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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

#621

Post by tjoff »

wulfmann wrote: post #618
tjoff wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? It will only work with that device. It won't work in any car or any other circumstance. Also the pods themselves will not work with any non-apple device. That's an extremely narrow use-case. If that was the only thing people used the headphone jack it wouldn't have been the big travesty that it currently is (and will be for the foreseeable time).

They have a pairing button like any other bluetooth device. They work in my car and on my windows laptop.

My bad, when they were new I was told it wouldn't work on regular devices. Still, it's just another bluetooth headset then.

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

#623

Post by zrobotics »

muse900 wrote: post #414
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 reduce…

>>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

Unfortunately no, it will not. My father would have no conceptual issue operating a smartphone, but he does not have the dexterity required anymore, in fact he has issues just using a keyboard. These things happen with age, accessibility concerns aren't going to dissappear simply because people know how to operate the devices. FWIW, this is a man who knew how to touch-type, but as he has gotten older he is simply less dexterous. There is more to accessibility than just hoping people know how to use the software.

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

#624

Post by ddingus »

majewsky wrote: post #380
labster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck removing the analog signal from sound.

Announcing the Apple-Neuralink partnership! /s

Someone is going to make that happen.

Then the fiction we all read about illegal implants will be reality.

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

#625

Post by rocky1138 »

goldfeld wrote: post #180
rocky1138 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You write like Neil Stephenson. I'd love to subscribe to your newsletter, if you've got one.

OK, since I like to write, have more so lately, have started a newsletter before and was planning to start a similar one soon, I'll bite. Except if Poe's law comes bite me and it wasn't in earnest (checked your comment history and you don't seem to make trashy comments like me), what'd you like to read about in this style? Technology, technological change, society, languages, editors, open source? What periodicity wo…

Anything tech. Your writing style matches very well with things that are frustrating, meaning I think lighthearted rants might be hilarious to read.

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

#626

Post by Frondo »

mcdevilkiller wrote: post #555
Frondo wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do like wireless, for a different kind of reliability: never ever having to worry that I'm going to snap off the plug in my phone, pull the jack off the circuit board from sitting on it wrong, whatever. When I sit down on the train, last thing I want is to sit on my phone wrong and wreck the phone and the headphones at the same time. Moving parts and physical connections are fragile. Wireless connections solve that…

Why are you sitting on your phone, in the first place?

While I'm not the most careful person in the world, I'm also not the most incautious; I think it's probably not an uncommon experience for people who do regularly ride trains--e.g. those of us living in big cities where you commute by train instead of your car--that you sit and you realize you're sitting on your coat in an odd way that's got your phone in the pocket underneath you where you're sitting.

I mean, at some level, come on and use your imagination. People riding the metro don't always have total control over getting their belongings situated properly when the train's packed and there's a lot of bustling around. I assure you this experience is not unique to me.

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

#627

Post by kevincrane »

nerdwaller wrote: post #534
kevincrane wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anecdotally, dropping the headphone jack (and similarly adding the Touch Bar) has negatively impacted 0% of non-developers I’ve talked to about both. How does removing the headphone benefit users? Also how does being a developer affect how one would listen to music on a phone?

Lacking negative impacts doesn’t imply that there’s benefit, my anecdata seems to be mostly neutral. The only thing that being developer hints at here is often that group is often more techie and either would be on wireless or have very strong opinions about their listening setup. But the same is likely true for audiophiles (likely skewing toward the 3.5mm). For what it’s worth, I’m not arguing for the jack to be gon…

The point about developers is probably fair (I don't think I necessarily agree with it, but we're an insular enough group that it might not be inaccurate).

The headphone jack issue just seems like a solution in search of a problem. No one was complaining about headphone jacks before, so in a very best case scenario there is no positive impact (you already have bluetooth headphones, you don't mind dongles, etc), but in a worst case scenario they made life measurably worse for users (you don't own bluetooth headphones, you don't want to have to deal with dongles, EarPods are super expensive for headphones; all of these are issues which disproportionately affect the less well-off of people who can't afford the headphone upgrades, which techies tend to not be).

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

#628

Post by apostacy »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #188
apostacy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another "courageous" thing that Apple did was release a computer in 1983 without any fans, which was extremely heavy because it had a giant heat sink, and would still overheat constantly.[1] And yes, this was apparently Steve Job's idea, as he felt that fans were "too noisy and inelegant". I imagine that he felt that fans were holding humanity back, and smugly told people who disagreed that they were clinging to obso…

> Of course, if today Apple decided that fans were obsolete again If? Apple's recent laptops have been notoriously undercooled, and the processors can only run near full speed for a brief moment. The only difference is that they throttle instead of self-damaging.

That's awful. Of course the pattern repeats: Apple deprecates something that shouldn't be deprecated, and offers a barely adequate replacement. Competitors copy Apple and also deprecate the feature, but their replacements are even worse.

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

#629

Post by rhinoceraptor »

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.

There's still a dance you have to do when you want to change between devices. For example, I want to switch between listening to a podcast on my iPhone to watching a show on my iPad. You'd think that would be quick and easy but it still takes 10-20 seconds.

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

#630

Post by nerdwaller »

kevincrane wrote: post #627
nerdwaller wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lacking negative impacts doesn’t imply that there’s benefit, my anecdata seems to be mostly neutral. The only thing that being developer hints at here is often that group is often more techie and either would be on wireless or have very strong opinions about their listening setup. But the same is likely true for audiophiles (likely skewing toward the 3.5mm). For what it’s worth, I’m not arguing for the jack to be gon…

The point about developers is probably fair (I don't think I necessarily agree with it, but we're an insular enough group that it might not be inaccurate). The headphone jack issue just seems like a solution in search of a problem. No one was complaining about headphone jacks before, so in a very best case scenario there is no positive impact (you already have bluetooth headphones, you don't mind dongles, etc), but i…

> The headphone jack issue just seems like a solution in search of a problem.

Agreed, removing it doesn't seem like it really gained anything. It was neutral at best and likely negative on the average, perhaps my smaller network that has discussed it just isn't negative and decided to not say anything at all.

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