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

[Rafaelos]

High-end headphones don’t use a 3.5 mm audio jack, though. And, even if they did, there’s no way an iPhone is going to be able to push the ohms required to even make them squeak.

How much hi-end should be ??

Meze 99 come with 3.5 and relatively low impedance, HD58X and HD660s can be driven plenty even not optimally and Focal headphones have reasonable requirements.

We did not ask for the ultimate audiophile experience and to to be able to replace hi-end tube amps but for something reasonable and practical.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

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.

You absolutely right about the music service being the whole point of the acquisition, which is evident from their earnings reports. As for the branding, I'm honestly shocked that the Beats brand lasted more than a couple years under Apple, but the fact that it's not only still there, but still being innovated on (Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, with W1 chips) leads me to believe that the brand will be around for the foreseeable future. Clearly the Beats brands still has value in and of itself. Personally, if you're already in the Apple ecosystem, they are the best fitness-oriented headphones you can buy, full stop.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

everything they do revolves around making a profit (although that’s not exactly true, because they do plenty of things that don’t make profit sense initially (like solar and fuel cell power generation).

Apple is one of the few companies that is big enough and successful enough to be able to move on anything that doesn't generate profit on paper within 12 months. Most of the time investors have no stomach for capital costs that pay off in 5+ years.

 

[MacBH928]

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.

Apple was also the only company to go all USB-C because its the future and 5 years later to bring back HDMI and SD card reader back?

While Floppy was going to die in the next 5-10 years I still think it was wrong to drop it in 1998 because there was no means of exchanging files and CD writers were expensive and a waste of money to write 1 .doc file on a CD (I think they were like $3 each) just to take it to work or university. Am not sure if sharing files over the internet was easy enough to drop the floppy altogether. A floppy was like 1.44 and you could transfer that on 56.6kbps and if my calculations are correct should be in the range of 10-15min realistically, but as we all know it will take much longer to upload it in the first place so we are looking for something closer to 40min for the complete process of 1.44MB floppy between upload and then download...assuming the upload or download neither breaks....

 

[thetowerlibrary]

I have the lightning to 3.5mm adapter for an iPhone 13 Pro Max as a just in case thing. I mainly use wired earpods with lightning connector as I don't really want to add another device to charge in terms of wireless earbuds.

I don't support the removal of the 3.5mm jack on phones and tablets. I consider it a very useful thing to have and it's just form over function for me.

 

[EuroChilli]

I have the lightning to 3.5mm adapter for an iPhone 13 Pro Max as a just in case thing. I mainly use wired earpods with lightning connector as I don't really want to add another device to charge in terms of wireless earbuds.

I don't support the removal of the 3.5mm jack on phones and tablets. I consider it a very useful thing to have and it's just form over function for me.

I didn't like the idea of a phone without a 3.5mm, but to be honest, after getting the 12 mini I am getting used to the idea, much like a laptop (my new M1 Air) without CD. With the exception of flying where you have no choice but to use cable if you want to use your own phones on the inflight system (for this I have a set of Bose QC25 over ears), cables are otherwise starting to annoy me. I am now looking at the new BT earbuds from Bose. It's probably just a question of time before airlines offer BT syncing with their onboard entertainment. I'm old enough to remember the days when I watched inflight movies on VHS without headphones.

 

[thetowerlibrary]

I didn't like the idea of a phone without a 3.5mm, but to be honest, after getting the 12 mini I am getting used to the idea, much like a laptop (my new M1 Air) without CD. With the exception of flying where you have no choice but to use cable if you want to use your own phones on the inflight system (for this I have a set of Bose QC25 over ears), cables are otherwise starting to annoy me. I am now looking at the new BT earbuds from Bose. It's probably just a question of time before airlines offer BT syncing with their onboard entertainment. I'm old enough to remember the days when I watched inflight movies on VHS without headphones.

I'm old enough to have watched movies on VHS. I never watched VHS movies on a flight though.

 

[jmgregory1]

I'm old enough to have watched movies on VHS. I never watched VHS movies on a flight though.

Flights didn’t have in-seat VHS players - at least not that I’ve ever seen. They did use to have one or two VHS players for the whole plane, and every seat got shown the same video. Other than with long-haul flights today, it’s surprising that planes have in-seat screens of any type, with the vast majority of consumers carrying a smart phone, tablet or laptop that can play whatever video or game someone wants on a flight. These screens and the additional wiring add weight that just doesn’t need to be included in this day and age.

 

[EuroChilli]

I'm old enough to have watched movies on VHS. I never watched VHS movies on a flight though.

El-Al Israel airlines, 1995. And you could smoke on board too Now they've taken all those privileges away. What's next? the 3.5mm jacks on our phones?

 

[EuroChilli]

Flights didn’t have in-seat VHS players - at least not that I’ve ever seen. They did use to have one or two VHS players for the whole plane, and every seat got shown the same video. Other than with long-haul flights today, it’s surprising that planes have in-seat screens of any type, with the vast majority of consumers carrying a smart phone, tablet or laptop that can play whatever video or game someone wants on a flight. These screens and the additional wiring add weight that just doesn’t need to be included in this day and age.

After VHS on 'big' screens and the sound coming from the main PA, what I do remember is a few select movies being shown at the same time on in-seat screens, with headphones. Virgin Atlantic, 2001. In other words, you had to pick one and you couldn't stop/start on demand. It is possible those movies were played from a stack of VHS machines, but probably DVD. But speaking of airline issued earphones; I've never quite figured out the double mono jacks. Is that to stop you stealing them? Why would I want to steal rubbish like that? Now I have to buy an adaptor to use my own phones. And yet the last few flights I've taken have single 3.5mm stereo jacks, no adaptor required.

About all that extra weight on flights for these modern in-flight systems. That's actually a very good point. Why don't they rip half the stuff out and sell those seats cheaper? I would take one of those, even on long 11 hour hauls from places like Johannesburg to London. I've flown that route many times, and with many different airlines. What I have noticed at least 98% of the 400 passengers falls fast asleep after dinner, with 9 hours to go. All that equipment then just sits there, burning extra fuel for nothing. However, Ryanair and most other short haul airlines in Europe do not have any entertainment of any kind. 40 mins from London to Brussels there simply isn't time.

They sell cars these days without spare wheels as the advertised fuel economy is calculated without them. They also sell new iPhones without chargers, I believe it saves a monumental amount of space in shipping containers.

But about the 3.5mm being removed from our phones. Maybe, just maybe there is method to their madness. I honestly do not think they're doing it to p..$ us off. Like I say, I really am warming up to the idea of a jackless phone. And if I absolutely have to use wired headphones, there's a dongle for that.