General Apple Megathread

[Looch City]

Apple is rather confused with USB-C vs. Lightning.

Their new Macbook has USB-C...Just more $$$ for them in the end?

I bet the next iteration of Macbooks will switch to Lightning or some other proprietary connector...Lightning Series 2!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Russic

As somebody who has had their phone land in a toilet, the headphone jack can kindly go die if it helps get us get to water resistance.

If you own expensive, corded headphones, I do legitimately feel bad for your predicament. However, let's look at this as rationally as we can:

- Absolutely nobody is being forced to update anything
- There are exceptionally good phones from other companies
- Despite anger over planned obsolescence, since the iPhone 5 they've held up remarkably well from update to update
- There's a dongle in the box, and replacements are cheap

Every year I remain amazed at how mad people will get over products they don't have to buy. This isn't a government mandated product available from 1 company.

We demand these phones to do more and more, and we make fun of the companies that don't move the ball forward. Far and away (I believe) the most common annoyance people have with their phones is battery life. This is how you make room for things like bigger batteries and camera upgrades.

As a market leader, Apple's marketing lies can have an influence on consumer beliefs (case in point, everybody buying the falsehoods about water resistance or DAC removal) which can affect the market and other devices and choice. Furthering consumer ignorance and therefore demand can affect other products and remove choice from the market.

This is a move to further consolidate their ecosystem and proprietary standards which again hurts the open market and choice and innovation not only in other mobile products, but the audio peripherals market and where companies choose to spend their R&D budgets.

This move could see a lot of audio manufacturers swinging over to Apple's standards and cutting back on or raising prices on traditional audio hardware that used to be universally compatible and universally economical to produce.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

Apple is rather confused with USB-C vs. Lightning.

Their new Macbook has USB-C...Just more $$$ for them in the end?

I bet the next iteration of Macbooks will switch to Lightning or some other proprietary connector...Lightning Series 2!

I think on the more serious laptop market they are trying to deal with the fact that a lot of consumer devices (external drives, cameras, etc.) may be supporting USB-C. I can definitely see Apple switching to Lightning, charging a lighting royalty to anybody using it, and forcing consumers to buy a USB-C to lightning adapter in the future.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Nor could it use a little dongle adapter to go to 3.5. Are there electronics in that adapter or is there lightning pin to wire type capability? Does that mean it is going to be an expensive adapter?

The whole idea of proprietary ear buds makes my stomach churn. My kids use their headphones on lots of different devices. They could have at least went to usb c with this switch, and then everyone can start making non proprietary usb c headphones and ear buds.

Blue tooth ear buds are kind of cool for some applications, but I'm not getting them for my kids, nor am I going to worry about having them charged for road trips. I really hope that Android manufacturers don't follow this lead.

From my understanding you are getting a digital signal out of the lightning port, so the cable(or adapter) has to have a DAC in it. So I wouldn't expect $2 adapters. Probably closer to $10.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

From my understanding you are getting a digital signal out of the lightning port, so the cable(or adapter) has to have a DAC in it. So I wouldn't expect $2 adapters. Probably closer to $10.

That thing is tiny, although there could possibly be a very small DAC on the lightning connector side of it. I'm more inclined to believe it's pass-through as without a DAC, you can't have your internal speakers on the phone working anyway!

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

That thing is tiny, although there could possibly be a very small DAC on the lightning connector side of it. I'm more inclined to believe it's pass-through as without a DAC, you can't have your internal speakers on the phone working anyway!

The lightning to 30 pin adapter apparently had 2 DACs in it, and it was a lot older and not much much bigger.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/635800/impr...pin-adapter/45

I don't think there are dedicated pins for audio in the lightning, so a passive adapter doesn't seem like it would be possible. I guess it would have to have an amplifier built in too? That's a fascinating little adapter if it actually works well.

[Fuzz]

Ya, I don't think the lightning connector has any analoug capabilities, though I could be wrong.

[Galakanokis]

I am a big Apple hater but that is more on their OS/Pro hardware side where they like to randomly introduce incompatibilities with other systems for no good reason. But I see no big deal with removing the headphone jack. I don't buy the reasons they are giving for why they did it but still no big deal.

I do believe the complaints about another adapter or these individual ear buds are valid, it is a mess I am not willing to step into at this time but in a year or so this will be common for all devices I believe.

And other phone manufacturers did release phones without the headphone jack and they were not received well.

[Fuzz]

A reminder that Nintendo was waaaay ahead of the curve on this one:


It made a lot less sense on this one, other than maybe they didn't have space.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

A reminder that Nintendo was waaaay ahead of the curve on this one:


It made a lot less sense on this one, other than maybe they didn't have space.

You know, aside from the fact that Nintendo never did that again with future portables...

[HotHotHeat]

A few thoughts 24 hours after the launch...

- The 7 is not a new design, as much as Apple will say it is.
- This is the first time in the iPhone's history Apple have maintained the same form factor beyond a two year cycle.
-A lot of the headphone jack criticism is coming from the fact that they removed something from a device that otherwise looks the same, there is no obvious explanation for why they had to remove a port that exists on other phones with the same form factor. The 'why now' question...
- Home button changes also are not essential to the design of the 7, the mechanism in place on previous models could have worked.

To me, the missing headphone jack and changes to the home button have nothing to do with this version of the phone, and everything to do with what Apple releases 12 months from now and beyond, when the design physically could not accommodate either the jack or the home button. Apple seems think consumers need to be eased into change. They're also tightly tied to healthy profit margins... Either way there are realities that hold them back to an extent.

Surely, $12 billion in R&D has to buy you more than IP67 and depth of field live preview.

TLDR; The 7 will be the last iPhone see that looks anything like we're used to, 3.5mm headphone jack and taptic home button changes have nothing to do with this year's release.

And now, back to more comments from non-Apple users about proprietary ports, corporate greed, Apple's doomed by 2026, etc.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Why?

Not because of anything to do with this article, but because this will spur further development of these types of headphones that cater to audiophiles, since it's now the only option.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

As a market leader, Apple's marketing lies can have an influence on consumer beliefs (case in point, everybody buying the falsehoods about water resistance or DAC removal) which can affect the market and other devices and choice. Furthering consumer ignorance and therefore demand can affect other products and remove choice from the market.

This is a move to further consolidate their ecosystem and proprietary standards which again hurts the open market and choice and innovation not only in other mobile products, but the audio peripherals market and where companies choose to spend their R&D budgets.

This move could see a lot of audio manufacturers swinging over to Apple's standards and cutting back on or raising prices on traditional audio hardware that used to be universally compatible and universally economical to produce.

Apple is welcome to try and remove the headphone jack in order to consolidate their eco-system. If it doesn't sell then they lose money, if they do succeed that means people are willing to trade interchangeability for feature.

Look at HomeKit, the aren't exactly killing it in that market where they put huge hardware demands on vendors, and thus have little market share.

[Fuzz]

See, getting rid of the home button actually made sense. They at least had to change it to get the waterproofing, and from what I know of iPhones, it is also one of the most common components to fail. A physical button on the screen doesn't really make a lot of sense, and they probably reduced complexity and cost by getting rid of it.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Look at HomeKit, the aren't exactly killing it in that market where they put huge hardware demands on vendors, and thus have little market share.

Little early to be calling a winner in the IOT platform wars...

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

See, getting rid of the home button actually made sense. They at least had to change it to get the waterproofing

My IP67 Samsung has 4 physical buttons. My waterproof Casio watch from 1991 has physical buttons. Another claim that doesn't hold water. Apple is free to change everything they want to but I don't appreciate the falsehoods they are spreading among consumers.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

A few thoughts 24 hours after the launch...

- The 7 is not a new design, as much as Apple will say it is.
- This is the first time in the iPhone's history Apple have maintained the same form factor beyond a two year cycle.
-A lot of the headphone jack criticism is coming from the fact that they removed something from a device that otherwise looks the same, there is no obvious explanation for why they had to remove a port that exists on other phones with the same form factor. The 'why now' question...
- Home button changes also are not essential to the design of the 7, the mechanism in place on previous models could have worked.

To me, the missing headphone jack and changes to the home button have nothing to do with this version of the phone, and everything to do with what Apple releases 12 months from now and beyond, when the design physically could not accommodate either the jack or the home button. Apple seems think consumers need to be eased into change. They're also tightly tied to healthy profit margins... Either way there are realities that hold them back to an extent.

Surely, $12 billion in R&D has to buy you more than IP67 and depth of field live preview.

TLDR; The 7 will be the last iPhone see that looks anything like we're used to, 3.5mm headphone jack and taptic home button changes have nothing to do with this year's release.

And now, back to more comments from non-Apple users about proprietary ports, corporate greed, Apple's doomed by 2026, etc.

I actually agree with this. The reasons they are giving are outright falsehoods but they are doing it to steer consumer preference and expectations in a certain direction for their future plans.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Yeah, that's where the floppy disc and optical media comparisons don't hold water; when Apple ditched those it was in favor of non-proprietary interfaces. I don't think it would've gone as smoothly if they got rid of disc based storage and only had Firewire ports on their computers as a means to connect devices and transfer data.

Comparing elmination of the floppy with the headphone jack is a ridiculous analogy. The successor of the floppy was already wide spread and reliable when the floppy drive was killed.

This is killing off a current, widespread technology that has good audio qualities for something that is less widespread, less reliable, more expensive, more complicated and a completely proprietary model with minimal audio quality improvements speaks of nothing but greed. This is Apple retreating behind a wall garden and making the consumer pay even more for it

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

My IP67 Samsung has 4 physical buttons. My waterproof Casio watch from 1991 has physical buttons. Another claim that doesn't hold water. Apple is free to change everything they want to but I don't appreciate the falsehoods they are spreading among consumers.

I meant that some part of the design had to change, because I don't think what was there would have been waterproof. Yes, they could have kept a physical button, but it doesn't make much sense to have one on the face of the phone.

[woob]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

TLDR; The 7 will be the last iPhone see that looks anything like we're used to, 3.5mm headphone jack and taptic home button changes have nothing to do with this year's release.

Probably so they can give us an even THINNER phone next! Because that's what everyone is clamoring for. I mean that iPhone is a mammoth brick, isn't it??