That’s bollocks. Mobile phones from fifteen or so years ago really were disposable, I had two Sony phones, one after the other - the connectors were proprietary, neither would work with the other, and they both exhibited intermittent charging issues within months of purchase. Their batteries were different as well.
Apple, however, used the 32-pin connectors on multiple devices for nine years, and now use the Lightning connector across multiple devices. Losing the headphone socket DOES NOT make a device disposable, it’s one less connector to go wrong, one less place for water to enter, and the same goes for SD card slots, which are a PITA, MicroSD cards are far too easy to lose, or to fail in use, which has happened to me in my camera. I’ve only ever used a MicroSD card in one phone, a Nokia N95, which was the worst phone I’ve ever owned, not helped by having to piss around with an expansion card for music, or maps, or whatever.
I’ve still got a working iP4, I would still be using my iP5 if it hadn’t been lost, and my iP6+ is working perfectly well, in everyday use. I have an iPad 3 that still works, a 2010 model Mac Mini, and a PowerBook from 2005 that is in perfect condition.
A place I was working at up until three years ago had Mac towers from 1999, still in use as servers.
My Mac Mini is running the latest version of OSX, my iPhone is running the latest version of iOS - how many Android phones get the latest OS update or upgrade?
There are plenty never get an upgrade at all.
Y’know what’s not great about them?
1: Interference. I have a BT headset at home that hasn’t seen use in about 18 months because after the first week, even when using it directly in front of my laptop, it gets choppy and cuts out constantly. Walking across the room with all of my glorious wireless freedom really just results in losing all audio about 2 steps away.
2: Limited.
battery.
life.
My headset won’t last through a typical Marvel movie on a full charge. Even Apple’s own vaunted AirPods only get 5 hours on a full charge (my favorite hilarious “counter-punch” to this fact is John Gruber’s “And the battery life can easily get you through a full work day with a few trips to the charging case,” [emphasis mine] which manages to precisely re-state the problem in the middle of trying to refute it). My work day is 8+ hours long and I often take lunch at my desk, so dumping my headphones in the charging case just means I’m subjected to office noise instead of the Tron Legacy soundtrack for however long it takes them to top up. I could use the lightning headphones, but then I wouldn’t be able to leave my phone on the charger all day and drive home with a happy 100%-full battery.
In their quest to simplify everything, Apple and others have managed to move beyond the simplicity event horizon into a space of negative simplicity.
Of course, I’m also still rocking an iPhone SE because for the love of god I do not want or need a freaking 7-inch phone (and while I’m on the subject, how and why is Apple’s smallest phone no longer its cheapest one?).
I used to make very functional demo recordings using GarageBand on older iPhones, but since I’ve upgraded it’s been a non starter. The latency makes it impossible. I have very decent bt headphones and listening is pleasant, but I miss being able to be musically productive on the go.
Thank you Apple apologist. Enjoy your kool aid.
My workplace is next to three federal buildings (including the courthouse) and the county jail.
The android ecosystem works differently. Software upgrades beyond a point are carried out by going back to gearbest and downloading a new phone.
My phone headphone jack is on the bottom of the phone.
At least that makes it far easier to turn it off in my pocket rather than turn the volume up…
#firstworldproblems
We just upgraded our family to refurb Galaxy S7s from S5s. Not happy about giving up user-replaceable batteries, but the extra capacity and processing power has been worth it. We’ll hold at S7s until they can’t run our apps anymore.
Why ‘upgrade’ at all? It IS a pretty reasonable phone, and I can see no reason mine won’t go on for a few years yet. (Not that I use it nearly as much as most people seem to use theirs, though, so maybe that’ll help).
I have a relatively new MacBook Pro which only has USB-C, same as my phone, so I’d be happy with a USB-C cable… but then, I realise not everyone has that luxury.
Does that headphone work on the macbook though?
Also the macbook has two usb-c ports. Maybe the phone should as well.
Did the IR Blaster come with the phone, or did you purchase one for the headphone jack?
Once I only knew of IR blasters as devices that plugged into the SD slot of old Palm devices; I was delighted when I discovered headphone-jack IR blasters were a thing. Until, that is, I learned the low-end ones come with crappy, limited proprietary apps for no good reason.
It came with the phone. 
Yes, I’ve not crossed that bridge yet. I connect 2 USB, 1 Thunderbolt, 1 HDMI, plus power on a daily basis. I’ll likely have to get a dongle box, and a whole second set of dongles for home…
Minor quibble: that’s a jammer, not a stinger.
Take the plunge and invest in some actually decent wireless cans/headphones/earbuds. I cut wires out of my life years ago as soon as the available gear became good enough. It really is better now.
To still be insisting on your wiry shackles in 2018 is just embarrassing. Time to evolve, dinosaurs.
Yes… let’s keep wasting money on objects specifically created with intended obsolescence in mind… so that we keep exponentially increasing the amount of unsustainable e-waste we generate each year… so that we DO eventually end up just like the dinosaurs; brilliant plan, that.
I have one good pair of wired headphones that I use with my DJ mixer. I see no need in buying another pair that are lower audio quality, just because they don’t have a wire.
also
Wake me up when Bluetooth headsets can use high quality audio while in a voice call. Current ones - even your shiny Bose - fall back to 1.1-era compressed, shitty, laggy, ass standards in a voice call because Bluetooth was not designed for it.
