Upcoming 2018 iPad Pro Could Be 5.9mm Thick With No Headphone Jack

[MTW]

The analogy I like to use is how Apple blocked flash to promote HTML5 and its own App Store. While users were inconvenienced in the short run, we gained in the long run because developers shunned an inferior standard (flash) in favour of better ones, which manifested in the form of a better browsing experience and native apps optimised for touch and direct input.

So what Apple is likely trying to achieve with the removal of the jack in the iPad is to further push users to embrace wireless headphones. The arguments claiming how the iPad easily has space for it kinda miss the point. It's like people arguing how Apple could have allowed flash and HTML5 and let the market decide for itself. Apple just doesn't work that way.

I am not saying the removal of the headphone jack won't hurt. I am saying that it will be worth it in the future, as people start to embrace wireless headphones and companies respond with better quality headphones, but all this won't happen if Apple doesn't make the first move and light a fire under everyone's collective behinds.

You have to be willing to look beyond your own immediate needs and realise that Apple is playing the long game here.

Flash has security issues and is a massive energy hog. The comparison doesn't work - offering flash hurts all users. Offering a port does not harm those who are all-in on wireless, it doesn't harm anyone.

Apple is attempting to sell wireless headphones. Customers like wireless headphones and have been buying them long before Apple removed the port. The problem is that wireless isn't a solution for a long list of use cases, mainstream uses cases. No amount of 'nudging third parties' will fix for that. It's an insulting effort, an attempt to tell me that if I endure X amount of pain I get a solution to the problem of Y (note: Y never bothered me).

You can sell wireless headphones while also supporting wired. One does not replace the other; the inherent nature of wireless means that certain trade offs will always exist. They will always have a battery. They will always be more complicated, electronically, than normal, passive 3.55 headphones. They address different use cases. Normal headphones are simple and work all of the time. Wireless headphones do away with the cable, allowing more freedom of movement. But they require charging, add latency and are heavier on account of the battery.

Stop carrying water, stop making absurd arguments. You can have a wireless future and also support users who are not served by that future. It's a port. The device has space for the port. Offer the port. Your argument reads like cult speak, just absolute nonsense with no factual ground.

 

[WolfSnap]

Thank god they removed the headphone jack... Pointless waste of space and weight.

Hopefully it means that the iPad is waterproof!

Seriously, Apple, take my money!

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Air Canada forbids using Bluetooth headphones at any phase during a flight on their Dash-8 series birds. So much for using my iPad on my flights.

Spending an extraordinary amount of time on Canadian regional aircraft doing Canadian regional routes to the extent that not being able to use an IPad is a factor is a much bigger issue IMO.

But on the bright side think of all that scenery you can see through the window... in Canada...

 

[ericwn]

Everyone outraged about the “possible” elimination of the headphone jack in the iPad pros remind me of all the people outraged when Apple got rid of the floppy drive in the first iMac. Wires will soon be a thing of the past across the board. So y’all better get used to it.

And if they had offered their own external solution at the time they could have made even more money as the drive was a pretty common add on amongst users at the time. Then many moved to ZIP disks that could handle much more storage as that need again was not in Apples vision until the Powermacs brought it back.
Then they missed the industry’s peak in integrated CD burners and had to come up with the Rip, Mix, Burn ad campaign and a product update to stay relevant.

 

[LauraJean]

Good. No one uses headphones on an ipad anyway. If you want to use headphones u should just buy the $160 EarPods.

As I am typing this comment on a MacBook Air, lying on the couch, my iPad Mini's audio jack is playing music thru to speakers on the bookshelf. So 1 someone is using the jack, not "no one".

 

[Mac 128]

Good never used headphone jack on an iPad anyway

Wireless is all I will ever need now

Clearly you don't do any gaming, or audio recording. Wireless headphones cannot be used with those activities due to lag. If Apple has come up with a low-latency technology to incorporate into their devices that's one thing, but otherwise it's a problem. Sound recording remains a problem as well since the fidelity over current BT technology is in no way equivalent to professional audio needs.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

No doubt. Idiotic. I make my living as a video professional, and daily plug my Sony MDR V6 headphones into my iPad checking levels. Why those particular headphones? They are largely the industry standard, and a couple Audio Technicas and Sennheisers many pros use. While I use AirPods CONSTANTLY, they are not what I use for WORK, Apple.

Most “video professionals” could probably afford $9 apiece to snap a lightning plug on their cans, leave them there, & literally never give it even a single moment of further thought...
Also, they’d be INCREDIBLY familiar & comfortable with dongles/adapters; as I’m pretty sure that industry is responsible for the bulk of those, for like the last 4 decades or so.
I have to assume that you are either grossly misrepresenting your profession, or digging REALLY deep to find something to be irritated about- that has an incredibly simple & obvious solution.

 

[cmaier]

Would you consider AirPods with Lightning connector?

There won’t be a lightning connector

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Most “video professionals” could probably afford $9 apiece to snap a lightning plug on their cans, leave them there, & literally never give it even a single moment of further thought...
Also, they’d be INCREDIBLY familiar & comfortable with dongles/adapters; as I’m pretty sure that industry is responsible for the bulk of those, for like the last 4 decades or so.
I have to assume that you are either grossly misrepresenting your profession, or digging REALLY deep to find something to be irritated about- that has an incredibly simple & obvious solution.

It’s almost like you work at Apple!

“Let’s create the need for a dongle for absolutely no reason. If video professionals, who use processor intensive apps, need to charge their iPads while working, **** them! Let’s make them buy a SECOND dongle! Then we’ll laugh all the way to the bank.”

 

[cmaier]

Most “video professionals” could probably afford $9 apiece to snap a lightning plug on their cans, leave them there, & literally never give it even a single moment of further thought...
Also, they’d be INCREDIBLY familiar & comfortable with dongles/adapters; as I’m pretty sure that industry is responsible for the bulk of those, for like the last 4 decades or so.
I have to assume that you are either grossly misrepresenting your profession, or digging REALLY deep to find something to be irritated about- that has an incredibly simple & obvious solution.

Except there won’t be a lightning port.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Except there won’t be a lightning port.

Says who

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

Except there won’t be a lightning port.

Touché! =)

 

[cmaier]

Says who

Many reports reported on this site. They say it’s usb-c instead of lightning.

 

[sonicrobby]

5.9mm including or excluding that tumor of a camera?

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

Maxi Pad. Heh.

This is going to SERIOUSLY annoy some DJs who use iPads as part of their rigs.

Apple used the Max moniker INSTEAD of Pro on their phone line... there would be no reason to try to attach both to a new product. The general thinking is that they used Max instead of Plus, to delineate that there is no difference other than size in the current iteration (as opposed to Plus versions, which also enjoyed an additional camera).
This generation of iPads Pro are still exactly that- there’s no rumor of anything larger than the 12.9”, which wasn’t considered “Max”, for the last 2 generations...

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Apple used the Max moniker INSTEAD of Pro on their phone line... there would be no reason to try to attach both to a new product. The general thinking is that they used Max instead of Plus, to delineate that there is no difference other than size in the current iteration (as opposed to Plus versions, which also enjoyed an additional camera).
This generation of iPads Pro are still exactly that- there’s no rumor of anything larger than the 12.9”, which wasn’t considered “Max”, for the last 2 generations...

If they made it any larger it’d be the iPad Billboard. I have a 12.9 and using it in portrait mode is a nightmare.

 

[1applerules1]

Air Canada forbids using Bluetooth headphones at any phase during a flight on their Dash-8 series birds. So much for using my iPad on my flights.

Get lightning headphones, stop being a puss about it.
[doublepost=1539392254][/doublepost]

Those defending removing a port should explain what is gained by doing so. The iPad has always had lots of empty space inside of it. That isn't changing this year - it is the reality of batteries having weight (so that filling the device to capacity with battery is unwise) and boards being tiny. There is room for it, so what is gained by removing it?

Amusement from reading people complain about it being removed

 

[Howard2k]

Sorry, but Apple has no business calling this "Pro" if they pull the headphone jack. They would be much better off pulling their heads out of their a%^&s than the headphone jack from something that audio and video professionals are supposed to use.

Oh jeeez, not this nonsense again.

 

[cmaier]

Get lightning headphones, stop being a puss about it.
[doublepost=1539392254][/doublepost]
Amusement from reading people complain about it being removed

There won’t be a lightning port.

 

[dilbert99]

More people will be mad about the lack of a headphone jack than the number of people who would have used the jack if it were included.

Ipad doesn't need to be any thinner if it means compromises in battery and connectors.
Fine if they have standard connectors like 3.5mm or usbc
I plug in headphones to my iPad and hate dongles.

 

[EdT]

From the quote provided in the article "Of course no headphone jack on the upcoming new iPad. 5.9mm thickness is pretty good though. - CoinCoin (@coiiiiiiiin)"

WHY is 5.9 mm pretty good? Is having a flimsy body with a smaller battery somehow a desirable feature?

 

[cmaier]

From the quote provided in the article "Of course no headphone jack on the upcoming new iPad. 5.9mm thickness is pretty good though. - CoinCoin (@coiiiiiiiin)"

WHY is 5.9 mm pretty good? Is having a flimsy body with a smaller battery somehow a desirable feature?

Lighter?

 

[LauraJean]

No, as a pro I use Sound Devices gear, mostly. But I'm not going to carry around external devices all the time. Sometimes I just need to freaking plug in a set of real headphones. How does an existing headphone jack inconvenience you?

You are a pro who sticks to your own standards because they are the standards that provide benefits in your own experience. It is discouraging that you have to explain this over and over. Your position is not hard to understand nor respect.

 

[I7guy]

Those defending removing a port should explain what is gained by doing so. The iPad has always had lots of empty space inside of it. That isn't changing this year - it is the reality of batteries having weight (so that filling the device to capacity with battery is unwise) and boards being tiny. There is room for it, so what is gained by removing it?

What I would like to know is apple’s rationale. They must have thought this through. (And not to “annoy” customers)

 

[Naimfan]

I’d be tempted by an iPP to replace my gen 3 iPad.

But not if doesn't have a headphone jack.