It´s about saving space, and (in first place, I think) about better soundquality. And for sure, there are much additional possibilities for smart functionality like harvesting sensor data from the head and for remote operating the iPhone, like mentioned in the article.
Apple will not only save that space for the 3,5" jack, but also the space for the D/A converter chip and the headphone-amplifier chip (maybe, those two components are built in one chip). Which will gain some more space for battery.
That is possible because, as far as I know, the lightning connector has no analog output (in contrast to the old 30 pin-connector, which provided both sorts of signal to the outside).
So, in some way, the task of converting digital audio to analog will be located outside the iPhone. Maybe built into a special adapter (to provide compatibility to 3,5" jack equipped devices ) but also built completely into the headphones, where is more space available in comparison to the iPhone. In both cases, the iPhone will deliver not only the digital audio, but also the power to drive the now external located DAC/amp.
With more space, for example in the cases of headphones housing a DAC/amp , it will be possible to create a much more sophisticated, DAC/amp, gaining much better sound and loudness, especially, when there will be am additional dedicated powersupply.
By the way: an external hi-end mobile DAC with Amplifier is already available from beyerdynamic: the A 200 p. It has a lightningconnector at one side and a 3,5" jack on the other side. Additionally, it houses it´s´own power supply, a lithium/ion battery, which can be charged via micro-usb. So, there you have the idea already manufactured. Allthough, it seems too be big to fit into headphones (because of the huge potential of the battery) and the hi-end quality of the electronics and of cause, it´s own case, it will be possible to build that into headphones (maybe one mono DAC/amp/battery in each earshell, when the amps are a bit simpler constructed and batterys will get a little less capacity.
I really don't want an iPhone that I can shave with. I don't want to store my phone in with my credit cards. If they continue to make the iPhone any thinner, loss is inevitable. I'd rather have a 5-7mm phone with longer battery life than a 3-4mm which can be easily lost or broken. Making new headphones will eventually make old headphones obsolete, and along with micro USB cables, older headphones can join the rapidly increasing non-biodegradable electronic waste.
Bad idea and not feasible. Lightening is still too expensive, many people have incompatible headphones they paid a lot of money for, Lightening has gained virtually no traction in the marketplace, the plugs fall out at the slightest jarring...I could go on and on. This is one of those "upgrades" Apple should not try to cram down our throats.
LOL. Lightning has gained no traction in the market place. LOL.
Except for: Every single iPad and iPhone being sold, and ever new accessory made in the last two years.
Guess again.
Who cares what you already have. Do something new. Make lots of money.
I for one hope they do this. 3.5mm is legacy technology and low quality. Over Lightning, Apple could deliver full 96Hz 24-bit audio and begin selling that high of quality lossless digital audio files. In a word, YES PLEASE.
Your overpriced headphones that are listening to compressed crap through a 3.5mm jack is not impressive, nor relevant in the future.
Would an adaptor change the quality of the output, I ask because the HDMI adaptor for my iPad Air is very inconsistent, most of the time it mirrors the desktop at a 4:3 aspect ratio, plays videos at 720P and though I don't play many games I do like a few and their is noticeable lag with some, etc. Nothing compared to the experience when using a device that has a built in HDM, for example my Nexus 10 which has a built in Micro HDMI, I just plug it in and it works, full HD so none of those awful black bars that drives me batty on my iPad Air [ ... ]
You do realize that the aspect ratio of your iPad is 4:3, and the Nexus 10 is 16:10? What exactly is it supposed to mirror if not its own aspect ratio?
Video out is app-dependent, so some apps may only support 720p on external HD TV's etc. Playing 1080p video shouldn't be a problem in apps that support it.
Cool and the idea opens up a whole new era of possibilities - wearables without those stone-age earphone plug, more smart controls than current limitations without sacrificing sound quality (loss with Bluetooth/Wireless), etc
The iPhone needs to be thinner? Seriously? Apple are you not listening to customers who say they want significantly better battery life?
I have a bad feeling about this. 3.5 mm is by its nature an open standard. I'm suspicious of Apple's intensions and that they might just be using "size" as an excuse, especially in the light of the whole Beats thing.
Considering Apple hasn't said or done anything about this at all so far, they're not using anything as an excuse
This makes no sense to me, but more power to them. I'm sure they know what they're doing and what their customers want more then I do. I'd prefer a phone with a few extra mm of thickness and wider compatibility instead of a slightly thinner phone that would require new hardware (new headphones or an adapter). It sounds like a solution in search of a problem. The reasoning of allowing for a few extra mm of thinness makes it sound like Apple is chasing a spec war. Historically Apple doesn't like their customers to focus on spec sheets.
It's not how it specs. It's how it feels in your hand.
Oh, and yeah, legacy connectors all eventually die off. Especially the analog ones.
LOL. Lightning has gained no traction in the market place. LOL.
Except for: Every single iPad and iPhone being sold, and ever new accessory made in the last two years.
Guess again.
Who cares what you already have. Do something new. Make lots of money.
I for one hope they do this. 3.5mm is legacy technology and low quality. Over Lightning, Apple could deliver full 96Hz 24-bit audio and begin selling that high of quality lossless digital audio files. In a word, YES PLEASE.
Your overpriced headphones that are listening to compressed crap through a 3.5mm jack is not impressive, nor relevant in the future.
Standards are great, until they suck.
Accessory makers have ceased to play the Apple game and only do Bluetooth these days. They got stuck with tons of 30 pin clock radios etc
All they have to do is build a 3.5 jack-to-lightning adaptor with a pass-through lightning port, and include it "free" with every iOS device that needs it, for at least the first year. That will mitigate most of the negative press IMO.
But first it needs to exist. Please point us to one.
There are licensing fees for third-party accessory manufacturers, some of whom do not wish to pay to get access to the approved Lightning chip. So they create knockoff adapters without the Apple approved chip which leads to a pile of Lightning adapters that do not have full functionality (often in direct contrast to advertised capabilities) and thus low scores in product reviews (like Amazon.com).
I've purchased four inexpensive Lightning adapters from a nearby bricks-and-mortar store, all of which claimed both charging and data syncing compatibility. Only one worked, and it still throws an annoying "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone" notification every time I plug it in, even though it actually does work. The other three I returned.
Note that one cannot disable this alert message.
Agreed. I dont see the need to lock down the charging cable.
From last week, my original Lightning Cable that came with my iPhone 5 starts throwing the message - "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone". I can understand if third-party cables may not work properly but it is very much disappointing to see original accessories going broke.
That didn’t take long - Cypress Semiconductor and NXP both offer evaluation kits that adhere to the new MFi digital audio spec.
I can’t find specific details about this new MFi spec (bit depths and sampling rates) beyond the 48 kHz that was mentioned, but let’s say it is 24-bit/48 kHz. I’m guessing that would be sufficient to satisfy most “audiophiles."
I believe it’s not Apple’s goal to compete in this market, but an iPod with a Lightning/MFi connector (and sufficient SSD) would probably wipe out the market for high-end digital audio players (HifiMan, Astell & Kern, etc.), including the soon-to-be-released Pono.
And if Apple offers Apple Lossless (ALAC) content from iTunes, there goes what’s left of the SACD and DVD-Audio market.
I’m just saying; the thought of Apple doing this and not providing an adapter is ludicrous. Inventing a scenario in which that would happen and speculating on results is therefore pointless.
Comments
Wrong.
Nothing will be incompatible.
Totally wrong.
Nope.
Being completely and utterly wrong? Looks like.
Bluetooth. You’re welcome.
What does Beats have to do with Lightning?
I love it that people get these mind-numbingly imbecilic ideas in their heads and then IMMEDIATELY PRETEND THEY ARE FACT, much less a possibility.
Again, completely wrong.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/05/apple-announces-lightning-enabled-headphone-standard-in-wwdc-session
It´s a savy idea.
It´s about saving space, and (in first place, I think) about better soundquality. And for sure, there are much additional possibilities for smart functionality like harvesting sensor data from the head and for remote operating the iPhone, like mentioned in the article.
Apple will not only save that space for the 3,5" jack, but also the space for the D/A converter chip and the headphone-amplifier chip (maybe, those two components are built in one chip). Which will gain some more space for battery.
That is possible because, as far as I know, the lightning connector has no analog output (in contrast to the old 30 pin-connector, which provided both sorts of signal to the outside).
So, in some way, the task of converting digital audio to analog will be located outside the iPhone. Maybe built into a special adapter (to provide compatibility to 3,5" jack equipped devices ) but also built completely into the headphones, where is more space available in comparison to the iPhone. In both cases, the iPhone will deliver not only the digital audio, but also the power to drive the now external located DAC/amp.
With more space, for example in the cases of headphones housing a DAC/amp , it will be possible to create a much more sophisticated, DAC/amp, gaining much better sound and loudness, especially, when there will be am additional dedicated powersupply.
By the way: an external hi-end mobile DAC with Amplifier is already available from beyerdynamic: the A 200 p. It has a lightningconnector at one side and a 3,5" jack on the other side. Additionally, it houses it´s´own power supply, a lithium/ion battery, which can be charged via micro-usb. So, there you have the idea already manufactured. Allthough, it seems too be big to fit into headphones (because of the huge potential of the battery) and the hi-end quality of the electronics and of cause, it´s own case, it will be possible to build that into headphones (maybe one mono DAC/amp/battery in each earshell, when the amps are a bit simpler constructed and batterys will get a little less capacity.
http://www.beyerdynamic.de/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/at-home/headphones-amps/a-200-p-eu.html
It sounds like you're confusing Thunderbolt with Lightning.
Very very frightening, me!
I really don't want an iPhone that I can shave with. I don't want to store my phone in with my credit cards. If they continue to make the iPhone any thinner, loss is inevitable. I'd rather have a 5-7mm phone with longer battery life than a 3-4mm which can be easily lost or broken. Making new headphones will eventually make old headphones obsolete, and along with micro USB cables, older headphones can join the rapidly increasing non-biodegradable electronic waste.
Yeah, it'll just be like Kate Moss on Family Guy:
One of the mistakes Apple made when it launched iPhone 5 is not including a Lightning to 30-pin Adapter in the packaging.
So they could ship many millions of adapters to people who don't need them? What a waste.
Bad idea and not feasible. Lightening is still too expensive, many people have incompatible headphones they paid a lot of money for, Lightening has gained virtually no traction in the marketplace, the plugs fall out at the slightest jarring...I could go on and on. This is one of those "upgrades" Apple should not try to cram down our throats.
LOL. Lightning has gained no traction in the market place. LOL.
Except for: Every single iPad and iPhone being sold, and ever new accessory made in the last two years.
Guess again.
Who cares what you already have. Do something new. Make lots of money.
I for one hope they do this. 3.5mm is legacy technology and low quality. Over Lightning, Apple could deliver full 96Hz 24-bit audio and begin selling that high of quality lossless digital audio files. In a word, YES PLEASE.
Your overpriced headphones that are listening to compressed crap through a 3.5mm jack is not impressive, nor relevant in the future.
Standards are great, until they suck.
Would an adaptor change the quality of the output, I ask because the HDMI adaptor for my iPad Air is very inconsistent, most of the time it mirrors the desktop at a 4:3 aspect ratio, plays videos at 720P and though I don't play many games I do like a few and their is noticeable lag with some, etc. Nothing compared to the experience when using a device that has a built in HDM, for example my Nexus 10 which has a built in Micro HDMI, I just plug it in and it works, full HD so none of those awful black bars that drives me batty on my iPad Air [ ... ]
You do realize that the aspect ratio of your iPad is 4:3, and the Nexus 10 is 16:10? What exactly is it supposed to mirror if not its own aspect ratio?
Video out is app-dependent, so some apps may only support 720p on external HD TV's etc. Playing 1080p video shouldn't be a problem in apps that support it.
This makes no sense to me, but more power to them. I'm sure they know what they're doing and what their customers want more then I do. I'd prefer a phone with a few extra mm of thickness and wider compatibility instead of a slightly thinner phone that would require new hardware (new headphones or an adapter). It sounds like a solution in search of a problem. The reasoning of allowing for a few extra mm of thinness makes it sound like Apple is chasing a spec war. Historically Apple doesn't like their customers to focus on spec sheets.
It's not how it specs. It's how it feels in your hand.
Oh, and yeah, legacy connectors all eventually die off. Especially the analog ones.
LOL. Lightning has gained no traction in the market place. LOL.
Except for: Every single iPad and iPhone being sold, and ever new accessory made in the last two years.
Guess again.
Who cares what you already have. Do something new. Make lots of money.
I for one hope they do this. 3.5mm is legacy technology and low quality. Over Lightning, Apple could deliver full 96Hz 24-bit audio and begin selling that high of quality lossless digital audio files. In a word, YES PLEASE.
Your overpriced headphones that are listening to compressed crap through a 3.5mm jack is not impressive, nor relevant in the future.
Standards are great, until they suck.
Accessory makers have ceased to play the Apple game and only do Bluetooth these days. They got stuck with tons of 30 pin clock radios etc
I love it that people get these mind-numbingly imbecilic ideas in their heads and then IMMEDIATELY PRETEND THEY ARE FACT, much less a possibility.
So when i said "IF" did you get confused you into thinking what i thought was a fact?, Just clarifying.
These are all rumours at this point, so everything i said was about a hypothetical device config change & my feelings on it.
But first it needs to exist. Please point us to one.
There are licensing fees for third-party accessory manufacturers, some of whom do not wish to pay to get access to the approved Lightning chip. So they create knockoff adapters without the Apple approved chip which leads to a pile of Lightning adapters that do not have full functionality (often in direct contrast to advertised capabilities) and thus low scores in product reviews (like Amazon.com).
I've purchased four inexpensive Lightning adapters from a nearby bricks-and-mortar store, all of which claimed both charging and data syncing compatibility. Only one worked, and it still throws an annoying "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone" notification every time I plug it in, even though it actually does work. The other three I returned.
Note that one cannot disable this alert message.
Agreed. I dont see the need to lock down the charging cable.
From last week, my original Lightning Cable that came with my iPhone 5 starts throwing the message - "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone". I can understand if third-party cables may not work properly but it is very much disappointing to see original accessories going broke.
That didn’t take long - Cypress Semiconductor and NXP both offer evaluation kits that adhere to the new MFi digital audio spec.
So when i said "IF" did you get confused you into thinking what i thought was a fact?, Just clarifying.
“Much less a possibility”
“Much less a possibility”
Was that you clarifying?
"Clear as mud"
"Clear as mud"
I’m just saying; the thought of Apple doing this and not providing an adapter is ludicrous. Inventing a scenario in which that would happen and speculating on results is therefore pointless.