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I'm in favor of dumping the headphone jack that lasted an astonishing 100 years. However the Lightning connector they replaced it with won't even last a tenth of that time. Darn shame about not going with usb-c.

Yeah, with the next-gen MBP going all USB-C (possibly dropping the headphone jack as well), I can see Apple switching to USB-C with the iPhone and iPad within a couple of years. Unless, they're waiting for an improved, more streamlined version of USB-C.
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People will need it.
 
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Correct, so now you need to carry more crap with you to just do what the old, wired headphones did without effort.

The case is smaller than the wired case....I generally carry that anyhow because otherwise the wires get all tangled and annoying.

You're nitpicking hard. Not sure why I care....switch to a different device then.
 
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I don't mind them moving to lightning too much.. except I use my EarPods interchangeably between phone/computers/laptop, yet now I can only plug them in to my iPhone. Is there an adapter to go from lightning to 3.5mm??

It comes free with the phone.
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Dangerous? Possibly. But why do people keep saying this is illegal? It may or may not be depending on where you live. Where I live, wearing a pair of earbuds while driving is completely legal.

It's illegal to have earbuds in both ears in California. As a cyclist, I also learned recently that it's also technically illegal to have both earbuds in my ears while cycling. One ear needs to be free to hear things like sirens, oncoming cars, etc. But in Tennessee where I previously lived, it's still legal to hold your phone and drive which is insane, given that there are so many crazy drivers in the south.
 
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Else, what's next? If to be able to innovate, it now requires jettisoning internal stuff to accessories, what shall Apple jettison next so they can "further innovate"... and "thinner"? I'm sure whatever it is, guys- or boys- like you will be right back in the threads after it's announced rah-rahing that move too. Think different kid or eventually you'll be endorsing paying $1000 for an empty box, assembling all of what used to come inside from a bunch of accessories sold separately. It's just a headphone adapter. It's just a battery case. It's just a camera adapter. It's just a screen. It's just an aluminum box. It's just a piece of silicon.

And yes, using adapters IS a pain- a needless hassle that will persist for years and years now. Almost all of us will experience the joys of trying to make this work as well in "real world" uses soon. This change... this "innovation" is a catalyst of fragmentation from a thoroughly ubiquitous "just works" with everything & everywhere to needing to lug along a variety of adapters & splitters to cover all possible bases... or adopting an inferior quality Bluetooth that is also not even remotely as ubiquitous... or just doing without when you forgot to pack the adapter, lost or broke it and Bluetooth is not available.

But Apple is always right... and Apple consumers are always wrong unless what they want perfectly aligns with whatever Apple has decided to roll out. Guys or kids like you will rip individual consumer opinion when it does not comply with a giant corporation's spin. Thank you for doing your part. I'm sure the corporation appreciates your efforts.

Wow. Way to invoke a Dark And Slippery Slope based on absolutely nothing at all other than a vivid imagination. Why is it that you fill this thread with repeated negative takes on things, yet it's others who are "rah-rahing" and not you who is "boo-booing"? Take a step back from the edge, man, it's going to be OK. The marketplace ends up working things out pretty well, albeit sometimes slowly and in fits and spurts. In the meantime you're not obligated to buy something you don't want, there are no Jedi mind tricks at play here--and your phone today still works as well as it did yesterday.

I don't carry any adapters, never have, and I seem to get by without them. Why are you having or anticipating such problems?

I really don't care what electronics people buy, but don't be so melodramatic. As far as scary EVILLE "giant corporations" (you and MaloCS could commiserate), is Apple any different than Samsung, Google, and just about every other corporation you buy from every single day for every need you have? No.
 
Wow. Way to invoke a Dark And Slippery Slope based on absolutely nothing at all other than a vivid imagination. Why is it that you fill this thread with repeated negative takes on things, yet it's others who are "rah-rahing" and not you who is "boo-booing"? Take a step back from the edge, man, it's going to be OK. The marketplace ends up working things out pretty well, albeit sometimes slowly and in fits and spurts. In the meantime you're not obligated to buy something you don't want, there are no Jedi mind tricks at play here--and your phone today still works as well as it did yesterday.

I don't carry any adapters, never have, and I seem to get by without them. Why are you having or anticipating such problems?

I really don't care what electronics people buy, but don't be so melodramatic. As far as scary EVILLE "giant corporations" (you and MaloCS could commiserate), is Apple any different than Samsung, Google, and just about every other corporation you buy from every single day for every need you have? No.

Appreciate your points. If you look around at my posts, you would see that I simply state my opinion- good and bad- as I see it. I'm not always pro whatever Apple is doing or con whatever Apple is doing. I personally consider that an ability to "think different" vs. always towing the company line or always trolling.

I wish we could peek into a parallel universe where it is- say- Samsung choosing to jettison the headphone jack to push a proprietary jack and see if guys like you are praising & defending their move just like you are praising & defending this one. I believe we both know that if it was Samsung in this role, this crowd would be ripping them to shreds. But, since it's Apple making the move, we split with one group working as hard as they can to rationalize it and shout any dissenters down while the other group is simply stating their opinions... which is generally wishing they could get everything they want in an Apple product instead of having to jump through some hoops for apparently no tangible gain.

Nothing wrong with corporations trying to maximize profits. Nothing wrong with corporations making decisions and trying to roll out the best product they can. But buyers do have a say in those things. In this particular case, the seller is Apple, and even dissenters on this topic- like me- want to buy Apple instead of not buy Apple. The whole outweighs the hassle of some parts. But it is aggravating for some of us that our favorite product maker could make choices that create hassles for many for no apparent gain for this segment of consumers.

Managing an adapter(s)- even a free one- is not a consumer gain.
Jettisoning universal ubiquity for for-profit proprietary is NEVER a consumer gain.
Stepping backwards in quality for Bluetooth is not a consumer gain.
Spending more money to try to simply replace functionality that used to come baked in is not a consumer gain.

You can rip me all you want but it doesn't change the reality of it. I'm glad that Apple has made decisions that are great (perfect?) for you. Congratulations. I wish I could be as happy with anything that Apple chooses to do and rolls out. That I'm not that way- that I have an ability to have my own opinions that don't always align with Apple- doesn't make me wrong... just as having your own opinions about how terrific this works for you doesn't make you wrong.
 
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And battery life is the first aspect discussed in my comment. I already stated that the difference is 5% implying that the user you replied to was incorrect regarding the battery life. It's 90 hours for the Note 7 and 85 for the 6 Plus. Would you prefer the time units in minutes and milliseconds aswell? cause they surely make a huge difference lol.
Looks like I will have to spell it out. Here goes, you were the one who brought up screen resolution, which is irrelevant to the topic of battery life. If you use the Anandtech chart as reference, the battery life difference between Note 7 and iPhone 6s Plus is about 1.2% in favor of Note 7. And keeping in mind that Note 7 has 27% more battery capacity, the conclusion is that Note 7 is a poor performer per unit storage capacity compared to iPhone 6s Plus when it comes to battery life. So Samsung wasn't able to get better battery life in spite of a bigger battery. All this cribbing about iPhone having poor battery life is baseless.
Your turn.
 
Maybe I didn't read it in enough detail, but almost every statement made by Apple people about the removal of the headphone jack had nothing to do with water resistance.

If anything it seems that Macrumors choice of title for this story has heavily skewed it such that all the whiners can crap on about how Samsung make waterproof headphone jacks.

Is there no sense that this is a good, forward looking approach? Y'know like how if you watched a sci-fi movie and they had wired headphones you'd think it was really cheap and old fashioned?! Embrace modernity people!!

And if you just dropped £300 on some old school Grados and are worried you won't be able to use them, SIMPLY PLUG THEM INTO THE INCLUDED ADAPTOR AND STOP MOANING!!!
 
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Yes, but you only need 2 other wired adapters and/or dongles to take advantage of Apple's new 'wireless' technology. Sounds like innovation to me...(not)
 
I believe a test done recently (Consumer Reports?) showed they are not. All of the units they tested failed under water. Like the waterproof Sony I saw someone show off until it packed up. I think these other companies over promise and take the hit on returns. Probably gamble net increase in sales makes it pay. A waterproof phone would make most relax about it more, but not actually dunk it deliberately.

I notice Apple still only claim water resistance, not waterproof. Isn't the rating the same, though, as claimed by others as waterproof?
Maybe it's a good idea to read the real story behind it all before you make it sounds like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active isn't IP68 resistant: http://www.consumerreports.org/smar...ne-in-response-to-consumer-reports-dunk-test/

It was a manufacturing issue that caused some few units to fail the tests. Samsung admitted the fault and was replacing all faulting devices to customers who was affected by that.

Man, some of you guys are really bad at reading the news on the internet.
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Wow. So many pathetic people wanting to stick with a 100 year old relic technology.

Get. Over. It.

There's a reason why we have decent phones and laptops these days. They cut out what isn't needed. Here's 2005 vs 2015 laptops. Even then, the 3.5mm jack should have been a Lightning connector.

They've provided 3 alternatives - yet you all are whining like Neanderthals not wanting to leave the Stone Age. Good luck evolving.
Yeah, the speakers in the iPhones are also a technology that is over 100 years old. Let's just remove all speakers from the next iPhone so you have to use an external speaker to be able to hear your phone recieve calls and that.

Yeah, just get over that, to, right?
[doublepost=1473375662][/doublepost]I'm gonna explain something here that someone here clearly doesn't understand the basics of when it comes to sound. First. The ears can only hear analog sound. Because of that, you still have to convert the digital sound from the phone to analog sound before the sound is reaching the speakers on your headphones that you can hear. Thus, the need of a DAC.

Secondly, let's get to some points here.

- 1st point. The port on the phone don't determines the sound quality. That's the DAC and the speakers in the headphones job to decide that. The 3.5mm minijack is just a 'middle point' of the analog sound that is converted from the DAC in the phone where the sound is going through.

- 2nd point. Moving the integrated DAC in the phone outside of the phone will not magically make the sound quality better just because you place the same DAC in the controller on the cable for the headphones no matter what port that is used.

- 3rd point. Someone will say that you can use much better DACs via the Lightning / USB Type-C connector over what the phones have. That's true. However, you can already use external DACs with the current phones via the Lightning / USB Type-C / MicroUSB ports which you could have been using for years already. So there is no reasons to remove the 3.5mm minijack just to be able to use better DACs.

- 4th point. The 3.5mm minijack is actually extremely good and in fact flawless. Because the 3.5mm minijack can deliver MUCH MUCH more sound than what out ears can capable of understanding and hear anyways. So you wont get better sound quality by going to another port. Why else do you think the best and most expensive DACs and DAPs out on the market today are using either 3.5mm minijacks or 6.35mm headphone jacks?

Go figure.

Because the jacks are as good as they can be for our ears. If not, they would have been changed out for something else a long time ago. They just works and does it jobs without ANY issues. So why change out something that just works and are perfect?

- 5th point. Removing the 3.5mm minijack is only going to remove choices for the consumers, which is a very bad idea when you take into consideration on how much the 3.5mm minijack is used on everything today.

- 6th point. The only reason Apple is removing the 3.5mm minijack and only makes it possible to use the Lightning port (if you don't want to go around carrying a dumb adapter) for listening to musics via headphones is because they want more profits. If all of the headphone manufacturers have to use the Lightning plug on their headphones, then Apple will charge them a licence fee of 4 dollars (i think it is) over that. That means more profits for Apple.

- 7th point. And everyone knows that Apple will go 'no f**ks given' to their users and do ANYTHING to gain more profits. So again, why remove a plug that can't be any better for delivering sound to our ears for something new (Lightning) that isn't better for any casual users when it comes to just listening to musics?

- 8th point. The 3.5mm minijack might be an old technology, but who cares about that when the 3.5mm minijack have no limitations to what our ears can understand and hear and doesn't have any flaws?

The 3.5mm minijack just works and does the job of delivering sound perfectly. That's why the 3.5mm minijack have survived for so long time, because it's perfect and it JUST WORKS.

- 9th point. And if we are talking about old technology. What about the loudspeakers that are in the phones? Isn't the normal loudspeakers a very old technology aswell?

The loudspeakers was developed in the late 1800s. So maybe we should remove all of the speakers aswell on the next iPhones, just because they are old, so you can just use external speakers instead as a fix for that, right?

- 10th point. Apple only does this for the money, and not because the 3.5mm minijack is old or have any flaws. Read this and you will understand fully on what all of this is about: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/07/courage/
 
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So true. I used to have respect for Apple. Now, I view them as the most arrogant, dishonest old men that have ever existed in the 21st century, they simply need to retire. Their greed, I find repulsive.
Somebody brought up that Apple is becoming more and more like the Big Brother that they mocked in their 1984 TV ad. An avid Mac user brought up that they were always like that. They just did a good job of hiding it all that time was all.
 
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Wow. So many pathetic people wanting to stick with a 100 year old relic technology.

Get. Over. It.

There's a reason why we have decent phones and laptops these days. They cut out what isn't needed. Here's 2005 vs 2015 laptops. Even then, the 3.5mm jack should have been a Lightning connector.

They've provided 3 alternatives - yet you all are whining like Neanderthals not wanting to leave the Stone Age. Good luck evolving.
It's a hundred years old and still superior to the alternative, that's staying power.

Let's see how long "Lightning" lasts.
 
Simple answer no.

A DAC is needed to run the speakers on the iPhone, so it remains, but since it now does not have to run the headphones, a cheaper one will be used (only needed for speakers)

The lightening port needs a DAC, that is where the MFI programs comes in, DAC is now implemented into the headphones.

You mean the AirPods right? what about standard headphones that use the lightning to 3.5mm adapter or even the lightning EarPods?
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No. The phone still needs a DAC to drive the internal speakers. The Lightning jack passes the digital audio signal to an external DAC. The argument is that that by matching DAC/Amp to the actual analog drivers, you can get better sound. No argument here. Assuming that your headphones have a good quality DAC/Amp. But that has been available since the Lightning connector came along.

And because most of us listen to compressed MP3s, and most don't buy $200 headphones, Lightning earbuds won't sond any better than fully analog ones, and have the potential to sound worse if the cheap external DAC is not as good as the one in the phone.

I didn't think headphones had a DAC in them?? I thought they were just speakers on your ears and the DAC was in the smartphone or mp3 player or whatnot.
 
Looks like I will have to spell it out. Here goes, you were the one who brought up screen resolution, which is irrelevant to the topic of battery life. If you use the Anandtech chart as reference, the battery life difference between Note 7 and iPhone 6s Plus is about 1.2% in favor of Note 7. And keeping in mind that Note 7 has 27% more battery capacity, the conclusion is that Note 7 is a poor performer per unit storage capacity compared to iPhone 6s Plus when it comes to battery life. So Samsung wasn't able to get better battery life in spite of a bigger battery. All this cribbing about iPhone having poor battery life is baseless.
Your turn.

If you honestly believe that the display has no affect on battery life then I'm forced to end this discussion due to the amount of ignorance. I'll reply once you understood how basic components such as a display work lol.
 
the DAC will still be there for the phone, but audio will be sent out digitally. With the AAC quality talk concerning the EarPods, my guess is the DAC for that will be in the W1 chip and be geared for high end decoding to analog.

From the first iPod, the DAC happening so near all the other electronics has risked interference (remember the original iPod’s ‘hmmmm’ that Apple never admitted to but just went away after an update?) and probably limited what it could be allowed to do. Now the DAC for peripherals is far far away from the phone and can be whatever it needs to be to get the job done without compromising phone function.

Yes. It sounds good in theory.
So many problems with that in real life though.
Also, they could have done this and left the 3.5mm jack. (But Money!)
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You mean the AirPods right? what about standard headphones that use the lightning to 3.5mm adapter or even the lightning EarPods?
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I didn't think headphones had a DAC in them?? I thought they were just speakers on your ears and the DAC was in the smartphone or mp3 player or whatnot.

Standard headphones connected to the adapter must get an already converted through DAC and now analog signal.
Not sure how they are detecting this. Surely it's a battery drain at the least.
No way will that sound as good as connecting the headphones direct to 3.5mm as before if all else is equal.

Headphones do not have DAC's in them. That will need to change to meet Apple's vision.
Or they won't and most will still use 3.5mm. Or we will live in this mess of various incompatible standards and adapters for some time before this normalizes. Things could normalize back to 3.5mm. Or 3.5mm and bluetooth. It's so early to say at this point.
 
Yeah, because the USB connectors never change right? How many have there been since USB-A? I have a whole drawer full of different ones. So far I have only 1 device that takes a 'C', so don't tell me that was the way to go.
At least the USB-c plug could be used among multiple devices. Lighting is Apple only and there mostly only iOS. Lighting headphones I can't use on any Mac (while these feature a headphone jack). And if the AirPods will work with older macs (my 2011 MacBook Air ?) who knows that. Apple nowadays has a plethora of ports and plugs. USB-c, lighting, thunderbolt and is miss ring consistency - why is there a USB-C port at the Apple TV??? Will future macs get a lightning port (for headphones ) and ditch the headphone jack ? Apple used to make things easier not more complex
 
At least the USB-c plug could be used among multiple devices. Lighting is Apple only and there mostly only iOS. Lighting headphones I can't use on any Mac (while these feature a headphone jack). And if the AirPods will work with older macs (my 2011 MacBook Air ?) who knows that. Apple nowadays has a plethora of ports and plugs. USB-c, lighting, thunderbolt and is miss ring consistency - why is there a USB-C port at the Apple TV??? Will future macs get a lightning port (for headphones ) and ditch the headphone jack ? Apple used to make things easier not more complex

The ATV4 has a USB C as a maintenance/developer port. Just like the 3 had a micro USB port.

BTW, that is the only thing I own with a C port.
 
The headphone jack is over 100 years old but Lighting connectors will be replaced and obsolete by USB-C in 5 or so years.

Very good point. I'd also bet the 3.5mm audio jack outlasts Lightening.

Get over it guys. Once you go wireless you will never miss that annoying cord ...

Yes, there are some advantages to wireless... but there are also many disadvantages. I prefer having the choice for a given situation (I use both). But, going totally wireless is a problem, because then you can't operate in situations where wireless doesn't work well. And, that doesn't address health concerns.

Apple is quite explicitly pushing towards wireless, for which they get no royalties. Lightning is a stop gap.

That would be my guess too. But, that comes with a number of problems. For example, what if I want to use Screenflow to record an iPhone tutorial? Or, I'm in some environment with interference, or that won't allow signals? Or, I'm giving a presentation and I need to be sure the connection is rock-solid?

That courage thing is backfiring so hard.

Yea, it should be replaced with: Stupid.

Wireless everything is 100% the future.

Until Science™ moves on from the 1940s and starts understanding the biological implications of epigenetics. The future might not seem all so exciting anymore then. We just don't know... so pushing blindly into that unknown is a bit foolish. Especially sticking it right in your ear for extended periods of time.

I am old enough to remember when digital cameras first came out and countless people said they'd never buy a digital camera and that digital cameras would never replace film.

OK, maybe you can help me here, but I'm not really seeing the parallel.

Don't let the bullet train to the future hit you as we whoosh by.....

You gotta love mindless 'progress.' Must be better, because 'new' is better than 'old.' LOL

But to other people it's a smart decision and a welcome change.

Why is it a smart decision? If someone could explain that, maybe I'd welcome change too.

Barely mentioned in MacRumors article on this is one of the key benefits of the recovered space from the outdated 3.5mm jackhole - - 2 hours more battery life than the 6s!

Wha??? That's some wicked physics there if the battery space of a 3.5mm jack supplied 2 hours of iPhone operation. Heck, you'd better call Elon. With that kind of tech, you could charge a Tesla once per year.

SOME people think removing the jack is stupid. Those people are not going to hold back change just because they can't see the value of change.

Ok, so apparently, you see the value? Please explain it to we luddites. :)

That's exactly why they should have kept the 3.5mm jack for another 3-4 years and then switch to USB-C once it has widely adopted.

Unfortunately, they are probably headed towards no ports and pure wireless... because Jony. I doubt they've even thought through the problems that creates, or if they have, they probably don't care.

I mean lets be honest, the keyboard concept is over 100 years old, no one uses it now that we have Siri on OSX.

You know, I wouldn't actually be all that shocked anymore. But, shhh... don't give them ideas. (Actually, you probably nailed Cook's thoughts. It's just going to take a while to transition.)

Keep the adapter attached to your cable. You won't know the difference.

Until you break the Lightening connector off, or after getting wiggled a bit around in your pocket, bag, etc. some of those itty-bitty pins start not making connection any longer, or worse... damage the Lightening input connection on the phone. Apple's going to love this in terms of repair profits.

Being very old I remember a similar faux 'revolt' over losing the floppy, it will pass.

Really? Again, the parallel doesn't seem to be holding up. Most Mac folks I knew liked the move. We moved to better storage technology. Few were using them anymore anyway. That seems almost 180-degrees from this move.

You joke, but in the next 10-15 years cars won't have steering wheels (thanks to autonomy).

Kind of off-topic, but ain't going to happen. And, if it does (because idiots!), I'll want to stay far away from the roads.

Yes it is. It's a tired lazy old low-quality means of getting audio from one place to another.

Huh? You do realize how sound and ears work, right?

So there's a quality DAC in that little adapter? At least as good as the one in the phone already?

Maybe, maybe not. This has zero to do with audio quality.

I completely agree, release them in jet black config. But they look just like regular earpods minus a cable.

They have to save that so they have some content for next year's keynote.

Yeah, the speakers in the iPhones are also a technology that is over 100 years old. Let's just remove all speakers from the next iPhone ...

Exactly. If they really needed to save space, they could have removed one of the two speakers, as having a 3.5mm audio jack is far more important than having 'stereo' speakers, for crying out loud!
 
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