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Apple's 'courage' to remove the headphone jack has created a brave new world
It was barely two years ago when we lamented the loss of the headphone jack on the iPhone. The iPhone 7 had just arrived with a gorgeous jet black color, a solid-state home button, and a dongle in place of the 3.5mm headphone jack. At the iPhone 7 introduction, Apple VP Phil Schiller talked about having the "courage" to make the change, to leave the headphone jack behind.
At the time it was kind of cringe-worthy. Rather than try to convince the audience of the benefits of wireless charging or the annoyances of wired earphones, Schiller basically told the audience that they might not understand now, but one day they will. You could hear the snickers in the auidence when he said that removing the headphone jack required the "courage to move on and do something new that betters all of us." It sounded ridiculous. All we could see was the inconvenience ahead.
But you know what? He was right.
It might have sounded like the reality distortion field on steroids, but Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack from its most popular product wasn't a flippant design whim. It was the start of a new strategy that would bring convenience, simplicity, and downright delight.
The move led to courageous sales of AirPods.
See also: Poll: Looking back now, did Apple exhibit 'courage' in removing the headphone jack from iPhones?
Related: New Moto Z Omits Analog Headphone Jack; Adds Moto Mods
Bring Back the Headphone Jack: Why USB-C Audio Still Doesn't Work
Apple on the Decline
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rich on Tuesday April 09 2019, @11:41AM (2 children)
I would lose those in no time. Heck, I once lost my wired EarPods, and after a traumatizing experience of searching for a certain USB stick, I have attached widely visible lanyards to those which contain remotely important data (*). So, from my purely personal perspective, no thanks to that stuff.
From an audio perspective, having read TI's analog audio selection guide just before coming here... It pains to think how one of those lovely op amps with Burr Brown heritage would go to waste there, ... so REALLY no thanks to that stuff.
I've been writing before how software has gone downhill since about 2010 just for the sake of breaking things to be able to sell new ones, or to force the customers into some rental position, but that seems to apply to all areas of technology.
(*) Writing this post gave me the good idea to buy an SD card case, but looking at the case's size, I think it needs a lanyard, too...
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:59PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:19PM
I had to look up these RFID tiles. 20 bucks per sticker is a bit on the dear side, but, China to the rescue, there seem to be batches of 100 reprogrammable RFID keyfobs for 40 bucks. More like it. Might be an option.
Also, from cold war lore, there has been this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) [wikipedia.org]
Something between that and how a Wacom tablet works might be a fine passive option.
I just read that Apple offers finding services for the AirPods, but for whatever reason banned the "Finder for AirPods" app. Bizarre.
By the way, I found my EarPods again after I bought two more (the third, because I suspected the second to be counterfeit; but apparently only the case, and not the content was), and I'm now sorted with a good amount of mobile earphones, in addition to my cable-bound BeyerDynamic monitor headphones. I'll pass on the newfangled stuff for the time being.