The headphone jack on my original Iphone 3Gs gave out literally in the last week of its one-year warranty back in 2010. So, I was fortunate to get a full replacement from Apple. Sadly, about 9 months later the headphone jack on the replacement started giving out and became increasingly unusable. This was frustrating as my phone had become my full-time music player and I had almost 2 months of no use waiting for the Iphone 4s to come out.
Because of these problems I opted to get the Applecare+ for the Iphone 4s even though I have never dropped or had any accident with any of my Apple products. But I needed to make sure I had use of my phone as a music player for a full two years. So, here we are a mere 5+ months from the Iphone 4s release and once again my headphone jack is failing.
The problems have always followed the same pattern that I think of as three stages. Stage 1 is that the headphone will start cutting out in a channel or getting phasy sounding if the headphone cord rotates at all in the phone jack. But without any rotation most positions result in fine sound. Stage 2 is where there are only several positions in which I can get decent sound and if the cord rotates at all (i.e., from simple walking) the sound cuts in and out. Stage 3 is basically there is no way to fiddle with the cord and get any decent sound. Today, my phone basically went from Stage 1 to Stage 2.
I will take this into Apple to replace but am wondering why I keep having these problems, particularly since I have never dropped any of these phones and I only use it as a music player a total of several hours per week. Also, while this seems like a short to me requiring replacement, is there a chance there is just dirt trapped that can be cleaned out with an air can or other method.
Finally, with the first two phone (the 3GS's) I was using the stock Apple earbuds exclusively. Now, for the past few weeks I have been using my new VModa headphones which come with a cord terminating in a 45 degree angle plug. This relieves pressure on the plug as it can rotate during movement. While this may be good for the cable I am wondering if any additional rotation would cause wear and tear on the internal phone jack. I would not thinks so but would like to avoid further problems after this.
Because of these problems I opted to get the Applecare+ for the Iphone 4s even though I have never dropped or had any accident with any of my Apple products. But I needed to make sure I had use of my phone as a music player for a full two years. So, here we are a mere 5+ months from the Iphone 4s release and once again my headphone jack is failing.
The problems have always followed the same pattern that I think of as three stages. Stage 1 is that the headphone will start cutting out in a channel or getting phasy sounding if the headphone cord rotates at all in the phone jack. But without any rotation most positions result in fine sound. Stage 2 is where there are only several positions in which I can get decent sound and if the cord rotates at all (i.e., from simple walking) the sound cuts in and out. Stage 3 is basically there is no way to fiddle with the cord and get any decent sound. Today, my phone basically went from Stage 1 to Stage 2.
I will take this into Apple to replace but am wondering why I keep having these problems, particularly since I have never dropped any of these phones and I only use it as a music player a total of several hours per week. Also, while this seems like a short to me requiring replacement, is there a chance there is just dirt trapped that can be cleaned out with an air can or other method.
Finally, with the first two phone (the 3GS's) I was using the stock Apple earbuds exclusively. Now, for the past few weeks I have been using my new VModa headphones which come with a cord terminating in a 45 degree angle plug. This relieves pressure on the plug as it can rotate during movement. While this may be good for the cable I am wondering if any additional rotation would cause wear and tear on the internal phone jack. I would not thinks so but would like to avoid further problems after this.
