AppleInsider podcast reviews Apple's 12" MacBook, talks earnings, Smart Connector, 'iPhone 7' and m

AppleInsider · April 29, 2016 12:18PM

This week on the AppleInsider podcast, we go hands-on with Apple's new early 2016 12-inch MacBook, talk Apple's soft earnings, discuss the Logi Base Smart Connector charger, and talk about 'iPhone 7' and the headphone jack.

AppleInsider editors Neil Hughes and Victor Marks chat about:

The latest Apple earnings reports
Neil's early 2016 12-inch MacBook review
Neil's hands-on with the Logi Base Smart Connector charging dock for iPad Pro
"iPhone 7" rumors of a Smart Connector and no headphone jack
Intel's desire to remove the headphone jack in favor of USB-C

The show is available on iTunes and your favorite podcast apps by searching for "AppleInsider." Click here to listen, subscribe, and don't forget to rate our show.

Listen to the embedded SoundCloud feed below:

The show is also available on Stitcher Radio.

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Follow our hosts on Twitter: @thisisneil and @vmarks.

Feedback and comments are always appreciated. Please contact the AppleInsider podcast at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter @appleinsider, plus Facebook and Instagram.

Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at [email protected].

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 1:08PM

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

snailer · April 29, 2016 1:41PM

They should put the smart connector from the side of the iPad Pros on the 12" Macbook for charging.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 2:01PM

snailer said:

They should put the smart connector from the side of the iPad Pros on the 12" Macbook for charging.

If they added it as a second port, I'd wholeheartedly agree.

pscooter63 · April 29, 2016 3:26PM

kermit4krazy said:

This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

You use iPhones (more than one, apparently) as field recorders. What's preventing you from continuing to use your existing hardware, even after you upgrade to a newer personal device? Is your workflow dependent upon LTE to upload your recordings?

(I've kept my retired/de-provisioned 4S around as a standalone, OS-frozen unit for a number of music-related apps.)

(No, I am not the one who down-voted your comment...)

canukstorm · April 29, 2016 3:37PM

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

This is not an Apple thing anymore.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10273/intel-proposes-to-use-usb-typec-cables-to-connect-headsets-to-mobile-devices

pmz · April 29, 2016 5:24PM

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

The way it works, and has always worked, is this:

The user that values using their 3.5mm accessories without an adapter more than buying a new iPhone, does not have to buy a new iPhone.
The user that values a new iPhone more than having to use an adapter for their 3.5mm accessories, can and will buy a new iPhone.

The same story applies to every design decision and legacy abandonment Apple has ever made, and this will be no exception. If history is indicator, it will have precisely 0 negative impact on the bottom line, and whatever benefits arise because of this trade off may actually increase it.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 6:09PM

canukstorm said:

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

This is not an Apple thing anymore.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10273/intel-proposes-to-use-usb-typec-cables-to-connect-headsets-to-mobile-devices

It most certainly is when Apple sells as many phones as it does. Other companies are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and stand out. Apple should absolutely not take the fact that lesser competitors are doing something as evidence that it's a good idea to follow suit.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 6:16PM

pmz said:

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

The way it works, and has always worked, is this:

The user that values using their 3.5mm accessories without an adapter more than buying a new iPhone, does not have to buy a new iPhone.
The user that values a new iPhone more than having to use an adapter for their 3.5mm accessories, can and will buy a new iPhone.

The same story applies to every design decision and legacy abandonment Apple has ever made, and this will be no exception. If history is indicator, it will have precisely 0 negative impact on the bottom line, and whatever benefits arise because of this trade off may actually increase it.

Right, but I said, "...it will place further downward pressure on sales." Obviously, people base their purchase decisions on whether a product meets their needs. Duh. I contend that this won't be perceived as a positive change by most current or prospective iPhone owners. It will be seen by some people as yet another reason to postpone or outright skip their next iPhone upgrade.

Frankly I think this is exactly the kind of thing Apple has been doing more and more often lately -- upgrading product lines in all the wrong ways and ignoring obvious upgrades that most people want (dramatically better battery life, lower prices, user-serviceable parts, more ports).

nolamacguy · April 29, 2016 6:26PM

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

to you. to your utterly minute, fringe use case. surely not the majority of people, whom apple caters to.

Apple is the most valuable company and brand in the world, with the highest consumer satisfaction ratings. theyre the best sellers in multiple categories and sectors. their past successes are enough to believe they know what theyre doing....more than anonymous guys on the the interwebs, anyway.

nolamacguy · April 29, 2016 6:31PM

kermit4krazy said:

pmz said:

The way it works, and has always worked, is this:

The user that values using their 3.5mm accessories without an adapter more than buying a new iPhone, does not have to buy a new iPhone.
The user that values a new iPhone more than having to use an adapter for their 3.5mm accessories, can and will buy a new iPhone.

The same story applies to every design decision and legacy abandonment Apple has ever made, and this will be no exception. If history is indicator, it will have precisely 0 negative impact on the bottom line, and whatever benefits arise because of this trade off may actually increase it.

Right, but I said, "...it will place further downward pressure on sales." Obviously, people base their purchase decisions on whether a product meets their needs. Duh. I contend that this won't be perceived as a positive change by most current or prospective iPhone owners. It will be seen by some people as yet another reason to postpone or outright skip their next iPhone upgrade.

if apple implements this rumor, I'm willing to believe they have pretty good reasons and research to back up their decision, including purchasing patterns. lets flip your statement -- what data do *you* have to indicate most people care enough about this use case to stop buying iPhones over it? be specific. your anecdote about your field recordings arent real data and are pretty much worthless. its not about you.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 6:32PM

nolamacguy said:

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

to you. to your utterly minute, fringe use case. surely not the majority of people, whom apple caters to.

Apple is the most valuable company and brand in the world, with the highest consumer satisfaction ratings. theyre the best sellers in multiple categories and sectors. their past successes are enough to believe they know what theyre doing....more than anonymous guys on the the interwebs, anyway.

With all the negative press surrounding this alleged change and the number of current iPhone owners, like me, who don't want it to happen for one reason or another, you can't honestly think that this won't have at least a somewhat deleterious affect on sales.

As for their consumer satisfaction ratings and past successes, I agree, but if you want to get into a discussion of trend lines and which way things have been heading, that's a whole different deal.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 6:44PM

nolamacguy said:

kermit4krazy said:

I strongly believe that Apple will regret replacing the standard headphone jack, and it will place further downward pressure on sales. It's simply NOT a change most iPhone users wanted or were asking for, and for many people, myself among them, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I use iPhones as convenient field recorders with wired lapel mics for videography projects (only certain types of mics will work), and my collection of mics will no longer work after this change without adapters, assuming they work at all. This in no way improves my workflow. It's purely an inconvenience.

to you. to your utterly minute, fringe use case. surely not the majority of people, whom apple caters to.

Apple is the most valuable company and brand in the world, with the highest consumer satisfaction ratings. theyre the best sellers in multiple categories and sectors. their past successes are enough to believe they know what theyre doing....more than anonymous guys on the the interwebs, anyway.

Also, you said, with "...their past success are enough to believe they know what theyre doing." So does that mean they're omnipotent? That they never make mistakes? Suppose the new Macbook had two ports instead of one? How do you think that would have impacted sales? Or what if the 1st gen Apple Watch had been able to go a week per charge? How do you suppose that would have impacted sales?

They aren't all knowing, and some of the decline in sales we're seeing across their core product lines isn't just because of China. I think some of it is because they've been more focussed on margins and obsessed with retina screens and thinness than on other things people actually want more. I use Apple products throughout my business, and their abandoning Aperture and dropping support for user-serviceable parts are things that don't benefit me one iota, and I don't know anyone who thinks that either of those two things were good business decisions on Apple's part. By dropping Aperture, they forced most pro artists and photographers to Adobe Lightroom. That's a big deal because it moves people further out of the Apple ecosystem. Lightroom works just as well on PCs, so it makes the decision to drop Macs altogether much easier.

It was just a stupid, bad business decision.

kermit4krazy · April 29, 2016 7:52PM

Onolamacguy said:

kermit4krazy said:

Right, but I said, "...it will place further downward pressure on sales." Obviously, people base their purchase decisions on whether a product meets their needs. Duh. I contend that this won't be perceived as a positive change by most current or prospective iPhone owners. It will be seen by some people as yet another reason to postpone or outright skip their next iPhone upgrade.

if apple implements this rumor, I'm willing to believe they have pretty good reasons and research to back up their decision, including purchasing patterns. lets flip your statement -- what data do *you* have to indicate most people care enough about this use case to stop buying iPhones over it? be specific. your anecdote about your field recordings arent real data and are pretty much worthless. its not about you.

All companies do what they do with the intention of earning more money -- be they Apple, Samsung, Exxon, etc. But sometimes they don't make the right decisions. Apple sold 10 million fewer iPhones in Q2 than they did in the year ago period. That's not insignificant. That's huge. If what I'm saying is anecdotal, then so is your assertion that Apple always knows what they're doing. You can't just say, "I'm willing to believe they have pretty good reasons and research to back up their decision." Well, obvs. But whether they have data to support their decisions doesn't change the results. Maybe whatever data they're using to justify their decisions lately around the iPhone is wrong, or maybe they're drawing the wrong conclusions from the data -- either way.

pmz · April 29, 2016 10:11PM

kermit4krazy said:

It will be seen by some people as yet another reason to postpone or outright skip their next iPhone upgrade.

K.

If you believe that, we have nothing more to talk about it.

neutrino23 · April 30, 2016 1:26AM

I find it hard to believe Apple will force us to plug in headphones through the Lightning connector. Not that I like the current analog plug but that the Lightning connector seems like a lousy connector for headphones. Lightning doesn't have that satisfying click when you plug it in. It just doesn't seem as robust.

If we are going to see a replacement for headphone jacks which will likely last for decades I think we'll see something better thought out. The new Smart Connector seen on the iPad Pro would be a better candidate. It would break away like a MagSafe adapter. The port could be smart enough to know if you have digital or analog phones. The adapter to use your existing headphones would be relatively cheap. You could charge your device while listening to music. It is sealed to make your device water proof and dust proof. They could make this open source.

ireland · May 3, 2016 12:29PM

Guys, guys, guys one simple way to solve the Lightning headphones for notebook port situation is to put an "headphone" glyph by the port and call it the "lightning headphone jack". People will understand quickly what it does. Going crazy listening to you argue this point on the podcast when the solution is obvious.

AppleInsider podcast reviews Apple's 12" MacBook, talks earnings, Smart Connector, 'iPhone 7' and m

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