Apple removes the headphone jack?!

[aP|Nelg]

The new iPhone 7 no longer has a headphone jack. Instead, apple will require you to use an adaptor that plugs into the lightning bolt connector. There's no way to charge it at the same time, though, unless you want to pay more dollars for a lightning bolt splitter, which would be a lot of adaptors to have to plug into the phone just to achieve functionality that was always built into the phone before. You know what some people say, "Don't fix what isn't broken"... They tried to fix what wasnt broken and now you ahve to use a bunch of adaptors. Plus, Phil Schiller thinks it is courage... How? So, Apple thinks it is a good idea, but it causes problems. Do you really want to have to carry around extra bricks just to do something that was there in the iPhone 6 and below?

[sinewav]

I could probably talk at length about this topic but I don't have the energy. I will say though that Apple used to be a computer manufacturer but I now consider them a consumer electronics company (they never really had a big market share of computers anyway). The decision to remove the 3.5mm jack has its roots in DRM and may prove damaging to the brand, at least in the short term. This will probably play out like DIvX and we should see the jack returned for the iPhone 8.

However, DRM and proprietary connections are not the popular complaint. After all, Apple users don't care about DRM and proprietary hardware. Apple embodies authoritarian control over how users interact with devices. The big complaint is the inability to charge while using headphones. In the near future this will not be a problem. We are fast approaching a time where wireless charging will be commonplace and wearable electronics will generate their own electricity. I think the problem here is Apple is pushing this paradigm a little too early. The tech isn't quite there yet.

[kyle]

what about bluetooth headphones I think wireless is what apple is trying to force on consumers, in a few years there will be no ports.

[Light]

what about bluetooth headphones I think wireless is what apple is trying to force on consumers, in a few years there will be no ports.

I think it's far too soon for this, though. In a car, or using a BT speaker is great. BT headphones still have some growing to do. If you want good quality music, you're going to get some bulky headphones. If you don't mind the flat sound for some $100 earbuds, then I guess it's fine, but for me it was terrible. Maybe the brand I tried was the main issue, but I returned it and stuck to my wired Samsung earbuds. It's kind'a funny this year watching people get won over when they announce "we have a headphone jack".

[ConVicT]

Well, I'm guessing it must come with bluetooth headphones?

[sinewav]

what about bluetooth headphones I think wireless is what apple is trying to force on consumers, in a few years there will be no ports.

Right, but that's not the real reason they are pushing this tech. Like I said, DRM is the main motivation. Headphone jacks are agnostic to the receivers. With wireless there is a software layer they can control. They can decide which devices they support. They don't have to use open protocols. They can even decide to change the quality of the signal for certain brands and not others, thus manipulating the market. Apple is just as evil as every other major corporation, make no mistake about it.

I've seen several articles on the subject already. Here is a quote from one:

Years from now, you’ll try to plug your phone into a speaker or set of headphones via the iPhone’s Lightning port, and the music won't play. Maybe it’s because the headphones weren’t authorized by Apple, or because your Lightning-to-USB cable uses an outdated copy protection method. Whatever the case, you’re now locked out of listening to the music you’ve legally paid to hear—a problem that doesn’t exist in today’s analog audio age.

Also, this from the EFF.

[ConVicT]

Wait for the bluetooth bit.