Apple Launches the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus; Feature Water-Resistance, Lack Headphone Jack (www.bgr.in) 551
Apple on Wednesday unveiled its new flagship smartphones: the iPhone 7, and the iPhone 7 Plus. Both the iPhones look similar to the last year's iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but offer a range of new features. Chief among those features are water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, improved cameras (the iPhone 7 Plus has a pair of 12MP cameras that are able to take SLR-quality images. It offers bokeh capability). And yes, the new iPhones indeed lack the headphone jack. "it's the best iPhone we have ever created," Apple CEO Tim Cook said. The home button is getting taptic feedback, similar to that of the MacBook.
So why is Apple removing the headphone jack? Apple's SVP Phil Schiller said, "courage."The company also announced AirPods wireless earphones. A pair of these will be priced at $169. The iPhones will go on sales starting September 16 in several regions including the United States In places like India, however, it will be available starting October 7.
So why is Apple removing the headphone jack? Apple's SVP Phil Schiller said, "courage."The company also announced AirPods wireless earphones. A pair of these will be priced at $169. The iPhones will go on sales starting September 16 in several regions including the United States In places like India, however, it will be available starting October 7.
DRM ahoy :( (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Insightful)
It's meaningless marketing. How does anyone think they will ever get the same kind of photograph a 35mm sensor does, as a pin head sensor on a mobile phone has?
Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Interesting)
You can definitely make a tiny sensor array with higher technical resolution than traditional ISO 400 print film grain... maybe even ISO 100. The catch is, you'll have to light up the scene to retina-searing brightness levels like a color movie set from the 1930s, because your effective f-stop will be insanely high and/or your dynamic range will be unacceptably low & have too much random noise.
Big lenses and/or large-format film/sensors allow you to capture more photons and take pictures with less light.
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The f-stop is low, but the *effective* f-stop for depth-of-field purposes (computed by multiplying the f-stop times the crop factor) is huge. This is why focusing almost doesn't matter, because essentially the whole universe beyond a sphere that starts three or four inches out from the lens is always roughly in focus.
These devices with multiple cameras try to fake depth of field by using multiple angles to create a depth map and then applying some sort of blur, hence the marketing jargon "DSLR-quality".
Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Informative)
WTF is "SLR-quality" supposed to mean? (Question being asked by someone who knows what SLR is).
The actual claim by Apple is that it provides "DSLR-like depth" by adding a "bokeh effect" feature. This is achieved through using a two camera system built-into the phone. There is no claim of SLR Quality. The Slashdot article summary is incorrect in this regard...
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The new iPhone having a 12 MP camera is a significant upgrade over the prior 8 MP camera.
An entry level DSLR cameras would likely be a 12MP camera. Of course, they come up to 24 MP (last time I checked them, and perhaps beyond), but 12MP is realistically more than anyone needs unless you plan to make very large prints.
DSLR is not "meaningless marketing", as someone above has said. Apple is saying the resolution is similar to what is offered by DSLR cameras, which is true for what today is an entry level DSL
Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Insightful)
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Apple bends physics on a regular basis by selling new phones that are identical to their previous ones but are at the same time "better".
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They apparently accomplish a simulated bokeh effect through digital manipulation by somehow calculating a depth map to apply the blur. Therefore it is 'DSLR-like' by mimicking an effect that you would need a DSLR to accomplish ordinarily. We won't really know until it is released to know where the effect falls on the line between gimmick and useful tool.
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!whining now please
Where?? What is wrong with MORE CHOICE (Score:3, Informative)
The phone ships with an adaptor that gives you back the audio jack you could copy from if you wished... no more DRM than before.
It just ALSO gives you an improved audio path that provides power to headphones.
What is wrong with having an improved set of choices? More importantly what the FUCK is wrong with people like you who should be embracing technology, being steadfastly against any change?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Where?? What is wrong with MORE CHOICE (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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One benefit of 3.5mm is doesn't kill your battery as fast as bluetooth
Re:Where?? What is wrong with MORE CHOICE (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly what the FUCK is wrong with people like you who should be embracing technology, being steadfastly against any change?
Not all technology or change is good or desirable.
Re:Where?? What is wrong with MORE CHOICE (Score:5, Insightful)
The phone ships with an adaptor that gives you back the audio jack you could copy from if you wished... no more DRM than before.
Except apps/the phone could refuse to play back certain "rights managed" media if it detects the adapter, or even worse, a non-beats/apple manufactured headset is connected.
"Sorry, this media is exclusive to Beats(tm) headphone users only."
Re:Where?? What is wrong with MORE CHOICE (Score:4, Insightful)
It just ALSO gives you an improved audio path that provides power to headphones.
No, the new phone doesn't give you anything improved. The old phones could already do this. The lightning port always did route audio and power.
What is wrong with having an improved set of choices?
Nothing. This phone gives you fewer choices. It's exactly the same capability as the previous model with one option removed.
More importantly what the FUCK is wrong with people like you who should be embracing technology, being steadfastly against any change?
Um gee, I dunno. Maybe because we're capable of thinking rather than blindly calling all change good?
The only extra capability you get with the new phone is a marginal improvement in thinness compared to the old one. This is at the expense of heavier use of a less robust connector. Change is only good if it's an improvement.
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However, the idea of making the iPhone water- and dust-resistant seems like an interesting concept.
Each iPhone has water-sensitive stripes to indicate water damage. But these are stripes are so sensitive that they change color if someone across the street spits into the gutter. Hence, the need for water-resistance.
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Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:4, Informative)
you realise that apple are the sheep with the water resist idea and there are already a number of android phones out there already with water resist? and the others managed to give water resist and keep the headphone jack? and that my 3 year old android phone is just as usable as it was when new?
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As water-resistant as that Galaxy S7 was supposed to be?
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Re:DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Interesting)
I've done under water photography countless times with my Galaxy S5 a couple years back. Yeah, the "water-resistant" feature is the real-deal, and the phone is still working great today.
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My $99 Samsung Rugby Pro is water resistant and it has a 3.5mm jack. It meets the IP67 water resistance spec (can be submerged in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes).
So that whole "make it waterproof" thing is bullshit. They just want to sell people earbuds for $169 a pop.
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If you can't even afford a Slashdot account, how you gonna afford an iPhone 7?
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Single purpose? Single intended purpose maybe, yet we've seen it also be usable for everything from credit card readers, IR blasters to 'ghost' detectors [youtube.com]... and that aside from the eventual support for volume & track control.
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No, we're embracing a reliable standard that works across a huge variety of technologies.
Are you talking about systemd?
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and this happens somehow with the lightning-to-phono adapter that ships with every single one... how?
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Other than the fact that Apple includes an adapter in the box, everything you say is correct.
Re: DRM ahoy :( (Score:5, Informative)
That that is an absolute lie, total BS. A bulky 3.5mm jack [digikey.com] is 0.5cc. Assuming the previous life of their 1715mA/3.7V battery was 14 hours, they are now adding another 245mA/3.7V worth of battery to it, to get those 2 additional hours. That translates to an energy density of around 6.4 MJ/L, about three times what the best LiPo batteries can give. Not a chance.
If it lasts longer, it's not from a bigger battery, it's from more efficient components elsewhere. They're feeding you a line and you're swallowing it.
Timeliness (Score:2, Interesting)
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Why not wait for the dust to settle a little before rushing this story out?
Because unlike our posts the summaries can be updated. Hell, most news websites do the same thing for running current events: get the story started then update it as more information is released.
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It's also weird, because Slashdot doesn't seem to do this with any other type of story, at least not that I'm aware of as almost any other event or announcement eventually gets a p
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" A lot of the posts are going to be speculative or outright wrong, which could be prevented simply by waiting another 30 minutes until the announcement is finished and all of the details (at least the ones that were part of the presentation) are out. "
And people will still post incorrect information, because they've likely NOT WATCHED THE PRESENTATION.
Simple logic.
please don't link to apples site (Score:2, Troll)
dear slashdot editors.
please don't link to apples site about iphone 7.
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it has the cooties
but the dongle is free (Score:5, Insightful)
the most shocking announcement this afternoon. i really thought it would be $29.99
Re:but the dongle is free (Score:4, Funny)
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There is no eventually about it. They will need replaced every month or so. This is Apples attempt to add a side door subscription charge to allow their customers to use other manufacturers headphones.
Courage? To profit. (Score:2, Informative)
So they take away the 3.5 jack, give us an easy-to-lose adapter, and want to sell us their proprietary wireless one-size-fits-none earphones. And they call it courage? Really?
Oh, but they have licensed out the wireless tech for a whopping 3 alternative headsets. I suppose that is supposed to appease us.
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Re:Courage? To profit. (Score:5, Insightful)
So don't buy their headphones if they don't meet your needs? It's not like they're removing Bluetooth or something.
What is it about Apple making accessories for their products that enrages people? Just don't buy the fucking thing.
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What if you don't have Bluetooth headphones? The audio jack worked perfectly and was not broken or dysfunctional. It worked across most models of phone and other devices trivially. There is no new advantage to the consumer to the new Apple method.
So if they removed all USB adapters from a mac book, would you say that's ok because everyone can just buy thunderbolt adapters instead or store the data in the cloud?
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Sure there's an advantage. The iPhone 6 if inadvertantly spilled on with liquid would die. This one, won't. One of the reasons for that is no mini-jack socket
Oh bullshit. My samsung s7 comes with a 3.5 jack and some how samsung made it spill and puddle diving resistance.
Because they don't care (Score:5, Insightful)
Yay, you can no longer listen to headphones at your desk and have your phone charging. Listen all day at the office, phone is dead for the walk home. GREAT Idea.
Mod parent up... (Score:2)
I thought they were supposed to introduce wireless charging with this iPhone too...
Re:Because they don't care (Score:5, Informative)
That's the stupidest damn thing; should've at least been a splitter adapter.
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Perhaps they've improved the battery such that you can listen all day at the office and the phone won't be dead for the walk home.
Re:Because they don't care (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like (Score:2)
I'll be sticking with my iPhone 6S for years to come. Remember kids, never update your iOS past the next major revision after it was released. This ensures a long life and usability. I will stop at 10.0 to ensure slowness and battery draining doesn't kill my hardware prematurely.
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My 5S is still going working well with strong Battery life and I am beta testing 10. Had the phone for 3 years now and for the most part Battery hasn't been even a slight problem except when I accidentally leave the phone on and active and forget about it.
Otherwise not really a hitch with it. I expect another couple of years will be fine as well.
Still have a 3GS that works fine as well. At least for me, hardware has never been the problem. Accidents have been... but then screen replacements and connector re
So much bokeh... (Score:2)
OK 2017 will be the year of iPhone photos with bokeh effect. In all photos in all circumstances in all social media :)
Re:So much bokeh... (Score:4, Funny)
Please. My social media feeds have been filled with out of focus, blurry photos for just as long as social media has been around.
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
IP67 (Score:2)
Goodbye Nexus 6P (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing, I think I will now purchase an Apple iPhone 7 device due to this declaration by none other than the CEO of Apple. I was content with my Nexus 6P, but that has all changed now. Thanks slashdot for letting me know about this statement in particular, time for the trip behind the woodshed 6P.
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It's the best iPhone in the world! :)
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How is this any different from any other Apple event where they announce the new device to be the fastest, thinnest, stylish, etc they've ever built?
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Not really any different.
Every generation is the fastest.
I would think Tim Cook would weary of that line.
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Just like every version of Windows has been "The best version of Windows yet!" since Windows 95. You know it's true, because every single installer has told you so after you've [allegedly] already purchased it.
I like to call it "customer purchase reassurance".
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because he is marketing to a previous apple buyer i.e. your wife
look shiny!! i think is what he meant in plainspeak
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That's just like being the "Best piece of shit in the world!"
But it handles 400 flying monkeys! (Score:3)
Nothing says performance like that!
BS on the bokeh (Score:5, Informative)
Bokeh [wikipedia.org] is a function of the lens diameter relative to the subject distance (and distance of other objects from the focal plane). For a given scene, cannot be created any other way other than a physically bigger lens. You know the penumbra during an eclipse (the area experiencing a partial eclipse during a solar eclipse)? That corresponds to bokeh. There is nothing you can do on the ground to enlarge this area. It is purely a function of geometry. (Mathematically, it's the point distribution function of the lens.)
You can fake it in software [slrlounge.com]. I've been saying for over a decade that two small lenses with some lateral separation should allow an algorithm to estimate distance and blur the parts of the picture outside the focal plane appropriately to simulate bokeh. But it's not real bokeh, it's a digital manipulation.
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Tilt/shift is another physical effect that has been recreated with software to decent effect... For those of us who don't have the budget for extreme glass, software is easily good enough.
Re:BS on the bokeh (Score:4, Informative)
You can fake it in software. I've been saying for over a decade that two small lenses with some lateral separation should allow an algorithm to estimate distance and blur the parts of the picture outside the focal plane appropriately to simulate bokeh. But it's not real bokeh, it's a digital manipulation.
Not sure I care. Reality is as my eyes see it, either way you're trying to manipulate reality except one limits you to physical effects and the other uses both physical and digital effects. Particularly if you are measuring focused light and simulate the out of focus effect you could have had with a different lens, I think it's more in the direction towards adjusting color/contrast/white balance and not photoshopping in Gollum. I suppose if you're in some kind of nature photography competition or news reporting where accuracy to reality is paramount this might be off limits, but for average people who'll just as easily use snapchat and instagram filters this is about a 1/10 on the photo manipulation scale.
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I've been saying for over a decade that two small lenses with some lateral separation should allow an algorithm to estimate distance and blur the parts of the picture outside the focal plane appropriately to simulate bokeh.
It seems to work well enough for the human visual system, which takes input from two "cameras" at about 17mm focal length and f/8 (outdoors on a sunny day), separated by about 65mm, and synthesizes it into the equivalent of a single 17mm f/0.25 image path -- not for total light-gathering capacity or resolution, but for depth-of-field control and the ability to "see around" extreme foreground objects.
I don't care about "3D cameras" that take viewmaster-style image pairs. I want the kind of image processing t
able to take SLR-quality images (Score:5, Insightful)
the iPhone 7 Plus has a pair of 12MP cameras that are able to take SLR-quality images
Don't lie to me.
It has a tiny little sensor [photoseek.com] that assuming has perfect glass is just providing false magnification as the lens is a f/1.8 with a pixel edge size of about 1.2um (assuming the same size sensor as in the Apple iPhone 5S) but the diameter of the airy disk [cambridgeincolour.com] would be 3.7um. So the smallest item resolvable would fill about a 3x3 grid. Granted software can get rid of some of that but it isn't going to magically make it deliver results like a full frame SLR with good lenses.
While it is probably a better camera than most other cellphones (seriously these cameras are shit) don't say it holds a candle to an older full frame DSLR or even my 40+ year old film SLR that has some really nice lenses with good film.
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Hear, Hear!
MegaPixels plus near pinhole camera lens does not "SLR Quality" make.. Granted, as you say it's probably a nice (for a smartphone) camera, but no, optics and physics say it's not going to be anywhere near DSLR quality.
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What matters is not the diameter of the PSF itself, but the MTF (its Fourier's transform). The optical cut-off frequency is at 1/(lambda*F#) \approx 1010 lpmm (line pairs per mm) at 550nm (green color). The sensor cut-off is at 1/pitch \approx 833lpmm and the Nyquist frequency is at half that (416lpmm). So there is still a bit of information to suck still. Then it really depends on the shape of the PSF and how it lowers the MTF profile. These restrictions are physical and, thus, the same than for a DSLR.
I a
wide-gamut color (Score:2)
Courage, it didn't come, doesn't matter (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Courage, it didn't come, doesn't matter (Score:5, Informative)
They include the dongle with the phone...
Re:Courage, it didn't come, doesn't matter (Score:5, Interesting)
They include the dongle with the phone...
That's only a short-term compromise to avoid pissing off the world too much. In the long term headphone makers will start producing Apple-only lightning headphones. Those headphones will have to license Apple since this new interface can negotiate the connection. They will consequently cost more. Moreover, it's a DRM ploy since regulating which devices can connect will also regulate how the media played through that interface can be copied.
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That is the crux of Apple's problem. Living off of Steve Jobs' legacy. Tim Cook is a suit, nothing more. He's milking the Apple brand for all it's worth but time is running out. Google and Samsung are already eating Apple's lunch. Heck Microsoft could make a come back. Bye bye Timmy...
Re:Courage, it didn't come, doesn't matter (Score:5, Insightful)
Two things:
The expensive ass proprietary dongles are free and included with the phone.
The 1/8" stereo plug is over 50 fucking year old. I'm not sure this is the answer, but it's shitty technology
And the wheel is over 5000 years old. Do you have a better idea?
Just because a technology is old, doesn't mean it not still the right solution.
Terrible headphones (Score:5, Interesting)
No... (Score:3)
The EarPods that ship with the phone are wired, just using the lightning port instead.
The new wireless EarPods you would have to buy, so if you don't think they will work, don't buy them. Personally I was worried about that also (while running the default pods will slip out of one ear) but the wireless pods may be batter, with the long stems against your cheek it seems like they would stay in better.
Courage, of course... (Score:2)
is Apple marketing speak for, "We will now be able to sell you a whole new set of branded accessories that you wouldn't have otherwise needed."
Prediction: This version of the iPhone sells significantly worse than the previous two.
No new mac hardware (Score:3)
They are getting very old and can at least use some price cuts / ram / cpu / disk bumps.
jack off (Score:2)
n/t
Why is everyone obsessed about headphone jack (Score:2, Troll)
Personally I don't get it.
Loved it on my first generation Sony walkman.
Not so keen on them in the past 20 or so years.
Getting rid of it seems like a great idea... especially since so many phone makers already did it and Apple is merely following the trend set by others.
People need to get over the headphone jack.
Wires suck.
Wired headphones suck even more.
No headphone jack? (Score:3)
Headphone jack vs waterproofing... BULLSHIT! (Score:4, Informative)
Apple is claiming they did it to make the phone waterproof. Apparently, they didn't bother to spend about 12 seconds with Google searching for "ip67 headphone jack", because if they DID, they'd have found countless IP67-rated headphone jacks like this one:
http://koumay.en.alibaba.com/p... [alibaba.com]
For those who don't know, the "7" in "IP67" means "waterproof to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes". I didn't have time to search further, but I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one company that makes IP68 ("waterproof to a depth guaranteed by manufacturer, generally 1-3 meters, for some period of time also guaranteed by the manufacturer"). Note that IP ratings for things like headphone jacks don't guarantee that the jack itself won't end up with gunk in it if you drop it into mud, only that the jack ITSELF won't allow water to pass through to the interior of the phone case.
Fanboi Not Impressed -- AirPod's (Score:3)
For $169 using the exact same shape as the normal ear buds but now wireless with a recharging case, means you are going to lose an AirPod in record time. Those suckers fall out of my ears all the damn time to the point I replaced the ear buds with something much better. Not even working out, just walking around or just sitting still and they fall out.
I'd rather pay a bit more for German headphones than any Beats or Apple EarBud/AirPod... I don't get the popularity of Beats, they make you look like a friggin' moron. Early iPhone adopters were mugged due to the white headphones clearly indicating you had an iPhone...
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Well, hell. (Score:3)
Here's hoping my 5S lasts three more years. I refuse to buy any phone without a 3.5mm jack.
Are these bluetooth airPods abomination going survive a 4 hour call? The phone does, but I doubt tiny little powered buds will.
Good thing they still make the SE (the four-inch phone). Everything else in their catalog is just bleh to me.
Way to fuck it up, Apple!
No phone jacks. Lame. (Score:3)
No phone jack makes it a non-starter.
Hopefully Android phones have the sanity to keep theirs.
SLR Quality? (Score:3)
They must have a different meaning of SLR quality from me.
The entry level Canon is an 18mp camera with interchangeable lenses. It has a significantly larger sensor that would enable a significantly different depth of field, and rang of depths. Further, you can completely manipulate the aperture, shutter and ISO. And you can export RAW for MUCH greater flexibility in editing. And you can mount it easily on tripods, dollys, etc. And by using different lengths you can manipulate the bokeh.
Hype much?
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My 12 years old DSLR will still take better pictures than those new iphones, it just might not be that evident anymore.
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"Water resistance? Who cares."
My boss dropped his machine in the water this past weekend.
My wife left hers in a puddle when it fell out of the car unbeknownst to her.
I have know several people who have accidentally knocked theirs in the toilet.
Some people care even if you hope to never care.
Re:Dumping the Headphone Jack: My Theory (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dumping the Headphone Jack: My Theory (Score:4, Interesting)
The 3.5mm standard may not be established in an ISO document somewhere, but in a practical sense it's as reliable a standard as you're likely to find. I've had lots of problems with Micro-USB, for instance - some cables fit in snugly, some fit loosely, etc. But I've never had a 3.5mm connection fail, and they are so simple and ubiquitous that they have allowed some neat third-party hardware (think Square payment systems). That's not the kind of thing you can roll out without a solid standard in place (either formal or de facto).
The standard has been just fine for all previous generations of iPhone, and for other Apple hardware as well. This is just a money grab, and it's going to lead to new and needless complexity in one of the very few technology interfaces that had remained pretty foolproof.
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The result of all this mish-mash was the Apple engineers found designing a (cost-effective) headphone jack that worked reliably with all headphones and headsets one might encounter in the world was simply impossible.
Curious, I've been using those headphone jacks for more than 30 years, on cassette walkmans, discmans, mp3 players, computers, dumb phones, features phones, smart phones... with "dumb" headphones and "smarter" headphones with a mic and buttons. And I never had any "compatibility" problem, or reliability problems other than the usual broken solder point. But even that has not happened to me in the last 10 years.
They ditched the headphone jack because:
1- they can make a thinner phone (totally useless feature,
Re:Dumping the Headphone Jack: My Theory (Score:4, Interesting)
The result of all this mish-mash was the Apple engineers found designing a (cost-effective) headphone jack that worked reliably with all headphones and headsets one might encounter in the world was simply impossible. You couldn't position the contacts in such a way that they would never short across two rings (some idiot may have placed their rings very badly).
If they decided the only way around this was to add additional contacts to the jack then I am incredibly disappointed in Apple's "innovation". Not to mention the fact that Sony solved this problem in the early 90s. Heck with one-wire digital signalling you can trivially detect if your own magical approved device is plugged in and change the function of the pins, and currently pretty much every device on the market is compatible with the 4 pin or 5 pin jacks on most mobile phones or media players. Again these have existed since the 90s. Speaking of the 90s do you even recall the 3.5mm Toslink? Yeah standard 3 pins with the ability to send optical digital signals too. I myself used a headphone jack as power output for a small project at university. When the assessor tried to mark me down because some idiot could plug his headphones into it, I plugged mine in to demonstrate a very simple headphone detection routine that was part of the circuit before the power was applied. Bonus marks.
If Apple did this because they couldn't work around the problem then it's time to let the entire engineering team go. Copying other's hasn't done much for their innovation.