Samsung Mocks Apple's Decision to Remove the Headphone Jack in iPhone 7

[lagwagon]

Removing the audio jack because its 50 years old is like removing the steering wheel on a car just because its 100 years old. Get over old technology, its the digital age. Drive your car with a joystick. There is absolutely no need to remove the headphone jack. Why?? It will make the iPhone thinner? So the camera can protrude more? Silly. Just shows in what direction Apple is heading.

But technology is slowly moving away from a need of a physical steering wheel. Automation is the future of cars and eventually will never need any manual driving done by the main passenger.

So your analogy doesn't exactly work. It's happening there, but just at a very slow pace and gradually. Instead of more an "overnight" thing like just cutting a jack out in a new model.

 

[drumcat]

“Want to know what else it comes with?" He asked. “Android OS. I'm just saying," he added with a smirk as the audience laughed.

Basically, that's the only deal-killer. I think I'm not alone in saying that I would love nothing more than a S7 with iOS.

 

[gregoryalee]

Hehe... Nope. Speaking only personally, I may be scrambling to look for an adapter, but I still don't wish I had a VGA port in my laptop or iPad - I wish the business or who ever would replace their ancient, outdated projectors with something I can cast my screen wirelessly to. I don't want a legacy port just to satisfy people who use legacy equipment. In the same way I don't wish OS X or iOS still supported Apple Talk so I can connect to a client's printer.

Those pieces of equipment are not equal and not anywhere near as ubiquitous as the analog audio jack.

 

[lagwagon]

Not necessarily assuming you get to pick your headphones separate from your DAC and AMP.

If I'm buying very high end headphones, I would rather the DAC and Amp be built in and specifically designed for that particular pair. Rather than plugging in an extra component.

 

[thecurryman]

I dont mind apple getting rid of the headphone jack. What I DONT like is how they won't switch to USB-C. The 3.5mm jack is an industry standard...usb-C is an industry standard, apple computers are starting to come with only usb-C ports...why on earth would you make using headphones require a proprietary port?! I dont get it, especially when apple sells products with USB-C

IMO this might be the first iPhone to not sell more than the predecessor. No new redesign, no headphone jack, competitors with premium products etc

 

[drumcat]

But technology is slowly moving away from a need of a physical steering wheel. Automation is the future of cars and eventually will never need any manual driving done by the main passenger.

So your analogy doesn't exactly work. It's happening there, but just at a very slow pace and gradually. Instead of more an "overnight" thing like just cutting a jack out in a new model.

No, it does work. All of those Teslas still have a wheel. His point is exactly that... there's no reason to suddenly go without.

 

[teknikal90]

Apple removing the headphone jack won't force you replace all of your headphones with wireless ones. It's already been rumoured the iPhone 7 will comes with a Lightning to Audio Jack convertor, which no doubt they'll sell separately for £25 too - one for each of your headphones.

so where is the benefit

 

[bigchief]

If the 7 comes with no 3.5 and the phone doesn't have wireless charging capability I not buying.

 

[bitfactory]

This guy is going to get it mercilessly when Samsung does the same thing.

It's going to be his 'shut down the company and give the money back to the shareholders' moment.

Looking forward to it.

 

[flaw600]

But but you cant have a thin, bezel free phone with a big battery, extented memory support and waterproofing with a headphone jack?!?



I have an old Nexus 4 with Vanilla Android and a Galaxy for work. I dont even notice a difference besides additional apps being installed. Apple has its own share of preinstalled crap on iOS

Nothing that craps over the entire OS...

 

[SBlue1]

Fastforward 1-2 years from now when Samsung also removes the 3.5mm headphone jack. They do this time and time again. Mock then follow. And look like a jackass (pun intended)

Nah. They copy the good stuff only. They did not copy 3D touch.

And by the way, forget Samsung. Samsung is a copycat indeed, they have never been innovative. Forget Apple too. They are not innovative anymore. Remember the names of the new Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Huawei or One Plus. This is where the future market leaders will come from in 5 years.

 

[gregoryalee]

If I'm buying very high end headphones, I would rather the DAC and Amp be built in and specifically designed for that particular pair. Rather than plugging in an extra component.

Well I don't care about your use case. Just like you don't care about mine Have a great day.

 

[drumcat]

I dont mind apple getting rid of the headphone jack. What I DONT like is how they won't switch to USB-C. The 3.5mm jack is an industry standard...usb-C is an industry standard, apple computers are starting to come with only usb-C ports...why on earth would you make using headphones require a proprietary port?! I dont get it, especially when apple sells products with USB-C

IMO this might be the first iPhone to not sell more than the predecessor. No new redesign, no headphone jack, competitors with premium products etc

You just said, effectively, "I don't mind if they remove this one very standard thing. What I don't like is that the other thing isn't standard. It should be standard."

To answer the question, the lightning cable predated USB-C... one could make the case that USB-C wouldn't exist in the wild without Lightning. Given how they dealt with the last wire change, going from Lightning to USB-C wouldn't improve the product; just outdate all your current cables.

Ironic, no?

 

[flaw600]

I'm a little surprised that people would assume that jab was at Apple when Apple has yet to announce any such thing but there is at least one phone out there that has already removed the headphone jack.

Except Samsung's biggest competitor is Apple, so...

My biggest problem with the MR post is the sense of finality that Apple's removing the jack. We have, to this day, conflicting reports about that

 

[lagwagon]

No, it does work. All of those Teslas still have a wheel. His point is exactly that... there's no reason to suddenly go without.

Right. Today they still have a steering wheel, but it's moving in the direction of not needing one. I did say that it's happening at a much slower pace vs something "overnight". The time to shift is somewhat irrelevant when the end goal is the same. Cutting out old technology. Obviously they can't just remove the steering wheel today because the technology to 100% full automation isn't there. The technology to remove a 3.5mm jack and provide audio via a digital connection is available today.

 

[rsrocha]

I also remember Samsung mocking iPhone users plugged into walls because of the non-removable battery.

I remember a saying .. people who live in glass houses shouldn't ... yeah. Perhaps Samsung should figure that out.

I think that samsung has found the key about battery life and having that decided to seal the battery. The s7 battery life is really amazing comparing to the iphone and even previous samsung flagships. People should try out for themselves before talking rubbish.

 

[drumcat]

Well I don't care about your use case. Just like you don't care about mine Have a great day.

If you're deciding on a DAC based on the headphones you're wearing, don't you think that an iPhone is just a little inadequate at that level of discussion?

 

[JohnApples]

Wow, that took some real clairvoyance there, you should try picking lottery numbers next

Ahh wouldn't be MacRumors without the unnecessary snide remarks!

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Aren't they removing it for space and you get better audio quality with the lightning connection?

Better audio quality outdoors? Why is that necessary!?

 

[Souponastick270]

Aren't they removing it for space and you get better audio quality with the lightning connection?

I know it's not a popular move, but those are the reasons right?

1) Removing the headphone jack hardly makes more space and it is rumoured to be replaced with a second speaker that's all of about a cm apart so stereo sound would be pretty much indistinguishable.

2) If you want to use lighting for audio to achieve better sound quality you can already do this. There is no valid reason to screw literally hundreds of million of people over and force them to get headphone that only work on an iPhone and won't even work on an iPad, iPod Touch, iMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Mini, Mac Pro..... or any other product that has a standard headphone jack, better yet, what we will end up with is $2 adaptor that Apple with sell for $49.99 and Tim will say "Its really great. I think you're going to love it"

 

[mpavilion]

I am absolutely 100% certain. They are not being honest that is for sure. You have 4 components. 1: The file 2: The DAC 3: The amp 4: the speakers.

If you are using the same DAC and the same amp and the same speakers for the test... then there should be no difference in audio. The wired headphones that come with your iphone will support ANY bitrate audio. Yeah the drivers sound like crap, but you can go all the way up to 24bit/192Khz if your DAC and audio files support it. Making the argument that some new connector has better audio quality is completely unsubstantiated, ignorant and total marketing garbage.

And won't the iPhone still need an internal DAC anyway (to play audio through the speaker)? So it's not like they'll even save room by removing that component(?)

 

[nviz22]

So many butthurt fans.

 

[drumcat]

Right. Today they still have a steering wheel, but it's moving in the direction of not needing one. I did say that it's happening at a much slower pace vs something "overnight". The time to shift is somewhat irrelevant when the end goal is the same. Cutting out old technology. Obviously they can't just remove the steering wheel today because the technology to 100% full automation isn't there. The technology to remove a 3.5mm jack and provide audio via a digital connection is available today.

That's factually accurate for a tiny fraction of current product. The amount of BT 4.5 in the wild is under 10%, despite iPhone 6S doing it. As such, you don't rip out the steering wheel when you're less than 10% adoption. If BT4.5 was common, I could see it. But, it's not. Won't be for several years, even with this idiotic design change.

 

[iChrist]

People also bitched about the removal of a CD drive on MacBooks, not supporting flash on iPhone, not including flash in OS X, et cetera, et cetera. People will get over it.

Yeah, but it made the macbook noticeably lighter and thinner. There is no benefit to remove the headphone jack. It's the same tired old iphone 6 body style and so slightly thinner that almost no one will notice.
dumb.

 

[lagwagon]

Nah. They copy the good stuff only. They did not copy 3D touch.

And by the way, forget Samsung. Samsung is a copycat indeed, they have never been innovative. Forget Apple too. They are not innovative anymore. Remember the names of the new Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Huawei or One Plus. This is where the future market leaders will come from in 5 years.

Word on the street was that the s7 or s7 edge was supposed to have their version of 3D Touch but got pulled last minute because it wasn't quite ready. I would not be surprised if the s8/s8 edge does have it.