Microsoft Receives Patent to Protect the Headphone Jack

DooKey

DooKey

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Microsoft has received a patent for a plug receptacle for an electronic device. Basically it allows for a 3.5mm headphone jack without taking up a lot of space inside the phone. It operates by expanding to the front, back, or both sides of the receptacle. I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?

A major upside to this new patent is that all existing 3.5mm headphones and accessories would be usable. Phones could become thinner without losing a feature that is still important to many consumers. On the flip side, added manufacturing complexity and more moving parts could mean that OEMs are unlikely to make use of this technology.
 
Apple killed the iPod Nano. I still love mine. Microsoft doesn't have the Zune, and their phones are no longer. Why would they patent this? New audio player? New phone?

When my iPod dies, I'm going to need a music player. It's most likely going to be a phone. It's going to need a headphone jack. I don't want to mess with dongles.

I guess if all else fails, I'll grab a decent lossless audio player and a nice pair of headphones. Should probably do that anyway....
 
Right now I use the headphone jack on my Note 8 because I am a spin instructor and that is the only way I can connect to the amp our gym uses. My phone has all my music on it. Other then that I use Bluetooth.
 
What we should be moving towards is lga points in the back of the cellphone, or the side and such, magnets or a case take care of the connection.
 
Montu said:
I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?
Click to expand...

That's a trick question, right? Why would I go out and spend money that I don't have to spend (since I already have outstanding headphones with properly wired cords that feature 1/8" plugs which are the standard for such connectivity) for 'wireless" headphones that have audio quality vastly inferior to what a properly wired connection offers? All that extra electronics in the circuit doesn't help audio quality, it damages it, along with just having more electronics that can and will fail at any given point in time on top of having to be concerned with battery life and charging too.

Wireless earbuds/IEMs/headphones offer absolutely nothing of value to me and many many other people and only add more trouble than they're worth (and typically higher initial cost), that's my personal opinion on the matter, but I'm sure they fit into the needs and requirements of many people.

As an addition: I can fix wired headphones myself with a soldering iron and another cord, I always have when necessary. :D
 
I (and 99% of the world population) want to keep the jack, however, if it means sending money to Microsoft, then no... I'll just play the music in my head.
 
"Just let it happen," said the plug to the slot.

Edit: Oh sorry, I thought this was the nightmare/horror AI machine writing thread... :vamp:
 
lga points, so something that relies on a "clean" connection, yeh like usb mini or fancy Apple version mini that is far more flaky than useful, great idea LOL

For me, if it does NOT have a 3.5mm jack, I do not buy, simple as that, they get rid of it and instead use fancy connector types to jack price of often proprietary wireless type where the earbuds tend to be more expensive on top of the already inflated pricing....If they would stop making them so thin and easy to break instead of keeping a good thickness for durability AND have ability to use wireless earbud AND 3.5mm that would be ok, you know for folks that want "modern" instead of being forced to buy expensive parts which really offer no significant but to anyone other than adding a "luxury" pricing to final product.

They IMO should be trying to make as durable as possible as user friendly as possible at the lowest cost of ownership possible, if they have to use extra fancy connector types just to up the price point........I prefer 3.5mm blocky phones, the ones you can drop and not worry about smashing it off a wee little piece of grit.

is funny that with "modern" phones the battery capacity seems to have been around 1200-3000Mah forever, bet you if they kept the thicker profile they could jam in a really nice capacity battery better durability, add all them fancy things that not everyone wants/needs...anyways, neat that MSFT wnt back to the design, not cool IMO they patent something like this, cause, if it is superior to other design styles which has been in use for a very long time, just another proprietary design to jack price of things instead of giving customers no matter their brand allegiance the best products possible, and here I thought MSFT was done with smartphones/tablet :p
 
I want the headphone jack. Use it in my car daily. I also had zero desire to charge headphones.
 
MS thinks this is billion dollar idea till someone with a micro penis tries to f**k it and gets a shock. :LOL:
 
Montu said:
I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?
Click to expand...

Yes, I am, and I have no interest in going wireless for headphones. I'm not an audiophile, but I like convenience. Charging batteries? Inconvenient. Missing one earbud or the other? Inconvenient. The headphones having a finite life because batteries only charge so much? Inconvenient.

Sure wired headphones have their downfalls, but, with good care, they'll last a lot longer.
 
dragonstongue said:
is funny that with "modern" phones the battery capacity seems to have been around 1200-3000Mah forever, bet you if they kept the thicker profile they could jam in a really nice capacity battery better durability, add all them fancy things that not everyone wants/needs..
Click to expand...

I find it funny that the first thing people do with these thin phones, and is a "must have" is to wrap them in rubber casings that make them bulkier and unwieldy compared to even a few previous generations of thicker phones. It's like they say "fuck you and you elegant designs"! to the creators. They're like those people that smother a perfectly seasoned steak with tomato sauce. That's what the manufacturer sees these people as when they put their phones into those cases/wallets.

People don't care about bravery and thin phones, they want durability. Anyways, that was a selling point to me for my redmi phone, it's got a >4000mah battery.
 
Dell already has something similar to this on there newer laptops except it is for the RJ45 plug. Not only is it somewhat difficult to get the cable to plug in in the first place, I really worry about the reliability if this type of receptacle is used a lot.

Yay, the quest for thin has claimed another port. :mad:
 
I have no use for the headphone jack and consider wired headphones a waste of money. Been using a pair of LG Tones for 2 years, never feel like I'm inconvenienced to charge them, haven't ran into an issue where I ran out of battery and best of all I don't have some dumb cord to get caught when mowing the yard or doing anything else while listening to music. Have a bluetooth FM transmitter in my car for playback since the car is old enough to not have an aux port or bluetooth options. Have a small bluetooth speaker on my desk at work for when no one else is in the office. Embrace the wireless!!!!
 
DPI said:
Thinner, more fragile consumers.
Click to expand...

This is so true. I have people complaining about traveling with a laptop that weighs more than 3 pounds. They would rather have a crippled piece of trash that can't do anything as long as it is the lightest, thinnest thing available.
 
bring back the 2.5mm ?

So they're expecting phones to be just 2-3mm thin with amazing battery life
 
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Montu said:
. I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?
Click to expand...

Are you being sarcastic or are you genuinely this out of touch with the tech world? No one except Apple junkies are "OK" with this.

Is anyone really interested...Christ...
 
Montu said:
Microsoft has received a patent for a plug receptacle for an electronic device. Basically it allows for a 3.5mm headphone jack without taking up a lot of space inside the phone. It operates by expanding to the front, back, or both sides of the receptacle. I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?

A major upside to this new patent is that all existing 3.5mm headphones and accessories would be usable. Phones could become thinner without losing a feature that is still important to many consumers. On the flip side, added manufacturing complexity and more moving parts could mean that OEMs are unlikely to make use of this technology.
Click to expand...

My wife uses Her's almost every morning for connecting her phone to some speakers in the kitchen. It's easy and fast and that's actually hard to beat.
 
No BT in my car, I use a 3.5mm jack for AUX connection from my phone. Wont be buying a phone without this, though the usb-c adapters might be acceptable as long a they include a battery that will make it though the day. Rocking the 1st gen Pixel and see no reason to upgrade yet
 
I use the 3.5mm jack on my S8 because the Bluetooth range on it is pathetic and it can't get to my headset from my pocket to my neck/ears. I would think it was the headset, but connected to my computer I can walk from one end of the house to the other with nary a hiccup or skip, whereas with the S8 it's skipping, popping, doing the whole dance from less than 2 feet away.
 
fentzinator said:
Right now I use the headphone jack on my Note 8 because I am a spin instructor and that is the only way I can connect to the amp our gym uses. My phone has all my music on it. Other then that I use Bluetooth.
Click to expand...

There are simple inexpensive BlueTooth adapters that should work fine. It would connect to the 3.5mm jack and give your amp BlueTooth capability.
 
Montu said:
I know there are still a lot of people using headphones with 3.5mm jacks, but is anyone really interested in continuing to use them with their phone?
Click to expand...


<-- This guy. My phone is my primary music player. And I'm not going to shell out $100+ for wireless earbuds/phones and I'm not going to deal with some easily lose-able adapter/dongle (the dongle is probably far worse than the wireless buds in terms of potentially losing it).

They say they got rid of the jack for space reasons. What space? What did they actually use the space for? If it was some sort of ground breaking technology then okay, I can look past it's exclusion. But neither the iPhone nor the Pixel 2 added anything like that. So did they do it to make the phones thinner? Phones are already thin enough and are difficult enough to handle as-is. In all actuality I'd prefer a slightly thicker phone just so it feels like there's some substance to it. Except it wouldn't be that either, because the jack isn't much bigger than the USB-C port on the Pixel 2 or the lightning connector on the iPhone so you'd be saving maybe a millimeter at best. Hardly a worthy trade off.

Just getting really tired of this whole drive to monetize and monetize some more. Then monetize those monetizations... as a service. All in the spirit of bleeding every last red cent out of people.
 
Oh no, I get it, the 3.5 mm jack is an analogue device, you have to convert said analogue from the digital source so there is a tiny DAC in there. I do get it, the engineers wish they didn't always have to build around that shit. There's only one problem, people still want it. And some people actually make buying decisions based on it. When all other things are equal, a 3.5mm jack can make the difference for some people.
 
I don't get why we need to get rid of the headphone jack. I don't need a thinner phone (at least not in the current form factor) and there's no aural advantage to USB or Lightning. It's still analog. I've got nice headphones, including CIEMs and while I can get a Lightning cable for the latter, I gain nothing, and it's roughly 2x as much as a 3.5mm jack.
 
Yes, I'm not giving up my 3.5 mm jack, bluetooth audio just hasn't been that appealing for me.
 
farscapesg1 said:
I have no use for the headphone jack and consider wired headphones a waste of money. Been using a pair of LG Tones for 2 years, never feel like I'm inconvenienced to charge them, haven't ran into an issue where I ran out of battery and best of all I don't have some dumb cord to get caught when mowing the yard or doing anything else while listening to music. Have a bluetooth FM transmitter in my car for playback since the car is old enough to not have an aux port or bluetooth options. Have a small bluetooth speaker on my desk at work for when no one else is in the office. Embrace the wireless!!!!
Click to expand...
Clearly audio quality isn't important to you. Those FM adapters sound like complete ass.
 
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