
Why Cory Doctorow Thinks Apple's Disappearing Headphone Jack Should Scare You - ryantracey
http://www.fastcompany.com/3062741/the-iphones-disappearing-headphone-jack-reason-for-concern
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dreamcompiler
Fortunately Apple has significant competition in this space, which means those
of us already using a competitor's phone don't have to care, and everybody who
was using Apple's phones can choose another brand if analog out is important
to them. I don't think Apple fully appreciates that they no longer have the
power to set the standard for this kind of thing any more.

~~~
azeirah
> I don't think Apple fully appreciates that they no longer have the power to
> set the standard for this kind of thing any more.

I can totally see Apple getting away with this, however, only time can tell.

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IOT_Apprentice
The market will decide. Apple sells around 70M phones a quarter, time will
tell. Corey is free to buy whatever phone he wants.

~~~
astrodust
Exactly. If Cory's so concerned about this, making your own phone has never
been easier.

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kiksy
"Today it’s easy to record streamed music from the analog headphone jack on
the phone, and even to convert the stream back to digital and transmit it in
real time to someone else."

Is this really that common nowadays?

Personally I think the move is more of a way of selling Apple/Beats headphones
than any DRM/Anti-piracy stuff.

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michaelbuddy
Pirating anything is not statistically common. Loss figures have always been
completely fictitious and DRM has always been a hammer in search of a nail.

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KingMob
"The end-to-end digital audio stack will allow for higher quality audio"

Highly unlikely. For starters, most people already use cheap earbuds which
negate any advantage whatsoever.

Plus, environmental noise is practically irrelevant over the short distances
of a headphone cable, so you're not gaining anything by going digital for the
lat few feet.

In theory, headphone manufacturers could attach matched digital-audio
converters (DACs) that take into account the headphones' characteristics, but
in reality, I suspect blind A/B tests will reveal nobody can tell the
difference.

The reality is the potential upside is meager, and the potential downside is
huge.

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wruza
None of riaa/dmca/drm can prevent pirate from cutting apple headphones with
knife and receiving audio directly from speaker wires, so drm argument is
pretty weak. What is really worrying me is that "one doesn't simply plug
quality 3.5-headphones into lightning socket".

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Hydraulix989
Am I the only one who wondered just who this Cory Doctorow person is?

~~~
Eutow
Round these parts? Probably. Or you're in the minority.

