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Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

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Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#161

Post by CaptSpify »

trowawee wrote: post #63
SeanBoocock wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested to hear and read about examples of this being tested in the market. Have consumers been presented with a choice between phone thinness and battery life on the otherwise same phone hardware?

http://www.wired.com/2012/04/why-is-htc-choosing-phone-thinn... > According to Kilburn, HTC’s consumer research shows people prefer thin smartphones — between 8 mm and 10 mm thick — as opposed to thicker devices with longer battery life. One data point, but that's what HTC's claiming their customer research shows, and Apple's trends suggest their internal data points the same way.

Maybe I missed it in the article, but it's interesting to me that people aren't give 2 versions of the same device to choose from. That's like saying people prefer the color blue, because they keep buying blue Accords over red Civics.

There's clearly more than the one option going into the choice here.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#162

Post by Grishnakh »

prodmerc wrote: post #133
SeanBoocock wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested to hear and read about examples of this being tested in the market. Have consumers been presented with a choice between phone thinness and battery life on the otherwise same phone hardware?

Well, look at the RAZR Maxx - people still went for the slightly thinner RAZR with half the battery capacity...

Sounds like a good point, however, what was the price differential between the two? If the double-capacity version cost twice as much, then obviously not many people are going to buy it.

I think it'd be interesting to have an experiment where some flagship phone (like the Galaxy S*) is sold in two versions, one with double the battery life but a little thicker (and cases for both sizes are available), at the exact same price, to see which one people really prefer. Personally, I'd certainly go for the double-capacity version, but considering how popular iPhones are, I'm under no illusion that my tastes represent the mainstream.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#163

Post by doktrin »

jccc wrote: post #131
doktrin wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> John Gruber's response Does this guy ever write critically about Apple? I've come across his pieces over the years, and he honestly always comes across like a zealous ideologue.

Yeah, pretty much never: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7013002

As mentioned, I'm not a regular reader of his, so the fact that I've somehow missed 3 pieces of his published 3+ years ago shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

Would you feel less defensive if I just called him a biased partisan instead of using an absolute-sounding word like "ever"?

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#164

Post by TheGirondin »

maccard wrote: post #39
TheGirondin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones have gotten thin enough. I would rather have more battery capacity and more drop/screen durability.

Actions speak louder than words. People continue to say they want more durable phones and longer battery life, but continue to buy thinner and shinier phones.

And then they buy a thick phone case to put it in.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#165

Post by CaptSpify »

rikkus wrote: post #58
xivzgrev wrote: post #42

"Raise your hand if the thing you wanted most from your next phone was either fewer ports or more dongles. I didn’t think so. You wanted better battery life, didn’t you? Everyone just wants better battery life." raises hand to second point Show me a phone battery that lasts a week between charges, and I shall show you my wallet

http://webcusp.com/ulefone-joins-the-6200-mah-battery-club-w... Might not be a whole week, but I'm assuming you'll be buying one?

I'm not who you are replying to but...

If it meets my other requirements (that article seems to be short on details), then yes, I absolutely will buy it.

Unfortunately, buying phones isn't like buying a laptop. I can't choose to the bigger battery option, while leaving all the other specs the same.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#166

Post by Grishnakh »

deelowe wrote: post #105
adrenalinelol wrote: post #6

You aren't forced to buy a new iPhone, better yet the one you have probably doesn't really need to be upgraded at all. Apple will understand you're displeasure if you vote w/your wallet; they won't care about your displeasure if you tweet them or complain in the comments section.

When an industry leader makes decisions that are anti-consumer, other members in the industry have a duty to speak up. Whether we support Apple or not as a consumer is irrelevant. We also don't have to use IE as a browser, windows as an OS, cisco devices for networking, or anything else. That doesn't mean we won't take issue when a market leader makes a decision that will take the industry in a bad direction. Just li…

You have to put your money where your mouth is. If you "call foul" on Apple, but continue sending them your money for their new iPhone sans headphone jack, then you're a hypocrite and Apple has no incentive to listen to your complaints.

IE (6 mainly, that was what everyone was complaining about the most) finally failed not because of people "calling foul" on it, it failed because people abandoned the thing and used alternatives like Firefox and Chrome. When the marketshare for IE finally dried up enough, web designers stopped targeting it, making it even more useless for web browsing, and MS was forced to attempt to make changes. They still haven't caught up.

"Calling foul" on an industry leader is useless, unless you're trying to convince people to abandon that leader and switch to an alternative. You're not going to get the leader to change because it's the "right" thing to do, they'll only change because their profits are in jeopardy. Ditching the headphone jack is the right thing for Apple to do because it'll make them more money: people will buy expensive dongle adapters, or overpriced new Beats headphones. If consumers don't like this, it's their job to not buy the new iPhone, just like Windows users finally wised up and stopped using IE6.

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#167

Post by aianus »

floatrock wrote: post #160
Navarr wrote: post #13

I don't think abandoning the headphone jack is a bad idea. I think abandoning it for lightning is a bad idea. Is apple so desperate for hardware money that there is not a single "open" connector on the iPhone? Why Lightning as opposed to USB-C? Why make it so that people need a completely different set of headphones just for apple devices? (Bluetooth not withstanding)

> Why Lightning as opposed to USB-C? Lightning is not a D-shaped so you avoid the "oh I put it in upside down, no wait, I was right the first time." In that respect, it is the superior design. For power and data. For headphones, I want the ability to charge and listen to something at the same time (eg working at my desk, going on long trips in a car that's more than 2 years old, etc)

> Lightning is not a D-shaped so you avoid the "oh I put it in upside down, no wait, I was right the first time."

What? USB-C is reversible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#168

Post by coldtea »

smt88 wrote: post #89
coldtea wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you know, you wont buy anything. In the future, Bluetooth headphones will be the norm.

I've had Bluetooth headphones for years and still prefer wired headphones unless my phone is charging. BT headphones discharge very quickly, have terrible audio quality, and are somewhat uncomfortable due to the added weight.

Depends on the BT headphones.

I've had 7+ hours of listening (normally don't go around wearing headphones for more than that in a day), and good audio quality with Parrot Zik (and they even use bluetooth 3, and not the lighter on battery and better 4 version).

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#169

Post by Navarr »

floatrock wrote: post #160
Navarr wrote: post #13

I don't think abandoning the headphone jack is a bad idea. I think abandoning it for lightning is a bad idea. Is apple so desperate for hardware money that there is not a single "open" connector on the iPhone? Why Lightning as opposed to USB-C? Why make it so that people need a completely different set of headphones just for apple devices? (Bluetooth not withstanding)

> Why Lightning as opposed to USB-C? Lightning is not a D-shaped so you avoid the "oh I put it in upside down, no wait, I was right the first time." In that respect, it is the superior design. For power and data. For headphones, I want the ability to charge and listen to something at the same time (eg working at my desk, going on long trips in a car that's more than 2 years old, etc)

> you avoid the "oh I put it in upside down, no wait, I was right the first time."

The same is true for USB-C

> For power and data.

The same is true for USB-C

> going on long trips in a car that's more than 2 years old

Lightning has maybe 2 years of existence on USB-C - that's a very small space of tech in-between microUSB and USB-C

Re: Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid

#170

Post by riprowan »

markbao wrote: post #108

Four opinions, going off of this article and partly in response to Gruber's[0]: 1. There was a functional reason that CDs and floppies went out of style: low capacity and the Internet. What’s the functional reason to get rid of analog headphones? It’s not quality – analog headphones have excellent sound quality, and 99% of people won’t be able to tell the difference with ‘digital’ sound, right? 2. So what happens if…

> What’s the functional reason to get rid of analog headphones? It’s not quality – analog headphones have excellent sound quality, and 99% of people won’t be able to tell the difference with ‘digital’ sound, right?

You have it backward - analog headphones are superior, generally speaking.

The signal chain is:

digital source > D/A converter > amplifier > transducer (speaker / headphone)

"Digital headphones" simply move the D/A converter, amplifier, and transducer into the headphone package.

In almost all cases, the higher-quality D/A converter and amplifier will be ones not crammed into your headphones; and the higher-quality transducers are not the ones packaged with a cheap DAC and low-power amplifier into your earbuds. The same holds true for speakers (exception being high-quality powered loudspeakers, still, keep the DACs out of the speakers).

And don't get me started about Bluetooth....

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