hucom2000

It drives me crazy that Apple doesn't care about consumer and pro level products equally.

They could absolutely afford to do so. Most companies would be ecstatic to have a business as large, vibrant, and profitable as Apple's Mac business unit.

It's only in relation to the iOS business size that it might not seem "worth wile". But on it's on, there's absolutely no reason not to keep it going strong by investing in it.

I have a late 2012 MacBook Pro. I haven't upgraded yet because the newer machines don't offer a significant boost in performance. Could I use one? Absolutely! Assembling a 200 megapixel RAW panorama in Lightroom is a p**n in the b*tt. Make it happen in 5 instead of 10 minutes and I will be the first one to spend the money and upgrade. I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting...

AND: all the technicalities about components in honour... c'm on! This is Apple we're talking about: if something is important enough to them, they will make it happen. So no excuses there from my perspective.

apple ][ said:

Apple could even make a special, heavy duty, stronger built iPhone, specially developed for the US military. Instead of Rose Gold, how about stealth black or a camo phone?

I'd actually love a stealth black iPhone for myself.

Yea... I don't think Apple wants to make actual equipment for the US Army. Apple products are used all around the world. That would be way too political.

I have three options in my BMW to play music from my iPhone: headphone jack, lightening (USB), and bluetooth. The headphone jack beats both bluetooth and lightening by far in audio quality. I know this could be due to BMW's implementation of USB to analog conversion. Still, if Apple abandon's that jack, I'll be keeping my current iPhone.

Unless someone invents a digital speaker (based on my modest knowledge about physics not possible), the signal has to be converted somewhere. Deferring that to the speaker or amp manufacturers means loosing (even more) control over the sound quality - as likely demonstrated by BMW.

I noticed that both MacBooks were running without a charger connected, on battery power. I wonder, if the full performance was available? MacBook Pros reduce speed to conserver battery, as far as I know. Maybe the same is true for MacBooks? What if the actual peak performance was only available when connected to a power source?

Better quality?? Yea, like bluetooth audio, which sucks compared to good D/A chips.

It's all about the D/A circuits. Leaving the integration of such chips up to the headphone makers will probably result in worse quality in most cases, because they opt to implement the cheapest chip they can find.

Plus, Intel is not an audio company either. So it's likely that this plug will be designed to please the masses, not music lovers. Those people who can't tell the difference between an MP3 track and 24bit/96kH recording and don't care about it.