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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

#641

Post by tjoff »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #523
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…

> Removing the headphone-jack is akin to removing a fire-alarm system Am I missing something? There's still a headphone port on phones, it's just not dedicated. People can still plug headphones in to their phones right? I'm asking because the tone of these comments makes it seem like new phones have removed the ability to listen to music without bluetooth.

You are missing the fact that lugging an adapter is not a realistic option. I lived the dongle life for almost two years. By the end the darn thing had started glitching on me and you could not buy replacements. I'm lucky it didn't damage the charging port...

Not that it matters, I still didn't have it with me half of the times it turned out I needed it.

I actually considered buying like 10 of them. Now we are talking about 100 USD of the crap and a MASSIVE and daily inconvenience just because the manufacturer decided to save a couple of cents. This shit is just ridiculous.

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

#642

Post by PhasmaFelis »

wl wrote: post #210
astrostl wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'd rather keep the 1/8" to 1/4" adapter on it. Lightning or USB C means now I have two adapters to carry around.

It shouldn't be required either way, but I've occasionally zip-tied two adapters together so I can swap between them quickly.

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

#643

Post by stcredzero »

tjoff wrote: post #423
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…

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…

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.

Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster.

In 2008, Apple introduced iPhone and promised us a future where everything "just works," and where the user and UX are paramount. Taking stock of the last decade, we're basically back to The Inmates are Running the Asylum.

http://a.co/d/59GsyEk

I think it's cyclic. The rejected "IBM guy" in the short sleeved shirt portrayed in the Steve Jobs biopic was once the innovative young turk. Now, the typical mobile and web app developer are that "IBM guy," just with a different set of subcultural aesthetics and a different over elaborated UX language which has left ordinary users behind.

It's very telling that about half the time, I start getting hidden contempt from developers when I give them feedback. They're never wrong. I'm obviously deficient and dim. Never mind that I'm a programmer, and I'm pretty darn good at predicting how fellow engineers think. About half the time, that's where the developer starts from. No questions. No curiosity. It's just like in the old days when the command line was the fancy new easier interface. It's the same as long after GUI interfaces hit a wider public and the public started grousing about computer help desks.

(Directed to the 3rd party reader: Don't be that programmer. Seek not so much to be understood, as to understand.)

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

#644

Post by threeseed »

Natanael_L wrote: post #451
threeseed wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And how practical is it to keep track of yet another adapter?

It's one adapter.

And you can permanently attach it to your headphones.

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

#645

Post by lparry »

nathan_long wrote: post #548
fouc wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward.

> Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward. And sometimes you have to take a step back because someone pushes you. I'm old enough to remember getting a cordless home phone. Being able to walk around the house and talk instead of sitting by the phone jack was awesome. And there was very little downside, because whenever you weren't using the phone, you put it on the cradle and it was charging.…

> If I'm listening to a podcast on my phone, I'm going to have my phone on me. I'm not going to walk away from it because then I couldn't control the playback.

Every set of wireless headphones I’ve owned have let me control play/pause/skip from them, which makes up 95% of the playback controls I ever use. The last 5% I can do from my watch. Roaming about the house listening to stuff without a care where my phone is seems totally normal to me these days. I would never go back to wires now I’ve lived with the benefits of wireless.

FTR I was equally skeptic before I bought some cheap $10 Bluetooth earbuds to try running without wires tugging with every stride, and found myself wanting to use them all the time in spite of their awful sound quality so I bit the bullet and got some decent ones

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

#646

Post by ddingus »

rusk wrote: post #632
ddingus wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding? Go and get that signal. Even if they pot the thing, it would take a day.

You have a different definition of easy from most people I know.

Grew up poor. "Easy" as well as, "do what it takes" do have very different meanings.

To me, a bit of work, perhaps gain a new skill?

Not only easy, but fun, cheap, all that.

What is hard is having to spend or do work just because of a business model. I really dislike all of that. It is visceral.

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

#647

Post by acd »

3.5 Audio jacks are standard, just like the USB charging cable is a standard. Not using 3.5 audio jacks, leads to tremendous amounts of industrial waste in the form of old head phones with proprietary connectors.

I think it would be better if cellphones had both 3.5mm jacks and Bluetooth.

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

#648

Post by tjohns »

falcrist wrote: post #581
Spooky23 wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

WHY is this still the case? I mean, Bluetooth is fundamentally just a communications protocol broadcast with some kind of antenna. Yet I don't have these kinds of issues making wifi or cell service work. Who decided to use such a flaky protocol for audio and such, and then remove the reliable connection?

The problem with Bluetooth is the stack is too complex. Too many application-specific profiles baked directly into the protocol, which in turn need to be dealt with by device manufacturers. Bluetooth basically handles everything from OSI Layer 1 through 6 at the same time. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles

Add to that great complexity at Layer 1, and constantly changing specs. Bluetooth 1, 2, and 4 are all radically different than each other.

Compare with WiFi, which only has to do one thing (Layer 1-2). Cellular is much more complex, but that's why releasing a new phone involves endless rounds of (usually mandatory and very strict) carrier certification.

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

#649

Post by dragonwriter »

threeseed wrote: post #644
Natanael_L wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how practical is it to keep track of yet another adapter?

It's one adapter. And you can permanently attach it to your headphones.

> And you can permanently attach it to your headphones.

I can't permanently attach it to everything I might otherwise plug into my headphone jack, including things that I use occasionally but neither own nor have exclusive control over.

Sure, if I have one set of headphones, and use nothing else with the jack, the “you can permanently attach it” mitigation is, actually, something of a mitigation.

Also, Apple's adapter seems (from reports, including reviews at Apple's site) to either not support inline controls and headset mics consistently and/or to require plugging the adapter into the phone before the headset for some to work. And that's not even going to some cut-price, third-party charge+adaptor device.

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

#650

Post by ArchTypical »

itake wrote: post #376
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.

I think the US gov just decided that Chinese phones are not to be trusted. At least Apple has a small semblance of privacy in China.

> At least Apple has a small semblance of privacy in China.

No, they don't. China doesn't even let AWS operate in China without having all the network traffic filter and land in China. Nothing about the Apple network is different. Still towers in China, still servers in China.

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