ppietra said: that is a good argument but I think it would be possible to design it without being that much longer than the lightning connector housing that is already shown in the picture. The jack could sit on top and the casing could also be a bit wider which would reduce lateral movements of the connector.
Remember that the headphone jack itself is also going to contribute to the length so you are better off with the cable I think.
I sort of wish they had bailed on Lightning and gone with USB-C. Eventually that will be as standard as USB-A is now.
Are you suggesting Apple switch to USB-C on iOS devices after just five years of Lightning?
People are still foaming at the mouth about having to ditch the 30 pin after ten years of use! Besides, the Lightning connector is slightly smaller than USB Type-C and I think the notches in its side make for a firmer fit.
I'm glad Apple didn't go with microUSB connectors. I've found them to be fragile and unreliable.
Lots of people charge their device while using the headphone jack. That will suck until we get some form of wireless charging.
Eventually, they will probably make some tandem adapter for listening and charging at the same time, perhaps like a Lightning 2 port hub, or maybe Belkin will make something with a Lightning and a 3.5mm audio jack. With Lightning you'll have to find all these adapters to use your new Lightning headphones on a Mac or on an airplane audio system, etc. I sort of wish they had bailed on Lightning and gone with USB-C. Eventually that will be as standard as USB-A is now.
The shortsightedness of the members on a rumors page is staggering. Do people really think they are the first to realize there's no way to charge and listen at the same time? Do they really think Apple didn't once think of that?
your solutions are far too bulky though ... It will be a simple, L-shaped Lightning connector with a male plug on one side and a female pass through port on the other. The wire comes out the side -- which is how most "audiophile" headphones are made as it reduces stress on the plug. And that's just for a simple 3.5mm headphone adapter.
Reverse adapters for use with airlines will be even easier, since they will be a simple analogue bypass of the headphones built-in DAC. And your Headphones will likely have a Lightning pass-through for charging, if your passive adapter doesn't. Some Beats headphones have two 3.5mm jacks now for sharing your signal by daisy having with friends.
Macs will likely get Lightning as soon as the headphone jack is removed from the iPhone. And USB-C doesn't solve anything. You'd still need adapters for many years as nobody is using USBc at the moment. At least there's half-a-billion iPhone users on the planet guaranteeing the odds of finding a Lightning cable to be pretty good. USB for the next few years, not so much. Plus, why would I want to replace all of my Lightning cables and accessries I just invested in over the last four years?
Has Apple ever included an adapter in the box to ease a transition?
One example is way back when the MBP had a DVI port, I believe they supplied a DVI to VGA adaptor in the box so you could use it with conference room projectors and TVs. Also the Apple Pencil comes with a Lightning to Lightning adaptor, but that is not really due to a transition, just to enable the iPad to charge the Pencil.
Yes, they did include a DVI to VGA adapter with the MBP. I remember it coming with the 1st gen 17" MBP I bought 10 years ago. Never needed to use it though, so it just stayed in the box for the 6 years I owned it.
the outer-shell coming off that easily doesn’t seem at all like an Apple product. The cable length doesn’t seem like the best option either. No cable would have made it more robust against wear and tear
Yet, having a short, flexible cable allows for a bit of stress unloading of the female receptacle. A 'solid' adapter would impart mor stress to the receptacle if, for example, someone moved away from their iPhone (sitting on a table) while still wearing the headset. It is the relatively thin girth of the flexible cable that worries me as I have many Apple lightning and 30-pin cables that have become 'shredded' from contact use.
I wish the Apple pencil had the same kind of adaptor with short wired dongle .. ... So i could lay it next to the ipad when charging rather than have stick out awkwardly and be prone to breaking too.
Finally! Apple is making it desirable for users to listen to music using digital headphones, rather than using the 4 decades old analog headphone jack.
Digital not only provides better sound quality (wider and flatter frequency range, wider dynamic range, no static or interference) but it also allows for many features such as software based noise isolation.
The digital signal has to be converted anyhow to an analogue signal to drive the earphone. Because the earphone cable is rather short and tends to twist, there will be very little difference in sound quality in the analogue part, whether the DAC is located in the iPhone or whether it is put closer to the earphone. The fact the iPhone is better shielded than the cable, might even lead to opposite reaction, the DAC itself will be less susceptible to noise interference inside the iPhone than outside the iPhone
I wish the Apple pencil had the same kind of adaptor with short wired dongle .. ... So i could lay it next to the ipad when charging rather than have stick out awkwardly and be prone to breaking too.
There should have been a Lightning adaptor in the box that you can use to plug the Apple Pencil into a regular Lightning cable.
I sort of wish they had bailed on Lightning and gone with USB-C. Eventually that will be as standard as USB-A is now.
Are you suggesting Apple switch to USB-C on iOS devices after just five years of Lightning?
People are still foaming at the mouth about having to ditch the 30 pin after ten years of use! Besides, the Lightning connector is slightly smaller than USB Type-C and I think the notches in its side make for a firmer fit.
I'm glad Apple didn't go with microUSB connectors. I've found them to be fragile and unreliable.
But streamlining Macs and iPhone to the single USB-C standard is not a bad idea. After all, it remains to be seen what Apple will do in 2017, when the European Union directive of a universal smartphone charger is taking effect. We cannot assume that Apple will take a lot of risks and leave it as it is. An USB-C connector fits as firmly as a lightning connector. I just tested it with a iPhone and a Nexus 5X
the outer-shell coming off that easily doesn’t seem at all like an Apple product. The cable length doesn’t seem like the best option either. No cable would have made it more robust against wear and tear
Disagree about cable comment. A single long adaptor would exert too much leverage and could damage the port if bumped. The cable serves as a buffer.
Even better would be a low profile right-angle plug, which would reduce leverage even more. It could work with Lightning because that connector is double-sided, unlike the old 30-pin connector.
If Apple doesn't bundle Lightning EarPods with the iPhone I'd be very surprised. If that dongle is true I'd imagine it would be an add-on accessory.
I am going to think outside the box here.
If I was Apple, I'd include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter so that people can use legacy headphones and supply Apple BT headphones with the phone (with lightning charging like the Pencil).
You therefore have 1) listening while charging the phone, 2) use of the port to charge the headphones 3) change of peoples perceptions to BT/wireless headphones making the adapter less relevant in the future 4) Support for Beats Wireless headphones (for the 'audiophiles' amongst us <<sarcasm>>)
If Apple doesn't bundle Lightning EarPods with the iPhone I'd be very surprised. If that dongle is true I'd imagine it would be an add-on accessory.
I am going to think outside the box here.
If I was Apple, I'd include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter so that people can use legacy headphones and supply Apple BT headphones with the phone (with lightning charging like the Pencil).
You therefore have 1) listening while charging the phone, 2) use of the port to charge the headphones 3) change of peoples perceptions to BT/wireless headphones making the adapter less relevant in the future 4) Support for Beats Wireless headphones (for the 'audiophiles' amongst us <<sarcasm>>)
Might be a better option.
Cheers Dr Hawk
I assume you're being sarcastic when you say thinking outside the box? Motorola just released a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack, and included an adapter with it.
the problem with including an adapter is it 1) implies Apple made a mistake removing the jack, 2) encourages customers to keep using their old cheap analogue equipment, and 3) risks having customers throwing the Lightning EarPods in the drawer without ever having tried them out.
The best way to deal with a change like this, is to just rip the bandaid off. Otherwise, a year down the road, some customers will just be in the same boat when Apple stops including adapters in the box, not having given it another thought since they plugged their old headphones into the free adapter a year or two before.
Finally! Apple is making it desirable for users to listen to music using digital headphones, rather than using the 4 decades old analog headphone jack.
Digital not only provides better sound quality (wider and flatter frequency range, wider dynamic range, no static or interference) but it also allows for many features such as software based noise isolation.
Ehm, without any intention to offend the original poster, this is bullshit. Headphones *are* analogue; the transducers that produce sound close to your ears *are* analogue. So, while what you says it is true in a domain where we process and store sound, it simply false when you move to earing music; you need somewhere a digital to analogue conversion in order to drive a transducer; if you move the DAC out of the smartphone, it will be somewhere else; problems with frequency range and dynamic range will be there as well. Probably less interference problems, but interferences in a smartphones are probably happening at a frequency that touch less the audio range than in other case (I.e. AC power supply). If Apple moved out the DAC, it just means that we will have to spend more money to have a DAC somewhere else; either in the headphone or in a separate component; if Apple just changed the connection, using Lightning to send out analogue audio (there were some rumors a while ago about this solution) we will just have to have an adapter more, and the whole discussion is pointless.
By the way, jacks are a bit older that 40 years, they were used in the 30s in telephone companies. And they are not obsolete: all the music you hear is produced using jacks : there is no standard, reliable, widely used digital connection for musical instruments; the instrument to recording equipement connection is mostly always analogue and done using jacks, even for digital equipment (like high end delay pedals for guitars); from there on, the processing is digital. And the 3.5 mm jack is universally used, and so very far from being obsolete, in professional and consumer audio equipment, where a Lightning or USB connection would just not make sense. And most of high end headphones, earpods and similar have analogue connections using jacks, that do not look very obsolete.
If I was Apple, I'd include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter so that people can use legacy headphones and supply Apple BT headphones with the phone (with lightning charging like the Pencil).
You therefore have 1) listening while charging the phone, 2) use of the port to charge the headphones 3) change of peoples perceptions to BT/wireless headphones making the adapter less relevant in the future 4) Support for Beats Wireless headphones (for the 'audiophiles' amongst us <<sarcasm>>)
Might be a better option.
Cheers Dr Hawk
I assume you're being sarcastic when you say thinking outside the box? Motorola just released a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack, and included an adapter with it.
the problem with including an adapter is it 1) implies Apple made a mistake removing the jack, 2) encourages customers to keep using their old cheap analogue equipment, and 3) risks having customers throwing the Lightning EarPods in the drawer without ever having tried them out.
The best way to deal with a change like this, is to just rip the bandaid off. Otherwise, a year down the road, some customers will just be in the same boat when Apple stops including adapters in the box, not having given it another thought since they plugged their old headphones into the free adapter a year or two before.
There would be many people whose analogue headphones are far better than anything Apple have ever shipped and which were not cheap. Have a look at Headfi.org
So to drive the iphone sales up, we will have an iPhone 7 which is virtually the same as the 6s with some internals bumped, minus the audio jack, for no understandable reason. I thought the excuse for this one was to make a slimmer phone, now it seems the excuse is just to annoy people and forcing to buy another 20$ adapter. Brilliant move Apple. Sure you will sell a lot of these.
Disagree about cable comment. A single long adaptor would exert too much leverage and could damage the port if bumped. The cable serves as a buffer.
Even better would be a low profile right-angle plug, which would reduce leverage even more. It could work with Lightning because that connector is double-sided, unlike the old 30-pin connector.
Nah. Apple makes tons of dongles and they all use a short cable except for the Lightning to 30-pin. You want the least amount of leverage and as little mass as possible at the device-side port.
I wish the Apple pencil had the same kind of adaptor with short wired dongle .. ... So i could lay it next to the ipad when charging rather than have stick out awkwardly and be prone to breaking too.
There should have been a Lightning adaptor in the box that you can use to plug the Apple Pencil into a regular Lightning cable.
There is a female to female Lightning adapter but that is for use with a USB wall charger cable. I do not believe Apple makes a male to male or male to female Lightning cable that could be used to connect the iPad to the Pencil.
There should have been a Lightning adaptor in the box that you can use to plug the Apple Pencil into a regular Lightning cable.
There is a female to female Lightning adapter but that is for use with a USB wall charger cable. I do not believe Apple makes a male to male Lightning cable that could be used to connect the iPad to the Pencil.
Good point, you can't get a lightning to lightning cable, can you? I wonder if one of them might be on the way if Macs end up getting lightning ports (for headphones).
There is a female to female Lightning adapter but that is for use with a USB wall charger cable. I do not believe Apple makes a male to male Lightning cable that could be used to connect the iPad to the Pencil.
Good point, you can't get a lightning to lightning cable, can you? I wonder if one of them might be on the way if Macs end up getting lightning ports (for headphones).
But yes, sorry, my mistake.
Third party Lightning extension cables are available. Male to female which should work without using the Apple adapter.
Comments
People are still foaming at the mouth about having to ditch the 30 pin after ten years of use!
Besides, the Lightning connector is slightly smaller than USB Type-C and I think the notches in its side make for a firmer fit.
I'm glad Apple didn't go with microUSB connectors. I've found them to be fragile and unreliable.
The shortsightedness of the members on a rumors page is staggering. Do people really think they are the first to realize there's no way to charge and listen at the same time? Do they really think Apple didn't once think of that?
your solutions are far too bulky though ... It will be a simple, L-shaped Lightning connector with a male plug on one side and a female pass through port on the other. The wire comes out the side -- which is how most "audiophile" headphones are made as it reduces stress on the plug. And that's just for a simple 3.5mm headphone adapter.
Reverse adapters for use with airlines will be even easier, since they will be a simple analogue bypass of the headphones built-in DAC. And your Headphones will likely have a Lightning pass-through for charging, if your passive adapter doesn't. Some Beats headphones have two 3.5mm jacks now for sharing your signal by daisy having with friends.
Macs will likely get Lightning as soon as the headphone jack is removed from the iPhone. And USB-C doesn't solve anything. You'd still need adapters for many years as nobody is using USBc at the moment. At least there's half-a-billion iPhone users on the planet guaranteeing the odds of finding a Lightning cable to be pretty good. USB for the next few years, not so much. Plus, why would I want to replace all of my Lightning cables and accessries I just invested in over the last four years?
An USB-C connector fits as firmly as a lightning connector. I just tested it with a iPhone and a Nexus 5X
If I was Apple, I'd include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter so that people can use legacy headphones and supply Apple BT headphones with the phone (with lightning charging like the Pencil).
You therefore have 1) listening while charging the phone, 2) use of the port to charge the headphones 3) change of peoples perceptions to BT/wireless headphones making the adapter less relevant in the future 4) Support for Beats Wireless headphones (for the 'audiophiles' amongst us <<sarcasm>>)
Might be a better option.
Cheers Dr Hawk
the problem with including an adapter is it 1) implies Apple made a mistake removing the jack, 2) encourages customers to keep using their old cheap analogue equipment, and 3) risks having customers throwing the Lightning EarPods in the drawer without ever having tried them out.
The best way to deal with a change like this, is to just rip the bandaid off. Otherwise, a year down the road, some customers will just be in the same boat when Apple stops including adapters in the box, not having given it another thought since they plugged their old headphones into the free adapter a year or two before.
Headphones *are* analogue; the transducers that produce sound close to your ears *are* analogue.
So, while what you says it is true in a domain where we process and store sound, it simply false when you move to earing music; you need somewhere a digital to analogue conversion in order to drive a transducer; if you move the DAC out of the smartphone, it will be somewhere else; problems with frequency range and dynamic range will be there as well.
Probably less interference problems, but interferences in a smartphones are probably happening at a frequency that touch less the audio range than in other case (I.e. AC power supply).
If Apple moved out the DAC, it just means that we will have to spend more money to have a DAC somewhere else; either in the headphone or in a separate component; if Apple just changed the connection, using Lightning to send out analogue audio (there were some rumors a while ago about this solution) we will just have to have an adapter more, and the whole discussion is pointless.
By the way, jacks are a bit older that 40 years, they were used in the 30s in telephone companies. And they are not obsolete: all the music you hear is produced using jacks : there is no standard, reliable, widely used digital connection for musical instruments; the instrument to recording equipement connection is mostly always analogue and done using jacks, even for digital equipment (like high end delay pedals for guitars); from there on, the processing is digital. And the 3.5 mm jack is universally used, and so very far from being obsolete, in professional and consumer audio equipment, where a Lightning or USB connection would just not make sense. And most of high end headphones, earpods and similar have analogue connections using jacks, that do not look very obsolete.
Maurizio
There is a female to female Lightning adapter but that is for use with a USB wall charger cable. I do not believe Apple makes a male to male or male to female Lightning cable that could be used to connect the iPad to the Pencil.
But yes, sorry, my mistake.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lightning+extension+cable