Based on how many people are violently upset at Apple for removing a 60 year old piece of technology from their phones I'm guessing this is the ideal types of ports for some people. Because why try something new when you can stick to legacy technology?

Completely different IMO.

Try to justify the need for what they did with why it helps consumers, not why it doesn't hurt them. I think it's pretty hard to do.

There's little to no technical advantage of the change. They claim it makes the iPhone thinner, but how much thinner can it really get/do we even want it to be?

If lightning was a standard port, I wouldn't have a problem. Apple should have moved to USB-C. Either that or go all in on Lightning, open the port standard, and put that port on the MacBook.

@dfox personally I haven't used wired headphones in a long time. The two times when I need it is when I'm at the gym or when I'm at home and I'm switching between devices.

In the first case wired is completely impractical. I'd much rather leave my phone in the locker, or if it's too far away on the floor while I use my wireless headsets.

The second case I'd rather click on a few buttons instead of pulling out the jack and reinserting it into different devices.

Obviously the battery is an issue but I'd rather leave my headphones plugged in overnight than to worry about untangling cables and accidentally getting it caught somewhere and yanking either my phone out of my hand or giving me new ear piercings.

Apple removing the headphone jack as an option was the wrong choice IMO. they should have slowly phased it out, just like they did VGA cables. on laptops you had (and on some still have) the choice of HDMI or VGA.

But the point is either people will adapt to it or they won't. In which case it's the best time for competitors to come in and take over market share. The worst thing that can happen is that Apple makes a bad bet and everyone follows suit because for better or worse Apple is an industry leader

@crazyidiot I'm with you on that. Proprietary BS is never good for consumers

Don't know how the market and customers will respond to the move, but I personally hate wires. 😋

@xroad I don't really understand the argument. What does wireless headphones have to do with removing the headphone jack?

There's definitely use cases for both types, but I don't see what wireless headphones have to do with now preferring a different kind of wired connection...

Personally, I only use wired headphones and I can't remember to keep my devices charged as it is.

@dfox mostly that there is an alternative and that the alternative may be better. That's how all legacy tech is killed off.

But agreed on how keeping devices charged is a pain.

That's one of the things I really enjoyed about the Airpods. That charging case is bad ass.

@xroad Being a bit of maniac about sound quality, this move means I'm not buying an iPhone 7 since there's no wireless headphones which can provide the sound quality a good pair of wired ones do. They fucked things up, and I do believe they'll end up adding it back (and obviously they'll call it a brand new ground-shaking feature and charge you some extra bucks for it)

@pepo900 no, Apple will never add it back. That's who they are. They would rather use their massive like of cash and influence every headphone manufacturer on the planet to make a lightning version. Apple really does have that kind of cash.

In this particular case they are only removing functionality.. They haven't added anything new, for fucks sake wireless headphones have been around for a while... They've only taken away support for one of the most common connectors known to modern technology. Just think of all of the devices you now can't use with this new iPhone. Think for 2 seconds about one of the only industries that got it right first, and that modern technology is only hurting.. The audio industry. Think of all the high end audiophile gear, think it operates on Bluetooth? In most cases no, because of compression and quality loss.. The best format for distributing high quality music is still vynal..

That said, I think that this might well be the eventual direction the world will go, but we are far from that point now.

@crazyidiot it looks like a box of dental floss

You guys all have the same floppy disk argument. People said getting rid of the floppy on a computer was a death sentence. How were people supposed to transfer data? Yes CDs held more megabytes but you can't write to them. Apple just made a big mistake and they're going to put it back. That or the iMac just killed Apple.

Well none of that happened. Instead the USB took off as a much better replacement to the floppy disk. The same way wireless headphone quality is going to improve substantially because now manufacturers are going to be forced to make better headsets

@pepo900 if sound quality was the most important thing in the world you'd be exclusively listening to vinyl. But instead you're listening to it on your phone because it's more convenient. Difference between vinyl and headphones is a lot more significant between wired and wireless headphones.

to put it simply, the profit on a wired headset is about 5% whereas on a wireless pair its close to 45%. Besides they now own an overrated headphones manufacturing company, they need to cook up demand for it's crap products somehow

@xroad
I avidly listen to vynal almost exclusively while at home, because I care about the quality. I use Google play music while at work because it's quieter and Im only using it to fill the otherwise quiet air.

@xroad Not necessarily mate, I am an audiophile and I have three turn tables and more than 250 records. I do listen to them all the time but for the road I have ripped a lossless FLAC file of all my favorite records which I listen to on my wireless Bang & Olufsen headphones which have the most accurate sound reproduction.

Vinyl is nice and all, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's Bluetooth or nah in your car now. I also work a lot of live events and I don't think I could do without my 3.5 jack. I use a Note 5 because the DAC, but my Nexus 6P ain't going anywhere either.

@fatlard1993 Your avatar does not do your cool handle justice mate, ha ha!

Right. While I think sticking to ancient connectors isn't necessarily necessary, deprecating something so widely used as the 3.5mm jack is a bold move. I don't necessarily disagree with it. I get where they're coming from and fanboys will buy it no matter what. But at the same time I think thinness hasn't been the problem for a while. Has it been in order to fit a bigger battery... Maybe.

@codeRetard Mate, I hope you're just being sarcastic. If you really care about fucking audio just get a fucking decent audio card and listen to 192 kHz @ 24 bit (not that I'd matter). But as someone who makes music and cares about how that's being played back: fuck all that. Our job is to make music sound good on anything. It doesn't have to be a high end music studio.

</rant class="drunk">

I can't be the only one that doesn't give a damn. The phone comes with comfortable wired ear buds like they always do. And any Bluetooth headset will work. And it has an adapter. Apple loves selling music and their audiophile customers, no way those new lightning buds are losing any quality. I'll get the 7S when my vNext plan is up and I'll be perfectly happy. Never to own a Mac but I'm not giving up iPhone over minor design decisions.

@dfox don't forget how much 'courage' it takes to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 🙄

After all they did not add anything new, right? Wireless BLUETOOTH headphones have been around for quite a while already and those who like them have been using them already. They just made it harder for iPhone users to use wired headphones.
Typical Apple. Every fucking thing needs an expensive adapter.

That's a lot of downvotes. I wonder how many people upset about all this actually use iPhones to begin with.

@dfox well, they claimed that it gives more space for other things (speakers and very likely some larger internal components), but I don't think they said thinner

@dfox but I do admit that it's a little odd to have your own input (lightning) and remove a standard one. USB-C would've been a smarter move I think (apart from everyone having lightning cables that would be worthless) but idk if lightning is better than USB-C for audio? Anyway, glad they added a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter in the box

@pepo900 wireless is not the only option - in fact; wireless is not added in the box. Lightning EarPods are (wired ones)

@xroad it's not just about use, it's about the precedent it sets.

Serial and parallel ports both had serious disadvantages (such as size in portable devices and power transfer) which were overcome by the new, open-source USB and were slowly phased out over about 20 years with full industry support.

Apple has unilaterally replaced a connector, which works great, for the dubious reason of "making devices thinner" (which customers keep saying they don't want) with a propretory, closed source technology requiring massive licensing fees to build periferals for which don't function with any other device.

@camel-case adapters will likely be $9 :-)

@SithLord I think you forgot a zero there. have you seen the price tags on apple adapters?

@620hun You might be into making music mate but from the looks of it you are not much of a listener. The makers of the music are responsible to make it soulful, meaningful and touching with their collective collaboration. But the recreation of that magic captured in the studio with the organs used, especially if they are acoustic, has forever been the struggle of an audiophile. If your musician "ears" can distinguish the difference between Vinyl or its uncompressed FLAC rips and 192 audio, I feel pity for the kind of "music" you make and the poor bastard who is going to have to listen to the finished product.

* cannot...

@codeRetard Sorry, I shouldn't be allowed to Internet while drunk 😂 Music is my number one hobby (if you will), the rest comes afterwards. I've been doing this for 6 years now, so I have a clue about the technical background. I'm really critical with music, especially these days when it's all about loudness and people are willing to sacrifice dynamics for it.

I challenge you to tell apart a 192 kHz FLAC from a vinyl. Most people can't even tell the difference between 320kbps MP3 and FLAC. Even if I play them back on my monitor speakers which are quite transparent It's really difficult. The reason people might find vinyl better sounding is the fact that it has more dynamic range than CD. But with ridiculously high quality FLAC it's not the case.

@620hun I can say that music is my number one hobby as well. Even though I have not been in a band, I was raised in a very musically rich family. I have been literally listening to vinyl from before I was born, my mom used to put on her favorite records when she was pregnant with me and my brothers all the time from what I hear.

I'm also very critical of music and its production values and totally despise the so called loudness wars which is currently happening. Luckily I can't bring myself to torture my ears by listening to the crap they dish out as "music" these days so I am very happily enjoying my dynamicly sound collection.

FYI, I have already taken on that challenge in a double blind test with a few of my friends and won. I have been blessed with extraordinary hearing capabilities and I believe given the proper speakers, say my Bang & Olufsens, the difference is quite apparent!

I have absolutely no idea where are the headphones that came with my iphone. So I bought new ones. Several times. They cost something like $7 in any convenience store.

I suspect that Apple-approved new headphones will be more expensive, and that you'll have to visit an Apple store (or a certified reseller) to get them.
And they will work only with Apple devices, meaning you'll have to carry more stuff (when travelling for example, I like to use my own headphones on a plane).