Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea?

Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by dabbledash on Sunday September 16, 2018 @06:13AM (#17998196)

I was not irritated by the thickness or weight of my iPhone 6 and its headphone jack. I am regularly irritated by the fact that I can’t charge my iPhone and plug in headphones at the same time.

Obviously I can plan around this, but it’s gone from something I don’t have to think about to something I have to think about.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by mortenjorck on Sunday September 16, 2018 @09:18AM (#17998771)

Somewhat ironically, iPhones have only gotten thicker since the abandonment of the headphone jack. The iPhone X/XS, XS Max, and XR are all thicker than the 6/6S.

https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by ianai on Sunday September 16, 2018 @03:09PM (#18000492)

Wow makes me think it’s more for water sealing than form.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by CamperBob2 on Sunday September 16, 2018 @04:05PM (#18000808)

No shortage of waterproof and water-resistant headphone jacks on the market. This argument was always a red herring.

It’s about DRM and vendor lock-in, nothing more and nothing less.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by KyeRussell on Monday September 17, 2018 @03:44AM (#18003926)

What DRM?

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by smolder on Monday September 17, 2018 @09:17AM (#18005625)

You can make the signal encrypted all the way to the approved Bluetooth device, making it harder to extract audio to a raw format if it's played on a phone.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by jrs95 on Sunday September 16, 2018 @04:01PM (#18000786)

Samsung has done just fine with waterproofing and they've kept the headphone jack.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by mauvehaus on Sunday September 16, 2018 @09:07AM (#17998736)

This was originally going to read "Phenomenally stupid question, but why hasn't somebody brought out an adapter cable that provides both charging and a 3.5mm jack?"

But I figured I should google first. Does anybody have any firsthand experience with Belkin's adapter that lets you do both simultaneously? Asking since my wife's work phone just got "upgraded" and we found ourselves unable to listen to a podcast on our last road trip.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by Big_crimpin on Sunday September 16, 2018 @09:13AM (#17998753)

You may find this helpful

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/18/17369236/a...

If you're on Android the answer is no, there's no way to do it.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by mjrpes on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:08AM (#17999001)

This was true until recently. A new product has come out:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07FCZY1ZB/

I bought this for my essential phone two weeks ago and it does actually work, like reviews state. It's been wonderful to get that jack back.

Bluetooth, as cool as it is, has never been 100% reliable for me. Getting random choppy audio and charging headphone batteries is something I don't want to deal with anymore when I am sitting in bed. I tried it for nine months, and the experience sucked big time.

Bluetooth still works fine in my car, though. So I'll keep using it there.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by B1FF_PSUVM on Sunday September 16, 2018 @04:51PM (#18001031)

"This is the World’s FIRST USB c to 3.5mm audio adapter that supports listening music from usb c phone and charging the phone simultaneously"

Whelp, good thing those Android phone makers ensured this existed before pulling the plug ... oh, wait ...

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by Matthias247 on Monday September 17, 2018 @12:26AM (#18003204)

Is the connection stable enough to hold in situations where you would typically have a wired headphone connected?

The usb-c connectors with adapters on my macbook are terrible. On lots of adapters a slight push to the side will cause them to lose connection. They work only in stationary use, and some adapters didn't even work there reliably.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by mbrameld on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:03AM (#17998979)

Which is frustrating since GoPro has solved this problem already. They use a single USB-C connector for both charging and audio input with a single dongle.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by sprite on Sunday September 16, 2018 @11:26AM (#17999355)

I use the belkin adapter in my car and it works well.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by jseliger on Sunday September 16, 2018 @01:36PM (#18000017)

I just bought one of these: https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/. Yes, it's yet another annoying dongle, but there are options out there.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by WillPostForFood on Sunday September 16, 2018 @02:00PM (#18000144)

The photo at you link sums up the modern confused apple ecosystem for many of us, a big mess of wires, dongles, adapters, and chargers.

https://www.belkin.com/resources/img/overview/f8j198/belkin-...

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by brokenmachine on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:46AM (#18012775)

"Just works".

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by philjohn on Sunday September 16, 2018 @02:01PM (#18000155)

It wasn't about thickness - the taptic engine takes up the space that would have otherwise been used for the headphone jack. I would also wager that it makes waterproofing to IP68 somewhat harder (not impossible).

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by annamargot on Sunday September 16, 2018 @08:01AM (#17998500)

Agreed. Wireless charging would be helpful.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by anonu on Sunday September 16, 2018 @08:05AM (#17998512)

Does wireless charging meet the same performance levels of wired charging? Doesn't it take much longer to do an induction charge? It's like a lose lose here. Poorer audio quality with bluetooth, slower charging with wireless....

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by Bud on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:38AM (#17999147)

Much longer? No, unless you're comparing to using fast charge with a 30W charger and USB-C to Lightning cable. Somewhat longer? Yes. 7.5W is common for induction chargers. Apple's iPhone chargers in the box have long been 5W; I don't know what the wattage will be on this year's iPhone chargers.

You lose some speed, you gain some convenience.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by toomuchtodo on Sunday September 16, 2018 @07:28PM (#18001886)

It's also unfortunately less efficient, consuming more power not using a cable to charge.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by annamargot on Sunday September 16, 2018 @08:29AM (#17998597)

It’s getting better I guess. I’ll let you know in a couple years when I’m ready to ditch my iPhone 7.

https://wccftech.com/the-iphone-xs-and-iphone-xs-max-both-ha...

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by marcosdumay on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:51AM (#17999204)

There is no reason why it should take any longer. Induction chargers can deliver much more power than a phone battery can use.

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by cimmanom on Sunday September 16, 2018 @09:37AM (#17998847)

Won’t do you much good, though when you’re trying to charge and listen while waking or in a moving vehicle. Unless what you mean is contactless charging - which would be ... interesting ... in public spaces (street or transit).

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by frankydp on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:38AM (#17999142)

There is a whole niche market for wireless vehicle charging.

Check this provider out. No connection to me just a customer.

https://www.brandmotion.com/freedom-charge/wireless-charging...

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Re:Was ditching the headphone jack a good idea? by cimmanom on Sunday September 16, 2018 @12:41PM (#17999764)

And if you’re on a bus or subway?

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