Apple Jan. 27 launch event... what will it be?

[falafel]

If you are in a less bulky mood you could always opt for the power cord that doesn't have the daisy chain port. Of course, it may not save you much in the way of bulkiness.

And not be able to use your headphones while charging. Great choice!

[Uncle Ted]

And not be able to use your headphones while charging. Great choice!

Or use those awesome wireless airpods!

[Moliere]

You forget that the lightning spec supports daisy chaining (which doesn't require stoopid hubs like USB).

Chargers (at some point, if not at introduction) will have two lightning ports to support daisy chaining. Then your lightning headphones can be plugged into the daisy chain port of the charger.

If chargers like this are available, then the one port issue is a non-issue for me #teamdaisychain

I guess the upset masses could always buy a Note 7, although good luck boarding an airplane with one of those turned on.


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[falafel]

Or use those awesome wireless airpods!

That cost $159 and last 5 hours (certainly less, in practical use). Yay!

[Jeff Lebowski]

And not be able to use your headphones while charging. Great choice!

Poor Uncle Ted. He is like an attorney arguing an unwinnable case. With no option for a plea bargain.

[Uncle Ted]

[falafel]

Perfect, Ted. That is absolutely perfect.

[Shaka]

Tell that to all the people wearing noise cancelling headphones. They convert from analog to digital so that DSP can be applied then back to analog.

Edit: Your comment illustrates my point: "Any processing like that should occur before the signal is converted to analog." So are you saying that the iPhone should have the noise cancelling DSP hardware inside the phone so the DSP could be applied before the DAC? Some noise canceling headphones work better than others for good reasons: better DSP processors, better software, etc. So are you saying that Apple would have the best noise cancelling processors and software?

In short, going digital outside the phone eliminates the ADC step to convert the signal back to digital (which saves power, BTW).

Here's the rub, in the pro audio industry DSP's are going away. As processor speed increases it's no longer necessary to have an extra processor just to process audio. This sort of thing can be kept internally inside the phone.

I had a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones for planes. They sounded ok but the sound quality definitely suffers when you apply that type (phase shifting) of processing. I personally think my fully enclosed headphones or my in-ear monitors which passively block sound do a better job with much better audio quality. Also I have yet to read or hear that Apple has done this to make all headphones noise cancelling.

What Apple has done is, "courageously" removed a choice when there really isn't a reason. If they want to apply DSP fine, (what is needed can probably be done using the processor already in the phone) but there's really no reason not to have an analog port as well.

[Shaka]

How often do you charge your phone while listening to music? I can't think of anytime that I do that. I charge my phone overnight while I'm sleeping. The only time I use both jacks is on long car trips when I'm charging my phone (for no good reason) and have it also plugged into the aux in MJs car to listen to music...but lately I don't even do that since my kids are getting old enough that they just want to listen to their own music on their own devices.


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Every single day.

[Uncle Ted]

Why dropping the mini audio jack is a good idea...

1. The mini-jack was never really the standard



Headphones traditionally had a much larger jack, known as the TRS phone plug, that was the real standard forever. The mini-jack was an adaptation to fit into portable radios and then the Walkman. When I use my good Grado headphones I have to use an adapter to fit into the iPhone.


Apple is including a mini-jack to Lightning adapter with the phone, for free. I think that is pretty much consistent with what every owner of a big set of headphones has done forever: use the adapter. It's not such a big deal, and I had to pay for mine.

2. The mini-jack is a really terrible connector.



The apple headphone jack has four rings, each with a mechanical friction connector that is subject to bending and failure. The jack in my last macbook was the first thing to go, and it doesn’t work in my iPhone 6 either, probably filled with lint or something. We should all be happy not to have such a fragile connector inside our expensive phones.

3. We are going wireless anyway

I don’t actually care that much that my headphone jack doesn’t work on my iPhone 6 because I have bluetooth connection to my hearables and listen to my phone calls, podcasts and google directions through them. I would hate to go back to wires.
[...]

http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/ap...olescence.html

[falafel]

Why dropping the mini audio jack is a good idea...


http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/ap...olescence.html

Was that article written by Uncle Ted?

The mini-jack is a really terrible connector - said no one that doesn't work for Apple.

[Shaka]

Why dropping the mini audio jack is a good idea...


http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/ap...olescence.html

lol Many of the better headphones actually have the mini jack standard and a screw on 1/4 adapter. Grado has this configuration on some of its models.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Let me see if I can summarize this convo:

others: "I can't believe Apple just dropped the audio jack."
Uncle Ted: "Don't worry, they ship a free dongle with each phone."
others: "Dongles are stupid. I don't want to have to use a dongle."
Uncle Ted: "You don't need a dongle. Use the Apple(TM) lightning earbuds in the lightning connector."
others: "But then I can't listen and charge at the same time."
Uncle Ted: "Don't worry. You can buy a dongle splitter that lets you connect two things at once."
others: "Dongles are stupid. I don't want to have to use a dongle."
Uncle Ted: "The beauty of this device is the simplicity. You only need one port. And you buy a dongle for each of the different things you want to connect."
others: "Dongles are stupid. I don't want to have to use a dongle."
Uncle Ted: "Dongles are going away. You don't need dongles."
others: "Wait a minute. What about when I want to charge and listen at the same time?"
Uncle Ted: "You can throw away your old charge cords and buy new ones with a splitter built in."
others: "But that is just putting a dongle on your charge cord."
Uncle Ted: "Then don't use it. Just use a regular cord."



I hereby dub thee: "Uncle Dongle"

[Uncle Ted]

The mini-jack is a really terrible connector - said no one that doesn't work for Apple.

It doesn't take a google expert to find lots of reports of mini-jack failures in smartphones and tablets. For example:

We've deployed approximately 100 iPads to each elementary school in our district. In one of the schools the kids use it for a personalized learning curriculum. They take the iPad and do a set of assignments that include audio and video recordings with headphones. It works pretty slick except for a pretty major bump.
Lately, I've been getting more iPads with headphone jacks that no longer secure the plug, some are even pushed inside of the iPad frame. Out of the 100, I've seen 10 pass my desk from this one school, and I predict more. They're being used pretty heavily, but it pretty much halts or slows education progress once one fails since they're shared among students.
Currently we're sending these to a 3rd party repair shop but at $85 a pop with my expected rising rate of failure, this won't be acceptable to the budget for long. Until I can find a more permanent solution I've recommended the teachers to leave headphones plugged in.
Has anyone else have this happen and how was this resolved?

https://www.reddit.com/r/k12sysadmin...1f&sh=a82b3140

From a mechanical design standpoint headphone jacks suck.

[falafel]

It doesn't take a google expert to find lots of reports of mini-jack failures in smartphones and tablets. For example:


https://www.reddit.com/r/k12sysadmin...1f&sh=a82b3140

From a mechanical design standpoint headphone jacks suck.

Absolutely 0 lightening port failures, I'm sure.