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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

#411

Post by DanBC »

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.

Speakers and microphones just need a bit of gore tex. These are off the shelf parts, and companies like Apple etc can easily spec their own.

https://www.gore.com/products/categories/venting?view=portab...

I agree that it's also really easy to make 3.5 mm jack sockets waterproof.

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

#412

Post by thanatropism »

yiyus wrote: post #340
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…

There is a good supply of Chinese phones that include a headphone jack. If the iPhone is a product you don't like, just buy another phone. It will be cheaper and will do the same and probably more. It may take a while to get used to a different OS, but I've seen my parents switching between iPhone and Android without problems so I don't think your father (about the same age) will have more difficulties.

I'm preparing to jump ship. I think my phone has 18-24 months left in it, but I'm already refraining from getting locked in into iOS-only apps, even though (e.g.) I just discovered Omni products which seem, forgive my french, amazeballs.

The problem is that App Store performance is a much noisier feedback channel back to Cupertino.

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

#413

Post by simonh »

sytelus wrote: post #393
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…

I am also very strongly against having 2.4GHz Bluetooth radiation wrapped right around my head. There is a good chance this doesn’t matter but some chance that it does. No one knows. I refuse to be forced guinea pig in this wireless headset experiment.

Do you not use mobile phones against your ear either? Bluetooth earphones are mostly receivers and are several orders of magnitude lower power than a mobile phone transmitter. In fact they're a lot lower power than most domestic landline walk-about DECT phone handsets.

Where does the force come from? Are you required to use this kit for your job?

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

#414

Post by muse900 »

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…

Personally I feel like makers saw an opportunity on 1) boost sales on new headphones 2) get rid of the cable hanging around. I can understand and feel your fathers frustration trying to use wireless headphones, on the other side if they never ever get rid of the headphone jack then users are going to end up never getting trained on how to use wireless headphones. Generally with leaps in tech there are leaps in reduced accessibility for older people, and with how fast tech is changing I can’t see the current older generation getting more familiar with tech. Although give it a generation more and people that are currently 40 will be able to adapt new tech much easier and accessibility is going to be much less of an issue for the foreseen future.

Also at the end of the day I think there are adaptors that convert the jack into whatever port your phone has. I know it’s not ideal as you get more pieces to carry around and you might lose them but again there is a solution.

Also I have to state the fact that I was highly against not having a headphone jack as I own several pairs of good headphones with jacks and also I just didn’t like that change. I adapted and tbh I am much happier with Wirless headphones right now and not having those cables around me. Battery life could improve which am sure it will with time and I won’t need to charge them every so often but over all I am admitting that I was mistakenly thinking that wireless headphones and no jack sucks.

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

#415

Post by simonh »

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…

A agree completely, but we're not really moving to a wireless world yet unless we choose to. The default in-the-box solution is still wired headphones.

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

#416

Post by icebraining »

yellowapple wrote: post #238
Cogito wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinness and waterproofing are the two things I've heard that lead to removing the jack. Neither seems insurmountable, but if you want to try and remove as many obstacles as possible in the search of those two things then the headphone jack is apparently one of the simpler ones. Speakers, camera lens, physical buttons, charging, and data transfer are the remaining ones I can think of, and many of those have already b…

Samsung's been shipping waterproof (or at least water-resistant) headphone-jacked phones for years now.

Yeah, I mean it's not like they need to allow air to pass to the interior of the phone. All you need is a couple of exposed metal tabs, no different than the USB/lightning port.

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

#417

Post by whizzkid »

I would definitely understand if we were at a stage where AirPods battery would last half a year but we are not.

Battery-less cable beats wireless 2 hours of talk time quiet easily.

Wireless is the correct path but it was too early to get rid of the working standard without having a better alternative in my opinon.

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

#418

Post by brianmcc »

slig wrote: post #395
brianmcc wrote: post #329

Rather than getting into the ins and outs of why they did it, who misses the jack, who doesn't, why can't we just agree based on the wealth of commentary here and elsewhere that for a significant minority - possibly even a very large minority - this removal represents a disproportionately high impact change? It's like admitting that people are entitled to mourn the removal of the jack is part of a slippery slope towa…

As a owner of a mid range Android phone with a phone jack, I had the same opinion. But now I see there's more to it, the quality of the DAC makes a huge difference.

Interesting - which devices have you found to be good and bad, and how does the difference manifest?

I tend to notice drop offs for sampling bit rate, and can hear the difference with Bluetooth, but I've personally never connected to any device playing decent quality streams/downloads and noticed a difference. Not saying no-one can notice it, just find it interesting I've never done so!

FWIW I listen through some AKG 550s, which I can highly recommend.

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

#419

Post by randomsearch »

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…

Apple devices are shipped with headphones, which plug into the device. Does that circumvent the accessibility issue?

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

#420

Post by [deleted] »

threeseed wrote: post #392
bogomipz wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes you can get a dual charging/headphone adapter for $2.65. I really don't understand people who change entire platforms over such small amounts of money. I know for me personally my investment in apps and content is significantly more than just $2.65.

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