the hinge of a device the 3.5mm headphone receptacle....
how on earth does not having an internal cd drive prevent you from walking around with the mac book air? I can't remember the last time I used a cd that wasn't to play a computer game or rip music to my hard disk, both of which were done on my desktop anyway. I haven't used the cd drive in my laptop for years, and don't see why i'd need to in the future.
Comments like that are silly and arrogant. Just because you need a particular feature (cd drive) doesn't mean that the rest of the world does. Apple obviously decided there were enough people that didn't. If you do, the air is not for you . Go buy a MBP and leave the air for those who need portability.
They tried that and it was not an acceptable solution for the majority of consumers. There are too many portable electronic devices with standard headphone jacks.
Maybe you can come up with a car with a really small gas filling hole, one that doesn't fit the standard fuel pumps. Then you can build a gas station with the special pumps. Then you can sell an adaptor so that this car can be filled up at other gas stations.
And don't forget the adaptor so that people who have the standard filler tubes can fill up at your new station.
Why even have a headphone port? Bluetooth headsets are getting cheaper and more common everyday. Soon the device's thickness will only be limited to the 30pin dock connctor. Well shoot let's just finally drop that too in favor of wireless sync.
How about an Anal iPod that you slip in/up at the start of the day and it transmits music up into your brain?
Shake to shuffle would be interesting...
This is quite a waste of time and energy...the wire/jack is already extremely thin/small with 0 moving parts. Now Apple wants to make it smaller (seriously it's already the size of a ballpoint pen tip) AND add moving parts. Ultimately the moving parts will fail. And somehow Apple is going to convince the entire headphone industry to adopt their new, patented (pay up fellas), technology?! Doubt it. Look for another $19 adapter from Apple.
Apple is obsessed with making things so small lately they are practically unusable. The new Nano is a huge show-stopper for me...I was all set to buy one but its simply too small in every direction. Having handheld devices require that it actually has some weight to it and thus you can feel it in your hand. If I had to hold my credit card for long periods of time (like an iPod and the latest iPhone), it would end up broken pretty quickly...or lost.
Apple should realize that there is a point when products are too small and/or too thin. That time is here for the Nano. I'd much rather have Apple save the money in R&D and build something with more storage...or software features...or larger screens...or longer batteries...or physical traits (better antennas, FM tuners, video cams, etc). Forget the obsession with making it the size of a postage stamp.
-Eric
Apple is obsessed with making things so small lately they are practically unusable. The new Nano is a huge show-stopper for me...I was all set to buy one but its simply too small in every direction. Having handheld devices require that it actually has some weight to it and thus you can feel it in your hand. If I had to hold my credit card for long periods of time (like an iPod and the latest iPhone), it would end up broken pretty quickly...or lost.
Apple should realize that there is a point when products are too small and/or too thin. That time is here for the Nano. I'd much rather have Apple save the money in R&D and build something with more storage...or software features...or larger screens...or longer batteries...or physical traits (better antennas, FM tuners, video cams, etc). Forget the obsession with making it the size of a postage stamp.
-Eric
Relax Apple not everything in life has to keep getting smaller and smaller! The headphone jack is a rock solid design. I've never once looked at my headphone jack and said "I wish this was smaller" design is best when it's for the user and for myself I would much rather have a longer battery life and stronger case that doesn't shatter if dropped.
Kevin
Mister880.com
Kevin
Mister880.com