iPhone 7 Replacing Headphone Jack With Second Speaker?

Megalith

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Analysts believe that Apple may be replacing the 3.5mm jack with a second speaker so the phone can output in stereo. This may be completely bunk, but I’ve read enough about the headphone jack to think that is definitely being dropped.

To power the speaker, Apple will use a second amp built by supplier Cirrus Logic, said analysts Blayne Curtis and Christopher Hemmelgarn. The headphone jack on the iPhone 6s is located along the same edge as its single speaker, which might make it a natural location to expand into stereo. A number of competing smartphones already offer stereo speakers. Sometimes these are located along the same edge, but in other cases they're on opposite ends of a device, enabling better panning when in landscape mode.
 
Yes they are dropping the headphone jack because they want you to buy an adaptor to plug in your headphones through the Lightning port...
 
Is anyone really arguing for stereo in a cell phone? I'm talking the stereo effect, not simply playing both channels through a single driver.

The iPhone is already pretty loud, so I don't think it needs more power output. Even on something the size of an iPad I don't see much use for "stereo" speakers.

I'm a cable guy, so I do like the 3,5mm port, but honestly I don't think it would be a game changer for most people. Bluetooth and USB/Lightning cable interface probably solve most peoples needs. I know those 2 probably account for 80% of my usage of my phone. But I do like the 3.5mm headphones as they do not require an external power source.
 
Is anyone really arguing for stereo in a cell phone? I'm talking the stereo effect, not simply playing both channels through a single driver.

I have stereo front facing speakers on my phone and I like them. The stereo effect isn't too pronounced but having two speakers and having them facing the right direction makes a big difference when it comes to clarity and volume. If I can help it, I'm never going back to downward-firing or (shudder) a speaker on the back.

Having two speakers on the bottom in place of one doesn't seem like it would accomplish much. I agree with Probleminfected, Apple is using the excuse of "innovating" to make some money. Adapters and cables have great margins!
 
Is anyone really arguing for stereo in a cell phone? I'm talking the stereo effect, not simply playing both channels through a single driver.

The iPhone is already pretty loud, so I don't think it needs more power output. Even on something the size of an iPad I don't see much use for "stereo" speakers.

I'm a cable guy, so I do like the 3,5mm port, but honestly I don't think it would be a game changer for most people. Bluetooth and USB/Lightning cable interface probably solve most peoples needs. I know those 2 probably account for 80% of my usage of my phone. But I do like the 3.5mm headphones as they do not require an external power source.

If you want to get louder then having two channels to amp is a good way versus shoving a ton of voltage down a single channel.

Im not sure what you mean about the external power source and the Lightning (aka usb) source.

As for the rumor I don't believe it.
 
Yes they are dropping the headphone jack because they want you to buy an adaptor to plug in your headphones through the Lightning port...

I believe it's to make it a bit thinner (as if that's needed). I have to say I'd rather have the jack. If it was 50% thicker, it'd be about the thickness of the hold HTC Touch phone I had and that was fine.

What I want is a bigger phablet that folds up in my pocket :D
 
I doubt it. It's a stupid fucking move. The speakers would be profoundly close to each other so as to eliminate the effect, and one is already very loud, and sounds like utter shit for music when at full volume. So two speakers that sound like shit still sound like shit.

The other stupid part of this is that plenty of people use the 3.5 jack to listen to music in their vehicles because many vehicles don't feature Bluetooth or a USB port. Aftermarket players might, and of course newer vehicles do as well but seriously look around lots of older cars and trucks still on the road. Hell I just saw a bunch of comments on imgur the other day that people are still using the Casette player adapters to play MP3s.

Personally if it's a ploy to get people to get a lightning to 3.5mm adapter I'll just put in an aftermarket stereo instead.
 
I've already moved to bluetooth head phones, havent really ever used the headphone jack on my iPhone 6 since I've owned it.
 
I'd rather they make it twice as thick and put in a real battery
Give-that-man-a-cookie.jpg
 
If you want to get louder then having two channels to amp is a good way versus shoving a ton of voltage down a single channel.

Im not sure what you mean about the external power source and the Lightning (aka usb) source.

As for the rumor I don't believe it.

You only gain 3db by having a second speaker, so it's not a huge increase in volume. The actual result would probably be similar output, with less distortion.

What I mean was that "traditional" headphones do not require any type of external electronics...battery, DAC, amplifier. Since it's all driven from the phone. Bluetooth requires all 3, but the lighting headphones would still require some external "box" of some kind to convert digital to analog and then amplify that analog. Where as the headphones I use now I very lightweight and I can crumple them up into a ball (the in-ear style). Which means good bye $10-20 headphones that actually decent, and I'm assuming no price drop on the phone.
 
If Apple can do something similar in stereo to what they did with the quad speakers on the iPad Pro then I'm in.
 
There have been rumors going around for months that Apple is looking to eliminate the headphone jack so that they can make the phone slimmer, or so they say. I think its just their excuse to force users to buy proprietary lightning to 3.5 mm adapters, and if that's the case then I'm out cause that's just a dick move.
 
There have been rumors going around for months that Apple is looking to eliminate the headphone jack so that they can make the phone slimmer, or so they say. I think its just their excuse to force users to buy proprietary lightning to 3.5 mm adapters, and if that's the case then I'm out cause that's just a dick move.

Their chargers are $25 or $35? They make a killing off of their unique plugs. As far as I understand it, that is the main reason they make everything proprietary and change it every few years. If someone wants three charging cables for their PC, office and car they're going to have to fork over $75-120 or so. Last I checked, there was essentially zero aftermarket chargers for sale.
 
I'd rather they make it twice as thick and put in a real battery

wouldn't bug me a bit, but the reality is that most of the time i don't need to charge my phone and those time's that I do, I just carry a an external battery to charge it if I need it (think music festivals or vacation).

Alternatively, you can buy one of those battery cases. I had one with an older iPhone, and it worked well for a bit over a year, but one too many drops killed it.

My understanding is that Apple uses telemetry to see how people use their devices. Thus, the next watch won't have a bigger battery, because they found that users weren't charging it during the day. My guess is version 3 will improve battery life.
 
Their chargers are $25 or $35? They make a killing off of their unique plugs. As far as I understand it, that is the main reason they make everything proprietary and change it every few years. If someone wants three charging cables for their PC, office and car they're going to have to fork over $75-120 or so. Last I checked, there was essentially zero aftermarket chargers for sale.

There's China lightning cables and they plug into any USB power adapter. Cost like $8.
 
You only gain 3db by having a second speaker, so it's not a huge increase in volume. The actual result would probably be similar output, with less distortion.

What I mean was that "traditional" headphones do not require any type of external electronics...battery, DAC, amplifier. Since it's all driven from the phone. Bluetooth requires all 3, but the lighting headphones would still require some external "box" of some kind to convert digital to analog and then amplify that analog. Where as the headphones I use now I very lightweight and I can crumple them up into a ball (the in-ear style). Which means good bye $10-20 headphones that actually decent, and I'm assuming no price drop on the phone.

As I recall, 3db=2x as loud, so it's not insignificant. That said, what'd work better is front firing speakers.
 
There's China lightning cables and they plug into any USB power adapter. Cost like $8.

The $8 are actually the good ones that sync and do high speed (current) charging. The ones shipped for $1 from China are the ones you have to worry about. I have gone through many of those.
 
I doubt it. It's a stupid fucking move. The speakers would be profoundly close to each other so as to eliminate the effect, and one is already very loud, and sounds like utter shit for music when at full volume. So two speakers that sound like shit still sound like shit.

The other stupid part of this is that plenty of people use the 3.5 jack to listen to music in their vehicles because many vehicles don't feature Bluetooth or a USB port. Aftermarket players might, and of course newer vehicles do as well but seriously look around lots of older cars and trucks still on the road. Hell I just saw a bunch of comments on imgur the other day that people are still using the Casette player adapters to play MP3s.

Personally if it's a ploy to get people to get a lightning to 3.5mm adapter I'll just put in an aftermarket stereo instead.

you would spend all that money to install a new stereo instead of buying a few $$ part? Even is the adapter was $50, that is still cheaper than the cost of getting a stereo installed into your car.
 
you would spend all that money to install a new stereo instead of buying a few $$ part? Even is the adapter was $50, that is still cheaper than the cost of getting a stereo installed into your car.

Absolutely. Mainly because the $2/300 for a new head unit is far better in value than an adapter likely to fail because those charging ports are flimsy as shit. A new head unit will give better sound quality, possibly deliver more power to the speakers (some factory stuff is good) and provide overall more functionality in terms of Bluetooth and USB and even a hard drive capabilities.
 
most earbud cords are too short for me anyway. i cant stand without the weight of the phone on my head. i only use bluetooth. this won't effect me at all.
 
This is a smart move. Anyone who cares about audio quality isn't buying Apple products anyway.
 
Absolutely. Mainly because the $2/300 for a new head unit is far better in value than an adapter likely to fail because those charging ports are flimsy as shit. A new head unit will give better sound quality, possibly deliver more power to the speakers (some factory stuff is good) and provide overall more functionality in terms of Bluetooth and USB and even a hard drive capabilities.

Has there even been a vehicle made in the last 10 years that you could just simply replace the head unit in?
 
What I mean was that "traditional" headphones do not require any type of external electronics...battery, DAC, amplifier. Since it's all driven from the phone. Bluetooth requires all 3, but the lighting headphones would still require some external "box" of some kind to convert digital to analog and then amplify that analog. Where as the headphones I use now I very lightweight and I can crumple them up into a ball (the in-ear style). Which means good bye $10-20 headphones that actually decent, and I'm assuming no price drop on the phone.

The lightning adaptor, or any usb port can allow both types of signals to pass through. I would think using a standard USB port versus the legacy 3.5mm would actually save us money in the long run.
 
I told already from long time, iphone is a dead device. DOnt invest money on this device u will be anyway always the loser !
 
Absolutely. Mainly because the $2/300 for a new head unit is far better in value than an adapter likely to fail because those charging ports are flimsy as shit. A new head unit will give better sound quality, possibly deliver more power to the speakers (some factory stuff is good) and provide overall more functionality in terms of Bluetooth and USB and even a hard drive capabilities.

Being entirely fair the lightning port is anything but flimsy. It is quite possibly one of the most robust mini ports out there. That aside, I am utterly against this move from apple. I think this is just about as anti consumer as it gets.
 
Their chargers are $25 or $35? They make a killing off of their unique plugs. As far as I understand it, that is the main reason they make everything proprietary and change it every few years. If someone wants three charging cables for their PC, office and car they're going to have to fork over $75-120 or so. Last I checked, there was essentially zero aftermarket chargers for sale.

Are you smoking crack? I just got three mfi certified cables for $3.99 a pop the other day on sale. I can get tons at $7 any day of the week. They plug into any USB port, and there's even tons of affordable chargers that support the odd apple specific power sensing "logic" on the USB pins.

All in it is maybe a $2 premium over something micro usb. Which is about what the license cost is for the connector.
 
Has there even been a vehicle made in the last 10 years that you could just simply replace the head unit in?
My Mitsubishi Evo X was dead simple.. Remove old stereo, install double din conversion kit, install new radio with universal plug adapters, done.

IMG_1239.jpg
 
Being entirely fair the lightning port is anything but flimsy. It is quite possibly one of the most robust mini ports out there. That aside, I am utterly against this move from apple. I think this is just about as anti consumer as it gets.

I went through 3 cords in two years because the connection continually got worse and worse to the point that I'd plug in my phone and it would spastically ding multiple times per second as it began to charge repeatedly. Or it would do nothing. Or began charging and immediately quit when the phone was set down.

The stranger part of this is that it was a combination of the phone and the cord. Other phones would work fine with the cords, and other cords would work hassle free with my phone.
 
I went through 3 cords in two years because the connection continually got worse and worse to the point that I'd plug in my phone and it would spastically ding multiple times per second as it began to charge repeatedly. Or it would do nothing. Or began charging and immediately quit when the phone was set down.

The stranger part of this is that it was a combination of the phone and the cord. Other phones would work fine with the cords, and other cords would work hassle free with my phone.

Never said it was perfect, just the most robust of the micro type connectors. At this point I've lost count of the number of micro usb cables I've had go bad. Between 3 Android phones, 1 Tablet, 2 logitech G700's, and 2 Ps4 controllers. I have probably replaced 6 micro USB in the last 6 months alone. Previous to these things when it was the mini I didn't replace any for years. It might just be the mini usb more than anything but good grief that connector is just complete trash.
 
What's the point of "stereo" on a device that small? The whole point of stereo is that you have sounds coming from two directions, one for each ear. With a phone you'd just have 2 speakers in the same place. Plus those speakers sound terrible anyway.
 
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