7 ms·

> The phone comes with a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter, so you can continue to use your existing headphones. Yeah, no. When will I need this dongle? Exactly whe

by Washuu 10y ago

> The phone comes with a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter, so you can continue to use your existing headphones. Yeah, no. When will I need this dongle? Exactly when I left it somewhere else. Then Apple will need a "Find my Dongle" application next to all the other "Find my*" applications. I am not going to buy expensive spare dongles just so I don't rage when I realize I left the dongle at work so now I can't listen to music in the garage while I work on my projects. I am not going to carry it around all the time with my phone just in case I need it. The removal of the 3.5mm jack is a failure by Apple.

ihuman 10y ago
I just keep mine connected to my headphones, since I use them more with my iPhone than a computer. Also someone made a cool keychain to attach it to if that works better for you. [1] > expensive spare dongles They're only $10 USD. [1] https://uncourage.com/ https://uncourage.com/
- monkmartinez 10y ago
  Only $10??? That is a lot of money for something that shouldn't be needed in the first place. I haven't spent $10 dollars on my phone since I bought a case for it in 2013. Then again, I have expandable memory and a headphone jack (Galaxy Note 3).
  - nkkollaw 10y ago
    Alright, so you spend $800 for a phone, and you're complaining that you can't spare $10? I'm not saying removing the headphone jack to make the phone a mm thinner wasn't a retarded move, but... Really? $10?
    - ryao 10y ago
      I thought the removal was to recycle the space while making waterproofing easier.
      - _Codemonkeyism 10y ago
        The removal is to introduce a way to control which headphones are connected and to get license payments in the future.
        chrischen 10y ago
        This statement is false.
        flamedoge 10y ago
        The removal is to sell dongles
        j2bax 10y ago
        Doubtful. My guess is within 1-2 generations max the iPhone will have USB C to follow the Macbook line.
      - nkkollaw 10y ago
        Ah, true. That was mentioned as well. It's amazing that people would pick an extra millimeter trimmed off or waterproofing over a headphone jack (I assume they did surveys..?).
    - Freestyler_3 10y ago
      If I buy an $800 device, I make sure it does what I want it to do with the least amount of friction (add/replace my other hardware). What if I buy a router today and there is a company that sells routers with a nice gui, but all the rj45 jacks are removed and it requires a dongle on the power jack to be able to connect a rj45. (For some reason it comes with a dongle but that requires the router to run on batteries) Anywho, I am not the guy that is going to buy apple hardware anyway. So I don't really have any impact on apple if I don't buy anything.
      - nkkollaw 10y ago
        I'm buying a second-hand iPhone 6s instead of an iPhone 7 because of the headphone jack (mainly out of principle). It's just that I see so many comments arguing that dongles are expensive... The problem is not that they're expensive. I agree that they suck, but I can't possibly believe that people that can afford to spend $1000 on an iPhone Plus all of a sudden can't afford a $10 or $29 dongle.
        Freestyler_3 10y ago
        Agreed, if you buy it then it is your own responsibility to know that it requires more than just the money for the phone. Then again, some people buy expensive cars and are surprised about the high price of spare parts. I guess many consumers like to pay a big amount of money for a single product, and not a big amount + 10 small amounts for a product that needs multiple other products during its life. Its like a phone case, we all wish it wasn't necessary to have one, but many people buy cases because the phone needs it to stay nice/safe. And I don't think there is a solution readily available that makes phone cases abundant for those people.
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    Why bother with expandable memory if you haven't bought a memory card for it in over 3 years?
    - legodt 10y ago
      Bad comparison, memory cards are a clear need (gotta have more storage space) and are not responses to poor design decisions (gotta counteract a port I use every day being taken away).
      - kalleboo 10y ago
        A clear need for you isn't a clear need for everyone. Maybe I have all my stuff in the cloud, so I don't "gotta have more storage space". Meanwhile I've been using Bluetooth headphones for a decade now, I have no need for the headphone port. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Apple fanboy. But the real injustice here is that they're clinging to their proprietary Lightning port instead of going with the standard USB-C. That is complete bullshit.
        tdkl 10y ago
        > A clear need for you isn't a clear need for everyone. This goes both ways.
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      It matters less as phone storage finally drops below $1 per GB, but traditionally it was not fun to pay 5x as much as a good-quality microSD, and that's if they even have the option to put in enough in the first place.
- bigtunacan 10y ago
  I have 5+ pairs of headphones. One for home, one for the office, one for the gym, and then a couple of spares for when I lose any of the main 3. I have the iPhone 7 and I end up carrying the dongle around in my jeans pocket when I am able to remember it. I'm certainly not paying $10 a pop for spare dongles when most of my headphones didn't even cost that much. Getting rid of the headphone jack is by far the dumbest move I have seen on the iPhone in a long time.
  - raverbashing 10y ago
    > Getting rid of the headphone jack is by far the dumbest move I have seen on the iPhone in a long time. Then why did you get the iPhone 7? Should have voted with your wallet
    - bigtunacan 10y ago
      Unfortunately I have a life saving medical device that only is compatible with the iPhone. I switched from Android to the iPhone 7 because of this.
      - raverbashing 10y ago
        Somehow I can't understand how a life saving medical device would require a smartphone of a certain brand, but even if this is the case you could have gotten the iPhone 6 for example
        bigtunacan 10y ago
        I'm a type 1 diabetic. There is a device by Dexcom known as a continuous glucose monitor that reads my blood sugar via interstitial fluids and then transmits the information via Bluetooth. When I get unexplained low blood sugars in my sleep, which is believed to be the cause of Dead in Bed Syndrome, it sounds an alarm on the iPhone to wake me up before it's too late. As for going with the iPhone 6 1) my money would still have gone to Apple 2) I didn't think about what a pain it was until after I bought them Side notes 1) I have contacted Dexcom regarding an app for Android, but it doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. 2) I also tried an open source version for Android, but after purchasing 4 phones in a row that it had varying problems with I decided my life was worth more than being able to stay on Android. [EDIT] Diabetes is the number 7 leading cause of death in the United States and low blood sugar is the number one reason for ER visits by Type 1 diabetics.
- legodt 10y ago
  Why are people so desperate to defend this clearly user hostile move? A dongle is a poor user experience and continues to degrade user experience over time. The fact that there was a market demand for a "cool" keychain shows how unnecessary the removal of the jack was. Believe it or not, people enjoy using things without unnecessary accessories that you have to keep track of and swap around
  - greendesk 10y ago
    I do not like the audio jack in my phone. Sometimes the headphones slide halfway out and the sound gets distorted. I, for one, agree with the decision to let go of the audio jack.
  - Washuu 10y ago
    I think the best use case for a dongle would be the first MacBook Pro I bought. They had phased out the VGA port for a DVI port, but included a DVI to VGA adapter in the box. The great thing about that is it simple a physical wiring adapter with no other logic inside. It worked well and no one complained since carrying the adapter in the bag with the laptop is not a big deal. In the case of the iPhone 7 the laptop bag is my pocket which has much more limited space and a hard connector getting situated in the wrong spot could end up being uncomfortable until readjusted. Additionally it is not just a wiring adapter. The Lighting to 3.5mm adapter actually contains a DAC and ADC inside of it which unfortunately causes the audio quality to suffer slightly compared to a higher quality dedicated DAC/ADC solution inside the phone. http://ifixit.org/blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/ http://ifixit.org/blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/
    - jeffwass 10y ago
      The conclusion on sound quality at the bottom of your link: "when playing an uncompressed 16-bit audio file on the iPhone 6s, the dynamic range dropped from 99.1 dB at the headphone jack to 97.3 dB at the adapter. Though keep in mind, this slightly lower measurement is still higher than the theoretical maximum you get from a compact disc (which is 96 dB). So, is it a difference you are likely to notice? If you sit in a quiet room with a really, really good pair of headphones … and you’re a canine, the answer is: maybe."
- rbrcurtis 10y ago
  They're about $2 per on ebay.
carloscar 10y ago
I have just one pair of headphones that I use daily. How many dongles would you need to have one for every set of headphones?
- Washuu 10y ago
  The headphones stay on the desk at work. Then there is the old set of Altec Lansing speakers in the garage. There are a few more spots that I rarely use, but they all have 3.5mm connectors.
jsz0 10y ago
> The removal of the 3.5mm jack is a failure by Apple. It's been a total non-issue for me. Since the iPhone 7 comes with both the adapter and Lighting headphones work/home usage isn't a problem. I just use the adapter + existing headphones at home and the Lighting headphones at work.
- _Codemonkeyism 10y ago
  The adapter will go away in the future, it's just a technology to get people on the jackless train. I'm sure iPhone 8 will no longer support it.
- CountSessine 10y ago
  That's sort of what I found. I thought it was going to be a major inconvenience because I don't like talking directly on a phone without headphones and a mic. It turns out that what I really don't like is having a conversation on a Samsung phone with the consistently awful earpieces Samsung puts in them (Note 4, S4, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S...). I've been pretty happy with the iPhone 7 earpiece. My plea to Samsung: you guys make killer displays; couldn't you figure out how to make an earpiece that isn't awful?
mahyarm 10y ago
You can get a dongle attacher, like this one for the magsafe 1 adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Industries-MC-RD-1-2-MagCozy-2-Pack/dp/B00FA1Z20W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1483164254&sr=8-4&keywords=magcozy https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Industries-MC-RD-1-2-MagCozy-2-P...
- hyperbovine 10y ago
  You'll probably want to pick up a dongle attacher attacher as well.

by Washuu 10y ago

ihuman 10y ago

I just keep mine connected to my headphones, since I use them more with my iPhone than a computer. Also someone made a cool keychain to attach it to if that works better for you. [1] > expensive spare dongles They're only $10 USD. [1] https://uncourage.com/ https://uncourage.com/

monkmartinez 10y ago
Only $10??? That is a lot of money for something that shouldn't be needed in the first place. I haven't spent $10 dollars on my phone since I bought a case for it in 2013. Then again, I have expandable memory and a headphone jack (Galaxy Note 3).
- nkkollaw 10y ago
  Alright, so you spend $800 for a phone, and you're complaining that you can't spare $10? I'm not saying removing the headphone jack to make the phone a mm thinner wasn't a retarded move, but... Really? $10?
  - ryao 10y ago
    I thought the removal was to recycle the space while making waterproofing easier.
    - _Codemonkeyism 10y ago
      The removal is to introduce a way to control which headphones are connected and to get license payments in the future.
      - chrischen 10y ago
        This statement is false.
      - flamedoge 10y ago
        The removal is to sell dongles
      - j2bax 10y ago
        Doubtful. My guess is within 1-2 generations max the iPhone will have USB C to follow the Macbook line.
    - nkkollaw 10y ago
      Ah, true. That was mentioned as well. It's amazing that people would pick an extra millimeter trimmed off or waterproofing over a headphone jack (I assume they did surveys..?).
  - Freestyler_3 10y ago
    If I buy an $800 device, I make sure it does what I want it to do with the least amount of friction (add/replace my other hardware). What if I buy a router today and there is a company that sells routers with a nice gui, but all the rj45 jacks are removed and it requires a dongle on the power jack to be able to connect a rj45. (For some reason it comes with a dongle but that requires the router to run on batteries) Anywho, I am not the guy that is going to buy apple hardware anyway. So I don't really have any impact on apple if I don't buy anything.
    - nkkollaw 10y ago
      I'm buying a second-hand iPhone 6s instead of an iPhone 7 because of the headphone jack (mainly out of principle). It's just that I see so many comments arguing that dongles are expensive... The problem is not that they're expensive. I agree that they suck, but I can't possibly believe that people that can afford to spend $1000 on an iPhone Plus all of a sudden can't afford a $10 or $29 dongle.
      - Freestyler_3 10y ago
        Agreed, if you buy it then it is your own responsibility to know that it requires more than just the money for the phone. Then again, some people buy expensive cars and are surprised about the high price of spare parts. I guess many consumers like to pay a big amount of money for a single product, and not a big amount + 10 small amounts for a product that needs multiple other products during its life. Its like a phone case, we all wish it wasn't necessary to have one, but many people buy cases because the phone needs it to stay nice/safe. And I don't think there is a solution readily available that makes phone cases abundant for those people.
- kalleboo 10y ago
  Why bother with expandable memory if you haven't bought a memory card for it in over 3 years?
  - legodt 10y ago
    Bad comparison, memory cards are a clear need (gotta have more storage space) and are not responses to poor design decisions (gotta counteract a port I use every day being taken away).
    - kalleboo 10y ago
      A clear need for you isn't a clear need for everyone. Maybe I have all my stuff in the cloud, so I don't "gotta have more storage space". Meanwhile I've been using Bluetooth headphones for a decade now, I have no need for the headphone port. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Apple fanboy. But the real injustice here is that they're clinging to their proprietary Lightning port instead of going with the standard USB-C. That is complete bullshit.
      - tdkl 10y ago
        > A clear need for you isn't a clear need for everyone. This goes both ways.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    It matters less as phone storage finally drops below $1 per GB, but traditionally it was not fun to pay 5x as much as a good-quality microSD, and that's if they even have the option to put in enough in the first place.
bigtunacan 10y ago
I have 5+ pairs of headphones. One for home, one for the office, one for the gym, and then a couple of spares for when I lose any of the main 3. I have the iPhone 7 and I end up carrying the dongle around in my jeans pocket when I am able to remember it. I'm certainly not paying $10 a pop for spare dongles when most of my headphones didn't even cost that much. Getting rid of the headphone jack is by far the dumbest move I have seen on the iPhone in a long time.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  > Getting rid of the headphone jack is by far the dumbest move I have seen on the iPhone in a long time. Then why did you get the iPhone 7? Should have voted with your wallet
  - bigtunacan 10y ago
    Unfortunately I have a life saving medical device that only is compatible with the iPhone. I switched from Android to the iPhone 7 because of this.
    - raverbashing 10y ago
      Somehow I can't understand how a life saving medical device would require a smartphone of a certain brand, but even if this is the case you could have gotten the iPhone 6 for example
      - bigtunacan 10y ago
        I'm a type 1 diabetic. There is a device by Dexcom known as a continuous glucose monitor that reads my blood sugar via interstitial fluids and then transmits the information via Bluetooth. When I get unexplained low blood sugars in my sleep, which is believed to be the cause of Dead in Bed Syndrome, it sounds an alarm on the iPhone to wake me up before it's too late. As for going with the iPhone 6 1) my money would still have gone to Apple 2) I didn't think about what a pain it was until after I bought them Side notes 1) I have contacted Dexcom regarding an app for Android, but it doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. 2) I also tried an open source version for Android, but after purchasing 4 phones in a row that it had varying problems with I decided my life was worth more than being able to stay on Android. [EDIT] Diabetes is the number 7 leading cause of death in the United States and low blood sugar is the number one reason for ER visits by Type 1 diabetics.
legodt 10y ago
Why are people so desperate to defend this clearly user hostile move? A dongle is a poor user experience and continues to degrade user experience over time. The fact that there was a market demand for a "cool" keychain shows how unnecessary the removal of the jack was. Believe it or not, people enjoy using things without unnecessary accessories that you have to keep track of and swap around
- greendesk 10y ago
  I do not like the audio jack in my phone. Sometimes the headphones slide halfway out and the sound gets distorted. I, for one, agree with the decision to let go of the audio jack.
- Washuu 10y ago
  I think the best use case for a dongle would be the first MacBook Pro I bought. They had phased out the VGA port for a DVI port, but included a DVI to VGA adapter in the box. The great thing about that is it simple a physical wiring adapter with no other logic inside. It worked well and no one complained since carrying the adapter in the bag with the laptop is not a big deal. In the case of the iPhone 7 the laptop bag is my pocket which has much more limited space and a hard connector getting situated in the wrong spot could end up being uncomfortable until readjusted. Additionally it is not just a wiring adapter. The Lighting to 3.5mm adapter actually contains a DAC and ADC inside of it which unfortunately causes the audio quality to suffer slightly compared to a higher quality dedicated DAC/ADC solution inside the phone. http://ifixit.org/blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/ http://ifixit.org/blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/
  - jeffwass 10y ago
    The conclusion on sound quality at the bottom of your link: "when playing an uncompressed 16-bit audio file on the iPhone 6s, the dynamic range dropped from 99.1 dB at the headphone jack to 97.3 dB at the adapter. Though keep in mind, this slightly lower measurement is still higher than the theoretical maximum you get from a compact disc (which is 96 dB). So, is it a difference you are likely to notice? If you sit in a quiet room with a really, really good pair of headphones … and you’re a canine, the answer is: maybe."
rbrcurtis 10y ago
They're about $2 per on ebay.

carloscar 10y ago

I have just one pair of headphones that I use daily. How many dongles would you need to have one for every set of headphones?

Washuu 10y ago
The headphones stay on the desk at work. Then there is the old set of Altec Lansing speakers in the garage. There are a few more spots that I rarely use, but they all have 3.5mm connectors.

jsz0 10y ago

> The removal of the 3.5mm jack is a failure by Apple. It's been a total non-issue for me. Since the iPhone 7 comes with both the adapter and Lighting headphones work/home usage isn't a problem. I just use the adapter + existing headphones at home and the Lighting headphones at work.

_Codemonkeyism 10y ago
The adapter will go away in the future, it's just a technology to get people on the jackless train. I'm sure iPhone 8 will no longer support it.
CountSessine 10y ago
That's sort of what I found. I thought it was going to be a major inconvenience because I don't like talking directly on a phone without headphones and a mic. It turns out that what I really don't like is having a conversation on a Samsung phone with the consistently awful earpieces Samsung puts in them (Note 4, S4, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S...). I've been pretty happy with the iPhone 7 earpiece. My plea to Samsung: you guys make killer displays; couldn't you figure out how to make an earpiece that isn't awful?

mahyarm 10y ago

You can get a dongle attacher, like this one for the magsafe 1 adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Industries-MC-RD-1-2-MagCozy-2-Pack/dp/B00FA1Z20W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1483164254&sr=8-4&keywords=magcozy https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Industries-MC-RD-1-2-MagCozy-2-P...

hyperbovine 10y ago
You'll probably want to pick up a dongle attacher attacher as well.