Basically: not having a headphone jack might not be enough to deter sales of a phone, but it’s still really annoying and requires users to spend additional money to reclaim very basic functionality from their devices. And most of that money flows back to the device vendor, effectively increasing the price of the phone. We’ve taken something simple and universal, and turned it into something complex and proprietary, for no obvious benefits. It’s a bad trade-off. It’s… user-hostile and stupid. There’s just no getting around it.
There’s no tangible benefit to ditching the universal 3.5mm jack – whether Apple does it, or Samsung does it, or anyone else does it.
We’re months and months into this discussion now, and to this day, nobody – not Apple, not Samsung, not John Gruber, not any commenters anywhere – has given me a real, valid, tangible reason why removing the 3.5mm jack is a good idea. Lightning audio is stupid because only the iPhone/iPad support it (not even Macs come with Lightning ports), and wireless audio is garbage – something even Apple is only now finding out. Those wireless AirPods Apple unveiled to much fanfare? They have been delayed and delayed, and are actually still unavailable, because Bluetooh audio is complete and utter garbage.
It almost feels like removing the 3.5mm jack was a sociological science experiment to determine just how far people were willing to go to defend and rationalise a deeply dumb idea.
It’s just a form of “innovation” in the absence of any real tangible innovation.
Meanwhile Xiaomi Mi Mix with its real innovation has outAppled Apple while retaining the 3.5mm jack.
Apple should have kept SCSI as well.
SCSI was an expensive, cumbersome technology. We are talking a pretty simple, harmless, dirt-cheap, universal connector. What’s the benefit of removing it? So Apple can digitally decide which headphones I can connect (Beats) to my iPhone? So I can buy a bullshit adapter that adds the functionality that I’d expect from the company that gave us the iPod?
If you think USB is any better, you’re dead wrong. In fact, all “modern” serial attached technologies are based on the SCSI legacy. And yes, USB too, just like SATA. I bet that Lightning might be too, more or less.
The SCSI protocol was quite clear and coherent, for the time being (late 70′, early 00′) and covered several peripherals like, you know them already, hard drives and cdrom drives. But it also covered modems, scanners, printers, and even cpus.
Wow. I didn’t know about the CPUs or the SPC processor command set. Do you know of any any products that actually utilized the SPC commands? I can’t find any referenced…
SCSI IDs, terminators, huge 25- and 50-pin connectors, thick rigid cables and having to turn everything on in order. It looks and feels really impressive but I’m not sure I’d want it back.
Yeah, hot plugging without id conflict is some sort of cool feature. Plus the blazing fast transfer speed.
I still use my SCSI 68 pin drives (Atlas 15k), As raw speed goes they can match anything with a platter.
Everyone seems to want to hate on SCSI, but every also seems to forget SCSI 50 pin connectors were matched up against MFM drives and the earliest IDE drives, and they were crap. SCSI had scatter gather, multiple commands, command queuing, and heavy cable shielding with a parallel communication structure. SCSI was better and even now the SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) is still better than SATA (to the end user now, though; there isn’t enough difference to justify it) (SCSI on a multitasking OS back in the day was worth the money and then some)
Except an audio jack is *still* something people use extensively and they have rendered their phones completely incompatible with existing audio equipment.
Here’s the reason, the simple reason: Wiggle, and Channel Loss.
I’ve owned a number of Apple products and am a heavy podcast listener and walker. The old jack “wiggles” after long heavy use, and then it becomes hard to repair. This is a repair Apple now won’t have to do.
The new connector is tighter with no wiggle.
I felt like Apple built this INNOVATION just to address my complaints about having a perfectly usable iPhone, but not a good jack.
Apple fixed a problem.
the new connector is much more sensitive. after some weeks of use, wear and dust the Lighning audio starts to become unreliable.
Also most 3.5mm connectors are angled, while the lightning is going out straight – making it far more prone to pressure and pending in pockets, jackets, … can not even imagine using this lightning connector in a jeans pocket. Must be totally bending and breaking.
I personally used all my phones (from orig. 1st gen iPhone 1, to iPhone 6s) in my jeans pocket with angled 3.5mm cables and had not a single connector failure ever.
I think that’s one of the most desperate and ludicrous excuses I’ve ever heard.
User’s are often confused and think they want things like head-phone jacks, or USB 3, or HDMI. Fortunately, Apple knows what we really want and need. How is this strategy working out for them? They have piles of cash flowing out the windows of their facility. If I were them, I would keep telling users what they really want. If you think about it, they are providing a service. Thinking is hard!
That is so true.
Like when Apple knew people didn’t want bigger phone screens. They were right.
Then Apple knew people wanted bigger phone screens. And they were right. But they were also right before, and at the same time, about people not wanting bigger phone screens.
Thinking IS hard, and for some people thinking about their own thinking is just inconceivable.
Exactly. Apple somehow deduced that I didn’t really need to use my Paypal Here credit card reader that plugs into the phone via the headphone jack, so they helpfully removed it from their next model, ensuring I won’t get paid as easily for my consulting work if I were to upgrade. Thanks, Apple!
In all seriousness I really should be thanking Apple though; shaving the headphone jack was one of several boneheaded decisions by them that led me to drop the iPhone once and for all.
Silly you. There will probably be a lightning based cc reader for lucky iPhone owners to upgrade to. It will only cost 3x as much as the previous one, randomly display ‘Accessory not supported’ messages although certified but it will be the BEST cc reader ever.
Until iPhone 8 goes Lightning 2.0 or usb-c.
Well the one I have was free, but I wouldn’t be surprised if PayPal has to start charging for it if they do make a Lightning based model. After all, they’d have to license the Lightning IP from Apple.
And of course, that’s what this is really about for Apple: They shave the headphone jack and save component costs, then they get to license the Lightning IP to headphone and adapter makers. It’s double profits for them, extra costs for third parties, and headaches for the consumers.
I thought one of the goals was going to be DRM as well.
I doubt it; Apple, along with Amazon, have actually forced the music industry away from DRM.
Lol – so the headphone jack was what was keeping you hanging in there? What a trooper!
See the bolded text? Where I said it was one of several things that pushed me away, not the only thing? That’s what you failed to comprehend when crafting your not-so-sick “burn”. Better luck next time!
Well, to be honest, that sounds like a hack in the first place. For it to work, it must have been using some kind of modem like mechanism for sending and receiving data. That seems to me to be open to man in the middle style attacks – I’m wondering how simple it would be to intercept your transactions and make the reader log card details. Or worse – believe it was charging one amount to a specific account, and actually do something completely different. I think Apple possibly saved PayPal from itself.
I don’t think there’s a risk on the iPhone specifically, at least as long as it isn’t jailbroken. The attacker would either have to have physical access to my phone during the transaction, or physical access to my card reader and/or phone when I’m not not holding either. He would have to disassemble either the card reader or the phone to place a skimmer in there.
Unless you mean he could read any spurious emanations from the reader as it is being used, but again for that the attacker would have to be so close to me he’d be made immediately. Basically, unless the attacker is the person who handed me his card to scan in the first place (admittedly not outside the realm of possibility), he wouldn’t be able to get close enough. If the person who I’m charging is attempting to clone his own card or change his transaction amount, well I’ve got bigger problems than fighting off skimmers; it’s time to purge my client list!
No, I don’t think you are the target here. I think PayPal is. The technology as it seems to be presented, relies on some horrible legacy and is very much open to abuse. As I said, it was something like a massive hack. Your legal usage is just unfortunately a casualty in this case.
Edited 2016-12-12 16:55 UTC
I think you’re over thinking things.
It isn’t a protocol or anything like that tacked onto the audio jack. It’s simply a magnetometer that converts the magnetic data on a card into an audio signal sent through the mic input on the phone. It is basically a tape deck without the motor, and far simpler than an actual card reader. The device itself doesn’t communicate with PayPal.
And, it’s basically as safe as any other situation where you’re getting your card swiped.
We pretty much don’t do that anymore here. We use chip and pin. I don’t think I have swiped a card in about 3 or more years.
If I can ready the data from your card, I can write that data to a new card. If I can read the data from your card I can do a fraudulent transaction. The problem here is that technology has moved on, and using magnetic strips is pretty much obsolete, or at best a fail back.
If only the US had the sense to do this. Unfortunately, even our somewhat limited attempt to move to chip doesn’t require a pin, and still relies on the old signature system for most readers.
It’s hard to believe how far behind the US is when it comes to payment technology. You have to see it to believe it, really.
Sadly, that’s only starting to be true in the US. It’s worse, because Visa is purposefully dragging their heels so they can get an extra year charging additional fees, by spending a year or two allowing cards to be used with the chip but no pin, before changing everything again. Luckily, few retailers are using systems that work that way, but still….
PayPal’s chip reader, by the way, doesn’t operate over the headphone jack.
Time does change needs.
From the original iPhone – the 4.0 People really didn’t want bigger screens. As the phone was a supplemental device for their computing needs. Most people didn’t want the hassle of a bigger screen, they had their PC’s for that.
By the time the iPhone 4 came out people began using the iPhone as more of their main go-to computing device. So they wanted a bigger screen.
If you took your modern day laptop and tried to sell it in the 1950s the government will buy it, take out all the UI features and just use it as a supercomputer, and its small size would just be counteracted by putting thousands of terminals to it. with Serial ports.
There is a lot of infrastructure around today’s technology. Things that we need would be useless in the past. And they would want something else.
Totally, 100% agree. Tech will get better and solve the “no space” problem. Meanwhile, I would happily carry a slightly thicker and heavier phone to have the jack back.
More importantly, Apple in particular look like idiots telling the world the jack is old and crusty, so use these Lightning headphones, and then realize their flagship Mac… with an audio jack… and no Lightning jack.
It’s just one big con, one big test of just how dumb people are. Of course, coming from the US, I know firsthand: dumb as rocks.
Have you tried the sound quality? Record it on an iphone 7, then look at the stats, the sound quality is absolutely awful. It was too soon to remove the DSP.
I for one wanted the 3.5 jack gone in a bad way, but not the way it was done. What I REALLY wanted was a standard, maybe around USB C or something, so that we could have, in WIRED headphones, all the capabilities we currently have with bluetooth headphones. In addition, imagine if we had a row of small buttons on the headset that we could program to do whatever the hell we wanted. IMO, wired headphones on phones connected to a 3.5 jack are about as useless as tits on a bull, since I can’t navigate tracks or do anything without pulling the damn phone out of my pocket.
As such, I just offload my music onto a Sansa Clip and carry that around, since it has physical buttons for navigation that I can operate while the device is in my pocket. This is a LOT more convenient when I’m working out, or going jogging.
I guess my point is that instead of simply bitching that we want the 3.5 jack, we should be demanding something better that is wired.
Edited 2016-12-09 22:53 UTC
Some wired headphones with 4 pads jack have a remote control and mic near the user’s head. You can navigate your tracks, answer a phone call, whatever. The ONLY draw back is having a cable around your ear or neck or somewhere else that might be some sort of a nuisance.
I also have bluetooth headsets that do have the same functionalities, yet 2 major drawbacks : battery autonomy (around 2h straight) and reception capability. Even though I have my phone in my chest pocket, my headsets have trouble with staying connected when I turn my head, even though they are distant less than 60 cm.
This is frustrating, to say the least.
the problem is you didn’t get the ugly Bluetooth headphones.
I have these: ARCTIC Sound ORACO-ERM28-GBA01 Headphones P311
24 hour battery life
24 feet from the phone
full sound
survive the gym
ugly
but they work and work well.
I have these:
https://www.7dayshop.com/products/7dayshop-aero-freedom-active-noise…
They are pretty decent. I mainly use them wired, but that’s more to do with the Bluetooth on my work laptop being crappy, making pairing a PITA. With my phone or Surface Pro, they are perfect. The noise cancellation is pretty decent too.
When I took a look at the Bluetooth I was surprised to see that there was enough bandwidth to support full uncompressed stereo but that Bluetooth insisted in breaking communication into a number of channels when talking to devices.
There is not enough bandwidth in a channel to support uncompressed audio so as far as I can tell all Bluetooth ear-pieces and head-phones are receiving compressed audio.
Does anyone know of any devices that use multiple channels at the same time to receive the full uncompressed stereo sound for a music player?
but why would anyone need uncompressed audio?
but why would anyone need stereo audio?
Because they have two ears? Seems kind of obvious 😐
If you are to feed them with crappy signal, I don’t see the point. I bet monophonic but good quality sound would be enough instead.
Love the audiophile logic there. Why use common sense and admit an obvious truth, when I can appeal to un-measurable , untestable opinions I have.
Bluetooth sounds compressed even when you start with uncompressed audio. This is well known – just because either can’t hear the goopy trebles, and other artifacts, or just don’t care about it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. The situation is simply worse when you start with radio or Pandora stream, which is already too compressed, and then recompress it for Bluetooth. Just horrible, and you don’t have to be an “audiophile” to notice. I didn’t even think this was news…
You really want to put up the stats for the number of people that can notice a difference in audio quality versus the number of people that can notice stereo sound vs mono?
Standard Bluetooth SBC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBC_%28codec%29 is a really crappy codec. Much worse than MP3. For many combinations normal users can easily hear compression artifacts and loss in frequency spectrum.
Better codecs like AAC or aptX are only very rarely supported. The later not even by Google Nexus / stock Android.
So we talk re-compression compressed audio with the most crappy codec ever.
You’re living a a fantasy world.
90% of people don’t care if audio is compressed or not.
Bluetooth has APTX LL. You don’t buy Bluetooth headphones without this. My Aventree Bluetooth headset has this and runs off batteries for 10 hours.
Sound is sweet.
For most of audio data that people are listening to being already compressed there is no benefit from use of a lossless audio system.
However, while most audio is compressed, it was possible to play back the lossless audio that does exists out there with the built-in jack.
Reading the WIKI page about AptX there is no way to always have lossless audio with this system. It is still a bandwidth limited interface.
The transmition is only lossless most of the time but for complex audio data it switches to a “near lossless” mode.
As far as I can tell it is presently impossible do such with Bluetooth.
Edited 2016-12-11 18:26 UTC
Also, where to put the gold gilding for extra smooth transmission.
Audio engineers and musicians cares about lossless audio.
I’m not sure you realise just how small a percentage of phone users are audio engineers and musicians…
But what proportion of iPhone users would like to imagine they *might one day* be musicians, and that just by buying Apple products, they are somehow closer to that aspiration? Like the middle-aged exec who buys expensive lycra shorts because it brings him closer to one day being like Lance Armstrong*, even if he never actually gets around to riding his bicycle.
* Without the drugs, perhaps.
Who cares if 90% of people can’t tell? Most people can’t figure out how to download an app from the app store – but we still have one. What kind of sideways logic is this on a technology site? Do you even like technology?
I completely agree with Thom, removing the 3.5mm Jack is completely anti-consumer. Apple trying to nickle and dime with $25, £25, €25 converters and having to carry around another dongle, and losing another dongle and all of the headaches of carrying another piece of shit dongle.
With this said. I completely disagree about bluetooth sound quality. APTX has been in most major headphones for a while and it greatly improves quality to the point where I find it almost indistinguishable and I love my music.
There is however another advancement: LDAC
http://www.sony-asia.com/microsite/hiresaudio/ldac.html
http://www.sony.net/Products/LDAC/
Its literally Sony Shitting on the likes of Apple from a great height, Apple may copy sony design philosophy, but when it comes to audio quality Sony in phones is untouched (I have a samsung s7-edge and just purchased a xperia-xz cos damn the sony phones are just better in every way)
I have an MDR1ABT pair of headphones, which support LDAC and so does the XZ .. Ive already tried it on the Z5(went for the s7edge instead) and it absolutely destroys the samsung s7 edge when its connected wirelessly, in fact I don’t rate the audio quality from the s7 edge at all. I didnt try audio quality on the s7 edge until after I bought it.
Review sites don’t go into audio quality at all, they just have a little mention about the on board speakers which frankly no one cares about.
The music player on sony phones, is also miles better than google play. Sony stepped away from their own cloud platform and just defaulted to spotify, basically every decision they have been making has been good. I _really_ hope they keep the 3.5mm Jack and I reckon they will.
They haven’t upgraded to a 2K screen as battery life is more important. They were the first to introduce stamina mode operations into Android, which dramatically boosts battery life. I would easy get 2 days battery life from Z3, usually 3, im lucky if I get a day from the s7 edge. They have already started rolling out Android N on all supported phones (z3 wont get it, but thats because qualcomm is dropping support for the chipset), my s7 edge is still 6.0.1.
Sorry this is starting to sound like a sony paid advertisement, which this isn’t I don’t work for them in anyway. Its just that when it comes to stuff like this they have been getting everything right and all they seem to be met with is gnarls and negative reviews, stuff they just don’t deserve as what they are doing is actually bang on.
They have the best bluetooth codec implementation going it seems and yet they haven’t been forcing users to depart from 3.5mm jacks. They try to get best battery performance, they aren’t trying to design ridiculously thin phones. They are just classy and I respect them for it.
Okay then, answer me one question: with all these advantages to Sony’s technology, why exactly is it only Sony devices that can use it? Could it be because, perhaps, Sony’s licensing is as draconian as it has always been?
Agree that the 3.5mm jack needs to be replaced & that USB C (preferably with USB 3.1 support) is the way to go. More feature-rich, good potential for great audio quality, and available for all manufactures & all types of devices, from phones & tablets to laptops, desktops, & game systems.
Would be better to have TWO USB C ports, so charging isn’t frequently a hassle.
Edited 2016-12-10 22:29 UTC
Out of curiosity why do you navigate tracks? Do you not set playlists? Or maybe you stream pandora or google radio?
That just isn’t anything I’ve done since the year 2000 or so, with the advent of digital playlists.
So you don’t ever have songs come up in your playlists and think, ‘Gee, I really don’t want to listen to this right now. I’ll just skip it …’ ? Or maybe you want to listen to one again? Or maybe you need to pause for something?
There is a benefit, just not for the consumer.
Remember how DVD players used to have component outputs. Moving people off them and onto digital connectors like HDMI made it easier to output only a degraded signal over the analog connector, and later getting rid of it entirely. So the content industry has a vested interest.
In Apple’s case, customers who buy new iPhone headphones will be locked into their proprietary Lightning port, making it less attractive to switch to the Android competition.
Anyone who’s used an either an android or iOS device for more than a year will be invested enough in the ecosystem through apps alone. There’s a high chance that whatever device they upgrade to will be running the OS they are used to and invested in.
You pay for apps? What is this, 2010?
All apps I ever use exist on every ecosystem and they are all free.
You obviously don’t play many games then
He’s probably an adult.
I’ve had an iPhone for 3 year… Only bought 2 apps, and both were less than $4 each.
Life, the Universe and Everything does not revolve around games.
Not all Tech People want to sit playing games that involve staring at a screen for hours on end especially after doing that all day.
You really need to get out and experience proper life more often.
Unlike some of the other commenters, I DO play games, but primarily on a PC.
Phones and tablets are good for casual gaming, and there’s ample such beasts (frequently free) on any platform to keep me entertained. It wouldn’t be enough to prevent me switching platform.
I admit that I play Clash of Clans. Which is among the top grossing and most played games with 100 million daily active uers.
With CoC, you can move between Android and iOS while keeping all your progress and in-game purchases.
Thats such a terribly scammy game. While installing it, it tries to get you to install other scammy applications with it. Its the worst of bundled crapware. After seeing that I immediately canceled the install and reloaded my phone os, wiping everything and restoring from back ups. I’d have crushed the device and dispersed it to the four winds if I had the cash to burn. On a different device now, thank heavens.
Most people never buy a single app, fewer ever download more than a couple. The app ecosystem lock-in concept is over-estimated. It’s not that strong. Hardware lock-in might be a bit stronger, but probably still isn’t that strong – people like buying new things
With the difference that component was a little-used port (compared to SCART, composite or even S-video) very few people knew what it was about and a really cumbersome one too (5 cables at least, when counting in the audio). The headphone jack has neither of the two problems and is a standard everybody knows what it’s for and how to use.
But nooo… we must give up the headphone jack and re-live the annoyance that was Nokia’s Pop-Port. Let’s just hope they fixed the durability issue this time, so at least it doesn’t unplug itself like the Pop-Port (and Sony Ericsson’s similar contraption) did.
I really hope people turn their backs to such OEMs.
Edited 2016-12-10 20:28 UTC
It’s undeniable that Apple have been pioneers when it comes to usability. Even from the Apple ][, the aim of the company has been to make computers easier to use and more accessible to the masses. Up to the last few years, i think they’ve done well.
The end of user-serviceability started when Apple released the iMac. Whilst the first iMac was critisised at the time for axing the floppy drive, it was indeed an old and obsolete technology when compared to CD-ROMs (although document exchange was difficult in an age where USB drives didn’t really exist). However, they brought a more significant change. in most prior machines, replacing parts was simple and easy to do, even for novice technicians. Everything was laid out well and everything was accessable by the user. With the iMac, the only user servicable parts were the memory and the wireless card.
This trend has continued: The Macbook Air dropped replaceable RAM for soldered RAM; the Mac Pro ditched any and all expandability; and the new macbook ditched the last holdout for replaceable parts, they soldered the SSD to the motherboard.
So what does this mean? It means that any and every upgrade you want done to your machine has to be done by Apple, and mostly at the time of purchase. This means that Apple can get away with charging exorbitant prices for upgrades as there is no competition to drive prices down. This equals more profit for Apple.
How is this related to lightning headphones? Simple. Lightning is a
proprietary interface that only Apple has control of. In order to make devices that use lightning, you require a license from Apple. This means that for every device that uses a lightning connection, Apple gets a cut. By making all wired headphones use lightning connectors, Apple gets a cut of the profit on every set of headphones sold.
So it seems to me, that Apple really don’t care about the consumer any more. They just want to make sure that when the consumer buys their product, all the profits go to them, no matter how they do it.
And Google is copying them (Apple that is)
And Microsoft is copying them
The IT Market is (or has already) maturing. Most of us don’t fix our domestic appliances any more.
Can you ‘fix’ your post 2000 built car without special bits of kit?
That’s the way that Computers, phones etc is going.
That is just the natural evolution of things.
We may not like the direction things are going but someone has to lead the way. Better it is Apple because it is the one company that we all love to hate with a vengance.
As an old timer who once was a Field Service Engineer who fixed computers down to chip level in the field, I really don’t want to go back to those days.
You’re conclusion would probably make more sense if:
a) Apple didn’t include a 3.5mm audio adaptor with every device lacking the 3.5 jack
b) Apple sold more than one set of lightning headphones
c) There weren’t hundreds, if not thousands, of other options available
There isn’t any lightning-compatible headphones available that don’t pay the Apple tax
Edited 2016-12-12 12:14 UTC
The world is going digital.
PCs dont ouput analog video, phones shouldnt output analog audio.
Let the headset do the conversion instead.
More room for customized systems too.
Seriously… no accent aigu?
Blog needs fixing.
Code is aging, not terribly well. At some point, we’ll upgrade the site. We’re volunteers.
Adam S,
I didn’t know that.
PCs do, however, output analogue audio.
I will not be one of those people whining and throwing a fit over the loss of the 3.5mm jack in cellphones. I’m not scared of the future or any temporary growing pains that may happen on the way there. I’m fully confident everything will be fine in the end and when it is, many of the people crapping their pants now will look back and wonder why they were freaking out.
It.. Will.. Be.. Okay..
At least Samsung is going to use a standard connector
I won’t buy any audio device that relies on Bluetooth to play sound to headphones or audio devices. A lot of car stereos do not sync to Bluetooth devices reliably if at all. I was driving a Mercedes truck last week (brand new, with their own stereo system installed) and tried to sync my Android phone, and it simply wouldn’t see it. My phone could see the truck’s stereo, but I couldn’t get them to pair. (It also had a front AUX input, which takes a 3.5mm jack, but any time I actually drove the truck, it interfered with the sound.) The failure to pair to phones is a common problem with Mercedes-Benz vans and trucks I’ve driven. Not that familiar with their cars.
I’ve always had better luck with aftermarket stereos when it comes to connectivity. Specifically, I’ve found JVC head units to be the most compatible across iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. I’ve had Pioneer, Clarion, and Kenwood units that either can’t stay connected reliably, can’t properly switch from music to an incoming or outgoing call, or will sometimes forget my device randomly and force me to pair again.
Citing a “person familiar with the development of the AirPod[s],” the report suggests Apple is struggling to ensure that both AirPods receive a Bluetooth signal simultaneously, something that would help them avoid sudden connection dropouts.
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-delay-wireless-earb…
Edited 2016-12-10 09:56 UTC
Well, history – old and recent – has shown plenty of times how easy people can be convinced to support idiotic ideas. With dedication.
In this case, first a bit of maybe not so covertly played-for historical elitism might have helped to make the idea easier to swallow, even so not without some backlash. However, when you take that out of the picture, realistic thinking and enlightened self interest can creep into the picture and voila, you can end up with a product that you can build dams with using the unsold stockpiles. Unless you can find a way to convince everyone that masochism and ignorance is in fact in their own best interest. Wouldn’t be unheard of.
They should remove the screen. Can’t pirate a movie if you have no screen.
And remove all speakers to eliminate music piracy. It’s not like phones legitimately need sound for anything, right?
I wasn’t aware your cellphone maker is a member of the RIAA.
I wasn’t aware your cellphone maker is a member of the MPAA.
Removing the analogue jack is just one of the steps to plug the analogue hole: essentially a DRM kind of thing. As with other measures, it’s hopeless and will only hurt legitimate users.
What exactly is a “legitimate” user? And do you actually believe dumping the 3.5mm jack has _anything_ to do with DRM? That’s funny….
If being a “legitimate” user means you don’t have pirated content on your phone then I’m certainly one and the retirement of the 3.5mm jack doesn’t harm me in any way.
My music collection includes MP3s that I’ve obtained from CDs that I own. In some places that’s illegal. I’ve also got MP3s from discs that I own that have DRM on it (given, not bought), so I had to obtain them through alternative means. Is that legitimate? How about music from a friend’s band?
Corporations controlling the flow of music definitely affects me, and I consider myself to be a legitimate user.
Except, its been a while since music has been hampered by DRM.
Nobody sells DRM-enabled MP3s. Apple’s own lossless audio format doesn’t do DRM, either. Apple and Amazon together have been able to force the music industry to pretty much abandon DRM requirements on music. I see no indication that Apple is willing to cede ground now.
Is that why, when you upload your own music to your Apple Music library, it is then forced to have DRM on it? Or do you find that just an interesting coincidence? Note that I’m talking about music that is not matched and not part of Apple’s own catalog. Genuine uploads, from you.
Apple once pushed for open music along with others. Something tells me that era is long over.
They stopped that in June.
Now, the only tracks with DRM are the tracks that you get from Apple Music. Any tracks you payed for through iTunes, from other sources that are matched, or your own unmatched tracks, will be stored on Apple Music DRM free, and will remain available after you cancel your Apple Music subscription.
Absolutely this has to do with DRM. Just as HDCP and similar technologies (Cinavia) have become encapsulated over HDMI streams, I can see this being used in the same way. Authorized audio over authorized headphones. Hey, didn’t apple buy a headphone company a few years ago? Gee, how convenient.
The only way you can possibly think this is about DRM is if you completely ignore what has already happened with music and the attempt to strap DRM to it. And yes, Apple did buy a headphone company. So what? There’s no conspiracy here. It’s very simply a cellphone maker wanting to sell you both the phone itself and the most commonly used accessory. Don’t overthink it, or talk yourself into seeing things that aren’t actually there.
I guess all those hours of Birdsong that I’ve recorded over the past 40+ years (originally on a Uher Reel-to-Reel) should be erased forthwith because none of them have DRM.
Perhaps I need to get each bird to sign a release before I start recording? Each Insect? Each Animal? Each gust of wind? Each wave that hits the shore?
I can play those recordings over HDMI without a problem.
That means that I’d better give myself up to the Police now. I’m obviously a serial pirate and have infringed upon the copyrights of the birds to their songs.
You see how the DRM everywhere argument falls flat on its face.
Corporations don’t control the flow of music. Music is widely available in multiple formats, from multiple sources – even directly from artists themselves, including major artists. Music continues to become more of a promotional tool than a revenue stream for music publishers. As long as people are still willing to pay for music, it will still be sold. But we are already living in times where many artists and labels simply give away the music for free and make their money other ways. To think that music DRM is or should be a major concern at this point is pretty naive if you ask me.
Apple ditched the serial ports and was the first one to use USB, same story here. People complained about compatibility and how serial ports were enough.
Apple ditched ADB, not serial ports.
Serial ports were used by PCs as the standard for keyboards/mouse and parallel for printers. Apple used ADB for both of these so couldn’t use most options on the market.
USB was a desperate attempt to utilize PC peripherals again and to get OEMs to make drivers for the Mac. As USB was invented by Intel, Intel were the ones that pumped millions into getting manufacturers to use their tech.
It would be interesting if that influence constituted a misuse of their monopoly position.. but thats a convo for another day
Edited 2016-12-12 10:27 UTC
The only benefit I see in USB-C (and Lightening) headphones would be for noise cancelling headphones, so that there isn’t a bulky battery pack on the cable that needs to be charged.
That said,there isn’t a reason to remove the headphone jack… Having a headphone jack doesn’t negate the possibility of using USB-C headphones.
Now perhaps if there was a USB-C connection on the bottom and the top of the phone, I might be interested.
Nothing prevents from transmitting power over the headphone jack and some serial communications in inaudible subcarrier, using auto-negotiation for detecting device capabilities.
It would offer backwards compatibility.
It’s actually a cost saving move for Apple, nothing more. Saves them from supporting and installing the jack.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been dropped elsewhere, since back in the early 2000s when I saw the first USB headphones, I thought that would be the case with PC headphones.
I’m honestly of two minds about it. I think once Bluetooth audio has reached a competent level and we can get the same quality from it as from an analog port, maybe we should ditch the jack. It would certainly go far towards making all cellphones fully waterproof, though this would also require sealed batteries and non-expandable storage, two “features” I’m loath to accept again.
Until then, I’ll continue to buy devices with ports for my existing peripherals.
Are waterproof headphone jacks in some way difficult to implement? Do they take up more room inside, or something? I notice a fair few companies have used them, but I’m clueless as to what the engineering requirements are beyond the port being fully sealed up internally.
Mind you my experience is purely as a hardware hacker, not as a “real” engineer or designer. From what I’ve seen, when water resistant mobile devices started coming out they were first achieved by rubber port covers (Casio G’zOne, Samsung Active series); if you failed to cover the port properly your phone was no more water resistant than any other device. Later devices used sealed ports that were bulkier than their non-sealed counterparts, leading to thicker devices. Most recently, the manufacturers have been able to shrink the water resistant versions of ports down to a size allowing for competitively thin devices, but they still aren’t fully waterproof. The tolerances are tighter and gaskets are skillfully employed, but there is still a chance of water ingress with any open port on any device.
What I can see coming down the pipe in the next few years is a device that is 100% sealed with no visible seams or ports, relying on Bluetooth for remote audio, and wireless charging instead of a USB port. Obviously it will have a sealed battery and no expansion of any kind. I’m both excited to see something like that for innovation’s sake, and loath to use it for my own.
Personally I honestly don’t mind devices being a bit thicker in exchange for extra functionality. I’m also curious how hard it’d be to simply provide phones with an external waterproof case that sealed everything up and still allowed the touchscreen to work (I’ve seen cases where the screen cover doesn’t mess with the touch capabilities), but if you needed to access the card slot, remove the battery, use a port, etc, you’d just open up the case. I’m sure wireless charging could work through an external case too.
It does on my wife’s Nexus 6, she has a hard shell bumper case and it charges fine on her pad.
Personally I couldn’t care less whether the 3.5 mm headphone jack disappears from smart phones. I don’t use my phone for music and never have. I have a tiny little $30.00 clip-on dedicated mP3 player for that. It does its job well. My Nexus 6P and every other smartphone I’ve ever owned has been too big in my opinion to take to the gym. But then on the other hand, I’m not addicted to my smart phone like so many others.
I actually use my earphones to make phone calls. Pressing my largish phone to my ear doesn’t make for comfortable listening, particularly when I am dealing with call centres when I know I am going to be transferred from pillar to post.
Been there, done that, still love simply, perfectly working analog connection:
https://rene.rebe.de/2016-12-06/bluetooth-audio/
TLDR: Degraded, lossy compressed quality, no lip sync, some audio producer apps will not even work with the latency or whatever at all (e.g. GarageBand on iOS).
Being a developer means that I have a bias toward efficiency (not necessarily optimization, but it is a good achievement).
Lets see how “player” to “analog” headphone works:
file -> DAC -> amplifier -> speakers.
And how does the digital headphone works:
file -> encapsulated in elected protocol with needed checks and all magic -> modulate to transfer the signal with all magic that it needs -> receive the signal and check it -> unpack from the encapsulated protocol and check it -> DAC -> amplifier -> speakers.
For wireless transmission, specifically, I would be very surprised if some latency does not kick in, if nothing more, because of our old friend, the interference on electromagnetic signals.
Besides the need to put a damn DAC (and amplifier) on every digital headphone, which, I suspect, will not carry the same quality of the one inside a good device, and the fact it will drain more power on target and source, and that it makes it more expensive (OK, the difference on cost would be minimal on good headphones, the speakers are what really makes the difference), I would, for the simple fact that there are drawbacks with no benefits that I can see, skip any device without the jack.
Bad advice. The death of the 3.5mm jack is not the end of the world. There may be minor growing pains to contend with but it’s happening whether you like it or not and it will get better over time as it becomes more widely adopted. The best argument you could come up with was just a bunch of red herring “drawbacks”, which proves *** this is nothing to fear! ***
I´m not against progress, quite the opposite, but I really don´t want to put up with “heavyweight” headphones because of the batteries needed to supply power and I am just fine with the wires. I, specifically turn on calm music while working just to avoid the distracting noise people are always generating, and the places I have to go to work, sometimes for an extended period, may be really disturbing, sound wise.
I also have read bad reviews of the new connectors (many say they tend to malfunction after relatively short cycles of plug-unglug).
So, at least on my case, what is the gain? Sound quality may suffer right now, may malfunction shortly and will make it more difficult to share good quality headphones among other devices. No thanks, like with TVs, stereos and other gadgets, when the new tech catch up I will kick in, but only then.
By the way, I don´t want studio quality devices, they are quite expensive and I do just fine with good quality, layman, standard equipments.
Edited 2016-12-12 17:57 UTC
The markets in general are competely fascist and controlled. In short there is no free market place anymore.
We already know that as gigantic amounts of money has been printed and the elite have used it through no work of their own, to buy things of real value.
All of this mischief has transferred governmental and banking control to these people who have locked up capital. Capital in the hundreds of trillions which is not available to start new companies or investigate new technology.
Everything is being affected from health care to cars, to energy to…well your phone too.
Everything has basically slowed to a crawl in technological development.
Until these people are destroyed the only phones your going to get are ones that they deem will lock up their markets.
So you do not see diversity instead in the phone market for example you see silly things like chasing thinner phones, or in this case removing head phone jacks because innovation has stopped, and the only way to turn a profit is to turn off features and make you buy them … again….maybe three or four times.
Especially since most of the bluetooth headsets are not designed to last more than a year or two.
Its getting quite bad now. The energy sector is suffering from the same thing, by the same people…(.i.e. bankers) who refuse to invest the trillions of holdings into an alternative materials or energy science.
So what we are left with is artificial scarcity, when none exists. A Malthusian future because a bunch of bankers control the world…
literally.
It doesn’t have to be this way. But these people in the IMF, Federal Reserve are holding the world and markets hostage.
They must be destroyed. Or you will have far more too worry about than a thinner phone or a missing head jack.
Your children will grow up in a card board box and curse your name till they die….in a rather short life I am afraid.