Apparently Google is also ditching the headphone jack[1] on the new Pixel line

[1] http://bgr.com/2017/07/27/pixel-2-rumors-no-3-5mm-headphone-...

Luckily for consumers Android is a diverse ecosystem not controlled by one single manufacturer. There are many devices with headphone jacks to choose from.

What makes you think the other major manufacturers aren't going to follow suit?

It may just be a matter of time. Especially if 2 major companies normalise it, then all the other companies get to drop a feature and save a few cents on every phone.

Samsung's still making a flagship line with a stylistic after pretty much everyone else dropped smartphone styluses; and they brought back external SD cards, too, which a number of manufacturers (themselves included) dropped from flagship lines.

It's possible that dropping headphone jacks could become universal, but I don't see any reason to expect it's likely.

I can see wireless charging and waterproof devices becoming the norm.

Most people also buy headphones from popular brands rather than attempt to discern on sound quality.

I see quite a few AirPods and Bluetooth headphones these days. I don't think you can discount the possibility.

If there are enough customers that really want a headphone jack and everyone else was ditching them, it'd be a point of differentiation and hence worth those few cents for some manufacturer to offer one. I suspect that won't happen though because it'll transpire that most customers don't really care that much.

Which usually don't have OS upgrades beyond what they were sold with, and Project Treble won't change that, because OEMs are the ones expected to ship OS updates.

So headphone jacks without updates, hurray!

> Which usually don't have OS upgrades beyond what they were sold with

Flagships usually do (Samsung flagships, and numerous phones lower in their line, tend to get two major version updates.)

> and Project Treble won't change that

If update practices are something a worthwhile market segment looks to in buying decisions, and Trello makes it easier on OEMs because their is a cleaner isolation of the device-specific pieces, then, I'd expect it to make more OS updates happen.

On my home country the minimum wage is around 400 euros, not many people can afford two month salaries for the privilege of getting OS updates.

Good thing I can compile my own Android builds.

99% of regular consumers don't.

I hope so, I never use my headphone jack. Wouldn't miss it for a second. Would much rather have a more waterproof and thinner phone.

All the more reason to curse Apple for its "courageous" step :(

I used to think that was a huge issue. But my friend bought an iPhone 7 and he says it's just not a problem in practice. He keeps the adaptor permanently attached to his (non-Apple) headphones. It's not like you have to fiddle around with the adaptor every time you use your headphones.

Obviously I'd prefer to keep the jack socket on my phone, I'm just saying it's a minor issue. I think people like to focus on it because it feels like the prototypical Apple dick-move, but it's not that big a deal e.g. compared to the walled garden thing.

I’m going to be honest, I bought a 6s instead of a 7 because of the 3.5 jack and within a week managed to shut the earphones in a car door. This lead to a trip to my local electronics retailer to get some replacements. They only had lightning ones so I reluctantly bought them.

So far, this isn’t really crippling. I use some sennheisers when at home with the mac and use the earphones when I’m out. If they remove the 3.5 jack from the Mac I’ll be more pissed.

> Apple, what were you thinking?

Reasonable steps towards a waterproof phone?

Sony has no problems making a waterproof phone with a headphone jack.

(Although you do have to give it a shake when you take it out of the water)

https://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/dm/water-and-dust-r...

> Apple, what were you thinking?

They were thinking that AirPods and similar are the future of audio.

And for those who have more discerning needs they ship a dongle with the phone that you can leave permanently attached to your wired headphones.

Have they solved the "I want to charge my phone but also listen to music" problem yet? Or does it still require ridiculous amounts of daisy-chaining?

The Apple way to solve that is: you pay them a $159.00 wire removal fee, they will eliminate the wire part of your headphones.

https://www.apple.com/airpods/

So we pay a ton of money for good headphones. Invest in high quality audio services. Then buy a new phone, are forced to buy shitty ear pods that pipe audio via a lossy audio codec.

Or you can use wireless charging which leaves the lightning connector free.

I guess with wireless charging you can now do so.

> > Have they solved the "I want to charge my phone but also listen to music" problem yet? Or does it still require ridiculous amounts of daisy-chaining?

> I guess with wireless charging you can now do so.

Guess that settles that debate then, glad we can put that to rest going forward. (...I realise this sounds weirdly sarcastic?, but it's actually not)

"Paired with wireless earphones, you don't need a headphone jack or a charging port"

(facepalm)

Exactly, awesome right? I would love a future without ANY cables.

> And for those who have more discerning needs they ship a dongle with the phone that you can leave permanently attached to your wired headphones.

But only one at a time - charger, or your dongle connected wired headphone. At some point, that phone's going to run out of battery. My normal use case is that I go on long drives with the phone getting charged using the car charger, while the audio output being sent to the car stereo. This change breaks my workflow even with their free included accessories.

I am seeing a strange trend on HN. Whenever someone writes something even remotely critical of Apple, it's downvoted, even if it's a fact. I neither wrote an opinion here, neither something insulting to anyone, it's still downvoted. I never thought I'd have to write the term 'fanboy' on HN, but that's what looks like the case.

Yay fanboys!! :)