'Headphone Jacks Are the New Floppy Drives' (daringfireball.net) 771
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple's upcoming iPhone won't have a 3.5mm headphone jack. The news has already upset many people. The Verge's Nilay Patel wrote on Tuesday that the decision of getting rid of the legacy headphone port is "user hostile and stupid." Apple commentator John Gruber makes a case for why Apple's supposed move is not a bad idea at all. He writes:Patel misses the bigger problem. It's not enforcement of DRM on audio playback. It's enforcement of the MFi Program for certifying hardware that uses the Lightning port. Right now any headphone maker in the world can make any headphones they want for the standard jack. Not so with the Lightning port.He adds that the existing analog headphone jack "is more costly in terms of depth than thickness," and by getting rid of it, Apple could use the extra real estate to stuff in more battery juice. Addressing Patel's point that the move of ditching a deeply established standard will "disproportionately impact accessibility," Gruber adds that "enabling, open, and democratizing" have never been high on Apple's list of priorities for external ports. Gruber also addressed Patel's argument that introducing a Lightning Port-enabled headphone feature will make Android and iPhone headphones incompatible. He wrote: Why would Apple care about headphone compatibility with Android? If Apple gave two shits about port compatibility with Android, iPhones would have Micro-USB ports. In 1998 people used floppy drives extensively for sneaker-netting files between Macs and PCs. That didn't stop Apple from dropping it.As for "nobody is asking" Apple to remove headphone jack from the next iPhone, Gruber reminds: This is how it goes. If it weren't for Apple we'd probably still be using computers with VGA and serial ports. The essence of Apple is that they make design decisions "no one asked for".The 3.5mm headphone jack has been around for decades. We can either live with it forever, or try doing something better instead. History suggests that OEMs from across the world quickly replicate Apple's move. Just the idea of Apple removing the headphone jack -- the rumor of which first began last year -- arguably played an instrumental role in some smartphones shipping without the legacy port this year. If this is a change that we really need, Apple is perhaps the best company to set the tone for it. Though, whether we really need to get rid of the headphone jack remains debatable.
Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
I stopped buying Apple years ago. Their operating system is closed and sucks. I'll take Android with its warts, and since I stick to the Nexus class of devices I'm getting as close as one can get to a stock Android install.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Informative)
Just buy earbuds with usb-c instead of a jack. They are already available, and will soon be common.
So then you are either buying expensive earbuds, or cheap earbuds with a shitty DAC. yay.
Is someone forcing you to buy an iPhone? (Score:4, Insightful)
if you don't want one then don't buy it.
Re:Is someone forcing you to buy an iPhone? (Score:5, Insightful)
If people care they will buy something else. (Score:3)
it's not rocket science. No one is being tricked into buying an iPhone, and other manufacturers aren't being tricked into copying the iPhone. If people really want a 3.5 mm headphone jack then other manufacturers will keep it and people will buy those instead of an iPhone. If not, then I guess it doesn't really matter and we'll add this to the list of legacy technologies that Apple has taken the lead on EOLing, causing mass hysteria from the technoratti and complete indifference from everyone else.
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A lot of actions in history were decried by an elite and received with indifference by everyone else... only to turn into tyrannies or surface later as very bad decisions which affected lots of people.
Not that this particular case fits that model, but it had to be mentioned.
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Thankfully most non-Apple phones still have removable batteries, microUSB ports and microSD ports. I hope resistance to headphone jack removal is just as strong.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Funny)
You only hate them SOMETIMES?
damn glad I just bought a 6 (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to pick headphones that fit and sound right, not have some cheesy overpriced shit like Beats forced on me. if I'm at home, I can use my AKG studios. at the exercise joint, earbuds off the rack at Tarzhay.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
They've managed to find a way to force you into buying all new audio equipment, or at the very least, an expensive dongle. It's genius, it really is. You thought it was bad when Apple made hardware companies pay for the right to put that ipod port on there, to provide a better "experience" well... kiss your non apple branded EVERYTHING goodbye. God I hate these guys sometimes. We don't need to replace every piece of technology we own every 2 years you assholes
Here's the problem with ALL of this FUD Clickbait:
NO ONE outside of 1 Infinite Loop that ISN'T under heavy NDA really knows what, if anything, Apple is doing with the 3.5 mm jack. We will all know in September, when the new iPhones traditionally come out.
But that doesn't generate "Clicks" for Slashdot; so, here we are...
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
I give Apple credit for their impressive marketing. One little unverified rumor about removal of an old port and Slashdot headlines it 3 times within a day. It's like they're using bunched panties as a power source!
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:4, Insightful)
I was fine when they took away floppies... because there was a replacement.
There is no suitable replacement to corded headphones. Bluetooth is compressed, you have to rely on the sound driver in the headphone, and you have to charge them.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that all of those technologies were replaced because they could no longer perform the tasks that the users wanted to do.
The analog audio jack is capable of passing signals with far greater fidelity than the human ear can detect, so there is no inherent trend toward obsolescence as the surrounding technology advances.
If the recording and telecommunications industries also had input into a successor, I might buy into it. There are many use cases outside of smartphones, and it is hugely convenient to have one standard that works across the board, especially for something as ubiquitous as audio.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Insightful)
The reasoning is something you'd do in a closed backroom with executives, and yet he comes right out and admits it publicly:
Right now any headphone maker in the world can make any headphones they want for the standard jack. Not so with the Lightning port.
That is, they want to remove customer choice and discourage competition.
Re:Have to give it to Apple..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok, misread, I thought the quoted person was an Apple employee. I hadn't realized that "Apple commentator" was a real profession.
Not dead yet (Score:2)
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Plenty of cell phones will be sold with 3.5mm audio jacks.
Re:Not dead yet (Score:5, Insightful)
It is still the lowest common denominator of video ports. When all also in the stupid conference room is mis-configured to the point of uselessness you connect to VGA. However I have not seen anyone actually request their monitor be hooked up via VGA, it is just nice to have as a last ditch option to still be able to have your meeting.
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You Johnny-come-latelys and your fancy 16 color Tandy graphics. Luxury! Luxury, I tell you!
Re: Not dead yet (Score:4, Insightful)
apple wants the $29.99 for old ports wants to thin (Score:3, Insightful)
apple wants the $29.99 for old ports wants to be more thin and git even more profit. What is next for the mac pro no analog audio out no e-net no full size usb. But for only $19.99-$29.99 each you can get that back.
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This is fucking dumb (Score:3, Insightful)
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Looks like I'm gonna be limited to the iPhone SE when I finally upgrade off my 5.
Or any of the gazillion Android phones which will still have a headphone jack.
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Except that now you have to charge two items instead of one.
Amplified headphones tend to be a bit more bulky than ear buds to tote around.
Ear buds are cheaper to lose.
My car stereo has an aux jack but no BT.
Re:Helps your battery life (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
but if you had battery powered headphones they could do all of the amplification.
But now you have two things that you have to keep charged instead of one. More importantly, the summary mentions they could have a larger battery if they got rid of the headphone jack. That is bizarre. If you want to increase the battery size, just do it. If you just made the iphone 6 the same depth as the camera on it, that would give you significantly more area to work with than removing the headphone jack. You would have also avoided "bendgate". What is apple's obsession with ultra thin devices?
Surface contact jack (Score:4, Informative)
What ever happened to Apple's patent on a magnetic jack?
The idea was that a normal headphone plug could be placed against an indentation on the phone, and the magnet would hold it fairly securely against the electrical contacts. That would allow it to be thinner and smaller than a normal jack that surrounds the plug.
I'm hopeful that these rumors of not having a headphone jack refer to a regular jack...
Re:Surface contact jack (Score:4, Funny)
It turned out that you cannot patent using a magnet to hold something against something.
Re:Surface contact jack (Score:5, Interesting)
I found the patent [patentsencyclopedia.com] again. It turns out you can.
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I wonder if this patent would stand up to a challenge. Japanese cooking appliance manufacturers were using the same system a decade before Apple patented it, so that tripping over the power lead didn't result in nasty burns and ruined food.
false comparison... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:false comparison... (Score:5, Insightful)
100% this!
By the end of the floppy era, they were horribly small, and the disks were nasty and unreliable. They were ripe for replacement as one can see by the number of avenues explored:
* LS 120 drives (lost out to zip drives)
* Zip drives, very popular, but incompatible, never fully replaced floppies.
* CD-RWs, initially expensive, slow, unreliable didn't work in all CD drives, excellent capacity, never fully replaced floppies.
* CD-R/DVD-R initially expensive, eventually so cheap they were disposable (people bought stacks of 100), good capacity, good compatibility (CD drives were nearly ubiquitous) and they pretty much did replace floppies
* Weirdass ones that never stood a chance.
* USB Flash drives which were initially expensive, rare, slow and relied on horrendously unreliable USB stacks. Eventually USB2 happened, flash got cheap, the software got reliable and they mostly won.
The basic function was to save data more or less for transfer between machines. By the time CD-Rs took over properly, floppies were awful. Tiny capacity, very slow, and unreliable.
The 3.5" jack is none of those. It's slightly big, but is every bit as good at transferring audio to the ears as any other kind of cable. Versus bluetooth it's obviously wired, but has very substantial advantages of not needing recharging, being lag free and compression free. It's also cheap and compatible.
The only thing that kept floppies alive was the compatibility problem, when technically it was bad. The 3.5mm jack is not technically bad like the floppy was.
Re: (Score:2)
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While I disagree with the (apparent) decision to remove the jack, I also don't think the jack is perfect. I can't tell you how many times I have had to fiddle with the jack to "fix" the audio. Haven't you ever had to twist, wiggle, unplug/plug, etc. the jack to get it to work? I've had this happen on tons of different devices. Sometime no audio will come out, sometimes only one channel, sometimes the audio will cut in and out. I can try different headphones, but the headphones and cord aren't the problem, s
Re:false comparison... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never had an issue where my headphones picked up noticeable interference. Never. Mostly loud office conversations that I notice when trying to listen to music (or drown out loud office conversations to be bluntly honest)
Besides, if I did I would hear some pops and hiss, but still hear my music. Digital bit streams just cut out when interference is enough to cause bit errors.
Re:false comparison... (Score:5, Interesting)
Non digital cabling is more prone to error and interference,
Not at the sort of power levels and run lengths you're talking about with headphones.
and if you think about it does it not kind of suck you only get TWO possible distinct channels?
Given that (a) it's a headphone jack and (b) I only have two ears... not really.
What if you wanted to provide a headphone with a subwoofer specific channel
Where on earth would a subwoofer go on a pair of headphones?
true surround sound headset
Now that I'd like to see!
Out of the way, Luddite, as the rest of us proceed onward to the future.
ooh goody, a zealot.
Re: (Score:3)
The Ironic thing is that speakers and audio are analog signals and require analog inputs. With a "digital" headphone all you are doing is moving the DAC out to the headphones where the digital signal is converted to analog and pumped to the speakers. I see little point in a system that moves the DAC out onto the headphones and will probably require charging the headphones.
Re:false comparison... (Score:4, Insightful)
Meh, not really, after all I only have two distinct ears....
And we are talking about a phone, not a badass sound system. I just don't look to a pair of earbuds to deliver full fidelity surround sound. I look to them to drown out the maddening noises of modern society, and the boss whenever possible.....
Hilarious (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hilarious (Score:5, Funny)
No, but the rest of us are going to tell you what you can do with your "selfie stick" instead.
Re: (Score:3)
Lovely.
Apple is being weird and annoying (Score:5, Informative)
This Apple being weird and special again. The reason for ditching floppies was actually quite simple, it outlived its usefulness. It was replaced by CDs, DVDs and at a later time USB-sticks. There is no actual need for floppy disks and therefore FDDs are obsolete. This is however not the case for the 3.5mm jack. Apple likes to "innovate" by removing sensible things from their electronics. Their new Macbook, for instance, has only one single usb-c port and no other ports. You can call this strategy brilliant but in practice this means that people have to buy an extra adapter to connect all their peripherals to the one single usb-c port. It's not an improvement, it's a cashgrab and an annoyance. And naturally the Apple customers are gobbling it up.
The same holds here. What's wrong with the standard 3.5mm jack? It works, it's universal(and I believe unencumbered by patents) and the peripherals are everywhere. It's a solution that works and any "better" idea on audio should at least be included side-to-side with the old adapters as this will allow an actually better standard for audio ports to form. As it is, this is a simple money and power grab from Apple by making stuff incompatible. Sure, you can buy a converter, but knowing Apple this will cost you dearly. Apple is being annoying again and the audio peripheral market will suffer as this will gain traction as Apple has clout in the electronics world.
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Re: (Score:3)
It was replaced by CDs, DVDs and at a later time USB-sticks. There is no actual need for floppy disks and therefore FDDs are obsolete.
Yes and no. Yes they were inadequate, but the replacements weren't quite ready when apple pulled the plug on them.
The floppy disk use case was still to get small files between two computers -- homework / basic documents / etc.
The 'network' wasn't always available.
CD/DVDs weren't generally writeable, and re/writeable disks were a bit of a pain; with +R -R +RW -RW, open and closed... I had Mac G5 that as I recall could only read one of +R or -R. It was years before everything could read everything.
Zip drives
Re: (Score:3)
That's partially true. When they removed the floppy drive from desktop machines, they basically didn't exist, but you could also buy an external floppy drive if you needed one, and on a desktop, that wasn't a big deal.
The decision by Apple to make it an optional part instead of a standard part would have been far more sensible and consumer friendly. Then it would have been up to the user whether they wanted it or not.
External was an opportunity to really gouge on price by 3rd parties, and it added unwanted clutter for a seldom used device that would have been far more convenient to have just had the usual slot for on the desktop.
On mobile devices (laptops), Apple continued to make floppy disks available up through the Wallstreet (until '99)
Which didn't do you much good if you need to transfer files to or from a desktop without one.
I feel like a luddite sometimes (Score:5, Interesting)
Why in tech must we call everything old "legacy" and then assume it should go away? Maybe some thing work well enough that they should always be there. Some things are well designed and don't need to be changed. The 3.5mm port is resilient, rotatable, and universally supported, and only slightly bigger than the latest tech now would be able to replace it with.
Just because it is analogue does not make it irrelevant. Your ears are analogue. Why add another level of technology, another thing to charge, putting a digital-to-analogue converter on every pair of earphones rather than just one in the phone...
I remember having to have an adapter for headphones on the T-Mobile G1 and old Nokia phones, and it sucked then, and it will suck now. And so what if Apple release lightning headphones. Do we think they make the best headphones? They make crap headphones when compared to actual audio companies.
This Apple apologist doesn't even try to make is sound good, just that Apple are going to do it anyway so you might as well get used to it.
Re:I feel like a luddite sometimes (Score:4, Insightful)
You hear what the man said, Lennart?
No. (Score:2)
I have a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones with mic, and as nice as they sound, the lag they introduce is unacceptable. Especially when it's been a few mins and it has to wake the bluetooth connection, it can take a quarter to a half second before I hear something that would have already been played if it were on the built-in speaker or on wired headphones.
When watching video, it makes a big difference, it feels like something is wrong with the file. When using it for voice communication, it makes a small b
Save 1mm? (Score:2, Insightful)
They could save 1mm by going to 2.5mm jacks. Those are reasonably standard and would require only a small (and inexpensive!) adapter for older headphones. My Bose noise-canceling headset uses a 2.5mm plug/jack into the actual headphones (cable is removable).
I suspect the loss of this jack may be somewhat related to improving water resistance; those 3.5mm jacks are deep and have lots of potential for leaking.
Re:Save 1mm? (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps NOT (Score:2)
If this is a change that we really need, Apple is perhaps the best company to set the tone for it.
No. Other companies need to be involved.
Counterpoint (Score:2)
Which means that you can't plug your earbuds or other listening device in while charging.... oh, unless you have a dongle that will set you back at least another $30... something that will probably *NOT* ship with the iphone.
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Which means that you can't plug your earbuds or other listening device in while charging.... oh, unless you have a dongle that will set you back at least another $30... something that will probably *NOT* ship with the iphone.
... And break within 30 days, as do all their cables.
Why no mention of Motorola removing the same (Score:5, Interesting)
All I have been hearing is Apple, Apple, Apple. Yet from Motorola killed the headphone jack and nobody noticed [bgr.com] 10 days ago
There are many interesting things about the Moto Z devices presented yesterday, ultra-thin handsets that bring modularity to Motorola’s lineup of mobile products. One of them is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which absolutely nobody noticed during the event.
Re:Why no mention of Motorola removing the same (Score:5, Insightful)
Because Apple's change affects many millions of users around the world.
Because Apple brought the mobile audio industry forward after a lull left by the Walkman.
And because many people on here couldn't even name a Motorola phone model. Is this their Razr reboot, or do they actually have a phone on the market right now?
Re: (Score:2)
By all accounts someone else is going to kill the headphone jack shortly too in the Android world. If rumors are to be believed, this phone will also demonstrate another reason why people want to kill the headphone jack that is useful (for many, not all). I personally think it is premature, but we will have to wait and see if they manage to stick the landing.
A lot of Pffle if you ask me (Score:3)
I don't give one hoot about Apple dropping the 3.5mm jack if the are providing a Lightning Port to 3.5mm adapter. The 3.5mm jack is fine in a larger device but it probably does need to go away in a modern, thin phone.
As far as port compatibility that some rant on about, if it means having a micro USB port on my iPhone then to hell with compatibility. I don't know how many broken USB ports I've had to to repair or replace on devices in my shop. The Lightning Port is a far more robust mechanical design.
Kudos to Apple for moving the industry forward!
Meanwhile in Android land (Score:3)
You can buy a smartphone, with 3.5 mm jack for less than Apple's dongle will cost you.
As it stands they already make great home control panels/security devices. Cheap enough to put one in every room. Low power use and a solid sensor suite.
You entered the walled garden. Zero f***s given. (Score:4, Insightful)
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But as for Apple customers, I have no sympathy: YOU decided to enter the walled garden. Enjoy your toilet paper ration.
Right. When my 2006 MacBook died a few years ago, I transferred my data over to a Windows PC and continued on. Why? Because I'm using standard formats that interchangeable between Linux, Mac and Windows. If I decide to move away from my iPhone, nothing prevents me from moving to a cellphone with Android, Blackberry or Windows.
The trouble with Apple, iOs and macOs (Score:2)
Is that if you want to use macOs or iOs, you have to put up with hardware design which turns incompatibily and unmaintainability into an art form. If macbooks were designed like thinkpads, and imacs and mac pros like the hp Z workstation, life with them would be so much easier. Instead Apple has become a shiny toy company whose raison d'etre is to prise as much mone from the expensive end of the consumer market as possible.
Apple has $200B in the bank (Score:3)
specifically because they *don't* design macbooks like thinkpads and imacs like HP pcs.
Don't you idiots ever get tired of being so consistently fucking wrong about Apple all the time? Seriously? Do you enjoy looking like a fucking moron on the internet?
Credit card payment systems (Score:3)
Have they considered how this will affect Square and other similar hardware and functionality?
So yes, DRM (Score:2)
It's not enforcement of DRM on audio playback. It's enforcement of the MFi Program for certifying hardware that uses the Lightning port. Right now any headphone maker in the world can make any headphones they want for the standard jack. Not so with the Lightning port.
So yes, it is about DRM: limiting what headphones can be put into the phone. Jerks.
Even audiophiles use standard jacks, so it's not a problem of audio quality.
Also, Apple has a habit of using weird ports, and unlike obsoleting the floppy, the weird ports have been a failure every time (except some designed by Woz back in the 80s).
They did this before... (Score:2)
Well not precisely - one of the early iPhones (I forget which) had the headphone jack recessed in a little hole. Problem was, the hole was big enough for the supplied earbuds but most third party headphones had plugs which wouldn't fit. So an accessory market sprung up for little extenders. It was so dumb, and so annoying.
I'm a somewhat reluctant supporter of Apple in general, but I do really like iOS devices. I like the lightning connector and wish it was used elsewhere (but I hope USB C is a good substitu
People stopped *using* floppies (Score:2)
Floppies faded out because people stopped using them once better (as in, improved longevity and capacity) media came around. The new media were still physical and inserted into PC's, so they functioned rather similarly although in some cases you were trading magnetic degradation for scratching or failing dyes in the cheaper CD-R's.
Bluetooth is *not* a 1:1 replacement for regular headphones because
a) It requires power. That means another device that needs charging, and it can run out in inopportune moments
b)
Battery life (Score:3)
Heh, how laughable. Apple could add a lot more battery by making their already beyond-svelte iPhones 1mm thicker. No one is complaining about the phones being too thick any more, but they are complaining about battery life.
Apple can do no wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Yep if it weren't for Apple we'd still be in the stone age installing windows 10 from 4216 floopy disks. All technical progression such as digital monitors would not happen without Apple.
Except the summary and the comments are a load of bollocks.The floppy drive was being replaced by many people, with efforts on multiple fronts. Apple was the first to remove it as having complete control over their platform meant their system didn't rely on things like floppy disks for recovery.
Let's ignore the people who developed and pushed for USB were Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Compaq, and DEC, ... there's a name missing from the list .... oh no there isn't Apple didn't have any hand in developing the USB successor. But hey the iMac had the first USB port so it must all be Apple's good work.
Speaking of Apple doing things. Which was the only computer company not part of the DDWG who created the successor to VGA? Oh that's right Apple didn't take part. But hey they're the reason we're not using VGA for some reason.
The idiot in the summary is nothing but a troll.
Re: (Score:3)
Except the summary and the comments are a load of bollocks.The floppy drive was being replaced by many people, with efforts on multiple fronts.
Bullshit. Apple was roundly villified for DARING to release a computer without Floppy drives in 1998.
Let's ignore the people who developed and pushed for USB were Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Compaq, and DEC, ... there's a name missing from the list .... oh no there isn't Apple didn't have any hand in developing the USB successor. But hey the iMac had the first USB port so it must all be Apple's good work.
Apple didn't have the first USB port; nobody EVER said that (Intel was the main "driver" of USB at first); but they did have the first WORKING USB Port with actual OS-Level support.
Check the history on how long it was before WIndows and Linux had decent USB support. Hint: It was AFTER Apple.
There were PLENTY of Wintel motherboards with USELESS USB connectors connectors on them for a couple of YEARS befor
Not really the same at all (Score:4, Insightful)
In 1998 the 1.4MB capacity of the floppy was already severely limiting. While there were still a largish number of system being used on a day to day basis that did not have some better alternative available like USB or writable optical of some sort and alternatives like Zip, Jazz, SuperDisk, SyQuest etc were hardly universal and not always even ubiquitous; it was clear to everyone that the floppy was limiting.
There were a lots of jobs where the floppy was perfectly adequate and even the easiest route but in 1998 it was possible to create a word processing document that did not fit on the standard 1.4MB diskette, all you needed was to include a high res picture or two. Once you had a single files to large for a diskette you were down the path of splitting them somehow which usually implied some software your recipient did not have and kill the whole universality thing. So people had good reasons to want to "move on" from diskettes beyond just the fact that Apple did not feel like offering diskette drives as standard equipment anymore.
Compare this with the 3.5mm jack (at least the modified and backward compatible 4 conductor variety that supports mics). It delivers just about everything you could want as far as getting audio headsets. It offers better fidelity than most of the alternative solutions, bluetooth etc. Its possible to run headsets with some smarts and implement signaling like vol up/dn, next track, in devices while still being compatible with cheapo dumb headsets. Its fairly rugged, easy to blow dust out of with canned air, being round a pulled cable usual 'pops out' without damaging either the cable or the receptacle at anything but fairly extreme angles. Essentially if offers me and I think most users just about everything they could want in an audio jack. Unlike the diskette of 1998 its not evident at least not to me that its facing near term inadequacy for any common application.
As to the thickness arguments, well the camera is really still the limiting factor there. The foot print of a 3.5mm jack in smart phone is not preventing larger batters, that is just strait up BS. Once you already have to have a bump out to accommodate the camera, I am not sure making the rest of the device thinner than that adds value, especially when almost everyone puts these things in some kind of protective box anyway. Most people I talk to use a case not only for protection but because the thing is so thin its actually akward to hold and operate one handed without it!
Re: (Score:3)
If it was about thickness, they'd just move to a 2.5mm jack. It's not about thickness, it's about control.
Erh... no. (Score:4, Interesting)
The comparison falls flat on so many levels.
First an foremost, the floppy died because it was no longer able to fulfill its role as a data storage medium. Data size simply outgrew its ability to hold it. The older ones here might still remember playing Monkey Island on the Amiga with a ridiculous amount of floppies, constantly swapping despite having two floppy drives.
There was simply a demand for something that could hold more data than the floppy was able to. CDs filled this role, as well as ZIP drives did. There was a demand for such larger media because the floppy was simply getting too small.
I fail to see this development with headphone jacks. Considering that our kids consider YouTube videos good enough to watch their music, I doubt that they are really craving the high quality audio digital audio could deliver.
This looks more like a solution desperately trying to find a problem so it could become relevant. Or, in other words, we'll get another demand from the supply side shoved down our throats.
Could someone explain capitalism to me again? I think I misunderstood a thing or two.
Insensitive clods... (Score:3)
Forget Android compatibity, how about just... (Score:3)
Yeah, they'll have a dongle to convert... but that dongle is still an additional expense that isn't likely going to be included with the iphone.
The 3.5mm jack is among one of the most ubiquitous audio connector form factors in the history of recorded audio. Breaking from it offers absolutely no perceptible benefit that is not accompanied by significantly greater expense and inconvenience for the consumer
Already gone on my dumb phone 5 years ago (Score:3)
I have a dumb phone. Not because I don't like smartphones, only because I'm too poor to afford one. But my dumb phone doesn't have an ear phone jack either. And I had this samsung phone about 5 years ago, it didn't have a headphone jack either, had a dongle i'd have to plug into it's usb port.
So while you peeps with your fancy smartphone and iPhones are complaining, this isn't new at all.
But it still sucks imo.
VGA port (Score:3)
If it weren't for Apple we'd probably still be using computers with VGA and serial ports.
I wish I had a fucking VGA port on every laptop I bought recently. The so called new standards are a complete mess, without consensus and often incompatible setups. Seriously, if you have to project something often, then VGA is still the best solution so far. Partly because every projector has a vga input that always works, and partly because to other things are complete garbage. Simple standards that work as expected all the time should never be phased out.
Oh, and give me my ethernet port back too! I'm tired of all those shitty wifi connection with their incorrect authentication schemes and awful bandwidth. So far, I never used a laptop while running, so I don't mind plugging it to the network. Hey, I plug it for power anyway, so...
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Good thing apple is not making servers just think of where that line of thinking will lead there.
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The real reason....walled garden headphones. Things that only work with apple.
I wasn't aware that Apple was removing Bluetooth from the iPhone to make it difficult for people to use third-party Bluetooth speakers and headsets.
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That is VERY relevant.
Depends on how you use your iPhone. I keep my iPhone in a cradle to charge overnight and start my day with a full charge. I got a cable in my overhead cabinet at work if I need to charge up my iPhone during the day. Car adapters and battery packs are available for extended usage. The only time I ever ran out of battery life was when I forget to charge the iPhone during the day.
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You're both ignoring the audio quality hit you take with bluetooth, even with Apt-X (which the iPhone doesn't support anyway IIRC).
That's the thing about arguing over hardware specs for cellphones. For the vast majority of Apple/Android users, "good enough" is good enough for them and they don't care beyond that. For the purists, nothing will satisfy them.
Re:Oh Boy! (Score:5, Interesting)
I can buy bluetooth headphones, but at a 300% markup, because of Apple's bluetooth lock-in."
ANY Bluetooth headphones will work just fine. Not being an audiophile jerk, I listen to lots of stuff on my iPhone using El Cheapo Bluetooth headsets all the time. A fine trolling though, congrats.
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They have their own version of EFI, why not their own version of Bluetooth. Microsoft used to pull stunts like that all the time (probably still do) pushing hardware vendors to support broken versions of standards.
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"Microsoft used to pull stunts like that all the time (probably still do) pushing hardware vendors to support broken versions of standards."
ACPI is a common cause of complaint. Windows has a not-quite-standard ACPI implementation, which all hardware is built to fit. A lot of mainboards (mostly laptops) will crash when probed by a proper, standards-compliant ACPI OS, like linux. Usually because there are certain registers for which Windows simply assumes the default values without querying, and which hardwar
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How long before there is a Kickstarter to build an adapter that plugs into the Lightning port and provides Lightning pass through and a 3.5 headphone jack?
You're assuming that Apple won't produce a 3.5" adapter itself. They already sell a device with that functionality [apple.com] that solves the "listen and charge" problem at home - although obviously you'd want something a tad smaller on-the-go.
Tim didn't forget about Dre (Score:5, Funny)
Beats me.
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Actually, this is anything but a first world problem.
Many third-world countries bypassed POTS infrastructure because it was too expensive, but have adopted mobile technology instead. The mobile phones in those countries are their lifelines. Removing inexpensive, ubiquitous technology that isn't broken for no reason except to pad their already unobtanium-lined pockets is ultimately a purely greed-motivated move in Apple's part that will end up harming those third-world people. (A $30 dongle costs the aver
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I would be surprised to find someone in Chad, Nicaragua or Laos using an iPhone.
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iPhones aren't that popular in 3rd-world countries, or anywhere outside the US really. 3rd-world countries mainly use cheap Android phones, for obvious cost reasons.
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"enabling, open, and democratizing" have never been high on Apple's list of priorities for external ports.
Since the very beginning. Even their serial port was nonstandard.
Ah well, at least the guy is being honest. Corporate psychopathy no longer needs to be hidden from view. The audience is captivated.
Actually, their RS-422 Serial Port WAS standard (other than the connector, BFD). It was also signal compatible with RS-232 (for RTS/CTS Applications). All you had to do is only use one "phase" of the Output and Input signals, rather than using it as RS-422's far-superior Differential signals.
It also had the distinct advantage to allow low-cost, essentially zero-hardware, ZeroConf Networking (AppleTalk), which was used in MANY schools and even businesses before 10BaseT Ethernet became a thing.
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Apple designed neither the USB which replaced serial ports (I miss them) nor the various standards (now HDMI) which replaced VGA (I don't really miss that). Apple tried to force their own proprietary interfaces for ages, and almost none of that translated over to the non-Apple world. The reason VGA and RS-232 disappeared had nothing to do with Apple.
You MISS Serial Ports?!? I guess it's been too long since you did the Pin 2 or Pin 3 Dance, or the is it 4 and 5 or 6, 8 and 20 Headache, eh?
As an embedded Developer, THAT is the only time I need a Serial Port these days, and that's what FDDI is all about.
The rest of your rant is just that. A rant.
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Some people enjoyed the fewer wires. I personally prefer the reliability and speed of plugging in an ethernet cord.
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Valid reasoning.. You just need to realize what an incredibly small percentage of the population you represent.
As for price: it will continue to come down for Bluetooth headsets and I expect it to accelerate as demand and market grows...
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Floppy's ultimate demise came about because of USB technology, which was superior and did much more than just a storage technology.
Somebody please enlighten me, what's the technology making 3.5mm redundant at this point?
You do realize, of course, that the Floppy's demise was not due to USB (as evidenced by a number of USB-based Floppy drives that were offered for about the next 5 years).
br. Oh, wait. You don't know because you were a Zygote back in 1998.