New photos of alleged Lightning EarPods for Apple's 'iPhone 7' match recent leak

Posted:
in iPhone
New images posted on Wednesday are said to depict Lightning-equipped EarPods intended for Apple's "iPhone 7," which is commonly expected to ditch a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack when it ships this fall.




Several photos posted to China's Weibo show the gear as resembling current EarPods for the iPhone 6s, but with the addition of a large endpiece housing a Lightning connector. It's not clear why the endpiece would have to be so big, though one possibility is the presence of an authenticator chip.

Notably the photos match another recent EarPod leak, although it's still impossible to confirm the authenticity of the suggested headphone design.

For Apple, removing a 3.5-millimeter jack should free up internal design space, while reducing component costs and encouraging more development of Lightning audio accessories. At the same time, public reaction to the idea of losing the jack has often been negative, particularly since many people may be forced to rely on EarPods or buy new adapters and accessories that will only work with Apple products.

Bluetooth audio is an alternative, but its quality is generally weaker and wireless headphones are often more expensive than wired options.
doozydozen
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 65
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Honestly this design wouldn't surprise me. Looks quite Apple. I also think a better design is to put the DAC near the lighting port and away from the in-line controls and the buds. Costs will go up too. Expect a minimum of $39 for Lightning EarPods. Bundled free with the new iPhone (6x) of course.

    Me, I must be old-school as I still choose wired headphones (earbuds) over Bluetooth due to high cost, bulk, charging requirements and battery life limitations. Wired means immediate, no pairing, no dead battery ever and no need to think about charging—plug and play. Both have pluses and minuses. Wired are my preference.
    edited July 2016 cnocbuidoozydozenbaconstanglolliverSEngineer
  • Reply 2 of 65
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    I am surprised how large the end piece is. 
  • Reply 3 of 65
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    I am surprised how large the end piece is. 
    Why? External DAC needs to go somewhere. And will shrink over time. One bonus is something to grab now. EarPods have a slippery connector that's a bad design. Even if EarPods aside from that are some of the best designed wired buds around. I own 6 different pairs of earbuds and prefer EarPods.
    edited July 2016 baconstanglollivernetmage
  • Reply 4 of 65
    The plug is large because it has a Cirrus Logic DAC inside.
    doozydozennetmage
  • Reply 5 of 65
    larryalarrya Posts: 606member
    ireland said:
    Honestly this design wouldn't surprise me. Looks quite Apple. I also think a better design is to put the DAC near the lighting port and away from the in-line controls and the buds. Costs will go up too. Expect a minimum of $39 for Lightning EarPods. Bundled free with the new iPhone (6x) of course.

    Me, I must be old-school as I still choose wired headphones (earbuds) over Bluetooth due to high cost, bulk, charging requirements and battery life limitations. Wired means immediate, no pairing, no dead battery ever and no need to think about charging—plug and play. Both have pluses and minuses. Wired are my preference.
    Based on earlier information on the Lightning port, there is no need for an external DAC, and I doubt Apple would waste the money to include one unless it's absolutely necessary. Apparently the pins are reassignable to be analog audio. I think this is why the article mentions the possibility of an "authenticator" chip rather than a DAC.  
    doozydozen
  • Reply 6 of 65
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    "It's not clear why the endpiece would have to be so big, though one possibility is the presence of an authenticator chip."

    Probably less stress on the connector cables with constant use.
    edited July 2016
  • Reply 7 of 65
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member
    I am surprised how large the end piece is. 
    Looks to be at or less than 50% longer than either the Apple or third party Lightning cables that I use, and a little bit larger all around. I don't think that it will be an issue.

    My guess is that the iPhone Plus/Pro gets these standard.
  • Reply 8 of 65
    How do you charge the iPhone 7 and listen to the earpods at the same time?
    zoetmbanantksundaramdoozydozenbaconstang6SgoldfishSEngineernetmage
  • Reply 9 of 65
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    grangerfx said:
    How do you charge the iPhone 7 and listen to the earpods at the same time?
    I'm wondering that too. You probably can't charge at the same time unless Apple plans on adding wireless charging. 
    doozydozenireland
  • Reply 10 of 65
    grangerfx said:
    How do you charge the iPhone 7 and listen to the earpods at the same time?
    Not sure about the technicalities if an adapter is possible, but my guess would be to use Bluetooth, or mabye the iPhone with have inductive charging.

    I'm not sure why an adapter wouldn't be possible though since I'm able to charge my phone and listen to music in my car now. 
    edited July 2016
  • Reply 11 of 65
    mtbnutmtbnut Posts: 199member
    Does anyone know if Apple or anyone else makes a Lightning-to-Parallel Port adapter? I have an old OKIdata dot-matrix printer that I'd really like to use with my iPad. It's sad that Apple has ignored parallel port-using customers in its desire to move forward and advance the state of the art. 

    /sarcasm 

    This is where I insert the Henry Ford "a faster horse" quote. 

    I love how the people who will have no problem dropping $700 on a brand-new iPhone are already groaning about not being able to use the headphones that shipped with their 1983 Walkman. Cry me a river. 
    edited July 2016 redraider11ration allolliver[Deleted User]
  • Reply 12 of 65
    jetpilotjetpilot Posts: 34member
    mtbnut said:
    Does anyone know if Apple or anyone else makes a Lightning-to-Parallel Port adapter? I have an old OKIdata dot-matrix printer that I'd really like to use with my iPad. It's sad that Apple has ignored parallel port-using customers in its desire to move forward and advance the state of the art. 

    /sarcasm 

    This is where I insert the Henry Ford "a faster horse" quote. 

    I love how the people who will have no problem dropping $700 on a brand-new iPhone are already groaning about not being able to use the headphones that shipped with their 1983 Walkman. Cry me a river. 
    My 2015 $300 Bose noise cancelling headset didn't ship with my 1983 Walkman, but you expect me to just throw that away so I can have an iPhone that is 1mm thinner.  That makes sense only in the mind of an Apple fanboy.  There's a reason why that jack has been around for so long...because it works and it works well.

    This is where I insert the quote "if it isn't broke, don't fix it".
    zoetmbaylkanantksundarambaconstang6Sgoldfish
  • Reply 13 of 65
    jetpilot said:
    mtbnut said:
    Does anyone know if Apple or anyone else makes a Lightning-to-Parallel Port adapter? I have an old OKIdata dot-matrix printer that I'd really like to use with my iPad. It's sad that Apple has ignored parallel port-using customers in its desire to move forward and advance the state of the art. 

    /sarcasm 

    This is where I insert the Henry Ford "a faster horse" quote. 

    I love how the people who will have no problem dropping $700 on a brand-new iPhone are already groaning about not being able to use the headphones that shipped with their 1983 Walkman. Cry me a river. 
    My 2015 $300 Bose noise cancelling headset didn't ship with my 1983 Walkman, but you expect me to just throw that away so I can have an iPhone that is 1mm thinner.  That makes sense only in the mind of an Apple fanboy.  There's a reason why that jack has been around for so long...because it works and it works well.

    This is where I insert the quote "if it isn't broke, don't fix it".
    Sorry to say this, but technology doesn't care how much your headphones cost or when you bought them. The 3.5 mm jack may work well, but it does have and end of life just like everything else. Those headphones could be a lot lighter if used with a lighting jack because then the iPhone or iPad could then power the noise cancelling effect instead of having to use bulky and heavy batteries. 

    One rumor I heard is that the Lightning EarPods could even have noise canceling due to the Lightning jack. Our iPhones already have noise cancelling technology, but due to the dated headphone jack, the EarPods aren't able use the microphone in a way that would be able to do the same thing. So yeah, the headphone jack actually is broke. I'd love to have noise cancelling with any headphones I use. 
    nolamacguyjkichlinenetmage
  • Reply 14 of 65
    Hope they make a Lightning version of the In Ear Headphones as well. The standard EarPods don't work for me at all. They fall right out of my ear with any sort of movement.
    radarthekat
  • Reply 15 of 65
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    mtbnut said:
    Does anyone know if Apple or anyone else makes a Lightning-to-Parallel Port adapter? I have an old OKIdata dot-matrix printer that I'd really like to use with my iPad. It's sad that Apple has ignored parallel port-using customers in its desire to move forward and advance the state of the art. 

    /sarcasm 

    This is where I insert the Henry Ford "a faster horse" quote. 

    I love how the people who will have no problem dropping $700 on a brand-new iPhone are already groaning about not being able to use the headphones that shipped with their 1983 Walkman. Cry me a river. 
    It's not 1983 Walkman headphones.   It's just about every single headphone on the market at any price, including those specifically made to be used with an iPhone.   There's also the issue of it multiplying the number of insertions on that jack and I've had that jack fail on two iPhones just from recharging them (and yes, it was an Apple cable).    First it starts only accepting the plug one way and then it eventually fails completely.   I'd feel a little better about this if there were two Lightning jacks on the phone.   

    Having said that, every pair of third party "modern" earphones I've ever owned have had the cable or mini-phone plug fail.   So there might some advantages to the Lightning port.  

    Apple's ear buds are not the worst-sounding earphones out there, but they don't fit my ears and even when I've used them anyway, they eventually fail as one side loses signal when it's placed firmly in the ear.   IMO, they're designed poorly and they don't deal with ear wax well.   Earbuds with removable tips are a far superior design, IMO.   

    In addition, it means using the phone in many older cars will require new adapters which adds cost and can place further strain on that jack.   Or are we supposed to buy a new car to support a new iPhone?   And what's the point of designing a Zen phone that then has dongles and adapters sticking out of it?   It's as pointless as Apple's obsession with thinness to make a phone that most people keep in a case to protect it that hides that very thinness and the overall industrial design of the phone.  And because of that obsession with thinness, we get crappy battery life.  

    And why do I think that once Apple makes this change, the earbuds aren't going to come with the phones anymore, but be an extra-cost accessory?  I'm sure they'll be plenty of Beats headphones with the new plug and Apple will be slow to license everyone else.   

    But if the new phone also includes high-speed wireless charging (which I doubt), then I might be able to live with the Lightning port for earphones. 
    aylkwaverboybaconstang
  • Reply 16 of 65
    pbrstreetgpbrstreetg Posts: 184member
    The Apple ear buds are a good fit for my ears and are average in sound.  There will likely be adapters to use 'older' audio gear.
  • Reply 17 of 65
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    These have been confirmed as fake.
  • Reply 18 of 65
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    The Apple ear buds are a good fit for my ears and are average in sound.  There will likely be adapters to use 'older' audio gear.
    Because that's what everyone wants...to spend $30 on a clunky adapter.
    cnocbuibaconstang
  • Reply 19 of 65
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    These have been confirmed as fake.
    where did apple weigh in? press release?

    because the only thing i see on the MR story update is a link to an editor's tweet: "FYI, these are not official EarPods..." -- which doesn't confirm a damn thing, really. no more than the pics confirmed that they were even real.

    how people can treat rumors as gospel (going to far as to throw "will not buy!!" fits or blame Phil Schiller for everything) is something ill never know. this stuff is fun to talk about, but you can't really treat any of it as fact until it's out.
    edited July 2016 doozydozenireland
  • Reply 20 of 65
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    The Apple ear buds are a good fit for my ears and are average in sound.  There will likely be adapters to use 'older' audio gear.
    Because that's what everyone wants...to spend $30 on a clunky adapter.
    adapters are a temporary solution. in the future things won't be as they were in the past.
    fastasleepration al
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