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The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

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Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#131

Post by kitsunesoba »

Klathmon wrote: post #62
javajosh wrote: post #32

Isn't this tacitly assuming that Apple will be able to single-handedly eliminate the headphone jack? I think it is quite likely that post-Jobs Apple has finally overstepped it's bounds, and despite it's good qualities the iPhone 7 will be a relative dud. In which case the iPhone 8 will (reluctantly) put the jack back.

I just don't see that happening. To be completely honest, literally 0 of the people I know with iphones have anything other than official Apple headphones. Even when they break, they go into an apple store and buy new ones. There will be lots of complaining, but for most people this won't change anything except the annoyance of not being able to charge while using the headphones without an adapter (which is the only…

Yep. EarPods, for most intents and purposes, are good enough for most people listening to most things. They're not like the old unnamed apple earbuds which were barely even dollar store earbud quality.

Those who use different headphones are largely already using Bluetooth or care enough about sound quality that they bypass their iPhone's DAC and/or amp and use a portable DAC/amp instead.

The remaining affected crowd is relatively small.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#132

Post by calebgilbert »

azinman2 wrote: post #117
exabrial wrote: post #106

Other people getting screwed: Custom IEM wearers. I had a $300 set of Alclair Audio IEMs made so I can use an in-ear audio system on stage while making live music. These use impressions that an audiologist takes of your ear canals for an _exact_ fit that completely seals your ear. There's not a snow-balls chance in hell I would have these be wireless, or a proprietary standard: 1) Latency. Anything over 2ms is not ac…

So use the dongle?

Yeah, use the dongle unless you need to charge it at the same time.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#133

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

otterley wrote: post #99

What about the fact that Apple ships a Lighting-to-3.5mm-stereo-analog adapter in the box ? As far as I can tell, there is no practical difference from the previous scenario, other than that you need to plug in the dongle to make analog recordings. I agree with a lot of what EFF does, but in light of the adapter provided, they're blowing this issue way out of proportion.

They may be providing that for backwards compatibility to ease consumers' transition. That doesn't diminish the concern about DRM.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#134

Post by mixedCase »

azinman2 wrote: post #117
exabrial wrote: post #106

Other people getting screwed: Custom IEM wearers. I had a $300 set of Alclair Audio IEMs made so I can use an in-ear audio system on stage while making live music. These use impressions that an audiologist takes of your ear canals for an _exact_ fit that completely seals your ear. There's not a snow-balls chance in hell I would have these be wireless, or a proprietary standard: 1) Latency. Anything over 2ms is not ac…

So use the dongle?

Hello 2007. https://i.imgur.com/NqxYlb0.jpg

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#135

Post by snerbles »

wfo wrote: post #80
mead5432 wrote: post #20

I understand the argument that forcing content through a proprietary jack opens the door for controlling said content and has huge implications for hardware manufacturers and the way people use their stuff. What I am having a hard time understanding is why is that any different than the OS influencing what gets sent to the 3.5mm jack? It isn't like apps running in iOS had to interact with APIs to do all the other thi…

Apple has been very good at predicting (or perhaps directly causing) the demise of certain technologies: the disk drive, the CD drive, the ethernet port. They removed them much to the chagrin of many a loyal customer, and a few years later they nearly ceased to exist across the entire industry (we're still waiting on the ethernet port to go away but give it time). How many times will it take you forgetting your dongl…

> we're still waiting on the ethernet port to go away but give it time

From some consumer devices, sure. It's not going anywhere in commercial and industrial applications, where wireless networking is often verboten.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#136

Post by cryptoz »

Longhanks wrote: post #129
Yetanfou wrote: post #105

That Apple wants their users to only use 'approved' peripherals with their stuff (i.e. only those from which they get a share of the profits) under the guise of 'user experience' and 'convenience' does not mean the rest of the world will suddenly give up on their analogue headphones. Apple users will be able to buy dongles (which have to be Apple-approved, so Apple will still get their share of the profits leading to…

Except they clearly explained that they had interference problems with the new camera and the analogue jack, which they don't have by using a digital port. Conveniently, lightning was already there. I agree the situation is not optimal, but please, stop this "they so greedy", "this is only for selling adapters" etc. After all, it's apple's product, and if it doesn't appeal to you, don't buy it. As you have stated you…

> and if it doesn't appeal to you, don't buy it

This kind of attitude isn't logical and is in fact extremely dangerous. It's the same argument as "if you don't have anything to hide, why do you mind being spied on by corporations and governments?"

It is entirely reasonable and in fact GOOD that people have strong opinions about things even if they do not personally interact or care about the actual thing. When an increasingly large amount of our society is shaped by Apple or Facebook or Google, their decisions affect everyone, even those not directly using those services or being customers.

Opinions matter. Don't tell people that they should shut up and ignore global implications because they themselves wouldn't buy the product.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#137

Post by cmdrfred »

bitwize wrote: post #103
frandroid wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many times will it take you forgetting your dongle to just pony up and buy the apple approved headphones? Or do like I would do, which is buy an Android phone. I mean they only have 88% market share, how long will _they_ be around?

When Apple removed the floppy drive, CD drive, and ports older than USB, everyone else followed. What do you think is going to happen to Android phones' headphone jacks?

While my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive anymore. It does have a DVD drive and USB ports. Who is this 'everyone'?

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#138

Post by michrassena »

The discussion seems to be easily diverted into one about audio, but I think something that I've not seen in discussion about this issue is the way some app makers have used the analog audio port as a data jack. I've long had the impression this was a workaround that was begrudgingly tolerated by Apple. Though we've all heard about how heavy-handed their app store policies are, so maybe I'm imagining things. But anyway, how does this new port affect the use of those devices and how does it affect future devices? Are there Lightning-only devices in the works, does Lightning allow the same sort of communication that the analog port did?

Plugging the audio jack seems to be Apple closing a loophole. It's not at all different from soldering RAM on motherboards to close the after-market RAM upgrade loophole and force customers to decide at purchase time how they'll use the computer in the future. Either they'll by too-low spec'd machine and have to upgrade sooner, or buy high spec'd and pay more upfront. Either way Apple wins. Their phones don't have card slots but my $50 LG phone does, so it's not a question of capability. When you can add 32GB of storage for $15, that money doesn't go to Apple.

The truly bothersome thing is how in denial people are about Apple's true intentions, or maybe it's simply that they own Apple stock. Apple's a public company, this is profit motivated pure and simple. Whether this move will also coincide with the interests of the customer remains to be seen.

(edit for typos and clarification)

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#139

Post by wfo »

rimantas wrote: post #98
wfo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has been very good at predicting (or perhaps directly causing) the demise of certain technologies: the disk drive, the CD drive, the ethernet port. They removed them much to the chagrin of many a loyal customer, and a few years later they nearly ceased to exist across the entire industry (we're still waiting on the ethernet port to go away but give it time). How many times will it take you forgetting your dongl…

> How many times will it take you forgetting your dongle > to just pony up and buy the apple approved headphones? Uhm, Apple headphones are right there in the box. You get them with your iPhone.

I didn't know that, but that actually makes my case stronger.

Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

#140

Post by [deleted] »

javajosh wrote: post #118
Klathmon wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't see that happening. To be completely honest, literally 0 of the people I know with iphones have anything other than official Apple headphones. Even when they break, they go into an apple store and buy new ones. There will be lots of complaining, but for most people this won't change anything except the annoyance of not being able to charge while using the headphones without an adapter (which is the only…

The headphone industry was generating $2.3B in revenue in 2013 [1], with premium headphones making $1B of that. Needless to say, the world is much larger than your friend group. [1] https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/pr...

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