“Before Christmas, the Apple community spurred a huge controversy as Macotakara claimed that the iPhone 7 will ditch the 3.5 mm standard headphone port completely, to enable further thinness and internal space savings for other components,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.
“Today, the Chinese media has posted further news confirming the original story, claiming that Apple will drop the next-gen iPhone’s 3.5mm headphone jack in favour of wireless headphone standards and Lightning,” Mayo reports. “Anzhou says that supply chain sources have confirmed the removal of the 3.5mm port on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and Apple will instead focus on wireless headphones to output sound.”
Mayo reports, “Feng notes that Lightning headphones will be the wired alternative option, but Apple ‘expects’ most people to move to wireless particularly if Apple starts bundling wireless EarPods with the iPhone 7 as suggested.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Finally! The standard 3.5mm jack is an anachronism and a design limiter that begs to die.
Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. – Steve Jobs
We’ve been using wireless Jaybirds for some time now (currently the Jaybird X2 Sport Wireless Bluetooth Headphones). They work perfectly with our Apple Watch and iPhone 6s Plus units.
As we wrote back in June 2014:
Bring. It. On.
Mac users are never wedded to old tech when there’s progress to be made.
Also, another good reason for the Beats buy. If Apple and Beats both change to Lightning headphones, the rest of the world will have to follow.
Of interest: Apple Inc.’s U.S. Patent No. 8,655,004: “Sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets.”
Apple’s patent abstract: A monitoring system that can be placed proximate to the head or ear of a user is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the monitoring system can be used with headphones, earbuds or headsets. The monitoring system can, for example, be used to monitor user activity, such as during exercise or sporting activities. The positioning of the monitoring system can also facilitate sensing of other user characteristics (e.g., biometric data), such as temperature, perspiration and heart rate. The monitoring system can also be used to control a an electronic device. In one embodiment, the monitoring system facilitates user control of the electronic device using head gestures. More info here.
From your ear to your wrist in the blink of an eye™.
SEE ALSO:
Why Apple may axe the 3.5mm headphone jack – June 20, 2014
Apple may be poised to kill off the 3.5mm headphone jack – June 7, 2014
Apple may ditch analog 3.5mm headphone jack for Lightning to make thinner devices – June 6, 2014
Apple introduces MFi specs for Lightning cable headphones, iOS software update to deliver support – June 5, 2014
Apple preps HD audio for iOS 8 plus new Apple In-Ear Headphones and lightning cable – May 13, 2014
Apple patents biometric sensor-packed health monitoring earphones with ‘head gesture’ control – February 18, 2014
Apple paves way for more affordable iOS accessories with lower MFi and Lightning licensing fees – February 7, 2014
This sounds exciting. Bring on the future. How many miss the DVD drive in their notebooks, or the 30 pin connector on their iPhone and iPad?
Ouch, still using the 30 pin dinosaur on my iPhone 4S and iPad 2. 😊
The earpods will not stay securely in my ear, and I suspect there are millions of people just like me. Making them wireless won’t make them fit any better. I will just be forced to purchase new earbuds. Hooray for the earbud companies…….
Or a $10 Lightning to 3.5mm adapter.
Any headphones designed around a digital signal enables the possibility of adding a lot more features to what is now basically a passive peripheral. Switching to Lightning also adds the ability to charge wireless headphones from your device or from any lightning-usb charging cable, which are fairly ubiquitous at this point.
$10 is unrealistically low.
A simple 3.5mm Belkin Mini Aux Extender Cable $10 on the Apple Store. Apple’s own Lightning-to-microUSB adapter is $20.
Since your hypothetical Lightning-to-stereo adapter would need digital-to-analog electronics, I’d bet any adapter would cost at *least* $20 as well.
I could even see Apple not including earbuds of any kind, forcing users to buy their own. I’m sure those who defend Apple for still starting at only 16 GB storage would agree that this not only saves them money, it’s an additional revenue stream for Apple. After all, they’re a business, not a charity.
/sarcasm
(to any pedants: ok, Apple’s adapter is $19 not $20)
I find that a little drop of Crazy Glue does the trick for me! They never fall out and I just have to be accurate when I put them in. The other day, I got one stuck in my eye brow but I could really see the music.
I like my iPhone Buds, which fit me very well – I’ll like them even more if they have no trailing cable.
Hey Mr. Sunshine! Brighten our day!!!!
You prefer the 30-pin to Lightning? Surely not – Lightning is smaller, neater, and works whichever way round you plug it in.
It hurts doesn’t it longing for the days of mini-USB and similar clumsy adapters that goofballs love. NEWSFLASH: Don’t buy a Macbook if your hairnet-wearing profession won’t support the expenditure.
“slower than the iPhone 5”
Yeah, I think this just proves you’re an idiot that has no idea what he’s talking about… Obviously this more of an emotional issue than anything else. And given all your “gay” comments, you’re probably a homophobic tool.
Removing the 3.5mm audio jack will save me a lot of money as I won’t be updating my 6S+ anytime soon just so Apple can push sales of ‘new and improved’ Beats.
Apple is already cutting production of the iPhone 6S/6S+ 30% due to poor international sales and I don’t see a move like this doing anything to improve the position they are in.
Bad idea! I have noise canceling earphones as well as other audio devices that all have a headphone port, I do not need another dongle. Jony Ive is to high on something, perhaps his ego.
What about all those 78 rpm records you still have? Should Apple have included a turn table in their iPhone also?
MDN– Finally! The standard 3.5mm jack is an anachronism and a design limiter that begs to die.
Like you know something about audio. Microphones and speakers are anachronisms as well. As are musicians. So Apple will stick us with an expensive adapter or expect us to use Beats crap?
Anybody with ears can hear how bad Bluetooth earphones are. There won’t be a quality substitute for wired earbuds for another decade. And this is for the dubious benefit of an even thinner phone? Form triumphs over function.
I have to chuckle when I hear someone complain that Apple may kill off the standard 3.5 jack, they’re probably the same people that complained that Apple doesn’t innovate and also complained that the DVD drive was removed from their mac.
Apple needs innovation because they’re the industry leader, so buckle up buttercups and get used to it. Don’t complain they don’t innovate when they do something drastic, something that makes you “think different”.
Perhaps ypou would not chuckle if you had a couple of $300 headphones, that would be a $600 chuckle.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I don’t mind the reliability of standards like the 3.5mm analog minijack — it JUST WORKS.
Bluetooth is a battery drain, poorer analog signal transfer, and more complicated to use. Moving the D/A converter and amp to the headphones would make the new iPhone completely incompatible with about 100% of all headphones currently in use in the world.
Apple is free to ADD a digital audio output to its iOS devices, though. I’ve been asking for that for YEARS. It would make playback on high quality home audio systems so much better. Currently Toslink and SPDI/F connections rule the roost in the HiFi world, however, and Apple’s unhealthy obsession with thinness would make it nearly impossible to flatten those connectors (including Mini Toslink already in use on MacBooks and AirPorts) any smaller than the current 3.5mm jack already is.
Finally, a message to Apple: ADAPTERS SUCK. Stop making people buy your overpriced adapters. It’s an insult that makes your shiny thin devices look absolutely stupid with all kinds of clunky plastic plugs, splitters, dongles, and so forth hanging out all over the place.
Apple currently wants $50 for the privilege of doing this:
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all because Apple is wedded to the stupid idea of combining signal ports with power ports. Just as the MacBook needs a separate MagSafe power connector, so do iOS devices need separate power cables from data connectors. That’s why the 30-pin and the Lightning connector BOTH suck for a lot of us.
The usual blowhard BS from yet another latest fave anonymous coward. It’s getting dull around here.
I could see Apple having either Lightning Earpods or a proprietary wireless earpods, hopefully not bluetooth though.
Sent from my iPhone
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