Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 217 posts

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#31

Post by gambiting »

treehau5 wrote: post #10
adrenalinelol wrote: post #6

You aren't forced to buy a new iPhone, better yet the one you have probably doesn't really need to be upgraded at all. Apple will understand you're displeasure if you vote w/your wallet; they won't care about your displeasure if you tweet them or complain in the comments section.

You aren't forced, just coercively "suggested" into it, via updates pushed out by the carrier that inevitably make your phone run slower than a Celeron laptop from the early 2000s

At least you get latest updates, unlike phones from literally any other manufacturer. If it's not the top-range model then you can consider yourself lucky to get even one update before the phone is completely forgotten.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#32

Post by thirdsun »

Navarr wrote: post #13

I don't think abandoning the headphone jack is a bad idea. I think abandoning it for lightning is a bad idea. Is apple so desperate for hardware money that there is not a single "open" connector on the iPhone? Why Lightning as opposed to USB-C? Why make it so that people need a completely different set of headphones just for apple devices? (Bluetooth not withstanding)

Of course you won't buy new headphones. You'll buy adaptors - buying an Apple-specific headphone would be insane in my opinion.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#33

Post by gambiting »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #27
rufius wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet I've got three pair of $300 headphones in my house between my wife and I, two of which are 6+ years old. If you take care of high quality headphones they will last quite along time. Wire wears out? Replace it. Ear pads lost their shape? Replace them. So yaaaay dongles? Which that's even more fun because if I'm listening music for any length of time, there's a portable amp in between the phone and my headphone…

For your phone? Nice to be you. Most of us use the $2 ones we buy at the checkout counter for our phones.

If that's the case, then you should be even more worried because I can guarantee no one will make lightning-compatible headphones that cost $2.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#34

Post by JoeAltmaier »

elthran wrote: post #9
bsimpson wrote: post #5

John Gruber's response ( http://daringfireball.net/2016/06/headphone_jacks_are_the_ne... ): > Should the analog headphone jack remain on our devices forever? If you think so, you can stop reading. What's the advantage to removing the headphone jack? Is the jack some sort of bottleneck to sound quality that nobody noticed until now? I really don't see a benefit in removing the headphone jack, now or anytime in the for…

I think the argument that is made is that it's stopping phones becoming thinner - which looking at the size of the jack on my Nexus 5X, I can believe. However, personally, I'll live with a thicker phone if it means I can have a larger capacity battery, let alone a 3.5mm jack

Any hole in the phone case compromises reliability. Water, dirt, static electricity. Holes are hated by hardware designers. In Apple's case with their stress on look and feel I'm surprised the designers haven't been able to ditch the headphone jack years ago, simply based on "it looks better without the hole".

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#35

Post by IkmoIkmo »

I'd be completely comfortable for replacing it with USB-C. You already have the port, it's an industry standard, it's de facto open to use for anyone. It's smaller, both in terms of thickness (which I don't care much about by now, but I'll grant it's a thing), as well as volume.

What concerns me is that the most popular phone and probably listening device in the world, will move towards a proprietary sound system, fragmenting the headphone and speaker market into two worlds. That just sucks, and it feels like a major nuisance for an entire industry. It's like some worldwide government just created a law half the world or industry must use one standard and the other half the other, it's just shit.

Further, tinfoil-hat time, but I think some sense to this fear. A lot of people have voiced concerns that one can employ all kinds of DRM/licensing tricks, now that there's full control on the i/o. You can for example only allow a certain level of bass on headphones that have a license with Apple. I think these effects will be very limited, but I also think they'll all be tiny steps in the wrong direction we really don't need.

In short, I'd be fine with a new standard, but not the lightning port, and have a substantial concern about a minor (imo) probability that a digital io leads to walled audio gardens.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#37

Post by SloopJon »

rplst8 wrote: post #16
bsimpson wrote: post #5

John Gruber's response ( http://daringfireball.net/2016/06/headphone_jacks_are_the_ne... ): > Should the analog headphone jack remain on our devices forever? If you think so, you can stop reading. What's the advantage to removing the headphone jack? Is the jack some sort of bottleneck to sound quality that nobody noticed until now? I really don't see a benefit in removing the headphone jack, now or anytime in the for…

Comparing the 3.5 mm audio jack to the floppy drive is ridiculous. The jack has become far, far, more ubiquitous than the floppy drive. Additionally, the things that use the jack are often of higher quality and not disposible like a floppy disk was. And this ignores the fact that the floppy disk/drive was technologically usurped by other removable storage formats. The 3.5 mm jack still delivers the absolute best soun…

Yeah, this is amazing apologism, even for Gruber. "And in five years we’ll look at analog headphone jacks the way we look at all the other legacy ports we’ve abandoned." In five years, there are going to a lot of crappy Lightning earbuds in drawers and landfills.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#38

Post by alexnewman »

alexnewman wrote: post #36

I lose my earphone regularly and replace them with 15$ headphones I can get at the drugstore. I guess that means I'm getting off the iPhone .

Do the math 15$ head phone plus 15$ adapter roughly doubled the cost of my habits.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#39

Post by maccard »

TheGirondin wrote: post #24
elthran wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument that is made is that it's stopping phones becoming thinner - which looking at the size of the jack on my Nexus 5X, I can believe. However, personally, I'll live with a thicker phone if it means I can have a larger capacity battery, let alone a 3.5mm jack

Phones have gotten thin enough. I would rather have more battery capacity and more drop/screen durability.

Actions speak louder than words. People continue to say they want more durable phones and longer battery life, but continue to buy thinner and shinier phones.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#40

Post by wlesieutre »

rplst8 wrote: post #16
bsimpson wrote: post #5

John Gruber's response ( http://daringfireball.net/2016/06/headphone_jacks_are_the_ne... ): > Should the analog headphone jack remain on our devices forever? If you think so, you can stop reading. What's the advantage to removing the headphone jack? Is the jack some sort of bottleneck to sound quality that nobody noticed until now? I really don't see a benefit in removing the headphone jack, now or anytime in the for…

Comparing the 3.5 mm audio jack to the floppy drive is ridiculous. The jack has become far, far, more ubiquitous than the floppy drive. Additionally, the things that use the jack are often of higher quality and not disposible like a floppy disk was. And this ignores the fact that the floppy disk/drive was technologically usurped by other removable storage formats. The 3.5 mm jack still delivers the absolute best soun…

> The 3.5 mm jack still delivers the absolute best sound quality compared to the other options available on a smart phone.

That's only true because the only headphones that exist for smartphones are headphone jack or Bluetooth.

You can build a USB-C or Lightning headset with much higher impedance and use a digital signal to a higher quality DAC than the one built into the phone.

Post reply on HN