The standard earbuds are not that great, but I've never found anything better than Apple's in-ear ones (which are also not that great).
My main trouble with the alternatives is they are all ugly as heck and basically made for teenage boys. Black with swishy silver bits, or silver with glowy chrome nonsense. The few that actually have good sound all have giant logos on them and silly "futuristic" styling. Why do these companies think that the same people who go for Apple's minimal stylishness would want crappy over-decorated junk like that is beyond me.
Serious audio folks use the over the ear full "cans" but then you have to use an adapter a lot of the time because the people that make the good ones are still stuck in the past and use those giant 80's style audio jacks.
And no-one makes a serious, high quality, stereo blue-tooth headset so we can ditch the wires altogether, which is jut mystifying to me. The very worse part of any iPod or iPhone is dealing with those tangled stupid wires, and yet no one has come up with a solution even though the technology has been around to do it for ages.
PS - You guys talking about adapters and such are not reading the article. The whole point of this invention is that it's a way to make the jack work in thinner devices, the jack would be the same standard size. Try to read more than just the title of the article next time, the title in this case is completely at odds with the facts contained therein.
You haven't found anything better than Apples in-ear ones? I guess you haven't checked around that much or you're just a casual listener. Those of us who get paid to mix audio use either Ultimate Ears or something similar that are custom fit just for us. Um, we really don't care how they look as long as the frequency is almost flat and they seal out ambient noise. You would be amazed at how good they sound.
The standard earbuds are not that great, but I've never found anything better than Apple's in-ear ones (which are also not that great).
My main trouble with the alternatives is they are all ugly as heck and basically made for teenage boys. Black with swishy silver bits, or silver with glowy chrome nonsense. The few that actually have good sound all have giant logos on them and silly "futuristic" styling. Why do these companies think that the same people who go for Apple's minimal stylishness would want crappy over-decorated junk like that is beyond me.
I suggest trying a store that sells professional music equipment, like Guitar Center. They probably have something for you to try. Failing that, maybe something from Etymotic?
Quote:
Serious audio folks use the over the ear full "cans" but then you have to use an adapter a lot of the time because the people that make the good ones are still stuck in the past and use those giant 80's style audio jacks.
The adapters to make those work makes the problems worse. I've almost damaged a portable music player once because the leverage is so high. Most seem to be 1/4" jacks with 1/8" adapters, but some are 1/8" jacks that have 1/4" adapters, which is more useful for more people.
Quote:
And no-one makes a serious, high quality, stereo blue-tooth headset so we can ditch the wires altogether, which is jut mystifying to me. The very worse part of any iPod or iPhone is dealing with those tangled stupid wires, and yet no one has come up with a solution even though the technology has been around to do it for ages.
I agree. I've tried three different BT headphones, they all had one serious problem. One wouldn't charge reliably. Another had bad music playback. Another had bad call quality. I'll probably try some more soon, but I burned out for a while trying to make those work.
Adapter? Something small and easy to lose? Very idiotic.
Proprietary? So I can't use MY headphones, I have to use Apple's? Very idiotic.
Anything that changes the standard 1/8" jack is idiotic and short sighted.
Idiotic? Maybe. Anything but shortsighted though. Do you think the 1/8" headphone jack will persist into perpetuity? Eventually someone will need to change it to make it smaller for devices that don't have the size to spare.
Why not use a maglock based system similar to the power chords on MacBooks.
because that would require an adapater to fit the connector that comes on just about every type of headphone made today.. or you'd be stuck with those craptastic apple headphones - magsafe or not they don't sound very good.
They could just put the standard jack in-line with the cable and fix the cable to the device so you don't lose it. It's not much more bulky than the cable itself.
Redesigning the port itself to be smaller is a nice idea, I certainly think if they were able to prevent people snapping the jack inside the port, it would be a benefit but it will complicate things significantly. The headphone jack is more common than USB.
As far as the shuffle goes, I like the idea of it sitting on one headphone and you just press the side of your earphone to change tracks etc. This eliminates in-ear phones but in-ear ones suck anyway.
They can just use the 30-pin port and not bother with the headphone jack. Of course if they want to do this with the bigger iPods too then the problem has to be worked through.
I like the idea of wireless audio but it just gets too much interference and you've got the constant battery charging issue and so on.
It's a tricky problem and I think switching the port would cause more problems than it prevents. I also don't think people really care about smaller at this point. The headphone jack is less bulky that the 30-pin plug so why not start with the 30-pin plug?
I like how both images have a label of "400" with an arrow pointing at ... nothing. What's up with that? Maybe that's the space you save by using the Apple solution.
As others have said, this is really a non-issue. It gives Apple a few millimeters of extra space to play with inside their devices. Clever, but not something that anyone should worry about.
too bad there doesn't already exist some fancy technology that would let them completely eliminate the jack and the wires ...
I realize it's sarcasm, but I tried three different wireless headphones hoping to find one, but all three had at least one serious issue. I can try buying online, but given that my success rate is 0/3, I figure that I'll be doing a lot of mail-based returns too.
Looking that diagram, it seems to me that they could fit atleast 2 or 3 more contacts inside the regular headphone socket. Usb cable has 4 contacts, 2 for electricity and 2 for data. What if they combine the 30pin connector and headphone socket, something along the lines like they did with shuffle?
too bad there doesn't already exist some fancy technology that would let them completely eliminate the jack and the wires ...
Get back to me when the sound quality is comparable, the battery and reciever can fit into the design of current wired earbuds, and they aren't priced way higher than comparable wired ones.
Comments
The standard earbuds are not that great, but I've never found anything better than Apple's in-ear ones (which are also not that great).
My main trouble with the alternatives is they are all ugly as heck and basically made for teenage boys. Black with swishy silver bits, or silver with glowy chrome nonsense. The few that actually have good sound all have giant logos on them and silly "futuristic" styling. Why do these companies think that the same people who go for Apple's minimal stylishness would want crappy over-decorated junk like that is beyond me.
Serious audio folks use the over the ear full "cans" but then you have to use an adapter a lot of the time because the people that make the good ones are still stuck in the past and use those giant 80's style audio jacks.
And no-one makes a serious, high quality, stereo blue-tooth headset so we can ditch the wires altogether, which is jut mystifying to me. The very worse part of any iPod or iPhone is dealing with those tangled stupid wires, and yet no one has come up with a solution even though the technology has been around to do it for ages.
PS - You guys talking about adapters and such are not reading the article. The whole point of this invention is that it's a way to make the jack work in thinner devices, the jack would be the same standard size. Try to read more than just the title of the article next time, the title in this case is completely at odds with the facts contained therein.
You haven't found anything better than Apples in-ear ones? I guess you haven't checked around that much or you're just a casual listener. Those of us who get paid to mix audio use either Ultimate Ears or something similar that are custom fit just for us. Um, we really don't care how they look as long as the frequency is almost flat and they seal out ambient noise. You would be amazed at how good they sound.
The standard earbuds are not that great, but I've never found anything better than Apple's in-ear ones (which are also not that great).
My main trouble with the alternatives is they are all ugly as heck and basically made for teenage boys. Black with swishy silver bits, or silver with glowy chrome nonsense. The few that actually have good sound all have giant logos on them and silly "futuristic" styling. Why do these companies think that the same people who go for Apple's minimal stylishness would want crappy over-decorated junk like that is beyond me.
I suggest trying a store that sells professional music equipment, like Guitar Center. They probably have something for you to try. Failing that, maybe something from Etymotic?
Serious audio folks use the over the ear full "cans" but then you have to use an adapter a lot of the time because the people that make the good ones are still stuck in the past and use those giant 80's style audio jacks.
The adapters to make those work makes the problems worse. I've almost damaged a portable music player once because the leverage is so high. Most seem to be 1/4" jacks with 1/8" adapters, but some are 1/8" jacks that have 1/4" adapters, which is more useful for more people.
And no-one makes a serious, high quality, stereo blue-tooth headset so we can ditch the wires altogether, which is jut mystifying to me. The very worse part of any iPod or iPhone is dealing with those tangled stupid wires, and yet no one has come up with a solution even though the technology has been around to do it for ages.
I agree. I've tried three different BT headphones, they all had one serious problem. One wouldn't charge reliably. Another had bad music playback. Another had bad call quality. I'll probably try some more soon, but I burned out for a while trying to make those work.
Does anyone have a diagram of the existing headphone jack technology to compare?
It's hard to see, but a common jack has internals similar to this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...uctId=2103452#
I don't know what Apple's current jacks look like.
Adapter? Something small and easy to lose? Very idiotic.
Proprietary? So I can't use MY headphones, I have to use Apple's? Very idiotic.
Anything that changes the standard 1/8" jack is idiotic and short sighted.
Idiotic? Maybe. Anything but shortsighted though. Do you think the 1/8" headphone jack will persist into perpetuity? Eventually someone will need to change it to make it smaller for devices that don't have the size to spare.
Today should be a very important day for WiFi availability for the U.S.
Small iPods are the only thing that don't have WiFi yet.
Why not use a maglock based system similar to the power chords on MacBooks.
because that would require an adapater to fit the connector that comes on just about every type of headphone made today.. or you'd be stuck with those craptastic apple headphones - magsafe or not they don't sound very good.
Adapter? Something small and easy to lose? Very idiotic.
Proprietary? So I can't use MY headphones, I have to use Apple's? Very idiotic.
Anything that changes the standard 1/8" jack is idiotic and short sighted.
This has nothing to do with the plug, it's about the socket. Do read before making pointless criticism.
Adapter? Something small and easy to lose? Very idiotic.
Proprietary? So I can't use MY headphones, I have to use Apple's? Very idiotic.
Anything that changes the standard 1/8" jack is idiotic and short sighted.
not supporting the floppy disk
using HD screens when analog screens are "good enough"
using miniDisplay port when DVI is "good enough"
ad nauseam...
change is sooooo painful for some folks.
Redesigning the port itself to be smaller is a nice idea, I certainly think if they were able to prevent people snapping the jack inside the port, it would be a benefit but it will complicate things significantly. The headphone jack is more common than USB.
As far as the shuffle goes, I like the idea of it sitting on one headphone and you just press the side of your earphone to change tracks etc. This eliminates in-ear phones but in-ear ones suck anyway.
They can just use the 30-pin port and not bother with the headphone jack. Of course if they want to do this with the bigger iPods too then the problem has to be worked through.
I like the idea of wireless audio but it just gets too much interference and you've got the constant battery charging issue and so on.
It's a tricky problem and I think switching the port would cause more problems than it prevents. I also don't think people really care about smaller at this point. The headphone jack is less bulky that the 30-pin plug so why not start with the 30-pin plug?
Get rid of both and use locking micro-usb.
As others have said, this is really a non-issue. It gives Apple a few millimeters of extra space to play with inside their devices. Clever, but not something that anyone should worry about.
too bad there doesn't already exist some fancy technology that would let them completely eliminate the jack and the wires ...
I realize it's sarcasm, but I tried three different wireless headphones hoping to find one, but all three had at least one serious issue. I can try buying online, but given that my success rate is 0/3, I figure that I'll be doing a lot of mail-based returns too.
Adapter? Something small and easy to lose? Very idiotic.
Proprietary? So I can't use MY headphones, I have to use Apple's? Very idiotic.
Anything that changes the standard 1/8" jack is idiotic and short sighted.
Heard the same idiotic and short sighted reasons before the 1/8 jacks were being introduced.
not supporting the floppy disk
using HD screens when analog screens are "good enough"
using miniDisplay port when DVI is "good enough"
ad nauseam...
change is sooooo painful for some folks.
You forgot not supporting Blu-ray. 720p is better than 1080p, I guess.
too bad there doesn't already exist some fancy technology that would let them completely eliminate the jack and the wires ...
Get back to me when the sound quality is comparable, the battery and reciever can fit into the design of current wired earbuds, and they aren't priced way higher than comparable wired ones.