
Apple is killing the headphone jack - HornyM
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-killing-headphone-jack-affects-headphones-iphone-7-2016-7
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xenadu02
This is all still just rumor. The race to have products out the door on day 1
of a new iPhone launch means manufacturers actually chase these rumors and in
some cases begin production of products before knowing if they'll even work!

The iPod touch is thinner than the 6/6S and it still has a headphone jack.
Maybe Apple will remove it someday but there is no evidence that it will
happen with the iPhone 7.

~~~
MagnumOpus
The iPod nano (5.4mm) is even thinner than the iPod touch (6.1mm). It still
has a headphone jack.

And 5mm is the absolute minimum thickness for a 5-inch device; you really
don't want a slab-shaped phone that is any thinner, otherwise the structural
stress on it will genuinely make it warp/bend/crack in people's pockets.

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drivingmenuts
The beauty of the current style of headphone is that I don't have to remember
to charge them.

I haven't had great luck with Bluetooth devices connecting reliably, every
time, and at any rate, with the shitty batteries that device manufacturers
use, I expect that I will be bricking more than one set of headphones very
quickly, if I even bother buying them.

~~~
mikhailt
Except you'd still be able to use the lightning cable for audio, bluetooth
won't be the sole method of audio output.

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joesmo
So now I'll have to pay $100 for a headphone with the quality of a $7 one
while getting zero benefits and tons of incompatibility issues. That's
"progress" all right. Progress for Apple's bottom line at the expense of every
consumer who buys the new devices and headphones. It's just too bad consumers
are too stupid to see how they're being fucked over.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
...or maybe $8, for a superior experience? As long as we're making up
scenarios.

~~~
falcolas
A halfway decent DAC will cost closer to $50 than $1. Given the current market
for marked-up mediocre headphones, I can much more easily see the parent's
scenario than yours.

~~~
mcphage
How much does the DAC that's currently in the iPhone cost, I wonder?

~~~
falcolas
It's likely integrated with another chipset, but I don't imagine it's more
than $10-20. However, to be standalone, there has to be a dedicated DAC, Amp,
and power supply chipset, as well as the associated resistors and capacitors;
which when not integrated into another package (like a phone motherboard) is
not as cheap.

The least expensive USB set I've found in the past has run around $30, and you
get what you pay for. Good enough for highly compressed voice communication,
but terrible at rendering music.

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WorldMaker
They can't save much money on the DAC in the phone unless they also plan to
drop the phone's speakers.

It's strange to me that some of the rumors try to spin this as a "cost
savings" on the hardware in the phone. Removing the headphone jack wouldn't
let them drop the DAC nor the set of amplifier circuits the speakers use
because in order to be a "phone" it's presumed that it will still need
speakers on the "phone".

Presuming that Apple continues to bundle in some form of earbuds with the
iPhone after dropping the headphones jack it's essentially a net increase in
DACs in the package (as I assume the speakers and headphone jack share a DAC
currently; but I've not double checked an actual hardware breakdown). Quite
the backwards direction for something rumors seem to be trying to spin as a
"cost saving" measure.

Maybe it's all a conspiracy by Big DAC? ;)

[Bonus punchline: Big DAC is the name of the old school hip hop cover band I
sponsor.]

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carlmcqueen
This article covers that there is going to be an increase in cost for the
consumer as we're conditioned on the reality of Apple offloading the DAC to
the headphone companies.

The article also talks about how, but doing this Apple opens the door for more
cost to own an apple by buying accessories to continue to use your existing
headphones.

This article doesn't go into DRM when there is no digital to analog
conversion. The killing of the headphone jack seems to open the door for the
phone to decide whether its going to play the music returning to the original
ipod problem of whether it was bought with Itunes or not.

~~~
mcphage
> This article doesn't go into DRM when there is no digital to analog
> conversion.

There is always digital to analog conversion, it'll just happen upstream from
the phone. There will always be iPhone -> headphone jack adapters.

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nul_byte
What is USB-C like?

My experience with USB in general is it's a PITA if you need to insert /
remove on regular basis. The sharp edges scratch at the plastic, and you
typically always try to insert it at the wrong angle first try, and so need to
play the USB dance of switching back and forth until it finds its way in. Its
impossible to do while in your pocket, which is where the jack really comes
into its own.

~~~
sullyj3
USB-C is reversible.

~~~
falcolas
This won't help with the connector wearing out, and when there's only one
connector for charging and headphones (and everything else), it will wear out
more quickly. The USB and Thunderbolt ports on my laptop are already getting
flaky, and it has been a mere 2 years.

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yc-kraln
they can take it from my cold dead hands

~~~
PhantomGremlin
I feel the same way. How does this change benefit the consumer? Has Apple
finally jumped the shark?

~~~
sidereal1
Nah, they have often had this sort of user-hostile-in-the-name-of-cutting-edge
attitude for a long time. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. IMO
this is a case where it doesn't.

