Great, so now you can't charge your phone and listen to music at the same time.
Hey man either we increase the size of the exceedingly tiny interfaces we interact with every day in order to get work done or we start to use more dongles. /s
Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#3299% of my complaints about the headphone jack could be solved by manufacturers simply making stronger plugs. Other than that I really don't see a persuasive reason to go through this change - requiring a USB interface will surely make earphones more expensive.
Because you're not a manufacturer.
Think of school kids. Because you can't learn without an ipad, and a classroom of kids watching youtube cartoons instead of learning need earphones or earbuds or they'll all go crazy.
Now instead of selling $5 earbuds that last 3 months until they break or are lost, they parents will shell out $20 every 3 months. Also when the jack is ruined by kids yanking on it, instead of having a 99% usable ipad they'll have an unchargable ipad, leading to even more sales.
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#33If a phone only has one USB-type C connector on it, how will you both charge and listen to music with your headphones with it? Is there going to be two connectors, one at the top and one at the bottom?
Two connectors would be great but I can see more phones supporting wireless charging. I love it on the S6.
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#34"The 3.5mm headphone jack is one of the elder statesmen of the personal tech world, having become ubiquitous with the rise of mp3 players, smartphones, and other mobile devices" - maybe the author is too young to remember that, but I think the "mobile device" that really helped make the 3.5mm headphone jack ubiquitous was the Sony Walkman back in the eighties.
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#35The 3.5mm jack will be very hard to give up. It always works, and (usually) there's no interference / hiss. I find that digital devices are complicated enough that, unless I'm buying well-researched, high quality products, compatibility issues lead to glitches. I still encounter lots of glitches with Bluetooth, so I'm not ready to give up my trusty 3.5mm jack as a reliable fallback. Furthermore, things like sampling…
>I find that digital devices are complicated enough that, unless I'm buying well-researched, high quality products, compatibility issues lead to glitches. I still encounter lots of glitches with Bluetooth, so I'm not ready to give up my trusty 3.5mm jack as a reliable fallback.
That seems like more of a function of wireless vs wired than analog vs digital. Audio over HDMI or optical seems just as reliable as 3.5mm.
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#3699% of my complaints about the headphone jack could be solved by manufacturers simply making stronger plugs. Other than that I really don't see a persuasive reason to go through this change - requiring a USB interface will surely make earphones more expensive.
Because you're not a manufacturer. Think of school kids. Because you can't learn without an ipad, and a classroom of kids watching youtube cartoons instead of learning need earphones or earbuds or they'll all go crazy. Now instead of selling $5 earbuds that last 3 months until they break or are lost, they parents will shell out $20 every 3 months. Also when the jack is ruined by kids yanking on it, instead of having…
Definitely true, it's manufacturer driven.
All which calls to using Android and it's openness in schools. Which didn't take a genius to know in advance.
And now that Google is in bed with the music industry, let's hope they won't shove USB-c down our throats.
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#37The 3.5mm jack will be very hard to give up. It always works, and (usually) there's no interference / hiss. I find that digital devices are complicated enough that, unless I'm buying well-researched, high quality products, compatibility issues lead to glitches. I still encounter lots of glitches with Bluetooth, so I'm not ready to give up my trusty 3.5mm jack as a reliable fallback. Furthermore, things like sampling…
Re interference/hiss, there's actually quite a lot on all of the Raspberry Pi B+ I've tried (5 at this stage).
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#38This is somewhat unrelated, but I find that switching from analog to digital hardware is also forcing consumers to replace their hardware instead of fixing it. Turntables and tape recorders, you could somehow tweak it and it would "work again". It's becoming increasingly difficult with new tech.
I broke countless headphone jacks, and if I was lucky, all I had to do was resolder the pin. Can I still do that if my USB-C headphone plug now comes with a bloody decrypter + sample-rate converter built-in?
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#39The great thing about the 3.5mm and 6.35mm jack is that I can use old hardware that still works great with new headphones. The equipment I spend money on lasts and continues to work as I upgrade individual parts over a long period of time. The consumer wins.
OTOH, you can't argue with their business model! Decades-old standards are meant to be deprecated, especially at the expense of the consumer. /s
Re: Intel wants USB-C to replace the headphone jack
#40With Intel backing this, it's almost doomed for failure. Their track record with most things entertainment related is terrible. Think about all of this various smart home, smart TV, IP TV streaming, media hub things that Intel made splashy announcements on and then flopped. Intel just gets stuff like this wrong.