321–330 of 741 posts
Imagine a protocol, where the phone broadcasts a low power wireless signal, encrypted, for anyone to listen to. The headphones decode this signal and plays the sound. No synchronizing, no fuzz.
The Bluetooth protocol does something royally error prone. My Windows computer will only connect to my headphones if and only if I tell Windows to connect and then very quickly turn the headphones on.
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It's as if the presence of the headphone jack offends them. Like, what significant negative does having a headphone jack have?
A more cynical person than me would suggest that its almost like some of them are being paid.
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We don't just need to consider accessibility for the elderly. I need to regularly reconfigure my Bluetooth connections on my phone. They just randomly stop working. With the latest version of Android, I couldn't figure out how to even access the Bluetooth settings. When I connect some devices, they don't show up in the list of paired devices. Somehow it still ended up working, but I don't know how or why. When I walk…
This is why I hold on to my iPhone 6 like it's precious and won't install any software updates so as not to kill the battery. I have bluetooth headphones but they're a pain to charge and the headphone jack just works consistently. I love my iPhone 6!!
I prefer the method of Samsung in this case, they clearly state for the monthly update that it is mostly a security update. Where Apple seems to apply marketing by promising 'the best experience yet' and shiny new features with each major version bump.
edit: typo
Clearly the solution is not going back to a 3.5 mm audio jack, but to invent a new standard that everybody will support. We could alsa call it pulse jack and audio will be fixed forever.
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Latency is another issue. If you use your phone or tablet to make music then wireless headphones have an unacceptable delay. It's not a huge niche but there are a lot of us out there.
The way I read it, professional / amateur musicians and iPhones are the very definition of huge niche .
We need to take into account _Accessibility_. A large use case that I've found most people seems to miss are individuals who are older and don't have much experience with bluetooth or wireless technology. I'm fine with Apple removing the headphone jack, but they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. Anecdotal example: I recently purchased headphones for my 65-year old…
Just attach the tiny little dongle that comes with the phone to the headphones. Then say to him that he can put the charging cable there and also the headphones cable. Would this be too complicated too? You can get the EarPods with a lightning connector. If that’s too complicated then maybe you can draw a picture explaining it?
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maybe an industry standard that works like AirPods pairing?
Yes, but looking at Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung and recent history, I think it will come down to this: https://xkcd.com/927/ . I'm almost certain that whatever Apple developed for the Airpods will not be shared with other companies. And whatever other companies push forward as a "Standard" will not replace the Apple Solution in the near future. Even replacing apples crappy AFP Network Protocol took 13 years, until SM…
We need to take into account _Accessibility_. A large use case that I've found most people seems to miss are individuals who are older and don't have much experience with bluetooth or wireless technology. I'm fine with Apple removing the headphone jack, but they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. Anecdotal example: I recently purchased headphones for my 65-year old…
Or an overweight person, for that matter.
It's like admitting that people are entitled to mourn the removal of the jack is part of a slippery slope toward admitting that Apple - gasp - made a mistake, and that's just untenable.
Apple makes a ton of money from this - they're one of the main BT headphone vendors - so I actually don't consider it a mistake on their part (they know exactly what they are doing) but for other manufacturers it makes no sense. No-one buys a phone because it has no jack. Some people though will rule phones out for dispensing with the jack. So why do they do it?!
For me for example, it's literally the first thing I now consider: I will not buy a jack-less phone while alternatives are available. Don't care about camera, brand, etc - any mid range Android with a jack will pretty much suit me.
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Many have said thinner is the reason, yet phones without jacks are not thinner than those with. The problem solved was encouraging sales of some very expensive wireless earbuds. I really do think it was as simple as that. Those who want Bluetooth wireless could just as easily have it on a phone with a jack without losing any benefit. They already did.
My understanding is that the headphone jack actually occupies a lot of space. If you have opened up a phone before, it is evident that all internal space is _very_ well accounted for, so removing a headphone jack is actually a very tangible increase in usable internal space. And it's not just the jack, you need to include a DAC in the device, too! This means being able to include more/new co-processors, different/bet…
If a bloke with a little knowhow and a dremel can do a good job at it so can apple.