Apple announcement today

[Atomoa]

Predicting his own company's failure.

[Woodenhead]

Apple is now officially a dongle company that happens to make smartphones and computers.

Doesn't matter which massive corp it is - it's always something.

[forum]

[dsldriver]

I am not sure why everyone is so *bleep* off about the headphone jack being removed. Headphones are analog and iPhone's are digital. Therefore the phone has to convert the digital file to analog to be able to play it. This means that battery is wasted to do so. With the digital output from the charging port, you simply get better sound and longer battery life.

[TylerM4]

I am not sure why everyone is so *bleep* off about the headphone jack being removed. Headphones are analog and iPhone's are digital. Therefore the phone has to convert the digital file to analog to be able to play it. This means that battery is wasted to do so. With the digital output from the charging port, you simply get better sound and longer battery life.

That's a misguided view and actually makes no sense if you think it through.

Did you read an article about this or is it something you came up with on your own?

[maryjane48]

the reason is because bluetooth sound sucks and if you have a sd card lol, something apple feels you dont deserve , you can put flac files on your phone and have lossless music files

[forum]

Apple is smart for removing ports from their products and then increasing the price. Way to maintain profit margins as your market share decreases. Keeps the investors happy while they trick their fanclub into thinking it's "innovative".

Heck, why make a laptop where the entire screen is a touch screen, when you can sell 1/20th of a touch screen placed just above the keyboard for more.

[dsldriver]

That's a misguided view and actually makes no sense if you think it through.

Did you read an article about this or is it something you came up with on your own?

How is it misguided?? And what part doesn't make sense to you? Digital sound or FLAC files as one person commenting on this said, is way better sound than wave files. Bluetooth sound does suck. But pure digital sound is better.

I used to have a 30 pin (for my 4s) FM transmitter that would charge my iPhone and play music via the digital port. Way better sound than the one I got later that plugs into the phone jack to transmit the analog sound over FM to my in car stereo. Would love to be able to get a stereo that I can plug via USB right into, but realistically, I don't plan on doing that with the current vehicle that I have.

[TylerM4]

How is it misguided?? And what part doesn't make sense to you? Digital sound or FLAC files as one person commenting on this said, is way better sound than wave files. Bluetooth sound does suck. But pure digital sound is better.

I used to have a 30 pin (for my 4s) FM transmitter that would charge my iPhone and play music via the digital port. Way better sound than the one I got later that plugs into the phone jack to transmit the analog sound over FM to my in car stereo. Would love to be able to get a stereo that I can plug via USB right into, but realistically, I don't plan on doing that with the current vehicle that I have.

Sorry, was hoping not to have to write a book. Hope what's below will suffice.
1st - You are confused about FLAK, WAV, etc. Let's start by clarifying that FLAC, WAV, and MP3 are all digital formats. It's impossible to store analogue data on a digital device. So what are the differences? WAV and FLAC are essentially the same thing - data files generated by raw analogue to digital conversion. The difference between the 2 is simple - FLAC supports adding metadata to the file such as track numbers. There is no difference when it comes to sound quality. MP3 however is a little different. With MP3 compression is added into the mix making MP3 files on average 1/10th the size. The compression introduces quality loss. This is what makes a "lossless" standard - it's either not compressed at all, or the compression algorithm used isn't nearly as efficient as other standards in reducing file size but manages to make a reduction with no actual loss to the data. BUT - it's still not as simple as saying "FLAC files will sound better than MP3" as sampling bitrate comes into play. A MP3 file sampled at a higher bitrate than a FLAC file could actually have better sound quality depending on the bitrates involved. It's possible to have a MP3 and a FLAC file of the same song, and have the MP3 file provide both better sound quality AND use less space.
2nd - Let's talk about sound. Sound is analog. It is not digital. Converting sound to digital (and subsequently re-converting it back to analogue) results in a loss of quality no matter how good the file format or the electronics used. When it comes to sound, digital is not a good thing. It's a necessary evil, but it's an evil. A true audiophile laughs at the term "Lossless". What it should truly be called is "Not making it worse". My point being - You somehow thing "Digital is better" and it's not that simple by any means. When it comes to modern electronics and sound quality - digital is only better if it means preventing additional analogue to digital conversions. Any other use may or may not be "better" depending on the specifics. In the case of this conversation it makes no difference.
3rd - Let's talk about your statements around battery life. I suspect you haven't seen the adapter that comes with every i7? It's a tiny little adapter that plugs into the lightning port. It's not externally powered and it doesn't generate power via magic. It robs power from the phone and at best results in the same amount of power used. Now if you're talking Bluetooth - well Bluetooth requires it's own set of electronics that need power as well as a radio which eats up power. There's no doubt - Bluetooth requires way more power than a headphone output. Impacts to battery are in no way a benefit to removing the jack.

So let's talk drawbacks now. Why does it suck? Well aside from the obvious "It's a pain to use an adapter". Having the Analogue to digital converter on the microphone port was super handy. It allowed for the port to be used as a universal data communication method. It allowed the ability to communicate with an external piece of hardware using a standard 3.5mm headphone jack instead of using a specialty cable/adapter for different phone models. THIS is the #1 reason why apple removed it. Apple makes a killing off of adapters and cables. More than they make off of the phones themselves. Using the 3.5mm headphone jack was becoming more and more popular and was beginning to cut into adapter sales and licensing. So Apple removed it. There are other benefits - lowered cost of manufacturing due to it not being there. Also, removing it helped a lot with the goal of making the i7 water resistant. Of course, Apple marketing tells the public those were the main reasons for removing.

Long story short - the primary reason for removing it was to generate profit. That's done be increasing adapter sales, lowering manufacturing costs, and lowering engineering costs (water resistance). Neither sound quality or battery life improvements were achieved with this change.

[Quixote]

That's a misguided view and actually makes no sense if you think it through.

Did you read an article about this or is it something you came up with on your own?

How is it misguided?? And what part doesn't make sense to you? Digital sound or FLAC files as one person commenting on this said, is way better sound than wave files. Bluetooth sound does suck. But pure digital sound is better.

I used to have a 30 pin (for my 4s) FM transmitter that would charge my iPhone and play music via the digital port. Way better sound than the one I got later that plugs into the phone jack to transmit the analog sound over FM to my in car stereo. Would love to be able to get a stereo that I can plug via USB right into, but realistically, I don't plan on doing that with the current vehicle that I have.

TylerM4 already addressed most of my concerns with this post, but I wanted to add that the iPhone 4S used the 30-pin dock, which output analog audio, so the difference you experienced was due to the quality of the devices you were using, not the audio output method in use.

The DACs in higher-end phones are getting better and better, by making this move Apple is avoiding having to put more expensive DACs in their phones in order to compete, instead they make US$4 for every Lightning connector produced, so a splitter-type device makes Apple US$12 since it would have 3 Lightning connectors.

[Atomoa]

THIS is the #1 reason why apple removed it. Apple makes a killing off of adapters and cables. More than they make off of the phones themselves. Using the 3.5mm headphone jack was becoming more and more popular and was beginning to cut into adapter sales and licensing. So Apple removed it.

Great post and another example of the friction true technology progression experiences due profit priorities. The never wavering PR voice of business always projecting itself as a driver of innovation and job creation but as seen here the contradictions play themselves out quickly. China and building hardware paywalls.

[maryjane48]

dsl i never said better than wave as theu both lossless , just sound through bluetooth not that good yet

[Jonrox]

Great post and another example of the friction true technology progression experiences due profit priorities. The never wavering PR voice of business always projecting itself as a driver of innovation and job creation but as seen here the contradictions play themselves out quickly. China and building hardware paywalls.

I see this being exactly the opposite scenario. I prefer to have as much being wireless as possible and this will be the future. To think that keeping our devices wired is holding back progress is backwards.

The elimination of ports is pushing technology forward and you're going to see more and more of it. Wires are more of the same. Good on Apple for going against the grain to push people and companies to think differently. The adapter market is temporary while people remain stuck in the past before they adjust to the inevitable future or completely wireless devices.

[Atomoa]

I see this being exactly the opposite scenario.

Then you missed the point of what the OP was saying. They didnt do anything to innovate, they did it to force people to use their products.

[Woodenhead]

Going wireless isn't "thinking differently" - it's been a thing for years (decades, even) now...

Thanks for that novel, Tyler. I didn't want to be the one to write it, haha. Most people don't understand the actual truth/science behind all the different facets of audio nowadays. Wots a nyquist-shannon theorem, mate? And don't give me no flac over it!