@cinoclav
Failure to include the adapter wouldn’t cause a buying spree, it would cause a boycott spree. Apple understands the concept of “a bridge too far” perfectly well. They are pushing the market exactly as far as they can, or that’s what they hope, anyway.
The adapter included is a bit of a tease. They want a buncha people who want corded headphones to wind up over time with iPhone specific headphones. The change is likely intended to accomplish several things: to slowly, over time, to incentivize staying in that universe a little bit more with users - among other goals such as “big announcement syndrome” and “because we can: we’re Apple”.
The tech justification for this is weak weak weak, at least at this time. This is a marketing tool and a power move - Apple removes a feature, and people in the Apple universe may bitch, but they can adapt, and many of them will follow. Customers are tied in - they don’t wanna switch to android or elsewhere, because the switch might be a PITA, or they’d have to learn a new system, or they hate Google, or love Apple, or whatever. And Inertia. And so many or most customers will likely stay. And then Apple’s got hold of them just a little bit more completely.
If there were no Appleverse of customers who would likely never leave, there would be zero other arguments for removing the jack.
@f00l my brother gets his phones from work. He goes through 1-2 a year because they’re always breaking. He fucking hates the iPhone, but won’t switch because he has so many apps on it. Shame.
@f00l I think you’re reading way too much into this. Not including the adapter wouldn’t cause a boycott spree. It may cause some complaining but if you need a replacement or want additional adapters the damn thing is only $9 from Apple. If you can’t afford $9, you probably can’t afford a new phone. I’m sure third parties will have them for 1/4 the price soon enough. As an aside, I’ve used both Android and iOS and far and away prefer the iOS environment. It’s just way more intuitive. I’m not a fan of Macs and have and always will use PC’s but I’ve been on the iPhone bandwagon for about 5 years now. Every time I pick up an Android phone it’s a reminder that their OS is just way too convoluted. Not to mention, Android phones are notoriously crash prone. http://bgr.com/2016/05/11/android-vs-iphone-stability-study-q1-2016/
@DrSayre Nothing says “courage” like squeezing your customers for money. This puts Apple in league with our other brave American corporations, like Southwest Airlines and Comcast.
@InnocuousFarmer You don’t have to buy an Apple device. It’s not car insurance, it’s not mandatory. The airpods are free as well as the adapter, with the purchase of a new phone. The new line of products have increased standard storage levels, at the same or a lower price.
@DarkHuD
Some folks feel squeezed by changes they don’t want, perhaps intensely dislike, which force them to adapt or to change devices and platforms in the long run.
People get to bitch. Legit use of “squeezed” to my thinking.
@DarkHuD While the lightning airpods are included, Apple wants you to buy the $159 wireless model. If you want to simultaneously charge your phone and use earbuds (something that current models can easily do) that is your option.
The cynic in me also thinks the reason the “free” adapters are all white (even if the phone is black) is to coax an additional $9 out of consumers to get the black model. No, a consumer doesn’t have to buy the adapter, but under that logic the only company that can put the squeeze on a customer is a utility company.
I don’t think “squeezing” was the motivation here (I honestly think space was the driving factor), but I think Apple is certainly taking advantage of the situation as an opportunity to milk a few extra dollars from consumers.
Full disclaimer: I have not once ever used earphones with my cell phone.
@DarkHuD It’s a bit of semantics, but as long as I am their customer, I face an increasingly annoying and/or expensive removal of functionality over time, relatively speaking.
SSDs cost a whole ton more than HDDs used to, to get a decent amount of storage in a laptop; laptops are all outdated and light on ports; next phone upgrade, I will also have to own 2-3 dongles, or else carry one with me all the time… I’ll at least need one for the car to charge the phone while listening to things. Apple always cuts it close on battery life on the phones, which means I’m constantly charging mine. Haptics are a lousy substitute for buttons.
There’s a ton of low-hanging fruit here that Apple isn’t going to address because of B. aesthetics, and A. their profit per device sold, whatever that metric’s called.
If I stop being their customer, I stop being “squeezed”, but I have different problems with that scenario, primarily privacy-related, and to a lesser extent based in me probably still preferring iOS over Android in spite of the stuff listed above. If I could stand Android, I’d probably no longer be an Apple customer.
@ELUNO That part has been covered at length. It’s not an added fee and is included with the device. There are several options already, and at the end of the day people are either going to get over it, or change devices.
Lightning EarPods are included with the phone and are wired with a lightning connector.
AirPods are wireless headphones that will be sold at a later date for $160.
@Ignorant Reaching? Reaching is stating otherwise. It is exactly the same added fee as any other phone that includes headphones. I have never claimed only Apple is doing this. If they are in the package it is because you paid for it.
@ELUNO It’s not an added fee. That’s not how pricing works… This thing was going to hit a target price. This is an included part of the phone. It can’t be an added fee, since you’re not getting charged on top of the base price for it. Since you can’t buy a smartphone without the included accessories new from the seller, it cannot be a fee.
The special charge cable/3.5mm adapter that’s sold extra is an optional extra, but again, not a fee. That’s not how fees work.
@DarkHuD That is exactly how pricing works…
In your mind it goes like this… “Oh, how can we make even less profit?! I know! Let’s give them FREE EARBUDS!”
@ELUNO It really isn’t. If these 'pods cost, say, $12 to make, and they didn’t include them, the price of the phone would not be $637 instead of $649. Target prices are set, and then as many Marketable Things are thrown in as possible while still meeting the target price.
@brhfl This is a chicken and the egg thing. No company would ever arrive to a point where they just “throw in” added value to meet their “target price.” They already know the estimated price of EVERYTHING that will be included in the package and then set a target price. Not just magically come up with a number and then fuku the package to reach it.
@ELUNO It really isn’t a chicken/egg, and it certainly isn’t magic. Just marketing. Prices are predetermined tidy intervals. There’s the big-ticket item (the phone itself) which essentially sets the intervals. Bundled items boil down to cost vs. value; are you exceeding the target, and/or is the bundle increasing value such that it will push most consumers over the edge.
@brhfl The phone itself does not set the whole “interval” as you call it. Everything else in the package can, and will, push up smaller intervals. This “rounding up/interval” gives them some pricing freedom, yes, but every single cent of the included products are projected from the beginning to the end.
@InnocuousFarmer
Consider getting a used by decent android device and messing with it, without activation, over wifi. After you know it and what it can do, you can decide without being trapped.
FWIW, I have a 2nd gen Moto E … which crashes if there are a few too many gifs or video embeds here. So it sucks. Also the 5mp camera is no match to the 640 when it comes to clarity.
@narfcake I actually saw a Windows phone in the wild for the first time a couple weeks ago. I was flabbergasted until I realized I was in Seattle at a Mariners game. Windows phone usage probably goes up exponentially within driving distance of Redmond.
@narfcake
Congrats. You spend, what, roughly $1M a year on catshirts/year and $25 total on a phone over several years, not including service and activation, of course.
@canuk nope not solved if someone decides to start listening 5 min before their battery dies LOL. It is all a plot to get you to spend more money on necessary “add ons”
It isn’t just the Apple trying to force people into buying crappy Beats headphones. Lenovo didn’t put one in the Moto Z. The rumour mill says, they are planning to do the same with laptops. I own two Lenovo laptops and one of my work laptops is Lenovo. If they pull the headphone jack, I will get my hardware elsewhere.
@sohmageek Everyone in my office listens to music from their phone while at work. I am fortunate enough to have admin rights on my laptops, but very few in the organization do. They are locked down tight. Many users don’t even have internet access.
As an unofficial gadget lending library, it is just one more thing people will forget at home. And, just like chargers, Apple knows many people are going to want at one for home and one for their bag or office.
I’m an Android person, but the fact that they’re including an adapter with every device kind of kills the “squeezing the users for money” argument. And if you lose the adapter, that’s on you. Be less forgetful.
@rprebel I feel like this is mostly a lot of non-Apple users jumping at the opportunity to be pissed off at Apple. I wouldn’t be supprised if it is only a matter of time before the majority of manufacturers are doing this. It’s the last analog item left, hell, even radio is digital.
@a7xaudiojunkie I wouldn’t go that far. Headphone jacks are ubiquitous, cheap, (previously) universally compatible, durable, very reliable, less susceptible to interference, not fiddly, and don’t have batteries that need charging. And they sound consistently great (depending on your headphones).
It’s hard for me to see an argument against them–anything that needs fixing–in favor of Apple’s new thing, other than “MFi cash” or “user lock-in” or “accessory revenue from users”, though I’m a little bit suspicious of that last one–doubt it was the primary driver. (I’m deliberately ignoring any reference to aesthetic symmetry. Only Sir Ive would care about that.)
Doesn’t bother me. I mostly use bluetooth headphones anyway. And both of my cars have bluetooth audio. Water resistance is more important to me than an aux jack.
@FightingMongoos The Note 7 is waterproof and has the aux jack. I use the jack for things other than headphones, like plugging into my car stereo that doesn’t have Bluetooth, or my Square Reader. I surely hope that Android doesn’t follow Apple.
It’s a stupid idea, but come on, it won’t fail. Most people don’t care much either way, they’ll just upgrade their phone as usual and use the earbuds in the box.
Personally Apple didn’t sell me on the idea, because I’m not an Apple-only person. I have all kinds of mobile devices and audio gear and they all need to work with the same headphones. I would be using the dongle a lot.
I would really like a less thin, more durable, more repairable phone with much longer battery life, which Apple doesn’t seem interested in doing.
(Side fact: Most of the “normals” I’ve come across today thought that Apple announced that iPhone headphones would now be wireless-only. Thought that was interesting.)
@awk Agreed, stupid but not destined for failure. And your point about Apple-only echoes a thought I was having yesterday… they didn’t go into many details on the W1 chip. Is it just souped-up Bluetooth, or something new and proprietary? What would motivate a manufacturer to go with this implementation over Bluetooth, a standard?
Anyway, I don’t like it. No desire to use wireless headphones; if and when I end up with a new phone, I’ll suck it up and use the dongle. Wish this wasn’t the solution, but it’s not the end of the world.
@brhfl
Not pushing anyone here in any direction, but Android is not that hard to use, or, I have been told, to switch to. If you feel trapped, get a used android dev - or a win phone or whatever - don’t activate. Learn to use. Then decide.
@f00l I’ve used Android a lot, and just find it… worse than not having a headphone jack, let’s say. Granted, I know different vendors get to tack on different UIs and all, and I’m sure I haven’t used every incarnation, but all signs point to it just not being my thing. I do like Windows Phone, but I spend far too much time in Lightroom mobile. Anyway, thanks.
@awk At the risk of straying off-topic, can somebody explain to me the mass appeal of Beats headphones? I’m not an audiophile and I probably can’t discern a pair of $400 Seinheiser versus a pair that are $1500, but I can hear well enough to know that Beats headphones are positively dreadful. I guess they aren’t that expensive when compared to studio quality models, but $200+ for a pair of earphones where the quality is on par (or possibly worse) than what comes with your phone is ridiculous.
@DrWorm Celebrities, and pumped-up bass. Possibly the price tag and their status as an object of conspicuous consumption.
In the only bright spot, Monster did most of the important engineering for the line before they were out-maneuvered by lawyers. I don’t feel that great about it, but maybe a little.
@DrWorm
They cost double what the ought to costs, at least. Zero subtlety of sound. Nice colors. Caught on in the street, one of the great promo campaigns in history, became “every kid gotta have”. Not terrible, but pure smoke in terms of marketing.
I also like a phone that is not pwned so easily. I don’t want to give my information to a marketing company (Google). I like my privacy, thank you. I would buy a Windows Phone before an Android. I had one for work, and even its development IDE is terrible.
@aarond12
So you give trust to Apple, one of the great original big data innovators, who also don’t fix zero-day iPhone exploits for years unless a news story or techie call-out shames them?
Eh, it’s just one more step to Apple eventually disappearing up it’s own ass. The money-grab here is encouraging the use of wireless headphones that only have 2-3 years life before the battery goes to shit. The alternative of using the adapter will unfortunately become a faux pas to the younger generations, much like a person using any phone with a physical keyboard today. In the whole scheme of things, the world is still going to turn, even if we run out of lithium…
@AdmiralDave It doesn’t seem like an effective money grab. They’re including Lightning ear buds and an analog adapter for free. A year’s sales of AirPods and additional adapters is going to be less than the rounding error of a month’s iPhone sales. I think they were being honest when Phil Schiller said they wanted that space for other stuff.
@SSteve Yeah, I keep seeing people talk about the cost of the earbuds, when they’re being included with the phone… Like many things, the children need to stop overreacting. Change isn’t a bad word. If anything, the movement of a major device to non-3.5mm might get some more improvements in our wireless functionality of bluetooth and/or alternatives to BT.
I’d imagine most of the people angry at this use a bluetooth headset of some sort anyway.
Remember when apple changed the iphone’s connector that one time years ago, to a much more efficient and superior-to-all-other-cable-types-of-the-time plug? I wasn’t even an apple user back then, and the “what am I going to do with all this old connector stuff” argument was already grinding my gears. It’s like the apple fanatics thought they deserved to buy accessories once, and use them forever, progress be damned. Stephen Colbert made some offhand remark about it with Tim Cook, and Tim Cook rightly pointed out that was once in a decade… and basically to go pound sand.
The long and the short of it is: if you really need a headphone jack, buy another phone, or an adapter… or get over it. Who wants to use corded headphones and have another exposed port to potentially break the waterproof seal anyway?
@DarkHuD
Who? Someone who purchases Sennheisers or something else really nice that plays well on mobile. Only those can be wasted on an iPhone.
There can actually be more than 1 defensible opinion on this topic. From a consumer’s POV anyway. And yeah those folks can go get some other device. Or wait a really long time without upgrading.
@f00l There’s going to be an adapter anyway. I dunno if I can be called a fanboy since I am (or was until the recall and now have to wait for a replacement) a Note 7 user.
The future is not corded. That’s been shown for decades now. Sennheiser will adapt to this. I love my Sennheisers, and I’m sure they’ll make some awesome wireless headphones in the future once wires aren’t considered the standard connection.
@DarkHuD water and dust resistant. The future IS wireless I agree but why not make the adapters you need until then universal? Or why not keep the headphone jack AND include wireless earbuds? Most cars have aux. Not most cars have bluetooth. “Wireless” is not without its flaws yet…
@triplebud As you said, the future is wireless. At some point, you have to make the leap and remove something that, although popular, is not really a feature that is progressing the phone. There IS going to be an adapter for the phone’s standard charge port.
Heck, I went through this issue years ago on my old HTC Ozone. Moving from a blackberry to the Ozone, I lost my awesome headphone jack. But HTC included this really smart adapter that allowed charging, output, and whatnot from the single port. It was a solution to a problem that was ahead of its’ time.
I would be hard pressed to find a late model or new car that doesn’t support bluetooth AND auxiliary inputs. Tech has to stop supporting old and outdated methods eventually. At some point, your old laptop can’t be supported, you can’t run this game on x86, you have to get a better phone, you must stop using ADSL and get fiber, and so on and so forth. Progress is painful in ways, but it IS progress.
Again, I’m a note 7* user, and I’d have been A-OK losing the auxinput, especially if it meant that I was getting a newer and better bluetooth support.
*was a note 7 user, stuck on a crappy new loaner S7 that can’t hold a charge and actively overheats, burning my hand, to replace a N7 that had no real issues…
@DarkHuD
You’re awfully sure of the direction of tech. Outmoded tech so is so easy to spot. Like the fact that very high end wired headphones are a tiny market segment, but a very fast-growing one. Very very fast. Way faster than iPhone sales, by growth metrics. And Bluetooth does not come close.
Test: Buy the best bluetooth headphones you can find. Then spend equal bux on the best wired phones you can get for the money.
Equivalent? Yeah, like Mercury and Jupiter are both planets - that kinda equivalent. I’m sure someday wireless and wired will be very close. Not today tho.
Don’t mean to troll here, apologies if it come off that way. 6am no sleep.
sometimes companies ditch things when their customers aren’t ready, but people adapt. And sometimes, “New Coke”. Then the market has to scramble to recover with the customer.
This time? Dunno. No 8 ball. But this move feels way more “big announcement” and “we’re Apple, we lead, you follow” than tech driven - to my very uninformed mind. Am not a blogger or journalist or engineer. Just peon gut reaction.
Tubes went away. Future was transistors. Oh. Wait.
Anyway.
Fanboy giphy was not intended as j’accuse! We tease here. Apologies.
PS glad u r multi-platform.
How’d you like the Note 7? Thought about it. Decided to wait for incentives and consider later. Am holding an irrational anti-Samsung grudge over 3 Note 4’s w bad motherboards, each a warranty replacement to the prev one.
@f00l I love(d) my N7. It was hands down the best smartphone I’ve owned to date. It wasn’t just it had a lot of power and storage, but it was the little things. We have a nice SUHD tv. I can sit in another room (wi-fi direct range dependent) and watch the TV on my phone. The TV can be off, and I have full access to my tv on my phone. Not talking about pushing content to my tv from my phone using mirroring, but actually watching tv and apps on my phone. I know that’s not a critical feature, but it’s part of the awesome feature suite that makes up the Note7.
I was coming off of an old S4, which popcorn’d batteries routinely, to the point Verizon “reclassified” batteries as accessories… yeah, cause something that is mandatory to the functionality of the device is an accessory… That allowed them to just stop covering the failures under warranty. good ole verizon… Anywho, the Note7 is nothing like that POS s4. My N7 worked so well, and was such a good size, I ended up barely using my iPad Air the entire time I had it. Granted, the N7’s portable firestarter was not what I’d call an enhancement, the phone worked great. I’m sitting on an S7 now, and it’s by far as bad, or maybe worse actually, than my S4 was. But that’s all the local store had… no Edges or Actives, both of which i’ve used and loved using. The return of physical buttons and the larger battery made the S7 active my non-edge recommended phone for older family members. The easy mode IS easy to use. Tactile response when hitting a button makes it elder parent approved.
The Note 7’s incentive of BOGO was really a perk. I went in looking to just buy them outright, and ended up saving over 50% of my expected output just by getting the other phones on BOGO, that I’d already intended to buy. AT&T has not disappointed so far in that regard.
The Stylus which I found totally useless and a feature I’d not use initially, ended up being really handy. Screengrabbing, editing-on-the-fly, and being able to overlay an image from my phone has been quite a boon for me. If I have to step-by-step some instructions, I can do them away from home easier than on my ipad, in most cases.
The Note 7’s TL;DR is that it’s an impressive phone that’s packing a feature rich suite of apps and internals that anyone should be able to use with a varying degree of success and ease.
Besides, the Flashlight is so bright on level 5, they have a warning that it may cause burns. That gave me a hearty chuckle. If anything, the Note 7 is a handy weapon to have on hand. Accosted by youths? Turn on the flashlight and cause mild burns! Overwhelmed, pray to the RNGods for the flame-on mode to engage! Or you can stab them with that stylus… surprised survivalists haven’t made a knife replacement for the thing…yet.
@f00l@DarkHuD Through many years of exposure, my experience is that it is practically Apple corporate policy to integrate newer (better?) connection types and leave the old behind. It may be a bit of a money grab, but I think it’s more that Apple likes to set the standard when it can. Apparently their research says future products will be increasingly wireless. Charging isn’t yet, but probably will be soon
@narfcake Semantics. I didn’t necessarily mean an industry-approved “standard”. We all (?) know the benefits of adopting these component & connection stds, but we also know (?) that the reality is often that a technology solution is a generation or more old before a std can be agreed upon.
Apple is usually in pretty good tune with its customers/market and has long been comfortable with proprietary methods if needed for product/technical/profit improvement.
TL;DR: Apple’s corporate history is full of examples of taking a controversial new direction on decisions such as this. Their success rate is enviable, tho (of course) not perfect
IPhone people really are sheep. It’s kind of crazy. I have an iPhone for work. I personally use an android. They’re both pretty similar. I enjoy both. Removing features is never a good thing. If they took the aux from my Android. No big deal. I have wireless charging already. Here’s the problem… not everyone has a wireless charge station at their house and it’s not the most convenient thing to carry around. An extra cable for headphone use sucks. I’m sure I’d keep track of it but if I HAD to pay $30 to use my headphones because I lost it or it got damaged I’d be pissed. I also love ear buds and not headphones. Not too many bluetooth options out there.
They did this with the 3G my touch android phone. No headphone jack. It BOMBED. You needed an adapter and couldn’t charge the phone while you listened. You lost the adapter, $20 down the drain. Stupid. Also just give us waterproof. I still won’t trust it. Give me a standard micro SD card slot. Give me a removable battery or extra rapid charge cables and blocks. Make the charge port take ANY aftermarket cable… ANY.
Apple always seems to get rid of needed things. For example, dumping drives so you had to buy an external one since most of the world still used (and you still had plenty that you needed access to) the disc, the CD… Sure eventually some of these things were obsolete, but they were still mainstream when apple stopped including them with the computer… and I think they have done that again with the headphone jack and making it impossible to charge and use the jack at the same time.
What I’m hoping for… is that the adapter is not just analog 3.5mm audio, but also optical out similar to how they have it on Mac book Pros… Why I’d want optical out on an iPhone… I’m not sure yet. But I do use my iPhone to run my son’s music in his room… Well I did until Alexa…
@sohmageek I don’t think there’s any chance of that whatsoever… dongle looks too small, and iThings (and even the MacBook) have never had the combined jacks. On the other hand, you know the CCK allows you to connect a standard USB DAC (assuming power requirements are met), right?
I’ve been using Bluetooth headphones for the last year or so with my phone. I don’t miss wired headphones. I won’t be getting the iPhone 7, but that’s because I stick with the two year cycle for my phones.
I’m not a fan-boy and I’m not really a techno-phile in general. But the news of Apple eliminating the headphone jack has been out for months, why was there such a big commotion yesterday. I know yesterday was the “big reveal”, but this was old news.
@DrWorm
When John Sculley left Pepsi - a pretty big and well-known company - to be CEO of Apple (1983-1993 I think), the change in the level of public and press attention made his head spin. He never got used to the passionate and infinite commentary and argument by everyone about every insane rumor or tiny piece of product info. That’s just tech, and specifically Apple. And Apple plays this media craziness like Bobby Fisher played chess.
PS not intended as a comment on Mr Sculley’s time at Apple.
So with the elimination of the headphone jack, that means we’re going to get a lot of Meh deals on wired headphones, right? Can’t wait for those closeout $10 Sennheisers.
No one has acknowledged that wired headphones suck. Which they do. If one has the kind of loot to spend on a new iPhone, I hardly doubt the headphones, wired or no, are a thing. Meh. Who cares?
@NASTYSKINSUIT what kind of wired headphones do you use? Yes a $5 fucking piece of shit wired headphone may suck vs $75 bluetooth. I can guarantee that an equivalently priced wired headphone will beat out wireless everytime. You also don’t need to charge a wired headphone. What the fuck good is a wireless motherfucking headphone if the bitch isn’t charged? It’s about as good as soft dick in a whorehouse.
You can guarantee it? Really? Bluetooth headphones have purpose-built amplifiers in them. My $40 Philips headphones are LOUD – much louder than I could get with wired headphones running off my phone’s amplifier. The amplifiers in most cases are optimized for the drivers in the headphones, while the phone’s amplifier is not. STFU.
@aarond12 so louder is better? Well you bought Phillips- so enough said. So further amplifying an additionally compressed signal is a better option? How about the latency with video that bluetooth experiences? If you purchased the correct wired headphones you would not have a volume issue, but since your only criteria is how loud shit is - have at it! Go ahead and play your Taylor Swift at 150 dB over those sweet Phillips bluetooth headphones bitch.
You really have no idea what you’re talking about, do you? You probably think that headphone amplifiers are for people who want to play music at higher volumes. Do some research. Your name calling isn’t helping your case either.
@aarond12 Those are real headphone amplifiers for wired headphones not the shitty ass ampifier you get on a $40 pair of shitty ass bluetooth phillips headphones. I actually own a headphone amplifier for my wired headphones. I know what headphone amplifiers are used for, unfortunately you’re the one who’s hung up on volume - remember your quote "My $40 Philips headphones are LOUD – much louder than I could get with wired headphones running off my phone’s amplifier. "?
I own many sets of headphones wired and bluetooth- I don’t disagree that bluetooth that has the obvious advantage of being wireless- what I do disagree with is the misconception that they are better than wired. It’s simply not true because you’re adding an additionally compressed signal over what is probably already compressed, there is latency which is a real issue when watching video and the fact that a wireless headphone is of no fucking value if it’s not charged (unless it also has an additional line input- like all my bluetooth headphones do). So why don’t you research first bitch, and then actually understand what you google.
@aarond12
V good Bluetooth headphones cannot touch good wired headphones at the same price point at this time. Just go to a great store and try them. So very no contest that it’s not arguable. Which does not mean v good Bluetooth headphones aren’t wonderful. They can be quite wonderful. I use mine lots. (Sonys and some other ones).
If you wanna listen to music on your phone, wired, you gotta buy exc phones are are optimized for a phone’s power profile.
Most really high end wired phones are made for high end home listening setups at a desk of in a chair, in a audio hobbyist’s home setup, not your iPhone or your note. If you get a set designed ground up for phone profile, and it’s a good wired set, no current Bluetooth can compete at present.
Give a few years, this may change. Bluetooth is way beyond what it was.
I love both wired and unwired. Love my jack, too
PS using any consumer Bluetooth headset I have ever heard (and I’ve put some effort into seeking them out), you can hear the compression, it’s pretty obvious.
This prob doesn’t matter at all to most people. It doesn’t matter to me in many circumstances. Does in some, tho.
@f00l For casual listening or jogging, bluetooth is good enough, but it isn’t quite ready for high fidelity.
Like you said, compression is the biggest factor.
@ELUNO compression is a factor. Add issue with latency (with regards to videos) and the fact that a non charged bluetooth only listening device is fucking worthless if not charged- and you have additional advantages. Don’t get me wrong I love bluetooth also, I just want to maintain the ability in a device to maintain a standard audio output option. Fortunately I’m not an Apple person, but I would hate if Android went this way.
@mydrivec
FWIW I used to listen at 11 all the time as a stupid teenager. Once had 3rd row tix to see Led Zeppelin, and could not even hear well enuf to converse afterwards - we all went to a bar/coffee shop and wrote notes and tried to invent a sign language, drunkenly, afterwards. That concert left my hearing outta whack for weeks. And I kept abusing by ears. And now my hearing sux. Noticeably bad, to me, and to others when there is noticeable background noise.
For all that, the diff in what you can hear between an excellent Bluetooth headset and a wired one is obvious to me. But can be subtle. If you are multitasking you may not care. If you wanna disappear a bit into what you hear, or into a special focused headspace, you may care.
Music is funny. Some stuff I love from years back actually sounds kinda “better” - by which I mean carries emotion better - when played from a shitty source - kinda, you want it to sound like it did on that horrible car radio or that shitty stereo you owned. Too HQ a sound, and you may feel like you’re hearing something tamed into Carnegie Hall as opposed to raw along Route 66 with the windows open. Other music - you put on great wired headphones, and even if your source is an Amazon MP3 and your phone, you are going, “Wow, I didn’t know how great and gorgeous this could be”.
And I can never predict which music I’ll want which way, at which time, at least for rock and street music. With jazz and classical and trad cultural music, better audio is always better.
Note: decent-or-better videos with good soundtracks or audio tracks are always way better with better audio. Shitty sound can push you out of an immersion experience and right into a YouTube jokefest mindset or into thinking about your grocery list while the movie goes along. Great audio does the opposite - takes you fully into what otherwise might have been only a kinda-good film.
$159 for AirPods that don’t sound as good as wired headphones, and that will fall out of your ear and get lost on the first long run you do with them? Horrible idea, but pretty typical for Apple arrogance.
@Santannaclaus they still haven’t given specs… but rumor has it that even if it uses bluetooth as the wireless connection that when they are used with compatible apple products it will produce a lossless audio stream (basically apples version of aptx) and when used with non apple lossless compatible (aka any bluetooth device) it will fall back to good ol’ music mangling bluetooth
I hope that Android does this too. Ive been using blue tooth only headsets for over 2 years now and I have found that the headphone jack is nothing but problems. If water gets in it it bugs out and sometimes when the wire gets ripped out it can damage the headset jack.
@NarrowMinded I agree…if you knew how often I ripped my earbuds out working around the house you would laugh. Like popping your ears every time! I’d pay double for these easy. Though I probably will because I lose my wired earbuds all the time.
@mydrivec you realize that just because your phone has a 3.5mm jack, it doesn’t imply you have to use it all the time dhampir. I would assume whatever lovely phone you have still bluetooth capability. If you’re working out, wireless would obviously be a better option, alternatively when you’re at home watching your Nyan Cat videos, you would clearly favor the wired option- because it would be a travasty if the audio didn’t sync properly during the best part. Additionally you could watch those marathon intellectual TED Talk sessions without worry that you may deplete the battery on your bluetooth device.
@mydrivec Yeah- I’m somewhat abrasive. But if you can see through it - you’ll realize that the intent of my discussion is spot on in accuracy. So judge as you will because you are much less vile, yet still a magician
@RiotDemon it truly makes my day to stop enjoying the forums and pop over to wipe up that kind of mess. Especially when we’re all supposed to be old enough to wipe our own. smh.
@f00l you’re such a kiss ass. Basically you reiterated everything I said in the above exchange yet put it in pussified terms. I need to find a forum where people have a nutsack and a sense of humor. You fucked up woot and now you’re fucking up meh. Go ahead thumperchick and edit the shit. Its no fun anymore. My shit was way funnier.
@f00l I can’t really picture you as Led Zeppelin type, you’re more a cross between Journey and Menudo. So how do Steve Perrys vocals sound cranked up at 11? That’s what really did your hearing in. Hey, don’t stop believin.
@gak0090
I’m sure everyone here can as intuit each other’s musical tastes from our posts at this site, at least as accurately as you seem to be able to intuit mine. Again, thanks.
@f00l “as intuit”- who talks like that? But yes- I can aptly determine your musical taste based solely on your posts…wait I’m getting a sense of REO Speedwagon with a touch of Wham! now. Your welcome by the way
@f00l Alright Keith Richards while technically not the best guitarist, a great songwriter (along with Jagger). Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil definitely in top 50 songs of all time.
Removing features from electronics is not a feature. They probably figured they could save $0.10 on each phone by not adding it, and make $100 from every 4th customer selling them the airbuds or whatever the fuck they’re called
I don’t buy Apple products, because I feel like, most of the time, you’re paying extra for last years (or 3 years ago’s) technology in a shiny new case – not really my thing
@capguncowboy its true, take the iPad pro ads… You can write on it with a stylus, it’s got a fold away keyboard… Ooo ahhh if this were 2012. They do have a way of refining the technology they are copying, and there is a certain elegance in that.
What I use is old and I’m not going to be upgrading any time soon. So I couldn’t care less.
@ninjaemilee +1 for the correct use of couldn’t care less.
What, theres no “this is an annoying cash grab by apple get more money from users for special lightning cable headphones” option?
@MrGlass I thought the same thing, man.
@MrGlass The only complainers are cheapskates who sold their sister to the drug cartels for a used 5S. Get a job.
@MrGlass If they truly wanted the cash grab they wouldn’t be including a lightning to 3.5 adaptor. They’d make you buy it.
@cinoclav
Failure to include the adapter wouldn’t cause a buying spree, it would cause a boycott spree. Apple understands the concept of “a bridge too far” perfectly well. They are pushing the market exactly as far as they can, or that’s what they hope, anyway.
The adapter included is a bit of a tease. They want a buncha people who want corded headphones to wind up over time with iPhone specific headphones. The change is likely intended to accomplish several things: to slowly, over time, to incentivize staying in that universe a little bit more with users - among other goals such as “big announcement syndrome” and “because we can: we’re Apple”.
The tech justification for this is weak weak weak, at least at this time. This is a marketing tool and a power move - Apple removes a feature, and people in the Apple universe may bitch, but they can adapt, and many of them will follow. Customers are tied in - they don’t wanna switch to android or elsewhere, because the switch might be a PITA, or they’d have to learn a new system, or they hate Google, or love Apple, or whatever. And Inertia. And so many or most customers will likely stay. And then Apple’s got hold of them just a little bit more completely.
If there were no Appleverse of customers who would likely never leave, there would be zero other arguments for removing the jack.
@f00l my brother gets his phones from work. He goes through 1-2 a year because they’re always breaking. He fucking hates the iPhone, but won’t switch because he has so many apps on it. Shame.
@f00l I think you’re reading way too much into this. Not including the adapter wouldn’t cause a boycott spree. It may cause some complaining but if you need a replacement or want additional adapters the damn thing is only $9 from Apple. If you can’t afford $9, you probably can’t afford a new phone. I’m sure third parties will have them for 1/4 the price soon enough. As an aside, I’ve used both Android and iOS and far and away prefer the iOS environment. It’s just way more intuitive. I’m not a fan of Macs and have and always will use PC’s but I’ve been on the iPhone bandwagon for about 5 years now. Every time I pick up an Android phone it’s a reminder that their OS is just way too convoluted. Not to mention, Android phones are notoriously crash prone.
http://bgr.com/2016/05/11/android-vs-iphone-stability-study-q1-2016/
@DrSayre Nothing says “courage” like squeezing your customers for money. This puts Apple in league with our other brave American corporations, like Southwest Airlines and Comcast.
@InnocuousFarmer
Now what has sweet gentle kind generous Comcast ever done to anyone?
@InnocuousFarmer You don’t have to buy an Apple device. It’s not car insurance, it’s not mandatory. The airpods are free as well as the adapter, with the purchase of a new phone. The new line of products have increased standard storage levels, at the same or a lower price.
Where pray tell, are you getting “squeezed”?
@DarkHuD
Some folks feel squeezed by changes they don’t want, perhaps intensely dislike, which force them to adapt or to change devices and platforms in the long run.
People get to bitch. Legit use of “squeezed” to my thinking.
@DarkHuD While the lightning airpods are included, Apple wants you to buy the $159 wireless model. If you want to simultaneously charge your phone and use earbuds (something that current models can easily do) that is your option.
The cynic in me also thinks the reason the “free” adapters are all white (even if the phone is black) is to coax an additional $9 out of consumers to get the black model. No, a consumer doesn’t have to buy the adapter, but under that logic the only company that can put the squeeze on a customer is a utility company.
I don’t think “squeezing” was the motivation here (I honestly think space was the driving factor), but I think Apple is certainly taking advantage of the situation as an opportunity to milk a few extra dollars from consumers.
Full disclaimer: I have not once ever used earphones with my cell phone.
@DarkHuD but… But… Apple doesn’t make good products!! People only buy them because they market them well!
@DarkHuD It’s a bit of semantics, but as long as I am their customer, I face an increasingly annoying and/or expensive removal of functionality over time, relatively speaking.
SSDs cost a whole ton more than HDDs used to, to get a decent amount of storage in a laptop; laptops are all outdated and light on ports; next phone upgrade, I will also have to own 2-3 dongles, or else carry one with me all the time… I’ll at least need one for the car to charge the phone while listening to things. Apple always cuts it close on battery life on the phones, which means I’m constantly charging mine. Haptics are a lousy substitute for buttons.
There’s a ton of low-hanging fruit here that Apple isn’t going to address because of B. aesthetics, and A. their profit per device sold, whatever that metric’s called.
If I stop being their customer, I stop being “squeezed”, but I have different problems with that scenario, primarily privacy-related, and to a lesser extent based in me probably still preferring iOS over Android in spite of the stuff listed above. If I could stand Android, I’d probably no longer be an Apple customer.
@DarkHuD Free!*
*With purchase
@ELUNO That part has been covered at length. It’s not an added fee and is included with the device. There are several options already, and at the end of the day people are either going to get over it, or change devices.
EarPods are not AirPods
Lightning EarPods are included with the phone and are wired with a lightning connector.
AirPods are wireless headphones that will be sold at a later date for $160.
@DarkHuD It is an added fee. Everything in the supply chain factors into the final selling price.
@ELUNO some of you are really reaching here. It’s no more an added fee than any other phone that includes headphones.
@Ignorant Reaching? Reaching is stating otherwise. It is exactly the same added fee as any other phone that includes headphones. I have never claimed only Apple is doing this. If they are in the package it is because you paid for it.
@ELUNO It’s not an added fee. That’s not how pricing works… This thing was going to hit a target price. This is an included part of the phone. It can’t be an added fee, since you’re not getting charged on top of the base price for it. Since you can’t buy a smartphone without the included accessories new from the seller, it cannot be a fee.
The special charge cable/3.5mm adapter that’s sold extra is an optional extra, but again, not a fee. That’s not how fees work.
@DarkHuD That is exactly how pricing works…
In your mind it goes like this… “Oh, how can we make even less profit?! I know! Let’s give them FREE EARBUDS!”
@ELUNO It really isn’t. If these 'pods cost, say, $12 to make, and they didn’t include them, the price of the phone would not be $637 instead of $649. Target prices are set, and then as many Marketable Things are thrown in as possible while still meeting the target price.
@ELUNO That’s not how FEES work. Pricing yes, Fees no.
@ELUNO yes, no one is saying Apple is giving out free headphones to everyone that asks for them.
@Ignorant So they aren’t free…
@brhfl This is a chicken and the egg thing. No company would ever arrive to a point where they just “throw in” added value to meet their “target price.” They already know the estimated price of EVERYTHING that will be included in the package and then set a target price. Not just magically come up with a number and then fuku the package to reach it.
@ELUNO It really isn’t a chicken/egg, and it certainly isn’t magic. Just marketing. Prices are predetermined tidy intervals. There’s the big-ticket item (the phone itself) which essentially sets the intervals. Bundled items boil down to cost vs. value; are you exceeding the target, and/or is the bundle increasing value such that it will push most consumers over the edge.
@ELUNO if that makes you happy.
@Ignorant Making you happy is what makes me happy.
@brhfl The phone itself does not set the whole “interval” as you call it. Everything else in the package can, and will, push up smaller intervals. This “rounding up/interval” gives them some pricing freedom, yes, but every single cent of the included products are projected from the beginning to the end.
@InnocuousFarmer
Consider getting a used by decent android device and messing with it, without activation, over wifi. After you know it and what it can do, you can decide without being trapped.
I use a Windows phone. 3.5mm? SD card? Removable battery? Yep, yep, yep.
Apps … uhhhh …
/crickets
(Maybe if there was a not-seriously-deficient Android phone for under $25, I’d leave the 1%.)
@narfcake ironic since reality TV only exists because the 99% want to leave and join the 1%.
@elimanningface I know!
FWIW, I have a 2nd gen Moto E … which crashes if there are a few too many gifs or video embeds here. So it sucks. Also the 5mp camera is no match to the 640 when it comes to clarity.
@elimanningface
Would I understand what you just said if I watched some reality tv as an educational aid?
@narfcake I actually saw a Windows phone in the wild for the first time a couple weeks ago. I was flabbergasted until I realized I was in Seattle at a Mariners game. Windows phone usage probably goes up exponentially within driving distance of Redmond.
@narfcake
Congrats. You spend, what, roughly $1M a year on catshirts/year and $25 total on a phone over several years, not including service and activation, of course.
Gotta admire priorities.
/giphy priorities
@f00l $1M? Try again!
@narfcake
Ok. Not $1M per year on catshirts.
$100M? Am I getting warm?
Don’t forget, you put up closet pix. And you may have extra, secret closets. I have to factor that possibility in, of course.
@f00l Cold.
The closet pic was from shirt.woot’s 5-year anniversary.
Enh, I was hoping for the dual sim rumor to be true so this iteration of the iPhone is off my radar.
LOL, worst-kept secret ever. Seriously, though, stupid idea doomed to fail. Except it’s Apple and the clones do what they’re told. So huge success!!
Everyone knows you wait for the 2nd iteration of every iPhone.
What if I still don’t have a smartphone & I couldn’t care less?
@serpent was the option Enh, there are more important things to have feelings about not sufficient enough for you?
@elimanningface No. I feel it’s important to let people know, that I don’t have a phone.
@serpent
You don’t have a phone?
You illiterate!
/giphy illiterate
The bigger problem will be you can’t charge your phone and use the headphones at the same time.
@Kidsandliz solved: two hours more battery life.
@Kidsandliz I think they are introducing wireless charging or they will force you to buy an ibatterychargebank
@elimanningface No wireless charging.
@Kidsandliz No no, they will sell you an additional charge-while-you-listen dongle for only $69.99!
@PocketBrain Upvote for using the word dongle.
@melonscoop
The dongles that dangles?
/giphy dangle
@canuk nope not solved if someone decides to start listening 5 min before their battery dies LOL. It is all a plot to get you to spend more money on necessary “add ons”
@Kidsandliz
I think it’s a plot to get people to tell Apple jokes and go on Apple rants.
And a successful one too.
It isn’t just the Apple trying to force people into buying crappy Beats headphones. Lenovo didn’t put one in the Moto Z. The rumour mill says, they are planning to do the same with laptops. I own two Lenovo laptops and one of my work laptops is Lenovo. If they pull the headphone jack, I will get my hardware elsewhere.
@Mehow on a laptop I can see where it’s used more, but again, a usb adapter (sound card/DAC) is all you need…
@sohmageek
Not me. Need more.
@sohmageek Everyone in my office listens to music from their phone while at work. I am fortunate enough to have admin rights on my laptops, but very few in the organization do. They are locked down tight. Many users don’t even have internet access.
As an unofficial gadget lending library, it is just one more thing people will forget at home. And, just like chargers, Apple knows many people are going to want at one for home and one for their bag or office.
There’s a missing option for “stupid idea doomed to succeed, damn it.”
I’m an Android person, but the fact that they’re including an adapter with every device kind of kills the “squeezing the users for money” argument. And if you lose the adapter, that’s on you. Be less forgetful.
@rprebel
Doesn’t kill the argument at all.
/giphy Apple
@rprebel I feel like this is mostly a lot of non-Apple users jumping at the opportunity to be pissed off at Apple. I wouldn’t be supprised if it is only a matter of time before the majority of manufacturers are doing this. It’s the last analog item left, hell, even radio is digital.
@a7xaudiojunkie
All the head-fi people will just cheer for joy?
@f00l I thought that giphy was a deliberate analogy comparing dongles to styluses.
@a7xaudiojunkie I wouldn’t go that far. Headphone jacks are ubiquitous, cheap, (previously) universally compatible, durable, very reliable, less susceptible to interference, not fiddly, and don’t have batteries that need charging. And they sound consistently great (depending on your headphones).
It’s hard for me to see an argument against them–anything that needs fixing–in favor of Apple’s new thing, other than “MFi cash” or “user lock-in” or “accessory revenue from users”, though I’m a little bit suspicious of that last one–doubt it was the primary driver. (I’m deliberately ignoring any reference to aesthetic symmetry. Only Sir Ive would care about that.)
/giphy aluminium
@f00l it’s not a stylus you fool!!! it’s a pencil
@thismyusername
I was hoping it was a bird,
No, a plane,
No, SuperPhone!
/giphy super phone
Doesn’t bother me. I mostly use bluetooth headphones anyway. And both of my cars have bluetooth audio. Water resistance is more important to me than an aux jack.
@FightingMongoos
Wait, they are finally adding water resistance?
@DVDBZN Rated IP67 under IEC standard 60529. But the footnotes say “Liquid damage not covered under warranty”. So whatever that means.
@FightingMongoos The Note 7 is waterproof and has the aux jack. I use the jack for things other than headphones, like plugging into my car stereo that doesn’t have Bluetooth, or my Square Reader. I surely hope that Android doesn’t follow Apple.
It’s a stupid idea, but come on, it won’t fail. Most people don’t care much either way, they’ll just upgrade their phone as usual and use the earbuds in the box.
Personally Apple didn’t sell me on the idea, because I’m not an Apple-only person. I have all kinds of mobile devices and audio gear and they all need to work with the same headphones. I would be using the dongle a lot.
I would really like a less thin, more durable, more repairable phone with much longer battery life, which Apple doesn’t seem interested in doing.
(Side fact: Most of the “normals” I’ve come across today thought that Apple announced that iPhone headphones would now be wireless-only. Thought that was interesting.)
@awk
I wish it would fail a little. Think Apple is being “excellent-design-crass” here.
In a few years, perhaps. Or not. But this feels like “look ma, cause we can”.
@awk Agreed, stupid but not destined for failure. And your point about Apple-only echoes a thought I was having yesterday… they didn’t go into many details on the W1 chip. Is it just souped-up Bluetooth, or something new and proprietary? What would motivate a manufacturer to go with this implementation over Bluetooth, a standard?
Anyway, I don’t like it. No desire to use wireless headphones; if and when I end up with a new phone, I’ll suck it up and use the dongle. Wish this wasn’t the solution, but it’s not the end of the world.
@brhfl
Not pushing anyone here in any direction, but Android is not that hard to use, or, I have been told, to switch to. If you feel trapped, get a used android dev - or a win phone or whatever - don’t activate. Learn to use. Then decide.
Do what you want, but not cause trapped.
@f00l I’ve used Android a lot, and just find it… worse than not having a headphone jack, let’s say. Granted, I know different vendors get to tack on different UIs and all, and I’m sure I haven’t used every incarnation, but all signs point to it just not being my thing. I do like Windows Phone, but I spend far too much time in Lightroom mobile. Anyway, thanks.
It’s an iPhone, it could have half screen and a half physical keyboard on the face and people would line up for it.
/image BlackBerry
@salaosantiago I kinda miss “touch typing” text messages without looking at the phone.
Also, these big wireless beats headphones will be super-easy to steal:
Maybe you could cut off an old-fashioned headphone cord and use it to secure the headphones to your wrist or something… heh.
@awk At the risk of straying off-topic, can somebody explain to me the mass appeal of Beats headphones? I’m not an audiophile and I probably can’t discern a pair of $400 Seinheiser versus a pair that are $1500, but I can hear well enough to know that Beats headphones are positively dreadful. I guess they aren’t that expensive when compared to studio quality models, but $200+ for a pair of earphones where the quality is on par (or possibly worse) than what comes with your phone is ridiculous.
@DrWorm Celebrities, and pumped-up bass. Possibly the price tag and their status as an object of conspicuous consumption.
In the only bright spot, Monster did most of the important engineering for the line before they were out-maneuvered by lawyers. I don’t feel that great about it, but maybe a little.
@DrWorm
They cost double what the ought to costs, at least. Zero subtlety of sound. Nice colors. Caught on in the street, one of the great promo campaigns in history, became “every kid gotta have”. Not terrible, but pure smoke in terms of marketing.
@DrWorm Simple, they have great marketing/advertising.
It’s simple, they followed the Bose path of “Better Sound Through ‘Advertising’”
The solution is simple. Buy an Android phone. Apple’s doing you a favor and nudging you in the right direction.
I also like a phone that is not pwned so easily. I don’t want to give my information to a marketing company (Google). I like my privacy, thank you. I would buy a Windows Phone before an Android. I had one for work, and even its development IDE is terrible.
@aarond12 So you give your marketing info to Apple?
@trinehart http://www.apple.com/privacy/
@aarond12 A comparison of how each collects and handles user information …
https://decentralize.today/apple-vs-google-vs-microsoft-which-company-handles-your-data-better-a7022bd452b1#.mmb98b9dv
(Teal deer: they’re all on par with each other.)
@aarond12
So you give trust to Apple, one of the great original big data innovators, who also don’t fix zero-day iPhone exploits for years unless a news story or techie call-out shames them?
Trust no one. Please.
/image no sir I don’t like it
Eh, it’s just one more step to Apple eventually disappearing up it’s own ass. The money-grab here is encouraging the use of wireless headphones that only have 2-3 years life before the battery goes to shit. The alternative of using the adapter will unfortunately become a faux pas to the younger generations, much like a person using any phone with a physical keyboard today. In the whole scheme of things, the world is still going to turn, even if we run out of lithium…
@AdmiralDave It doesn’t seem like an effective money grab. They’re including Lightning ear buds and an analog adapter for free. A year’s sales of AirPods and additional adapters is going to be less than the rounding error of a month’s iPhone sales. I think they were being honest when Phil Schiller said they wanted that space for other stuff.
@SSteve Yeah, I keep seeing people talk about the cost of the earbuds, when they’re being included with the phone… Like many things, the children need to stop overreacting. Change isn’t a bad word. If anything, the movement of a major device to non-3.5mm might get some more improvements in our wireless functionality of bluetooth and/or alternatives to BT.
I’d imagine most of the people angry at this use a bluetooth headset of some sort anyway.
@DarkHuD
“children need to stop overreacting”.
Is that how you wanted to phrase that?
New iPhone has no headphone jack?
/giphy end of the universe
/giphy new Apple universe
http://appleplugs.com/
Remember when apple changed the iphone’s connector that one time years ago, to a much more efficient and superior-to-all-other-cable-types-of-the-time plug? I wasn’t even an apple user back then, and the “what am I going to do with all this old connector stuff” argument was already grinding my gears. It’s like the apple fanatics thought they deserved to buy accessories once, and use them forever, progress be damned. Stephen Colbert made some offhand remark about it with Tim Cook, and Tim Cook rightly pointed out that was once in a decade… and basically to go pound sand.
The long and the short of it is: if you really need a headphone jack, buy another phone, or an adapter… or get over it. Who wants to use corded headphones and have another exposed port to potentially break the waterproof seal anyway?
@DarkHuD its not waterproof. Samsung has a waterproof phone. Has an audio jack…
@DarkHuD
Who? Someone who purchases Sennheisers or something else really nice that plays well on mobile. Only those can be wasted on an iPhone.
There can actually be more than 1 defensible opinion on this topic. From a consumer’s POV anyway. And yeah those folks can go get some other device. Or wait a really long time without upgrading.
Perhaps they will. Or not. Whatever.
/giphy fanboy
@triplebud It is waterproof, and besides, less potential ports are removing points of failure.
@f00l There’s going to be an adapter anyway. I dunno if I can be called a fanboy since I am (or was until the recall and now have to wait for a replacement) a Note 7 user.
The future is not corded. That’s been shown for decades now. Sennheiser will adapt to this. I love my Sennheisers, and I’m sure they’ll make some awesome wireless headphones in the future once wires aren’t considered the standard connection.
@DarkHuD water and dust resistant. The future IS wireless I agree but why not make the adapters you need until then universal? Or why not keep the headphone jack AND include wireless earbuds? Most cars have aux. Not most cars have bluetooth. “Wireless” is not without its flaws yet…
@triplebud As you said, the future is wireless. At some point, you have to make the leap and remove something that, although popular, is not really a feature that is progressing the phone. There IS going to be an adapter for the phone’s standard charge port.
Heck, I went through this issue years ago on my old HTC Ozone. Moving from a blackberry to the Ozone, I lost my awesome headphone jack. But HTC included this really smart adapter that allowed charging, output, and whatnot from the single port. It was a solution to a problem that was ahead of its’ time.
I would be hard pressed to find a late model or new car that doesn’t support bluetooth AND auxiliary inputs. Tech has to stop supporting old and outdated methods eventually. At some point, your old laptop can’t be supported, you can’t run this game on x86, you have to get a better phone, you must stop using ADSL and get fiber, and so on and so forth. Progress is painful in ways, but it IS progress.
Again, I’m a note 7* user, and I’d have been A-OK losing the auxinput, especially if it meant that I was getting a newer and better bluetooth support.
*was a note 7 user, stuck on a crappy new loaner S7 that can’t hold a charge and actively overheats, burning my hand, to replace a N7 that had no real issues…
@DarkHuD
You’re awfully sure of the direction of tech. Outmoded tech so is so easy to spot. Like the fact that very high end wired headphones are a tiny market segment, but a very fast-growing one. Very very fast. Way faster than iPhone sales, by growth metrics. And Bluetooth does not come close.
Test: Buy the best bluetooth headphones you can find. Then spend equal bux on the best wired phones you can get for the money.
Equivalent? Yeah, like Mercury and Jupiter are both planets - that kinda equivalent. I’m sure someday wireless and wired will be very close. Not today tho.
Don’t mean to troll here, apologies if it come off that way. 6am no sleep.
sometimes companies ditch things when their customers aren’t ready, but people adapt. And sometimes, “New Coke”. Then the market has to scramble to recover with the customer.
This time? Dunno. No 8 ball. But this move feels way more “big announcement” and “we’re Apple, we lead, you follow” than tech driven - to my very uninformed mind. Am not a blogger or journalist or engineer. Just peon gut reaction.
Tubes went away. Future was transistors. Oh. Wait.
Anyway.
Fanboy giphy was not intended as j’accuse! We tease here. Apologies.
PS glad u r multi-platform.
How’d you like the Note 7? Thought about it. Decided to wait for incentives and consider later. Am holding an irrational anti-Samsung grudge over 3 Note 4’s w bad motherboards, each a warranty replacement to the prev one.
/giphy moron posting
@f00l I love(d) my N7. It was hands down the best smartphone I’ve owned to date. It wasn’t just it had a lot of power and storage, but it was the little things. We have a nice SUHD tv. I can sit in another room (wi-fi direct range dependent) and watch the TV on my phone. The TV can be off, and I have full access to my tv on my phone. Not talking about pushing content to my tv from my phone using mirroring, but actually watching tv and apps on my phone. I know that’s not a critical feature, but it’s part of the awesome feature suite that makes up the Note7.
I was coming off of an old S4, which popcorn’d batteries routinely, to the point Verizon “reclassified” batteries as accessories… yeah, cause something that is mandatory to the functionality of the device is an accessory… That allowed them to just stop covering the failures under warranty. good ole verizon… Anywho, the Note7 is nothing like that POS s4. My N7 worked so well, and was such a good size, I ended up barely using my iPad Air the entire time I had it. Granted, the N7’s portable firestarter was not what I’d call an enhancement, the phone worked great. I’m sitting on an S7 now, and it’s by far as bad, or maybe worse actually, than my S4 was. But that’s all the local store had… no Edges or Actives, both of which i’ve used and loved using. The return of physical buttons and the larger battery made the S7 active my non-edge recommended phone for older family members. The easy mode IS easy to use. Tactile response when hitting a button makes it elder parent approved.
The Note 7’s incentive of BOGO was really a perk. I went in looking to just buy them outright, and ended up saving over 50% of my expected output just by getting the other phones on BOGO, that I’d already intended to buy. AT&T has not disappointed so far in that regard.
The Stylus which I found totally useless and a feature I’d not use initially, ended up being really handy. Screengrabbing, editing-on-the-fly, and being able to overlay an image from my phone has been quite a boon for me. If I have to step-by-step some instructions, I can do them away from home easier than on my ipad, in most cases.
The Note 7’s TL;DR is that it’s an impressive phone that’s packing a feature rich suite of apps and internals that anyone should be able to use with a varying degree of success and ease.
Besides, the Flashlight is so bright on level 5, they have a warning that it may cause burns. That gave me a hearty chuckle. If anything, the Note 7 is a handy weapon to have on hand. Accosted by youths? Turn on the flashlight and cause mild burns! Overwhelmed, pray to the RNGods for the flame-on mode to engage! Or you can stab them with that stylus… surprised survivalists haven’t made a knife replacement for the thing…yet.
@DarkHuD
There is s BOGO for Note 7? If so, for which carriers?
Thought I’d checkout what Black Friday offered then decide. Tho have so many phones I should STAHP.
PS. Phone plus butt-warmer/firestarter! And winter is coming! People just must love to bitch. Who wouldn’t want a fireplace in their pocket?
@f00l It was buy a note, get an s7, s7 active, or s7 edge.
Also, that firestarter might be handy, considering…
[1]: ![Winter is Coming][1]
@DarkHuD @f00l Firestarter, you say?
http://gizmodo.com/florida-man-says-his-galaxy-note-7-exploded-and-set-his-1786380524
http://bgr.com/2016/09/07/galaxy-note-7-recall-explosion-house-fire/
@f00l @DarkHuD Through many years of exposure, my experience is that it is practically Apple corporate policy to integrate newer (better?) connection types and leave the old behind. It may be a bit of a money grab, but I think it’s more that Apple likes to set the standard when it can. Apparently their research says future products will be increasingly wireless. Charging isn’t yet, but probably will be soon
@compunaut Set a precedence, perhaps, but not a standard, what with both the 30-pin and Lightning being proprietary designs by Apple.
Other companies do take notice, still, especially with their overall design.
@narfcake Semantics. I didn’t necessarily mean an industry-approved “standard”. We all (?) know the benefits of adopting these component & connection stds, but we also know (?) that the reality is often that a technology solution is a generation or more old before a std can be agreed upon.
Apple is usually in pretty good tune with its customers/market and has long been comfortable with proprietary methods if needed for product/technical/profit improvement.
TL;DR: Apple’s corporate history is full of examples of taking a controversial new direction on decisions such as this. Their success rate is enviable, tho (of course) not perfect
IPhone people really are sheep. It’s kind of crazy. I have an iPhone for work. I personally use an android. They’re both pretty similar. I enjoy both. Removing features is never a good thing. If they took the aux from my Android. No big deal. I have wireless charging already. Here’s the problem… not everyone has a wireless charge station at their house and it’s not the most convenient thing to carry around. An extra cable for headphone use sucks. I’m sure I’d keep track of it but if I HAD to pay $30 to use my headphones because I lost it or it got damaged I’d be pissed. I also love ear buds and not headphones. Not too many bluetooth options out there.
They did this with the 3G my touch android phone. No headphone jack. It BOMBED. You needed an adapter and couldn’t charge the phone while you listened. You lost the adapter, $20 down the drain. Stupid. Also just give us waterproof. I still won’t trust it. Give me a standard micro SD card slot. Give me a removable battery or extra rapid charge cables and blocks. Make the charge port take ANY aftermarket cable… ANY.
@triplebud
Stop Making Sense.
/giphy do not disturb
@triplebud
https://www.google.com/search?q=when+removing+features+is+a+good+thing
@triplebud not sure the lack of headphone jack caused the 3G my touch android phone to bomb…
@canuk at the time it was. They re-released the phone and sales picked RIGHT up
Apple always seems to get rid of needed things. For example, dumping drives so you had to buy an external one since most of the world still used (and you still had plenty that you needed access to) the disc, the CD… Sure eventually some of these things were obsolete, but they were still mainstream when apple stopped including them with the computer… and I think they have done that again with the headphone jack and making it impossible to charge and use the jack at the same time.
What I’m hoping for… is that the adapter is not just analog 3.5mm audio, but also optical out similar to how they have it on Mac book Pros…
Why I’d want optical out on an iPhone… I’m not sure yet. But I do use my iPhone to run my son’s music in his room… Well I did until Alexa…
@sohmageek they used to have this three prong adapter for the mytouch. It had charge, sync and headphone jack. Its was a little pricey at the time.
@sohmageek I don’t think there’s any chance of that whatsoever… dongle looks too small, and iThings (and even the MacBook) have never had the combined jacks. On the other hand, you know the CCK allows you to connect a standard USB DAC (assuming power requirements are met), right?
if it’s waterproof, well, that’s a meh case
@pskemp2
^+
I’ve been using Bluetooth headphones for the last year or so with my phone. I don’t miss wired headphones. I won’t be getting the iPhone 7, but that’s because I stick with the two year cycle for my phones.
I’m not a fan-boy and I’m not really a techno-phile in general. But the news of Apple eliminating the headphone jack has been out for months, why was there such a big commotion yesterday. I know yesterday was the “big reveal”, but this was old news.
@DrWorm
/giphy because Apple
@DrWorm I think it was mostly because people refused to believe such a stupid thing would actually happen, and see fanboys defend it.
@DrWorm
When John Sculley left Pepsi - a pretty big and well-known company - to be CEO of Apple (1983-1993 I think), the change in the level of public and press attention made his head spin. He never got used to the passionate and infinite commentary and argument by everyone about every insane rumor or tiny piece of product info. That’s just tech, and specifically Apple. And Apple plays this media craziness like Bobby Fisher played chess.
PS not intended as a comment on Mr Sculley’s time at Apple.
So with the elimination of the headphone jack, that means we’re going to get a lot of Meh deals on wired headphones, right? Can’t wait for those closeout $10 Sennheisers.
/giphy cheap headphones
@wishlish Post of the day!
No one has acknowledged that wired headphones suck. Which they do. If one has the kind of loot to spend on a new iPhone, I hardly doubt the headphones, wired or no, are a thing. Meh. Who cares?
@NASTYSKINSUIT what kind of wired headphones do you use? Yes a $5 fucking piece of shit wired headphone may suck vs $75 bluetooth. I can guarantee that an equivalently priced wired headphone will beat out wireless everytime. You also don’t need to charge a wired headphone. What the fuck good is a wireless motherfucking headphone if the bitch isn’t charged? It’s about as good as soft dick in a whorehouse.
You can guarantee it? Really? Bluetooth headphones have purpose-built amplifiers in them. My $40 Philips headphones are LOUD – much louder than I could get with wired headphones running off my phone’s amplifier. The amplifiers in most cases are optimized for the drivers in the headphones, while the phone’s amplifier is not. STFU.
@aarond12 so louder is better? Well you bought Phillips- so enough said. So further amplifying an additionally compressed signal is a better option? How about the latency with video that bluetooth experiences? If you purchased the correct wired headphones you would not have a volume issue, but since your only criteria is how loud shit is - have at it! Go ahead and play your Taylor Swift at 150 dB over those sweet Phillips bluetooth headphones bitch.
You really have no idea what you’re talking about, do you? You probably think that headphone amplifiers are for people who want to play music at higher volumes. Do some research. Your name calling isn’t helping your case either.
https://headmania.org/2014/01/03/why-do-i-need-a-headphone-amplifier/
@aarond12 Those are real headphone amplifiers for wired headphones not the shitty ass ampifier you get on a $40 pair of shitty ass bluetooth phillips headphones. I actually own a headphone amplifier for my wired headphones. I know what headphone amplifiers are used for, unfortunately you’re the one who’s hung up on volume - remember your quote "My $40 Philips headphones are LOUD – much louder than I could get with wired headphones running off my phone’s amplifier. "?
I own many sets of headphones wired and bluetooth- I don’t disagree that bluetooth that has the obvious advantage of being wireless- what I do disagree with is the misconception that they are better than wired. It’s simply not true because you’re adding an additionally compressed signal over what is probably already compressed, there is latency which is a real issue when watching video and the fact that a wireless headphone is of no fucking value if it’s not charged (unless it also has an additional line input- like all my bluetooth headphones do). So why don’t you research first bitch, and then actually understand what you google.
@aarond12
V good Bluetooth headphones cannot touch good wired headphones at the same price point at this time. Just go to a great store and try them. So very no contest that it’s not arguable. Which does not mean v good Bluetooth headphones aren’t wonderful. They can be quite wonderful. I use mine lots. (Sonys and some other ones).
If you wanna listen to music on your phone, wired, you gotta buy exc phones are are optimized for a phone’s power profile.
Most really high end wired phones are made for high end home listening setups at a desk of in a chair, in a audio hobbyist’s home setup, not your iPhone or your note. If you get a set designed ground up for phone profile, and it’s a good wired set, no current Bluetooth can compete at present.
Give a few years, this may change. Bluetooth is way beyond what it was.
I love both wired and unwired. Love my jack, too
PS using any consumer Bluetooth headset I have ever heard (and I’ve put some effort into seeking them out), you can hear the compression, it’s pretty obvious.
This prob doesn’t matter at all to most people. It doesn’t matter to me in many circumstances. Does in some, tho.
@f00l For casual listening or jogging, bluetooth is good enough, but it isn’t quite ready for high fidelity.
Like you said, compression is the biggest factor.
@ELUNO You said it…with the amount of hearing loss I probably have from loud music, I can’t tell the difference!
@ELUNO compression is a factor. Add issue with latency (with regards to videos) and the fact that a non charged bluetooth only listening device is fucking worthless if not charged- and you have additional advantages. Don’t get me wrong I love bluetooth also, I just want to maintain the ability in a device to maintain a standard audio output option. Fortunately I’m not an Apple person, but I would hate if Android went this way.
@gak0090 And then they can loose their hearing… you don’t want headphones/earbuds, etc. that loud.
@mydrivec
FWIW I used to listen at 11 all the time as a stupid teenager. Once had 3rd row tix to see Led Zeppelin, and could not even hear well enuf to converse afterwards - we all went to a bar/coffee shop and wrote notes and tried to invent a sign language, drunkenly, afterwards. That concert left my hearing outta whack for weeks. And I kept abusing by ears. And now my hearing sux. Noticeably bad, to me, and to others when there is noticeable background noise.
For all that, the diff in what you can hear between an excellent Bluetooth headset and a wired one is obvious to me. But can be subtle. If you are multitasking you may not care. If you wanna disappear a bit into what you hear, or into a special focused headspace, you may care.
Music is funny. Some stuff I love from years back actually sounds kinda “better” - by which I mean carries emotion better - when played from a shitty source - kinda, you want it to sound like it did on that horrible car radio or that shitty stereo you owned. Too HQ a sound, and you may feel like you’re hearing something tamed into Carnegie Hall as opposed to raw along Route 66 with the windows open. Other music - you put on great wired headphones, and even if your source is an Amazon MP3 and your phone, you are going, “Wow, I didn’t know how great and gorgeous this could be”.
And I can never predict which music I’ll want which way, at which time, at least for rock and street music. With jazz and classical and trad cultural music, better audio is always better.
Note: decent-or-better videos with good soundtracks or audio tracks are always way better with better audio. Shitty sound can push you out of an immersion experience and right into a YouTube jokefest mindset or into thinking about your grocery list while the movie goes along. Great audio does the opposite - takes you fully into what otherwise might have been only a kinda-good film.
$159 for AirPods that don’t sound as good as wired headphones, and that will fall out of your ear and get lost on the first long run you do with them? Horrible idea, but pretty typical for Apple arrogance.
@Santannaclaus
/giphy courageous
@Santannaclaus they still haven’t given specs… but rumor has it that even if it uses bluetooth as the wireless connection that when they are used with compatible apple products it will produce a lossless audio stream (basically apples version of aptx) and when used with non apple lossless compatible (aka any bluetooth device) it will fall back to good ol’ music mangling bluetooth
I hope that Android does this too. Ive been using blue tooth only headsets for over 2 years now and I have found that the headphone jack is nothing but problems. If water gets in it it bugs out and sometimes when the wire gets ripped out it can damage the headset jack.
@NarrowMinded If you haven’t used it in 2 years, how can the wire rip out?
@NarrowMinded I agree…if you knew how often I ripped my earbuds out working around the house you would laugh. Like popping your ears every time! I’d pay double for these easy. Though I probably will because I lose my wired earbuds all the time.
@mydrivec you realize that just because your phone has a 3.5mm jack, it doesn’t imply you have to use it all the time dhampir. I would assume whatever lovely phone you have still bluetooth capability. If you’re working out, wireless would obviously be a better option, alternatively when you’re at home watching your Nyan Cat videos, you would clearly favor the wired option- because it would be a travasty if the audio didn’t sync properly during the best part. Additionally you could watch those marathon intellectual TED Talk sessions without worry that you may deplete the battery on your bluetooth device.
@gak0090 wow. I can honestly say that you are the first vile, head up their ass person I’ve met in here. Truly a delgeth you are.
No need to reply. You’ve been judged based upon your open hatred of the community and your comments.
I pity you.
@mydrivec Yeah- I’m somewhat abrasive. But if you can see through it - you’ll realize that the intent of my discussion is spot on in accuracy. So judge as you will because you are much less vile, yet still a magician
@ThumperChick I think we need some clean up. We have an Amorok over here.
@RiotDemon it truly makes my day to stop enjoying the forums and pop over to wipe up that kind of mess. Especially when we’re all supposed to be old enough to wipe our own. smh.
@Thumperchick I love me some nyan cat.
/giphy nyan cat
/youtube nyan cat 10 hours
@RiotDemon Amarok, spot on… filing that away under ‘things to call trolls that make me chuckle enough to forget the negativity’
@Thumperchick I know others have recognized this, but hot damn your mod style is on point.
@brhfl I didn’t choose that word, so give @ThumperChick the credit!
@RiotDemon Oh, that’s hilarious, I didn’t even… yeah, that’s hilarious.
@brhfl it’s even better when you know the other things that were edited out. (Highlighted by the italic words)
ThumperChick made it all very amusing.
@RiotDemon Yeah, I recognized the rest of it as her work, but somehow that slipped by me. Ultimate punchline.
@Thumperchick
you handle the high-wire beautifully. thx.
@f00l you’re such a kiss ass. Basically you reiterated everything I said in the above exchange yet put it in pussified terms. I need to find a forum where people have a nutsack and a sense of humor. You fucked up woot and now you’re fucking up meh. Go ahead thumperchick and edit the shit. Its no fun anymore. My shit was way funnier.
@gak0090
/giphy bye felicia
@gak0090
I am most honored by your low opinion of my conduct in this instance. Cheers and thanks!
@f00l Darn! I
/giphy missed all the fun
@f00l I can’t really picture you as Led Zeppelin type, you’re more a cross between Journey and Menudo. So how do Steve Perrys vocals sound cranked up at 11? That’s what really did your hearing in. Hey, don’t stop believin.
@gak0090
I’m sure everyone here can as intuit each other’s musical tastes from our posts at this site, at least as accurately as you seem to be able to intuit mine. Again, thanks.
@f00l “as intuit”- who talks like that? But yes- I can aptly determine your musical taste based solely on your posts…wait I’m getting a sense of REO Speedwagon with a touch of Wham! now. Your welcome by the way
@gak0090
You’re awesome. I am content that you believe you know my musical tastes and habits. And thanks.
@f00l Yeah- it’s a gift. Hey- which one was your favorite?
. You’re welcome- once again! 
@gak0090
This one.
@f00l Alright Keith Richards while technically not the best guitarist, a great songwriter (along with Jagger). Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil definitely in top 50 songs of all time.
Windows 10 mobile here. Headphone jack is likely here to stay.
@Stumpy91 I really do enjoy Windows Mobile, if only Adobe would get Lightroom Mobile on there…
Thanks to meh 85% of my headphone usage has switched to portable Bluetooth speakers, or Bluetooth adaptors . Says this android user.
Removing features from electronics is not a feature. They probably figured they could save $0.10 on each phone by not adding it, and make $100 from every 4th customer selling them the airbuds or whatever the fuck they’re called
I don’t buy Apple products, because I feel like, most of the time, you’re paying extra for last years (or 3 years ago’s) technology in a shiny new case – not really my thing
@capguncowboy its true, take the iPad pro ads… You can write on it with a stylus, it’s got a fold away keyboard… Ooo ahhh if this were 2012. They do have a way of refining the technology they are copying, and there is a certain elegance in that.
I want a mobile phone with a 1/4" headphone jack. And make it thin and light, too. Sigh.
@sligett Didn’t you want a 12" screen, a physical keyboard, and gravity defiance technology too?
@narfcake Gravity Defiance
and a mehta-physical keyboard, please. I don’t know why the world doesn’t bow to my wishes.
@sligett with a built in teletransporter
If you need a headphone jack you’re just not part of the market. now scurry along out of the daylight.
@cranky1950
Oh dear.
/giphy scuttling into darkness
