
Headphone jacks are Not the new floppy drive - fuzzywalrus
http://blog.greggant.com/posts/2016/06/22/modularity.html
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jshevek
If I remember correctly, the very first android phone had only a mini USB port
and required a dongle to use a 3.5mm audio port. This was almost a decade ago,
and this struck me as a terrible design choice. The latest Moto phone does the
same (with USB C instead mini USB).

If manufacturers are going to phase out barrel connectors for audio, they
should do two things:

1) Use a single universal port standard, like USB Type C

2) Provide TWO of these ports. I want to charge my phone while playing music.

I know its unlikely, but I would rather Apple switch from lightening to USB
Type C if they are going to abandon the 3.5mm port.

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justaaron
agreed. Audio people will never accept some Apple(or other company)-driven
non-standardized port for what everyone knows is a basic differential
unbalanced output/input.

It's like making an electric guitar without a 1/4" jack... sure, you can, but
you will be unable to tap into the world of effects pedals, amplifiers, pre-
amps, and the rest of the guitar gear eco-system.

one can adjunct a digital control-plus-data port, to sort of upgrade SPDIF
(the pro-standard was always AES-EBU anyway) but ditching analog-audio outputs
and pushing folks onto ridiculously limited consumer audio "dacs on the
phones" headphones and boomboxes is a step BACKwards for those producing
content, which should be more and more people not less. Apple has been
indicated already what it thinks "quality audio gear" amounts to with it's
Beats purchase. It speaks volumes about Apple's lack of commitment to
professional audio and standards that they are moving away from being the
company that provided the bedrock for DAW and other audio software innovation.
It's a pity. We shall go elsewhere.

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znpy
I don't think so. Floppy died because new storage media offered what people
_desperately_ needed: storage space.

Usb-c is more likely going to offer what people don't really need for a price
that they are very unlikely to agree spending.

Plus, if I sum up all of the euros I've spent on headsets... Well, a large
part of that sum has been spent on sub-10 € headset.

Good luck making a good profit margin on that market segment.

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jshevek
> Usb-c is more likely going to offer what people don't really need for a
> price that they are very unlikely to agree spending.

When your household uses exclusively devices that are powered by USB Type C,
there is an impressive collective synergistic convenience that results. All of
our tablets, phones, and laptops use Type C. Any of the power supplies for any
of our devices can, in a pinch, be used to provide power to any other.

We can carry tiny trickle chargers when we're going to be by an outlet all the
time, or a heavier rapid charger otherwise.

We can power any of our devices directly from any other device.

Further, we can use the same thumb drive on any device, no OTG adapter or usb
size adapter needed. Several of our devices support slimport, so one set of
high end cables can be used for video, data transfers, or power transfers.

For those that love convenience, USB Type C is great. And it gets even better
the more devices you have switched over - when you can share cables, power
supplies, monitors, and thumb drives between all of your devices so easily.

Apparently I'm one of the few that likes the idea of Apple's next notebook
having exclusively Type C ports.

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sreenadh
I am tried for charging all my devices and I am not keen to add another device
to my charging list.

Floppy disk died due to better and more capacity substitute.

Bluetooth headset is an alternative to wired headphones.

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franciscojgo
Pretty sure the author will end up buying an iPhone 7 headphone jack or not.

~~~
justaaron
I know that I will not. I've never understood the need to have the latest
mobile phone, as it's basically a poor tablet/reader and quite over-priced,
not to mention feeding into one of the ugliest slow-motion automobile crashes
in history as we witness apple waste any vision and sense it had accumulated
in an orgy of hubris and foolish design choices... mind you, they will still
earn plenty as they push their AI angle ensnaring more and more humans in
their web of silly chromery...

