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When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

arstechnica.com

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Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#111

Post by nolok »

pmoleri wrote: post #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.

Mobile phone companies didn't "mature" into using the same micro USB charger. The European Union sat them all down at a table and said "you standardize on something you like, or we make a law to force a standard". They agreed, and renewed the agreement yearly.

Few years down the line and Samsung says "I'm not signing this year, because Apple doesn't play ball and use their own cable", and the EU moved on their threat and started process on a law. Don't know if it's finally passed or not.

(the EU original intent was to limit waste, and was triggered by seemingly every single Nokia phone needing its own specific charger)

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#112

Post by saghm »

xuki wrote: post #21
shasheene wrote: post #12

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…

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.

My only gripe with the newer MagSafe variant is that the part that attaches to the actual port comes out much further than the old one, so when I sit with the laptop on my lap and my legs crossed, I always accidentally push it upwards with my left leg just enough that it becomes unplugged, and then I don't notice it's not charging until I get a notification saying my battery is low. I can't imagine anyone else has this problem, but it happens to me several times a week.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#113

Post by chris_wot »

jsmeaton wrote: post #94
chris_wot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pew Research Center said the following in 2015: Fully 97% of smartphone owners used text messaging at least once over the course of the study period, making it the most widely-used basic feature or app; it is also the feature that is used most frequently, as the smartphone owners in this study reported having used text messaging in the past hour in an average of seven surveys (out of a maximum total of 14 across the…

I fear this thread is getting a little long already, but let me point you to the graph in your own link (looking at 18-29 year olds). SMS: 100% Internet: 97% Voice Calls: 93% Looking at those numbers, from an article you provided, could you imagine a fairly large portion of those users using 5 apps on their phone more than they use the phone app? That's the only argument being made here.

We must be looking at different graphs. It shows that text messaging, voice/video calls and email rank amongst the most popular smartphone features.

And sure, if you want to restrict yourself to 18-29 year olds, possibly there is a dropoff on phone calls (though I'm still doubtful). But the market is pretty much larger than that now.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2...

(kind of amusing to see all the Apple fanbois downvoting me to oblivion though - have I made you worried that I might have a point?)

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#114

Post by jonknee »

chris_wot wrote: post #17
elmigranto wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making calls might not even make it to Top 5 things people use iPhone for.

Uh, what?

I don't even have the phone app on the home screen. It would most likely take weeks before I noticed I couldn't make phone calls.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#115

Post by pbhjpbhj »

culturestate wrote: post #8
jfoster wrote: 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…

IIRC from a previous comment here Apple are charging about $5 per lightning connector that a 3rd party makes. They presumably designed it exactly for the purpose of getting money from every sale in "their" product space.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#116

Post by pbhjpbhj »

freehunter wrote: post #101
culturestate wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The thought process would be "Apple want to own the peripherals market for their devices and their fans won't be perturbed by such a buyer hostile approach".

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#117

Post by eriknstr »

kuschku wrote: post #91
eriknstr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It was the first Game Boy to have a backlit screen, which meant I could finally easily sneak and play on it in the night without alerting my parents Actually, there was another Game Boy with backlit screen released much earlier -- just a few months before the Game Boy Color, though only in Japan. I remember said Game Boy because a friend of mine whose father traveled to Japan had brought one such Game Boy back with…

Are you sure the Game Boy Light was Japan-only? I’ve seen at least a handful of them in my childhood here in Germany. Backlit screen, exact same format, etc.

Japan-only just means that there was a marketing and distribution effort by Nintendo there and nowhere else. Third-parties could still have imported the GB Light consoles to places like Germany. Could also be that the GB Light consoles you saw ended up in your area the same way my friend got one -- through family visiting Japan.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#118

Post by striking »

StreamBright wrote: post #107
threeseed wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or you could just buy two pairs instead.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#119

Post by Kiro »

chris_wot wrote: post #113
jsmeaton wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear this thread is getting a little long already, but let me point you to the graph in your own link (looking at 18-29 year olds). SMS: 100% Internet: 97% Voice Calls: 93% Looking at those numbers, from an article you provided, could you imagine a fairly large portion of those users using 5 apps on their phone more than they use the phone app? That's the only argument being made here.

We must be looking at different graphs. It shows that text messaging, voice/video calls and email rank amongst the most popular smartphone features. And sure, if you want to restrict yourself to 18-29 year olds, possibly there is a dropoff on phone calls (though I'm still doubtful). But the market is pretty much larger than that now. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2... (kind of amusing to…

I can't speak for the others but let me list some things I think we usually find in the top 5: Facebook, email, Messenger/WhatsApp/equivalent, Instagram, Snapchat, games, browser etc. The study lumps all those together which is not relevant to this discussion. The point is that people are mainly using their devices as computers, not phones.

Do you disagree with this?

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#120

Post by lh7777 »

moogly wrote: post #110
lh7777 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Beats Music -> Apple Music

Apple does care about its service business revenues, and I think they felt they needed to compete with Spotify, etc. instead of letting others slowly erode iTunes' share. This isn't about lock-in to iDevices -- Apple Music is also available on Windows, Android.

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