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Fully Functional iPhone 7 Lightning EarPods Shown Off in New Video
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Who said I was driving?
That's what I get for assuming. ;-)
Thanks for the infographic @Ries. One can understand the restriction for safety reasons, but I certainly thought it was more widespread than that. Interesting. I wonder if the laws are just as similar for sunglasses that block the periphery why driving, or of that's more restrictive.
Sell? They come free in the box when you buy an iPhone.
Sure, they sell them at the stores, but most are getting it free with their iPhone (and iTouch?) purchase.
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They use it multiple times a day? For what, plugging in earbuds? Buy an adapter. Problem solved.
Or, ya know, wireless like the way everything is going.
Absolutely no chance at all!
I have a new 6s that works perfectly. My plan is to keep it for 12 to 18 months, buy one more 6s as the model approaches end of life so I have a new device (good battery), then revaluate Android roughly 18 months from now.
I have been fiercely loyal to the iPhone since the 3S because I love IOS, but as the hardware platforms between Apple and Samsung seem to be reaching parity, I am willing to take another look at Samsung (running Android) in a year or two. Personally I don't like Android and I would miss features like iMessage, but I'm willing to take another look at an Android platform if I can keep the 3.5mm audio jack.
At this point, my 6s works perfectly and has the 3.5mm audio jack that I can use with my nice $350 headphones that also use ... guess what ... a 3.5mm audio jack, which also works on my iPad, Dell Laptop, Desktop computer, my car, many hotel entertainment systems, even when I travel on United airlines which include ... drum roll please ... a 3.5mm audio jack in most passenger seats.
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Yeah sell, free is when you walk into a store and they give you a pair. Being bundled with an iPhone or iPod it's part of the price.
What if you own an iPad.
Beats range ?
They also dont last too long, so yeah, apple sell replacements.
There are no free EarPods .
But the digital broadcast was way superior to the analogue, so it was progress. There is no such advantage from losing the headphone jack.
I'm sure there are those who didn't think digital broadcast were superior. Also, it's not known what is "replacing" it, and as I said, you will be able to connect your headphone with the 3.5mm jack to the iphone, just using a different method.
You keep bring up those headphone jacks in the United Airlines seats ... The last time I flew United I had to use a two prong adapter, or rent the cheap airline headphones.
Also, you're assuming there's anything I want to listen to coming over that headset jack in the seat.
I fly American. They are converting to in-seat flat screen entertainment systems. They have a headphone jack, but they also have a USB port, and who knows maybe even wireless to future proof it. They also have a DIN 9 connector for some reason. Point is, I may be able to plug into that system with a USB cable I'm already carrying with my chargers and cables. And at a minimum I can bring an adapter to plug in. Or my new favorite method, a $20 BT dongle. No more having to unplug my headset to let another passenger out, or to go to the bathroom myself.
Frankly that's my new travel accessory after renting a car which only had a 3.5mm jack and not being able to find a male-to-make cable at a convenience store (but they had a rack of lightning accessories), which I only needed for that one rental car, since I never use such a cable anywhere else.
It's all perspective.
Well, in the case of the removal of the 3.5 mm jack, it should be no mystery what is ahead, as Lightning Headphones are available today - but aren't really successful so it seems.
The majority who appreciate good audio will have selected their headphones with a relatively low impedance so a mobile device has no problems running them. Or they listen to music on dedicated high end portable devices, or have high end external amplifiers - and headphones connected to them via a 3.5 mm jack...
And apart from the connector, there will be nothing digital about Lightning Headphones. The conversion and amplification of your soundfiles into an analog audible signal will take place 5 cm closer to your ears than before and you have two basically carry DACs and amplifiers. One pair sitting idle onside your phone.
And all this with a more complicated connector and internal cable arrangements which will be less rigid than the 3.5 mm connector: 3.5 mm cables has less internal leads, connector can rotate a bit and a cylindric shape provides more strength.
Problem is that method is vastly less rugged. My headphones have a 90 degree plug on them so the phone sits in my jeans pocket and the headphone plug sticks out 5-6mm at most, meaning it is very unlikely that you can press it sideways with enough force to do any damage. Now the lightning plug is totally the opposite - lard plastic, long, and much easier to break - plug that into you phone, put it in your pocket and sit down. I give the connector less than a week and it's broken.
There will need to be a flexible low profile lightning connector developed in order to come close to the ruggedness of the existing 3.5mm jack
What are you going to do if Samsung copies Apple as they usually do, and remove the 3.5mm audio jack on their phone?
My guess is you won't find the new arrangement (what ever it is) on the new iPhone to be an issue, and you like all the others moaning and pissing here, will buy one.
Not really a parallel. We moved to digital audio years before digital broadcast TV with the the CD and then MP3. Also, brand new TVs retain legacy analog inputs, and brand new receivers have analog speaker outputs and probably always will.
Having to drive an external DAC to use headphones is simply a nuisance.
Sorry no. Most inexpensive consumer TVs cut out most legacy ports. No VGA, no headphone jack, and no analogue audio outputs.
Also, there were plenty of HD TVs on the market before the conversion. But they weren't very popular. Sound familiar?
There was little HD content before the switch, and what there was was hard to find. A little like lossless audio and the iPhone. If someone wanted a Lightning headphone now, I wouldn't recommend it because it's nowhere near plug and play even though it has the potential to sound much better than what the iPhone is capable of outputing through its headphone jack -- and that's not because of the DAC, but mainly the amp.
"Deleted" is a term for the virtual realm - you can't "delete" PHYSICAL THINGS.
And yet I've broken a number of 3.5mm jacks in this fashion, usually resulting in the jack itself breaking because it's so deeply embedded in the device and inflexible. Granted not using a 90 degree adapter (isn't that what people are trying to avoid here?), but then most don't use 90 degree adapters. It doesn't really seem to be a widespread problem.
If the Lightning connector does break, it will most likely be the plug. However, since it's not as breaks embedded, I'd bet it will pop out before it breaks.
In any event you can bet after several seasons of bend gate, and Pencil gate, Apple has thoroughly tested this.
And if they haven't, what about a low-profile 90 degree connector on that adapter everyone is so opposed to using?
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If something is pre-exists on an older device and is removed from a newer device, it's considered deleted. But thanks for defining the term deleted for me.
Go ahead and find a TV that does not have analogue outputs . Or legacy ports.
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But you still cannot receive an analog broadcast even though there are "legacy" connectors on the TV is the point.
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Maybe that's already been thought of. I don't know.
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Unfortunately there may be some who have to go back to the drawing board, if this doesn't work for them. I'm keeping an open mind until after the announcement.
Some good points to consider. Yes, only sometimes is there something interesting on in-flight entertainment.
I bring up the airline example because the 3.5mm audio connector is so popular that even major aircraft manufacturers have adopted it, and they are really slow to adopt anything (remember the audio "tube" headsets we had for decades, they were absolutely awful).
It would have been nice if Apple worked to develop a new standard that would be adopted by so many companies, but I'm absolutely sure the Lighting connector will never be as popular or adopted across such a diverse group of manufacturers like the 3.5mm jack.
The dual prong connector was/is the audio standard used by Delta Airlines. Of the two prongs, one was stereo (3.5mm) the other mono (a little narrower if I remember), but you can plug a single 3.5mm into the larger port of the dual connector and it works just fine. American, like United, Delta, and others are offering USB but I believe that is for power (at least for now). My last flight from the US to the UK, a few months ago, was on American in business class and on that flight the only thing I could use the USB connector for was to power my iPad.
Because the 3.5mm is so ubiquitous, many of us didn't need to carry certain audio adapters like a Lightning to 3.5mm (assuming there will be an adapter like that).
I still contend that removal of the 3.5mm is not like the twilightning of the floppy or CD, it's a standard used across so many types of devices by so many different manufacturers and it made it so easy for consumer to simply "plug in".
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Good point about HD TVs not receiving analogue broadcasts anymore. I remember the early flat screens that came out before the transition had an analogue tuner and a digital tuner. Now there are only digital tuners, despite the fact there are in fact some analogue broadcasters still out there.
Apple has certainly tested the durability of the Lightning port for use in this manner, and we may find that they have modified the design on the headphones, just as the Lightning plug on the Pencil is flexible.
Like Lightning, there were plenty of HD TVs on the market before the conversion. But they weren't very popular. There was little HD content before the switch, and what there was was hard to find. A little like lossless audio and the iPhone. If someone wanted a Lightning headphone now, I wouldn't recommend it because it's nowhere near plug and play even though it has the potential to sound much better than what the iPhone is capable of outputing through its headphone jack, and it has nothing to do with the connector, but more to do with the electronics.
Also what is this obsession with some people obsessed with parsing the semantics over whether there are digital headphones? It fairly clear were discussing the implementation of signal transmission and not literally listening to a digital signal plugged directly into the brain, but I digress.
I also don't understand these people who think a headphone jack should rotate. If the shaft itself rotates in the jack during normal use, then it's too loose, otherwise twisting the cable will result in strain. And if the plug is too loose, then there can be poor contact, and static, noise and other dropouts. I've had many a jack replaced over the years due to loose jacks.
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You're saying United only offers a 3.5mm Jack in the armrest for their in-flight entertainment? Are there individual screens at each seat? I haven't flown United in a long time. Do they have USB for charging at the seats?
I think we both agree airlines have updated their headphone technology and inflight entertainment over the years, and will continue to do so. The 3.5mm Jack will be around for a while longer, and I doubt any airline will ever adopt Lightning.
But I suspect they will all offer USB. And it's possible for USB to do more than supply power. Much of the debate is about what's currently available, or how something is currently being used. But as I pointed out with American's system, they seem to be future proof, possibly even with Bluetooth. I would be surprised if that weren't the case with all airlines as they upgrade their entertainment systems. And once Apple removes the headphone jack, and other phone makers follow suit, at some point the airlines will update to accomodate that -- and some appear to be prepared to do just that.
I do in fact see a simple and cheap Lightning to 3.5mm adapter, something the airlines could even keep on hand, which would pass through the analogue signal from the 3.5mm Jack in the entertainment directly to the transducers in the headphones. Essentially the adapter tells the Lightning chip that it's connected to analogue signal and then the signal bypasses the DAC. It's not part of the specs now, but then there are not analogue applications of Lightning. And it makes a lot more sense than a digital device converting a digital signal to analogue, using an adapter to convert it back to digital just to get it back into the headphones, where its then converted to analogue again.
The only comment I have about your last point is that as a society were moving away from analogue only equipment, and getting our audio increasingly from digital sources like phones and computers, and TVs, etc. and increasingly were getting it via wireless devices like BT speakers, and receivers. So the wired connector is ultimately going to go away for the average consumer. As long as your headphones can connect wirelessly, plugging in becomes less and less relevant, and the universal compatibility less and less important.
He mentioned an iPad too, just jack into that instead and avoid the dreaded "announcement in progress" interruptions on the in flight entertainment system. You don't even have to bring your own media as most flights I've been on will let you freely access movies on your own device via the go go Wifi (without paying the $16 even).
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If we're really going to get pedantic the word delete dates back to at least the 17th century in English usage (prior etymology goes back to Latin) greatly predating the "virtual realm," although traditionally used in reference to writing/typesetting. Given that English is a living language I would find this context to be a lesser used connotation but legitimate.
There's already a pair of cheap headphones on my seat as I board the plane or the flight attendant tries to hand me one during taxiing (I've taken a couple and subsequently handed them out to people in Sky Clubs that think the rest of us want to listen to whatever they have on their laptop/iPad
). That could certainly be extended to cheap adapters instead, who knows. I don't know about in flight entertainment being extended to allow USB/Bluetooth/lightning though. There have already been cases of people hacking the IFE through access ports and it has been claimed that from the IFE at least one researcher was able to move laterally into the flight control system. I'd expect the manufacturers and FAA are getting mighty paranoid about those systems' security now and probably allowing as little access as possible.
A lot of beats wearers and just about a million of other folks with regular headphones will now have to buy an adapter. An APPLE adapter that costs $49 dollars right?
There's already a pair of cheap headphones on my seat as I board the plane or the flight attendant tries to hand me one during taxiing (I've taken a couple and subsequently handed them out to people in Sky Clubs that think the rest of us want to listen to whatever they have on their laptop/iPad
Oh yes, you're right. I remember now, and I remember people asking why the in-flight entertainment system would be on the same subnet as the cockpit. The two things shouldn't even be on the same wiring grid.
If they can't figure out a way to isolate the two networks, then I guess the airlines will have to offer cheap adapters for USB-C and Lightning.