"These are as advanced a project as Apple Pencil," Schiller said of AirPods. "We started this project when we started the Watch project. We knew we needed a great wireless solution for audio. We said, 'What if you could design what the future of headphones should look like?' That's we asked the team to do."
That's all well and good Phil, but why on God's green Earth did you go with that absurdly long alien protrusion that, from a distance looks like frozen bird poo, and up close looks like someone just hacked off a regular set of Apple EarPods?
I am certain cramming such a lot of functionality into a tiny space is fiendishly difficult, but as other companies have shown, there are more inconspicuous ways of designing wireless earphones. I cannot see many people wearing these without a few sniggers from onlookers. Funny how white earphones with a jiggling white cord, made famous and stylish by the acrobatic hip dancing in the early iPod commercials, has become superficially uncool sans cord.
Of course, that is my opinion as 40-something uncool guy and I could be completely out of touch and wrong. But they just don't seem to scream "look at my sexy wearable tech!" - much in the same way Google Glass didn't either, although maybe not quite so stupid-looking and obtrussive.
Show me a nice looking Bluetooth headset on the market with 50% of features as this. You need to open your mind for new technology and innovation sometimes.
"These are as advanced a project as Apple Pencil," Schiller said of AirPods.
Show me a nice looking Bluetooth headset on the market, period. This isn't it. These are gonna get lost over and over again. $160 for something that cannot be repaired? How much is AppleCare - $95?
The sheeple will buy them, but I bet iStuff sales are down again next quarter.
So much for enhancing shareholder value. Try enhancing customer value, shareholder value will follow. It worked from August 1997 through October 2011.
Looks like iPhone 7 is the impetus for a rapidly expanding market for Bluetooth headphones and EarPods.
Most people will move on from wired and never look back.
Nope. A2DP profile only pushes lossy audio (AAC and MP3) over it, not lossless. So bluetooth is a downgrade.
For all the whining about the removal of the 3.5mm jack, I think people defending this decision are losing sight of what this means. It's an antithesis to the "Smaller, lighter" race Apple has been chasing, by requiring a dongle of any sort that has actually made the footprint 3" larger. Sorry, that is not what I want.
But I'll point out that the Nokia headphones that I had been using forever had a "dongle" too, it extended the headphones a foot so that the "playback controls" could be attached to your coat, and also worked as a "Break away" cable in case you took your coat off and didn't remove the headphones from your head first. It was still a 3.5mm cable, but it added a function to ANY headphones.
This is why removing the 3.5mm jack is stupid. Apple could have solved the water-proofing and kept the jack, or added a USB-C or another lightning port. But NO, instead they remove it entirely and replace it with nothing, allowing only lossy bluetooth as the only "standard". What idiot at Apple proposed this without replacing it?
So this destroyed functionality has consequences for the vast majority of people: - People who use their expensive headphones for long periods of time, can no longer charge their phone - People who use their phone with the car on a road trip, can no longer charge their phone - People who listen to music for 8-12 hours in the office can no longer charge their phone - People who use wireless headphones end up needing two or three pairs to last an entire day.
Nintendo, Nokia and Motorola have all done this, and all quickly abandoned the effort when people complained that they couldn't charge their device. Now had Apple introduced a "wireless charging" dock that charges the headphones and phone, maybe this might have gone over better. But instead we're expected to only use our phones for 5 hours with a wireless headset, or not use Apple Music at all while using lightning headphones since the charge will run out and the batteries do not last long enough for commute+office, or road-trip.
Effectively the iPhone 7 is the most poorly thought-out phone Apple has ever done. Why would anyone want to downgrade to this? This is not even remotely comparable to the removal of 3.5" floppy drives, serial ports and optical drives, which were already on the way out and had better alternatives. What alternative is introduced here? NONE.
No headphone jack, the price in Canada, being forced to pay $109 more for 128gb instead of 64gb that's not needed, $169 for Apple care, and nothing new that's noteworthy, this long time buyer will stick with my 6, and being forced to buy 128gb for a 6S now, screw it already.
Looks like iPhone 7 is the impetus for a rapidly expanding market for Bluetooth headphones and EarPods.
Most people will move on from wired and never look back.
Nope. A2DP profile only pushes lossy audio (AAC and MP3) over it, not lossless. So bluetooth is a downgrade.
For all the whining about the removal of the 3.5mm jack, I think people defending this decision are losing sight of what this means. It's an antithesis to the "Smaller, lighter" race Apple has been chasing, by requiring a dongle of any sort that has actually made the footprint 3" larger. Sorry, that is not what I want.
But I'll point out that the Nokia headphones that I had been using forever had a "dongle" too, it extended the headphones a foot so that the "playback controls" could be attached to your coat, and also worked as a "Break away" cable in case you took your coat off and didn't remove the headphones from your head first. It was still a 3.5mm cable, but it added a function to ANY headphones.
This is why removing the 3.5mm jack is stupid. Apple could have solved the water-proofing and kept the jack, or added a USB-C or another lightning port. But NO, instead they remove it entirely and replace it with nothing, allowing only lossy bluetooth as the only "standard". What idiot at Apple proposed this without replacing it?
So this destroyed functionality has consequences for the vast majority of people: - People who use their expensive headphones for long periods of time, can no longer charge their phone - People who use their phone with the car on a road trip, can no longer charge their phone - People who listen to music for 8-12 hours in the office can no longer charge their phone - People who use wireless headphones end up needing two or three pairs to last an entire day.
Nintendo, Nokia and Motorola have all done this, and all quickly abandoned the effort when people complained that they couldn't charge their device. Now had Apple introduced a "wireless charging" dock that charges the headphones and phone, maybe this might have gone over better. But instead we're expected to only use our phones for 5 hours with a wireless headset, or not use Apple Music at all while using lightning headphones since the charge will run out and the batteries do not last long enough for commute+office, or road-trip.
Effectively the iPhone 7 is the most poorly thought-out phone Apple has ever done. Why would anyone want to downgrade to this? This is not even remotely comparable to the removal of 3.5" floppy drives, serial ports and optical drives, which were already on the way out and had better alternatives. What alternative is introduced here? NONE.
You don't make your case with outlier examples, most of which will be mitigated by other accessories or 3rd party earbuds.
A year from now, when the next iteration of iPhone is released, there will be a few voices pining for the audio port, maybe yours will still be among them, but otherwise, it's dead tech walking; the rest of the industry will happily follow Apple.
People complain "how am I going to listen to music when I'm charging my air pods..." The same way you listen to music when your charging your wireless headphones you have now... I havnt used the 3.5mm headphone jack in years.
I use my wireless headphones on planes every time I travel. Even during take off and landing. And I've never had an issue.
My only question is why they skipped wireless charging this time around...
For all we know, Apple could have leaked the news or removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack themselves to monitor public opinion of the decision.
Apple removed it, third party will provide solutions.
Apple's not gonna create a case with a 3.5mm jack built in because that would undermine there decision. One. And two, the dongle is meant to be a temporary fix not a permanent one.
All I hear when reading these comments are people who are whining about petty stuff.
You don't like the airpods... Then don't buy them. Simple as that. There is a very competitive market that will offer new solutions to this temporary problem.
Apple don't use the lossless Bluetooth aptX codec with iOS. You can only stream losslessly with iOS using Airplay and Wifi, which not that many headphones support.
People complain "how am I going to listen to music when I'm charging my air pods..." The same way you listen to music when your charging your wireless headphones you have now... I havnt used the 3.5mm headphone jack in years.
I use my wireless headphones on planes every time I travel. Even during take off and landing. And I've never had an issue.
My only question is why they skipped wireless charging this time around...
For all we know, Apple could have leaked the news or removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack themselves to monitor public opinion of the decision.
Apple removed it, third party will provide solutions.
Apple's not gonna create a case with a 3.5mm jack built in because that would undermine there decision. One. And two, the dongle is meant to be a temporary fix not a permanent one.
All I hear when reading these comments are people who are whining about petty stuff.
You don't like the airpods... Then don't buy them. Simple as that. There is a very competitive market that will offer new solutions to this temporary problem.
I agree about wireless. But I'm disappointed they don't appear to have improved the audio quality at all. By all appearances these are just standard BT 4.1 audio quality without any AAC or aptX codecs. We'll see. That will go a long way toward a wireless future.
But out the charging and listening thing is real, especially for the traveler, and especially when they bundle Lightning headphones in the box. I'm still holding out hope that the Lightning charging cable in the box comes with a Lightning passthrough like the Apple external battery case does. Or at a minimum, adding a Lightning port to the charging cube. And why shouldn't Apple add a 3.5mm port to a battery case? There's more than enough room on their external battery case. Seriously if they offer a free adapter in the box, they're already undermining their decision.
And where is the 3.5mm (source) to Lightning (headphone) adaptor?
I kept shaking my head during the keynote, then went online to check things out. No way to use your new Lightning headphones with your old Apple gear like iPods and Macs, or anything else, all but guaranteeing that a customer needs to carry two sets of headphones with them!
They're bundling Lightning headphones AND a 3.5mm adapter, so why not just bundle the old 3.5mm headphones with the 3.5mm adapter? At least that way a customer only needs one set of headphones, and an adapter to use them with the iPhone. I guess existing iPhone customers can just use their old earbuds with the new adapter which just seems to defeat the purpose.
I'm all for lightning headphones, but this seems like a half-baked roll-out. I hope to see Lightning ports added to the Macs at an event in October, but even then, it doesn't address legacy Macs. And where are the adapters? Heck I would take a Lightning to USB-C adapter even, but they would also need USB-A. So why not just a much simpler and cheaper 3.5mm adapter with an analogue passthrough chip, which could be used on all current Apple products?
Seriously where's the support for this transition?
So they got rid of the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack which delivers audio, to make more room for...the stupid home button's "taptic" feedback?
Hey, here's an idea - get rid of the damn home button and use the screen! If you want to "wow" us, figure out how to get the touch screen to register fingerprints. Now that would be magical!
By pushing us toward wireless earphones, we now need yet another charger and more table space to charge yet another widget overnight. You forget to charge your AirPods last night? Oh well, no music for you!
And, these expensive wireless headphones' battery is going wear out in a year or two, and not hold a decent charge. I guess then we toss the headphones and buck up for another pair?
Here, here is a better idea. F*ck off. 3.5mm is dead, you hear me, DEAD. Once that goes through your thick skull, I welcome you to 2016.
Something isn't dead because Apple says so. I bet oer 90% of headphones sold in 2016 have an analog headphone jack. It may be phasing out. But that is still some ways to go.
You may have missed the news that there were non-iPhones released without the headphone jack at least 1-2 years back.
The percentage of wireless earphones sold in the last year was 15% IIRC.
"It may be phasing out. But still some ways to go" - precisely why a Lightning-to-Headphone Jack adaptor is included in every iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
And they were selling how many? This is not some niche product. This is the iPhone.
Who the hell told you that you had to buy wireless earbuds, in the first place?
So you listen to music through your headphones while driving?
What about the amount of times where earbuds fall because the WIRE was stuck on something?
I won't call you paranoid, I will call you a troll. 1/10 troll attempt.
1. No one, except Apple seems to be pushing me over that cliff. 2. No, that's illegal, but I do hard wire the phone into the aux plug and keep it on a charger. So, if I want to charge and listen now, I need a bluetooth equipped car, which I don't have and don't want to buy. 3. That does happen, but I've never lost them, because of that. 4. Your opinion, you're entitled to it.
People complain "how am I going to listen to music when I'm charging my air pods..." The same way you listen to music when your charging your wireless headphones you have now... I havnt used the 3.5mm headphone jack in years.
I use my wireless headphones on planes every time I travel. Even during take off and landing. And I've never had an issue.
My only question is why they skipped wireless charging this time around...
For all we know, Apple could have leaked the news or removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack themselves to monitor public opinion of the decision.
Apple removed it, third party will provide solutions.
Apple's not gonna create a case with a 3.5mm jack built in because that would undermine there decision. One. And two, the dongle is meant to be a temporary fix not a permanent one.
All I hear when reading these comments are people who are whining about petty stuff.
You don't like the airpods... Then don't buy them. Simple as that. There is a very competitive market that will offer new solutions to this temporary problem.
I agree about wireless. But I'm disappointed they don't appear to have improved the audio quality at all. By all appearances these are just standard BT 4.1 audio quality without any AAC or aptX codecs. We'll see. That will go a long way toward a wireless future.
But out the charging and listening thing is real, especially for the traveler, and especially when they bundle Lightning headphones in the box. I'm still holding out hope that the Lightning charging cable in the box comes with a Lightning passthrough like the Apple external battery case does. Or at a minimum, adding a Lightning port to the charging cube. And why shouldn't Apple add a 3.5mm port to a battery case? There's more than enough room on their external battery case. Seriously if they offer a free adapter in the box, they're already undermining their decision.
And where is the 3.5mm (source) to Lightning (headphone) adaptor?
I kept shaking my head during the keynote, then went online to check things out. No way to use your new Lightning headphones with your old Apple gear like iPods and Macs, or anything else, all but guaranteeing that a customer needs to carry two sets of headphones with them!
They're bundling Lightning headphones AND a 3.5mm adapter, so why not just bundle the old 3.5mm headphones with the 3.5mm adapter? At least that way a customer only needs one set of headphones, and an adapter to use them with the iPhone. I guess existing iPhone customers can just use their old earbuds with the new adapter which just seems to defeat the purpose.
I'm all for lightning headphones, but this seems like a half-baked roll-out. I hope to see Lightning ports added to the Macs at an event in October, but even then, it doesn't address legacy Macs. And where are the adapters? Heck I would take a Lightning to USB-C adapter even, but they would also need USB-A. So why not just a much simpler and cheaper 3.5mm adapter with an analogue passthrough chip, which could be used on all current Apple products?
Seriously where's the support for this transition?
From Apple's website:
Clearly superior sound. It’s great-sounding music, movies, and more to your ears. AirPods provide rich, high-quality AAC audio. And when you want to be heard, dual beamforming microphones filter out background noise when you make calls or talk to Siri.
So, it is quite possible that Apple is now supporting AAC codecs in the AirPods (and presumably that is what apple devices will send the music as). Also, Bluetooth 4.2 not Bluetooth 4.1 but that is a relatively small thing.
Apple, the "big deal" is that for those of us who are on the road for a living and stream music from Pandora (and other services), WTF are we supposed to do when the battery wears down? I can only connect the audio for all the vehicles I drive via a 3.5mm jack. Apple, why don't you include a cable that is Lightening to 3.5mm with a power outlet in the iPhone 7 box?
When they announced that the future is wireless, I really hoped they would solve the bluetooth audio issues, but they didn't mention that at all. For that reason, I see no reason to assume that the AirPods would support AAC encoding (which would be optimal for music purchased from iTunes). But even if it does, they would be virtually the only bluetooth headphones that does. Even high end bluetooth headphones don't mention support for anything but APT-x, which isn't ideal for mp3 or AAC-encoded sources anyway. Even APT-x lossless isn't in fact lossless. I'd say all bluetooth music experiences involves an intermediary decoding and re-encoding before transfer (I guess you could store wav on your iPhone, but who does that?). Even so, wired is superior to wireless as far as audio quality is concerned (what's the quality of the SBC encoding compared to e.g. AAC anyway?).
For now, I'll stick with wired.
I like the lightning port, but if Apple is serious about replacing the 3.5" port with lightning, they should put it in the public domain. But I don't think they are, because lightning is really an alternative to USB and not to the 3.5" port (and a damn good one too). I am fine with using an external DAC, it might even be a reason to invest in a higher quality one, but I doubt I'd buy a headset/headphones with a lightning connector that isn't detachable... Although in the active noise cancellation scenario it makes a lot of sense. Still, the 3.5" port will live on (at least in my house)!
Ummm,. the iPhone still has a DAC! Do you know what a DAC even is? It's a Digital to Analog Converter!!! What is to 2 speakers on the new iPhones? That's right, there still needs to be a DAC to drive those ANALOG Speakers!!!
The Lightning port is Digital. To get Along to headsets, you need a DAC there also. This is why the Lightning plug is larger for the Lightning headsets and the 3.5mm adapter, to fit a DAC into it to convert the Digital input to Analog output for the speakers. If it has a Mic, to convert the Audio of your voice into Digital to go into the phone.
This also allows of course High End headphones, to have a high end DAC. It also doesn't have to be in the lightning plug, in can be in the headset it's self. There's some already. The point being, by not using the 3.5MM analog port and dealing with whatever quality of the DAC a iPhone or Android phone has been throwing out the Analog 3.5mm port, by using the Digital output of the phone, onthe iPhone it's Lightning, on Android it's MicroUSB moving to USB-C, you can get a really high quality DAC with your high quality headset for for even better sound.
Removing the port, has not only allowed for a batter 14% larger, but made room for a second speaker for Stereo sound, and space for the Force Touch Home Button. I think it's more then worth it. I haven't used the 3.5mm port since early on with my iPhone 4. Never on my iPhone 6. The ONLY place I'm using these type of plugs are for my Mini IR Blasters for my Harmony Remotes.
By the Way, the MotoZ and the Le 2, Le 2Pro and Le Max2 all Android phones all don't have the 3.5mm port!!! That's just the start of things to come.
So they got rid of the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack which delivers audio, to make more room for...the stupid home button's "taptic" feedback?
Hey, here's an idea - get rid of the damn home button and use the screen! If you want to "wow" us, figure out how to get the touch screen to register fingerprints. Now that would be magical!
Well they need something to get you to buy the iPhone 8 or 9 don't they?!? Besides, don't you think that they are thinking about that already. I'm sure they have that up their sleeve. The biggest hurdle is waiting for the hardware to mature enough to offer it at a high scale. Apple could rush it, but that is how you get exploding batteries and such.
Comments
For all the whining about the removal of the 3.5mm jack, I think people defending this decision are losing sight of what this means. It's an antithesis to the "Smaller, lighter" race Apple has been chasing, by requiring a dongle of any sort that has actually made the footprint 3" larger. Sorry, that is not what I want.
But I'll point out that the Nokia headphones that I had been using forever had a "dongle" too, it extended the headphones a foot so that the "playback controls" could be attached to your coat, and also worked as a "Break away" cable in case you took your coat off and didn't remove the headphones from your head first. It was still a 3.5mm cable, but it added a function to ANY headphones.
This is why removing the 3.5mm jack is stupid. Apple could have solved the water-proofing and kept the jack, or added a USB-C or another lightning port. But NO, instead they remove it entirely and replace it with nothing, allowing only lossy bluetooth as the only "standard". What idiot at Apple proposed this without replacing it?
So this destroyed functionality has consequences for the vast majority of people:
- People who use their expensive headphones for long periods of time, can no longer charge their phone
- People who use their phone with the car on a road trip, can no longer charge their phone
- People who listen to music for 8-12 hours in the office can no longer charge their phone
- People who use wireless headphones end up needing two or three pairs to last an entire day.
Nintendo, Nokia and Motorola have all done this, and all quickly abandoned the effort when people complained that they couldn't charge their device. Now had Apple introduced a "wireless charging" dock that charges the headphones and phone, maybe this might have gone over better. But instead we're expected to only use our phones for 5 hours with a wireless headset, or not use Apple Music at all while using lightning headphones since the charge will run out and the batteries do not last long enough for commute+office, or road-trip.
Effectively the iPhone 7 is the most poorly thought-out phone Apple has ever done. Why would anyone want to downgrade to this? This is not even remotely comparable to the removal of 3.5" floppy drives, serial ports and optical drives, which were already on the way out and had better alternatives. What alternative is introduced here? NONE.
A year from now, when the next iteration of iPhone is released, there will be a few voices pining for the audio port, maybe yours will still be among them, but otherwise, it's dead tech walking; the rest of the industry will happily follow Apple.
http://stereos.about.com/od/Wireless/fl/What-You-Might-Not-Know-About-Bluetooth.htm
Is this done at all by other devices?
I use my wireless headphones on planes every time I travel. Even during take off and landing. And I've never had an issue.
My only question is why they skipped wireless charging this time around...
For all we know, Apple could have leaked the news or removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack themselves to monitor public opinion of the decision.
Apple removed it, third party will provide solutions.
Apple's not gonna create a case with a 3.5mm jack built in because that would undermine there decision. One. And two, the dongle is meant to be a temporary fix not a permanent one.
All I hear when reading these comments are people who are whining about petty stuff.
You don't like the airpods... Then don't buy them. Simple as that. There is a very competitive market that will offer new solutions to this temporary problem.
But out the charging and listening thing is real, especially for the traveler, and especially when they bundle Lightning headphones in the box. I'm still holding out hope that the Lightning charging cable in the box comes with a Lightning passthrough like the Apple external battery case does. Or at a minimum, adding a Lightning port to the charging cube. And why shouldn't Apple add a 3.5mm port to a battery case? There's more than enough room on their external battery case. Seriously if they offer a free adapter in the box, they're already undermining their decision.
And where is the 3.5mm (source) to Lightning (headphone) adaptor?
http://appleplugs.com
- Who the hell told you that you had to buy wireless earbuds, in the first place?
- So you listen to music through your headphones while driving?
- What about the amount of times where earbuds fall because the WIRE was stuck on something?
- I won't call you paranoid, I will call you a troll. 1/10 troll attempt.
1. No one, except Apple seems to be pushing me over that cliff.2. No, that's illegal, but I do hard wire the phone into the aux plug and keep it on a charger. So, if I want to charge and listen now, I need a bluetooth equipped car, which I don't have and don't want to buy.
3. That does happen, but I've never lost them, because of that.
4. Your opinion, you're entitled to it.
So, it is quite possible that Apple is now supporting AAC codecs in the AirPods (and presumably that is what apple devices will send the music as). Also, Bluetooth 4.2 not Bluetooth 4.1 but that is a relatively small thing.
Apple, why don't you include a cable that is Lightening to 3.5mm with a power outlet in the iPhone 7 box?
For now, I'll stick with wired.
I like the lightning port, but if Apple is serious about replacing the 3.5" port with lightning, they should put it in the public domain. But I don't think they are, because lightning is really an alternative to USB and not to the 3.5" port (and a damn good one too). I am fine with using an external DAC, it might even be a reason to invest in a higher quality one, but I doubt I'd buy a headset/headphones with a lightning connector that isn't detachable... Although in the active noise cancellation scenario it makes a lot of sense. Still, the 3.5" port will live on (at least in my house)!
http://appleplugs.com/
http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/