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Removal of iPhone 7 Headphone Jack Was Essential for Water Resistance, New Camera System
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Imagine if, when Apple removed the floppy drive, they also removed the optical drive and USB, and your only alternative for external storage was through Firewire ports.
If you wanted to stick with your Mac, you had to buy Firewire-interfacing storage. Later on, when you wanted to replace an aging Mac, you wouldn't look at other computer manufacturers unless you also wanted to replace all your Firewire-interfacing storage with USB. So you'd be more likely to stick with Mac.
That's what this is. Vendor lock-in.
Apple is the new Microsoft. Awesome.
(Fine, yes, adapters are available, but still.)
If you wanted to stick with your Mac, you had to buy Firewire-interfacing storage. Later on, when you wanted to replace an aging Mac, you wouldn't look at other computer manufacturers unless you also wanted to replace all your Firewire-interfacing storage with USB. So you'd be more likely to stick with Mac.
That's what this is. Vendor lock-in.
Apple is the new Microsoft. Awesome.
(Fine, yes, adapters are available, but still.)
I'm sure it'll be part of the upgrade next year. I was hoping for the same. Use lightning (or bluetooth) for music and charge wirelessly.
Steve saw into the future. Removing the headphone jack would have been his idea.
By creating fire the Samsung galaxy 7 is able to get the headphone jack to stay dry. Everything is a trade off.
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You said fire and Samsung out engineering in consecutive sentences. You are funny.
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One iPhone had a proprietary head phone jack that was longer than normal. It had zero impact on sales. This is better than that so the desire to wish them failure on this is not likely to bear fruit.
I've put a lot of thought into this... I'm actually not impressed. If they wanted to innovate, they should have developed a different format to the audio jack. One that is more shallow, and include an adapter to connect 3.5mm jacks to the iPhone through that separate port. Make a cable available that's 3.5mm to whatever.
They majorly alienated beginning musicians and folks who use many different formats to listen to their music, for one. People who use the iPhone to mix, have a playlist at an all day party, want to solar charge their phone while backpacking or camping, and listening to music (Bluetooth headphones are actually not best- batteries die- I've camped for a week in the Rockies and stretched my battery out for an incredible time with normal buds vs. Bluetooth), people who find themselves charging while playing music in their cars should they have an older vehicle... It's unheard of.
While I get they're attempting to shape the future, this has to be the most pompous move Apple has ever made. It's fussy, arrogant, and generally stupid.
This isn't thinking outside the box; this is closing a chest and LOCKING it.
I really do get what they're doing, but it wasn't the right approach. Theyre wringing the towel even tighter. I'm suffocating. I think I'm out.
They majorly alienated beginning musicians and folks who use many different formats to listen to their music, for one. People who use the iPhone to mix, have a playlist at an all day party, want to solar charge their phone while backpacking or camping, and listening to music (Bluetooth headphones are actually not best- batteries die- I've camped for a week in the Rockies and stretched my battery out for an incredible time with normal buds vs. Bluetooth), people who find themselves charging while playing music in their cars should they have an older vehicle... It's unheard of.
While I get they're attempting to shape the future, this has to be the most pompous move Apple has ever made. It's fussy, arrogant, and generally stupid.
This isn't thinking outside the box; this is closing a chest and LOCKING it.
I really do get what they're doing, but it wasn't the right approach. Theyre wringing the towel even tighter. I'm suffocating. I think I'm out.
Or another possibility is Apple's incessant need to brag.
If this is accepted by mainstream customers Apple's first to get bragging rights. That's a big deal to them.
Conversely if iPhone sales falter, Apple will scramble. It's going to be interesting.
Said it before and I'll say it again and again and again - the headphone jack will return in the iPhone 8. They'll claim tech has advanced and smaller parts have allowed them to reinsert it while preserving all the crap they claimed was possible only by taking it out the first time. People are not going to want to carry an ugly adapter on their headphones. Or continue losing the dongle. Or replacing it whenever it frays or stops functioning. You'll see.
If you ignore the fact they are slower than a year old iPhone and like you noted ignore them catching fire you are right those things pale into comparison to having to use an adapter to use old headphones.
People do have some crazy priorities and standards. How do the galaxy cameras compare?
Sad little whiny girls on here. The port is ancient. Wireless can finally be made superior to wired. What's better: wired headphones that do nothing special or wired headphones that can be controlled by an app to customize the level of noise cancellation? What's better: wired or wireless? Sorry, just because something is ubiquitous is a piss poor reason to keep it around. I don't care how universal it is. If something else is better, by definition we should do it
But you don't have to buy Lightning earphones, they come free in the box.
Additionally (and I know this doesn't relate to your post), all this concern over charging/listening at the same time: I think the lightning port is certainly capable of doing both audio out and charging at the same time, I know the 30 pin connector was. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
If that's true, then there will be countless adapters, probably an Apple provided one, and many 3rd party solutions, that allow for both to be done at the same time. They're just not included in the box, because that's a fairly rare use case.
I foresee most iPhone 7/Plus owners using the bundled EarPods primarily, just like most have for years. If you want something better, you can look at wireless options, find some Lightning earphones, or some 3.5mm ones and use the included adapter. Honestly, not much has changed. But it will push more accessory makers towards innovation in the wireless space I think. You could already see that start to happen this year just based on the rumors, with startups like Bragi coming into the fore.
Personally, I'm excited to see where this all goes.
Steve was there when they previously jacked with the headphone jack. Does nobody remember the original iPhone had a recessed headphone jack?
People need to stop saying the main trade off is waterproofing. The main tradoffs are with the camera and battery. Water resistance is an added benefit.
As someone who can wear headphones 12 plus hours a day I am fine with this trade off.
The point I was trying to make is that wired headphones have features that no amount of innovation in the wireless space is going to solve: such as not requiring integrated batteries and less EM emissions (a particular issue for children).
I expect the lightning port could handle charging and another power-drawing device at the same time. I don't know why Apple's dongle doesn't include another port for power input.
Except its not a real argument at all. Since there is practically no good reason why you should ever need to do this. And lets be frank: what you mean is you can't use WIRED headphones while charging. There are many USB-out audio scenarios such as speaker docks, home theatre, car audio, where charging and listening to music just happen together through the same cable.
The only thing you "cant" do is tethering your head to the wall like some kind of _____ fill in the blank.
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I can tell you exactly why. Here it goes, pay attention: No one cares, no one needs this, no one misses it. It is nothing but a troll's trump card and weak one at that.
and yet my iphone 6s can do that, and doesn't hold back any of what you said. Keeping the port never held any of that back it just gave additional options that many people value.
My problem is they have the same design as the earbuds which I have to continually keep from falling out of my ears. With wired ones not nearly as risky as $150 that can actually fall away and never be seen again.
Fair point on your first comment. But again, they have included those wired, no-batteries-required headphones with your purchase, as they always have. You just can't charge and use them at the same time.
I have had a few rare instances where I had a desire to do both simultaneously, as someone else mentioned upthread, while on a plane. I can see that being a nuisance. At the same time, these are again fairly rare scenarios where you would need to do both at once.
Which brings me back to my other point: I wonder if it can both take a charge and output audio at the same time. I know when connected to a car stereo via USB it can, but in that scenario it's receiving the power from the stereo/car and not from a 3rd source like what would be required here. I'll be interested to know more as people start poking around inside them and 3rd party accessories start cropping up.
interesting the dozens (possibly hundreds) of people i see doing this every day must all be nobodies and trolls then. Plugged in and wired headsets are the most common setup where I work. easily 9/10 cubicles I walk past people are setup this way.
This is important. The overwhelming majority of people do use the prepackaged buds and suppliers will come out with more headphones. I don't really share my headphones with my computer but just my iOS devices. I simply think things like battery life, camera improvements and water resistance each will impact a greater number of people positively, individually than will be negatively impacted by the headphone change.
There is nothing good about having a cord connecting your headphones to a device. Pushing things in a direction where ultimately you will reach a point with equal or greater sound quality AND no cord is where things are going to be and the sooner we rip the band aid off the sooner we can get there.