Apple called it, they are right about the 3.5mm phone plug

[transmaster]

I am sitting her trying to hold off the temptation to upgrade to an iPhone 7+ 256 gig. I presently have an iPhone 6+ 128 with 2 more payments on the edge plan. One thing I have discovered. Anticipating the lack of a 3.5mm phono plug on it I now have 4 Bluetooth earphones. A Senso's because of their ease of pairing, ease of use, voice announcements, and long battery life I use those outside the house. The Taotronics if I run the battery down on the Senso, they do not pair up as well as the others, and the Klipsch in the house because they are the best sounding. I have several of the Lightning to 3.5mm adapters I don't use them. I rarely use my Shure SE215's it is now exasperating to be hard wire to my iPhone. I have to be careful because if I have the Shure's plugged in sometimes I forget the connection and thank God my iPhone is in an Otterbox Defender Case as it takes a Swan dive onto the floor. I suspect in just a few years the 3.5mm jack is going to disappear. So much for my worries.

 

[KevinJS]

Apple are certainly ahead of the curve right now, perhaps too far. Even those of us who have hitherto been considered fanboys are finding some of the decisions a bit hard to take. Looking at how often I use headphones on my iPhone 5s, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that Apple have dropped the 3.5mm. I could even be persuaded to go for the AirPods, which is clearly where Apple are going with the idea. "Wireless is the future" as Tim Cook reminded us at the last keynote.

Same deal with the new MacBookPro and its abandonment of everything but USB-C. Apple have thrown all their eggs in one basket, and the rest of the industry will catch up, eventually. But right now, it looks like an extreme move, considering that if you bought a new iPhone 7 and a new MBP you would not be able to use the supplied peripherals to connect them. Again "Wireless is the future"

In two or three years, I'm sure we will hardly remember what all the fuss was about, but now being so far ahead is beginning to feel like being at the back of the pack, even if we are nearly a lap in front.

For myself, I'm disappointed that Apple have dropped the digital optical port. The excuse was that few people knew it was there, but I would have thought a bit of education would go a long way. Those of us that use it find it invaluable, and although it is replicated on the Airport Express, the bell has already tolled for Apple routers. Development has ceased and they will inevitably go the way of the dodo.

 

[whoaru99]

Does Apple pay per post or per thread or how does it work?

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Wireless for headphones blows. Convenience instead of quality sound. USB-C and more expensive dongles to lug around to use what you need to use. Which means more to lug, more weight. And Apple's consumer grade build quality.

 

[RenD]

Of course a standard that is well establish and as being for about what? 70 years now? And is use by LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE will suddenly disappear because 1 company decided to make their phone a few millimetres thinner.
Also, Apple ahead of the curve? Have you looked at their laptop offering? It's laughable.

 

[cratz2]

I'm not sure of the sincerity of this thread, but I see some positives to Blue Tooth IEMs. If the Jaybird X2s are lacking anything due to being wireless, I sure can't hear it.

I think right now, there's a price premium over wired IEMs to be sure. I obviously haven't heard all the offerings, but I'd say the $80 X2s are on par with the $22 Brainwavz Deltas.

In the real world, you can't realistically expect to compare $20 wired IEMs or headphones to $20 Blue Tooth ones as the market simply cannot provide that right now and probably won't for many years.

 

[transmaster]

The Klipsch R6 Bluetooth earphones I have are very good. They are by far the best sounding Bluetooth earphones I have ever owned. The 2 things I don't like about them are the size of the over the the back of the ear modules, and the controls/mic located on the right hand side of the cross cord.

 

[hjames]

Of course a standard that is well establish and as being for about what? 70 years now? And is use by LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE will suddenly disappear because 1 company decided to make their phone a few millimetres thinner.
Also, Apple ahead of the curve? Have you looked at their laptop offering? It's laughable.

Well, 1/4 phone jacks have been around over 70 years, but mini jacks were relative newcomers ...
And the tech gossip I heard yesterday is that Apple has slipped to #5 in computer offerings - behind ASUS and the others ...

 

[chicks]

Have you looked at their laptop offering? It's laughable.

When I was at Dreamforce in SF a few months ago, pretty much everyone was using a MacBook Air. They installed the Chrome browser, of course, since Safari is primitive and useless for software development. In an era in which virtually all business software is migrating to the cloud, the MacBook is the perfect laptop. At MegaCorp, we're finally dumping M$ Office and moving to G Suite, which will cut way down on support costs. We've been using SalesForce for years. Can't wait to replace the HP crap laptop they provide me with something like a MacBook.

 

[Hajidub]

I am sitting her trying to hold off the temptation to upgrade to an iPhone 7+ 256 gig. I presently have an iPhone 6+ 128 with 2 more payments on the edge plan. One thing I have discovered. Anticipating the lack of a 3.5mm phono plug on it I now have 4 Bluetooth earphones. A Senso's because of their ease of pairing, ease of use, voice announcements, and long battery life I use those outside the house. The Taotronics if I run the battery down on the Senso, they do not pair up as well as the others, and the Klipsch in the house because they are the best sounding. I have several of the Lightning to 3.5mm adapters I don't use them. I rarely use my Shure SE215's it is now exasperating to be hard wire to my iPhone. I have to be careful because if I have the Shure's plugged in sometimes I forget the connection and thank God my iPhone is in an Otterbox Defender Case as it takes a Swan dive onto the floor. I suspect in just a few years the 3.5mm jack is going to disappear. So much for my worries.

There's a ton of aftermarket earphone adapter plugs that fit in the charging port and work great.

 

[mhardy6647]

Well, 1/4 phone jacks have been around over 70 years ...

More like "over a century" (which, I'll grant you, is also "over 70 years", so it isn't an alternative fact).
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35253398

 

[hjames]

The whole point was the previous posted who voiced that stereo mini-jacks were a standard that had been around 70 years,which was not accurate.
Who cares about mono AM transistor radios in the 50s

 

[ericj]

My two bits:

Phones make mediocre music players in the first place so i rarely use them for that. I'd much rather use a rockboxed DAP.

The lack of a headphone jack may be part of why the iphone 7 hasn't sold very well. It might not have been as bad if their "air buds" or whatever they are calling them were available for sale at launch time rather than 6 months later.

Samsung and other manufacturers have plenty of proof that having a 3.5mm jack doesn't prevent you from having a thin, waterproof phone.

Apple is now technically an adapter cable company that also sells computers and phones. The new Macbook Pro doesn't come with anything that can connect to an iPhone 7, and the iPhone 7 doesn't come with anything that can connect to the new Macbook Pro. They have actually become the breeder of cables that they used to mock in the imac days.

 

[stuck limo]

Apple didn't call anything in my world. Still using my fantastic sounding wired phones.

 

[elcoholic]

Glad the OP has found joy in his new wireless ICM/earbud collection. Since my ranking for portable music attributes are lossless >quantity>convenience a phone, any phone, doesn't suit my needs anyway. Still using my 160 gb ipod classic and corded Etymotic IEM's or AKG's K240 ll's for on the go. I have a dead 80gb iPod that I'm going to try the SD card conversion when I get around to it. If I had to move on from the ipod today it'll be a FiiO X5 player. I just bought a used "consumer grade build quality" MacBook Pro from an AK'r today. A year or two newer than the 2009 I have to retire. Jeez only 8 years old, what a POS right?

 

[RenD]

From wikipedia: The 3.5 mm or miniature and 2.5 mm or sub-miniature sizes were originally designed as two-conductor connectors for earpieces on transistor radio since the 1950s, the standard still used today.
So pretty much 70 years.

 

[RenD]

When I was at Dreamforce in SF a few months ago, pretty much everyone was using a MacBook Air. They installed the Chrome browser, of course, since Safari is primitive and useless for software development. In an era in which virtually all business software is migrating to the cloud, the MacBook is the perfect laptop. At MegaCorp, we're finally dumping M$ Office and moving to G Suite, which will cut way down on support costs. We've been using SalesForce for years. Can't wait to replace the HP crap laptop they provide me with something like a MacBook.

They where using a macbook most likely because a few years ago they where actually offering something more. These days, most software work as good on mac and window, had decent hardware capability etc. So they became an industry standard in a lot of domains. And rightfully so. But these day they are just overpriced and under powered.
Yes, MS office is bad, that I will agree.
No not all window products are good or well integrated. Sad that you where forced to use one of the sub-par hp laptop. (Using one of the decent HP offering right now and very happy btw.)
2 things I will say in favour of Apple is: thunderbolt is a fast port, and that's good.
and retina display are impressive.

P.S. My intentions are not to start a product war.

 

[toxcrusadr]

The march of technology. I just dread getting a new car, as I'm still buying up CDs because everyone is dumping them, and I hear cars are being made without them. Figures, just when I'm at the top of the demand curve. I dread having to get a new computer that won't have a CD burner either. Oy vey.

 

[cratz2]

The march of technology. I just dread getting a new car, as I'm still buying up CDs because everyone is dumping them, and I hear cars are being made without them. Figures, just when I'm at the top of the demand curve. I dread having to get a new computer that won't have a CD burner either. Oy vey.

I own two computers (laptops) without optical drives and they are about five years old and the 'stereo' I put in my car two years ago doesn't have a CD player, just USB and Blue Tooth.

 

[transmaster]

My absolute favorite wired earphones are the Etymotic Hf3's. They sound fantastic using the Apple 3.5mm/Lightning adapter, better then when plugged into the 3.5mm plug. One of the complaints about the deleted 3.5mm plug is the inability to charge and listen with wired earphones at the same time which is something I do frequently when in bed listening to audio books. If the rumors are accurate the iPhone 8 could incorporate remote wireless charging, by remote up to 15 feet away from the charging transmitter. . Check out Energous
( http://energous.com/ ). This meshes into yet another rumor of a diamond hard ceramic case for the iPhone 8 which would to transparent to RF energy.