You won’t miss anything except iMessage and Facetime, and google’s versions are just as good.
Well, also the much better apps on iOS like Reeder, Marvin, and Tweetbot.
The more I think about it, I might have forgiven Apple for removing the connector if they included the wireless headphones for free. At least it would not seem to be such a huge dollar grab, because that is what is going on here. Somehow Samsung “innovated” and made waterproof phones (really waterproof) with headphone connectors.
I just don’t like Android enough to switch again (I have the last Galaxy Note version collecting dust in a draw) but Apple may be forcing my hand. Not sure what I am going to do once my 6s plus needs replacing.
Regarding the music, look into Play Music. In addition to providing Spotify-like streaming and radio services, it also lets you upload your own mp3s which are then (if you want) shown alongside streaming tracks in searches, addable to playlists, downloadable for offline play, etc. Great for artists you’ve purchased before who aren’t on streaming for whatever reason (for me, Blind Guardian’s first seven albums, Rammstein, and, for the longest time, The Beatles). It’s very nice, especially if you’ll be getting a ton of DRM-free tracks from Apple anyway.
Yeah, Google Play Music is pretty great. I’ve got a few iPhone users on it. The iOS app is well done. The ability to cloud upload up to 50000 tracks (and you can do that even with the free version if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for new music) and the added bonus of Youtube Red at no extra cost (no ads on youtube) makes it a sweet deal.
It’s pretty simple to move to Android. If your contacts are linked to a mail account (gmail, exchange,etc) then it’s a no brainer. If they’re on iCloud you can log into the icloud.com website, export them all to a vcard, and then import into a gmail account (which if you don’t have, you’ll need for Android apps). It’s easy.
iOS and Android all do the same stuff anyway. All the griping and moaning, of which I am guilty too, is pretty much about user preference. At the end of the day, they both work fine and are pretty similar.
While it’s ironic that the Active, of all their phones failed that test, they really did. The two bestselling Samsung phones, the GS7 and GS7 Edge both passed that CR test, headphone connnector and all.
Nope, angry internet people aren’t worth the trouble. You seem to take this all a little too seriously, so it’s not worth the effort.
Late to the discussion and I am glad they are finally doing away with the headphone jack. I can’t use the headphone jack, believe it or not, because the moment I put the earphone into my ear, I feel a headache. If I take it out, the discomfort goes away, plug it in and the discomfort is back. It’s like there is some sort of antenna wave or something that messes with my head. As such, I only use Bluetooth headphones or hands free and that worked perfectly for me. I have no use for the 35mm jack and if they replaced with another set of speakers for better music, why not?
Pogue writes click-bait on why the headphone jack must die.
But his reasons are (almost) valid. As a occasional iPhone owner (1, 4, and 6+) one of my primary complaints is that the batteries are tiny, compared to their Android counterparts. The space saved by removing the headphone jack is enough for another ~500mAh worth of battery; Apple didn’t use it that way this time, but maybe with the 7S.
Or they could lose the obsession with thinness and really put a proper battery in there.
You have got to understand that your objection to wired buds is pretty particular to you. I’ve never heard of this. People usually hate buds because they physically don’t fit comfortably, which means wired or wireless doesn’t matter unless the buds shape is changed.
Yeah, I realize it is unique to me. I’m probably the only person jumping with joy at this trend, not that I am upgrading to 7. It is pretty meh in terms of a new product. I’m still happy with my 6 Plus.
The 7’s battery is 14% bigger, so they did use that space, but I believe they also upped the battery requirements so you don’t get as much improvement as maybe you could have in battery life. This Buzzfeed article talks about what they did.
I know a lot of heavy users that hate the iPhone’s battery life, but Apple must have numbers on this. They must know if there is enough juice for the average user.
I am right there with you though, I would rather have a little bit thicker phone with better battery life myself. Jony Ive is much too concerned with thinness.
With that thickness, the camera would not have protruded and we will all be one happy family!
Apparently the time has come for me to summon the “courage” to switch to an Android phone during my next upgrade cycle.
[quote=“Chris_Johnson, post:144, topic:125632”]
Somehow Samsung “innovated” and made waterproof phones (really waterproof) with headphone connectors.[/quote]
It’s not just Samsung. Sony had them way longer, for instance.
Apple didn’t claim though that waterproofing was one of the reasons for removing the thing though? Or did they?
Speaking as a long time wireless headphone and Android phone user, I’m totally cool with this move. Especially if, as speculated, it leads to cheaper/better wireless headphones. It’s a bit dodgy not to include them with the phone though. $159 is a hell of a lot for earbuds.
I’m slightly miffed they didn’t announce a new iPad Mini though.
Kinda says it all.
Haven’t they taken to announcing iPad stuff in mid- to late-October?
Well… they announced the removal of the 3.5mm port, not the total elimination of wired headphones. In fact, they’re including some that connect via the lightning port in the box, right? along with the adapter?
It’s one of the goofball reasons.
[quote]
Even better, removing the audio jack also eliminated a key point of ingress that Riccio says helped the new iPhone finally meet the IP7 water resistance spec Apple has been after for years (resistant when immersed under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes).[/quote]
I just read a blurb from Yahoo! Finance that really resonates with my feelings on the dropped 3.5mm jack.
No, the headphone jack is not the new floppy disk. Or the new CD or DVD, the new 30-pin Dock connector or the new FireWire port.
Excising the headphone jack from its new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus isn’t like those other rounds of enforced obsolescence. Apple (AAPL) killed a technology that’s worked fine for decades and left you with solutions that are costlier or more complex and work no better at the core function of delivering sound to your ears.
The new models are no thinner than last year’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, so it’s not as if Apple had no choice here. The company would like you to think of this deliberate downgrade—to quote marketing vice president Phil Schiller’s facepalm-inducing remark at Thursday’s event—as “courage.”
The correct word is “arrogance.”