Fully Functional iPhone 7 Lightning EarPods Shown Off in New Video

[Born Again]

Cringe at this guy gushing on them. Zero benefits of a lightening connector matter when talking about the removal of a port. The iPhone 6S has the same damn lightening port - and the same headphones have all the same advantages when you use it. Apple removing the port is the topic - not how cool a lightening port is.

Also - No other differences? Really - how about the significant move of the control piece to pre-split of the wires? And why does holding the up volume button skip tracks? This is done by double clicking the middle button which he clearly was not doing.

for one they should have made it usb 3

two - improve the audio.

why get rid of it if youre not offering a better experience?

 

[craig1410]

for one they should have made it usb 3

two - improve the audio.

why get rid of it if youre not offering a better experience?

Did you really mean USB 3? Odd choice.

The future is wireless so all Apple are doing here is giving people who are used to having wired headphones continuity. Personally I have never even unpacked my iPhone 7+ lightning earbuds and it was the same story with my iPhone 6 before it.

I have a pair of Backbeat Fit Bluetooth earphones which I use a lot but once my AirPods arrive I expect I will use those instead.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple unbundle the wired earbuds in the next iPhone as I surely can't be the only person who never uses them. I also don't miss the headphone jack which only collected pocket lint.

 

[Born Again]

Did you really mean USB 3? Odd choice.

The future is wireless so all Apple are doing here is giving people who are used to having wired headphones continuity. Personally I have never even unpacked my iPhone 7+ lightning earbuds and it was the same story with my iPhone 6 before it.

I have a pair of Backbeat Fit Bluetooth earphones which I use a lot but once my AirPods arrive I expect I will use those instead.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple unbundle the wired earbuds in the next iPhone as I surely can't be the only person who never uses them. I also don't miss the headphone jack which only collected pocket lint.

usb 3.0 is the future. lighting is not. how does one connect their lightning headphones to a macbook pro with usb 3 ports? they dont.

while bluetooth offers great convenience - i had the bose qc35s and now the sony 1000x bt headphones - it still doesn't provide a greater audio experience than a good pair of headphones.

and that's very unlike apple. take away something and give them less.

 

[SteveW928]

The upside is that the lightening jack sounds better. That's been proven in the hi-end audio industry to be a fact.

*CAN* sound better, if you have a high enough quality external D/A and, then, analog path and speakers in the headphones. In actuality, the audio quality of the stock setup is lower (not a lot, but a bit).

The future is wireless so all Apple are doing here is giving people who are used to having wired headphones continuity.

Gosh, I hope not. While I love wireless, I don't want it to be the default or only option. First, there are potential health concerns. Not everyone wants to be forced to wireless. Second, there are times when you want the stability/bandwidth of a wired connection. Lightening can certainly do that job (USB-C, even better), but this idea of it all going wireless, I hope doesn't come to pass.

usb 3.0 is the future. lighting is not.
...
while bluetooth offers great convenience ... it still doesn't provide a greater audio experience than a good pair of headphones.
...
and that's very unlike apple. take away something and give them less.

USB-C is probably more familiar, as we're already up to what, v3.1 something-something? But, you're right that Lightening was a very bad choice. If they were going to make a radical change for the future, then get brave and really do it right. They chickened out because of an existing cable/device market, while still forging ahead on getting rid of the standard 3.5mm.

Bluetooth (or wireless) is about convenience, for sure. It's a tradeoff (or set of tradeoffs). I suppose the new Bluetooth spec can almost match a 3.5mm jack in quality? It didn't previously.

And, I'd say that's not unlike the new Apple at all. UX isn't much of a concern anymore, it's about what benefits Apple and their plans/profits. Sadly, what we long-term Apple users came to expect from Apple seems to have died with Jobs.

 

[craig1410]

usb 3.0 is the future. lighting is not. how does one connect their lightning headphones to a macbook pro with usb 3 ports? they dont.

while bluetooth offers great convenience - i had the bose qc35s and now the sony 1000x bt headphones - it still doesn't provide a greater audio experience than a good pair of headphones.

and that's very unlike apple. take away something and give them less.

I presume you mean they should have used USB-C because I think the focus here is on the connector, not on the protocol running across that connector. I've just got a new MBP+TB and I love the USB-C connector speaking as an electronics engineer because it is technically fantastic.

However, I don't think USB-C would be a good choice for the iPhone compared to lightning because lightning is so much easier to insert and remove. If you look at the physical arrangement of lightning it is just a single "blade" which is inserted into a slot with nice rounded edges and it positively locks in with those little detents. The USB-C connector on the other hand is physically much more complex being both "female" in terms of the contacts and also male in terms of the outer shell. It is also physically wider and thicker than lightning. It is considerably harder to insert and remove USB-C on my MBP than it to insert and remove lightning on my iPhone. You've also got to ask the question of what benefit USB-C would bring that lightning doesn't already have? For example, on the iPad Pro, you can run USB 3 over lightning to download images from the Apple SD Card adapter.

I for one think there is room to have both lightning AND USB-C to service the iPhone/iPad and laptop/desktop devices respectively.
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Gosh, I hope not. While I love wireless, I don't want it to be the default or only option. First, there are potential health concerns. Not everyone wants to be forced to wireless. Second, there are times when you want the stability/bandwidth of a wired connection. Lightening can certainly do that job (USB-C, even better), but this idea of it all going wireless, I hope doesn't come to pass.

USB-C is probably more familiar, as we're already up to what, v3.1 something-something? But, you're right that Lightening was a very bad choice. If they were going to make a radical change for the future, then get brave and really do it right. They chickened out because of an existing cable/device market, while still forging ahead on getting rid of the standard 3.5mm.

Bluetooth (or wireless) is about convenience, for sure. It's a tradeoff (or set of tradeoffs). I suppose the new Bluetooth spec can almost match a 3.5mm jack in quality? It didn't previously.

I'm not suggesting that wireless would be forced on you, I just don't think we need a dedicated headphone jack any more when many people will choose wireless and those who don't want wireless can use the general purpose I/O port currently lightning.

You say lightning was a bad choice but I think you forget what the state of play was when Apple released it. We were still using that hideous 30-pin dock connector and USB-C was nowhere to be seen. So our choices were really mini-USB or micro-USB and neither of those is attractive as they are not reversible and are not easy to insert/remove. Lightning was designed to be reversible and easy to use while also supporting a wide range of connectivity previously delivered by the 30-pin dock connector over a much reduced connector size.

Yes, I agree that BT/Wireless is about convenience and as you say the sound quality is perfectly good enough for all but the most specialised of use cases or users. I certainly don't want to have to thread cables up and down my sleeves when I go out walking my dogs while listening to podcasts. I also don't want my earphones yanked out when I get tangled up with the dog leads or even worse, for my phone to get yanked out of my hand. AirPods plus Apple Watch is the future for me I think(hope).

 

[SteveW928]

I presume you mean they should have used USB-C because I think the focus here is on the connector, not on the protocol running across that connector. I've just got a new MBP+TB and I love the USB-C connector speaking as an electronics engineer because it is technically fantastic.
...
However, I don't think USB-C would be a good choice for the iPhone compared to lightning because lightning is so much easier to insert and remove.
...
You've also got to ask the question of what benefit USB-C would bring that lightning doesn't already have?

re: USB-C - for sure, as the 2015 MBP has USB 3. I don't think an iPhone needs a more advanced connector in terms of technical capability. It's more about universal compatibility and the physical nature of the connector.

So, the benefit would be that *IF* audio product makers are going to start building device to a new standard connector (Apple's argument), then hopefully that would be some actual standard, not Lightening.

You say lightning was a bad choice but I think you forget what the state of play was when Apple released it.
...
I also don't want my earphones yanked out when I get tangled up with the dog leads or even worse, for my phone to get yanked out of my hand. AirPods plus Apple Watch is the future for me I think(hope).

Oh, yes, back when the 30-pin connector came out, there wasn't anything very good. But, I guess I'm playing off Apple supposedly making a bold move. A bold move would have been to make a real change to an actual standard, to replace a standard (they eliminated). It's more about the overall audio industry then iPhones. If we're serious that 3.5mm is 'outdated' and we need a new standards, then move to a new standard. Lightening (or IMO, USB-C) isn't the new audio standard.

I don't have much experience with USB-C, so you might be right about being harder to connect. But, just looking at the photos, USB-C looks like a more robust connection (physically). What I'm afraid of with the Lightening adapter, is that it's going to break the connector, connection, or worse, the port on the actual phone with the same kind of abuse a 3.5mm took.

re: earphones yanked - Oh yea, I hear you there. I've had that happen a LOT. I go through a set of earphones about 2x to 3x per year. BUT, they break the headphones, not the phone. I suppose if it ripped the phone out and on the ground, I agree (hasn't happened yet).

My main concern with going wireless though, is health. I'm fine using it for a phone call, or once in a while when using a cord is physically a problem (instead of just a nuisance), but I'm not crazy about sticking a RF source in my ear for many hours at a time. While I don't know it's harmful, I also know enough about epigenetic impact that I'm not willing to take the chance.

 

[craig1410]

re: USB-C - for sure, as the 2015 MBP has USB 3. I don't think an iPhone needs a more advanced connector in terms of technical capability. It's more about universal compatibility and the physical nature of the connector.

So, the benefit would be that *IF* audio product makers are going to start building device to a new standard connector (Apple's argument), then hopefully that would be some actual standard, not Lightening.



Oh, yes, back when the 30-pin connector came out, there wasn't anything very good. But, I guess I'm playing off Apple supposedly making a bold move. A bold move would have been to make a real change to an actual standard, to replace a standard (they eliminated). It's more about the overall audio industry then iPhones. If we're serious that 3.5mm is 'outdated' and we need a new standards, then move to a new standard. Lightening (or IMO, USB-C) isn't the new audio standard.

I don't have much experience with USB-C, so you might be right about being harder to connect. But, just looking at the photos, USB-C looks like a more robust connection (physically). What I'm afraid of with the Lightening adapter, is that it's going to break the connector, connection, or worse, the port on the actual phone with the same kind of abuse a 3.5mm took.

re: earphones yanked - Oh yea, I hear you there. I've had that happen a LOT. I go through a set of earphones about 2x to 3x per year. BUT, they break the headphones, not the phone. I suppose if it ripped the phone out and on the ground, I agree (hasn't happened yet).

My main concern with going wireless though, is health. I'm fine using it for a phone call, or once in a while when using a cord is physically a problem (instead of just a nuisance), but I'm not crazy about sticking a RF source in my ear for many hours at a time. While I don't know it's harmful, I also know enough about epigenetic impact that I'm not willing to take the chance.

Interestingly, one of the notable advantages of lightning is that it is designed for the cable to fail rather than the port the cable is plugged into.

Re bold moves, Apple are bolder than most when it comes to leaving behind outdated technology and standards but I don't think it's time yet to leave behind lightning. The 30-pin dock connector was around for a while and when it was superseded, there was considerable resistance from the public even though in that case the advantages were very clear. To move from lightning to USB-C when the advantages are not so clear, and where additional cost might be incurred by the much more complex connector, I don't think the public would be very happy! I certainly wouldn't be as I have quite a collection of lightning devices and dongles now.

Anyway, my AirPods have now shipped and should be with me tomorrow although I'll need to wait until Christmas Day before I'm allowed to try them out...

 

[SteveW928]

Interestingly, one of the notable advantages of lightning is that it is designed for the cable to fail rather than the port the cable is plugged into.

Well, that's a good thing... but compared to what? On my son's iPad, wiggling the connector can cause it to lose charge connection. I'm assuming the same will happen to the audio signal. While 3.5mm isn't perfect, it's a pretty darn stable audio connection. It also seems designed for the cable to fail before the actual connection.

... but I don't think it's time yet to leave behind lightning. ... I don't think the public would be very happy! I certainly wouldn't be as I have quite a collection of lightning devices and dongles now.

I'm talking more about if we're truly trying to create a new audio connection standard. People won't be too happy if they invest in a lot of Lightening based devices either, if it moves on to something else in a couple of years. My point is that if we're trying to replace the 3.5mm jack with a new standard, then it should be a standard (industry wide).

But, I don't think Apple's move had anything to do with replacing an outdated standard. They wanted that space and Ives wanted a 'cleaner' case design, so they took it out and made up lots of stupid excuses (rather than just telling the truth). That's what has me a bit ticked off. (And, that it's something I actually use daily for several hours.)

Anyway, my AirPods have now shipped and should be with me tomorrow although I'll need to wait until Christmas Day before I'm allowed to try them out...

My iPhone SE is on the way too... w/ 3.5mm jack. I'm hoping that lasts for a few years until this silliness blows over. Then I can reconsider my future path for mobile devices.

I'll probably get a pair of AirPods as well for occasional use. However, if you're planning on using them for long periods of time, I'd google 'epigenetic' and maybe cellular communication, protein folding, etc. and do a bit of reading. It *might* be safe, but I wouldn't be betting on it.

 

[craig1410]

Well, that's a good thing... but compared to what? On my son's iPad, wiggling the connector can cause it to lose charge connection. I'm assuming the same will happen to the audio signal. While 3.5mm isn't perfect, it's a pretty darn stable audio connection. It also seems designed for the cable to fail before the actual connection.



I'm talking more about if we're truly trying to create a new audio connection standard. People won't be too happy if they invest in a lot of Lightening based devices either, if it moves on to something else in a couple of years. My point is that if we're trying to replace the 3.5mm jack with a new standard, then it should be a standard (industry wide).

But, I don't think Apple's move had anything to do with replacing an outdated standard. They wanted that space and Ives wanted a 'cleaner' case design, so they took it out and made up lots of stupid excuses (rather than just telling the truth). That's what has me a bit ticked off. (And, that it's something I actually use daily for several hours.)



My iPhone SE is on the way too... w/ 3.5mm jack. I'm hoping that lasts for a few years until this silliness blows over. Then I can reconsider my future path for mobile devices.

I'll probably get a pair of AirPods as well for occasional use. However, if you're planning on using them for long periods of time, I'd google 'epigenetic' and maybe cellular communication, protein folding, etc. and do a bit of reading. It *might* be safe, but I wouldn't be betting on it.

Yes, heavily used or abused lightning cables can fail just like any other cable, the 3.5mm jack cable included. I've had plenty of headphone and microphone cables which would pop and crackle when moved in the past. Usually fixed by removing pocket lint.

Lightning is not designed to be a new audio connection standard which is perhaps where you misunderstand. It is simply a robust, easy to insert, compact multi-function digital connector which was designed specifically with the needs of a smartphone or tablet in mind. USB-C was designed with other priorities in mind which is why I think there is room for both. By the way, it's Lightning, not Lightening.

Also, Apple didn't "replace" the 3.5mm jack with lightning, they both co-exited for several years. I honestly believe that Apple are simply discarding the 3.5mm jack socket due to their knowledge from analytics of how usage patterns are changing towards wireless audio and their preference for simplicity and fewer dust/water ingress points. It makes perfect sense to discard the 3.5mm socket on that basis.

If you use the 3.5mm socket for hours daily then why not just use the 3.5mm to lightning dongle or if working at a desk then just buy an iPhone dock which has a 3.5mm socket on the back so you can charge and listen at the same time. It's not as if Apple hasn't provided plenty of solutions to those who see this as a problem.

Thanks for the suggestion about reading up on potential harm of wireless devices but to be honest I think we have far more serious health concerns to worry about before we worry about low power electromagnetic signal damage. Top of my list would be to reduce the amount of unnecessary prescription medicines we take and go back to cooking food from raw ingredients like our grandparents used to do and eat healthy fats and proteins instead of processed carbs. I could list another 10 health-related concerns before I even thought about wireless devices but I'll restrain myself for now! I think going for a jog while listening to a podcast on my bluetooth headphones will still be a net win!

 

[SteveW928]

Yes, heavily used or abused lightning cables can fail just like any other cable, the 3.5mm jack cable included. I've had plenty of headphone and microphone cables which would pop and crackle when moved in the past.

But, that crackle was because of the cable, right? Not the 3.5mm port itself? And, I agree that any connector can only take so much abuse. But, my son's Lightning connector on his iPad is getting flaky, regardless of the cable. The port itself seems to have been damaged. Now, he's not overly careful with it (as much as I try to stress that), but if I have a phone in my pocket (which I do daily with 3.5mm), how long will it be before it gets the amount of abuse my son provided... 1 month, 3 months? I guess we'll see, but I have a hard time believing a Lightning will take the abuse of a 3.5mm port.

Lightning is not designed to be a new audio connection standard which is perhaps where you misunderstand. ... By the way, it's Lightning, not Lightening.

Noted.

But, Apple does seem to be pushing it as the replacement for the antiquated 3.5mm. I guess you're saying it's just a transitional thing? Isn't Apple encouraging headphone makers to start putting Lightning connectors instead of 3.5mm? If it's not some new standard, shouldn't we stick to dongles or some 'whatever the new standard is' to Lightning dongles?

Also, Apple didn't "replace" the 3.5mm jack with lightning, they both co-exited for several years. I honestly believe that Apple are simply discarding the 3.5mm jack socket due to their knowledge from analytics of how usage patterns are changing towards wireless audio and their preference for simplicity and fewer dust/water ingress points. It makes perfect sense to discard the 3.5mm socket on that basis.

Exactly... it had little to do with a new standard (or a 3.5mm being legacy), and everything to do with Apple wanting that space and port gone. And, I'm not sure about any usage patterns... I rarely saw anyone using wireless headphones... they were always wired, into that legacy 3.5mm port.

If you use the 3.5mm socket for hours daily then why not just use the 3.5mm to lightning dongle...

I did one better... I just ordered an SE (w/ 3.5mm port). I suppose I'd try that dongle, but as above, I just don't trust it. I'll have to see how things go first, and then decide when it comes time for a new phone again.

Thanks for the suggestion about reading up on potential harm of wireless devices but to be honest I think we have far more serious health concerns to worry about before we worry about low power electromagnetic signal damage.

I sort of agree. The problem is that we just don't know the impact. I know I can't be free of RF (without living in a Faraday Cage), but I can reduce the big stuff. And, having a transmitter in your ear is about the worst situation, even if it is lower power. It's way more power than other things that are many meters away.

BTW, since you mentioned that whole list of stuff, you might be interested in a podcast called The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson. It's kind of like top fitness/nutrition meets science program.