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Supply Chain Rumors Reaffirm iPhone 7 Will Not Have Headphone Jack
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True. Two out of two of my smashed iDevices have been caused by headphone cable snagging on something as I walked past, yanking the phone out of my hand.
I don't use my optical drive a lot, but I do use it. It certainly still has a function and will for many years IMO. (in my case, as many years as I want to keep all my DVD's... which I do!) 'Futurist' tech-heads may be fine without optical drive and headphone jack, and they are typically the type of people that inhabit places like this, but I know many many 'ordinary' consumers that would just think it daft and a disinsentive to buy! It's certainly not going to encourage more sales.
Sorry but this is, in my experience anyway, a very outdated view of Bluetooth. I've been using BT headphones for a few years and there's been a big improvement. My current Sony pair sounds just fin and I regularly get around 20 hours of battery life from them (with an option to go to a cable connection if needed). Connection stability is also much better than it used to be with audio drops being a very rare occurrence. Price has come down too with decent options coming in under £70 and convenience over a wired set is, obviously, much higher.
On the phone side again things are much better with my 6S+ giving between two and three days of use with Bluetooth on permanently connected to both an Apple Watch and around two hours a day of audio. Obviously it does have an impact but it's not at the point where it doesn't noticeably impact my charging schedule.
Frankly I'd be very reluctant to go back to a wired headset these days. As for moving away from the 3.5mm jack I'd say it's about time. It's a solid enough design but has a fair number of issues, not least of which its somewhat fragile nature. Moving to a digital connection would certainly present some problems but there's upsides too. Personally I like the idea of being able to provide power to headsets so you don't need batteries for features like noise cancelling. Suspect removing the 3.5mm jack might also help in making the iPhone waterproof or at least reduce possible ingress areas.
My God, I haven't read that yet, but that would be a massive level of ignorance.
Simply put, the sound quality depends on (among other things) the quality of the DAC, it doesn't matter if the DAC is in the iPhone, in an adaptor, or in the headphones themselves. The better DAC will produce better sound, no matter where it's located. All audio anyone listens to today starts from a digital source therefore it's ALL "digital audio", (unless you're listening to audio tape, vinyl, etc.).
I would rather that industry gets together and produces a smaller version of the existing analog audio jack, that everyone can use. Loads of devices are getting thinner now, surely having a universal audio port that was smaller would be beneficial to everyone?
micro-USB was the solution to mini-USB being too large. Practically every phone apart from iPhone uses it quite successfully.
Or at the very least, why not use USB-C instead of lightning? At least it would be compatible with using on other devices e.g. Macbook and pretty much every other future laptop.
micro-USB was the solution to mini-USB being too large. Practically every phone apart from iPhone uses it quite successfully.
Or at the very least, why not use USB-C instead of lightning? At least it would be compatible with using on other devices e.g. Macbook and pretty much every other future laptop.
No, win/win is keeping the jack and the BT and the lightning port. That covers all current use cases and everyone is happy.
And for what it's worth, I did not see anyone walking around with cables on my recent flights. I guess there might have been one or two guys on the way to record the audio of their toilet visit on a BT headset, and I missed it because I didn't see any wires. But I'm guessing most of them just left their headphones at their seat.
As a fairly frequent flier, what is your estimate for how quickly all airlines will provide lightning sockets for their in-flight entertainment systems?
I'm sorry, but I just bursted out laughing when I read this! Anyone who says the 3.5mm jack won't be missed doesn't understand just how ingrained it is. It is nothing like the dock connector, or the optical drive, or any of that jazz. None of those things have endured as long as the headphone jack.
And not only is it going to be replaced, but replaced with a proprietary connector? That is utterly insane!
Whilst I admit it's uncomfortable to make these sacrifices because changing old habits is hard, it's ultimately for the greater good. No other company seems to be brave enough to be the first to leave old technology behind, but someone has to do it so we can move on to the next big thing.
For example the dropping of the floppy disk spurred the fast development and adoption of USB drives. If we do what you suggest and keep the jack then people will forever be using the jack simply because it is there, and the technology will never move on, and if it does it will be at a slow, slow pace because the necessity for it to advance is negated by the jack simply being there.
The difference is that USB is an industry standard. Lighting is NOT. (and before you say BT, let me once again point out that is both more expensive than wired and lacks the fidelity)
I don't expect Apple will ever allow Android and Windows phones to use Lightning ports so it won't ever become an industry standard.
Seems like there are a number of complaints from people in regards to using the 3.5mm jack to listen to music in their car. To these people, what cars are you driving?
I drive a 20 year old car with a $90 aftermarket radio with a USB plug. USB lets you charge and listen to music at the same time with no need for 3.5mm, this has been supported since at least the iPhone 4s. Virtually all new cars have USB, even going back a decade most cars have USB. If your car is really old aftermarket units are cheap and give you USB.
I drive a 20 year old car with a $90 aftermarket radio with a USB plug. USB lets you charge and listen to music at the same time with no need for 3.5mm, this has been supported since at least the iPhone 4s. Virtually all new cars have USB, even going back a decade most cars have USB. If your car is really old aftermarket units are cheap and give you USB.
There would be probably an official adapter for 9,99$ and third party adapters for 1$. That would make the phone thinner, with one less piece of hardware that may fail. Now, if they can also get rid of the mechanical home button and incorporate the TouchID into the display panel I would be super happy. I also hate the volume rockers. They must be replaced with other technology just as convenient as the current mechanical buttons. Finger crossed!
People keep saying this but a decent pair of headphones are around the same price whether they are BT or not. As for audio quality, have you done a blind test? I have some BT speakers and the quality is fantastic.
You should read the original thread based around those rumour....levels of ignorance were staggering.
The huge difference is that USB drives meant progress. The inferior audio and limited battery life of BT headphones is not progress. The need for a dock or an adapter to listen to music while I charge the phone on a train or a plane is not progress. They are trade-offs that are worth it for people whose use cases do not include those situations, but not for everyone.
Dear Apple,
Stop the obsession with thinness, and leave the headphone port alone.
In fact, please make the iphone a mm thicker, so the camera is flush with the rear.
Oppo have tried the ultra-thin phone with the R5 (4.9mm thick) and ditching the 3.5 headphone socket.
And no-one bought it.
Listen to your customers for a change - reduce the bezel width a bit, make the edges a bit squarer, hide the antenna lines, up the storage, and put the best camera in you can that is still flush with the rear.
Thanks,
Me and lots of other people
Stop the obsession with thinness, and leave the headphone port alone.
In fact, please make the iphone a mm thicker, so the camera is flush with the rear.
Oppo have tried the ultra-thin phone with the R5 (4.9mm thick) and ditching the 3.5 headphone socket.
And no-one bought it.
Listen to your customers for a change - reduce the bezel width a bit, make the edges a bit squarer, hide the antenna lines, up the storage, and put the best camera in you can that is still flush with the rear.
Thanks,
Me and lots of other people
I've been saying for ages that if Apple can fit a 4.7" display into an iPhone 5 sized body it would be perfect. Sacrifices have to be made, and internally the headphone jack is huge.
I use wired headphones a lot, but I am willing to change my ways in order for technology to progress.
Here's another poll I created some weeks ago... You still can vote, if you like ...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/poll-3-5-mm-headphone-jack.1941615/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/poll-3-5-mm-headphone-jack.1941615/
The 3.5mm headphone jack has always been crappy. But it's the de facto standard for simple audio connections that don't need the best qualitity. It's everywhere: mp3 Players, car audio systems, trains, aeroplanes, ...
If Apple uses a connector with better quality: fine! But to me the problem is that Apple uses the proprietary Lightning connector. Which means they will sell yet another humongous amount of expensive adapters to us customers to make the iphone connect to anything outside the apple universe. The multitude of Apple adapters has become completely ridiculous. Look at the current Mac Mini or the new Macbook or the Mac Pro and all the stupid adapters you will need for those devices - it's at once completely unhandy and convoluted, looks dorky and is an amazingly well lubricated money printing machine for Apple.
If Apple uses a connector with better quality: fine! But to me the problem is that Apple uses the proprietary Lightning connector. Which means they will sell yet another humongous amount of expensive adapters to us customers to make the iphone connect to anything outside the apple universe. The multitude of Apple adapters has become completely ridiculous. Look at the current Mac Mini or the new Macbook or the Mac Pro and all the stupid adapters you will need for those devices - it's at once completely unhandy and convoluted, looks dorky and is an amazingly well lubricated money printing machine for Apple.
It is not the same thing.
Lighting replaced an old Apple connector while the 3.5mm jack is an industry standard with millions of headphone on the market supporting it.
If they get rid of the headphone jack they're going to replace the EarPods with a bluetooth version and that's another thing to charge every now and then.
A lighting headphone wouldn't work with other appliances, even made by Apple (Macs, old iPads and iPhones...) and who knows how long the lighting connector will be there? It would be better than bluetooth for enjoying music but would be very inconvenient for all other purposes.
The headphone jack is going to be replaced in the future, but I don't think it is already time to get rid of it. Not with iPhone 7 at least