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

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

#351

Post by fyfy18 »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #115
fyfy18 wrote: post #87

When Apple first removed the headphone jack I was a big opponent of what they had done. It didn't affect me personally though, as I had an old laptop and phone both with headphone jacks and no plans to upgrade. Still I was quite vocal about how stupid it was to remove them. At the time I was working at home, and had an old set of Sennheiser headphones with a 3m long cable that I usually used for music. Occasionally I…

Well, I don't like the pushiness of it. Just take how this story dropped off the front page like a brick. If someone slapped me on the butt or head and said "hey there, you look like you really want some nice ice cream", even if I actually were up for ice cream, I would lose my currently existing appetite for ice cream until the memory of that creep has faded. It doesn't matter if someone else accepts being treated t…

> Well, to me that is entirely backwards. Customers are looking for something, but are denied that thing because companies have other "visions" for them

I don't think that is really fair. If I really needed a headphone jack, I could have got a new phone with one, but one of my requirements which was more important than a headphone jack was price, so it was a trade off I was happy to make. Maybe if you want to stay in the Apple ecosystem you are out of luck, but this is the sort of thing Apple has always done (floppy drive, optical drive, soldered ram, battery). If you want to stick with their ecosystem, you should be willing to follow whatever they decide is best - it should be expected from them. You could argue it is wrong, but from a financial perspective it is most definitely working, and many people are still willing to support them.

On a similar note earlier this year I switched (around the same time as I got the Bluetooth headphones) from an Apple laptop to a Thinkpad laptop. I couldn't justify the price increases and limitations Apple has put in-place in a quest for thinness, and the way MacOS seems to be heading. For nearly half the price of a new Macbook Air (the previous gen), I got a new machine which is more powerful, has better battery life, has more ports, is smaller (in area, not thickness) and lighter. For the work I do, Linux provides a much more friendly developer environment than MacOS.

(For me this post is still #6 on the front page)

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

#352

Post by coldtea »

masonic wrote: post #328
pookieinc wrote: post #213

We need to take into account _Accessibility_. A large use case that I've found most people seems to miss are individuals who are older and don't have much experience with bluetooth or wireless technology. I'm fine with Apple removing the headphone jack, but they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. Anecdotal example: I recently purchased headphones for my 65-year old…

It's no coincidence that you never see anybody with a visible disability in any general purpose Apple advertisement -- video or print. Or an overweight person, for that matter.

>It's no coincidence that you never see anybody with a visible disability in any general purpose Apple advertisement -- video or print.

Actually you see several such persons. E.g.:

Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPv9jFWhzGE

WWDC video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgk_Jawzdwk

Also Apple has the greatest accessibility track record (and tons of awards on such matters), and e.g. blind people etc swear by its products (as opposed to at it).

Blind person describing his use of iPhones etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlbIF7IOb_Q

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

#353

Post by dmitriid »

masonic wrote: post #328
pookieinc wrote: post #213

We need to take into account _Accessibility_. A large use case that I've found most people seems to miss are individuals who are older and don't have much experience with bluetooth or wireless technology. I'm fine with Apple removing the headphone jack, but they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. Anecdotal example: I recently purchased headphones for my 65-year old…

It's no coincidence that you never see anybody with a visible disability in any general purpose Apple advertisement -- video or print. Or an overweight person, for that matter.

You mean this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB4cjbYywqg

Or the "Designed for ..." series?

Meera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6zKINudi0

Andrea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoEUsUWihsM

Patrick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whioDJ8doYA

Todd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PoE9tHg_P0

?

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

#354

Post by jamesrcole »

Tade0 wrote: post #345
jamesrcole wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How has removing the headphone jack made anyone's life better? Ancestor comments of this have explained that. Removing headphone jack speeds up uptake of wireless headphones, and greater uptake of them makes them cheaper. These are changes that have already happened. This has benefited people who want to use wireless headphones.

, and greater uptake of them makes them cheaper. Does it really? I haven't noticed any change in price that could be attributed to this and I bought a pair a few weeks ago, so I'm somewhat up to date with the pricing.

Yes. Scale/volume makes things cheaper. And yes, the price has gone down over the last few years. For example, I've seen ones for AU$20 now, which was not the case a few years ago.

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

#355

Post by icebraining »

andai wrote: post #273
goldfeld wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it could be, but I meant like a completely silent sound feeling, there is no sound (well, the microwave oven is noisy, but that bothers me as much as a blabbering TV, which is nearly not as much as this complete screeching silence.) To add to it, it gets 100x more bothersome if I'm within a foot of the oven, whereas being in the same room is still very upsetting and being just outside the doorstep feels more…

I recently bought a $5 pocket AM/FM radio and found that on AM mode (in between radio stations) I could pick up the radiation from every device in my house. When I moved the radio to my balls (phone), and to my bed (neighbors smart TV), it was very loud there. Sounded like demonic screeching. Carry my phone in my backpack now, and moved my bed. Now I just have that smart meter... that one soaks the entire house in a…

Now I just have that smart meter...

The house electrical system emits radio waves, and so do most screens, many lightbulbs, any device with an electric motor (e.g. hairdryers)..

And of course, your house is bathed by radio and TV station broadcasts, cellphone towers, CB radios, and of course, millions of space objects. Like the Sun.

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

#356

Post by SSLy »

ggg9990 wrote: post #286
Izkata wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> another because it makes it more water-resistant. This, at least, doesn't hold at all. My last flip-phone [0] was water-resistant and still had a headphone jack - it just had a rubber cover you had to pull up to reveal it. The charging port was also protected by the same cover. [0] https://www.cnet.com/reviews/samsung-rugby-sgh-a837-review/

I like my headphone jack but I’d rather have none than one of those janky condoms.

My Samsung Galaxy S9 has a IP68 rating (it's water-resistant) and has a mini jack port.

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

#357

Post by einr »

seanhunter wrote: post #341

People just love to find things to complain about. There are a number of great options: 1)Get a different phone or keep your old phone. Noone's forcing you to use one without a headphone jack. You could even use an older iPhone if innovation frightens you in general and you're happy with your old setup 2)Get/use an adapter. THey're not expensive and sometimes come with the phone 3)Get/use headphones with the new styl…

You could even use an older iPhone if innovation frightens you in general

Putting aside your unnecessarily snarky tone, it is not innovation to remove something from a phone. It's just not.

Get/use headphones with the new style of plug.

What, with the proprietary Lightning connector that works with nothing else but an iPad or iPhone? (Not even a Mac! Oh, but there's another dongle for that...)

What if I also have an Android USB-C device that needs another connector, and then since I'm interested in music I also have amps or other portable players that take the standard 3,5 mm plug? I now need buy three pairs of headphones instead of one that works with everything from the past forty years? Is this innovation or is it just marketing garbage to sell people more shit they don't need that will end up in landfills in three years?

In lots of ways it's objectively better.

In lots of ways it's objectively worse.

Bluetooth audio is compressed and objectively worse than uncompressed audio over an analog cable.

Wireless headphones require batteries, which means less flexibility and more mental overhead.

The batteries age and are generally not easily replacable, which contributes to waste. We don't need to make more disposable electronics with lithium batteries that end up in landfills.

Bluetooth introduces latency which makes it entirely unsuitable for musicians.

Also, Bluetooth in 2018 is still janky as hell (susceptible to interference, forgets pairings, etc.) and not nearly as reliable as just plugging a cable into a thing and having it work always and forever. It also drains a non-trivial amount of battery. I usually have Bluetooth switched off because I never use it, and enjoy better battery life as a result.

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

#358

Post by EnderMB »

mark-r wrote: post #37

I'm voting with my wallet. My household will never have a phone that is missing the 3.5mm jack.

That's becoming increasingly more difficult on the Android side, with so many high-end vendors looking to remove the headphone jack too.

Hell, OnePlus ran a campaign eight months ago laughing about others removing the headphone jack, only to remove it six months later on the 6T.

I bought the OnePlus 6 because I wanted a good phone with a close-to-stock OS and a headphone jack. Nowadays, I think you'll struggle to get both, and I think that we're one manufacturer away (Samsung) away from the market joining Apple and Google in getting rid of the jack.

I'll support it for as long as I can, because I use the jack every single day, but I fear that in three years time the high-end market will have left us behind.

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

#359

Post by Tade0 »

jamesrcole wrote: post #354
Tade0 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

, and greater uptake of them makes them cheaper. Does it really? I haven't noticed any change in price that could be attributed to this and I bought a pair a few weeks ago, so I'm somewhat up to date with the pricing.

Yes. Scale/volume makes things cheaper. And yes, the price has gone down over the last few years. For example, I've seen ones for AU$20 now, which was not the case a few years ago.

But that's has been the case for years now - well before this change.

What I'm saying is that I don't see any change that could be attributed specifically to the trend of removing headphone jacks from phones.

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

#360

Post by nikofeyn »

jamesrcole wrote: post #311
ayoisaiah wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's ridiculous to suggest that everything apple does is just a cheap cash grab. What's so ridiculous about it? Have you not seen the rate at which Apple are increasing the prices across all their products? And petty practices like not including the lightening to 3.5mm adapter or fast charger on a $1000+ phone e.t.c.

The person I was replying to said "of course it's a cash grab. that is how apple operates". Increases in the prices of their products hardly equates to everything they are doing being a cash grab. Are their privacy, accessibility or environmental (manufacturing processes, packaging choices, etc) measures all, for example, cash grabs?

i just want to remind you that the original discussion that i initiated was to point out that apple has not given any legitimate reason for removing the audio jack. there is simply no need to remove it. creating a thin or water resistant phone is not an explanation since other manufacturers include the audio jack and have no issues with these features.

your argument is that it helps the wireless headphone market. i don’t think it does in a way that actually matters, but even that doesn’t explain why it was removed in the first place. why does apple care about that market outside of their own sales? the real reason why they removed it is to further increase accessory sales and to market themselves as a design leader, which further sells devices. they have created this mystique that they do and others will follow. unfortunately, that is somewhat the case given other dynamics.

the fact of the matter is that there is zero benefit to the consumer of an iphone for having the audio jack removed. there is benefit to apple’s cash flow by removing it. and here we are.

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