“Much has been written about the imminent death of the 3.5mm headphone jack in the past months, and especially this week, now that it’s almost a given that the iPhone – cough – 7 will not have one,” Chris Smith writes for BGR.
“In the grand scheme of things, the standard 3.5mm jack has to die, and there will never be a right time to do it if you ask customers who happen to own plenty of wired headphones,” Smith reports. “In the grand scheme of things, the standard 3.5mm jack has to die, and there will never be a right time to do it if you ask customers who happen to own plenty of wired headphones.”
Smith reports, “In fact, there’s already speculation that this year’s MacBook Pros won’t have a 3.5mm headset jack either.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good. Kill the anachronism dead!
SEE ALSO:
Apple iPhone 7 to offer ‘only subtle changes’ beyond dumping 3.5mm headphone jack for Lightning connector – June 21, 2016
Apple’s ‘iPhone 7’ said to retain 6s dimensions, dump 3.5mm jack for thinner Lightning port, lack waterproofing – March 1, 2016
iOS 9 code reveals Apple’s plans to dump 3.5mm headphone jack in future iPhones – January 20, 2016
Apple’s intention to kill the 3.5mm headphone jack is brilliant – January 13, 2016
iPhone 7 said to be waterproof, replace 3.5mm headphone jack with Apple’s Lightning – January 8, 2016
The fastest Lightning cable is also one of the least expensive – January 8, 2016
Apple will drop headphone jack to make the iPhone 7 super slim, source confirms; wireless charging and waterproof, too – January 7, 2016
Petition demands Apple keep 3.5mm headphone jack in the ‘iPhone 7’ – January 7, 2016
More reports claim Apple has dumped the 3.5mm headphone jack on iPhone 7 – January 5, 2016
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
In the grand scheme of things, there is nothing wrong with the 3.5mm headphone jack.
There is something wrong apple has to make beats buy out make sense.
This is where thinking different is just thinking stupid. Sound quality diminishes with current Bluetooth technology. Plus millions of users would find perfectly useable headphones made functionally obsolete. However, if Apple would replace my wired headphones with wireless devices of equal sound quality gratis then fine.
I agree, offer both, but don’t exclude plug-in headphones.
Nothing an adapter can’t fix. And, I question people’s concern with sound quality playing anything below full resolution files. I don’t expect to listen at studio quality when I’m walking around or running or on the go anywhere.
Some of us use ALAC and AIFF files and would prefer to be able to play them on excellent legacy analog stereo systems. Since Apple killed off the iPod Classic, what pocketable portable audio solution do you recommend? Pono?
The Sony Walkman NW-ZX2 will play up to 24/192 and the formats you mention plus as a bonus for you it also uses an Android OS! Though C/NET says: “Sony’s Android interface doesn’t feel as premium as you’d expect from the price.”
Cost is a mere $1198 but what’s cost to a true audiophile?
Studio quality can be as high as 24/196. I only expect Apple Lossless bitrate playback in the car or on the move. There are some applications where you need a hard sound output but USB can also be used for this purpose.
No sensible person wants an adapter. It’s another excessively priced object that is easily lost.
You’re right, there is nothing wrong with it. Furthermore, if it did have to die it would only be if there was an industry standard and superior jack waiting in the wings to take over. But this is clearly not the case.
Except it is unnecessarily taking up space.
More tech push in search of a problem. I want no part of any product that forces one to use an overpriced Apple adapter. Apple’s cheesy plastic white adapters are more annoying and clunky than any minijack ever.
The planet has millions of excess people unnecessarily taking up space too. Should we eliminate them all?
Let’s not cheer for Apple to replace reliable technology with lower fidelity, increased cost technological crap.
On a Macbook Pro???? That’s about as silly an excuse as Apple making the iMacs thinner “to save space” (at the expense of upgradability)
Seriously, what will they replace it with? Bluetooth audio only? Give me a break. USB-C? Great, now you’ll need TWO adapters for your traditional earphones, unless they include a Lightning port on a Mac for the first time ever.
The only difference 5-years later is that the ENTIRE world now knows that Cook is a greedy, lazy, incompetent as well.
He destroyed the 30-pin industry to sell us his multi-billion dollar, sh*tty lightning cables and adapters… despite the fact that it instantly made hundreds of millions of dollars in accessories obsolete and was ABSOLUTELY unnecessary!
Now he’s at it again, but he has been exposed and it will fail. Cook is worthless as a CEO, hated by Apple consumers, cancerous to AAPL, and hopefully will be fired before the year is out!
Removing the analog jack is just stupid.
but iot’s the thinnest phone ever. Hey Jonny Ive- fuck off.
Just buy another Dell and s.t.f.u.
Love when Apple does stuff like this … filters out all the crotchety older people from the user base. (Although I think Apple should freely license the Lightning port/connector if they decide to go down this route. Or at the very least include an adapter.)
You all witnessed the awkward slow transition from Dock to Lightning. No free connectors, and all your legacy accessories wouldn’t work. Many accessories still don’t fit, especially if you have a case.
The biggest slap in the face is the $50 Lightning-to-HDMI adapter. For about half the price as a BluRay player or Roku, Apple will sell you a white plastic adapter. WTF ?!?!?!?!?!?
“Much has been written about the imminent death of the 3.5mm headphone jack in the past months….
Much has been written by tech ‘journalists’ about the RUMORED death of the 3.5mm headphone jack Mr. Smith.
Now you’re speculating that the MB will also not have one because news stories concerning this RUMOR has stopped generating hits.
We are not witnessing anything but the progress of technology, and in the case of the supposed loss of the headphone jack, nothing but another unsubstantiated guess that you’re reacting to as if it’s fact.
Is it any wonder that these people post this crap day in and day out, it’s nothing but click bait.
Get a grip. O_o
The worst thing Steve Jobs ever did was convince idiots they were geniuses just because everybody was disagreeing with them.
Sigh….. I heard all these comments/arguments when Apple quit using the floppy disk.
No, you didn’t. Because the floppy disk was easily replaced by something better: USB flash memory.
What is better than the reliable 3.5mm analog audio port? Nothing. Any digital solution is either significantly more expensive, lower quality, or both.
Uh,
When Apple discontinued the floppy drive, at that time there was NOTHING to replace it.
NOTHING!!!
USB flash drives were NOT in existence back then.
The thing that did replace the floppy drive was from a third party drive maker named iOMega.
They made Zip Disk drives that were larger capacity (25 MBs all the way to 250 MB) Zip disks that were the next gen versions of the floppy disc and drives.
Anyone remember these discs and drives?
This was a common, but proprietary disc system.
The discs were encased in a very thick plastic casing/cartridge that used their own prorietary read/write drives.
They came first in Serial port versions, then USB.
These were great, but their drives tended to die an earlier than normal death (called “click death” much like the “click death” of a hard drive), so you ended up having to purchase their disk read/write drives with more regularity.
The disks and drives weren’t that expensive, but having to keep buying the drive because of constant drive failures was a pain.
iOmega’s last USB 2.0 drives were more reliable, but soon after the introduction of these much better USB 2.0 drives, iOmega went out of business.
Yeah, and they replaced the floppy with an industry-standard USB port (can’t even say CDR, the first iMac was CD-ROM).
Remind me again, if rumours are true, just what the chances are that Apple will replace headphone jacks on both iPhones and MBPs with another wired industry standard?