iPhone 7's Secondary Speaker Holes May Be Purely Cosmetic

[calaverasgrande]

well good to know the headphone jack isnt being sacrficed for nothing.
Oh wait it is.

At this point I'm just waiting for this phone to tank and for the shareholders to demand Ive's head on a platter.

 

[Rigby]

Just like how BT keyboards have swamped wired ones, get ready for wired headphones to be a distinct minority.

I don't have any hard numbers, but I'm pretty sure that Bluetooth keyboards have not "swamped" anything. In fact, outside of the Mac, they are very rare. There are more wireless keyboards that use a proprietary radio interface (using their own USB dongle), but I'm not sure that even those have "swamped" anything. I think most discrete keyboards are sold to enterprises these days (since the majority of consumers have switched to laptops), and wired keyboards probably still rule in that segment.

Personally, I avoid wireless keyboards (or at least don't type important information like passwords on them), since many have very bad security (see e.g. this recent hack). I also rarely move my keyboard around. Wireless mice make more sense to me.

As I indicated, wireless capabilities are increasing exponentially and wait until you see what Apple has been doing with it.

"Exponentially"? What capabilities are those?

 

[Count Blah]

"Exponentially"? What capabilities are those?

ignore it. It's just Apple shills who would never say anything slightly negative about the company, and seek out to harass anyone who does.

 

[4Apples]

I don't understand this. A mostly cosmetic grille on the bottom of the phone seems like a trivial reason to narrow your options.

Maybe you have your reasons:

"No fake grills, EVERRR!"

Meanwhile, one of the complaints I've heard recently about Tesla's Model 3 is the absence of an ornamental fake grille on the front.

I was looking for more than just a faster chip and battery life on the new iPhone, so better sound quality would had been a big plus for me. Personally I think that adding something for no real reason cheapen's the product. BTW I love your gif so I know you will get the reference above...

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...said no one, ever. (Except that guy!)

Right... Let's all say the same thing on here lol. By the way do you own stock with AAPL?

 

[okwhatev]

Not surprising in the least for Apple. This is a stop-gap iPhone release while they work on their 10th Anniversary iPhone. They don't want that iPhone to have any negative press at all, so it's dramatically thinner "sheet of glass" style with no room for a mic jack won't cause everyone to bitch and moan.

By then, it will be expected that iPhones don't have a mic jack and saying so will be old news.

All critics are automatically robbed of their legitimate concern.

Apple releases a triumphant new design with the minimal of criticism.

Everyone rides to the bank happy....ejaculating money.

 

[CarlJ]

At this point I'm just waiting for this phone to tank and for the shareholders to demand Ive's head on a platter.

So if it doesn't tank, if the phone comes out and it has decent earbuds (of whatever type) that satisfy most users (even if they cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the techy community), and the phone sells tens of millions of units because, say, they - surprise! - now offer it in mint green metallic along with pink and the other colors... what will you do then?
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Everyone rides to the bank happy....ejaculating money.

All that could possibly happen. Except that last part, that sounds painful. You want that?

 

[truthertech]

I don't have any hard numbers, but I'm pretty sure that Bluetooth keyboards have not "swamped" anything. In fact, outside of the Mac, they are very rare. There are more wireless keyboards that use a proprietary radio interface (using their own USB dongle), but I'm not sure that even those have "swamped" anything. I think most discrete keyboards are sold to enterprises these days (since the majority of consumers have switched to laptops), and wired keyboards probably still rule in that segment.

Personally, I avoid wireless keyboards (or at least don't type important information like passwords on them), since many have very bad security (see e.g. this recent hack). I also rarely move my keyboard around. Wireless mice make more sense to me.
"Exponentially"? What capabilities are those?

BT 4.2, which Apple quietly introduced in iPhone 6 had huge (exponential) increase over BT 4.0, i.e., Up to 2.5x faster with a packet capacity increase of 10x vs. previous versions

BT 5.0 (available this fall) continues exponential increase

The new spec will:

• quadruple the range
• double the speed
• increase data broadcasting capacity by 800%

Please share with Count Blah. He needs some positive news.

 

[Gudi]

Head phone jack is not a data port. It's a "port" for analog signal. Nothing wrong with that (as long as our ears stay analog which they will forever).

An analog signal is data too! I don't care about analog vs digital, I care about universal vs single purpose. Headphone Jack is (for the most part) audio-only and you can't even charge your device via it. The port is just not versatile enough to survive. And it's too big for smaller lighter iPads anyway.

 

[bobob]

What might you imagine as the ideal hand design for a smartphone?


(Personally, I think the iPhone 5 (and it's offspring, the 5S and SE) are the pinnacle of hand design for smartphones - - both in size and with their chamfered edge.)

If someone said, design me a shape that the human hand can grip easily and would not slip, you seriously think a smooth faced thin shape would be deemed the ultimate?

Think about anything ergonomic. It's designed to fit the hand, be grip-able, non slip etc.
These items are designed to LOOK simplistic, neat etc.
They are in effect a non finished item, that an end user then has to fit into a case to either give it grip, protect it from damage etc.

Just google the word:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=e...ved=0ahUKEwiumZmg8sDOAhUFCcAKHUZtAg4Q_AUIBygC

The ideal shape is a shape that's designed for humans to use in their hands, to hold easy, to not slip from being held, to not break easy when dropped from a normal standing height.

These devices LOOK great to our current societies viewpoint on things, but in reality for a device held by a human that are about as bad as you can get.

You still haven't answered my question - - What might you imagine as the ideal hand design for a smartphone?

Obviously, something like a bicycle hand grip is an ideal ergonomic hand design, but it hardly suits the demands of a smartphone.

You cite the fact that smartphones have a "smooth face" as a detriment to ergonomics, but I disagree. The side edges are where the hand finds grip. Clearly the rounded edges of the iPhone 6/6S provide little purchase for the hand, however I continue to maintain that the iPhone 5's chamfered edges provided the epitome of smartphone hand design thus far.

Additonally, there's another ergonomic factor to consider in the case of smartphones, as mpavillion points out:

I will play devil's advocate and point out that these devices are also meant to be carried comfortably in pockets (sometimes next to a wallet, etc.)... which wasn't the case with Sony Sports Walkmans, Game Boys, or [name your favorite durable old device that fit securely in the hand].

So, I again ask: What might you imagine as the ideal hand design for a smartphone?

 

[Count Blah]

BT 4.2, which Apple quietly introduced in iPhone 6 had huge (exponential) increase over BT 4.0, i.e., Up to 2.5x faster with a packet capacity increase of 10x vs. previous versions

BT 5.0 (available this fall) continues exponential increase

The new spec will:

• quadruple the range
• double the speed
• increase data broadcasting capacity by 800

Please share with Count Blah. He needs some positive news.

1/10 the power consumption? Or does it still need to charged daily? So headphones can still crap out at a moments notice, when you are out and about?

You know what doesn't suffer from those problems? 3.5mm headphones.

The tech isn't there yet, and that's the truth(ertech), IMHO.

 

[London Mac Paul]

Who thinks that one of the two 5.5" models is the new iPad nano (or iPod pro)?

 

[BuffaloTF]

So... as expected, it's like the much better lookin 5/5S with a balanced look on the bottom where only 1 hole was in use for the microphone... imagine that. Stereo speakers would mean speaker grills on the top and bottom, not 2 on the bottom...

 

[Keerock]

Purely decorative speaker holes would give the iPhone an overall fakey image in my opinion. Kinda like the plastic paneling made to look like brick that my Mom used in the kitchen in the 70's (love you Mom).

Check out your old iPhones... you'll see that not every speaker hole actually produced sound...

Just sayin'

 

[Rigby]

BT 4.2, which Apple quietly introduced in iPhone 6 had huge (exponential) increase over BT 4.0, i.e., Up to 2.5x faster with a packet capacity increase of 10x vs. previous versions

The packet length was only extended for the low-bitrate Bluetooth LE mode, which is not used for audio transmission. It's primarily for wearables, IoT, and sensors.

BT 5.0 (available this fall) continues exponential increase

The new spec will:

• quadruple the range
• double the speed
• increase data broadcasting capacity by 800%

Please share with Count Blah. He needs some positive news.

You should look a bit deeper beyond just the bulletpoints you googled somewhere. These numbers do not mean what you think they do. Bluetooth 5.0 will not bring significant new capabilities for headphones. The Bluetooth SIG is primarily introducing new features for IoT applications. People need to understand that the BT air interface is already very efficient. Any bandwidth increases come at the cost of battery life and/or increased spectrum.

 

[truthertech]

The packet length was only extended for the low-bitrate Bluetooth LE mode, which is not used for audio transmission. It's primarily for wearables, IoT, and sensors.
You should look a bit deeper beyond just the bulletpoints you googled somewhere. These numbers do not mean what you think they do. Bluetooth 5.0 will not bring significant new capabilities for headphones. The Bluetooth SIG is primarily introducing new features for IoT applications. People need to understand that the BT air interface is already very efficient. Any bandwidth increases come at the cost of battery life and/or increased spectrum.

Oh Grasshopper you have a wonderful surprise in front of you- Look deeper indeed. You are making wrong assumption that because there are improvements for IoT as a whole, that BT devices such as speakers and headphones can't benefit.

The biggest beneficiary of Bluetooth 5 may be users’ ears, at least according to Ben Arnold, an executive director and industry analyst for The NPD Group.

"The extended range and data transfer speed of Bluetooth 5 will positively impact the audio market in particular,” he said. “Products like wireless speakers and headphones should become more versatile as they can presumably be located farther away from the audio source without sacrificing performance. I would also expect with increased data transfer speeds that latency will be lessened, improving the wireless audio experience."

Another tech analyst-

"Firstly, it will allow you to connect to devices such as speakers from much further away, but more importantly, because of the “richer set of information” that Bluetooth 5.0 allows devices to send, the pairing process, which is so clunky today, will be very much streamlined. 5.0 will mean setting up up wireless accessories like keyboards, headphones and speakers will be a much more frictionless experience. Rather than needing to manually pair the devices, Bluetooth 5.0 is expected to be smart enough to automatically analyze what type of connection is needed and simply make it work."

Another -

Bluetooth Audio will benefit from the new speeds, as consumers have always complained about choppy audio when connected to a bluetooth device. Wireless headphones would become mainstream and audio quality will improve.

 

[utsava]

Right. That amount of space for a "larger" battery? You'd stand a better chance of improving battery performance through OS optimization. Besides, that would improve battery life by what, 5%? What's more important -- an additional 10 minutes of standby time, or the ability to use existing headphones with your mobile phone?

Enough with the Apple apologetics already. Competitors have much better battery performance with a headphone jack; there's simply no rational justification for its elimination.

Dude, just because I actually want to further the discussion about what Apple may be doing with this extra space doesn't mean I'm an Apple apologist. I'm neither here nor there regarding the headphone jack removal. I don't know if now is the right time to get rid of it, but I do agree that it eventually needs to go. It's progress. The space to function ratio of a headphone jack is prehistoric.
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What are you trying to achieve here?

Clarity as to whether there are actual people who will not purchase something over fake holes.

 

[truthertech]

Dude, just because I actually want to further the discussion about what Apple may be doing with this extra space doesn't mean I'm an Apple apologist. I'm neither here nor there regarding the headphone jack removal. I don't know if now is the right time to get rid of it, but I do agree that it eventually needs to go. It's progress. The space to function ratio of a headphone jack is prehistoric.
[doublepost=1471283760][/doublepost]
Clarity as to whether there are actual people who will not purchase something over fake holes.

 

[Freida]

Clarity as to whether there are actual people who will not purchase something over fake holes.

I can't speak for others but I will not be buying it if those holes are purely cosmetics. If it was one hole like in iphone 4 then that is not fake as one was for speaker and one was for the mic but this would be a joke.

You may disagree and thats ok but I would be very disappointed by Apple if that is what we gonna get.

 

[csglinux]

The biggest beneficiary of Bluetooth 5 may be users’ ears, at least according to Ben Arnold, an executive director and industry analyst for The NPD Group.

"The extended range and data transfer speed of Bluetooth 5 will positively impact the audio market in particular,” he said. “Products like wireless speakers and headphones should become more versatile as they can presumably be located farther away from the audio source without sacrificing performance. I would also expect with increased data transfer speeds that latency will be lessened, improving the wireless audio experience."

Another tech analyst-

"Firstly, it will allow you to connect to devices such as speakers from much further away, but more importantly, because of the “richer set of information” that Bluetooth 5.0 allows devices to send, the pairing process, which is so clunky today, will be very much streamlined. 5.0 will mean setting up up wireless accessories like keyboards, headphones and speakers will be a much more frictionless experience. Rather than needing to manually pair the devices, Bluetooth 5.0 is expected to be smart enough to automatically analyze what type of connection is needed and simply make it work."

Another -

Bluetooth Audio will benefit from the new speeds, as consumers have always complained about choppy audio when connected to a bluetooth device. Wireless headphones would become mainstream and audio quality will improve.

So a brand new BT spec will one day make it to iPhones (just not next month's iPhone 6SE). However, when BT 5.0 does eventually arrive on an iPhone, and once users have also upgraded to the latest BT 5.0 Beats headphones, users may get less dropouts (although that was apparently never an issue in the first place?), and might have longer range (which was also apparently never an issue either?) and will provide for longer battery life (also never been a problem with BT, right?) and will provide additional functionality (which also isn't needed, since BT has already evolved beyond that of wired connections, to the point that the 3.5 mm dinosaur socket is simply holding us all back, not to mention holding back the sales of Bluetooth Beats headphones).

Truthertech, for someone that doesn't care about Apple removing the 3.5 mm audio jack, you seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of your life camped out on this site defending a rather obviously money-grabbing, anti-consumer design decision.

 

[GeneralChang]

So a brand new BT spec will one day make it to iPhones (just not next month's iPhone 6SE). However, when BT 5.0 does eventually arrive on an iPhone, and once users have also upgraded to the latest BT 5.0 Beats headphones, users may get less dropouts (although that was apparently never an issue in the first place?), and might have longer range (which was also apparently never an issue either?) and will provide for longer battery life (also never been a problem with BT, right?) and will provide additional functionality (which also isn't needed, since BT has already evolved beyond that of wired connections, to the point that the 3.5 mm dinosaur socket is simply holding us all back, not to mention holding back the sales of Bluetooth Beats headphones).

Truthertech, for someone that doesn't care about Apple removing the 3.5 mm audio jack, you seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of your life camped out on this site defending a rather obviously money-grabbing, anti-consumer design decision.

If it makes you feel any better, I've got a pair of BT 3 headphones I use pretty much exclusively with my phone, and they have a range of something like 15 meters (LOS, much less with walls depending on material), battery life of around 25 hours, and I've never had audio quality issues or dropouts unless I move outside the 15 meter range.

What I'm saying is that all the stuff they're saying we'll get with BT 5 I'm already getting with BT 3. So I'm just as confused as you are, and I'm definitely in the target demo of "people who don't use their headphone jack."

 

[weup togo]

No one outside of this forum cares about the camera bump. I pointed it out to people at work last week and said 'you've no idea how angry this has made people' and the reaction was that of bewilderment.

Everyone understands "my stupid phone wobbles around instead of lying flat on the table."

 

[truthertech]

So a brand new BT spec will one day make it to iPhones (just not next month's iPhone 6SE). However, when BT 5.0 does eventually arrive on an iPhone, and once users have also upgraded to the latest BT 5.0 Beats headphones, users may get less dropouts (although that was apparently never an issue in the first place?), and might have longer range (which was also apparently never an issue either?) and will provide for longer battery life (also never been a problem with BT, right?) and will provide additional functionality (which also isn't needed, since BT has already evolved beyond that of wired connections, to the point that the 3.5 mm dinosaur socket is simply holding us all back, not to mention holding back the sales of Bluetooth Beats headphones).

Truthertech, for someone that doesn't care about Apple removing the 3.5 mm audio jack, you seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of your life camped out on this site defending a rather obviously money-grabbing, anti-consumer design decision.

No, don't care about rumor yet. But hopeful that tradeoff will be worth it. Once new phone is out and we have facts, I will decide if I agree with what Apple did or not. In the meantime, truth is worth defending, so statements like "BT improvements won't impact headphones" should be debunked, and also interesting to observe reactions of commenters, for a bit anyways.

 

[aces99]

So a brand new BT spec will one day make it to iPhones (just not next month's iPhone 6SE). However, when BT 5.0 does eventually arrive on an iPhone, and once users have also upgraded to the latest BT 5.0 Beats headphones, users may get less dropouts (although that was apparently never an issue in the first place?), and might have longer range (which was also apparently never an issue either?) and will provide for longer battery life (also never been a problem with BT, right?) and will provide additional functionality (which also isn't needed, since BT has already evolved beyond that of wired connections, to the point that the 3.5 mm dinosaur socket is simply holding us all back, not to mention holding back the sales of Bluetooth Beats headphones).

Truthertech, for someone that doesn't care about Apple removing the 3.5 mm audio jack, you seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of your life camped out on this site defending a rather obviously money-grabbing, anti-consumer design decision.

I don't think there is going to be a new iPhone6SE next months. There will be a new iPhone 7. The iPhone SE is the 4" version of an iPhone which was released about 6 months ago. I don't see them releasing another SE that soon.

 

[Rigby]

Oh Grasshopper you have a wonderful surprise in front of you- Look deeper indeed. You are making wrong assumption that because there are improvements for IoT as a whole, that BT devices such as speakers and headphones can't benefit.

If you are expecting more than minor incremental improvements for such applications (and only of the products are properly implemented), I'm a afraid it's you who will be surprised, but not in a good way. You (and your bloggers) will see what I mean in a few months.

 

[thekeyring]

Everyone understands "my stupid phone wobbles around instead of lying flat on the table."

I don't find this because no one I know uses their phone flat on a desk like that unless they're in the office and changing a song. And then it doesn't seem to wobble