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I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

fastcompany.com

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Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#701

Post by jamesrcole »

Mankrik wrote: post #700
jamesrcole wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? That's how the history of technology goes. Innovations come along that people didn't want until they were there. The technology creates the demand. Henry Ford said (and I paraphrase) "if I had asked people what they wanted they would have said 'faster horses'".

But people could still ride horses when cars came about and they still can, the transition happened over decades. But this change is happening over a matter of years, the reasons for which are not utilitarian.

And people can still use phones with headphone jacks.

Did the existence of cars destroy the existence of horses? Is Apple stopping all companies from using headphone jacks?

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#702

Post by jamesrcole »

camelNotation wrote: post #636
sneak wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also: Floppies, RS-232 serial, optical drives.

The options that replaces each of those items were superior to the older design. A wireless headset requires charging, requires pairing, is more expensive, is more likely to break. It's not a superior technology, it's an alternative technology. You don't eliminate options just because alternatives exist.

They're viewed by everyone as superior in hindsight, but anytime anything gets taken away there are vocal voices complaining about how the newer alternatives are inferior in various ways (and technically the newer options are always inferior in certain ways, especially in terms of using them within existing ecosystems and usage patterns).

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#703

Post by gtyras2mrs »

tjohns wrote: post #651
geggam wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unrealistic congestion before things really start to fail. aka public transit...

I've never run into Bluetooth congestion problems on public transit or busy streets. BT has a lot of problems, this really isn't one of them. There are some BT devices that have poor antenna designs and underpowered transcievers, where the proximity of other humans — or even your own body — can significantly attenuate the signal. But this isn't a problem with the spec itself, and there's plenty of devices that have s…

BT runs into congestion issues quite often in my experience. I’ve experienced connectivity issues in areas where there are a lot of wireless networks.

Considering that WiFi and Bluetooth both run at near 2.4GHz - I’d assume that areas with a lot of wireless networks could (and have in my experience) interfere with BT.

This wasn’t limited to 1 set of devices though. Tried it with my AirPods and a pair of NC Sennheiser headphones. Both cause issues when walking into busy (in terms of WiFi) areas.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#704

Post by zouhair »

oxplot wrote: post #655
zouhair wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, yeah, so how come now I have more cables now because of dongles?

Dongles? I'm talking wireless headphones. Dongles to continue using a wired headphone is supposed to be worse experience so you come off it. Think of it as a transition period.

So you suggest I just throw my $300 perfectly working headphones?

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#705

Post by dmitriid »

masonic wrote: post #687
dmitriid wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB4cjbYywqg Or the "Designed for ..." series? Meera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6zKINudi0 Andrea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoEUsUWihsM Patrick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whioDJ8doYA Todd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PoE9tHg_P0 ?

By "advertising" I was referring to broadcast or print advertising, not special-interest outreach. None of those has been part of their broadcast TV campaigns.

Advertisement means advertisement. In a time when most content (especially video content) is consumed online, you for some reason call those videos "special-interest outreach".

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/01/decade-smartphon...

> People are on average online for 24 hours a week, twice as long as 10 years ago, with one in five of all adults spending as much as 40 hours a week on the web. > > This is partly due to the rise in use by those aged 16 to 24, who average 34.3 hours a week on the internet.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#706

Post by justtopost »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #25
sxg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Removing the audio jack helped make the phone waterproof, which could be pretty vital. The decision is complicated because we're comparing the tangible loss of the audio jack against the intangible gain of a lower prevalence of water damage for iPhones.

Sony make perfectly waterproof devices with headphone jacks. It's a solved problem.

As did samsung, and many other major brands.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#707

Post by justtopost »

eikenberry wrote: post #192
metildaa wrote: post #2

Its sad to see the contortions my boyfriend makes to support his purchase of a headphone jack free android, despite his desire for high quality audio (he hates bluetooth with a passion). USB C to 3.5mm adapters are cheap, but break at the drop of a hat. His integrated speaker meanwhile has blown, and makes for terrible calls. Headphone jacks serve a useful purpose, most phones could still have them without compromisi…

If he desires high quality audio he should buy a separate DAC/Amp or a dedicated audio player. DACs in cell phones are mediocre at best and you can get better sound (and headphone jack support) elsewhere.

This is not true. Apple, LG, both have/had audiophile grade dacs, and I suspect many others do as well.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#708

Post by justtopost »

sneak wrote: post #513
mangecoeur wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a hassle to add yet another dongle, but more that it's just annoying that we have a perfectly good solution and it got removed, its a step backwards with few clear benefits. It's doubly annoying that Apple is heavily promoting its wireless headphones as the solution, while simultaneously promoting its 'Creatives' cred, and in no way acknowledging that their favored solution just doesn't work for the use case th…

It is not universally agreed that an analog, unbalanced headphone jack is a "perfectly good solution".

It really is. The only people arguing are contrarians, fanboys, and companies out to sell digital media (see closing the analog hole), or wireless devices.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#709

Post by justtopost »

fsloth wrote: post #193

An unrelated note: there seems to be lot of comments in this thread that are downvoted just because people disagree with them. I would prefer a culture where comments that you agree with are upvoted, comments that you disagree on you offer an alternative point of view, and only comments that are completely deragatory to the quality of discussion are downvoted. Thanks! And yeah, I love my 3.5 mm jacks, sometimes tech…

I have lobbied for years that downvotes should only be enabled if A. You respond B. You upvote a response to the comment. This would bring all the nasty bias to the surface, which I feel is why its not implemented.

Re: I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

#710

Post by SilasX »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #688
SilasX wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And speaking of latency, technology has broken in another respect here: rhythm games. If I play Dance Dance Revolution from a PS2 on a flatscreen, they add so much lag that the visuals are unusable, even in video game mode. Others have told me they have the same problem even on games for newer consoles intended to played on such TVs. So I end up needing to find a CRT to play them. I also saw this on the Nintendo Wii…

Audio and display lag in rhythm video games is a 100% solvable problem provided: 1. The amount of lag is consistent (check, as long as you're not using Bluetooth) 2. The game is not key-sounded (pass for DDR) 3. You know how much lag there is. Since rhythm games are deterministic, you can just offset the visuals and audio output to compensate for the delay. Keysounded games are imperfect, but it's rarely an issue unl…

I don't think adding your own lag solves it. The game is still expecting you to hit the buttons at its own correct time. Even if you lagged the sound to match the screen, the game would think you're wrong. And you can't get the image from before the console outputs it.
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