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There's a lot of potential for anti-competitive practice here -- for example, Apple could theoretically prevent the Spotify app from transmitting audio over Bluetooth or Lightning, forcing users into the Apple Music ecosystem.
There's a lot of potential for anti-competitive practice here -- for example, Apple could theoretically prevent the Spotify app from transmitting audio over Bluetooth or Lightning, forcing users into the Apple Music ecosystem.
This is the first time I've heard that argument. It's a good one.
Except that there are adapters that convert to that same old jack, and so you haven't really lost anything. Yet, anyhow. If they ever lock you down to only approved headphones, then we've got a real problem, and not just for being able to do what you want with your music.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The headphone jack also requires the cooperation of the OS to function
Yes, but it cannot detect which specific device is connected to the jack and act accordingly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The headphone jack also requires the cooperation of the OS to function
an OS cannot deny an analog jack. An OS can however deny an digital adapter.
BTW I don't mean this as some sort of "Apple are too nice to do this" thing. TBH I think they don't enforce audio DRM largely because they wouldn't be the beneficiaries. If and when that changes then I'm sure we'll hear different rhetoric.
There's a lot of potential for anti-competitive practice here -- for example, Apple could theoretically prevent the Spotify app from transmitting audio over Bluetooth or Lightning, forcing users into the Apple Music ecosystem.
And if they do, they'll end up in antitrust courts in multiple countries while paying out a crushingly large and sustained PR cost.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't it be just as easy to refuse to route to a physical audio jack as well? I don't see how the loss of the physical jack changes that scenario.
It matters because the jack is no longer the default output device that customers expect to always work.
One way or another, the audio is cut off. Just because it's another jack/plug customers won't be upset?
I understand the argument that forcing content through a proprietary jack opens the door for controlling said content and has huge implications for hardware manufacturers and the way people use their stuff. What I am having a hard time understanding is why is that any different than the OS influencing what gets sent to the 3.5mm jack? It isn't like apps running in iOS had to interact with APIs to do all the other thi…
How secure are these dongles? Will we see third party ones, or do you need key material from Apple before they will light up?
The Xbox is full of this kind of thing, btw (most peripherals require a "security chip" that just needs to handshake; purely revenue protection, and nothing to do with security).
In the past the Apple's designs needed to respect a vast pre-existing ecosystem of headphones, amps and assorted other audio gear. Dropping the socket largely takes them out of that ecosystem, but today the success and reach of their devices exerts pressure on that ecosystem to move in Apple's direction too. That pressure does the rest of the ecosystem a significant disservice: the interoperability of the devices, cables and practices in that ecosystem provides so much utility!