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The 19th Century plug that's still being used

bbc.com

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

#21

Post by c22 »

onion2k wrote: post #15
hackaflocka wrote: post #5

And it works beautifully. When for some reason, my bluetooth headphone's connectivity is acting up (happens often), I can take my wired headphone and plug it in without even looking, knowing that it WILL work. One of my car's electric windows has stopped working. For my next car, I want something where there's a fallback to a mechanical crank (the way car windows used to be).

I'm just old enough to remember cars with mechanical hand cranks to open the windows. You couldn't open the passenger side window if you were driving. It was dangerous to open the driver's side window if there was a lot going on. The rear passenger windows often didn't open at all in cheaper cars. The number of times you'd leave a window open by mistake was far higher because cars didn't alert you about it. I'd much…

I drive a car with hand-cranked windows and I don't have any of those problems, maybe just cause I'm used to it? Did you know you could go out today and buy a 2016 model car with manual window cranks? It's still an option on a lot of vehicles.

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

#22

Post by entee »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #16
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…

> getting rid of the jack substantially boosts battery life Yes, as you say, by moving the power draw for the DAC to another device, which must be charged separately. This isn't a real gain in battery life in any way.

Yeah, I recognize that. It's also extra space to shove battery into. Like I said, I don't think it's a real worthwhile trade-off.

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

#23

Post by Throwaway23412 »

onion2k wrote: post #15
hackaflocka wrote: post #5

And it works beautifully. When for some reason, my bluetooth headphone's connectivity is acting up (happens often), I can take my wired headphone and plug it in without even looking, knowing that it WILL work. One of my car's electric windows has stopped working. For my next car, I want something where there's a fallback to a mechanical crank (the way car windows used to be).

I'm just old enough to remember cars with mechanical hand cranks to open the windows. You couldn't open the passenger side window if you were driving. It was dangerous to open the driver's side window if there was a lot going on. The rear passenger windows often didn't open at all in cheaper cars. The number of times you'd leave a window open by mistake was far higher because cars didn't alert you about it. I'd much…

I agree with everything you said but what cars are you driving that alert you if a window is open?

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

#24

Post by c22 »

Zigurd wrote: post #4

It's not quite 19th c. technology. It was .25 inches, but it had only two conductors, the tip, and the ring, separated by an insulator. Hence the "tip" and "ring" nomenclature for analog telephone wiring. Analog phone technology is remarkably back-compatible. You can use an 80 year old phone today. Not many, if any technology products could claim that level of compatibility. But, so what? Analog phones are going away…

> You can use an 80 year old phone today.

I think it depends on where you are. A lot of lecs only take dtmf signalling these days.

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

#25

Post by c22 »

hackaflocka wrote: post #5

And it works beautifully. When for some reason, my bluetooth headphone's connectivity is acting up (happens often), I can take my wired headphone and plug it in without even looking, knowing that it WILL work. One of my car's electric windows has stopped working. For my next car, I want something where there's a fallback to a mechanical crank (the way car windows used to be).

I've had cranks fail in a variety of ways too. The fix is the same as for the electric ones: open the door panel and repair/replace the failed component.

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

#26

Post by nalllar »

rogerbinns wrote: post #20
raverbashing wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. However: - You have to recharge it - If you forget them at home you can't get a replacement for cheap - Setting up bluetooth is an extra hassle as opposed to just plugging the thing

- Bluetooth audio codecs do lossy real-time re-encoding of the audio, affecting the quality

and usually introducing quite a bit of latency

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

#27

Post by inputjoker »

2 most common phone companies before the iphone era were nokia and sony ericsson.

Before making 3.5 jack mandatory by the GSM association, sony ericsson used proprietary connector for their headphone jack and nokia used 1.5mm jack.

We weren't using 3.5mm jack all the way from the first smartphone and we shouldn't stick to it for the future smartphones.

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

#28

Post by Jaruzel »

rogerbinns wrote: post #20
raverbashing wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. However: - You have to recharge it - If you forget them at home you can't get a replacement for cheap - Setting up bluetooth is an extra hassle as opposed to just plugging the thing

- Bluetooth audio codecs do lossy real-time re-encoding of the audio, affecting the quality

As this is Apple we're talking about - most iPhone users stick with those nasty in-ear buds that come with the phone - it's not like they are going to notice the lossy codec comparatively over the rubbish quality of those buds (or the equally rubbish m4a low bit-rate that iTunes dumps onto the phone). I'll just bet they'll start evangelising about how 'improved' the sound is now that it's no longer over a legacy/obsolete jack. ;)

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

#29

Post by rayiner »

raverbashing wrote: post #17
rayiner wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got a pair of Bose noise-canceling bluetooth headphones. They work great. I'm looking forward to doing away with the headphone jack.

Good. However: - You have to recharge it - If you forget them at home you can't get a replacement for cheap - Setting up bluetooth is an extra hassle as opposed to just plugging the thing

I have to recharge my phone too, if I forget my phone at home I can't get a replacement for cheap, and after the initial setup, Bluetooth is easier than plugging in headphones.

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

#30

Post by jurassic »

If they are moving to a paradigm where I can't listen and charge at the same time, the 6 will be my last iPhone.

I wish they would stop trying to shave millimeters off my phone thickness and address actual user needs like battery life. When was the last time any of you said, "Damn, I wish this phone was thinner!"? Probably never. But many of us regularly bemoan the battery life of our devices.

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