As long as I can remember in my 56 years on this planet, man has always been able to plug a pair of headphones into a socket in order to listen to music. I can remember hiding under the covers as a child with a small single earpiece plugged into my transistor radio whilst trying to navigate the crackles of radio Luxembourg.
So Apple have decreed that this effort of locating a hole with a small pointy thing is superfluous. The future is wireless we are told. Short term history will be the judge but for the first time in ten(ish) years, I am thinking of Apple alternatives.
Yes, I could plug my BLOODY EXPENSIVE BOSE NOISE REDUCTION HEADPHONES into the dangly adapter that Apple are hedging their bets with, but why should I?
Would Steve have sanctioned this change? Are you in favour?
Apple -One bite too many?
by 81 Comments
No. Other than an Ipod, I have little dealings with them. Minions Of Set. I had considered some sort of combined phone/music/interweb app thingy, but have decided a resolute NO. I will continue with my cheap pay as you ignore mobile phone, recently resurrected Sony CD Walkman (far better than Ipod – and goodbye yet more Itunes hassles), and besides, if it ain’t broke dont’… but hang on…. let’s keep changing everything so that daft types will be desperate to keep up, previously good kit will have to be trashed or mothballed in order to do so, and others will just grumble but fork out anyway.
Not me.
The Guardian had a rather amusing take on this, “The beauty of the headphone cable is just like the beauty of a tampon string: it is there to help you keep track of a very important item, and help you fish it out of whatever nook and cranny it might have fallen into. Apple’s apparent blindness to this blindingly obvious problem is perplexing.”
I’ve been experimenting with Bluetooth headphones, but I’m not won over. I haven’t found any that sound as good as the wired equivalent in the same price bracket, and it is colossally irritating to discover that they are low on battery five minutes after you’ve left the house. While Apple do make good products (I’m typing this on a MacBook after all), one of the less appealing sides of their operation is their hunger for control, and this appears to be another manifestation of that. The internet is full of thoughts on this today, but this piece from Techcrunch was a good take: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/07/courage/
Apple headphones are awful. That won’t change.
FFS
The “plug in the earphones” tech is 100 years old.
Apple have provided alternatives if you must have the new technology – lightning connection or adapter.
They are always ahead of the rest of the world and this is yet another example.
I do not work for Apple.
But they are usually ahead of the game with this stuff.
OOAA
Mmmm. Lightning connected headphones – currently either crap, hard to find or expensive. Bluetooth headphones as any fule knows are markedly inferior to direct input (unless you want to pay a minimum £200).
Just another case not of Apple staying “ahead of the game” but trying to regain some sort of control of a universe showing every sign of spinning away from them.
Bluetooth headphones markedly inferior unless you spend £200? You should try Plantronics Backbeat Pro’s (£100-120) or Jabra Move (£60). They sound great.
In a lab test, I’m sure they sound slightly less great than wired. But crap? I don’t think so.
I’ve been listening to the new Karmakanic album, apropos of a review for chez nous, using some Bluetooth Jabra Evolve 65s.
I’ve noticed that the listening experience is good enough to gain a superficial opinion, but nowhere near good enough to use as a long term option for listening to music.
Blue tooth headphones aren’t ‘crap’ per se, but really only good enough for conference calls (which is why I have the things in the first place).
Well it’s totally subjective but I have some Jabra Revo’s and can’t see anything superficial about the sound and don’t notice much diff between wired and BT. Mind you I have been on the train rather than in a sound booth.
There’s a lossless audio BT standard called aptX (think wireless Flac). Without AptX, whatever you’re listening to is lossily compressed (a la mp3) before transmission.
AptX is only available on higher-value units. That might explain some of the perceived quality differences.
Apologies for being dull.
sadly, apple don’t support aptX on iOS devices.
I think CSR/Qualcomm are pushing Apple to adopt it in the next-gen eyethingy.
that would be nice. i feel they are keen on pushing airplay at the expense of aptX capability.
Not dull at all. I got them because my setup uses aptx. I did a little research because most of my stuff is FLAC encoded. Don’t think my phone uses it, but I’ll make sure the next one does.
Edit: the Revo’s don’t have aptx but I listen wired at home… Now that’s dull.
I have some Evolve 65’s for work and they are very good for work calls and listening to music at work. But they are not great for music. My Backbeat Pros or Moves are both way better for music and are well worth trying. They are not great for conference calls though (but they will function ok in quiet environments).
Hi folks, I normally lurk in the depths like a sort of forum Godzilla, but I figured I could weigh in on this one. I’m a big headphone head, and I’ve tried all sorts. I’m sitting here using a pair of Plantronics Backbeat Pro which are bluetooth headphones. I rather like them. Sonically, they do no wrong. Sure, they’re no Stax electrostatics, but then neither are most other headphones, wired or not. For the kind of listening I bought them for – wire-free listening around the computer or for the iPad – they’re more than up to the job. They look Ugly As Sin, and on the couple of occasions I’ve worn them out and about, I’ve felt very self-conscious, but for indoor use they are ideal.
Headphones are funny things. Probably never more popular than right now, but the majority of what you can buy is actually pretty bad sounding (I’m looking at you, Beats….) but many, many people love them. The fact is, though, that whether they’re using bluetooth or not, the limit to their sound quality is normally a combination of their fit and their ‘voicing’, rather than how the sound is transmitted. Apart from the pain of having to charge the things (which for the BB Pros is a relatively rare thing, more frequent for in-ear type bluetooth phones due to (much) smaller batteries), I don’t really see much of a downside.
I don’t see what Apple has done here as that big a deal – after all, they’re including the adapter for minijack connections anyway – so all bases are covered. I moved back to an iPhone SE from a big Android thing around three months back and have yet to connect a wired headphone to it. And I spend a lot of time listening to music and podcasts on the thing. Granted, I’ve had one or two drop-outs in that time (in the cheaper ‘in-ear’ bluetooth headphones I have) but considering how many hours I’ve listened for, that’s not bad at all.
For serious listening, there’s always Stax, and not only are they wires only, they also need their own funky dedicated amplifier so home use only. Horses for courses 🙂
Connected to lightning? Blimey, sounds risky. Do you have to stand under a tree to guarantee a signal?
No problem.
Embrace your environment, leave headphones at home and we can all become more civil and engaged with each other out there on the street.
I am, of course, not suggesting that Afterworders are anything other than civil and very civic-minded.
If they’re so ahead why can’t they still make high quality head headphones sound wise ?
That’s a puzzle, to be sure. Think of all those unused Apple earbuds still sitting in their boxes. We’ve got several pairs kicking around. I assume they’ve decided it would be too expensive to make good ones that wouldn’t be thrown away.
I nearly ate one once. I thought it was a black olive that had fallen off my pizza (I add extra topping).
Black in ear buds – Sennheiser, I mean.
When Ipods game out all these teenagers quite happily listening on those shite tinny cans. Baffling.
Shirley that’s why they spent squillions buying Beats audio….
I’m seeing a market for trendy earbud safety cords, like the bit of string that went through your coat with a mitten at either end, only more expensive. I’d call it the iFoundThem!
You could call them iHurtmyearsbypullingmyearbudsoutwhenitookmycoatoff!
Aren’t those mittens known as ‘idiot mittens’? You could called your innovation iDiot Buds.
Told you! http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/09/13/you-can-now-buy-a-cable-tether-for-your-wireless-airpods/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=This%20$10%20cable%20promises%20to%20keep%20you%20from%20losing%20Apple%27s%20wireless%20AirPods&utm_campaign=share%2Bbutton
I have bluetooth headphones (a few pairs actually) and they are all brilliantly practical and sound great. Whilst they are not cheap, the are cheaper than Bose wired headphones. Battery life is great (20 hours play time on one pair) and I charge my main pair once a week. Whilst I don’t doubt that I could get a “better” sound from wired headphones, listening on a noisy plane/train or whilst walking in the woods with the dog are hardly the perfect listening environments.
The adapter seems fine and I read that it is bundled with the phone so you have to be pretty churlish to moan. And if it is that important, buy a iPhone 6 now (or an Android phone).
Agreed.
The iPhone 6 is the best version and get a second hand 128mB memory one as it should last another 5 years (I have one of these).
Apple brings out some new piece of kit. Moaning ensues. After it’s died down one lot buys it anyway, another lot doesn’t. Then another piece of kit comes out and the whole process starts all over again. Remember the hoohah when they dropped floppy drives and then CD drives? We seem to be managing without them.
FWIW I’m not bothered, because I’ve only just got a new iPhone and a pair of Bose Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones, which I’m thrilled with. I imagine that Apple’s gambit (which is hardly a surprise) will push headphone makers into producing better and cheaper wireless cans, that’s what usually happens.
Buy a Fiio X1 (or X3) instead. Cheaper and better sound than an eyeDevice.
You mean better for listening to music don’t you? Not better for phone calls, GPS, games, email, shopping, airline boarding cards, downloading podcasts, taking photos, answering blog posts whilst sat in a cab…..
Yes, I mean for the kind of things you’d plug headphones in. And the battery lasts for weeks.
I rather enjoy not having calls or emails interrupt my listening.
You can turn the phone part off if you don’t want interruptions.
I won’t be buying a ridiculously overpriced iPhone, but am surprised this hasn’t happened earlier. Every day I spend a few minutes untangling the lead on my earphones and it is somewhat annoying. In 5 years all phones will be like this.
The new machine is reportedly tougher and water proof- inarguably 2 good things.
I assumed the demise of the headphone socket was due to the waterproofing but then Samsung have waterproof phones- do they have a headphone socket?
My Sony phone is waterproof and has the normal 3.5mm jack. Not sure how it works, probably magic.
There’s no reason I can think of why the 3.5in jack can’t be completely waterproof, they’re just a set of contacts in a tube after all. I would think that was the easiest part of the device to waterproof.
There have been questions about how water resistant the samsung and sony devices reaĺly are. But i have a friend who takes his sony in the pool regularly. He reckons he just needs to rinse the chlorine out of the headphone socket, which just might make it as a reason to ditch it. Not for me mind you.
Another bloody orifice to rinse the chlorine out of, then…
Good for exercising, bad for normal use, I’d say.
As I understand it, Apple are saying that due to the new W1 chip technology in the AirPods, the all-round performance will be better than existing Bluetooth performance.
We bought some Bluetooth headphones for the boy last Christmas and they sound great, and have a mic built in too. The Psyc Wave X1. All discussed in the current AW podcast funnily enough.
A billion iPhones have been sold to conscious, sentient beings who exercised a choice. This seems to annoy people for some reason.
Over 17 million conscious, sentient beings recently exercised a choice.
This drove a small number of people apoplectic for some reason.
My comment was replying to the first paragraph of Twang’s post, which he’s now deleted for some reason. Hence your confusion.
Why is your avatar brown here and green on the updates page?
I decided it was a bit intemperate reflecting my turgid morning. On reflection I deleted it.
He’s brown in both locations for me, Mike.
Still green in the comments for me. How odd. Probably not worth bothering the mods with, but where ianess is concerned I expect consistent brown(ia)ness.
Bluetooth headphones have undoubtedly improved greatly in the last 18 months and its really no longer necessary to spend £200 plus to get a decent pair.
Having made the move to Bluetooth(not second guessing Apple I can assure you, just fed up of catching the cable every 5 minutes) I wouldn’t want to go back and frankly I agree this is a move that’s been coming for quite a while and Apple aren’t the first to switch, just the most high profile.
There are a couple of unanswered questions though. What do you do if you need to charge your phone, want to continue listening to music but only have wired ‘phones? Also there are lots of cars out there with no Bluetooth audio (My car has phone BT but not audio, which is just plain ridiculous). Same difference – you can use a cable adapter but no charging.
…. my guess is that the top bods at Apple would consider a ownership of a car without Bluetooth audio, “sad”. The car is the one place where charging is often essential what with the demands of GPS and navigation apps.
You can add a Bluetooth receiver pretty cheaply to a car stereo. And tech manufacturers are not going to be able to make stuff backwards compatible enough to keep everyone happy.
Buy a Jaguar.
That would be an interesting pet.
What would you feed it?
Yes, Jobs would have sanctioned it. He was a bit of a Technology fascist and seemed to think everyone should live life his way. He may have been right about the tablet but he was wrong about not wanting the ipad mini – it’s simply the best size for most things.
Using an adaptor for headphones is a pain (remember when Nokia thought a micro jack (2.5mm?) would be a good idea about 10 years ago?). I know there’s limited space but I would have thought the sensible option is evolution and put both in.
I love these threads. I have nothing to add as I try to avoid headphones completely. There’s nothing a divisive as an Apple thread, or is there????
Religion is like that.
Apple addicts are part of a religion I guess.
I count myself among them but see no need to change my iPhone 6 with 120Mb storage for at least another 2-3 years.
Everybody has known for weeks that this removal of the headphone port was coming, and now Apple have done it. Some tech writers, like the Apple-friendly John Gruber of Daring Fireball, were not focused on whether it would happen, because it was a given, but how Apple would sell it. It seems to me they’ve covered all bases.
– All phones will come with headphones that will connect to the lightening port. They’ll be just like the regular headphones except for the connector.
– All phones will have a lightening-phono adaptor in the box too. Apple won’t leave new purchasers high & dry and having to pay $30-50 for an adaptor
– If you want to buy an adaptor, Apple are selling them for $9. This is cheap as most of their dongles are in that $30-50 range.
– Lightening headphones are a bigger deal than the wireless in some ways as these wired headphones can do more through the lightening port. I was fully expecting Apple to launch Hi-Res music through Apple Music yesterday in order to sell the notion of Hi-Res music through lightening-connected headphones as being something you want. Hi-res is coming, I reckon.
– A few years ago, Apple changed its proprietary charging port from the old iPod 30 pin wide adaptor to the lightening port. Everyone grumbled. People had docks that devices would sit in and drawers full of charger cables. And yet here we are. Apple said yesterday there’s 900 million devices with lightening ports out there in the wild. No one is looking to go back to the 30 pin port and now there’s a huge market of lightening devices. (See also: iMacs, floppy discs, 1997)
– The Apple headphones that have been bundled with their devices over the years are not that bad. Sorry to break it to you. They are neither a high pair of Sennheisers nor a cheapy pair of some duty free £5 brand. They are pitched in the middle and they are the most used headphones in the world. For the majority of people they will do the job and be good enough.
As for wireless, it means Apple get to cover that base too. One person’s “Apple need to control everything” is another’s “Apple need to show everyone how to do it right.” I have no desire to use/own a pair of Apple’s wireless AirPods, and many people won’t. The default headphone remains the wired kind, if the new iPhone only came with wireless headphones, most people would be unhappy. Only those who want to invest in the AirPods will use them and they’ll probably like them. Just like how most people who bought the Apple Watch like it, but it’s not for everyone.
I bought a cheap set of Bluetooth headphones a while ago for running. I like the idea of wireless headphones, but thought the execution and user experience was frustrating. I think this is a very prevalent sentiment amongst consumers. My feeling with my Bluetooth running headphones was “when this works, it’s great, but it a total pain in the ass if they don’t pair up or they become disconnected”. Wired headphones are reliable, wireless headphones are often not. I think this is the problem Apple want to solve. It’s a version of the problem they have been solving for years. I saw an MP3 player in 1999 and understood it’s usefulness, but it took the iPod in 2001 to apply it. Ditto smartphones.
The W1 chip inside Apple’s wireless AirPod headphones is the secret weapon. Instant pairing and smart device selection. If Apple crack that annoyance, then hooray.
The purchase of Beats makes more sense now. In passing yesterday they said that the wireless W1 chip would be going into a range of Beats headphones, including a new budget range of Beats called BeatsX for sports. The price for those has not been announced yet, but it the W1-powered BeatsX sports headphones come in at an acceptable price point, say £79, they will be a huge seller.
The other thing I’ll say is that wireless isn’t just to do with the phone, it’s about moving from device to device. Have your W1-powered wireless headphones in listening to music off your laptop, then taking calls off the phone, then hearing running instructions off your watch.
As a declaration of interest it must be added that @DrJ body is made from Apple components and he and Apple are sitting in the tree T.E.X.T.I.N.G. (with their Apple watches that only they own)
In fairness, @DogFacedBoy is not wrong…
Apple Hi-Res music has been “coming soon” for so long, I’ve given up waiting.
I have had one iPhone and about 4 iPods, the earphones that came with them were all pretty awful. uncomfortable to wear and poor sound. Even spending a tenner on other brands resulted in a big improvement.
I must say I like the idea of a port that actually makes the iPhone lose weight. However, moving on…as has been pointed out elsewhere, Apple aren’t actually the first supplier to lose the headphone socket, simply the first that people care about.
I find the waterproofing interesting in that they seem to be following Samsung in that regard, who have had it for a while. Actually Samsung dropped both the waterproofing and SD card slot for the S6 (to make it thinner) and then promptly reinstated them for the S7, presumably due to popular demand.
I just had a look at a picture of the Lightning to mini jack adapter, not as clunky as I expected. My plan is to get an iPhone 6 Plus next time (due to gradually failing eyesight) and think about the headphone thing when I get rid of that (2 1/2 years probably). By then, it should all have settled down.
As an aside, the iPhone 6 I have at the moment is the first phone I’ve ever had that isn’t showing signs of needing replacement at the end of 2 years. Even the battery is still good so I’m not in any hurry to get the latest shiny thing.
I’ve been using wireless headphones since January mainly for safeties sake because at work the cable tends to catch on things, you haven’t lived unless your headphone cable has wrapped it’s self around the flywheel of an MBO folder and ripped the cable from the earpiece.
I’ve been very impressed with my Sony MDR-ZX770, the sound is brilliant mainly because of aptX as mentioned above.
But I still prefer my HTC 10 more than any iPhone I’ve ever seen.
Seriously, I wonder if you would be compensated for an industrial injury if you were listening to music? Would it count as a distraction which contributed to the incident?
It has been a bone of contention that has occasionally vexed some people at work. At least 80% of us listen to music or the radio so we have held sway so far. But we are told not to wear them whilst walking or moving work around the factory.
It’s people looking at their phones that is the bugbear with management at the moment. I don’t know where they get the time, I’m always too busy!
I have no intention of changing from my iPhone6. I previously has a 4S and the change was worth it for a larger/slimmer handset, better camera and a 128Gb storage facility for all my music/photos/video etc.
My contract ends next month and I cannot see myself changing my phone for the next 3-4 years.
Smartphones are fast approaching the point where laptops/notebooks are now.
Very soon, every sensible improvement that could be made will have been made and there will be no point whatsoever in changing your phone unless the old one is broken or lost.
http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y448/MrMunkie/IfAppleWasADemocracy_zpsu1ebwkas.jpg
Very good. Have an up!
Hmm, Interesting use of a 15 pin D connector instead of 9 pin for control in/out. Another case of Apple forcing through their agenda.
Interesting article. http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/8/12842378/phil-schiller-iphone-headphone-jack-drm-pure-conspiracy-theory
If Apple implemented some of this would there be a massive outcry?
So, in summary:
People that don’t like iPhones or Apple think this is a bad idea and will continue to not buy the products (or buy them and grumble).
People that use an iPhone will either carry on with their current phone for a while, already use bluetooth headphones so are not bothered, will probably use the dongle, may grumble for a little while.
People that like a standalone music player still won’t buy an iPhone.
Everyone will wait until next year’s Apple product releases and will adopt the same positions.
This sort of hits the nail on the head for me..
Yeah we removed the headphone jack. The fuck you going to do about it?
https://medium.com/slackjaw/yeah-we-removed-the-headphone-jack-the-fuck-you-going-to-do-about-it-89ddec30b01b#.jkjj3ymoy
I’ve read through this thread and one thought has been ever present:
“What about Digital to Analogue Conversion (DAC)?”
For Bluetooth / Wireless this must be performed in the headphones / ear buds but, dullard that I am, I can’t get away from the idea of the process going on at that end being a serious constraint.
I’m sure that I’m out of touch on this. I hope that the conversion done in sound producing component is the only one but it seems that there is a possibility of a kludge situation where conversion of the original digital source to analogue is followed by conversion to and from the digital protocol that the sound producing component works with.
So, where are we on DAC in general? Does only a single conversion occur? Are there any doubts about the quality of conversion that can be done in a fairly tiny ear bud. (As it happens, headphones have always suited me fine so I’ve never been moved to try ear buds for long enough to get used to them.)
The BT signal will be re-encoded from the internal I2S digital audio stream. No portbale designer in their right mind would add the size/weight/cost of an ADC to feeb the BT transmitter.
A lot of perceived DAC quality is down to the power supply. Smaller earbuds are limited to a smaller battery which won’t sound* as good as a big battery. The DAC itself might not even be a chip with a black plastic case and shiny metal legs, it might be a leadless chip carrier – the silicon is tiny.
(*) You can’t hear the battery, obviously. You start at A to get to Z. My argument skips over B to Y.
The only real problem is that you now can’t charge your phone and listen to wired earpods at the same time.
I’ve ordered my phone and will just use the adaptor for now.
I’m with Tony Visconti on Apple earpods. I actually think they’re pretty good.