For sure. I don’t upgrade every year or anything like that - more like when recent apps won’t run on it any more.
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Of course we should throw away decades of functional patent unencumbered tech to chase the tech companies. I’m sure that won’t backfire.
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How are wireless headphones more susceptible to planned obsolescence? I’m still happily using my Sennheisers for the third year with no noticeable degradation, whereas the wire is often the first component to die.
If you’re already wedded to a particular wired device, that’s what dongles are for.
And the appeal I was making wasn’t to novelty but to the substantially improved experience of not having to worry about getting tangled up in cords.
Great, another dongle to lose for the CthulhuPhone.
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I wasn’t aware of the pressing need for audiophile-grade sound for voice calls… perhaps you could explain?
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Technology advances, and the advances here have demonstrable benefits. The fact that your particular use case requires increasingly cumbersome accommodations says more about your need to get with the times than about the times needing to stay stagnant.
Between interference and battery life needs I’ve never found a pair of bluetooth headphones that does the job as well as wired sets I already own. So, sure I could spend a few hundred on headphones that are less useful, but that seems silly.
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Advances include better waterproofing, more freed up internal space (increasingly at a premium), freed up power capacity, thinner devices, and even increased security (Square isn’t the only software capable of being transmitted through this analog hole, though admittedly less of a concern on iOS than Android).
What a disappointingly low threshold for resorting to childish namecalling.
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I haven’t had those problems with my Sennheiser Momentum 2.0. They’ve never felt less useful than wired ones to me, and have probably given me more joy than any pair I’ve owned.
What in the holy-hand-grenade-of-antioch is going on in this topic?
Whether or not you believe a 100-year-old standard with it’s own issues should continue to be on mobile devices or not, and whether or not you believe that those who agree or disagree with you are Luddites or not, there is no combination of opinions on this topic that warrant personal attacks.
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I admit that I have not waded thru 75+ responses before adding my own opinion, which is:
- I fully understand the tangible, real benefits to doing away with the headphone port (thinner devices, lighter devices, better potential for sound quality)
- I also understand why it’s inconvenient if your car/headphones/devices are RCA-jack based; it’s an adjustment period to new wireless or USB-C standards.
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Just replaced the battery in my iphone SE yesterday. I had the good fortune to be one of the 10% where they break the phone during the replacement and give you a new one as a result. Just got a sweet new phone that does everything I want it to: plug in headphones, use with one hand, fit in front pocket (without pain while sitting), and survive a drop. Hopefully in two years when the battery on this one starts to give up I’ll have better replacement options. Realistically though… I’m fucked.
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Proof of concept of headphone jacks acting as a malware vector: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/spy-headphone-malware,news-23913.html
In the linked article the headphone jack is not a vector for malware. That has to be installed separately. It is a vector for stolen information though. It makes sense that the phone would have some way of measuring the voltage on a headphone or similar device.
My Geiger detector (see above) seems to work that way.
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Couching this ever exciting topic in bluetooth-vs.-3.5mm jack terms tends to obfuscate some important angles and bend the discussion towards a false dichotomy. Having made extensive use of both forms of connectivity on every cell phone (going on 5 now I think?) and since the first android smart phone (third, and now in the same predicament as the OP) - I’ve made tons of use of both types of connection and would love for both to remain available. They serve similar, but not entirely overlapping purposes. The more important point -
The more different (capability-wise) ports the better from a technology users perceptive, because of Metcalf’s Law. (I welcome the clearly superior USB-C for it’s evolutionary advancements in providing bandwidth, backward compatibility, improved-form factor etc.) Other considerations aside, constraining options for connectivity does not serve the generic user (whose specific investment in compatible hardware is unknown).
Oh no - the dreaded analog hole, this would allow square to mess with apples payment gameplan. By a similar token, this is an important channel for user freedom, (as are many “theoretical” attack vectors, given a twisted enough definition of attack).
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While I hate the missing headphone jack on the Pixel I will say these headphones work very well overall:
I also appreciate the fact they come in a black-ish color.
Internal space is not increasingly at a premium unless one has been brainwashed by the Apple marketing machine that thin is good and thinner must be better. Many people would prefer longer battery life and more function (like a working headphone socket so as to avoid inevitable bluetooth snafus, and not make obsolete a common/standard technology they have invested in, or have to cart around another device/dongle just to make things work). These things are eminently achievable with an ever so slightly thicker device, that one can actually hold without risk of it slipping out of the hands.
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Thinner ceased to be a benefit a few model cycles ago. Peak thinness has been reached. No further thinness is required.
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Rather than the 12 months you get on a premium phone…
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