I've been using Bluetooth earbuds for a couple of years now. Maybe I'm just not an audiophile like some other people seem to be, but I don't notice any major difference in sound quality. They work just fine for me.
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Woz Laments No Headphone Jack on iPhone 7, Sees USB-C as Future of Audio
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That's not true when you're dealing with a digital signal. They just have to compress data and the receiver just has to decide those 1s and 0s back into an audio signal. With enough bandwidth and processing power, lossless compression could be done, but at least as of today, I don't think iOS supports lossless Bluetooth audio.
Two months ago I tried SEVEN different types of popular and pricey Bluetooth headphones and NONE of them could keep from cutting out when I would move my body while running. They need to up the range of Bluetooth (I know then battery life takes a hit) and the punch of audio was not as good as wired.
What if I'm at work, I'm charging my iPhone and I want to listen to music stored on the phone? One port for audio and charging. Doh!
Wireless charging.
An absolutely huge range in high-end and niche headphones will never go wireless. Wireless is always a compromise for everything except the lack of chords. You want an idea of how many headphones are out there go to the King of mobile audio websites Head-fi and just browse the list of hundreds of manufacturers: http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/headphones
I myself have USD $200 FutureSonics Spectrum G10 IEMs that sound fantastic even straight out of the iPhone. Obviously better still through an external, high quality DAC but good enough that I frequently can and do use them using the iPhone's 3.5 mm jack. I also frequently need to charge my iPhone on the go.
As it stands, it would take a MAJOR unannounced feature to make we want the iPhone 7 and given Apple's track record in controlling leaks there's probably 0.1% chance of that happening.
I will most likely get a new iPhone 6s 128 GB while I still can after the new iPhone 7 is released. This will last me 3 years or until the environment has changed. The thing is, they could've given us a second lightning port for charging and that still would've saved space.
Woz is right. He speaks his mind not The Apple Line. There will be a backlash, I'm sure of it.
I myself have USD $200 FutureSonics Spectrum G10 IEMs that sound fantastic even straight out of the iPhone. Obviously better still through an external, high quality DAC but good enough that I frequently can and do use them using the iPhone's 3.5 mm jack. I also frequently need to charge my iPhone on the go.
As it stands, it would take a MAJOR unannounced feature to make we want the iPhone 7 and given Apple's track record in controlling leaks there's probably 0.1% chance of that happening.
I will most likely get a new iPhone 6s 128 GB while I still can after the new iPhone 7 is released. This will last me 3 years or until the environment has changed. The thing is, they could've given us a second lightning port for charging and that still would've saved space.
Woz is right. He speaks his mind not The Apple Line. There will be a backlash, I'm sure of it.
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In my car the only way I can get great sound is to use my USB iPod connector running a iPod classic! Honda 2013 CRV EX-L
So Woz:
A. doesn't like the idea of removing the headphone jack
BUT
B. likes a Nexus phone that has a USB-C input
AND
C. USB-C and Lightning are essentially interchangeable in terms of audio quality.
A. doesn't like the idea of removing the headphone jack
BUT
B. likes a Nexus phone that has a USB-C input
AND
C. USB-C and Lightning are essentially interchangeable in terms of audio quality.
Yep Apple has that pencilled in for 2024...
They probably have it pencilled in for the point in time that it can actually charge your phone as fast as a wired connection and doesn't use more electricity than a wired connection.
Honestly... People will get over this. Everyone is soooo outraged, but come on. In time people will get used to it.
Apple giving out wireless Solo 2's and Power Beats 2's this summer basically proves that they're ditching the headphone jack. And ANYONE can take advantage of that offer. They don't even ask for proof that you're in school or are an educator when you buy online. So literally everyone can get new wireless earphones/headphones when buying a Mac, iPad Pro or iPhone 6S.
Apple giving out wireless Solo 2's and Power Beats 2's this summer basically proves that they're ditching the headphone jack. And ANYONE can take advantage of that offer. They don't even ask for proof that you're in school or are an educator when you buy online. So literally everyone can get new wireless earphones/headphones when buying a Mac, iPad Pro or iPhone 6S.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the camera it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly camera-less phones are selling like hotcakes.
I suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the battery it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly battery-sold-seperately phones are selling like hotcakes.
I suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the _____________ it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly _________-less phones are selling like hotcakes.
See how that works? Just slug any features into the blank and roll with whatever Apple wants to serve. Eventually, we buy an empty box... that "sells like hotcakes." Don't like Apple's empty box? You fool, Samsung's empty box is not as thin & light... or made from cardboard that is .0032% less "green"... or Samsung's causes more paper cuts.
Apple's empty box is the ONE & ONLY right empty box for all people. Copycat empty boxes are "abominations" that "99% don't want" and there should be laws against being able to sell empty boxes that contain something so similar to the nothing in Apple's empty box. Only Apple can package nothing in an empty box priced at $1000 and get it sooooo very right. I'm already in line. Shut up and take my money.
Rumor: I hear that empty box 2 will be vacuum sealed so that it can be even emptier! Take that Samesung.
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Get rid of the box ... and it sells like hotcakesI suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the camera it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly camera-less phones are selling like hotcakes.
I suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the battery it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly battery-sold-seperately phones are selling like hotcakes.
I suppose though that if Apple gets rid of the _____________ it won't belong before everyone follows and suddenly _________-less phones are selling like hotcakes.
See how that works? Just slug any features into the blank and roll with whatever Apple wants to serve. Eventually, we buy an empty box... that "sells like hotcakes."
What if I'm at work, I'm charging my iPhone and I want to listen to music stored on the phone? One port for audio and charging. Doh!
You could always use wireless headphones....
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Get rid of the box ... and it sells like hotcakes
I stand corrected. iPhone 15: give us $1000, you get nothing for it, we get 100% margins, you then buy parts that used to come INSIDE iPhones of old to build an iPhone. Genius.
The reason the iPhone 7 will continue to use a lightning port over usb-c is all about the money they make licensing via the MFi program. Switch to usb-c and it's all gone, even though usb-c is better in every conceivable way compared to lightning and is built into newer Mac books.
That's also the reason the headphone jack is going away in the first place, Apple can't license an open standard so it had to go.
That's also the reason the headphone jack is going away in the first place, Apple can't license an open standard so it had to go.
SUATMMI stand corrected. iPhone 15: give us $1000, you get nothing for it, we get 100% margins, you then buy parts that used to come INSIDE iPhones of old to build an iPhone. Genius.
Woz is spot on - bluetooth is crap audio. I cant believe people pay so much money for bad sound on expensive bluetooth headphones and radios.
Its bad enough the sound file has been butchered into an mp3. Then the bluetooth mangles it some more.
What's the point of all this digital technology if all we use it to do is butcher the music.
Its bad enough the sound file has been butchered into an mp3. Then the bluetooth mangles it some more.
What's the point of all this digital technology if all we use it to do is butcher the music.
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I have to say there is some rubbish being posted about on here.
I couldn't care less what device Woz uses or what he built in the passed. Fact is this is Apple now and it is nothing to do with him. He isolated himself from the company a long time ago and frankly I keep chalking up his comments as being rather bitter.
The thing is everything point towards Apple including an adapter with the phone so that is Woz's primary argument combated right away. Secondly Bluetooth audio quality is fine I use it in my car and with earphones and it is fine. The only issue with it is the signal quality as it can be affected very easily.
Apple will have looked at all the angles and I think a USB-C iPhone is probably where we are heading but this will be an incremental step but unless we have them generally we never see progress. Also nothing has been officially announced yet this is all speculative. People need to stop being so doomsayer.
Wireless is the future and we should start supporting it to encourage it's advances.
I couldn't care less what device Woz uses or what he built in the passed. Fact is this is Apple now and it is nothing to do with him. He isolated himself from the company a long time ago and frankly I keep chalking up his comments as being rather bitter.
The thing is everything point towards Apple including an adapter with the phone so that is Woz's primary argument combated right away. Secondly Bluetooth audio quality is fine I use it in my car and with earphones and it is fine. The only issue with it is the signal quality as it can be affected very easily.
Apple will have looked at all the angles and I think a USB-C iPhone is probably where we are heading but this will be an incremental step but unless we have them generally we never see progress. Also nothing has been officially announced yet this is all speculative. People need to stop being so doomsayer.
Wireless is the future and we should start supporting it to encourage it's advances.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Something like teleportation is "the future" of travel so let's abandon cars & planes that get us there now to encourage it's advances.
Quantum computing is "the future" of computers so let's quit buying & using existing computing hardware now so encourage it's advances.
It is believed in the long-term "the future" that we humans go extinct. We could go ahead and embrace that inevitability now to encourage post-human advances.
That tag "the future" is assigned too easily... especially here where we are trying to spin the concept of needing to force 2 steps back to take 1 step forward. If wireless really is "the future" and that "the future" is better than "the present," deliver an obviously better-quality, audio playback standard. That way, instead of having to "force" adoption of "the future", the masses will just move on something obviously better and "the past" technologies can be more easily deprecated.
In the masses eyes, a shift from B&W to color TV was obviously better. When "the future" is rolled out and it's obviously better, the masses move on it. This idea that some corporation must FORCE "the future" upon us to make the replacement technology better is such nonsense. Deliver "better" and the masses jump on it. Deliver "worse" or maybe even "the same" tagged with "the future" spin and the masses are not so easily moved. This concept applies to this very issue: "the future" be it Lightning or bluetooth- is ALREADY available as an alternative to 3.5mm. Is either obviously better to move the masses to dump the lessor option? Apparently not. Instead, some of us are spinning how this change must be forced upon everyone to... apparently... create the motivation to make one or both of the other options better.
The problem here is that this is change with no "obviously better" element in it. In fact, it appears to be change with hassles involved. For what consumer gain that we don't already have? Apparently nothing. Those that believe Bluetooth or Lightning is indeed superior can ALREADY embrace either to their fullest. Ejecting 3.5mm doesn't get those people more Bluetooth or more Lightning, it just affects up to everyone else. For what consumer gain? Apparently nothing.
Woz is just telling it like it is. Apparently a founder of Apple does not drink the koolaid and can "think different" and offer his own point of view (instead of towing the company line). Good for him.
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