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I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

fastcompany.com

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Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#121

Post by _vn5r »

finnthehuman wrote: post #100
mh8h wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like the old headphones can't be used without a headphone jack. The 3.5mm-to-lightning or 3.5mm-to-usb-c dongles are small and relatively cheap. I just keep mine hooked up to my wired headphones.

>I just keep mine hooked up to my wired headphones. This works great, until... You leave the pair of headphones with the dongle behind by mistake and spend the rest of the day frustrated because you have access to a perfectly good pair of headphones but no the dongle. Or you stick to one primary pair of headphones and are frequently taking the dongle on and off making it even easier to misplace or leave behind.

If you’re constantly switching then it may be a good idea to buy another dongle.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#122

Post by oxplot »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #3

The blog ends with the best and most insightful comment: And no human’s life is measurably better since Apple had the “courage” to remove the 3.5 mm jack. But a lot of our lives are just a little worse. The author also points towards active de-standardisation between Android and iOS: "if only there was one universal audio port they both could use" Apple gets an advantage from this with their iron-grip on compatible p…

> And no human’s life is measurably better since Apple had the “courage” to remove the 3.5 mm jack. But a lot of our lives are just a little worse

Good old shortsightedness at play here. No one looks past this year or years to come when faced with changes. Here's what I think, based on history, is happening here:

# Wires are more bad than good for average consumer:

a. Neglected security based on assumption that since it's not wireless, it's immune to eavesdropping (think side-channel attacks). Wireless puts security upfront and center.

b. Cables get lost, break, are not long enough, are not compatible, damage the connectors, bad cables damage the device, cost extra, etc. Wireless doesn't.

c. Cables are cumbersome. They get tangled, you need to remember to carry them, have backups, etc.

d. Cables have short range.

Apple evidently cares quite a bit about user experience. Wires hurt user experience so they want to get rid of them, one by one. You can't push towards superfast, low power and generally more advanced mobile devices and accessories, if the industry has no reason to do so (because everything works and has for the past 50 years).

It's tiring reading every day how someone is upset because their favorite feature is gone because they can't see past their front door.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#123

Post by angry_octet »

wickedOne wrote: post #35

apple ditched the floppy drive with the release of their g3 hardware, the ethernet port with the macbook air (and built in cd/dvd drive), before that they ditched the serial & parallel port, etc. any of us still missing those? needless to say that it kinda sucks when a new device forces you to buy new adapters / peripherals, but in the long run, is this really an issue?

Loss of the ethernet port is a real pain. The cat5 dimensions are awkward for a thin laptop so you can accept it for a machine that does basically nothing locally. But as soon as you have a hundred GB of stuff on your laptop you need to transfer you wish you still had wired ethernet. In fact, 10G. And then you buy a Thunderbolt to 10G dongle. It is brilliant that the new Mac Mini has 10G on-board.

Back in the day serial and parallel were very useful for interfacing to real world machines. Now everyone uses a simple linux board like an rpi, but in the interim it was seriously inconvenient to interface. USB1 is absolute rubbish, USB2 not much better.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#124

Post by jinushaun »

mh8h wrote: post #117
finnthehuman wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I just keep mine hooked up to my wired headphones. This works great, until... You leave the pair of headphones with the dongle behind by mistake and spend the rest of the day frustrated because you have access to a perfectly good pair of headphones but no the dongle. Or you stick to one primary pair of headphones and are frequently taking the dongle on and off making it even easier to misplace or leave behind.

It's not supposed to be perfect. It's just a solution to that problem. Remember when optical drives where removed from laptops? We had to carry an external optical drive. Some times we'd forget it. It was inconvenient. But we survived.

No, “we” did not carry external optical drives. By the time Apple removed them, downloading music and software was already mainstream. Removing the headphone jack is not the same.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#125

Post by addicted »

jamesrcole wrote: post #106
nikofeyn wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but that doesn’t really answer the question of “why remove it?” keeping the audio jack does not prevent the use of wireless headphones. and keeping the audio jack does not really pose a problem.

It does answer it: as I said, it forces quicker uptake of wireless, and thus quicker reduction of cost.

But that argument is justification works for removing any technology, whether superior or not.

If you allow only one technology, it will be cheaper irrespective of whether the disallowed technology is better or not.

This makes Apple’s decision worse. It’s an admission that wireless audio is an inferior technology, and that the only way for it to succeed is by removing the alternative, ans/or making it significantly worse.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#126

Post by lowlevel »

jamesrcole wrote: post #32
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #3

The blog ends with the best and most insightful comment: And no human’s life is measurably better since Apple had the “courage” to remove the 3.5 mm jack. But a lot of our lives are just a little worse. The author also points towards active de-standardisation between Android and iOS: "if only there was one universal audio port they both could use" Apple gets an advantage from this with their iron-grip on compatible p…

Personally, I detest wired headphones. I find they always get caught on things while I'm wearing them, and because of the neck problems I have that's a big issue for me (and as well as that, they'd always get tangled up in my bag, which was a bit of a hassle). So I'm personally glad they've removed the headphone jack, because it will help push wireless into the mass market (and bring down prices) at a faster rate tha…

I personally feel 'cord getting caught is the real motivation behind killing the jack. Every time I've dropped my iPhones since the first one came out, it was because the headphone cable got caught on something and yanked the phone out of my hand or pocket. I am unwilling to use bluetooth as the signal cuts out, batteries are always dead and occasional pairing difficulties. When my iPhone SE dies...(my 9th iPhone) I will likely have to switch to an Android.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#127

Post by jueteng_lord »

It is my strong opinion that Apple's "design courage" is business driven than actual innovation. The reason being is that it was released the same day as the Apple AirPods. A similar comment can be said for Google's "design courage" for the Pixel 2, when on the same day they released the Pixel Buds.

If they were concerned about space and waterproofing, could they have just made a magsafe lightning port instead of a hole taking that amount of space at the bottom?

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#128

Post by addicted »

tempestn wrote: post #119
fingerlocks wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been skeptical about this claim. Apple's own 3.5mm -> lighting dongle is surprising resistant to water (I've spilled coffee on mine and it still works), but I can't find any information of whether the dongle itself is waterproof. I've looked. Also, Samsung made a phone with a waterproof 3.5mm female port. They weren't the first.

Yeah, the 3.5mm port is certainly easier than the USB port to make waterproof. Probably easier than speakers and microphones too.

I don’t know much about this, but from a layman’s perspective I completely agree with you. I find it hard to believe that of all the elements making waterproofing harder, the headphone jack was one of the larger concerns.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#129

Post by labster »

S_A_P wrote: post #74
ddingus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. Digital video had advantages. Despite those, analog still makes some sense, if nothing but fewer resources being needed. Outside some niche uses, digital video really does make general sense. I hear and often agree with analog arguments. I keep analog gear, and in my own hardware projects will stay analog, perhaps also having digital, depending. But, overall? People largely benefit more from digit…

I think you are onto something here. DRM is probably a driver here. if you have an analog signal, you can "pirate"...

Good luck removing the analog signal from sound.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#130

Post by asdff »

wickedOne wrote: post #35

apple ditched the floppy drive with the release of their g3 hardware, the ethernet port with the macbook air (and built in cd/dvd drive), before that they ditched the serial & parallel port, etc. any of us still missing those? needless to say that it kinda sucks when a new device forces you to buy new adapters / peripherals, but in the long run, is this really an issue?

The blutooth headphone is a different device than a regular headphone. They have worse sound quality, which might not be so noticable, but they also have to pair and the wireless connection isn't reliable. The headphones are also another device that needs to be charged and has a battery, and in the case of the AirPods, the battery is in bad shape after a year and the device must be replaced.

In the case of the ports you've mentioned, there were other improved connections to move towards. The blutooth headphone is not improved over the 3.5mm cable unless you are so vehemently opposed to the idea of a cable that you would live with its shortcomings. Market leaders like Apple and Samsung have made investments into this market (beats, for example), and to try and dominate market share are extorting their users into buying extraneous, disposable accessories that aren't an objective improvement of existing standards, all while parading the recycled content of their latest 128gb dual core laptops.

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