“As far as Apple is concerned, the headphone jack is extinct,” Gordon Gottsegen writes for CNET. “With the new iPhones coming in, Apple has stopped selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, iPhone 6S and 6S Plus and iPhone SE — meaning that the last iPhones to come with a headphone jack are gone.”
“To rub salt in our wounds, Apple won’t even ship the Lightning-to-3.5mm audio jack dongle with its new 2018 iPhones,” Gottsegen writes, “like it did with iPhones in previous years.”
Gottsegen writes, “Instead, you can buy the dongle separately for $9.”
MacDailyNews Take: If you can’t swing $9, you can’t afford a smartphone.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our sympathies to Luddites the world over.
Time marches on. You can’t leap forward when you’re bogged down with anachronisms.
Get yourself a pair of AirPods already.
I received the dongle with my iPhone 8 Plus and I use it a lot. I have some expensive headphones that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to use. I did buy a spare as well as a charging/headphone cord (can do both at the same time).
I can certainly afford to buy a lot of Apple equipment, but it is thoughtful of Apple to include it. It’s not the cost, but it smoothes the way for users with headphones … makes life a bit easier for them. Your remark is kind of elitist.
Continuing under Cook, offer less removing features and cables while they charge MORE. No other way to say it — GREED …
Apple’s mojo in Jobsian era, “pleasing consumers” has long been lost.
Now, it’s Cook’s reign, “pleasing Apple brasses”.
Money first, go stingy and charge more.
Absolutely right, dude. Cook MO: Please the board and Wall Street first and foremost with more profits. Like they don’t have enough.
Shareholders in limbo with no real voice to influence Apple. Only option they have is buy or sell stock.
Dead last are loyal customers, particularly the Mac Pros that have stuck thru thick and thin with the company since the beginning.
Sorry to say I have never seen Apple so arrogant, tone-deaf and politically active cheerleading for the LEFT and Democratic Party as they are today.
I’ll give you a subtle example. Watched the keynote on my iPhone from Apple.com. Whenever a person was broadcast on the big screen, here is my rough count: four dark skinned males, four white females.
The remaining were roughly about 80%-90% dark skinned and foreign, OK fine. But the INEXCUSABLE part is unless I missed it NOT ONE WHITE MALE! Talk about diversity, more like intentional exclusion.
Shame on you Apple! … 😡
Isn’t Tim Cook a White male?
And your point is? …
I think his point is that Tim Cook was broadcast on the big screen so it is not the case that not a single white male was so portrayed. Same for most of the other on-stage presenters. Add it all up, and it might reflect the ethnic makeup of Apple’s American customer base, and still overrepresent the proportion of Northern European males in the total customer base (the company makes 60% of its money outside the US).
Perhaps more significantly, you might want to consider that Apple doesn’t really care about pleasing the sort of white male customer who looks out for “dark skinned and foreign” people so that he can be offended. I suspect that Apple Management don’t consider the alt-right to be part of their key constituency.
Was I talking to you?
Once again everything in life gets passed through USER’s liberal filter, interpret for others and extrapolate according to the playbook of the left, then comes out the HATE for the right.
Suggest you mind your own business. Not interested in liberal preaching…
GeoB,
Perhaps you should mind your own business, rather than telling Apple that its business should only cater to white male customers. That demographic is shrinking, and there isn’t a Consumer Electronics Electoral College to compensate.
Sen. Tim Scott (R. SC) might be surprised to hear that the mere act of showing people who look like him in a commercial presentation is “tone-deaf and politically active cheerleading for the Left and Democratic Party.” So would any of the other three Republican African-Americans who have served in the Senate or the 28 who have served in the House. So would the 18 Republican women senators and the 5 Hispanic Republican senators. Many other Republican officeholders and voters might also look “dark-skinned and foreign,” but that doesn’t make them any less Republican… or American. That’s more than you can say for those who would judge them by their skin color.
I would bet that most Apple customers appreciate the company’s support for American values like equal treatment for everybody, even those with dark skins or immigrant origins. To keep those customers, Apple would gladly kiss off the alt-right. If that bothers you, you are free to take your business to the nonexistent electronics company that builds all its products in America with all American components and an all white workforce.
I REPEAT: Was I talking to you?
Mind your own business!
“rather than telling Apple that its business should only cater to white male customers”
YOU LIE! Where did I say that!?!?! STOP PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH!!!
“That demographic is shrinking”
So, and your point is? Last time I checked still the largest.
“Sen. Tim Scott (R. SC) might be surprised to hear”
Not talking about the Senator — I’m talking about Apple! Pay attention, Mr. Deflection.
“So would any of the other three Republican African-Americans who have served in the Senate or the 28 who have served in the House. So would the 18 Republican women senators and the 5 Hispanic Republican senators. Many other Republican officeholders and voters might also look “dark-skinned and foreign,”
AGAIN, I am talking about Apple! Pay attention and stay on topic, Mr. Whataboutism Deflection.
“but that doesn’t make them any less Republican… or American.”
I don’t need to be preached to by a PC Liberal. I certainly know full well what a Republican and American is and their rights. As well as the same for ALL races. Your piss poor attempt to paint me as something I am not is plain to see for all. I don’t appreciate it.
“company’s support for American values like equal treatment for everybody”
Well then answer the trillion dollar question. Why was there not one white male in the presentation? Same as their ads but not 100%, guess in the 90 percentile. No Latinos even though census shows they are larger than blacks. No native Americans. As someone else pointed out, PC Pandering to minorities comes to mind, while EXCLUDING white males, not good.
“Apple would gladly kiss off the alt-right.”
They already have, like the rest of leftist social media companies in case you have not noticed — they are practicing CENSORSHIP. Open your eyes.
“If that bothers you, you are free to take your business”
What bothers me is excluding white males 100% during the presentation and for the majority part in ads. Sad to read you are making apologies for Apple and in favor. But hey, nothing new for you. Oh BTW, I don’t need your permission where to take my business.
“the nonexistent electronics company”
NO, the nonexistent pretend diversity of Apple excluding the largest segment by race in the USA in the presentation and most ads. I simply pointed out the exclusion of a noticeably absent race. You have a problem with that Apple apologist — go pound sand …
They only “excluded white males 100% in the presentation” if Tim Cook and the other apparently white folks onstage were really “dark-skinned and foreign” guys in whiteface makeup. Since you are convinced that portraying dark faces is cheerleading for the Democratic Party, I guess that means that Sen. Scott is really a “light-skinned and American” guy in blackface makeup. Alternatively, I guess you could be suggesting that he, Rep. Will Hurd, and the other African-American and Hispanic members of Congress aren’t welcome in our party because they don’t fit your notion of how a Republican should look.
Fair enough, but that isn’t how most Republicans think an American should sound.
Certainly raises some legitimate questions about what diversity means to Apple. Is it genuine or is it just PC pandering? The non-White people in the keynote were overwhelmingly Black, some Asian, and Latinos were practically nonexistent. Never mind that in the US there are far more Latinos than there are Blacks. If Apple were concerned about inclusion, we’d see many more Latinos, as well as other ethnic groups, like Native Americans, of whom I saw ZERO.
Well said, Rick. Agree completely. I vote for the left in their typical “pandering” mode …
The Cook apologists like to brag about Apple’s cash pile but never mention the tremendous debt load. $241 Billion.
Steve Jobs left Apple debt free.
I had no idea Apple debt was that huge. No excuse for it Cook, just follow Steve’s lead on company debt and politics…
Apple’s debt load is $122 billion.
Dave and DG, whatever the figure is Steve is rolling in his grave …
Apple took on debt for several reasons. First of all, it would have to pay a 35% tax to repatriate money that it has outside of the USA. Second, it borrowed the money in order to pay dividends to its stock holders and to buy back its own stock. Consider it an accounting trick.
The borrowing only began after it became clear that Congress was going to lower the repatriation tax. The company knew that the foreign funds would be available before the debts fell due. In the meantime, the money overseas was earning more in investment income than the borrowing was accruing in debt.
As it turned out, the repatriation tax was eliminated entirely, replaced by taxes on offshore assets that were due whether they were repatriated or not. At that point, Apple began paying the buybacks and dividends with cash on hand, reduced its borrowing, and began paying off the debt.
“Elitist”
You must be new.
Smug takes all day, everyday.
Luckily, you have the adapter you got with your iPhone 8. No need to buy another one…
The headphone adaptor sorts out half of the problem with not having a jack built into the phone, but does anybody know of an equally tiny dongle which allows a microphone input via lightning?
I often use my iPhone as a Timecode reader. All I need is a BNC plug wired to a 4 pole jack with a couple of resistors. It makes the iPhone accept the external audio and an app decodes and displays the Timecode ( a sync signal used by video cameras and recorders ).
Now I’m the first to acknowledge that this is a fairly minority use for the audio jack, but I haven’t yet found a solution. I also use the jack for outputting audio test signals and can do that via the lightning headphone adaptor, but I’m stumped for ways to get audio in.
On a related topic, is there any way of feeding audio into a small device which will then send it via BlueTooth to my iPhone so that it can be heard in the iPhone speaker? I’m thinking a role something like a guitar practice amplifier, but for my purposes I’d want to be able to use it to check whether audio signals are present on equipment I’m testing in the field.
Obviously at the moment I have my iPhone with me all the time and with three small and cheap adaptors I can read and generate Timecode, create audio test signals and listen to signals via the cabled earbuds and an adaptor. That gives me quite an array of diagnostic tools which are instantly available. I’d like to find a way to continue doing that when my next iPhone doesn’t have an audio jack. Any ideas?
Hi alanaudio, here’s the “small device” you’re looking for :
https://www.taotronics.com/bluetooth-transmitters-receivers.html
Bought myself the BA07. works both ways to transmit or to receive.
Thanks for the suggestion, butI don’t think that device actually sends Bluetooth from an external audio source into the iPhone so that it can be heard through the iPhone speaker. Those devices are intended to send audio signals to an external BT speaker, or in the case of the 2-way one, to also receive audio from the iPhone BT and plug into an external amplifier.
I’ve tried similar audio senders, but never found one which allows me to use my iPhone speaker as a monitoring device. I’m not sure if it’s even possible via BT and don’t know where to check.
I can’t listen to audio on an iPhone speaker when I plug in external audio via a jack anyway, presumably because plugging in the jack kills the speaker ( which is why I use an adaptor and my cabled earbuds if I want to listen to signals ), but I am still able to monitor audio visually by using a spectrum analyser app and can absolve the signal on the iPhone screen.
I’ve got a really great ( but very fiddly to make ) adaptor lead where a 4 pole jack is wired to a male XLR, a female XLR and a BNC plug, there are a couple of resistors in one of the XLRs and the whole thing easily fits in the palm of my hand and is always in my bag when I’m working. When I plug the jack into my iPhone, I can read timecode, output a test tone at any frequency or observe an incoming signal on a spectrum analyser. That give me a hell of a lot of useful test facilities to have from a small adaptor lead which cost less than $5 to make. I’m at a loss trying to come up with something comparable to connect via Bluetooth or lightning.
None of that looks to be possible once I no longer have an iPhone with a jack.
Autocorrect failure …
Absolve the signal = observe the signal!
I was hoping that they would retire lightning and adopt USB-C, just like on the MacBook product line. And what about the SE? So, there’s no longer a $399 iPhone? There’s no longer a small iPhone for people – mostly women – who don’t have large hands?
iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 are both still for sale. They offer a smaller width and it’s still an upgrade over the SE. Apple has also discontinued the LISA, and floppy drives much to the chagrin of some.
Hola Paco,
I don’t know why you need to throw in sarcasm about LISA and the floppy drive. I made a completely reasonable point. Apple no longer has a small form factor iPhone. Perhaps the 7 and the 8 are not too large for you, but I have taken friends to the Apple store who found those models too large. Perhaps you don’t know any 100 pound women who have small hands, but I do. The SE was a perfect size for them while the 7 and 8 are just too large. I wasn’t suggesting that the original SE should be sold forever, but an updated iPhone in a small form factor would be useful for people who cannot wield devices the size of the 7 and 8.
Well said and totally agree. Will hang onto my beloved SE until the last day possible …
i am very disappointing with Apple discontinuing the Apple SE all together.
The SE was introduced mid-year. Perhaps another will come mid-year again?
Yes, March 31, 2016. Fingers crossed but I suspect the know it alls at Apple no longer listen to customers. Particularly those women and men with small hands and the rest of us using preferred pocket sized iPhones since June 2007. Hiking prices and padding profits are the NEW MO under Cook. Success has gone to their heads and I sense more tone-deaf than ever …
When Apple brought back the 4-inch form factor by introducing the SE, it was a calculated risk. Nobody could be sure that the overall smartphone market had gotten over its obsession with giant screens, but Apple had the nerve to try and it was a surprise hit. However, the bean counters eventually decided to terminate the SE, not because sales were insignificant, but because margins and contribution to ASP declined, just as they had for the iPhone 5c. Those metrics tend to impress certain investors. CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri are playing a particular financial game, one in which world economic stakes are changing round week by week and the product mix is one of their finesse chess moves. Individual customers, of course, are the pawns.
I just posted five minutes ago I thought the SE was a continuation of the iPhone 5 form factor with upgraded specs. Does not matter, it’s a great phone and typing my reply on it now.
“Individual customers, of course, are the pawns.” Amen, Herself. Never before in Apple history have I felt like a “pawn” to the balance sheet under beancounter Cook …
Giving you the dongle signals defeat for Apple and the lack of headphone jack.
I prefer wired headphones, no worrying about charging and some of the bluetooth headphones come with wires if you need it.
With apple’s margins, they can afford to put in a .25 cent dongle. MDN is just dumb with their blind loyalty, even when apple is bending you over.
They keep trying to push customers away, they even got me thinking about switching over to Android phones.
I would not characterize that as “thinking.” Android sucks, plus they’ll just follow Apple. Yes, the dongle is useful (for those without Bluetooth phones and audio pros), prematurely extinct, but yes- affordable. However, re: elitism, yes, MDN apparently feels that those not wealthy enough to afford any and all Apple products therefore don’t deserve them.
Electronic waste
If about half of users never uses the dongle, its more tha 50 mill. dongles saved from landfill!
So no more little dongles in the landfill, replaced with large wireless headphones with their lithium batteries that can’t be replaced.
So, I buy a pair of Bose headphones for $350 , when they battery dies it’s not replaceable so i chuck the whole thing in the garbage and off to the landfill.
Or, I use a dongle and continue to use my wired 12 year old Bose headphones.
Getting rid of the headphone jack was to sell more beats headphones.
You can’t be this dumb can you?
Good to read common sense wins the debate …
Odd that when you go to the Apple Store site and click show all models the 6, 6S and SE are still there but no link to buy.
You can also change the model in the drop downs to SE or whatever and it says available at authorized resellers.
The same folks that are complaining about this probably still use floppy drives.
No, I don’t use floppy drives, but I do use a pair of Sony studio headphones that cost me about $300.
So you can’t afford a $9 Lightning analog audio adapter for your $300 headphones? The reason Apple doesn’t include one with the new iPhones is because very few customers use corded headphones any more. It would be a waste of natural resources to do so. That small minority of luddites can buy the adapter while the vast majority will never miss it thus saving the planet and Apple manufacturing operations from wasted manufacturing resources and a glut of unused adapters.
I think the issue is that Apple can’t afford $1 for that $9 adapter….
If you look over Apple’s cable lists, their frequent change of connectors, and always proprietary connectors and cables (and attempt to prvent third party copying of cables and chargers), you can easily understand Apple’s intention behind it. They are in the cable selling business and they are phenomenally successful at it. Removing the dongle does not have any healthy or logical ideas behind it. Apple simply want consumers buy it. Everything Apple has been run is based on this mentality. Cheap and greedy…
“small minority of luddites”
You will NEVER get the same quality of audio from Bluetooth as wired.
I have several bluetooth speakers/headsets that I love for convenience but their sound is nowhere near as good as my wired headphones.
Your talking down to people who understand quality audio makes you look pretty foolish.
Jaybird Freedom 2, $80 at Costco with two 4 hour backup chargers and a custom EQ app. Unlimited return for refund policy. Love’em.
I had Jaybirds before the AirPods. They were definitely great on battery life, comfortable and handle the sweat well when exercising.
Still the sound quality was not great since it varied depending on how the pieces where in the ear.
When I got the AirPods the sound quality was always consistent and the first time with Bluetooth headphones that I had heard music exactly the same as out of speakers. With the great battery life and robustness, these beat the Jaybirds hands down.
OH HELL. Who has corded headphones anymore anyway!? Your going to buy a state of the art phone and still use corded headphones? Get back to us when you get out of the 1900’s!
1800’s
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35253398
MDN: “Get yourself a pair of AirPods already”
For a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars (XS Max 512 GB) they ought to get a set of AirPods that match the color of the phone.
As far as I’m concerned Apple is he Luddites here. What kind of company keeps coming up with silly reasons to constantly change protocols that aethetically ruin their own designs? Apple make the shit you’re making so people can experience the product in its entirity from the moment the box is opened. Stop bilking customers for every stupid add-on, this is a Bill Gate’s Microsoftian move from the 802-90s era. Charge me more if you want, but give me the whole widget in one box. My iphone is an essiential communication device, not a Mattel Barbie set that needs a different accessory outfit (dongle) to play with each week.
Still no Dolby Atmos… Just slightly better stereo speakers… Although they have enabled stereo sound, finally.
Devin Prater Assistive Technology Instructor certified by World Services for the Blind JAWS certified
>
Only luddites use dongles.
AirPods do NOT fit many ear canals properly.
Apple needs to spend some $$ and improve AirPod fit for more diverse ear canal formations or put the ear phone jack back in.
no SE-sized phone, no sale. looking at alternative small phones now. has nothing to do with my love for floppy disks – i just despise the large form factor.
I despise them as well and most users are obnoxious. Apple is in serious tone-deaf customer mode big time AGAIN with no NEW small form factor phones. In case anybody missed it — FIRST time in history! Thanks again Tim, you do a superlative job of killing popular products, but you need to LEARN to listen to customers. This is not Congress where the majority rules 100% of the time. You of ALL people should place profits aside and respect the will of minorities…
It was Tim Cook who introduced the SE. Although it sold well, their larger-screen customers won the popular vote. Perhaps sales should be filtered through the functional equivalent of an electoral college, which can mitigate overall trends through partitioning of consumer choices. That might lead to loss of overall customer satisfaction (anathema to Cook) but would prevent the majority tyrannising minorities.
“It was Tim Cook who introduced the SE.”
It was Tim Cook who killed it.
“Although it sold well, their larger-screen customers won the popular vote.”
Well, if is sold well they are leaving millions on the table for NO REASON.
Stupid and ignoring needs of millions of customers particularly women.
Won the vote? I don’t think so. As you pointed out previously this is classic beancounter MO …
Beancounters determined who won the vote, measured in dollars. That means those who voted for the cheaper phones had votes that counted less. This is one way that that the majority can crush a minority, by having a beancounter in charge of decisions.
Agree completely. Very sad Apple has come to this … 😞
A lot of buyers will be upgrading from a model that already included a dongle plus so many people use bluetooth that it’s hardly surprising they’re no longer including it. Mine would certainly just sit in the box. Frankly I’d do without the headphones and power adaptor as well if I could.
Just noticed that, did you? 🤣