Reason for recessed jack?

[daneoni]

Just got back from the Regent Street Store, went to get a Griffin iPhone adapter. The sales guy (seemed to be temporary loan staff from the US) was telling me the reason for the recessed jack, which is:

They wanted to prevent people breaking their headphone jacks making the phone useless because you can't use speakers/earpiece as there's still a headphone jack connection and you can't use the headphones because the jack is broken/stuck in the jack. Apparently this is a major problem with iPods because people roll up the headphone cords funnily and often put pressure on the pointy bit of the jack and end up bending/sitting on/breaking it.

He also said this is the reason most iPods are now curved around the jack area thus leaving some tiny breathing room for them to work on in case something goes wrong.

I dunno...it sounds weird but it makes sense...on some level. I think

He also said AppleCare for iPhones in the UK will soon be rolled out and the delay is due to legislative problems that need to be straightened out. Go figure

 

[Bulldog VII]

I would say it's so they can get an additional £15 out of use for the attachment!

 

[Leemo]

It's because of the way the top of the phone is curved, to not affect the design by having a raised headphone socket.

Big whoop - it cost me £4 for an adapter.

 

[tomacintosh]

Another possible theory, they want you to use the included headphones because white headphones provide free advertising, seeing as they are synonymous with iPod's??

 

[zimv20]

my first thought was it was needed for the mic (i reckon there's a mic pre in there, accessible only through the extended bit). that may still be the case, but i just tried plugging in a typical 1/8" stereo headphone set, and got no signal.

so now i'm a bit miffed that, sans an adapter, i can't use it as an ipod in my car. or with better headphones. grrrr.....

 

[TurboSC]

One of Apple's 2 birds with 1 stone / form and function features...

It does indeed protect the earbuds from snapping in your pocket, adds to the sleek design of the phone, free advertising, looks like they've got it all covered.

Those sneaky little bastards...*sigh* I love you iPhones

 

[CWallace]

I would say it's so they can get an additional £15 out of use for the attachment!

I would agree if Apple offered an adapter, which they don't.

Though they kind of did for a time, in that the old iPod Shuffle came with a short "extension cord" for the headset which worked with the iPhone. But those went away with the old Shuffle.

 

[otto-mate]

I followed the advice on cutting a ring of plastic off round my headphone plug ad it worked great. No need for an adaptor.

http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/07/minor_surgery_enables_bose_hea.php

M.

 

[amemoryoncelost]

It is kind of lame if you wanna hook up your phone to your car stereo or even your home stereo. The amount of iphone accessories has been kind of lacking everywhere. AT&T, radio shack, bestbuy and even the apple store has really been a joke. I was gonna pick up one of those adaptors, little straight piece, but that wouldn't go in my pocket well, so I picked up one of these off ebay yesterday, hopefully it works well, but I've heard good things about them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180178924221

 

[stekerrod]

It's because of the way the top of the phone is curved, to not affect the design by having a raised headphone socket.

Big whoop - it cost me £4 for an adapter.

Where did you get it from for £4? Id like one just to get my car adapter working