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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

#511

Post by tjoff »

arsenico wrote: post #509
tjoff wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elderly? I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. And that's the issue, these one-off pairings. I had a friend sync with my car bluetooth-stereo, it took a while and from the steering wheel I couldn't be of enough help. But it worked in the end, was quite frustrating though. Then later when I tried to use my phone again it had been lost from the receiver (eventhough…

That is exactly why AirPods are an absolutely superior product.

For one very niche use-case.

No wireless technology is a replacement for the headphone jack. It will probably be decades before we have anything decent (though I'm not hopeful).

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

#512

Post by sneak »

faceplanted wrote: post #407
sneak wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One of the reasons people buy expensive tech is that it comes "batteries included" so to speak, the idea that to do something as simple as use headphones requires making another purchase after you've just spent $1000 is pretty antithetical to that.

Modern headphones are wireless, and, incidentally, literally have batteries included.

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

#513

Post by sneak »

mangecoeur wrote: post #364
sneak wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

It is not universally agreed that an analog, unbalanced headphone jack is a "perfectly good solution".

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

#515

Post by slfnflctd »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #484
sacado2 wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an eldery, and I prefer a jack socket. I just don't get the benefit of bluetooth in most situations. Jacks are more reliable and definitely plug-and-play. Unless it has a physical failure, your jack socket always just works. As you state it, bluetooth requires you to "Turn on Bluetooth on your phone, then turn on your headphones, then hold down the button to pair, etc", for no benefit. Oh, and now you need ba…

And they don't have some of the audio problems the blue tooth and USB have. I am having a lot of trouble with my works laptop /docking station using usb for skype - To the point where I am going to try brining in a real sound card and use one of my Shure dynamic mics with a 1/4 inch jack

Squelchy artifacts in music were noticeable over bluetooth in a 2016 model year rental I drove recently. Sound quality was definitely superior with an aux cable. I will almost certainly never buy a phone without that jack.

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

#516

Post by asaph »

lloeki wrote: post #381
skgoa wrote: 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.

While I mourn the practicality of the embedded jack on my iPhone 8, I've had quite a few headphones in a row whose jack ended up failing due to the way my phone is placed inside my pocket, and a repair was impossible, so that was quite an unexpected improvement to have the adapter possibly fail and be replaced at a very small cost instead of a full headset† going bust. † five actually (100-300€ price range), two of w…

> I've had quite a few headphones in a row whose jack ended up failing due to the way my phone is placed inside my pocket, and a repair was impossible ...

Why don't you change the way you put it in your pocket?

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

#517

Post by omaranto »

sytelus wrote: post #403
yiyus wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One would think Android phone makets would take this as opportunity given the massive uproar. But instead they are absolutely determined to blindly follow Apple off the cliff. Now many major Android phones have not only removed headphone jack but even introduced unnecessary notch even though they don’t have FaceID!! The lack of independent thinking is stunning among leading Android phone makers and very sad thing for…

Aren't you only thinking of a few expensive "flagship" Android phones? I don't think the vast majority of recent Android phones have followed either of those two innovations.

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

#518

Post by Spooky23 »

williamdclt wrote: post #477
simonh wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why is that? Are they too old? Latency. When you're making music and interacting with it directly, you can't afford any noticeable latency. When you're passively listening to it, that doesn't really matter. For phone/tablet users the main place this matters is games, due to their interactive nature.

Reliability, too. I don't trust bluetooth at all . And price: a jack is dumb tech and cheap (cheap anough that I always had about 10 extra jacks of all kinds with me when I was doing a gig). But to be fair, wireless transmitters/receivers do exist for musicians. They don't use bluetooth ofc, but that means that the latency can be bearable with wireless. It's made for live playing though (freedom of movement), no poin…

Reliability is huge.

The bluetooth implementations all suck. My $40k car is about as reliable and predictable from a bluetooth perspective as Chinese knock-off Jawbone copycat from 2007.

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

#519

Post by RandallBrown »

rosser wrote: post #302
skgoa wrote: 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 included adapter only works for listening to audio. If your earbuds offer a mic or inline controls, those don't.

The adapter works just fine with the inline controls on Apple's ear buds.

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

#520

Post by m_fayer »

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 think this is a wonderful point. I have elderly parents who depend on the web and mobile apps for a lot of the logistics of their everyday life, so I see the harm that this causes. The constant forced updates (looking at you, Windows) represent arbitrarily moving goal posts, UX-wise.

Gratuitous animation, new "social/platform" features, notification-spam, new "design languages", and etc. benefit the elderly even less than they benefit the rest of us - rather these things actively hurt them when basic things suddenly become confusing and difficult without warning. We've made digital technology mandatory for most people, and we've made it unnecessarily bewildering for a big subset of them, basically by pretending that all users are youngish, digitally-fluent, time-rich, and open to unasked-for "innovation".

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