Google musters courage to ditch the 100-year-old headphone jack like Apple.

After mocking Apple, Google is also ditching headphone jack:

Google mocked the iPhone 7’s missing headphone jack in its marketing material for the original Pixel smartphone — but it won’t be doing the same for the Pixel 2.

Just like Apple, the company has decided to remove the aging port from its latest handsets. A new leak reveals that the lineup will rely solely on USB-C for wired connectivity.

A lot of people laughed at Apple’s opinion that it took “courage” to kill the headphone jack, but now that we see other phone makers following suit, it’s looking more and more like courage.

I’ve had wireless Bose earbuds since April and I love them. When I occasionally go back to my wired Sony earbuds on my iPhone 6, it clearly feels like a step backwards in technology time.

I bet Samsung’s next Galaxy model will ditch the headphone jack too.

Categories:

Technology

Headphones, 1922

I want to follow up on the rumor that Apple is killing the headphone jack on the upcoming iPhone 7.

The image above is of a man wearing headphones with wires attached to his hat on May 6th 1922, in the United Kingdom (via Reddit). Now, it’s unclear from the photo if the headphones use either a 6.35 mm or 3.5 mm connector, but this is just to show you how long the headphone jack has been around for.

It’s time to sunset the headphone jack. It’s lived a long life.

[sidenote: I bet that braided cord is strong as shit]

Categories:

History

iPhone 7 Headphones and Connectors

Erik Person thinks of some possible scenarios (via Daring Fireball) for how Apple can replace the headphone jack on the iPhone, as it has been rumored to be doing.

I think his ‘Wired, Option 1’ is the most likely:

It is possible the new headphones will be wired and will plug into the Lightning port on your iPhone. This will work great for your phone, but ideally you would still be able to plug into your Mac.

I don’t know the technical aspects of how thick the wire between the earpieces and the iPhone would need to be, but if it were as thick as the standard USB-Lightning charging cable, that would be pretty obnoxious. On the plus side, it would not tangle easily.

In none of his scenarios does he suggest wired headphones that plug into the Lightning jack on the iPhone and wirelessly charge/sync through induction with your Mac. I’m envisioning a base that plugs into your Mac/MacBook via USB, so technically it would be a ‘wirelessly-wired’ solution. I mentioned this last week.

I’m thinking something like the charging stone for the Palm Pre:

I’m thinking about magnets too. Apple loves magnets. They introduced the Magsafe connector on the MacBook Pro in 2006, magnets to hold MacBooks closed, magnets to hold smart covers to iPads, and magnets to hold induction chargers to Watches.

So, yeah. Maybe we get another magnet.

Categories:

Materials, Product