Removal of iPhone 7 Headphone Jack Was Essential for Water Resistance, New Camera System

[AppleBytes]

In about two years Samsung will also get rid of the headphone jack and replace it with USB C.
Industry will follow apples footsteps

I actually disagree. This issue is going to make for some really simple advertising that Samsung can direct at anybody who has ever invested in premium wired headphones. 5 guys sitting charging their phones during an airport stopover, 2 of them (with samsung) checking out music and youtube videos and having fun while the 3 with iPhones try fumbling back and forth, charging up to 3% then listening for a few minutes, back and forth.

Or how about a road trip samsung guy in the front seat can charge and play music on the slightly older non-bluetooth car. Apple guy wants to play his favorite song, phone runs out of batteries after the first 3 bars and they have to wait while he charges it separately.

Or they can say "wireless where it matters" and have ads pointing out that they have wireless charging (which apple doesn't), while maintaining the ability to use wireless or wired headphones, and charge your phone even in the middle of watching a movie or playing a game.

It's an easy way for Samsung to separate itself from Apple.

 

[dampfnudel]

I'm pretty happy with this. Technology needs to advance and Apple got it going. Look at it this way guys, do you still want to carry that CD Player when we can store MP3's on our phones? Apple is God

Apple may be God, but sometimes I wish they would send Jesus down to get a lay of the land.

 

[Rocket Man]

Do we know for a fact that the DAC is in the adapter? I thought the lightning port could pass analog audio?

Bingo! There is a reason Apple only charges $9 for it.

 

[maxsix]

To me it's all marketing and the new AirPods are way overpriced. $219 in Canada.

Yes in typical Apple fashion their high price will assure the company maintains its fat profits. Made from rigid plastic, comfort takes a back seat to white plastic Apple style.

Those who claim losing or damaging them isn't a worry must be sedated couch potatoes. Those who enjoy being active may find these easily dislodged. But no worries Apple has plenty to sell.

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

Just hoping this turned off a lot of people so my pre order goes through smoothly

I personally haven't used wired headphones over two years, so that's that,lol.

 

[pentrix2]

For this argument they are same and people said the same things when the removed floppy and dvd drive...

You mad?

 

[nikosl7]

If they are carrying around wired headphones, then they'll just leave the adapter on the headphones. And, I'm sure that Apple will gladly sell more adapters. The headphone jack won't be coming back? Has Apple ever caved on removable media? Removable battery? Nope. In a couple of years it won't make a difference as the other phone manufacturers will follow suite.
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So people that disagree with you are trolls? This may be something that you want to discuss with a therapist....

1) You cannot just have the adaptor on the headphones because you also need to connect them to your f.... Mac that has guess what 3.5mm jack.

2) The apple remedy for the ridiculous battery of iPhone 6 was an even more ridiculous battery case

3) When the rest of the manufacturers ditch the 3.5mm there will be a viable non proprietary alternative (usb-c, Bluetooth 6 or whatever)

So apple created a problem out of nowhere just to lock us more tightly in its ecosystem. You just missed me as a loyal customer apple, congrats.

 

[BornAgainMac]

How do you feel about the rectangular hole that is Lightning?

Or the many little holes for the speaker?

Or was only this one hole that Apple conveniently removed the ONLY one to hate?

And how do you vent the hate at pretty much every other Apple product that still has that very same hole?

I enjoy those other holes in the iPhone to charge my phone, transfer data, and listen to music and use as a mic. As far as the other Mac products, they need to get rid of that ancient jack hole.

 

[zhenya]

This is a good question.

Presumably the new lightning to audio connector (especially @ $9) is just a pass through of analog audio signal off the lightning jack.
It is hard to find specs for this, Apple's spec sheets used to be much more complete.

Anyone know if lightning passes analog audio on detection? If so, I would assume that's not a new feature.

I'm guessing:
1) Any analog headphones will work with the new adapter.
2) The new lightning earpods will work with any lightning port shipped so far.

Lightning has not passed analogue audio in the past. That's why we needed those expensive and bulky lightning to 30-pin adapters, because they needed to convert the digital signal coming from lightning to an analogue signal the 30-pin cable could accept. Given the size and price of this new adapter, it seems apparent they have reversed this design decision, and lighting is now passing analogue audio when necessary. Convenient after they sold a few tens of million of those old adapters at an inflated price...

 

[dampfnudel]

Just hoping this turned off a lot of people so my pre order goes through smoothly

Probably a lot smoother than my pre-order with next year's iPhone 8. You know it.

 

[calabi-yau]

I actually disagree. This issue is going to make for some really simple advertising that Samsung can direct at anybody who has ever invested in premium wired headphones. 5 guys sitting charging their phones during an airport stopover, 2 of them (with samsung) checking out music and youtube videos and having fun while the 3 with iPhones try fumbling back and forth, charging up to 3% then listening for a few minutes, back and forth.

Or how about a road trip samsung guy in the front seat can charge and play music on the slightly older non-bluetooth car. Apple guy wants to play his favorite song, phone runs out of batteries after the first 3 bars and they have to wait while he charges it separately.

Hah! Reminds me of this ad Sony did for the PS4, in response to the Xbox One's then planned no-sharing policy for games:

 

[MH01]

So you addressed 1 of my 4 points with a non sequitur? Your last point says nothing is changed SQ wise....OK thats great. But a lot has changed with the saved space inside the iPhone. So all in all same sound quality with more internal room for future improvements.

So with your Analog ears, I assume you also don't use any digital connections for home theatre. No Optical Audio, no HDMI or any of that fancy stuff? After all the connection from your Amplifier to your speaker is Analog so why fuss with all that 21st century stuff.

While we're talking about how analog our senses are, lets just forgoe digital video sources as well since our eyes aren't digital either. I'm gonna trade in all my blu-rays and digital movies for VHS, beta ect. Shouldn't make a difference right?

Edit: Spelling

Just happens Apple also profits from a propriatary connector now....yeah it's all about space saving on a three year old design. And the official excuse it's cause of water resistance and not space, which is BS, and water resistant jack have been around a long town.

Barking up the wrong tree mate. I actually use a Hugo mojo DAC with my iPhone 6S, though the convienice of the 3.5mm jack is unparalleled .

I have an awesome home theatre setup, and just like the iPhone, it all connects to a DAC...to a speaker .... Which unlike a SD does not need an upgrade to improve

That's a silly comparison between video and audio. I'm not even going to engage with that, please think it through . If you can find an example where speakers have progressed from ***** audio quality to awesome , like SD to HD 4K, you got a point..... Digital has done nothing for speakers .

Digital , in audio , Allows for better quality recordings... All your high end home theatre gear follows the same principle , digital data sent to a DAC which sends it to the speakers .

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

In about two years Samsung will also get rid of the headphone jack and replace it with USB C. Industry will follow apples footsteps

That's not following Apple's footsteps. That's facilitating a betamax vs. VHS, a Blu Ray vs. HD-DVD, etc. 3.5mm is thoroughly ubiquitous. I bet it would be hard for you to roam through your entire neighborhood and find any kind of music-producing device that does NOT have a 3.5mm jack on it. Sit next to the cute girl/guy on the jet and they invite you to jack into their (any) device (made by Apple or not made by Apple) and odds are high you'll be able to unplug from your Apple device now and plug right into theirs.

When the Samsungs of the world "copies" Apple but adopts USB3, try that same easy "just works" benefit. What we have here is the opposite or the opponent of ubiquity. We have the catalyst of fragmentation... from one "just works" standard that is practically universal to 3 types of jacks: the same one, one that's been out for years but is proprietary and controlled by a single company and an up & comer that is almost non-existent (relatively) but will win the silver medal for ubiquity because it will be the one that everyone not named Apple that wants a digital jack will adopt.

So, even if the Samsungs ALL turn away from 3.5mm, the Apple crowd and the non-Apple crowd will need adapters, splitters, etc to replicate the ease at which 3.5mm works today... for years and years to come. No way around that no matter how you personally feel about this matter. It's just how it will be. Whether you are an Apple person or a Samsung person or a Sony person, etc, to match the easy "just works" ubiquity you already have today means needing to lug along a few adapters & splitters... or a few varieties of wires... or a wire with multiple kinds of terminators at one end for probably the next 5-10 years... or more.

Hopefully, at some point out there in 2021-2026 or so, Bluetooth 7 or something like that might finally resolve all of the issues with Bluetooth and be cheap enough to roar its way into everything & everywhere so that "the future" can actually beat "the (2016) present" in all such ways. Or USB3 or USB4 or USB5, etc might manage to get so prevalent that it catches up to all of the places one can jack into 3.5mm today (though I just don't see how we all turn over all of our audio stuff quick enough for either Bluetooth or USB3 to get that ubiquitous in only 5-10 years). Until then, gentlemen, pack your adapters... or just do without as ubiquitous access to just about anything & everything as you enjoy it now. That easy ubiquity is over. The audio fragmentation years have begun.

 

[BeSweeet]

Everything else is digital, why have we kept the headphone jack after all these years? It was going to go eventually, why not now? You don't have a good answer, you just want to be upset over something stupid.

The general consumer couldn't care less when it comes to analog vs. digital -- they just want something to play their audio without worrying about quality, and the instant capability of that is why it seems completely premature to remove it at this point in time.

 

[KALLT]

Apple could have made a convincing case if the replacement was at least better. Instead we have a proprietary Lightning port that will require headphones with that same connector, meaning that you are also vendor locked if you invest in expensive headphones or audio equipment. Why was the boldness not extended to USB Type-C? I can guess why.

The AirPods remain wholly unconvincing for the sheer fact that Apple did not even say a word about audio quality at the event. This is calculated, because they knew they couldn’t expressly say it. I suspect that the audio quality and practicality, as well as the ridiculous price, will not earn them many customers. If I were to guess that Apple needed an excuse product to justify removing the audio port, then AirPods would be that product.

The customer benefits only from the stereo speakers, the rest is marketing nonsense.

 

[Mescagnus]

why didn't they at least make the headphone adaptor have pass through so that we could listen and charge at the same time?

Because while Lightning is a multi-purpose connector, it cannot handle both charging and audio at the same time. If it could, we would have seen a 3.5 mm adapter with pass-through for simultaneous charging released with iPhone 7.

 

[Tompkinson]

Didn't you read the article? It wasn't only about waterproofing.

It seems people read the headline and start writing.
They either like or dislike the headline and then start hammering away at the keyboard.
Often they ask questions, the answer to which is clearly stated in the second paragraph, but they never got that far in a rush to rant or rave.

 

[Tom-Helge]

In about two years Samsung will also get rid of the headphone jack and replace it with USB C.
Industry will follow apples footsteps

But the difference here is that Samsung wont remove the ability to charge the phone the same time as you listens to musics. Samsung isn't that dumb.

And i doubt that Samsung will go over to something else over the 3.5mm minijack before something new that is both newer AND better comes out. Samsung wont go over to something new just because it's new and isn't better than the current 3.5mm minijack.

And by Samsung's comment from the Note7 keynote where they said that the Note7 still have a 3.5mm minijack intact even with all of the new things, was a response from them that they wont be removing the 3.5mm minijack for a long time.

 

[Sefstah]

Its true, its time to move on.. technology changes, people don't use cassette players anymore.

Apple should have made the phone itself wirelessly charge like the apple watch, that would have been a perfect combo

We stopped using cassette when the CD came along which was much better. What's replacing the headphone jack? Bluetooth has been around for a long time and has nowhere near the same sound quality. The lightning connector will not replace the headphone jack.

 

[Analog Kid]

I know people are being intentionally obtuse on this matter, but it's still maddening.

When the headphone jack was removed, Apple realized it was easier to [...] reach an IP7 water resistance rating

Then how does the Samsung maintain the water resistance when it has a headphone jack?

Why do people keep asking this silly question? Nobody said it was impossible, simply easier without it.

Essential?

Essential wasn't Apple's word, or Buzzfeed's, it was MacRumors' and it's not accurate. Buzzfeed's quote is that it eliminated a key point of ingress.

Plenty of YouTube videos showing the note 7s water resistance......well proven

Well proven on Youtube... Is that what the world has come to?
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The lightning connector will not replace the headphone jack.

It just did.

 

[calabi-yau]

Everything else is digital, why have we kept the headphone jack after all these years? It was going to go eventually, why not now? You don't have a good answer, you just want to be upset over something stupid.

So your issue is the fact that the jack is analog, not necessarily that the jack is there in the first place? Would you have been okay if Apple upgraded the jack to digital, but kept the old form factor? And maybe for a while the jack was backwards-compatible with analog listening devices, while the device-makers had time to upgrade the devices to digital?

 

[morcutt11]

I actually disagree. This issue is going to make for some really simple advertising that Samsung can direct at anybody who has ever invested in premium wired headphones. 5 guys sitting charging their phones during an airport stopover, 2 of them (with samsung) checking out music and youtube videos and having fun while the 3 with iPhones try fumbling back and forth, charging up to 3% then listening for a few minutes, back and forth.

Or how about a road trip samsung guy in the front seat can charge and play music on the slightly older non-bluetooth car. Apple guy wants to play his favorite song, phone runs out of batteries after the first 3 bars and they have to wait while he charges it separately.

Or they can say "wireless where it matters" and have ads pointing out that they have wireless charging (which apple doesn't), while maintaining the ability to use wireless or wired headphones, and charge your phone even in the middle of watching a movie or playing a game.

It's an easy way for Samsung to separate itself from Apple.

And Apple will have commercials with people dancing around and enjoying their wireless life. Non-issue.

 

[MacWanker]

You should not be wearing your headphones when driving, it's illegal and dangerous.

The poster you quoted is the uk, where wearing headphones while driving is not illegal.
It can be taken into account for a possible driving without due care prosecution if driving warrants it (say, if for example, it resulted in an accident) but at the present time it is not illegal.

 

[Analog Kid]

It seems people read the headline and start writing.
They either like or dislike the headline and then start hammering away at the keyboard.
Often they ask questions, the answer to which is clearly stated in the second paragraph, but they never got that far in a rush to rant or rave.

You give people too much credit. On this topic, and on the 16GB base storage before it, people weren't even reading headlines. They saw a new thread open up and a new potential audience to cry to.

"Apple opens solar farm to power new data center"
"Yeah, but they still only give us 16GB of Flash"

 

[cube]

Form over function part MMXVI.