Woz Laments No Headphone Jack on iPhone 7, Sees USB-C as Future of Audio

[ipedro]

I think that's a bit extreme. There's a difference between wanting the highest possible audio quality, and not wanting a downgrade in audio quality (which is what we currently have with wireless).

The iPhone 7 isn't out "currently". Who knows what they're going to announce? Who says it's even going to be Bluetooth? Apple could be announcing a next generation AirPlay with reliable high quality audio streaming.

That's the problem with all the crying I'm hearing about this rumour. Apple hasn't made its case yet and everybody complaining is doing so based on their perception of existing technology.

 

[Mac 128]

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!

Ever heard of using the same headphones you currently have on the new iPhone? Unless your solution is that everybody should just invest in a new pair of headphones. Jesus.

Charging the iPhone and listening to music at the same time is a very valid point. What will the quality of the DAC be? How sturdy would the converter be? Would Apple even release something that would allow charging & headphones at the same time?

So tired of seeing this complaint. Valid concern? Sure, but obviously Apple has considered this and has a solution. To imply they haven't is asinine.

Amen brother!

I would have 5,000 posts by now if I responded to every idiotic post that claimed the headphones can't be used while charging. I mean seriously, is this just trolling? Or are these people really not capable of thinking beyond what's immediately before them?

This is all it would take -- reverse this and there's you're solution -- headphones plug right into the passthrough port on the power cable:

Like this:

Or this ...

 

[keysofanxiety]

So tired of seeing this complaint. Valid concern? Sure, but obviously Apple has considered this and has a solution. To imply they haven't is asinine.

It wasn't a complaint as it hasn't been released yet. It was what you said — a concern.

It's not just whether charging & listening through headphones at the same time is viable (which of course it is, and will be). I was a little more uncertain about the rest of it.

The sturdiness of the product. Let's face it, Apple's current peripherals wouldn't win any awards for that. The quality of the DAC; both on the iPhone itself and in the converter. The price of the adapter. The footprint of the adapter. Whether charging at the same time would in any way impact the audio quality.

Apologies if I came across as a hater. That wasn't my intention at all.

 

[Pamela5]

Woz is spot on. He must hate seeing apple go down the toilet with the new regime. If the headphone dongle is as flimsy and cheap as the lightening cable, then apple will make a nice amount of money selling replacements.

 

[ukmacpro]

The iPhone 7 isn't out "currently". Who knows what they're going to announce? Who says it's even going to be Bluetooth? Apple could be announcing a next generation AirPlay with reliable high quality audio streaming.

That's the problem with all the crying I'm hearing about this rumour. Apple hasn't made its case yet and everybody complaining is doing so based on their perception of existing technology.

However you dress this up, right now, I still don't think there is any clear user benefit. Yes, of course we can argue about the aledgedy better sound quality, and the convenience of not having wires (although yet another thing to put on charge). But, I think these are such flimsy non-reasons.

I think there simply has to be some other technology involved here. Whether that's some sort of advanced noise cancelling, that can only be done through lightning, or some far superior wireless audio standard. For completeness, ideally it would come with some super-convenient charging solution so you never have to worry about battery life. We already know one version of convenient charging they use for the Apple Pencil.

As has been mentioned many times before, if the headphone jack is removed, there's a lot that needs to be done to get it to the same user experience we already have (buying any set of headphones from any shop anywhere, and ridiculously cheaply if you want). There's certainly a huge amount that needs to be done to beat it. Until the phone comes out we have no idea if his can be done. I certainly hope Apple has something up it's sleeve on this. I don't think that just a good marketing spin will be enough.

 

[Mac 128]

However you dress this up, right now, I still don't think there is any clear user benefit. Yes, of course we can argue about the aledgedy better sound quality, and the convenience of not having wires (although yet another thing to put on charge). But, I think these are such flimsy non-reasons.

I think there simply has to be some other technology involved here. Whether that's some sort of advanced noise cancelling, that can only be done through lightning, or some far superior wireless audio standard. For completeness, ideally it would come with some super-convenient charging solution so you never have to worry about battery life. We already know one version of convenient charging they use for the Apple Pencil.

As has been mentioned many times before, if the headphone jack is removed, there's a lot that needs to be done to get it to the same user experience we already have (buying any set of headphones from any shop anywhere, and ridiculously cheaply if you want). There's certainly a huge amount that needs to be done to beat it. Until the phone comes out we have no idea if his can be done. I certainly hope Apple has something up it's sleeve on this. I don't think that just a good marketing spin will be enough.

To each his own. The way I see it is this -- if I'm listening to my headphones enough to run down my 20+ hour wireless headphone battery, then I will happily charge it once a day to avoid this:

Grab a tangle of headphones sitting on my desk as I head out the door, and plug them in. Stuff the whole affair in my pocket as I ride the subway. Getting the headphones yanked out of my years by a passengers bag that gets snagged on the cable. Pulling the headphones out when I get to work, unplugging them, winding them up and shoving in my pocket, then off to a meeting. Then back at my desk, pull out the headphones and untangle wires and then plug into the headphones, then plug in power separately. Listen and work, until someone comes by and says I'm needed right away. Unplug the phone, and go, unplug the headphones and warp them up as I'm headed to my bosses office, shove them in my pocket. Then go back to my desk, and untangle headphones again, and repeat. Then lunch. Pull out my credit card and the headphone wires have gotten tangled up with it and everything comes out of my pocket and falls on the floor. Shove it all back in, get my food, pull them out and untangle them again. Plug them in again. Get the cable caught on a door knob as I'm throwing away my trash, yanking them out of my ears. Repeat the same morning work headphone shuffle in the afternoon. Then go to the gym, where I have to run the wire under my shirt to keep it getting caught on stuff as I workout. Then pulling the cable out so I can set the phone on the stand while running on the treadmill where I accidentally hit the cable and pull the phone off the stand, yanking the headphones out of my ears as it falls. Then shoving everything into the gym bag as I shower, and untangling them yet again for the ride home. When I get home, once again pull out the headphones, untangle them and plug them in. The phone needs charging so I have to sit wherever the cables are. If I go to get a glass of water in the kitchen I have to unplug the phone and take it with me or stop the music. If I lay in bed listening to an audio book, I'm restricted to the distance the cord reaches from the charging phone on the nightstand. If I fall asleep and roll over, I'll get tangled in the wires and risk pulling the phone off the stand and off the charger. Then that's a whole other problem to clean up in the morning.

Thank you, but I will chose plugging in my wireless headphones once a day rather than do the wired shuffle all day long. Put them on, press a button, instant music. Take them off, press a button, off. No more tangles, no more cable management. Hardly a "flimsy non-reason".

 

[Shirasaki]

4. If Apple does remove the headphone jack and you are a person that wants / needs the jack, (for whatever reason) you can keep the phone you have now or move to Android.
5. If you don't like the direction Apple is moving, then buy products from a company whom you do agree with and want to use. The situation isn't as complicated or dire as many here keep complaining about.

But this will happen only when a user don't even mind locking into an ecosystem, whether intentionally or unintentionally . For a lot of those users, they will first choose complaining rather than preparing for moving.
[doublepost=1472080400][/doublepost]

To each his own. The way I see it is this -- if I'm listening to my headphones enough to run down my 20+ hour wireless headphone battery, then I will happily charge it once a day to avoid this:

Grab a tangle of headphones sitting on my desk as I head out the door, and plug them in. Stuff the whole affair in my pocket as I ride the subway. Getting the headphones yanked out of my years by a passengers bag that gets snagged on the cable. Pulling the headphones out when I get to work, unplugging them, winding them up and shoving in my pocket, then off to a meeting. Then back at my desk, pull out the headphones and untangle wires and then plug into the headphones, then plug in power separately. Listen and work, until someone comes by and says I'm needed right away. Unplug the phone, and go, unplug the headphones and warp them up as I'm headed to my bosses office, shove them in my pocket. Then go back to my desk, and untangle headphones again, and repeat. Then lunch. Pull out my credit card and the headphone wires have gotten tangled up with it and everything comes out of my pocket and falls on the floor. Shove it all back in, get my food, pull them out and untangle them again. Plug them in again. Get the cable caught on a door knob as I'm throwing away my trash, yanking them out of my ears. Repeat the same morning work headphone shuffle in the afternoon. Then go to the gym, where I have to run the wire under my shirt to keep it getting caught on stuff as I workout. Then pulling the cable out so I can set the phone on the stand while running on the treadmill where I accidentally hit the cable and pull the phone off the stand, yanking the headphones out of my ears as it falls. Then shoving everything into the gym bag as I shower, and untangling them yet again for the ride home. When I get home, once again pull out the headphones, untangle them and plug them in. The phone needs charging so I have to sit wherever the cables are. If I go to get a glass of water in the kitchen I have to unplug the phone and take it with me or stop the music. If I lay in bed listening to an audio book, I'm restricted to the distance the cord reaches from the charging phone on the nightstand. If I fall asleep and roll over, I'll get tangled in the wires and risk pulling the phone off the stand and off the charger. Then that's a whole other problem to clean up in the morning.

Thank you, but I will chose plugging in my wireless headphones once a day rather than do the wired shuffle all day long. Put them on, press a button, instant music. Take them off, press a button, off. No more tangles, no more cable management. Hardly a "flimsy non-reason".

Wow, this is a truly curated criticise against wired headphone.

However, current headphone cannot allow you to use 20 hours in a row and recharge just once in a day. Plus much smaller EarPods don't even have the battery to last that long.

And this is just one reason I hold back wireless stuff. Another reason is synchronisation of signals. Having trouble to pair with headphone is not good at all.

And, when a ton of people are using wireless stuff, just like traffic jam, your experience will degrade significantly, thanks to signal interference. This is a non-issue for wired headphones.

 

[ipedro]

However you dress this up, right now, I still don't think there is any clear user benefit. Yes, of course we can argue about the aledgedy better sound quality, and the convenience of not having wires (although yet another thing to put on charge). But, I think these are such flimsy non-reasons.

I think there simply has to be some other technology involved here. Whether that's some sort of advanced noise cancelling, that can only be done through lightning, or some far superior wireless audio standard. For completeness, ideally it would come with some super-convenient charging solution so you never have to worry about battery life. We already know one version of convenient charging they use for the Apple Pencil.

As has been mentioned many times before, if the headphone jack is removed, there's a lot that needs to be done to get it to the same user experience we already have (buying any set of headphones from any shop anywhere, and ridiculously cheaply if you want). There's certainly a huge amount that needs to be done to beat it. Until the phone comes out we have no idea if his can be done. I certainly hope Apple has something up it's sleeve on this. I don't think that just a good marketing spin will be enough.

What a lot of people are missing is that the story isn't that "We're removing the headphone jack. Tadaa!!". Phil isn't going to go up there and announce the removal of the headphone jack. He's going to announce something that will not need the headphone jack.

The story is going to be something like: "the next iPhone's breakthrough feature are AirPods which you'll want to keep in your ears for full time integration with the next generation Siri which we showed you a little bit of at WWDC. They use proprietary AirPlay which guarantees that they work reliably, without any cut outs because they're made specifically for the iPhone 7. You charge them like the Apple Pencil. Plug in to your iPhone's lighting port for 15 seconds to get half an hour of AirPlay or for 30 mins to fully charge the 8 hour battery".

Again, until Apple has made its case, people are crying about something they know nothing about.

 

[ukmacpro]

To each his own. The way I see it is this -- if I'm listening to my headphones enough to run down my 20+ hour wireless headphone battery, then I will happily charge it once a day to avoid this:

Grab a tangle of headphones sitting on my desk as I head out the door, and plug them in. Stuff the whole affair in my pocket as I ride the subway. Getting the headphones yanked out of my years by a passengers bag that gets snagged on the cable. Pulling the headphones out when I get to work, unplugging them, winding them up and shoving in my pocket, then off to a meeting. Then back at my desk, pull out the headphones and untangle wires and then plug into the headphones, then plug in power separately. Listen and work, until someone comes by and says I'm needed right away. Unplug the phone, and go, unplug the headphones and warp them up as I'm headed to my bosses office, shove them in my pocket. Then go back to my desk, and untangle headphones again, and repeat. Then lunch. Pull out my credit card and the headphone wires have gotten tangled up with it and everything comes out of my pocket and falls on the floor. Shove it all back in, get my food, pull them out and untangle them again. Plug them in again. Get the cable caught on a door knob as I'm throwing away my trash, yanking them out of my ears. Repeat the same morning work headphone shuffle in the afternoon. Then go to the gym, where I have to run the wire under my shirt to keep it getting caught on stuff as I workout. Then pulling the cable out so I can set the phone on the stand while running on the treadmill where I accidentally hit the cable and pull the phone off the stand, yanking the headphones out of my ears as it falls. Then shoving everything into the gym bag as I shower, and untangling them yet again for the ride home. When I get home, once again pull out the headphones, untangle them and plug them in. The phone needs charging so I have to sit wherever the cables are. If I go to get a glass of water in the kitchen I have to unplug the phone and take it with me or stop the music. If I lay in bed listening to an audio book, I'm restricted to the distance the cord reaches from the charging phone on the nightstand. If I fall asleep and roll over, I'll get tangled in the wires and risk pulling the phone off the stand and off the charger. Then that's a whole other problem to clean up in the morning.

Thank you, but I will chose plugging in my wireless headphones once a day rather than do the wired shuffle all day long. Put them on, press a button, instant music. Take them off, press a button, off. No more tangles, no more cable management. Hardly a "flimsy non-reason".

You are assuming you're needs are the same as everyone else's. You are happy to make the trade off of having a slightly worse sound for the convenience of not having to untangle a cable. You may be happy with your headphones and that they sound great to you, but there is still a compromise here.

The current experience is that you are free to make that choice . If the choice is removed, and there is no improvement in the current wireless technology, then that is not a benefit to users, so why do it?

The issue you talk about, convenience, is marketing spin on what we currently have now. Not an announcement of a new technology that benefits users. I'm just saying I hope that there's better reasons for it than that.

 

[Apple_Robert]

But this will happen only when a user don't even mind locking into an ecosystem, whether intentionally or unintentionally . For a lot of those users, they will first choose complaining rather than preparing for moving.
[doublepost=1472080400][/doublepost]
Wow, this is a truly curated criticise against wired headphone.

However, current headphone cannot allow you to use 20 hours in a row and recharge just once in a day. Plus much smaller EarPods don't even have the battery to last that long.

And this is just one reason I hold back wireless stuff. Another reason is synchronisation of signals. Having trouble to pair with headphone is not good at all.

And, when a ton of people are using wireless stuff, just like traffic jam, your experience will degrade significantly, thanks to signal interference. This is a non-issue for wired headphones.

I think many forum members enjoy complaining about every single thing Apple does, while complaining in the same breath, that Apple isn't being innovative enough for those that feel the need to be social and fashion Apple logo trend setters. Many in this group remind me of teenagers who place a lot of self worth in the products that they use, making sure that everyone they know and see sees that they have the latest and supposed greatest Apple product.

You also have members here who are also quick to complain and threaten to leave Apple each time there are rumors, and rumors of rumors. And in large part, said persons continue on in the Apple ecosystem. This group exhibits a lot of characteristics of the battered wife syndrome, even though there has been no real abuse.

 

[iSneeze67]

If the BT-audio in his car sounds flat, he should check what A2DP codecs the car-receiver supports. Likely it is is just SBC, not AAC.

"iOS devices support the non-mandatory codec MPEG-2/4 AAC, as defined in Section 4.5 of the A2DP specification, Version 1.2. Accessories should use the AAC codec in addition to SBC, because it provides higher audio quality for a given bit rate."

https://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/BluetoothDesignGuidelines.pdf

Are you seriously giving technical advise to the Woz?

 

[Mac 128]

You are assuming you're needs are the same as everyone else's. You are happy to make the trade off of having a slightly worse sound for the convenience of not having to untangle a cable. You may be happy with your headphones and that they sound great to you, but there is still a compromise here.

The current experience is that you are free to make that choice . If the choice is removed, and there is no improvement in the current wireless technology, then that is not a benefit to users, so why do it?

The issue you talk about, convenience, is marketing spin on what we currently have now. Not an announcement of a new technology that benefits users. I'm just saying I hope that there's better reasons for it than that.

No I'm not assuming my needs are the same as everyone else's. I saying that my needs are hardly a flimsy non-reason. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I'd rather have wireless headphones that I charge once a day rather than deal with tangled cords all day.

That said, there's a lot of assuming going on in these forums. Chiefly whether to assume Apple is going to offer nothing of substance when they remove the headphone jack, other than the same technology that exists today, or whether we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they have thought this transition through based on introducing some new technology that will improve headphone technology.

While wireless freedom is a huge improvement to my experience, it isn't necessarily if there is a loss in quality. But then it's all a compromise. You seem to prefer slightly higher quality and tangled wires tethering you to a device which you don't have to charge, whereas I'll put up with the slightly lower quality available today, and wireless freedom with only a daily recharge.

There's also the benefit of designing a headphone with its own matched DAC & amp that sounds exactly the same no matter what digital source it's plugged into. That's a huge benefit in quality to the customer. Analogue headphones sound different in every different device they're plugged into.

Also adding digital features such as auto pause when the headphones are removed from the head with a built-in sensor. Wireless headphones can shut off the whole system to save battery. Ever increasing sophistication in noise-cancelling technology using the iPhone's built-in mics and sensors without requiring additional power. And that's just the start of digital features that can be added to enhance the user experience.

There's rumors that Apple may be launching lossless streaming through Apple Music, which further suggests there's a reason to give Apple the benefit of the doubt about what they're launching when they remove the jack. They also joined the Bluetooth SIG last year which gives them access to not only input on development, but also insider knowledge to bring technology to market before anyone else.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'll be upset if they don't step up to the plate here. But that's not what I'm expecting. I'm expecting the first steps toward revolutionizing wireless audio, leaving only wireless power to tackle before they remove the last remaining port. But I don't want to see the headphone jack removed for no apparent reason. I doubt Apple will go into the details but the rumors of a dual speaker were crushing, even if it pushes people toward a new paradigm. But the teardown will confirm whether it was a necessity, or just more benevolent dictatorship. Until then, I'm looking at the glass as half full.

 

[iSneeze67]

I already purchased a maxed out 6s+ because I knew I would buy this next phone. I think many others will skip this phone and wait to see how it all plays out and what the next iPhone will be. Question is, how many will get tired of waiting and move on to android over the next year. It will have to be a VERY special iPhone to get me to buy one without a jack. You can't take away something from consumers without offering them a new better feature for the removal. I don't see anything that Apple could offer on the next iPhone to make up for losing the jack.

 

[5105973]

I'm still unconvinced of a need to remove the 3.5mm jack socket at all, at least as far as consumer benefit goes.

Having thought about this way too much, if the headphone jack socket goes, I would still likely buy a future iPhone without it (all else being equal, which it never is, so I don't know?!), but I simply wouldn't consider it a music-playback device anymore. It'd be a phone and a small iOS computing device, fine. The iPod part of it would be dead to me, and the prospect of me signing up to Apple Music would further recede.

But I'm probably not the target market, and I feel depressingly sure enough people won't care and will happily buy lightning and/or bluetooth headphones instead. Oh well.

Actually, is it just me or is the sound quality of songs on Apple Music kind of bad in general? A lot of it sounds like muffled or slightly distorted garbage to me no matter what headphones or which of my devices I'm listening through...which would be either of my iPhones and my Note7. I did grow up listening to vinyl on my mom's big stereo so a lot of digital music sounds weak to me. But I'm no audiophile. I'm just making a casual observation here.

 

[Cosmoknot]

The iPhone 7 isn't out "currently". Who knows what they're going to announce? Who says it's even going to be Bluetooth? Apple could be announcing a next generation AirPlay with reliable high quality audio streaming.

That's the problem with all the crying I'm hearing about this rumour. Apple hasn't made its case yet and everybody complaining is doing so based on their perception of existing technology.

Yes, and if they come out with something amazing, I'll be enormously excited.

And if they figure out a way to make these things never need charging, and compatible with other existing audio sources so I don't need to bring a different pair of headphones for every device I own, that would also be awesome.

So I definitely look forward to hearing Apple make their case. Call it "crying" if you want (not sure why it would offend you so much, anyway), but all signs currently point to this being a huge mess. But I absolutely look forward to being proven wrong.
[doublepost=1472096709][/doublepost]

To each his own. The way I see it is this -- if I'm listening to my headphones enough to run down my 20+ hour wireless headphone battery, then I will happily charge it once a day to avoid this:

Grab a tangle of headphones sitting on my desk as I head out the door, and plug them in. Stuff the whole affair in my pocket as I ride the subway. Getting the headphones yanked out of my years by a passengers bag that gets snagged on the cable. Pulling the headphones out when I get to work, unplugging them, winding them up and shoving in my pocket, then off to a meeting. Then back at my desk, pull out the headphones and untangle wires and then plug into the headphones, then plug in power separately. Listen and work, until someone comes by and says I'm needed right away. Unplug the phone, and go, unplug the headphones and warp them up as I'm headed to my bosses office, shove them in my pocket. Then go back to my desk, and untangle headphones again, and repeat. Then lunch. Pull out my credit card and the headphone wires have gotten tangled up with it and everything comes out of my pocket and falls on the floor. Shove it all back in, get my food, pull them out and untangle them again. Plug them in again. Get the cable caught on a door knob as I'm throwing away my trash, yanking them out of my ears. Repeat the same morning work headphone shuffle in the afternoon. Then go to the gym, where I have to run the wire under my shirt to keep it getting caught on stuff as I workout. Then pulling the cable out so I can set the phone on the stand while running on the treadmill where I accidentally hit the cable and pull the phone off the stand, yanking the headphones out of my ears as it falls. Then shoving everything into the gym bag as I shower, and untangling them yet again for the ride home. When I get home, once again pull out the headphones, untangle them and plug them in. The phone needs charging so I have to sit wherever the cables are. If I go to get a glass of water in the kitchen I have to unplug the phone and take it with me or stop the music. If I lay in bed listening to an audio book, I'm restricted to the distance the cord reaches from the charging phone on the nightstand. If I fall asleep and roll over, I'll get tangled in the wires and risk pulling the phone off the stand and off the charger. Then that's a whole other problem to clean up in the morning.

Thank you, but I will chose plugging in my wireless headphones once a day rather than do the wired shuffle all day long. Put them on, press a button, instant music. Take them off, press a button, off. No more tangles, no more cable management. Hardly a "flimsy non-reason".

You can already do all this. No one is stopping you.

I really don't understand your argument...because you don't know how to wrap up your headphones or mind your surroundings, you think it's justified to remove the headphone jack from everybody else?

 

[jtrauscht]

I'm with Woz on this. It's not a floppy disc or CD drive issue. Audio standards are bigger than Apple. And really, my iPhone 6 is already so thin and light that I can barely hang onto it without it being in its case. "Thinner" is not a felt need, here.

 

[Mac 128]

Yes, and if they come out with something amazing, I'll be enormously excited.

And if they figure out a way to make these things never need charging, and compatible with other existing audio sources so I don't need to bring a different pair of headphones for every device I own, that would also be awesome.

So I definitely look forward to hearing Apple make their case. Call it "crying" if you want (not sure why it would offend you so much, anyway), but all signs currently point to this being a huge mess. But I absolutely look forward to being proven wrong.

Chasing is a trade off for having to plug and unplug, and untangle your headphones all day. Pick your poison.

You don't need a different pair of headphones for every device you own. What you did there is called hyperbole. Headphones in the future will be platform agnostic. In fact you can probably use one hybrid cable with multiple plugs to connect to everything. Current analogue headphones with detachable cables will likely be replaced with digital cables with a choice of connection options. If you didn't happen to buy a pair of headphones that allow you to upgrade them, then that's unfortunate. But you're complaint is disingenuous at best, idiotic at worst. So let's think the best here ...

You can already do all this. No one is stopping you.

I really don't understand your argument...because you don't know how to wrap up your headphones or mind your surroundings, you think it's justified to remove the headphone jack from everybody else?

Nobody said I couldn't. If you read my response in context you'd know I was responding to the suggestion that the convenience of not having wires was a flimsy non-reason to prefer wireless headphones, over the quality offered by 3.5mm wired headphones.

But since you brought it up, how about not having to properly wrap and unwrap my headphones a dozen times every day? That's a pretty good reason to stop using wired headphones on a mobile device forever, even if I have to plug in one wire to charge them once a day.

To each his own. But I'd argue it's a better user experience. And that may be reason enough to eliminate an inferior user experience. It's all in the perspective.

 

[BrodieApple]

LOL. No. It isn't.

There are over a billion iOS devices with Lightning in the wild. I would say THAT is the standard, regardless if its not an open standard.

And besides...I've heard this story before with new connector fad. I was told many times that Mini and Micro USB were 'TEH STANDARDZ" and needed to be adopted globally. I lol'ed then and I lol now.
[doublepost=1472055721][/doublepost]
Offhand it seems like a decent connector that is worth doubling down on.

But, is it worth the pain of another connector transition on iOS? Surely not.

I said BECOMING a standard. And a standard is when it's on pretty much all devices not just one companies.
[doublepost=1472106686][/doublepost]

Nobody cares what WOZ thinks. He's not a part of the company, or has done anything technology wise since the late 70's. You might as well be interviewing McLovin on what he thinks about Apple products.

..Um so he can't be correct about something he says? K then

 

[Michael Scrip]

a standard is when it's on pretty much all devices not just one companies.

Can there be more than one standard? You make it sound like Lightning is some obscure connector since it's from one company.

But don't forget... it was included on 44 million iPhones last quarter... and it's on a total of about 800 million iPhones and iPads out in the world right now.

Sure... it pales in comparison to Micro-USB-equipped devices... but shouldn't Lightning be a standard at this point considering its adoption?

My idea of a standard is simple: the 3AM gas station test.

Can I find the appropriate cable for my iPhone? Yes!

Now imagine if Kyocera had their own connector. Would it pass my 3AM test? Probably not.

 

[BrodieApple]

Can there be more than one standard? You make it sound like Lightning is some obscure connector since it's from one company.

But don't forget... it was included on 44 million iPhones last quarter... and it's on a total of about 800 million iPhones and iPads out in the world right now.

Sure... it pales in comparison to Micro-USB-equipped devices... but shouldn't Lightning be a standard at this point considering its adoption?

My idea of a standard is simple: the 3AM gas station test.

Can I find the appropriate cable for my iPhone? Yes!

Now imagine if Kyocera had their own connector. Would it pass my 3AM test? Probably not.

Your right lightning is a standard but I'm just saying if they switch to USB C along with other companies that will be an even bigger standard and it will work with all our apple and other devices and all accessories will work with everything.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Your right lightning is a standard but I'm just saying if they switch to USB C along with other companies that will be an even bigger standard and it will work with all our apple and other devices and all accessories will work with everything.

Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up.

Though the move to USB-C would still be a move away from the 3.5mm jack... and people still seem to be in love with their old headphones.

 

[diddl14]

Are you seriously giving technical advise to the Woz?

We'll, there is a ****load more technology around today than there was in the 70's. So assuming the Woz magically known's every detail would be a bit unfair, or?

 

[lamerica80]

Woz disses something Apple does, what a shocker. Its getting really old. Especially since he is never right.

 

[TurboPGT!]

I said BECOMING a standard. And a standard is when it's on pretty much all devices not just one companies.

"Company's"

You said squat. It neither is, nor is becoming, a standard. It is just a nice hypothetical candidate for one. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard the story about a brand-new connector that should be the standard on every device.

 

[thatdrh]

Are they different makes of headphones though? If so, it could just be the quality of headphones. No way audio quality is higher wireless than wired; wired being a decent DAC, or running straight from the audio jack.

I challenge anybody here to find a pair of wireless headphones that even touch the quality of MDR-7506s. And if you can find a pair, they'd be at least quadruple the price. At least.

You typed all that and used a pair of "sony's" as a reference point?