When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

Also realized I made another error too: the original Game Boy Advance didn’t include an AC adapter; in fact the Game Boy Advance itself doesn’t even have a barrel connector on it to plug one in in the first place! I misremembered that the AC adapter that I have lying around for my Game Boy Advance didn’t come with it, but actually came from a third-party accessory my parents had ended up buying for me so they could stop wasting money on alkaline batteries (a controller grip similar to this¹ one that plugged into the battery compartment).

Interestingly enough, Nintendo made such an accessory²³⁴ themselves as well (although without the grip part).

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¹ — http://emu.gbxemu.com/reviews/gba_battery_joypad.html

² — https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/gameboyadvance/hoo...

³ — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005B8G0

⁴ — http://ign.com/articles/2001/09/30/game-boy-advance-ac-adapt...

near-0% of the Gameboy's use-cases are audio-centric. I almost always played my Gameboy(s) with the volume down, so as not to annoy parents/siblings/whoever-else-was-around, and the games I played were all perfectly playable. In fact, some of them I enjoyed better that way, given that some sound was annoying, but that's purely subjective.

When I go to the gym, 95% to 100% of what I want to do with my phone is put it in my pocket and listen to music. This is a use-case that requires audio, and so removing the headphone jack would make this entire very-common use-case painful.

When I'm in my car, I want to plug my phone into the aux input (or the "aux cord" as kids call it nowadays) and listen to a podcast or audiobook. My 2006 car does not have bluetooth audio. This use-case is (if I'm being safe and legal while driving!) 100% audio-centric. Removal of the headphone jack would make this painful.

When I'm at work, I have two primary usages for my phone: testing a native app I develop, and playing my music through my headphones. I play music far more often than I test the native app on my phone (I don't usually work on the native app). Removal of the headphone jack would make that primary usage of my phone much much more painful.

I've just described ~65-70% of what I use my phone for. ~65-70% of my phone's entire usage would be made more painful and expensive if I bought a phone that for no real reason omitted a jack that is cheap, ubiquitous, and simple-to-use (compare the 3.5mm jack to HDMI in terms of reliability and simplicity), my phone would lose ~65-70% of its usefulness to me.

Meanwhile, the Gameboy, since its purpose is to play games (which have sound and music that is optional to the experience of playing games), loses near-0% of its usefulness without having a headphone jack, because even if it had no audio output whatsoever (not even speakers), I can still play games without sound.

However, since Apple's focus is unequivocally (and technologically and commercially viably) on wireless headphones, the author does this fact a disservice by burying Apple's counter argument in the middle of the article:

> On the other hand, the GBA SP existed before Bluetooth headphones were a relatively cheap and widespread alternative to the wired standard. And Apple includes both Lightning headphones and a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter in the box with the iPhone, which ought to ease the transition for many.

In short, it is a non-issue.

I definitely had a rechargeable battery pack for my Gameboy Color[1], and at the height of the Pokemon craze, it was an essential investment...

[1] this one, IIRC https://assets.listia.com/photos/8875a4007b0476b501e5/origin...