Google Kills Headphone Jack in Latest Pixel 6A Just Months After Parodying Apple

[PC_tech]

Qualcomm is doing that job on behalf of Google and bought the firm working on this. They have been sued by Apple now for stealing documents when leaving their positions at Apple.

Are you referring to the new chip startup that was on the front page the other day? It wasn’t Qualcomm or Google ?

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

I disagree. I think it was done to make the phone thinner and more water resistant.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 (2015) was amongst many IP68 devices released that year with a headphone jack and waterproofing. The iPhone 7 was 0.2mm thinner than the already quite nice 6S.

I could argue that they got rid of it to make room for the taptic engine on the regular 7 but the 7+ had plenty of space.

 

[MajorFubar]

There was a guy on YT who fitted a HP jack to his iPhone 7. He had Jedi Master levels of skill at shuffling parts around inside the phone and soldering wires thinner than a gnat's pube, but in the end it could be made to fit.

 

[bookofxero]

I'm old enough to remember Apple getting rid of the 3.5" floppy drive and the shock it generated. Didn't take long for everyone else to follow. When the headphone jack disappeared from the iPhone it probably mostly affected those people using GarageBand on their iPhones, because BT headphones have too much latency. So from that point on you had to use dongles if you wanted to both charge your phone and use a headphone adaptor. Most other people had already moved over to BT headphones I reckon, and were almost completely unaffected.

3.5" floppy drive, 3.5mm headphone jack... maybe Apple just doesn't like the number 3.5. ??‍♂️

 

[Rogifan]

I’ve never understood the point of mocking other companies. Who is it for? The Very Online who live on Twitter? The techies and fanboys who frequent sites like The Verge? I highly doubt it actually generates sales.

 

[typecase]

I still miss the headphone jack. Charging and listening is something I miss. Losing a dongle on a flight, etc. Frustrating. One of the worse decisions, IMHO.

 

[wonderings]

Yah, you forgot the convenience and ease of use part. Wireless is way better. There are the few that will claim that they can "hear" the difference, and I bet some can. The funny part is that some of them who claimed to hear the difference, actually couldn't on a blind test. Also, almost all music is in frequencies under 10 kHz, get a sound generator on your phone check it out. 15khz, 20khz, that is a joke, no mucic ever played up there

That is not the debate here, it is whether it was blown out of proportion when announced. AirPods sound fine to me, I am no audiophile. The removal of the headphone jack was to push sales for Apples AirPods, they could have easily have gone with a headphone jack and sold AirPods alone but that would not have been good for selling AirPods. None of this is wrong by the way, they are a company in it to make money. We just have to remember that Apple is not some righteous company looking out for us the consumer, they do what makes them money and are not all that concerned about the benefits to mankind.

 

[MatthewUT44]

Companies can change? This article is nothing but rage bait. This is a pro apple forum of course everyone will egg this on.

 

[bsimpsen]

Oh, I understand full well that Tim Cook cares more about money than functionality.

Money comes from customers, ya know. It did seem that Jony Ive cared more about forum than function, but now that he's gone, it seems that functionality is returning and the money is right behind it.

 

[lkrupp]

Samsung also made Apple snark years back.

The whole ‘removal of the 3.5 mm Jack’, was blown way out of proportion. Consumers were already using Bluetooth devices when it was removed on the iPhone 7 in 2016. All Apple was doing was paving the way for the future, some understood that, and others refused to adapt. For me personally, the AirPods made that transition much more seamless given how easily they connected and the simplicity of use.

Remember the hilarious straw man arguments? I CAN’T CHARGE AND LISTEN AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!! Tech luddites are real and they scream about everything that changes.

 

[now i see it]

$449 for a new phone is what they should all cost.
$1000 smartphones are insane

 

[Kabeyun]

Anecdotal evidence is not proof it was blown or not blow out of proportion. I could simply counter that and I say (and it is true for me) that I did not know a single person with wireless headphones yet. Now everyone has them because if they want to continue using their phone to listen to music privately and with good audio they have to have wireless headphones or get a dongle.

If the majority of the world was using wireless headphones already then it would not have blown up because it would be a real "meh" announcement that did not effect them.

Now I am not saying wireless is bad for headphones, I like the simplicity of it, but they are pushing this tech to make money, and what better way of making more money than removing the option to use what you already own. Now Apple did give a dongle with the first iPhone (can't remember which model that was) that did not have the headphone jack, but they stopped that pretty shortly after, or even with the next release.

First of all, if everyone’s fine w switching to wireless, that proves Apple was right, not wrong. This is what leaders do… lead.

Second of all, there are plenty of wireless headphone makers out there besides Apple. Most of them, in fact.

Third of all, technically I think you mean an adapter, not a dongle. And if for some reason you demand listening to your iPhone through a wire you can still buy a lightning-to-3.5mm adapter. It will set you back nine dollars.

 

[Mousse]

Who cares, this is an Apple-centric site. Knowing Google, six months from now they’ll re-introduce it.

I certainly hope so. I prefer wired headphones. What do I care if a bunch of hipsters scoff at my headphones with its "poverty cords." My priority ain't to impress a bunch of people I don't care about.

Gawd, I'm tire of them removing function for the sake of esthetics. Function over form for me. I'm a practical guy; the if it look stupid but it works it ain't stupid guy.

 

[yabeweb]

Absolutely it was blown out of proportion on the Internet.

I never came across one person that cared about the headphone jack being removed outside this forum,

Guess you don't go out much...

 

[I7guy]

$449 for a new phone is what they should all cost.
$1000 smartphones are insane

Agreed. And luxury cars should start at $20k.

 

[_Spinn_]

Wow, imagine that 🤣

 

[sw1tcher]

Google on Wednesday unveiled its latest mid-range 5G smartphone, the Pixel 6A, and for the first time, this A-series model is missing a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Makes it harder to sell lots of Pixel Buds or their newly announced Pixel Buds Pro if you don't remove the 3.5mm jack

 

[robd003]

If Google didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all.

 

[cyanite]

The 3.5mm headphone jack was more of a commercial decision to push lightning more (and those sweet mfi payments) as well as push people towards the bluetooth headphones of the brand it just acquired from Dr. Dre. It was less 'brave' and more 'we can get even richer'.

I mean, according to your speculation at least. The above isn’t the stated reason.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The 3.5mm headphone jack was more of a commercial decision to push lightning more (and those sweet mfi payments) as well as push people towards the bluetooth headphones of the brand it just acquired from Dr. Dre. It was less 'brave' and more 'we can get even richer'.

Wait, there’s mfi payments on Bluetooth headphones? Someone better reach out to Bose and let them know as they don’t have mfi for their Bose Sports! Or, did you mean there’s mfi payments on wired headphones that use the standard lightning to headphone jack connector? Because, that’d be weird as there’s nothing proprietary about wired headphones that would require mfi…

OR do you mean there’s mfi payments on wired headphones that use lightning? Because if that’s the case, it’s kind of a failure. Checking Best Buy for wired lightning headphones, there’s Apple, Beats (by Apple), and Skullcandy. I’m sure Skullcandy isn’t bringing in a lot of licensing fees

 

[Iconoclysm]

While it was idiotic of Apple to remove the headphone jack, it is much more idiotic for Google and Samsung to make fun of Apple for it and then later copy it. Apple may choose to have a stupid conviction (like removing the headphone jack), but Google and Samsung have no conviction, which is even worse.

That headphone jack takes up more space in a phone than the entire FaceID array. It is not Apple's fault that 1970's technology was still persisting into the present...and Apple has probably made more devices with headphone jacks than even Sony in the 80's and 90's. They said it took courage, and man has that been proven over and over again.

 

[Iconoclysm]

The market was going that way anyway with Firewire and the Floppy. Apple just got there first (and was with Firewire really its last remaining supporter)

The 3.5mm headphone jack was more of a commercial decision to push lightning more (and those sweet mfi payments) as well as push people towards the bluetooth headphones of the brand it just acquired from Dr. Dre. It was less 'brave' and more 'we can get even richer'.

Still, if you're missing one and want a 'Pro' phone with actual features you might consider to be professional like a 3.5mm jack, an actual telephoto lens instead of a fixed zoom, bottomless manual controls, records 4K120 on all its lenses, has the software to match all this and uses terminology grown-ups use then I hear Sony has you covered.

You're seriously just pulling this crap out of thin air. Apple got zero mfi payments by including a lightning dongle and their own lightning earbuds. They're still charging practically cost for that lightning dongle, by the way. And this nonsense around mfi being some kind of cash cow really has to go - if Apple were making anything relevant from the program, it would show up on their earnings reports.

The brand they acquired from Dr. Dre was solely for their streaming music service, notice they still don't brand them as Apple? Don't be surprised when they disappear completely.

Professionals use XLR jacks, not 3.5mm, you amateur. Sounds like you want to buy a camera, not a phone.

BTW, adults don't imagine things up and state it as fact.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Companies can change? This article is nothing but rage bait. This is a pro apple forum of course everyone will egg this on.

Ahh, so pointing out a company's attempt to slander another then hypocritically do the same thing...TWICE...is something nobody should do?

 

[centauratlas]

I'm old enough to remember Apple getting rid of the 3.5" floppy drive and the shock it generated. Didn't take long for everyone else to follow. When the headphone jack disappeared from the iPhone it probably mostly affected those people using GarageBand on their iPhones, because BT headphones have too much latency. So from that point on you had to use dongles if you wanted to both charge your phone and use a headphone adaptor. Most other people had already moved over to BT headphones I reckon, and were almost completely unaffected.

Not to mention adding the 3.5 inch (NON floppy) on the Mac after the 5.25 floppy on the Apple ][ series.
Versus the tape on the Apple ][s before that.

 

[Iconoclysm]

$449 for a new phone is what they should all cost.
$1000 smartphones are insane

You could have a $449 smart phone, with specs from 2017, no warranty, no customer support, and cheap components. If you're under the mistaken impression that every phone costs less than $200 to make, you're wrong.