Killing the headphone jack could lead to the greatest leap forward in wireless tech

[Harvey Specter]

After reading this article on Mashable I had some interesting thoughts:

http://mashable.com/2016/09/07/iphone-headphone-jack-courage/?utm_cid=hp-hh-sec#m4w3aAZ8oiq8

Although I'm on board with the frustration of the 3.5mm jack removal, I think the reason is backed strongly by the quote in the article "wired almost always sounds better than wireless". Really, I see two distinct perspectives here, one from Apple and one from the frustrated population. On one hand, now many of our every day devices are incompatible without special adapters, but on the other hand I can see how "wired almost always sounds better than wireless" would be the exact reason Apple would pull off such a ballsy move as this.

Henry Ford once said "if I asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Apple has the power to change industries and industry standards. I think that one of the core factors here is that they want to see the statement about wired vs wireless change. If they force the audio industry to start looking at ways to improve wireless options, then soon enough I think we will find that we are in an era with a slew of wireless enabled devices that would never have been brought about in the first place, and we will honestly look back and wonder why we didn't start sooner in the first place.

Yeah, I'm kinda frustrated because I've only used analog connections for my audio, but I can completely see how Apple is going to move the peripheral industry forward by doing this. It's really a visionary move that you need to put yourself in visionary shoes to understand.

 

[KillaMac]

It's kinda like cars. CD players are becoming extinct in cars. It's now USB for flash drives. The 3.5mm audio jack was due to go eventually as everything is going wireless.

 

[douglasf13]

Aside from the adapters and sound quality issues, the other big thing is battery life. How many gadgets does Apple expect us to want to plug in to charge every night...Macbook, iPad, iPhone, Watch and headphones?? New battery tech and the move to wireless charging is the big step that needs to happen. I already barely use my bluetooth headphones as it is, because I'm inconsistent with the charging.

I'm all for wireless someday, but not until it's much closer to the wired experience.

 

[Solomani]

You make a good point about all these wireless little things all requiring batteries to be recharged. Wireless mouse, wireless keyboards, wireless headphones, etc.

 

[douglasf13]

You make a good point about all these wireless little things all requiring batteries to be recharged. Wireless mouse, wireless keyboards, wireless headphones, etc.

Yeah, at least with my Kindle, mouse and keyboard, the charging is measured in days/weeks/months, rather than hours. These 24 hour devices are becoming a bit of a hassle, especially with headphones, which aren't being used as frequently as something like a phone or even a watch, so it's easy to loose track of charging.