It is just so weird to me that apple hates buttons but loves dongles.
The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
231–240 of 350 posts
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#232> When you plug an audio cable into a smartphone, it just works. No, hardware-wise you're still going through a DAC, and the complex audio subsystem of the OS is still deciding, upon receiving the connection signal, to re-route the application audio through that headphone DAC. Or not. Jack or Lightning doesn't change this. > Apple can choose which manufacturers get to create Lightning-compatible audio devices. Sure.…
> Sure. Or you can use the included lightning-jack adapter and just use normal, un-DRM'd headphones. What prevents Apple from obsoleting the adapter in the future and making analog jack incompatible with lightning jack?
Competition. I bet you Apple wanted to sell that adapter as premium addon, but because of the angry folks talking about it for a while now due to rumors, they decided to include that adapter with each phone.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#233The discussion seems to be easily diverted into one about audio, but I think something that I've not seen in discussion about this issue is the way some app makers have used the analog audio port as a data jack. I've long had the impression this was a workaround that was begrudgingly tolerated by Apple. Though we've all heard about how heavy-handed their app store policies are, so maybe I'm imagining things. But anyw…
Yea the one that comes to mind for me would be the card swiper by Square and other companies. That thing is amazing for small businesses, especially mobile food carts. I'm starting to see many are moving over to the card reader however, which I'm not sure if that is lightning-based or not. Anyway, I think that is a great point. Smart phones need a good serial port for 3rd-party hardware. USB would work, but everyone…
> Yea the one that comes to mind for me would be the card swiper by Square and other companies.
At the hardware level, that's a microphone. I don't see any a priori reason to imagine it would fail to work via the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter, any more than any other microphone would. It's less convenient mechanically because the connection is no longer rigid, which may make swiping uncomfortable, but that's the only drawback I see.
(And a sibling comment mentions having seen Apple explicitly call that out as something which will keep working, so maybe we don't need to reason a priori here.)
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#234The discussion seems to be easily diverted into one about audio, but I think something that I've not seen in discussion about this issue is the way some app makers have used the analog audio port as a data jack. I've long had the impression this was a workaround that was begrudgingly tolerated by Apple. Though we've all heard about how heavy-handed their app store policies are, so maybe I'm imagining things. But anyw…
The new phone comes with the analog jack adaptor in the box. Assuming the electrical and A/D, D/A specs are not different than the previous built-in analog jack, nothing has changed apart from the hassle of a dongle.
Sure, but what percentage of iphone owners will lose this dongle? I imagine its a non-trivial number. Apple's famous markup means they created a new revenue source out of thin air with this decision. Certainly, Apple has an interest in making their phones as sleek as possible, but that decision is always tied to monetization concerns. I think its a little naive to ignore the added income Apple is going to enjoy here.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#235I think removing the headphone jack is stupid. But it has zero to do with DRM. Moving the DAC to the other side of a connector changes nothing at all about Apple's ability to implement DRM. There was an Apple controlled DAC in your phone before, now its in a dongle 2cm away. Its annoying but not a diabolical plot.
It cannot be about removing the DAC, there's still one for the internal speakers.
Certainly not. Its about removing the jack to make the phone slimmer or more aesthetic or more waterproof. Or all of the above. The internal DAC is certainly part of a SOC anyway.
The point is that having an Apple DAC in a dongle makes no fundamental difference from a DRM perspective over just using the internal one on old phones. Its not a plot. We're in Texas here, hearing hoofbeats and everyone is insisting that zebras are coming.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's actually really interesting. Especially as everything is moving toward personalization. If you have a set of headphones that have a unique ID tied to you, the artist could even intro a song with your name - or in the future procedurally generated music could substitute a reference to your city into a song.
Thats a cool idea! Arcade fire did a really cool music video in a similar vein that was interactive/personalized: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
> Enter the address of the home where you grew up
Well, that was five seconds well spent.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#237That Apple wants their users to only use 'approved' peripherals with their stuff (i.e. only those from which they get a share of the profits) under the guise of 'user experience' and 'convenience' does not mean the rest of the world will suddenly give up on their analogue headphones. Apple users will be able to buy dongles (which have to be Apple-approved, so Apple will still get their share of the profits leading to…
Except they clearly explained that they had interference problems with the new camera and the analogue jack, which they don't have by using a digital port. Conveniently, lightning was already there. I agree the situation is not optimal, but please, stop this "they so greedy", "this is only for selling adapters" etc. After all, it's apple's product, and if it doesn't appeal to you, don't buy it. As you have stated you…
Moving the DAC another centimeter or so from inside the phone to the Lightning plug isn't going to magically cure interference - at least, not when the device that's supposedly interfering is already at the opposite end of the phone. Apple's engineers aren't stupid. If they didn't get a working 3.5mm jack it's because they didn't want to.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
Floppy disks, optical disks, ethernet were all replaced by unencumbered standards and they all lead to a superior experience (well, maybe not ethernet, but there are definitly advantages to wireless). If you're old enough to have used a floppy disk drive you do not miss them. Any time you introduce two way communication, you introduce the possibility of DRM, but that does not guarantee it. I can still use my HDMI wit…
>If you're old enough to have used a floppy disk drive you do not miss them. I am, and I do. Floppies were ubiquitous, durable, reusable, and cheap enough to give away. There's no replacement today - flash drives are the closest thing but when was the last time someone handed you one with no expectation of getting it back? Or bought a box of 50? Sneakernet became much less vibrant with the death of the floppy.
> flash drives are ...
Much more dangerous than an infected boot sector. See the BlackHat talk on a malware program can replace the firmware on a USB device.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#239> When you plug an audio cable into a smartphone, it just works. No, hardware-wise you're still going through a DAC, and the complex audio subsystem of the OS is still deciding, upon receiving the connection signal, to re-route the application audio through that headphone DAC. Or not. Jack or Lightning doesn't change this. > Apple can choose which manufacturers get to create Lightning-compatible audio devices. Sure.…
This is how I see all the Cory Doctorow/BoingBoing fear mongering. He's made a career out of scaring people and being as disingenious as possible, but because he picks on "the man" the typical college/highschool types praise him as some sort of freedom fighter. Internet fandom really deserves better heroes. The EFF itself is almost as bad and is run by seemingly the most paranoid and reactionary people out there. I i…
> This is how I see all the Cory Doctorow/BoingBoing fear mongering.
Sigh. I like Cory Doctorow, I agree with the principle of the battles he's fighting, but yeah. He's... strident.
Re: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM
#240Other people getting screwed: Custom IEM wearers. I had a $300 set of Alclair Audio IEMs made so I can use an in-ear audio system on stage while making live music. These use impressions that an audiologist takes of your ear canals for an _exact_ fit that completely seals your ear. There's not a snow-balls chance in hell I would have these be wireless, or a proprietary standard: 1) Latency. Anything over 2ms is not ac…
I think you are overstating things. 3.5mm isn't really the standard for professional audio. Much more common is 6.35mm, RCA, S/PDIF, XLR, and USB. All of which would already need an adaptor for the 3.5mm. But I doubt I'm saying anything you don't already know.
Yes it's annoying if you already are set-up for 3.5mm, and yes I can see why you wouldn't want to use a consumer wireless audio standard for live music performance, but it hardly equates to Apple "exiting professional audio".