You're talking about the company that publicly extolled their own "courage" when they removed the headphone jack from their phones.
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Which was sad. If they had said "this makes your phone last 5 minutes longer when it gets wet" even I would have been cautiously optimistic. But "courage" is a stupid argument.
That said, the real reason is they decided bluetooth headphones were finally reliable enough
Reliable enough AND that they were going to sell them.
That's true. But they were going to sell them because they were reliable enough. For a while there, bluetooth headphones were a nightmare.
Bluetooth is a nightmare. My jbl little box won't catch my phone's awesome vibes unless they touch, otherwise audio gets chopped. I'm still trying to find my simple in-in jack which has much better range than "touching" and will make the setup give me less cancer.
Also to hell with cordless peripherals, my so called keyboards and pointers are all catching dust because there's an inexorable demand for these little toxic disgusting things called batteries, and don't you dare go a year or two without using your computers and thus managing their little chernobyls! technology from Apple and the modern crowd can be trusted alone as much as a newborn and a rattlesnake.
This is a very, very personal and subjective take.
I've literally countless bluetooth audio and non audio devices and I don't have issues with any of them.
(Because *they'd made the things reliable enough, themselves. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29465668)
> reliable enough
Reliable enough for what? Uninterrupted playback (barring from drained batteries)? Nope.
Waterproof jack connectors do exist.
Even more ridiculous, on their first iphone they spun not having video support as a positive.
Sounds like a great children's book, "The Incredible Journey of Headphone Jack "
Jack removal makes sense, if going for a dust and waterproof soap bar.
My Samsung is supposedly waterproof, but moans if I do much as breathe in the charge hole.
No, it doesn't. It's bullshit.
There's stuff like the Ulefone Armor 9 FLIP rugged smartphone which has the headphone jack and has even better ingress protection than the iPhone:
> the extra padding and protection that comes with an IP68/IP69K-rated, MIL-STD-810G certified outdoor smartphone
https://www.techradar.com/reviews/ulefone-armor-9-flir-rugge...
Apple removed the headphone jack for Airbuds and to get extra money. Their accessory division would be a Fortune 500 company, on its own.
You don't get to be a billionaire by giving money away (or not picking it up when users throw it at you).
> Apple removed the headphone jack for Airbuds and to get extra money. Their accessory division would be a Fortune 500 company, on its own.
Nothing makes this read stronger than the fact that Apple still does, in fact, offer a portable device with a headphone jack, the iPod Touch.
You can buy an iDevice that makes calls and texts, or one with a headphone jack. You can not have both in the same machine.
> A 3.5mm audio connector hidden behind a flap
I’m not saying your argument is invalid but…sure the iPhone could also have a waterproof headphone jack if we wanted port covers on it too. The phone you linked looks nothing like something I want in my pocket all day
The Pixel 5a has a headphone jack, is waterproof, and has no port covers. It has an actual IP rating, with all the added expense that comes with, and still is shockingly cheap. It has a great looking design and is very close in size to a contemporary iphone.
It can be done, Apple didn't do it because they didn't want to.
Many many phones had waterproof headphone jacks without flaps before the iPhone 7 added waterproofing like the Galaxy S5. Many still do, e.g Samsung A52.
> The phone you linked looks nothing like something I want in my pocket all day
I rather doubt most people would really be able to tell the difference.
I've noticed that headphone cords are the main reason that I break my phone.
I'm debating switching to non-cabled headphones to fix that and save money on replacement screens
> the main reason that I break my phone.
I'm not sure whether I'm more shocked you have multiple reasons/causes for breaking your phone or that you have enough data points available that you can reliably identify a "main reason" amongst those multiple reasons.
Seriously, have you considered taking better care of your possessions?
How the hell do cabled headphones lead to a broken screen? I've owned quite a variety of mobile phones over the last 23 years, have never used a case to protect any of them, have used cabled headphones with a bunch of them, and the only one I've broken is one that I deliberately dropped into a glass of vodka and coke back in the year 2000 because I was smashed off my tits and it seemed like a good idea at the time (it wasn't, even though I'd been planning to replace it anyway - in the interim the lack of a phone was a major PITA for several days).
You realize that no one has to buy Bluetooth headphones from Apple right?
You realize that Apple offers Apple only features for all its stuff, therefore pushing its own products very hard? :-)
You’re free to choose not to have Apple features and get regular old headphones.
The Samsung phones are waterproof, I have seen it accidentally tested.
I love my iPhone but, I really think it's no coincidence the headphone jack removal coincided with the release of airpods, just over a year and a half after the purchase of beats by Dre.
>Samsung phones
Yep, an S7 went swimming with me for about half on hour one day and after a quick pat down it worked just fine. I wouldn't mind the switch away from jacks so much if most phones & bluetooth earbuds supported higher quality codecs, but it seems relatively rare.
I put my s7 face down in snow and it took 24hrs or so to accept a charger. Thought the port was dead. Wireless charging could be good in that regard.
No it doesn't. The LG V35 was faster, thinner, lighter, had a headphone jack, and had the exact same IP rating as the equivalent iPhone of the time.
And most other high end phones followed suit. I can’t understand why people are so attached to cords. They tangle, get caught into stuff and are plain inconvenient.
I can’t understand why people are so attached to cords
In my case:
- one less battery to charge (on work trips in particular, I have a lot of devices/equipment that need daily charging)
- no worries about bluetooth synching or wireless interference
- less likely to lose
- better sound quality
To each their own.
Also add, one less battery to change and entering the environment.
You can’t imagine how many wired headphones I’ve thrown away because they have gotten frayed…
Is there anything nasty in a standard wired headphone though? My impression was that basic electronics are much easier to dispose of than lithium batteries.
My AKG K240's have a standard mini XLR to 3.5mm connector. I've had to replace it maybe once in the 8 years I've had the headphones
Take better care of them? Or are you referring to the terrible wired ones Apple used to have?
Bluetooth syncing issues? I put my AirPods in my ear and my phone immediately switched to them. I put my phone in my pocket and switch to my iPad and the audio switches. I get a phone call and answer it and my phone switches back.
If my wife wants to listen to the same thing I’m listening to, we can share the audio.
...and I tell my iphone to stop sending audio to the bluetooth speaker and it disconnects, then immediately reconnects, until I un-pair it. And when my wife pulls into the driveway my phone call unexpectedly switches to her car. Or my headset just announces "disconnected" in my ear in the middle of a zoom occasionally. It's positively weird how infrequently these type of things happen when you just ... plug or unplug a wire.
and today while I was making dinner and listening to music on the bluetooth speaker in the kitchen, it suddenly disconnected from my phone and connected to my daughter's laptop where she was playing minecraft with her friends and everyone started screaming "what's going on?!" at me at a volume loud enough for the neighbors to hear.
My AirPods Pro work well almost all the time, but notably, not 100% of the time. Everything feels like magic until the things won't pair for some reason, or there's minor gaps in the audio, or the case won't show its charge state when opening it near the phone — and there's zero UI or feedback to deal with it. It's infuriating.
Lastly, I enjoyed both wired headphones AND my Airpods when I still had my iPhone 6S. The choice between wired or wireless is a false dichotomy.
also, better latency
It takes a fraction of a second to 'pair' my wired headphones to my phone and have music start coming out. With BT I would have to charge them, turn them on, fiddle with a menu, wait for them to connect, and listen to a silly sound effect. Even the tiny fade-in they add really annoys me. I like instant feedback with my devices, I like how I can feel the jack click into place and music starts coming out with no perceptible delay.
I can't say I've ever had a problem with cords tangling or being inconvenient.
I just open my AirPods Pro case and stick the buds in my ear and audio automatically switches to my AirPods.
Even with my $59 Beats Flex, I just press a button and turn them on and they automatically pair. When they are taken out my ear and stuck together via the magnets, audio returns to my phone.
Not to mention how they seamlessly switch from my iPhone, iPad and Mac as I change what I’m doing.
Many reasons have already been mentioned, but I have some more.
Corded peripherals may be inconvenient. In my experience though, they are usually less inconvenient than bluetooth ones. This probably varies by application.
Another major problem is latency. If I want to use headphones to play a keyboard, very little latency is tolerable. Bluetooth doesn't even come close.
Are you playing the keyboard on Apple devices? If not, what does it have to do with Apple removing headphones?
They're replying to a post that said
>And most other high end phones followed suit. I can’t understand why people are so attached to cords
Not apple specific.
If I'm listening to something and my phone battery is about to die, I can just plug it in and continue listening. Not really an option with any Bluetooth headphones I've tried, even my set with a cord connecting the two doesn't allow use while charging.
If I’m listening to something and my phone is about to die, I put it on one of my Qi chargers all around the house.
OK? How does that allow me to continue using Bluetooth headphones when they're dying?
Charging every last peripheral is annoying.