Citing a reliable source, a report from Japanese blog Macotakara claims that Apple plans to remove the 3.5mm headphone port from the upcoming iPhone 7, helping to achieve a “more than 1mm” reduction in thickness compared to the iPhone 6s. While the screen shape and radius will remain similar, the device will once again become Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever, albeit with a new restriction: headphones will only be able to connect over Lightning or Bluetooth…
Macotakara says that the 3.5mm port “can hardly be thinner because it is the world standard,” which is accurate, though the current-generation iPod touch is 1mm thinner than the iPhone 6s despite having a 3.5mm port inside. It should be noted that Apple actively contemplated switching to the smaller but less popular 2.5mm headphone port standard many years ago, abandoning the plan after users complained about the original iPhone’s recessed 3.5mm port. Instead, the company opted to wait until alternate headphone connection technologies became more popular, producing every iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac with a 3.5mm port. Apple introduced Lightning headphone specs last year, though very few actual Lightning headphones have been shown or shipped.
The report claims that Apple will bundle Lightning connector-equipped EarPods with the next iPhone, incorporating a tiny DA (Digital to Analog) converter into the connector. To insure iPhone 7 compatibility, third-party wired headphone makers will need to include either Lightning cables or 3.5mm to Lightning adapters with their headphones. Bluetooth headphone makers will have no such issues.
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simply stupid, nobody wants an even thinner iPhone but everyone wants better battery life
It’s about far more than that.
the 3.5 jack is from the 1800’s!
so what?
Not quite true, the predecessors of the 3,5 started in the 19th century, the 3,5 came much later. And so what? The predecessor of today’s cars are from the 19th century, too…
iali87 the point is that 3.5mm uses analog data – a standard that is long on it’s way out. TVs have stopped using analog in most countries due to it’s limitations, and it’s easy to see why with the huge cutback on quality of video and audio. Using a Lightning port for headphones allows audio to be delivered digitally, so the sound quality is actually very close to being called lossless – and closely matching the quality that the music is initially recorded in the studio before being hugely chopped down to accommodate the quality limits of 320kbps mp3 files.
with my previous comment said however, I would prefer if apple would just kill lightning and make the switch to USB Type C. This is necessary if they want to continue to draw in android users – because then android would do the same thing and users would find the switch much cheaper than buying a new $300 set of headphones when they just bought a pair a few months prior. That will be the case with me. I have a pair of Marleys and also Beats and would never switch to a device which doesn’t support them if I only just bought them.
realgurahamu – WHAT are you talking about? You’d simply be moving the DSP from being in the phone to being on the headphones. Being already IN the phone and made by Apple, is a heck of a lot better than a DSP made by some Chinese company stuck to the end of the cable. The way to get the best quality is exactly what we already HAVE. If you want a better DSP, they are already out there. Your entire comment is the opposite of reality.
The internal combustion engine is also from the 1800’s. I’d wager a bet that you own a vehicle with one in it.
@realgurahamu
I can’t believe the amount of ignorance in you talk!
Do you people really think that the fancy word “digital” always means something better compared to non-digital(analog). Digital signal in audio is nothing more than cutting the analog signal into prices and sending only what is important from that signal. This is done so the the receiver(listener in this case) won’t notice the loss caused by truncating the signal. So in other words, digital is like compressing the data so you can send more at once, and have the abilities to reduce the amount of interference. Analog is always better because your voice is analog, music is analog. SO basically its quite the opposite rom your claiming, digital audio will mean less quality because its nothing more than compressing the analog signal. Its a not different story in TVs , cell phone signals, and radio stations, analog still means better quality, BUT it doesn’t happen because this will be at the expanse of having more tv channels, more radio stations, and more number of cellphone users,
I definitely want a thinner iPhone. If they can make an iPhone as thin as the iPod touch and as light, that thing is incredible. You can drop that thing on concrete without breaking, so you don’t need a case. Battery life is not a problem because you can plug it in everywhere you go, and it lasts all day anyway. With all that said I do think this would be over all a bad idea, because people don’t want to lose their headphones. At the very least I hope they have the iPhone come with an adapter if they implement this.
My iPhone 6s does not last all day, not even close, more like half a day. I suppose if all you do with it is use Facebook and Instigate or Twitt…er it is probably fine. If you use it for phone calls, texts, work email, etc… you are lucky to make it through lunch.
I would take iPhone 5 thickness with all day battery life over 1 mm thinner. It’s not going to be as light as the iPod because of LTE and 3D Touch, so your dream of dropping it on concrete is most likely sh!t.
The iPhone 5 I have doesn’t last al day, in fact if I make too or three calls it probably won’t even last 8 hours and that is with freshly installed battery. And most audiophile headphones still use the 3.5mm headphone jack. So all in all a very dumb idea. I absolutely hate Apple earphones as they don’t stick in my ears. If they include a small adapter I have less of a problem with it. But I would really love for Apple to make a phone that can last a few days on a single charge with average use.
the difference between your ipod and iphones is that iphones have all sorts of wireless communication methods which are cut out of ipods. With these wireless communications always running (cellular, bluetooth, NFC, location services etc.), iphone batteries would be quickly drained playing music. Ultimately this is why your iPod doesn’t run out as fast as an iphone – because it doesn’t have cellular connections.
Not me. My 6 Plus gets me through a day with 40 – 50% battery to spare. I don’t need it to last any longer and I’d prefer a thinner and lighter device.
Wow, it’s finally happened — I’ve come across somebody who DOESN’T want their phone to last longer…lol…
My phone lasts more than enough too; I don’t care about additional battery life, I’d rather have it smaller and lighter. And this includes a screen of normal side, and not a frying pan like iPhone 6 (not to mention the 6+!!!). I’d rather have a thinner phone with smaller screen and bezels than a bigger battery.
@srgmac:
It’s not that I wouldn’t like it to last longer, it’s that if I have to sacrifice something else to get that extra battery life, then I’ll weigh up whether it’s worth the trade off. As I mentioned, I have 40 – 50% battery life at the end of a day with a 6s Plus without needing to charge throughout the day, so if I had to choose between maintaining the current battery life and making the phone thinner, or getting extra battery and keeping it as thick as it is now, then I’ll pick the thinner phone.
If I need to I have a lightening cable both in my car and at my desk (where I am for about 8 hours a day) which also provides ample opportunity for a top up, but I never feel any need to plug the phone in so I generally don’t bother. I could go home with 95% battery if I bothered to charge it at work.
If there was zero tradeoffs and battery life could be extended while also making the phone smaller, including cameras with larger sensors etc then yeah, I’ll take the battery life as well. Unfortunately it’s generally not something that can be increased for free in isolation of other things, at least not if you’re taking about making the battery itself larger as opposed to making the processors more efficient to achieve that end goal.
Something worth adding, while I wouldn’t take extra battery over a thinner phone, I would take a narrow phone over a thinner one. As a 6s+ owner, I think I’d gain more through the reduction of the bezels on either side of the display to having a lower profile device or extra battery. The phone would still be smaller, but I think the reduced bezel offers greater usability improvements, particularly given I don’t have large hands.
I have the 6plus – if i rarely touch it, then i have a battery to last…if i go on facebook, internet, and play the odd game that isnt graphic intense, then i need to charge by the evening… if i were to play a more taxing game, then the phone wont last half a day…so you really must not touch your phone at all
I frequently use the phone, several times every hour directly, just not for games all that often. I’m hitting up Safari, Facebook or Mail frequently and on a work day may have music going 3/4 of the time. I probably don’t have much in the way of background tasks and tend to get pretty solid reception where I am, so perhaps that helps.
Unless you want your fingers cut. Don’t worry Samesung will make an even thinner: the Galaxy Paper…. LOL
Samesung yawn.
Agreed 100% — the battery technology phones are using is really crappy — we should have phones that last at least a week on a single charge. When you think about it — battery tech has not changed very much at all since the first ever iPhone…The chips have become much more battery efficient in order to combat this problem, but it’s like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. In terms of the 3.5mm port, I would not care — all of my headphones are bluetooth, and so is the system in my car. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the 3.5mm port. Although, I think a better option would be to switch to the 2.5mm port and just ship the iPhone with a 2.5mm->3.5mm adapter for people that still have the 3.5mm equipment. The adapters are already out there (have been for years) and are insanely cheap.
The thing is changing it doesn’t get you much more internal space, it just needed to go. I don’t even think it’s about thinness honestly. There is a headphone jack in the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano, the nano is 5.7mm. I think it’s mostly about internal space and water resistance.
The difference between older phones which matched your view of week-long charges and current smartphones isn’t just about cellular the battery. batteries are much more advanced now than when they were with phones such as the Nokia 3310, however Nokia 3310 only had WAP cellular capabilities which was very basic. Now, we have anything heading up to 4G LTE, also utilising other battery drains such as push notifications, background updating, email push services etc. It isn’t the wireless signal or the battery alone which kills the length of a battery’s life, but also the services on the OS installed and enabled by the user which drag it down.
Disable cellular, push notifications, background app updating etc. and run only on WiFi, and you’ll see what I mean.
I definitely want a thinner iPhone it’s beautiful, and you don’t have to worry about the battery life because of two things:
1) removing the 3.5mm provides more internal space
2) Apple will never release iPhone with down specs than its predecessor.
hahahahahaha — the batteries in the 6S and 6S plus are smaller than those of the 6 and 6plus — so yes… apple DO step down on the specs…lol
@Paul That’s not an Apple public specification, so no, in that respect they didn’t. Their specification concerning battery is battery life, which they gave the 6S and 6S Plus the same specification.
This is probably the first time I’ve said this, but I don’t want thinner than they already are. I want them more durable, as in shatterproof glass, more durable case and a longer battery life, more RAM, more storage and not more expensive. I would like to have one where I don’t have to buy a case for it to protect it from being scratched or damaged.
I also just got a screen protector with those smart buttons and sometimes i actually like having those buttons there. Sometimes I don’t because they sometimes get accidentally pressed when playing certain games and it screws up the game. But I actually wouldn’t mind a back button on the bottom left.
You’ll be sad to know a button on the bottom left will never ever happen. Also scuffs and scratches aren’t possible to stop. Not on the body.
You can still quite easily hear the difference in audio quality between a compressed 320kbps MP3 and a lossless audio file via the ‘analog’ 3.5mm headphone jack, it depends on the quality of the headphones, not the format in which the signal is passed realgurahanu
Cue the rage.
F**k thinner phones, and most of all: don’t make me use yet another adapter, Apple! Especially not for headphones! This is ridiculous! Use that 1 mm for battery life, for gods sake!
BT headphones do exist.
I don’t like BT headphones for quality reasons, plus I like my existing sennheiser HD 25.
Of course one of the few iPhone users with premium headphones is complaining that they’ll have to buy/use an adapter. Haha
Who wants to go through the hassle of charging yet another device? I stopped using bluetooth earpieces years ago! I paid a bundle for my current headphones and I like them. And since the lightning connector is digital only, any adapters will need to be powered and contain amplifiers. I’m getting sick of this electronic anorexia! Give me a phone that’ll last a couple days on a charge and lose the camera humps while you’re at it!
BT headphones work great indoors but while hiking they’re useless unless your phone is a few inches away. That being said, I’m not worried about a switch to the Lightning connector.
Also, the current iPod touch is crazy thin and still has a standard headphone port. We’ll see what happens.
How do you find bt headphones in terms of IPHONE battery life when streaming ? I find it kills it ie reduces it by about 50% over nornal wired listening
@mpias3785 Anyone who doesn’t like wires. Also, my idea which is based roughly on an Apple patent is to drop the lightning connector, change it to a Smart Connector, make AirPods with a Smart Connector on the playback control module, and let them connect to the iPhone, and the iPhone be able to quick charge them for 30min-1hr of audio playback (similar to how the iPad Pro can quick charge the Apple Pencil). That way, you can have Bluetooth headphones, and not have to worry about having a power source available.
Alternatively, they could make AirPods which have the Smart Connector and then have a Smart Connector to Lightning Connector cord, so they could keep the lightning connector on the phone, but you’d still be able to charge them when away from a power source (this is in reference to the patent I saw).
Internal space.
I have found that many iPhone users have premium headphones…BT headphones really blow in terms of sound quality, and they also have a significant lag. Makes me wonder — with the latest bluetooth spec allowing for more bandwidth and less power consumption, I wonder why they don’t make a new BT sound profile allowing for lower latency and higher bitrate audio streaming…
I don’t think the good ones lag much anymore. It only matters for video though, so there isn’t a delay in sound to video. As for quality, the fact is, I bet 95% at least, use the EarPods or some other cheap headphones.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I think people will freak out about this, and they may have legitimate concern, but this switch will have had to come at some point. That’s what apple does: they push the tech and the industry forward, sometimes dragging the consumers kicking and screaming. they’ve gotten it right often enough that I think this decision is a good one (they dropped floppy disc drives, adopted usb, dropped disc drives, basically laid the blueprint for ultrabooks, among other things, all while the industry and consumers laughed at them)
You may be right, but Apple will not end the 3,5 mm jack as industry standard for headphones, and most certainly they won’t establish lightning as the new one outside their own ecosystem! This will be a big, big fail, trust me!
I agree that lightning won’t become standard (all other tech companies fight anytime apple tries to make a standard, which is one reason why thunderbolt didn’t take off) but who knows, they may finally make Bluetooth headphones more popular on a big scale. And for people who don’t want to cut the cord, well I’m sure Apple will supply a very nice, expensive adapter. Though they should include it in the box, I know better than to expect that.
The problem with adapters is: you don’t carry them with you when you need them, you loose them, they are expensive, they just suck. I think you should avoid adapters to keep your devices useful.
Apple eliminated the “industry standard’ Toslink port on the new Apple TV and they seem to be selling juts fine.
It won’t fail but I’m so glad it’s happening since you said it never would in response to one of my previous comments.
1st: not everybody was happy with that, especially if you used that audio out for AirPlay on your stereo (for audio only) like I do, but I’m still happy with my Apple TV 3rd gen so I don’t really care since pricing of the 4th gen is ridiculous and the remote is a joke.
2nd: removing an industry standard interface isn’t making it less standard.
3rd: We talk about tv here, and tvs standard is hdmi, they didn’t remove that, right? When we talk about headphones, the standard is the 3,5 mm jack, and that’s what may be removed, and that’s what upsets many people who own very good, expensive headphones they can plug in every device, and don’t want to carry adapters with cheap DA converters in it etc…
Someone said you don’t keep adapters with you and you lose them. Wouldn’t you just keep them attached to your headphones at all times? Then you would never lose it, and it would be with you whenever your headphone was
Yeah, I imagine the majority of people would have a single portable device they use frequently with a set of headphones, and as a result could leave the adapter permanently connected. Even if they have multiple devices the adapter can stay connected if they are all iOS devices.
Why not have a lightning to 3.5mm adapter though that ships with the phone..I wouldn’t have a problem with that. They can make their own pure-lightning headphones / mic that comes with it, that’s fine, as long as people can still use their existing headphones, I don’t think anyone will really care.
Completely Agreed ! well said
the actual reason thunderbolt didn’t take off isn’t because of Apple (because thunderbolt is actually Intel’s technology) but actually because USB was already more accessible and there wasn’t much need for thunderbolt at the time. HDDs were still IDE platter based drives which would have been bottlenecked even over thunderbolt, and TVs/Monitors were basically only just turning into 1080p. Had Intel waited until around now to release it, things could have been different, but now, everybody knows about it and nobody cares.
“To insure iPhone 7 compatibility, third-party wired headphone makers…”
Small correction, but the word you are looking for is “ensure”.
Actually, no; style guides disagree on insure versus ensure. Ensure’s the safer pick if one doesn’t want to stir the copy editor hornet’s nest, but not the only correct option. http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/ensure-vs-insure
Owned hah
Bad idea losing headphone jack looks like I’ll be keeping the iPhone 6 or switching to a Galaxy. BAD APPLE!!!!!!
If Apple loses the headphone jack Samsung won’t be far behind. Remember the user removable battery and SD expansion slot that the Samdroids said were indispensable and made Apple a Doomed™ company?
To be fair, EVERYONE complains about the iPhone not having an SD slot — especially since Apple is still selling 16GB devices! And the iPad Pro not having one? That is just inexcusable — especially given the “pro” moniker — it has zero access to external storage without buying that stupid camera adapter thing.
@srgmac clearly you have never heard of mophie or any of the other companies who make lightning based devices/cases which give you upto 8x the storage available on your phone (extra 128GB on top of the default 16GB) or double if you already have the top spec 128GB device. It won’t be long until such a case exists also on the iPad Pro – not that you really even need it thanks to the ultra cheap icloud drive, google drive and dropbox plans that you can get nowadays. arguments for more space on devices 32GB and higher at this point are entirely moot since the OS and downloaded apps shouldn’t need more than that unless you like having the entirety of the store on your device at the same time. Photos are auto backed up to the cloud, music is streamed from Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora etc, videos are played on Hulu/Netflix. what other need for space is there?
So you’re complaining about Samsung copying. How about Apple copying HTC. They done exactly the same thing with at least the 8525 and the 8925. My 8525 came with usb headphones.
realgurahamu, you say what other need for space is there? How about no cell phone signal. For the last 2 years I’ve been in areas with terrible cell phone signal. I have a feeling I’m not alone. Some of the time I can’t send or receive a text. I also have no wifi. Maybe you think I should pay more or live in a place I don’t like as well just for a better signal. Not going to happen.
How does cell signal affect your free space? Everything i mentioned which makes space largely moot and the problem exaggerated you can sync over wifi – which every home has pretty much by now. Cell signal is irrelevant when backing up and whatever you want to use just sync for offline use and unsync it when you don’t need it anymore – simple really
Plus- even if you don’t have wifi there are plenty of places you can go to get it – such as Starbucks, McDonald’s and basically any business
Bad idea Apple losing the headphone jack looks like I’ll be keeping the iPhone 6 or switching to the Galaxy. BADDDD APPLE!!!!!!!
Enjoy. They will all lose them in 3-4 years.
LOL yea maybe shorter they have a faster copiers nowadays.
mytawalbeh, considering they’re copying a company that’s copying themselves. Check out the HTC 8525 and the HTC 8925. No headphone jack uses usb headphone plug. Maybe even others besides them.
mytawalbeh, So they’re copying Apple that’s copying HTC. Check out the 8525 and the 8925. My 8525 came without a headphone plug and included usb headphones. There may be others also.
That’s odd. My first post disappeared. When I posted the second comment the first comment reappeared.
PS: high end DA converters in every headphone or adapter? Using headphones while charging? Using lightning headphones on other devices (MacBook)? But ok, if the iPhone 7 gets even 0.1mm thinner, kill that stupid audio jack…
Internal space.
Would be really disappointed with this if Apple follow through. As many top earphones/headphones come with a world standard 3.5mm jack! Apples earpods are build well. But after a few months start wearing out! It will be a bad and stupid move from Apple. I would accept it if it was to put a massive size battery in. But to remove the jack. No no no!
Internal space. It literally HAD to happen eventually.
When I first saw this article I thought I had inadvertantly navigated to The Onion.
Not keen.
iPhone/iPad already more than thin enough – personally I’d like a bit less thinness and a bit more battery life. This move seems unnecessary and possible counter productive.
For me, apple has got a bit too obsessed with thinness – first thing most of us do is add a case.
Internal space is everything. Losing the headphone jack = massive internal space.
I know this may sound crazy to most people, but I’m all for this. Although I’d much more prefer to get a wireless pair of Apple EarPods than a lightning version. Because to me a lightning version isn’t really changing all that much. Its more a a nice plan B for people who don’t want to use wireless. I think Apple should push bluetooth all the way.
Absolutely. I want Smart Connector iPhone instead of lightning, and Smart Connector AirPods on the playback module which can snap onto the Smart Connector on the iPhone and the iPhone can quick charge them when away from a power source.
Is there really a need for such a nonsense? We all know they are not dropping it, it’s ridiculous, there are already thinner phones than the iPhone and still have the 3.5mm port, which is much smaller than the current 7.1mm thickness.
Unless the next iPhone is going to be 4.5mm or thinner, there’s no reason to frustrate the consumers.
They are dropping it. There’s no reason to be held back hands tied due to old technology.
Ancient tech,the 3.5 jack is from the 1800’s!
Yeah, let’s get rid of fire and the wheel next! Obviously obsolete technologies.
Haha that’s an embarrassing comment, with absolutely nothing to do with this.
Nintendo did the same with the gameboy advance SP back in 2003. Trust me, they regret and so will Apple.
Too soon.
Rumor sites have kept saying this will happen, but I highly doubt it. They could go the iPod touch 4th gen route and make a tapered/rounded 3.5mm jack if they wanted to. There’s not much point in removing the internal DAC because they still need one for the built-in speaker. It would be less efficient in most respects because tons of people use the standard 3.5mm jack and using an external adapter or DAC in the headphones over lightning can require more power than just having it built-in. The Lightning connector isn’t meant to be used while moving around, which is a major cause of Lightning cable strain failure. Heck, even the new MacBook with USB Tyoe-C still has a headphone jack despite removing everything else. The few people that have been spreading this rumor are the “audiophiles” that believe the built-in DAC audio quality sucks, despite objective measurements saying the DAC in the iPhone is much better than the majority of consumer DACs and as good as many professional ones too: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements
No. You’re 100% incorrect. The headphone jack in the iPhones takes up an insanely large amount of internal space. The iPhone and Apple Watch are BY FAR the only devices Apple makes where having absolutely as few things inside is vitally important. Even the MacBook didn’t need to drop the headphone jack.
I don’t know why, but Apple is obsessed by adapters lately… See MacBook with only one usb-c port… This is just stupid. I prefer three unused ports over one stupid adapter. https://support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare/images/en_US/macbook/macbook-adpt-usbc-dgtlavmulti-pf.png
They aren’t obsessed with adapters. They’re obsessed with innovation, and moving the needle. Only idiots think that old technologies should stay just because it’s easier. Only intelligent people know that if you don’t continue to change, nothing will.
Just only when we have unlimited LTE data in every single yard of the world. Other than this, the idiots are who thinks the opposite.
@iali87 There are many places in the world have unlimited LTE data. While the other idiots who doesn’t have they need to use those adapters.
this will be an annoying thing to do. They’ll lose some customers, but it won’t really matter because they have their hardcore fans that will take anything Apple throws at them. Now that’s a strong business.
They’ll lose some malcontents and luddites but that’s what Android is for anyway.
They easily catch those up with a rose gold version of the iPhone… Oh wait, they already did. Apple is loosing its way in terms of design and innovation, it’s sad to watch.
HAHAH your arguments are 100% against innovation.
I have read on a number of sites that Apple is working to, if not waterproof, at least make iPhoes much more water resistant. A big part of this is closing up as many openings in the shell as possible. Because of that I’d give some credence to this suggestion.
This was my first thought as well!
Sony has a waterproof phone that has a headphone port. Why can’t Apple?
I hope that this will generate some development of highly portable, small and good quality DA converters. Hopefully consumers will wake up to the difference that a good digital/analog converter can deliver. Of course, if everyone decides to be happy with the basic converter that Apple is likely to supply, there may be little value to spur this.
Called it. The SIM card will also go. However, I don’t think it should be lightning, I was hoping they’d go with the Smart Connector to gain even more internal space.
For those complaining: GET OVER IT. I mean are you all completely oblivious? Did you actually think that the headphone jack would stay indefinitely? By the way, you’re all complaining because you think they’re only doing it to make the device thinner, but what you don’t realize is that making the device thinner isn’t even the main reason behind this. It’s INTERNAL SPACE, which is the most valuable thing about a smartphone. Look at the ifixit teardown of the iPhones, you’ll see that the headphone jack is absolutely enormous inside the phone, and it is taking extremely valuable internal space. They could fill that space with battery, or reduce bezels. I think they should have gone to the Smart Connector instead of lightning if they could though, because that would save enormous internal space that lightning port is taking up as well.
The benefits extend beyond just making a device thinner. There are many new possibilities that would now be available with a lightning port instead of the 3.5 audio port. I support this decision, granted I only have devices with lightning connections (minus my Mac) but in the long term I think it will be a good change. Especially for the Bluetooth headphone market.
Here is an article speaking to the possibilities of lightning port headphones. http://www.cnet.com/news/new-lightning-powered-headphones-offer-sneak-peek-at-next-generation-of-iphone-accessories/
Again, Apple isn’t going to change the world industry standard for headphones here. And they definitely won’t push lightning to the next one. So believe it or not, if you want to use the headphones of your choice, new or existing ones, you will need an adapter with DA converter in it to use them. And trust me, there is enough room for a 3,5 mm jack since getting the iPhone thinner every year is nothing anybody desperately is looking for but is becoming a joke, plus internal components are getting smaller and smaller every year. So there is NO NEED at all to kill the jack. It just causes trouble and frustration. If you need innovation, get yourself some lightning headphones you can only use on your iDevices or a pair of BT headphones if you are a non audiophile and be happy, but for gods sake Apple leave the jack where it belongs.
Sad. Go look at the ifixit teardown. Look at the headphone jack. Then open your mind as to why they’re taking it out.
Are you trolling me?
No, I’m letting you know why they’re dropping it.
I wish they would focus more on making my iMac thinner…….
I’m against Apple making thinner iPhones but change has to take place at some point and somebody has to take the first step. If Apple moves to smaller headphone receptacle, there will surely be companies who will make headphones with smaller headphone plugs. (That’s one way for Apple to increase Beats headphone sales.) Complaining that changes are being made is a waste of time. The whole smartphone industry has changed completely within the last five years or so. I can hardly remember all the different types of ports I’ve seen come and go over the last 30 years and people complained all the time but it didn’t stop the changes. Electronics is a very fast moving industry almost always heading toward smaller and smaller designs. That’s a simple fact. I don’t blame people for complaining because of inconvenience. I’m only saying eventually they’ll have to give in or remain behind. Apple isn’t likely going to listen to consumers’ complaints because they’ve never done so in the past.
Isn’t there any way to improve BT signal quality or is it something that can’t be improved because of that particular technology. Most people listen to music on their smartphones in some pretty poor listening environments and so I figured most people wouldn’t even be crying over that. I’m sure it must be a very tiny percentage of humans living in big cities who have dog-like hearing ability.
I’m sure Apple has some data to back this up. Totally guessing here, but I bet the stats are something like this:
20% of people don’t use any headphones at all
55% only use the headphones that come with the phone.
15% use bluetooth headphones
10% use other headphones (purchased separately, premium headphones, etc)
So, this means only 10% of users would be affected by the switch, and they could use an adaptor that they can just leave plugged into the headphones when not in use. When it comes down to it, this won’t be a big deal to most users. In fact, its likely going to be less painless than the switch to lightening port.
And how do you explain those 55% that the (lightning) headphones that came with their phone are unuseable with their new MacBook or iMac? (Unless Apple adds lightning ports to them to match headphones) wouldn’t that look stupid?
Um. I wasn’t aware people bought iPhones so they’d have headphones for their $1,200+ Macs. That’s very interesting.
A company that sells headphones that fit one one device and on another, they don’t, does this feels right to you or innovative in any way? But again, I think you are a heavy troll or blind fanboy, so this was my last reply to you.
Not troll or fanboy. I support things that make sense. I could give you an enormous list of things I think Apple blows at, which are almost entirely software related. I mean some of the comments I’ve left for their engineering teams in my feedback to them were quite critical of their intellect.
I’d say more like 90% use the headphones that come with the device.
That’s probably the general idea. I’d also imagine that the 15% or whatever for bluetooth has spiked over the last year and has potential as a growth market. Even if it’s a small now it’s worth Apple’s attention since those people are already willing to spend more money on something that isn’t technologically ready for main stream.
Not the best idea. I like to go to sleep listening with my earphones. And I sometimes leave them on all night because of sleeping problems and noise, being a very light sleeper. So, I leave my charger plugged in too. Wouldn’t be able to do this if Apple switches to just the lightening port. And, what happens when I want to watch a movie in privacy when my battery level is low? I won’t be able to charge the iPhone while watching the movie and using earphones at the same time any more. Just doesn’t make sense. Seems like Apple is designing for fewer and fewer consumer choices. I’d rather see better battery life. Right now, it’s pitiful.
You want better battery life. Hah. If only you knew how much more battery could be gained from removing the headphone jack. Hint: a decent amount.
I can only hope that they go back to a square edged phone. The iPhone 6 series rounded edge is horrible for picking up your phone for a flat surface.
And please better battery life, no need to get thinner still.
I liked the square edge too but I don’t think your idea of it being easier to pick up is right. It’s easy for me to pick up my fat 4s with flat edges because there is enough surface area to vice-grip it from the sides. The 5 and 5s became much harder to pick up since there was less area. As the phones become thinner, it would only get worse. I think rounded edges are the right way to go because at least you can get you finger under the lip a little easier.
I would probably miss being able to put my phone down on it’s side without a case to take timed pictures. But I don’t think they’d stand well on their own if it was much thinner.
Somebody shoot Ive NOW! Enough with his obsession!
Or, better still, let him rip. Let’s make Apple a proper looney farm. This year we’ve had one product taking a bad (hardware) direction (hello, MacBook 12) and another one not being what it should be (iPad Pro). I won’t even mention the Watch. Apple seems to be well pointed in one direction. Let them go through with it and let’s hope that another Steve will surface before it’s too late.
Their hardware design and plan is exceptionally great. It’s you who doesn’t see where they are going. It’s called innovation.
@triankar you forgot Apple TV 4, Pencil and the watch dock.
Here’s the thing. I love my Watch, the 12″ MacBook is the future of laptops, the next generation of it will be amazing. And the iPad pro is great.
So you’re just not into apple stuff. Which is fine. Buy other stuff that you like.
A love the way Apple product design is going. I hope the iPhone gets slimmer (as long as the battery life stats the same or improves a little). And that’s what they’ll do. So if people want fat phones with big batteries, great, get an android.
No mate, I use an iPhone 6, an iPad mini, a Mac mini at work and a rMBP as my private laptop and I use them every day (also had an MBA at some point, an excellent laptop). I’d say I’m deep enough into their ecosystem, wouldn’t you? I’m also a software analyst / ex-photographer / ex-graphics artist.
I generally love Apple’s designs and I’ve been an Apple fan since the late 90s, when I started writing software and being into computers. I analyse customers’ needs and translate them into specs and designs for a living.
This year the MacBook was a bad decision. I do agree it’s the future, but this laptop is not yet supported enough. It’s a huge mistake to ditch all USB-A ports in 2015 and support them via ($80) dongles. NOT elegant. I hate dongles and I frequently need to copy stuff between two usb drives, not one. So it’s the Apple dongle and a separate USB hub for me. Needless to say I’d also have to ditch my Thunderbolt display at home and there’s nothing equivalent I can replace it with. Had they released a retina MBA this year, we’d all have been happy. I’d have bought one immediately.
Just today I was told I can upgrade my work computer. I googled on how I can use the MacBook 12 with a USB-C dock (a couple of USB peripherals and an HDMI 27″ monitor) and you know what? Other than a few yet-unreleased products (Hub+, OWC, Branch) and some dodgy stuff on eBay and elsewhere (hello, IVSO), I haven’t found a peripheral available today that will do the trick. Or will I have to fill my desk with USB hubs now?
The iPad Pro is also a great device hardware-wise, but iOS is far from mature for a “pro” monicker yet. File management and the file access model are my top gripes with iOS (for business). And then there’s the real issue of a Pro device not supporting external storage (how, realistically, are you going to transfer big files across? Carry a laptop or hope your clients also have a Mac for AirDrop?). It’s just plain handy to have this.
The Watch? Loads of gimmicks of questionable value (Heartbeat? Doodling emoticons? Viewing images on a tiny screen? Really???), mediocre battery life, clumsy navigation (I’ve used one for a while) and an unjustifiedly high price tag. Given that a Watch that fits my tastes costs €800, there’s nothing on it that says “I’d give €800 for _that_” and nothing that justifies the expense overall, yet. Maybe the next model will have a more reasonable value for money. But on the current model, I’m far from sold.
The iPhone? Lovely device but its battery life could definitely use some improvements. Not a lot, but it’s definitely needed.
I hope that covers you
triankar, I can’t reply to yours.
You’re saying the MacBook was a bad decision and lauding the Air, but the Air was criticised similarly on it’s launch – both models pushing the industry forward, pushing the envelope technology wise.
If you’re a pro user, you wouldn’t buy the 12″ MacBook anyway, you’d buy a MacBook Pro – there’s a choice!
I stand by my comment, you’re not an apple guy, naming a bunch of stuff you’ve owned doesn’t change that.
The iPad will NEVER have a finder! It’s all about simplicity. And pro users will use Adobe’s companion apps to link content with CC. And other software solutions.
Think about what Apple are striving for and imagine if you’d like it. An iPhone that is 4mm thin and has no ports, feels like it’s hewn out of one piece of glass and has no ports, just lasts a day on a charge (let’s call it the iPhone 9!) – would you like it? Ever thinner and lighter iPads, no ports, still excellent build quality, great screens etc, would you like it? Same thing for laptops, thinner lighter.
Some people don’t like Apple’s style of innovation. People cry for fatter iPhones with several day battery life. Not going to happen! Apple has always released products that are lust-worthy, it’s never been about max specs or cramming in the most ports and it amazes me people don’t get it. They go for sweet spots, good battery / sexy design.
The minute apple release a fat iPhone is the minute they’ve lost it.
And frankly, criticising optical HR monitors shows you’re not very knowledgable in that particular area, the sports watch industry is moving to this technology, see Garmin, and it’s a big deal. Also the Watch battery life is very good.
Fair enough.
Still, to clarify:
– The (1.3GHz) MacBook could still cover my needs, if there was a way to easily attach multiple peripherals on it at the office (i.e. a dock). Such a thing just doesn’t exist now and that’s my major complaint. When the Air first came out, it wasn’t as short on expansion as this one is today.
– My retina MBP I feel it’s a tad heavy for my everyday commutes. This is my main “complaint” about it. That’s why I liked the Air so much: it’s an almost perfect all rounder (apart from not being Retina).
– thinner iPad? No. I have a mini and I like it a lot. Any thinner and it might start being flimsy. It’s thin enough as it is and I like its current battery life. In fact, if I could use the Pencil on it, I wouldn’t mind it being a bit thicker either.
Regarding the Heartbeat, I’m not talking about the optical HR sensor, I’m talking about this gimmick where you can send your “heartbeat” to another Watch. It’s gimmicks like that that make me say “Apple is losing it”
I’m cool with this. Hopefully we get some good wireless ear buds to with this
An idiotic move if it happens. I already have a nice high end pair of headphones, and my iPhone is plugged in to charge whenever I’m listening to something. So I’d have to stop charging my phone, or stop listening to audiobooks, oh, and use a moronic adaptor just to plug my headphones in. It’s beyond imbecilic.
The current iPhone is thin enough. Any more is so far into dimishing returns it defies logic.
Ok Guys, the 3.5 jack is ancient, it what telephone operators used in the 1800’s
The industry should go to usb-c headphones, time for digital headphones. I wish apple would go usb-c instead of lightning, but its a needed move for space and digital audio.
why do you think we need “digital headphones”? What do you even mean by that? Why usb-c? What do you think the extra space is so urgently needed for? Again: what is your understanding of “digital audio” and why is this such a needed move for it? I don’t get your point…
@kjl3000 What is the extra space needed for…? Uhh.. The extra space is the most valuable thing. Period. Why do you think they went to the lightning connector? Hint: space inside the device. It is absolutely the most important thing for continued innovation in smartphones. Not only could they fill the space with battery, they could reduce bezels, and also the physical size.
@taoprophet420 why do you think we need “digital headphones”? What do you even mean by that? Why usb-c? What do you think the extra space is so urgently needed for? Again: what is your understanding of “digital audio” and why is this such a needed move for it? I don’t get your point…
Even the iPhone 7’s battery will hamper after two years. So, if you use your phone in the car, plugged into the aux of your car radio, how are you going to charge the battery at the same time? I use my phone as a satnav (Waze) and for music and not charging it is not an option.
Uhh buy a headunit with USB, so you don’t need AUX?? It charges and plays music through lightning…
This was easily a major part of the Apple vision from the start. I have no doubts that eventually there will be no ports or holes anywhere, giving a beautiful uninterrupted design. Power will be inductive, headphones will (already are) Bluetooth but at a wired standard of sound quality, the SIM card will be software (Apple SIM), volume will be primarily control centre and speakers will, eventually, be pin pricks.
A journey to a totally clean edge
Which 95% of owners will then stick into an enormous lime green rubber case because iPhones are as slippery as bars of soap, are so thin as to be uncomfortable to hold, and not to mention incredibly delicate.
Form follows function. Apple should remember that.
this is beyond silly… i will need to buy a new pair of $100 in-ear headphones cuz my current ones just wont fit unless i use some silly adapter that will end up getting lost somewhere, god no, Apple… nobody and that’s literal, nobody uses proprietary connectors for headphones
Silly would be keeping it forever. Enjoy.
Something tells me if they go through with this, it will be a piss-poor execution of ‘innovation’ like the solitary usb-c port on the 12″ MacBook – where (speaking from direct experience) you need to carry around an adapter at all times if you want to do something as simple as plug in a USB stick and charge the laptop at the same time.
Apple have seemingly lost the plot in their blind quest for thinner phones. And for all of those harping on about internal space, they could quite easily leave the iPhone 7 the same thickness / dimensions as the 6S and simply shrink the internal components down.
You know literally nothing about iPhone engineering. ‘Leave the iPhone 7 the same thickness/dimensions as the 6S and simply shrink the internal components down.’ haha… First of all, the goal every year, forever, will be to shrink the internal components, I mean it’s literally kinda the entire point of the existence of an iPhone..that computer chips were shrunk small enough to make it possible. Secondly, the goal isn’t to keep the dimensions the same, anyone that doesn’t want a shorter, narrower device is a complete moron. I’ll allow people to argue about no shallower, but not the other dimensions. The headphone jack in the iPhone takes considerable internal space, I’m not talking in its depth, I’m talking in surface area inside the iPhone, that is, it is very wide, and tall, and if you actually looked at the internals you’d see that removing it, and removing the lightning port would allow them to increase the battery by probably hundreds of mAh, OR to reduce the top and bottom bezel to the minimum (i.e. so they stop at the beginning of the rounded edges). Moreover, it increases the water resistance of the device of course. These combined benefits are far and away more important than keeping the old tech for convenience.
Oh look… A response from o0troll0o blindly defending Apple’s every (potential and actual) move. I was not expecting that in the least ;)
Good one. I only defend the things I think make sense. Just to make you feel better though, I’ll list a few reasons why I think Apple seriously needs to slow down and focus more on software.
3D Touch: Pitiful implementation in even their native apps. The Music app has obviously an idiotic lack of quick actions which it should have had day 1.
Multitasking switcher from pressing on the edge of the screen is poorly implemented because instead of realizing intent of the user, by ignoring pressure further on the screen than the very edge, it cancels the intended action because you’re pressing further out than the very edge. Poor design, simple as that. When you look at palm rejection for the Apple Pencil, the point of that is the software realizing intent, and ignoring what is unintended. This is realized in FAR too few actions throughout the operating system. Another example is a slight swipe before pressing down will cancel the intended 3D Touch quick action (home screen apps).
Another glaring issue with 3D Touch is that it cannot skip a peek and go directly to a pop, which makes it inherently much slower than it should be, and another example where you could say that it can’t recognize intent. If you press hard quickly, it should instantly go to the pop, but instead, the OS HAS to go through the peek, to the pop, again, an example of poor design.
Another thing that makes me question the intellect of engineers at Apple is the fact that animations cannot be dismissed by an action. This slows down OS navigation by a tremendous amount. How animations should function is such that if an animation is active and a user starts a new action, then that animation should be accelerated to its end, instantly and the new animation begins instantly thereafter, and the OS takes the user where they want. As it is now, a user will try to preform an action during an animation, and the action is completely ignored, and the user must touch again, after the animation completely finishes. That is absolutely horrifically bad, and it is one of the most significantly bad things about iOS currently. Can you imagine how much faster and more fluid iOS navigation would feel, if it worked as I described above?
One more thing of the long list I have complaints about is their sad excuse for iPad iOS versions. It’s only been magnified further by the introduction of the iPad Pro. I look at the iPad Pro wasted screen space and I can’t imagine how the iOS iPad team could be the useless. Look at the lock screen, it’s literally the same as iOS on the iPhone…it’s an absolute joke. I mean they don’t even make UI elements larger, like the status bar, it’s absolutely tiny…why? They aren’t even using the space.. Look at notifications on the lock screen…they’re tiny in the center of the enormous display…it’s such a waste of screen.
They really need to step up the software.
Wow, I’m impressed; you clearly have all the answers and are more clued up on Apple than Apple! Got Tim & Jony on your list of favourites mate? I’m sure if you copy & paste the above in to an iMessage, they’ll be clamouring to hire you on the spot.
If you ask Jony nicely, he may even talk to the queen about giving you a knighthood. Sir Smoothie.
Haha so first you think I love everything they do and then you act like I think I know more than Apple. You really fail at making a valid argument. You’ll say anything haha.
He’s right though – you do think you know more than Apple. Practically every post you make has you down as some type of superior being with a window into the mind of Cook, Ive et al – which is why you will happily call everyone who doesn’t agree with what you think an idiot.
You’re no different to the rest of us on here -entitled to an opinion (some good, some bad) but ultimately clueless.
@Aunty so wait which is it, do I think I know more than Apple or do I think I know Apple’s mindset? Haha very contradictory comment.
Honestly, it makes sense to me. I don’t see 3.5mm connectors going away, but having an adapter does make some sense since given right now you have two ports that are both capable of carrying audio, and in this market that redundancy has some implications as to how the internals have to fit together. The 3.5mm jack isn’t exactly small when you consider the profile of a mobile device either.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple does drop it and likewise Android and WP manufacturers do the same thing except with USB Type C connectors. I doubt too many people plug their headphones into more than one or two devices, so leaving the adapter fixed to the headphone cable probably isn’t a huge issue in the scheme of things. Even if you have more than one device, there’s a decent chance given how things are that they’re both iOS devices.
Anyone commenting that it’s about “internal space” want to explain how Samsung is capable of stuffing all these features as well as a larger display and a stylus into the note 5 and still keep it significantly smaller than the iPhone 6s Plus? Anyone? I’m a huge Apple fan but that line is utter bull crap. Anyone claiming Bluetooth headphones are a suitable replacement for 3.5mm corded headphones haven’t spent a whole lot of time with Bluetooth headphones. Also get back to me when those “lightning cable headphones” are available.
Look at the ifixit teardowns. I’m not telling you to believe me. I’m telling you to use your brain for yourself, and actually examine the empirical evidence. I haven’t looked at other phones so no idea how they do that, I’m simply telling you what is factually true concerning the iPhone. That doesn’t really matter anyway though, because internal space is still the most important thing about a smartphone, and will always be, same for smartwatch.
What’s the problem with Bluetooth headphones? And you’ll see lightning headphones in September 2016 when Apple shows them. However I’d prefer if they did AirPods with smart connector instead.
Take a look at Galaxy S6 teardown on iFixit. It’s a 6.8mm device with 5.1″ screen and 2550mAh battery (almost as big as 6s Plus’ battery) and if that’s not enough they have inductive charging and fast charging. Plus it has smaller bezels than latest iPhones. And they didn’t remove the headphone jack. It’s a device that is not bigger than 4.7″ iPhone 6s. Now if Samsung could do all of this without removing the headphone jack, Apple can do it too. But they love to have adapters lately. You don’t understand or don’t want to understand the one thing: They can make slimmer device without removing headphone jack. Last but not least, have you seen any newer iPhone while Lightning to Micro USB Adapter connected? It just looks ugly and I don’t think the headphone jack adapter’s size could be any smaller.
In this scenario, if Apple makes a car, looks like they would shrink down the size of the gas tank when they want to produce a lighter car. C’mon guys! You would get fewer miles but you would have lighter Apple car!
You can’t really compare them, because the two devices focus on different things. For example the Taptic Engine in iPhones.
As for thinness, I don’t think it’s about thinness. The headphone jack is in the 5.7mm iPod Nano, and in the iPod Shuffle. It’s about internal space and water resistance I believe.
Your car analogy doesn’t work since there will never be an Apple car powered.
Apple car powered by gas.
I wonder if this will be tied in with the introduction of wireless charging to the iPhone? Then people can charge and listen to their headphones at the same time. Since I got that new round watch charger I’ve been sold on the idea of wireless iPhone charging.
No, that’s a massive waste of internal space. They need to lose the headphone jack and lightning port and do a Smart Connector instead. That literally gets about 1.5-2 square inches worth of internal space.
I’ve always thought it was a matter of time because the 3.5mm jack seemed like a vulnerable port for water-proofing phones. The less exposed ports you have, the chances of the seals and gaskets failing decrease.
Samesung will introduce The Galaxy Paper next year. LOL!
I’m happy with my headphones.. if future iPhones implement this, I will surely get the 3.5 to Lightning adapter as I have no plans to change my headphones.
***speculation & sarcasm alert, I m all but couldn’t resist , imagine Steve jobs, TIm Cook or one of the execs saying this*****
Only can….
1. Ditch things all together…who uses earbuds any more…especially ours ;)
2. Come up with better alternative…we call them ibuds…the best way to listen to music or take calls on you iPhone 7 which is the best phone yet…plugs in to the lightening connector when u need to listen to music and charge it…unplug an u have blue tooth connectivity…we brought this over from the mac the USB C concept and the charging from the iPad pro pencil charging. It uses Bluetooth LE version whichever is the latest + 1 that means u get zillion hours on one charge. We gave it all year battery life.
LOL well that’s really cool ! :)
Thank you:)
“though very few actual Lightning headphones have been shown or shipped” And how many are going to run out and buy lightning headphones??? This is a ridiculous move. So many many many devices and stereo equipment have access that way. Think sound quality. Wireless bluetooth and sound quality don’t go hand in hand. It’s convenience over sound quality. So many of us have excellent sounding equipment (NOT from the 1800s) that requires this port and sound it’s best. The more adapters forced to use, the more trashed your sound. Some of us still want the best sound quality and compatibility to all the equipment we own, both vintage and new equipment. And NO I will not be running out and buying lightning headphones simply because that’s the only option now. Bad move in my opinion.
So you propose they never remove a headphone jack from an iPhone? Bad move.
It’s brilliant to have remove the 3.5mm port. Customers now are so used to having a wireless headphones anyway. For the customers with expensive wired headphones, a simple converter from 3.5mm to Lighting can do the job :)
I don’t mind either way. I’ve never used headphones on my phone ever. I’d rather see them dropping Lightning in favour of USB-C.
Apple removes the headphone connector = I go Android. Simple as that. I have a Macbook and an Apple TV and an iPad, but I won’t stand for this crap. I had to use a headphone adapter with the GBA SP and I’m not going back to that.
Luckily they know that most customers use the bundled headphones, which will have a lightning connector on them, according to this article.
Sheeps, this is about money. Apple were involved in the spec and design for the superb (very versatile) USB-C standard, now rolling out on all nex gen innovative handsets, like OnePlus, Nexus 5X/6P, Galaxy S7 (2016) and so on. But as you know if you visit any Apple Store, where a whole all will be devoted to 100s of iPhone cases and adapters (only diff being colour of cases), they are making a KILLING out of accessories. And if they use the NONE-STANDARD and obsolete Lightning port (yes, it’s obsolete), you’ll all be paying for some doo dad that plugs between your port and headphones.
TC is don’t forget, not SJ, he’s in it for the money and supply chain management, hence no innovation since his tenure, iPhone 6/6S no stereo audio recording, no wireless charging, fragile, UX still behind HTC & Samsung Android experience.
And let’s not talk about lack of 4K on Apple TV, so they can have everyone buy another one next year with 4K.
Although I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro 13″ Retina (full of standard ports BTW, nothing Apple unique, so a lot more useful!), my phone is a 2013 Nexus 5, that is more innovative and useful than most iPhones and other expensive handsets. Grippy body, so I don’t need to buy a protective case, ideal form factor for one handed use, VERY fast, OIS based camera, NFC, ceramic control buttons (for reliability), standard microUSB port (£3 a cable, not £15) and wireless charging – I have three wireless docks, so no wear and tear on the microUSB port. Yours for £200 for the 32GB version, or £150 used at CEX. Or you can spend £550 to £600 on an iPhone.
I just don’t get it!
Apple need to adopt USB-C across ALL their devices so everything is interchangeable and connectable. Connect your iPhone/iPad/MacBook to a monitor with USB 4K output (it can support it), use ONE charger for all the same devices – and so on. And of course, help your mates by charging their non Apple devices with same charger (if they don’t have theirs) – and the other way around.
If Apple had created lightning 5 years before they did, then it would have been fine, it could have become a standard, but they developed it in parallel with USB-C, a pointless effort being they don’t even use Lightning to do anything at all useful, except charge the Pencil, which could have also used wireless or USB-C! With even the old USB, with an MHL adapter, you can plug most Android phones into a monitor and use them as a display, in conjunction with a Bluetooth keyboard – I did it with my Note 2 and it turned it into a computer. Why don’t Apple do something innovative like this with Lightning if they are going to stick with it?
Apple Pay, 3D Touch, Touch ID aren’t innovative to you?
Apple Pay is, like the washing up bowl, a concept that is totally unnecessary, as is any similar system, such as Samsung Pay. a) Whipping out a £500 device or watch is pretentious & asking to be mugged outside Starbucks. b) A deviceless eye based biometric system would be way easier & more convenient. 3D touch is more of a hassle than the UX on some Android phones such as HTC where (for example) you long press over a contact, web link etc to view a contextual pop up – as Symbian OS did too a decade ago. Re Touch ID, way better to as per my comments on Apple Pay to use an eye based biometric system, as two major phone vendors are doing. Can keep gloves on too! Sorry, I love Apple, but their last four really useful innovations were MagSafe, 2nd gen MacBook Air (I went thru 3 of them, the automatic I/O port caption lighting on the (cylindrical) Mac Pro and the Siri “What was that?” 15 second captioned video rewind on latest Apple TV. I rest my case M’Lud. Right, am off to buy a Blackberry Priv because I hate typing long messages like this on a touch screen. (Yes, I really am 1 hour from getting one assuming BB tactile keyboard is good enough.)
Eye based hahah. That’s hilarious. This is why I love comments.
One word: progress.
Your “useful” mbp 13″ is actually pretty useless, isn’t it? It lacks the industry standard optical drive and floppy drive as I/O.
Lol, I don’t mind Apple leading the way (first laptops with WiFi), it’s when the do things that are purely for greed, not the convenience of the user.
Removing things isn’t for greed. It is for the user experience. Too bad only the intelligent people know that. Like morons might think removing the headphone jack is a terrible idea that hurts users, but the reality is that by removing it, they’re paving the way for a smaller device or a device with more battery, or both, and a more water resistant device.
Ok, I can’t take this anymore, please vote:
http://strawpoll.me/6121336
So does this mean that in order to listen to podcasts and charge at the same time, I’ll have to buy some sort of adapter? If this ends up being correct, I’ll probably stick with a 6s and just not upgrade for a long long time. What’s the point in a thinner phone if I have to carry around bulky adapters around? I already have to keep a backup battery pack around just in case…
How about a smaller phone? Or a phone with more battery? Both of those being possible benefits of removing the ginormous headphone jack in these phones.
There are far too many Apple customers with premium headphones for this to be a smart business decision. A very large percentage of them would either stick with their current iPhone or switch to Android rather then give up their Bose, B&W, Denon, etc headphones. On the flip side, they’ll sell a whole crap ton of red headphones to the fashion set and that seems to be who Apple is primarily chasing these days.
People who spend money on premium products would rather switch to android? I think they’d just buy the new and improved lighting headphone model that Bose, B&W, Denon, etc… will inevitably making if this happens.
Most people I see use cheap default headphones. When I see “premium” headphones… it’s usually the Apple owned beats. More and more of which are wireless. Wireless is the new premium. Probably because people hate wires and they don’t really know or care about audio quality.
by premium, we mean sennheiser, audio technica or something like that. Not beats lol.
I do not mind better standard for noise cancelling headphones, but please, do not make it Lightning. Synching for 1hr using USB 2.0 is ridiculous in 2016. And Apple should be open on this one. They already started putting USB-C on few of their devices. I hope they do not stop.
Shocker: iPod nano is extremely thin at 5.4mm and still has a 3.5mm jack
I’m not sure about making it thinner… i think it’s too thin now and i hat the camera sticking out.. BUT that 3.5 jack has to go… the lightning can do audio so they could have an adaptor for those who like old tech…
They really need to improve the battery though…and i’d rather have a thicker phone, with a little more weigh, so that i can have a longer lasting battery
What is this madness about becoming thinner and lighter all the time? I mean, OK, portable from the 90’s were seriously heavy and bulky for very little functionalities, but com’on! We way passed that time. We now have a real computer in our hand and it’s already so thin that you could bend it accidently. I needed a case for my 6 because it was slipping out of my hand all the time (and also to hide its uglyness). I never needed a case for my 3GS and 4S. They were feelling solid in the hand, almost unbreakable. Some days from now your iPhone will be so thin that you’ll gonna risk cutting yourself just holding it. Please Apple, stop this madness and give us larger batteries instead.
The iPhone 5(s) was the best iPhone in terms of design and usability ever, but that’s just my personal opinion.
The headphone jack, lightning port, and SIM card take ample internal space inside of an iPhone. If you were to say, remove all of these, guess what you could replace them with?
The answer: far more battery, or make the device far smaller by reducing the bezels greatly.
Ivy would replace them with a thinner phone, not a larger battery.
Remember the recessed headphone jack on the original iPhone? People got mad about having to use adapters, and Apple listened (jump to 4:30) : https://youtu.be/r7fVWjgxRwk?t=4m30s
200 dollar Solo HD Headphones with lighting port. So that’s why they bought Beats.
Cool. Battery life has always been fine for me and I’m a regular 6s user and game heavily. People, stop moaning about the 3.5mm headphone jack, it’s time to move on. Use the EarPods Apple will provide with the iPhone 7, buy some Bluetooth headphones… or don’t buy the iPhone 7! Simple!
I just won’t buy such phone and will switch to something else. This is so ridiculous!
*Sometime in September 2016: ‘iPhone 7 sets a new record, selling a staggering 18 million devices in the first weekend.’
If people think this is only about thinness then they are really being one dimensional. ba dump – tssssss.
The 3.5mm jack is huge compared to other components. It’s nearly twice as deep and wider than lighting. For many people that gapping hole sits idol all day, just wasting potential.
The point I’ve been arguing is that there is enough people where it makes sense for this device without this port to exist but not enough for it to fully replace what people are used to. I think it’s questionably that Apple would jump to do this on the “main line” of iPhones. I wonder if this rumored “iPhone 7″ isn’t really a new 4” iPhone. Call it iPhone mini, nano, sport, air, whatever. Because to me that would make sense. It would be the stepping stone product that the macbook air was for dropping disk drives. Make something that’s a substantially different form factor and show how appealing that is. It’s a proof of concept that gets people familiar with the idea and buys more time for the supporting technologies to develop for the main stream.
I was thinking that the new iPhone 4″ would be the very thin iPhone, because it would be quite interesting for Apple to put 3D Touch in the 6S and 6S Plus, increasing their thickness by 0.2mm each, only to somehow drop them both a full mm one year later.
I’d be sad to not have force touch in the 4″. It seems like such a big feature that It’s hard to imagine new iPhones not shipping with it. But I’ll take what I can get when it comes to smaller phones.
This really pisses me off! And probably a lot of other people too. I and many others have invested significant funds in quality third party headphones. Now we have to dump them because bloody Apple engineers want a 1mm thinner iPhone! And to add insult to injury Apple has the chutzpah to expect others to provide the adapters! Or users to try and hunt down and pay for their own, if they purchase the next iPhone! Just another example of Apple giving the finger to their loyal users! Nobody except Apple wants a thinner iPhone. The current 6S Plus for example is already uncomfortably thin to use without a case! Now we’re going to have to suffer even thinner ones and not be able to use our headphones too! Not to mention Apple is, I think, now the only smartphone manufacture not to support 24bit audio files, despite the fact, that they already have done on the Mac for years. Listen to your customers for once and not your own arse Apple!
Except if you read the comments here you’d know that it probably isn’t for thinness, at least not the main reasons.
I have never had a 3.5 mm headphone jack break on me. Never.
I’m not looking forward to throwing out a set of headphones everytime the lightning connector packs it in… usually after less than six months of use!
Does Apple really think people will replace their favorite headphones, costing in some cases more than the phone, with shitty USB capable ones? Or worse, buy a $70 dongle to make their existing ones compatible. For what, to shave off 0.2mm and make squeeze in an even smaller battery?
Sorry, they’ve totally lost the plot if this is true.
I’m super confused by everyone saying things like “smaller battery” and “less battery”. They should really call it the “3.5 x 15mm headphone jack” just so people get that thing takes up more than one dimension and that it would make room for a longer longer battery.
So how will eliminating 3.5mm save space? See the layout from iPhone 6S from the pic from the link. Tell me how will it help making batteries longer?
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/PhBPydJIFJ4TRVjW
@Tom wrong picture to use. Go with the non-X-ray and you’ll see that if the headphone jack were removed, the Taptic Engine would move down about 1/4″ and thus the battery could be that much longer. However, if they removed the headphone jack and lightning port, they’d get about 3/4″ of space clear to the bottom. Huge space.
Seriously, Apple?
How about you make a damn EarPods that has a clasp and wraps around your ear. Nothing like having a one-size does not fit all pod pop out constantly, while on a walk, never mind a jog. Between that and the chord two feet too short you worry about the plugin. Truly pathetic.
Sorry, but buying a $700+ phone with cheap earbuds the part that needs fixing is not the plug.
I don’t really think that this is a good move because 3.5mm jack is of worldwide standard so i can put any headphones in them. I would really like the idea of adding any sock absorbers and a screen that will not break easily at all. Because whoever we drop our iPhone from the front side, the screen crushes in pieces and screen replacement is also ver expensive. And i think that iPhone 6 plus is very slim so making it more slim will (i think) destroy its beauty. And yes i would recommend a design with less curves basically like iPhone 5s (bigger and smaller than that). Is apple going to make edge seen or not? Comment you opinions!
I don’t really think that this is a good move because 3.5mm jack is of worldwide standard so i can put any headphones in them. I would really like the idea of adding any sock absorbers and a screen that will not break easily at all. Because whoever we drop our iPhone from the front side, the screen crushes in pieces and screen replacement is also ver expensive. And i think that iPhone 6 plus is very slim so making it more slim will (i think) destroy its beauty. And yes i would recommend a design with less curves basically like iPhone 5s (bigger and thinner than that). Is apple going to make edge seen or not? Comment you opinions!
Lose compatibility with a world of devices already out there, in exchange for making a phone a friggin’ millimeter thinner. Does it take a Nobel prize or a Mensa membership to realize this is an awful idea that does not benefit the user in any way?
The pure ignorance of thinking it’s only saving in depth.
I don’t really think that this is a good move because 3.5mm jack is of worldwide standard so i can put any headphones in them. I would really like the idea of adding any sock absorbers and a screen that will not break easily at all. Because whoever we drop our iPhone from the front side, the screen crushes in pieces and screen replacement is also ver expensive. And i think that iPhone 6 plus is very slim so making it more slim will (i think) destroy its beauty. And yes i would recommend a design with less curves basically like iPhone 5s (bigger and thinner than that). Is apple going to make edge seen or not? Comment your opinions!
Samsung Galaxy s4 with Anker battery pack 7800nah. Lasts 5 days under normal use.
I don’t mind this if they include wireless headphone with every new iPhone purchase.
Really bad decision.
Needlessly stupid, I only hope that this source is either wrong, or Apple changes their minds before shipment. How about making your phone a little bit thicker? It gives you so many advantages, like gripability, more battery space, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, better build quality, etc. I don’t care how thin the phone is, especially when it forces us to buy yet even more proprietary crap. It’s like Apple listen to criticism and goes, “WE’LL DO THE OPPOSITE!” The iPhone is in essence a good product, it’s Apple’s constant crap that makes it so obnoxious to follow.
(Disclaimer: Tech fanboy and Android/PC user)
Why would Apple prevent my €600+ investment in a headphone to become completely obsolete? Why should Apple earn money on a headphone (via the Lightning cable) of which they hardly provide any additional technology? How about charging when listening to the headphone? It looks their only purpose is to enlarge their eco system again. If they remove the headphone jack into an Apple-custom interface only, this has been the last iPhone I bought.
Garbage , its about selling another apple peripheral and removing peoples choice of using their own choice of headphones.I am guessing apple will produce one type of headphone, and price it around the level of the top third party ones.Lots of apple nerds will fall for this,because money does not buy common sense.
Stupidity. They gain internal space which can be used to make the battery bigger, that’s my best way of explaining to idiots that think one-deminsionally.
Isn’t this smaller headphone jack significantly more plausible then eliminating 3.5mm completely??!!??
http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/22/apple-patents-half-height-3-5mm-headphone-jack-ready-for-slimmer-future-iphones/
I guess we will find out how devout folks are to Apple.
Be interesting to see if it goes will they take it from the MacBook and have true single port laptop.
It’s bloody well thin enough already. Hey, Apple, how about adding some great new capabilities, like reliable telecommunications, rather than trying to make the stupid thing into a 2-dimensional object?
You might want to address the carriers about that.
What does Apple have to do with your terrible service?
Or ad an FM radio like any ol nokia
Who needs an inbuilt FM radio with choppy signal and limited station availability when every station nowadays has an online feed which can be accessed worldwide with the likes of tune in radio? A free app on all platforms. If you want to go insulting stuff at least don’t recommend outdated technology lol
FM is definately not outdated and has massively more covereage than 3G. I listen to it everyday in the car travelling through counttyside where thrre is no way i ciuld stream the sane content on the same route
I’m fine with getting rid of the headphone jack. Yeah, it’s different, but as with every other change, like moving to the smaller lightning port from the 30-pin connector, people eventually get used to it. The big headphone jack couldn’t have lasted forever anyway.
I don’t want a thinner phone. I gladly double the width of my phone by adding a case to protect my phone. I would love it if, for once, Apple would stop making their next iteration thinner but instead ticker and less fragile with much better battery life.
If Apple sells an adapter that looks something like the female-to-female Lightning adapter for Apple Pencil, but with a Lightning Male to 3.5mm female port with said D/A converter inside it that grips tightly, or even tethers to the headphone cable, “legacy” headphones will still be viable with new phones, with just an adapter added to them, not too much different than adapting the 3.5mm plug to the old larger plug format that audio equipment uses.
Personally, I haven’t worn speakers on my ears to listen to music in years. Speakers in my den, speakers on my desk, speakers in my car… I don’t need speakers on my head, and Bluetooth makes more sense without a cable anyway… but as long as there is a way to make it work, it will be fine.
3.5mm female sockets take up a lot of ancillary real estate anyway, along the sides of the socket, as well as being a point of moisture, dust, and debris intrusion. A lightning port is likely less of an intrusion point into the inner volume of the phone, and with modern coatings, can likely be sealed against water and dust.
It is a pretty stupid analogy to compare the ipod touch to the iphone regarding thickness. The iPod doesn’t have anything relating to cell phone hardware in there, so of course it will be thinner.
A couple of things here. Apple usually pushes the industry for change when change is needed. This is one of those things that may not be good though for example
1)Adapters: Many people still use AUX connections for their car or home audio, and there is everyones favorite pair of headphones. Who is going to want to have to keep up with adapters and buy more for each of these options?
2) Lightning isn’t an industry standard, only an Apple standard. Its a $5 connector requiring MFI certification. Is that really pushing the industry forward when only one company uses this connector. I mean that just is going to create more confusion. If change is needed, I can see USB-C being the go to, that is something the entire industry can get on board with
3
terrible idea.
this i just going to make people hate them more. the phone doesnt NEED to be thinner. this effects alot of people. what happens to people who dont have bluetooth in the car to listen to music?
this is a good idea only IF every iphone 7 comes with some sort of adapter for headphones/aux cords.
consumers are getting pissed off at being nickel and dimed, and they will use any excuse to not buy apple products anymore.
i do not like the direction apple is going in. from taking away the ability to switch out RAM(by soldering onto the motherboard), to the release on the recent macbooks. now this crap.
Of course it doesn’t NEED to be thinner, but what’s so wrong with going on that direction if there are people willing to buy it? Guess what? If you don’t have bluetooth in the car, then don’t buy the new iphone. Or don’t listen to music. Afterall, you don’t NEED to listen to music while you drive.
Don’t worry about the consumers btw, they were all pissed about changing the charger, and now there isn’t any argument.
I suppose you won’t be able to listen AND charge at the same time either.
I suppose you won’t be able to charge AND listen at the same time then.
They could fit two lightening ports or have a Y adapter on the power cable as opposed to the headphones
You suppose wrong. The MFi spec allows for a passthrough to address this.
So listening to music and charging my phone is a no go? Okay this is an extremely dumb idea.
I don’t know how nobody mentioned this…. But how about improving battery life for a change instead of making it thinner AGAIN
They’d lose so many iphone sales just to get a few headphone sales. That’d be the stupidest decision Apple’s made. 3.5mm aux is universal.