Removing the 3.5mm headphone socket

The latest talk is that the 6C will not be plastic but will be metal with an A9/2GB ram and NFC, but the trade off will be the iPhone 6 camera and no touch ID, which will be something I’m willing to trade off. In all honesty, if it has an A9 processor and 2GB of ram (and its 4 inches of course) I’m in.

I doubt there’s be no Touch ID - it’s needed for Apple Pay and Apple are invested in that.

If it’s going to be metal (and I’ve read that too) then they might wait until after the iPhone 7 is released and just make it a down spec version of the current iPhone 6 (like they’ve replaced the 5C with the 5S as their current budget phone).

8GB iPhone 6 anyone?

I do wonder what the age demographics for iPhone users is?

Does your average 20 year old play with the phone more during the day then go partying at night so is left with a dead phone because they were away from home too long? Do they also miss out on the opportunity to charge during the day because either they are at Uni without facility to charge or work in a junior office role where having a phone on your desk is frowned upon?

vs the average user who might be a business person working 9 to 5 ish doing busnissey things, who can charge the phone at a desk if needed but otherwise goes home after work therefore never runs out of battery…

Huge generalisations… but I hope I’ve made my point. xx% of people are only charging once a day so battery is adequate for the majority of people.

A quick google turns up some info… I’m sure you could find more if you wanted:
http://www.mactech.com/content/study-looks-demographics-iphone-ipod-touch-users

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Oops i meant 3D touch.

3 posts were split to a new topic: Turning on existing technologies

Looks like this rumour is starting to gain traction.

iPhone 7 May Feature Thinner, Waterproof Body With No Headphone Jack and Wireless Charging

I must say I’m somewhat disheartened by the rumour, not because it’s looking more likely, after all it has been established that this is something Apple would have no issue doing, but because it has the potential to unseat an industry standard, universal, non-proprietary interface in favour of a closed, proprietary solution that only works with a single manufacturers’ device.

Considering Apple is an industry trendsetter it doesn’t bode well for competition and the consumers that would just go elsewhere. I assume other notable vendors would start to follow suit.

But it is what it is.

I’m not a fan of the headphone jack going, but I don’t know what they are planning. This would go well beyond just Apple products if they do it right. Already on planes etc the in flight entertainment is disappearing and cords are a pain when you really think about it. I’m wondering whether a default wireless position will be the plan with an adaptor for users still wanting to use existing ones.

You can already sync wirelessly. Apple could very well go with an iPhone that is one single piece with no open ports that syncs, charges and provide wireless audio that would be truly waterproof.

I’m not convinced that Apple pursues form over function, though it sometimes looks that way. Jobs said “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” And this seems to be a fundamental value of Apple. I’ve been wondering what the upside would be to getting rid of the headphone socket, but I don’t assume that there can’t be one if I can’t see one.

Now I’ve found this article from last June which could actually explain a few things. Basically, 48kHz audio in and out plus the ability to send other info to the device which could control any number of things. So, your Lightning headset could launch apps and do other things I’ve never thought of and probably won’t make use of.

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A phone with no ports — wireless data, inductive charging, wireless headphones — that is also water proof (to whatver degree) is a big improvement. I’ll take that over a legacy analogy port.

A single (lighting) port phone has its won merits. I am yet to see any significant merit in arguments against it (beyind the thinness/battery life discusions).

We choose to buy into the apple ecosystem or we don’t. There are other options out there for those who can’t live without a 3.5mm audio port on their phones, just like there are numerous options for those who want mulitple ports on their laptop…

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The problem is that Apple is an industry trendsetter. Any completely bonehead decision that starts in Cupertino quickly finds its way to other vendors because almost all of them would rather ride the waves than make their own. Hopefully in this case at least some of the other manufacturers choose to be different.

I hope for the sake of Apple customers that the iPhone doesn’t go completely port-less, considering how many of them need a DFU restore to unbrick them whenever a new iOS version is released. Case in point the iOS 9 “slide-to-upgrade” fiasco. A software restore wouldn’t be possible on a port-less device, the only solution would be paid out-of-warranty whole unit replacement. But that’s a discussion for another time.

I think I’d buy a waterproof, Lightning-only, iPhone. Wouldn’t you?

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If this were the reason for removing the 2.5mm socket, it would make much more sense than pursuing thinness for thinness’ sake. Otherwise I’d prefer longer battery life.

Depends on how “waterproof” it was.
This waterproof

Niche edge case. I’m talking about casual water insertions, protection from accidental spillages, could survive a swim or being dropped into the ocean type deals.

All well and good, until you realise that other manufacturers have made waterproof phones with 3.5mm ports.

Removing the 3.5mm headphone port is a lazy way to achieve thinness/to increase profit. Remove the port = lots of adaptor sales + lightning headphone sales (with a licensing fee). It would be a highly arrogant move and environmentally damaging.

If Bluetooth headphones were that good, everyone would have them. Wifi took off despite the ethernet port still being on Macs for a long time. The reality is Bluetooth headphones are annoying. They drain battery life, they need to be recharged themselves, they have latency issues, they’re expensive.

It would be worse if they go down the path of lightning headphones though. While that negates a lot of issues with Bluetooth, moving to a propriety headphone solution would just be plain stupid. The 3.5mm headphone port is ubiquitous, the beauty of it is you can move your headphones between any device.

Fuck you Tim Biggs, whoever you are, and the horse you rode in on.

Apple will do what it does, based on significant research — irrespective of who moans about X or Y, calls Z stupid or threatens to never buy their tech again.

As mentioned, just like having an (however Ill/informed) opinion we all have the ability to make a choice.

There are much more important and relevant things to get one’s ire up about…

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I want them to remove the 3.5mm plug. It gathers lint and I’m looking for an excuse to buy some decent bluetooth headphones. I’d like to see it removed from the next round of iPads as well; I never use the port on my iPad mini these days.

Plus, if people are getting this angry based on unconfirmed rumours, imagine the wonderful outrage when it actually happens. I cannot wait.

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