Spec Sheet Shows iPhone 7 Plus With 256GB Storage and Lightning EarPods

[Tom-Helge]

So your advocating buying one adapter over another?

Hysterical.

I won't be affected by adapters, because I will be using native Lightning products and wireless headphones.

I'd rather not buy adapters for all of my Lightning equipment. If I have to buy a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter, it'll be one I might need on rare ocassion. Your advocating that not only those people who will buy adapters for their 3.5mm equipment, but also require them to buy all new Lightning cables, or adapters for them as well. That's insane. The turn over will be far worse for you if Apple chose that route.

And then for the next few years, you'd be in the same boat at 3AM if you need a new USBc cable -- out of luck.

Yeah, if you think we can live with several adapters just to be able to use our 3.5mm headphones which is extremely widely used everywhere in the world and even an additional adapter so we can charge our phones while we are using the headphones, then you can for sure live with an adapter if Apple goes for USB-C on the next iPhone or whatever that only affects those who have bought Lightning accessories which is astronomically lesser in numbers than the number that uses 3.5mm minijacks.

If you think you can't use an adapter, then what makes you think we can live with adapters for using the 3.5mm minijack and so on then?

 

[Mac 128]

Idiotic? WOW. Aren't you the wise one. All hail the wise one. You jumped into a conversation in the middle where I was clarifying to answer to a reply.

I did mention that they should introduce wireless charging when they removed the jack. Your solution, a pass trough is very simplistic is not a very 'Apple-esque' solution. Apple tends to go for ease and simplicity with minimalism. Plus the solution needs to look good and pass-throughs and adapters are very unattractive along with being bulky, cumbersome while opining apple up to cord issues.

Wireless charging addresses all the concerns and its attractive and simple. Third parties will for sure create truly wireless charging battery packs.

So before slinging insults after jumping in 1/2 way through a conversation do some legwork.

x

Apologies. But the quote I responded to was pretty clear you didn't see any way to charge and listen to music at the same time. And while wireless is an ideal solution it adds a ton of additional hardware to the table. To solve this problem without buying a lot of additional stuff, the Lightning passthrough is simple and elegant, and Apple is already doing it on several dongles and docks they currently offer. So hardly up Apple like.

Yeah, if you think we can live with several adapters just to be able to use our 3.5mm headphones and even an additional adapter so we can charge our phones while we are using the headphones, then you can for sure live with an adapter if Apple goes for USB-C on the next iPhone or whatever.

If you think you can't use an adapter, then what makes you think we can live with adapters for using the 3.5mm minijack and so on then?

I didn't suggest I can't use an adapter. What I stated was that it is the worst solution for not only your apparent camp, who will have to buy adapters not only for your headphones, but also all of your lightning cables. Whereas I only have to buy one adapter if Lightning stays the same, while many will not need 3.5mm adapters at all.

Add to that many others don't use headphones at all, and suddenly they're being asked to buy adapters as well.

And given the current paucity of USB-c devices, there's absolutely no reason to ask anyone to do that now, especially if it's all moving to wireless everyone in a few years anyway.

 

[Tom-Helge]

I didn't suggest I can't use an adapter. What I stated was that it is the worst solution for not only your apparent camp, who will have to buy adapters not only for your headphones, but also all of your lightning cables. Whereas I only have to buy one adapter if Lightning stays the same.

Add to that many others don't use headphones at all, and suddenly they're being asked to buy adapters as well.

And given the paucity of USB-c devices, there's absolutely no reason to ask anyone to do that now, especially if it's all moving to wireless everyone in a few years anyway.

I think we both can agree that using adapters, no matter what, is a bad idea when you look at it in the perspective of a normal consumer. No one want's to go around and carry different adapters just to be able to do the same as we have done for decades.

And for those who doesn't use headphones, they wont have a problem with that as they will only need a Lightning to USB-C adapter (only if the next iphone gets a USB-C port) if they use accessories with the Lightning plug. And the number of peoples that uses that are astronomically lower than the numbers who actually uses the 3.5mm minijack.

So why should we prioritize a minority over what the masses are using?

 

[rGiskard]

Hmm. Would an extruding adapter likely cause people to damage the Lightning port? I can just see people putting too much pressure on the thing (accidently knocking it, etc) and breaking their phone.

If there is a loss of the 3.5 socket, the future has got to be Lightning connectors or - I suspect Apple would prefer this (although they win either way), Bluetooth headphones.

Yep.

There will be a degradation in audio quality for all but the most expensive Lightning headphones.

BT is worthless for quality audio. Maybe some future version will have sufficient bandwidth, but for now it's pathetic.

Apple can afford to put reasonably high quality DACs in the iPhone due to volume purchases. Headphone makers will have to pay more so moving the DAC into the headphone makes little sense to the end user. It even forces the user to pay for duplicate DACs.

I can also see a new market for Lightning to analog jack adapters, with some claiming audiophile quality at exhorbitant prices. Most will not actually use better DACs, so they'll be like those finger thick audio cables revealed by blind testing to be snake oil.

In my view this is a greedy move by Apple to lower the iPhone's BOM. It could also partly be Ive's need for as few ports as possible, but I don't believe Ive alone could dictate such a ludicrous decision.

 

[calzon65]

There have been almost a half dozen articles posted over the past few months that talk about the rumor of Apple removing the 3.5mm jack. If you look at those articles, the numbers of posts are astounding, more than most other articles, and the vast majority of reader responses are from people angry about the potential removal of the 3.5mm jack.

The 3.5mm jack is truly ubiquitous, virtually universal, across laptops, automobiles, desktops, music players, stereos, mobile phones, tablets, even in-seat audio jacks on most passenger airlines. Removing this standard is a complete slap in the face to millions and millions of consumers who have spent a lot of money on high quality headphones, earbuds, speakers, etc. that all use the 3.5mm standard.

We are not talking about simply upgrading from floppy disks to CDs, from CDs to USB sticks, etc. I know people love to compare removing the 3.5mm jack to eliminating the floppy or CD, but those were upgrades to new standards embraced by the entire computer industry as a move forward in technology. What we are talking about here is the total elimination of one of the most reliable and useful audio standards that virtually all manufactures embrace.

Apple will take this proven and reliable open standard and give us their proprietary standard, and I'm confident no other equipment manufacture will ever embrace Lightning (I'm not talking about headset manufactures, I'm talking about other desktop, laptop, tablet, stereo, phone, automobile, music player, and aircraft manufactures).

So Apple does not move us forward, they lock us into a standard they control/own and move us away from the mainstream into a segregated solution that is not even available on Apple’s own computer line ... which coincidently uses the 3.5mm audio jack.

I think Apple's psychotic obsession of making their phones thinner and thinner will go too far with the elimination of the 3.5mm jack.

 

[Tom-Helge]

There have been almost a half dozen articles posted over the past few months that talk about the rumor of Apple removing the 3.5mm jack. If you look at those articles, the numbers of posts are astounding, more than most other articles, and the vast majority of reader responses are from people angry about the potential removal of the 3.5mm jack.

The 3.5mm jack is truly ubiquitous, virtually universal, across laptops, automobiles, desktops, music players, stereos, mobile phones, tablets, even in-seat audio jacks on most passenger airlines. Removing this standard is a complete slap in the face to millions and millions of consumers who have spent a lot of money on high quality headphones, earbuds, speakers, etc. that all use the 3.5mm standard.

We are not talking about simply upgrading from floppy disks to CDs, from CDs to USB sticks, etc. I know people love to compare removing the 3.5mm jack to eliminating the floppy or CD, but those were upgrades to new standards embraced by the entire computer industry as a move forward in technology. What we are talking about here is the total elimination of one of the most reliable and useful audio standards that virtually all manufactures embrace.

Apple will take this proven and reliable open standard and give us their proprietary standard, and I'm confident no other equipment manufacture will ever embrace Lightning (I'm not talking about headset manufactures, I'm talking about other desktop, laptop, tablet, stereo, phone, automobile, music player, and aircraft manufactures).

So Apple does not move us forward, they lock us into a standard they control/own and move us away from the mainstream into a segregated solution that is not even available on Apple’s own computer line ... which coincidently uses the 3.5mm audio jack.

I think Apple's psychotic obsession of making their phones thinner and thinner will go too far with the elimination of the 3.5mm jack.

I couldn't have said it better than you did. One MASSIVE thumbs up from me here .

 

[Mac 128]

There have been almost a half dozen articles posted over the past few months that talk about the rumor of Apple removing the 3.5mm jack. If you look at those articles, the numbers of posts are astounding, more than most other articles, and the vast majority of reader responses are from people angry about the potential removal of the 3.5mm jack.

The 3.5mm jack is truly ubiquitous, virtually universal, across laptops, automobiles, desktops, music players, stereos, mobile phones, tablets, even in-seat audio jacks on most passenger airlines. Removing this standard is a complete slap in the face to millions and millions of consumers who have spent a lot of money on high quality headphones, earbuds, speakers, etc. that all use the 3.5mm standard.

We are not talking about simply upgrading from floppy disks to CDs, from CDs to USB sticks, etc. I know people love to compare removing the 3.5mm jack to eliminating the floppy or CD, but those were upgrades to new standards embraced by the entire computer industry as a move forward in technology. What we are talking about here is the total elimination of one of the most reliable and useful audio standards that virtually all manufactures embrace.

Apple will take this proven and reliable open standard and give us their proprietary standard, and I'm confident no other equipment manufacture will ever embrace Lightning (I'm not talking about headset manufactures, I'm talking about other desktop, laptop, tablet, stereo, phone, automobile, music player, and aircraft manufactures).

So Apple does not move us forward, they lock us into a standard they control/own and move us away from the mainstream into a segregated solution that is not even available on Apple’s own computer line ... which coincidently uses the 3.5mm audio jack.

I think Apple's psychotic obsession of making their phones thinner and thinner will go too far with the elimination of the 3.5mm jack.

The future is wireless. Not Lightning, USB-C, or 3.5mm. Wireless is already a standard embraced by everyone. In 5 years there won't be any ports on iPhones, and the majority of the industry will follow suit.

 

[BvizioN]

WHO CARES!

Quite right! No one uses iPhone now days! Everyone uses Mac!

 

[Tom-Helge]

The future is wireless. Not Lightning, USB-C, or 3.5mm. In 5 years there won't be any ports on iPhones, and the majority of the industry will follow suit.

Without a good codec (aptX or something better), there is no future in wireless sound via Bluetooth on iPhones. The reason Apple doesn't use aptX is because of a licence fee that Apple doesn't want to pay for that, just because the massive profits are more important than acutally using something good and usefull.

 

[rGiskard]

There isn't a need for it. They're just letting people have the chance to use their existing headphones.

They can't win. If they include an adapter, people complain. If they don't, people complain.

When you make a losing move don't expect to win.

 

[Jsameds]

Without a good codec (aptX or something better), there is no future in wireless sound via Bluetooth on iPhones. The reason Apple doesn't use aptX is because of a licence fee that Apple doesn't want to pay for that, just because the massive profits are more important than acutally using something good and usefull.

There's plenty of future even at today's quality levels. People aren't as bothered by quality sound or image as you might expect, which is why most people are still happy watching DVD's and listening to 128kbps MP3 files.

 

[rGiskard]

The future is wireless. Not Lightning, USB-C, or 3.5mm. Wireless is already a standard embraced by everyone. In 5 years there won't be any ports on iPhones, and the majority of the industry will follow suit.

If BT audio is the future then we are in for one seriously dystopian future.

If an iPhone could pair with multiple devices at once then that may at least be considered an advantage. But it cannot. If you're listening to music, you cannot pair a BT keyboard to your phone. You can't pair it to your car. And the BT connection will drop out from time to time, because BT sucks.

 

[calzon65]

The future is wireless. Not Lightning, USB-C, or 3.5mm. Wireless is already a standard embraced by everyone. In 5 years there won't be any ports on iPhones, and the majority of the industry will follow suit.

Wireless is a kind of methodology, it is NOT a standard like the 3.5mm three/four conductor standard followed by the manufacturers that use it.

Wireless could mean Bluetooth (with its different standards), WiFi (with all its different standards/frequencies), 2.4GHz for some wireless keyboard/mouse combinations, or 27MHz for other wireless keyboard/mouse combinations. All these are "wireless" but they are all completely incompatible standards. To say "Wireless is already a standard embraced by everyone" is a misleading statement, it is NOT a standard, it is a methodology with numerous competing and incompatible standards. The 3.5mm audio jack is a true standard that works very well.

 

[SoN1NjA]

Don't you think the text is too wide? Comparing to the back of my 6s Plus box this looks fake.

And do you really think Apple will call it a "Lightning to Headphone Jack" adapter?

That's become the accepted nomenclature here but really that's informal language. I would expect something more like "Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Adapter" or something.

If you look at the Apple Style Guide, headphone jack is perfectly acceptable

S/ https://help.apple.com/asg/mac/2013/ASG_2013.pdf

 

[brbttyl]

If it's gonna bring better sound quality, i'm all for it.

Clearly you have never tried Bluetooth headphones. The 3.5mm headphone jack provides extremely high quality audio already, limited only by the headphones and the micro-sized DAC Apple chooses to incorporate in their designs. If the move to lightening audio meant that OEMs were going to start incorporating DACs downstream, either in the plug or headphone earcup assy, that were *better* than what Apple (formerly) included internally, then, yes, conceivably better audio could result.

Will that happen? Uh, no.

 

[rGiskard]

Without a good codec (aptX or something better), there is no future in wireless sound via Bluetooth on iPhones. The reason Apple doesn't use aptX is because of a licence fee that Apple doesn't want to pay for that, just because the massive profits are more important than acutally using something good and usefull.

There's Bluetooth 5, but it's primarily aimed at marketing beacons with an increase in broadcasting capacity. I can't find anything solid on data bandwidth. Plus it's not out until early 2017, which means Apple won't adopt it until 2018 at the earliest.

 

[brbttyl]

Love all the apple fanboys defending taking away one of the most widely accepted standards today.
Say hello to "Apple iPhone 7 inovation" enabling a future with drm audio, lower quality sound and unnecessary clunky dongles.

Exactly. This is user hostile!

 

[AirunJae]

Given the only time I really use headphones is working out, which are bluetooth, I'm not bothered about the whole headphone jack removal. But I could understand why one wouldn't to have to buy bluetooth headphones, but hopefully this will just drop the prices overall as it becomes the standard.

 

[SMIDG3T]

When you make a losing move don't expect to win.

They'll win.

I appreciate it's one of the oldest port in audio but look at the 30-pin Connector. Everyone freaked out when they switched that for the Lightning Connector.

 

[unobtainium]

It takes valuable space inside the phone. It's one more opening into the phone that needs to be protected against water damage (which also takes up valuable space). Apple may have additional reasons that they find compelling.

They should be very compelling reasons. You don't get rid of something extremely useful and ubiquitous unless there is a huge positive tradeoff. I'll wait to see, but I doubt it.

 

[SSDGUY]

My only hope at this point is that the adapter is not some clunky/breakable thing, since I'll not be using lightning-connected "EarPods" any time soon.

 

[brbttyl]

They should also include a 3.5mm to lightning dongle in order to use these earpods with the old macbooks. And also a usb-c to lightning dongle to use with the new macbooks. And also a lightning to lightning + 3.5mm in order to charge while listening to music in your office. But then we also need a lightning to 2 lightnings in order to listen to music with the new earpods, while charging.

Yep. I've been saying since the beginning of these rumors, there is one scenario, and one scenario alone, in which it would make sense for Apple to ditch the headphone jack: Eliminate the lightning connector, and adopt USB-C across all devices. Quit dragging heels on new MacBooks. Update entire product line so that all currently shipping Macs and iOS devices sport copius USB-C ports for charging and connectivity. Ship USB-C headphones that would work on Macbooks, iOS devices, Android devices, Windows laptops, and anywhere USB-C is found. That kind of a move would push the industry forward and result in a new kind of cross-compatible headphone or audio device. Short of that, taking away the only non-DRM high quality audio out port on the most popular and widely used Apple product is simply user-hostile. Clearly, Apple knew they would need the internal real estate for iPhone 8 and so decided to force the awful medicine this time around, so as not to tarnish the experience of their 10th anniversary phone. That doesn't mean its a good decision, or one that is backed up with the real forward-thinking moves that would need to happen to justify or support it. Bluetooth audio is garbage and will be for the forseeable future.

 

[ysr]

What if these rumors about the headphone jack were all false, people will go nuts

 

[Chicane-UK]

What if these rumors about the headphone jack were all false, people will go nuts

Despite being extremely passionate about them not removing the 3.5mm jack, and getting appropriately worked up about it, even I would have to laugh if that were the case. All that energy and frustration expended on nothing more than a few rumours

 

[doelcm82]

They should be very compelling reasons. You don't get rid of something extremely useful and ubiquitous unless there is a huge positive tradeoff. I'll wait to see, but I doubt it.

It's compelling enough for me. In a couple of years, I expect the people who think Apple shouldn't have done it will be small.

Edit: The NUMBER of people who think Apple shouldn't have done it will be small. And I assume some of those people will be large....