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When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

arstechnica.com

101–110 of 140 posts

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#101
post #4

If you wanted to replace the headphone jack with your "new thing" the most effective way to do that would have to involve as many audio hardware companies as possible also producing headphones that work with your "new thing". You would want to pre-announce it along with specs and make it an open standard that other companies can utilise without paying royalties. The GBA still wouldn't have had anywhere near enough ma…

> I haven't followed closely enough, but are other accessory manufacturers able to produce headphones for the new iPhone, or is it completely limited to whatever Apple release? I cannot fathom the amount of (legitimate) outrage that would follow Apple's decision to limit audio output to Apple-branded products. Several companies already make Lightning-connected headphones, and you can still connect whichever Bluetooth…

I cannot fathom the thought process behind someone thinking Apple has removed Bluetooth support from the phone.

Just goes to show how ridiculous the outrage and FUD can get sometimes.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#102
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smartphones are really terribly designed to be actually used as a telephone. Personally, I say good riddance. Anything that can be communicated in text, whether email, SMS or other, ought to be. That leaves very little use for telephone, which has all of the disadvantages of synchronous, face-to-face voice communication, with none of the benefits.

> Anything that can be communicated in text, whether email, SMS or other, ought to be. I see you never had a heated argument going on for hours that only started because people were missing your tone of voice.

Eh, telephone doesn't help that much either. Video you can at least get some indications of body language, but on the whole I'd be perfectly content if I never had to make another phone call. Bad connections, constant reverb from garbage mics, people forgetting they are on mute, incomprehensible accents. None of these are problems in text communication, and the signal-to-noise ratio is higher.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#104
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other accessory manufacturers can produce Lightning headphones (what the new iPhone uses, and older ones can use them too) and they are starting to. A quick search reveals a decent selection, although of course tiny in comparison to what's out there with the standard connector. Some of them are in stock right now, which implies that Apple gave them information in advance. A royalty-free open standard probably isn't h…

There were some early Lightning headphones available even before the iPhone 7 announcement. Here are some from 2014: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/10/6130587/fidelio-m2l-lightn...

Neat. I guess I just assumed that the capability was new.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#105

This reminds me of the "feature phone" era in the early 2000s, where every phone had a proprietary charging port, proprietary headphone jack and the removable memory interface was not yet standardized on MicroSD. Thankfully European Union pushed for MicroUSB standardization. While vendors (like Apple) can still get around it by bundling an adapter in European markets, it was enough to push the entire industry to stan…

I have a feature phone with a micro-USB port for charging these days. :)

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#106

The real problem with iPhone 7 is the lack of lossless wireless capabilities, bluetooth does not have enough bandwidth.

What does? WiFi? Also, as far as I understand they use a "wireless lightning" proprietary thing with the new wireless headphones.

I do not know what does, I am just pointing out that I cannot move over to BT as it is right now. I have all my music in ALAC and I am using a great headphone that has no alternative in post iPhone 7 Apple land.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#107

The real problem with iPhone 7 is the lack of lossless wireless capabilities, bluetooth does not have enough bandwidth.

This could be fixed in the iPhone 7s with the introduction of Bluetooth 5.

Indeed, after having that we just need headphones with reasonable battery life.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#108
Many mobile phone manufacturers did the same at some point. Sony used to cell phones with their own propietary sound output and their propietary memory sticks. LG did the same for sound. Then the industry matured with standarized chargers, memory and sound output. But Apple somehow got their own way, sound is just one more thing.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#109
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have 2 MegSafe versions in 10 years (MegSafe was introduced in 2006), the 2nd one was necessary to make slimmer laptops. Same thing with 30-pin connector and lightning. Lightning was before USB-C and it's superior to the old 30-pin connector. Btw, MegSafe is one of the best thing about MacBooks, I'm actually sad they're not using it in the new MacBook.

Oh, I stand corrected! Could have sworn there was more. Completely agree MagSafe is a really good innovation though!

Bear in mind: not invented by Apple. Japanese kitchen appliances (e.g. deep fryers, fondue appliances) have had that type of connector since the late 90s/early 2000s.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#110
post #95

This reminds me of the "feature phone" era in the early 2000s, where every phone had a proprietary charging port, proprietary headphone jack and the removable memory interface was not yet standardized on MicroSD. Thankfully European Union pushed for MicroUSB standardization. While vendors (like Apple) can still get around it by bundling an adapter in European markets, it was enough to push the entire industry to stan…

I doubt it's about price gouging -- Apple makes most of its money selling phones, tablets, and computers, not adapters and accessories. Sure, you could argue that they're trying to lock their customers in by getting them to invest in tons of adapters and accessories that would need to be replaced if they switch to another ecosystem, but I think iOS and the App Store ecosystem are much better at that. Besides, why wou…

So why did they buy Beats Audio?
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