Because wireless devices are generally never as good as their wired counterpart.
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Apple Proposes Using Pogo Pins to Shrink Headphone Jacks
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Because wireless devices are generally never as good as their wired counterpart.
I do believe that the EU is pushing for a Universal phone connector, which if passed, means all phones sold in Europe must be compliant with this new standard. Which means that Apple may just stick this universal connector on instead of the dock, which makes me wonder if they'd put that all on their phones? Or just ones sold in America..
Well, call me a fool, but I think a wireless earpiece may just be a fraction easier to develop than a flying cars and hoverboards.
Sending quality data at most, approx 3ft distance is not going to be hard at all.
The only 1 issue is powering the headphones.
So it's how low a current can a good sounding in ear headphone be made to use, and how small can we make the battery.
If the battery in the headphone can last the same time as the battery in the mp3 player then really, problem is over.
USB = high CPU usage and no built-in error correction/checking.
Firewire = low CPU usage and in-hardware error correction/checking.
Apple pioneered/pushed and fed in to both of these standards anyway. USB is cheap as chips because it defers the clever stuff to something else, Firewire is expensive because it requires a very sophisticated controller chip, by comparison.
Sustained data-rates on USB aren't that great either.
didn't know usb can't do video out amongst others...
Um, do realise that USB in and of itself doesn't provide for anything other than power and a serial data stream.. you have to have the chip to interpret the data to provide features such as video out, audio out, syncing, etc..
So if Apple simply replaced the 30-pin dock connector with micro/mini USB, not only would you still need adaptors from USB to component/HDMI/audio/etc, they'd now all need to contain active electronics to extract and convert the data. Judging by all the comments here on the price/proprietariness of Apple's accessories, I don't think that's something we really need...
Also, which would cause more outrage? A proprietary 30-pin connector that needs cheap adaptors? Or a proprietary modification to a universal standard that needs expensive adaptors?
I do wonder when the industry will convert to 2.5mm headphone plugs/sockets.. I've yet to snap one
That's rather what I was trying to say earlier. But I used a bungee-jumping analogy and all hell broke loose.
Now the title of this thread is confusing me a bit - "to shrink headphone jacks" implies, well, making the headphone jacks smaller - but as we appear to have discussed thus far, a better solution would be a universal connector, which initially seems unfeasible.
I still find the idea of pogo pins a little unrefined. I'd just be so conscious of the possibility of breaking them...I mean, Master Locks are supposedly really high quality, and I just broke a new one last night. Totally coincidental, I know, but it happened. Meanwhile, every device I own using any kind of socket-based connector is functioning just fine...always have.
Real story:
Years ago I went to an in-store formal demo of a then new-and-cool-technology sampling keyboard. There was the usual initial on-stage banter from the musician/salesman, who then demoed some other features before getting to the main selling point. After demoing the concept of "sampling", he then pointed out that his entire lead-in monolog had been pre-recorded and played back via him pressing one key on the instrument's keyboard (he lip-synched to complete the effect). The attendees had been subjected to the new technology for much of the presentation and had simply assumed there was nothing out of the ordinary.
BTW: Great future news story!
MagSafe ?
The headphone socket is probably the most failure prone part of an iPod...
What if this was some sort of Magsafe type adapter.
Plug your headphones into a tiny adapter. And stick the adapter to a Magsafe type socket on your iPhone/iPod/iPad.
No more broken sockets... Hence an economy for under warranty repairs...
The headphone socket is probably the most failure prone part of an iPod...
What if this was some sort of Magsafe type adapter.
Plug your headphones into a tiny adapter. And stick the adapter to a Magsafe type socket on your iPhone/iPod/iPad.
No more broken sockets... Hence an economy for under warranty repairs...
Which it is - to do with the inside of the plug, that is. Even Apple, with all the influence they have in the portable audio world, isn't going to win that battle. The current headphone jack is safe for a while.
I'd say wireless is probably the future, but I'm not looking forward to it. It has many deficiencies, including the need to charge, interference and bandwidth among other things.
JAT, people probably jump to that conclusion empirically - look at Sony, for example, where nearly all their plugs and cords and cables and whatnot are proprietary and unique.
I guess people read something like this and immidiately presume the next step would be for Apple to, as speculated earlier in this thread, release and/or mandate some kind of replacement plug for either the audio out or the docking port - or both.
I rather doubt that would happen, given the amount of people who already own iPods, iPhones, etc. Apple's already got the market cornered, far as I can tell - why risk their standing?
I guess people read something like this and immidiately presume the next step would be for Apple to, as speculated earlier in this thread, release and/or mandate some kind of replacement plug for either the audio out or the docking port - or both.
I rather doubt that would happen, given the amount of people who already own iPods, iPhones, etc. Apple's already got the market cornered, far as I can tell - why risk their standing?
The most important thing to me is durability. The headphone jack on every ipod I've had becomes a bit of a problem after a year. If this fixes that, great. I'm sure they care about making everything extra small, but the iphone and nano are small enough. I wouldn't mind if they made the next iphone a little thicker so they could put at thicker battery in.
didn't know usb can't do video out amongst others...
The ones that poster listed can't.
Empirically? Without their glasses, perhaps? That was kinda my point, their observation and reading comprehension is DOA.
I'm not familiar with these Sony proprietary plugs. All I've ever seen are standard plugs on A/V and PC equipment:
Headphone (3.5mm)
RCA
HDMI
iLink
etc.
Or is that a Sony/Ericsson phone reference, I guess I'm not real familiar with those if they use something like Apple's proprietary dock.
Now, the more or less proprietary Sony Memory Stick is obnoxious, and has kept me from any serious interest in their cameras. They did get smart with the DSLRs, including SD compatibility.
The new Shuffle and Nano are small enough. Instead of working to get the plug smaller, they should focus all of their resources on making everything wireless. It's the headphone cord that is cumbersome, not the device.
It would be really cool to be able to put in a set of plugs (like hearing aids), and not have to attach a stupid headphone cord.
It would be really cool to be able to put in a set of plugs (like hearing aids), and not have to attach a stupid headphone cord.
I think there's a good reason why Apple as NOT decided to go with true wireless headphone connections for the iPod nano and shuffle: the unreliability of Bluetooth wireless connections. I cite two potential problems:
1) Potential RF interference from other RF sources.
2) Potential for your Bluetooth headphone to sync to the "wrong" iPod.
I'd still rather stick with the 3.5 mm headphone jack connection.
NO, not wireless. Why not build the ipod right into the earphones. Then you don't even need a wireless link. OK you might want a some kind of hand held remote control but no reason to have the music go over a wire or a wireless link.
Who needs smaller iPod Nano? Nobody but Apple. After certain size, the smaller the device the more difficult it is to use, so what' the point? The smaller the device the cheaper it is to manufacture hence the more profits for Apple. Just imagine the time when iPod will get as small as a needle. The only problem is that Apple need to brainwash people into believing that this is what they want.
I probably should. Having looked at the suggested design again, I believe that the piece will actually be bigger than the current design. The original article might have misinterpreted the intent of this patent.