Re:iPhone 7
by theshrike79 on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @04:26PM
(#12447257)
The current 4-pole headphone jack used in mobile phones is hardly a standard. At least both iOS and Android use their own flavour when doing anything more complex than play/pause.
They're standards, there's just too many of them! [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)#TRRS_s...
USB audio has existed for decades and can be used with type-C like any other USB class. Intel's thing may provide improvements but it's hardly necessary.
This is correct, it's called 'Audio Device Class', specs here [1][2]. It's said that the new enhancements that Intel is pondering add power-management features to this spec, but I can't find much documentation on it, other than rumours.
[1] http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/audio10.pdf
[2] http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/frmts10.pdf
Re:iPhone 7
by karmelapple on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @04:03PM
(#12447013)
What about Bluetooth audio? That is an open standard.
It's not a very good one. Audio quality sucks and bluetooth has a lot of issues. But if you want to use it, Apple's always supported Bluetooth headphones.
I was limiting my comparison to wired audio interconnects.
It may be that from many people's point of view, the user experience is comparable and/or better. But it's accomplished using a fundamentally different mechanism. I wanted better apples; even if some oranges are tasty too.
But there is no 'other' open standard yet, although Intel and other vendors are pondering it [1].
This doesn't mean that HDMI or DisplayPort can't be shoehorned to do it and you can't carry those over the USB type-C plug, but they're meant for other things. This type of 'let's invent one that meets our needs slightly better than the 5 others' is what leads to standards proliferating (and I'll avoid linking the xkcd).
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12305410