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

fastcompany.com

361–370 of 741 posts

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

#361
post #265

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…

> they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. My iPhone came with an adapter, though. I continue using the same headphones as I did with my old phone.

The problem with the headphone jack adapter is that it is mutually exclusive with input for the power cable.

Where this is particularly frustrating is when you are on a particularly long conference call and your phone starts to run out of charge. This happened regularly enough for me ditch the iphone.

I'm sure there yet another dongle you can buy to address this shortcoming though.

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

#362

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 the same Apple that got a Louis Braille award[1] for their work in accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, that Apple ?

1. https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/27/apple-honored-wit...

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

#363
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods require neither of these things. The case is always charging them. You want to use your beyerdynamics? Fine. Your phone came with an adapter for them.

"AirPods" also cost about the same as one of my phones (a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 running LineageOS [1]) which comes with a 3.5" jack. With one fell swoop I get a phone which does not phone home (other than through the radio firmware blob of course), which runs for a week on a single charge and connects to all those things with 3.5" jacks which I happen upon, be it headphones or cassette adapters or older car radios with…

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

#364
post #335

While we're whinging about loss of headphone jacks, lets add latency! Apple have always pushed their kit as being friendly for musicians and such. Now try playing an iOS MIDI instrument over bluetooth - with ~200ms delay between you hitting a key and hearing it. Useless and infuriating. So back to the dongle it is. Except of course if you want to charge and listen at the same time (which, you know, tends to happen wh…

The Y-cable that allows charging+headphone simultaneously is widely available for $13 or so. I simply don’t understand why everyone in this narrow use case finds this to be such a monumental hassle.

It is a hassle to add yet another dongle, but more that it's just annoying that we have a perfectly good solution and it got removed, its a step backwards with few clear benefits. It's doubly annoying that Apple is heavily promoting its wireless headphones as the solution, while simultaneously promoting its 'Creatives' cred, and in no way acknowledging that their favored solution just doesn't work for the use case they are promoting.

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

#365
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. My iPhone came with an adapter, though. I continue using the same headphones as I did with my old phone.

The problem with the headphone jack adapter is that it is mutually exclusive with input for the power cable. Where this is particularly frustrating is when you are on a particularly long conference call and your phone starts to run out of charge. This happened regularly enough for me ditch the iphone. I'm sure there yet another dongle you can buy to address this shortcoming though.

we'll get wireless charging at some point (though probably only if it doesn't interfere with 'thinness') and then we'll only have a couple hundred millions devices with that problem....

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's a pain in the ass to have to carry around another fiddly bit of tech gear which should have been completely unnecessary. Yeah, it's petty. But literally no one benefits from the absence of jack (or at least no user), so why inflict even a petty annoyance on some users with nothing gained for it?

I don’t use wired headphones, but I imagine that I would just leave the adapter on them 24/7?

>but I imagine that I would just leave the adapter on them 24/7?

Except people often use same headphone with both - phone and pc, so you will have to remove the adapter anyway.

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

#367

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…

>> Use wireless. In lots of ways it's objectively better

In a lot of ways it isn't. First, as everyone pointed out, there are connectivity issues everywhere, and even when you are able to connect, the audio quality is inferior to what comes through the headphone jack. People have already talked about problems with the other options you listed.

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

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but looking at Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung and recent history, I think it will come down to this: https://xkcd.com/927/ . I'm almost certain that whatever Apple developed for the Airpods will not be shared with other companies. And whatever other companies push forward as a "Standard" will not replace the Apple Solution in the near future. Even replacing apples crappy AFP Network Protocol took 13 years, until SM…

I wouldn't be so sure - it will take years for sure, but industry has many times come up with decent standards in the past - ethernet, USB, PCI, just to give a few examples. Bluetooth as a network protocol also seems to be fine with its latest revisions, it's just the pairing that sucks - if Apple can do it on top of bluetooth I think others should also be able to.

> if Apple can do it on top of bluetooth I think others should also be able to.

they're only "doing it" with their own limited hardware combinations. the experience of pairing any random bluetooth devices even in ios is still mediocre overall.

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

#369
The primary reason I want it back, is because audio though the jack of has usually been of better quality than audio though Bluetooth with another DAC. The difference can be enormous. Therefore it feels as a big downgrade to me.

And don't forget that all these USB C and wireless options are possible without removing the jack at all.

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

#370
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a security point of view, it's really worrying that a lot of users refuse to upgrade software because of the track record of Apple making devices less usable with every upgrade. I prefer the method of Samsung in this case, they clearly state for the monthly update that it is mostly a security update. Where Apple seems to apply marketing by promising 'the best experience yet' and shiny new features with each majo…

> From a security point of view, it's really worrying that a lot of users refuse to upgrade software because of the track record of Apple making devices less usable with every upgrade. A lot of users? iOS has the fastest and widest adoption rate for new releases of any mobile or not OS. Android specifically used to have awful fragmentation issues and phones never updated by the vendor 3 and 4 releases behind. APPLE I…

50% is "a lot of users". Ranting about Android doesn't change that.
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