I would have been a bit annoyed, but generally supportive of one lighting and one usb c - That would be a good move if the entire industry moved towards USB-C being a standard for audio connectors.
Why not USB-C ports in the middle of the top and bottom of the phone, both of which could be used for earpods or charging?
I suspect having a flat PCB like cable running up the back of the battery wouldn’t be what apple wanted to do.
My thoughts: More and more people are buying wireless headphones to use with their phones, and there are some great DAC/amp in a cable solutions available from companies like Audeze for the loss of the headphone port to matter.
Nobody is being forced to buy or use the Airpods, so anyone who thinks they are stupid doesn’t have to do anything at all.
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I think this sums it up perfectly. It’s from a few years back, obviously, but I bet it is exactly the same reasoning they’re using now:
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Those that want the ability to charge and use their phones at the same time will eventually buy a dongle and that will have an inline DAC. There is already a couple of cables in the mix that have the DAC in line. I’ve been seeing them pop up on Facebook in some of the audio discussion groups, haven’t been interested enough to follow.
The thing is until now I didn’t have to buy a stupid add on that already duplicated the capability of what my phone does. Now I do, that’s a bit of a backwards way of treating your customers. I will work it out in the end, or I’ll decide not to buy another iPhone instead.
The real issue is things like that make and break customers sales. At the end of the day there is already a PR issue and a whole bunch of people who got the message Apple doesn’t care any more which converts into the loss of hundreds of thousands of sales.
It probably won’t affect Apple’s bottom line now, but if they get too full of themselves it will affect them eventually the way it affected other once large media player market companies like Sony.
And now who honestly goes out of their way to buy a Walkman? That’s the thing though Sony was the number 1 seller in this market once and if it can happen to Sony it can happen to Apple. I know Sony’s high resolution Walkman is a thing but I have even less interest in it than a new iPhone.
Someone needs to make a MFi dongle that is: Lightning to 3.5mm, Toslink and Lightning (for charging). That’d be the perfect to cover all uses.
I am willing to give it a go and have ordered the 7 for this Friday.
Having said that I think I am stuffed since I have a couple of whammies:
- The current earpods shape don’t suit me, and keep falling out so I assume the AirPods will be the same.
- I listen to Podcasts all day at work, and so need the headset port (don’t have any wirelsss headsets).
- I need to tether all day at work (that’s my only access to Internet) and so need the charging port for this.
Will give it a couple of weeks and see how I go. If not, I will need to go back to the 6s.
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Couple of things.
The AirPods are apparently a lot better than the EarPods. Serenity Caldwell and Rene Ritchie had photos/comments on Twitter and Instagram. (I hate EarPods too.)
If you have iTunes on your computer you can listen to media on your computer streaming from your iPhone over USB. This should solve your latter two problems (assuming you can install iTunes on your work computer of course).
The market will follow Apple. What happened to Sony was entirely their own fault. When one division of a company forces the hand of another, in this case Sony Music and the Walkman division, then you get trouble. Some of the problems have been resolved, and they have come out with some outstanding gear, but it is still a very problem-laden company.
I wouldn’t be so sure “the market will follow Apple.” In fact its seeing significant contractions in its market share. Don’t be blindsighted by your own infatuations with the product. What happened to one of the largest multinational companies in the world can just as easily happen at Apple.
When they get out of sync with customers and start cost cutting by releasing inferior products “the market” is not as dumb as you think it is. That is exactly what happened at Sony and its taken them years to get back to where they are now with the Walkman which has received glowing reports for its sound but the redemption has come far too late for it to be anything other than a niche product.
The iPhone 7 is very much a reactionary response to the Huawei P9 and Samsung Galaxy phones, that are waterproof with iris scanners such as the Galax7 S7 Edge, at the end of the day. It’s a cart before the horse kind of response from Apple and the S7 Edge manages to do waterproof with a headphone jack.
[quote=“Angus, post:273, topic:1523”]
The AirPods are apparently a lot better than the EarPods
[/quote] I hope so!
EDIT This review suggests otherwise though: http://www.cnet.com/products/apple-airpods/preview/
But they fit just like Apple’s free-in-box $30 white earphones. One size fits all, and tough luck if they don’t. So if those standard Apple earphones fit, these will fit. And if they don’t, these won’t. Unlike most other in-ear headphones, there are no extra tips included for different ear sizes
[quote=“Angus, post:273, topic:1523”]
If you have iTunes on your computer you can listen to media on your computer streaming from your iPhone over USB.
[/quote] Didn’t know you could do this, can you please tell me how? I just tried plugging the phone into the computer using USB but can’t see how. I am using Pocket Casts however (not the Apple podcasting app).
Ahhh. Only works with Apple Podcasts unfortunately. I haven’t done it for a while but you just expand and browse your iPhone media from the side bar in iTunes.
You could get an airplay server app for your PC which would mean you can use the headphone port on the PC while charging the phone and just about every app support audio via airplay. Of course this only works if you can get your phone onto the same network… does airplay to the computer even work if the computer is connected to the phone via hot spotting???. A lot of work just to get some headphones working.
It sounds like you might be a candidate for the Apple Dock which gives you a 3.5mm jack to plug into. (or one of the multitude of 3rd party accessories that no doubt will do the same thing on the cheap).
One more extreme solution is TWO pairs of wireless headphones. Use one while the other charges then switch them over. That would work perfectly and if you’re at/near a desk anyway should be easy enough. Of course it doubles the cost of your headphones… but you get exactly what you want…
(Given how quickly most of these things actually charge, maybe the second set can be a cheaper set to save a few $$ only to be used while the primary set are on charge??).
I have these headphones, got them for $115. Be good if Apple had something similar: wireless, lightweight, over the ear
http://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/HFFB2PA/A/plantronics-backbeat-fit-wireless-stereo-headphones
Thanks, I had considered that but that means I need to stream using my cellular data at work rather than using my download quota at home using wifi.
@The_Hawk
Thanks for thos suggestions too. I might look into the dock.
Looks definitely like more money required with any solution.
Jeez Apple is making things very difficult for me, for such a seemingly simple change!
If that’s true then Jack’s still alive as he’s waterproof.
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