The 19th Century plug that's still being used • Hacker News Board

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#141

Post by zaroth » Tue, Aug 02, 2016, 1:50 AM UTC

1anh2kqowg wrote: post #93

zaroth wrote: post #19

For me the only thing that would make eliminating the headphone jack worth it is if they put a lightning jack on both ends and made the phone perfectly symmetrical. With literally no top or bottom, no right or wrong way to hold it, and finally a way for my phone to sit in the cup holder with a charge cable coming out the top and maps showing in the right orientation! The trick in making all this work of course is wha…

I agree that two ports would make me a lot less annoyed by the change, especially when you can keep an adapter around for one of the ports. But from experience, designs where the charging and audio ports are on opposing ends are pretty annoying in practice, because the two cords restrict how you can move the phone when it is charging and headphones are in use. Apple stopped doing it that way several years ago.

Your only other choice is a single port on one side. There's no way you get two ports side-by-side on one side. So your point is well taken, but the existing setup of charge and audio together on the same side would be gone no matter what.

I think the choice is eliminate the port and don't allow simple charging while listening without a weird adapter, or else you need two lightning ports.

What will be funny is the power cords which have a 3.5mm jack embedded in them. Take the jack off the phone, move it a couple inches away. It can be made very streamlined, doesn't have to be bulky. The possibility of a good power/jack cable makes me think they won't actually pull off a radical redesign, but I'd be so glad to be proven wrong, just to see something different from Apple.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#142

Post by seanp2k2 » Tue, Aug 02, 2016, 3:22 AM UTC

Fuxy wrote: post #123

entee wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the bluetooth being inferior, I hate that the standard headphone jack is going away. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. That said I've been told that the 3.5mm jack takes up a surprising amount of internal space, and that between freeing up that space and a few other tweaks, getting rid of the jack substantially boosts battery life. Still, I think it's not a great trade-off, now you have to babysit a new…

I just got the One Plus 3 which has the USB3 type C and the 3.5mm jack right next to each other and I have to say the jack is only slightly larger so I don't see the point of replacing it. Oh and it felt too damn thin as it is I was constantly wary I would accidentally bend it or scratch the metal casing so i got a rubberised cover. Now it feels a lot better to hold.

Yeah, that's my personal pet peeve too; if, instead, we had that kind of armor built into the device itself, it could still be pretty thin, durable, have a 2-day battery (which would be a one-day battery at the end of 18 months of daily usage), and fit a 3.5mm jack no problem. Instead we get a super fragile bendable piece of thin aluminum (which is not known for being very rigid in such gauges, especially with so many holes around the edges) and glass, which we are expected to never drop onto a hard surface or get wet. This would be fine if we all lived in the desert away from rocks and bodies of water, but instead, in most first-world countries, we spend the majority of our lives surrounded by hard things and wet things which don't play nicely with these now-ubiquitous devices.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#143

Post by hackaflocka » Tue, Aug 02, 2016, 4:07 AM UTC

copperx wrote: post #104

perilunar wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss hand-cranked windows. Would love to have a dual system so you can easily open the windows with the electric power off, and as a backup. I also miss the old quarter glass vent windows that cars used to have on the front doors.

What were those for? I could never figure it out.

If you angled them right, they would redirect the breeze from outside right on to your face.