5 ms·

> they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. My iPhone came with an adapter, though. I continue using the sam

by skgoa 8y ago

> they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. My iPhone came with an adapter, though. I continue using the same headphones as I did with my old phone.

wish5031 8y ago
anecdotally, the adapter Apple provided me broke after about three weeks, and it seems like most of my family/friends are in similar situations
- pseudolus 8y ago
  I've experienced a similar problem. I wear my headphones for about 1.5 - 2 hours per day while walking and I've found that I have to purchase a new adapter about every 45 days. I'm surprised that for the approximately $10 they charge for the adapter that they can't come up with a more durable design.
- novaRom 8y ago
  Most of Apple original cables are getting broken pretty much quickly. This is my experience. Why is that?
- laken 8y ago
  All official first-party Apple cables have a 1-year warranty. You can just take it into an Apple Store and they'll just replace it.
daveFNbuck 8y ago
I felt the same way about the adapter my phone came with, until I wanted to use the headphones on my desk at work and realized I couldn't do that because I left the adapter with the headphones in my car.
pookieinc 8y ago
My understanding is that the latest version of iPhone doesn't ship with the adapter anymore.[0] 0: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17827970/no-more-free-iphone-dongles https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17827970/no-more-free-iph...
- mcintyre1994 8y ago
  Confirmed - XR didn't come with it, only lightning headphones.
- skgoa 8y ago
  Well that sucks. Apple's policy of not including commonly needed adapters is a general point of criticism with this company, though. (and a very valid one.) IMO it's not an issue that stems specifically from the headphone jack removal.
rosser 8y ago
The included adapter only works for listening to audio. If your earbuds offer a mic or inline controls, those don't.
- Mtinie 8y ago
  Not in the case of Bose QC15s, the mic works just fine through the adapter.
- b3b0p 8y ago
  I have the adapter and both my headphones work with the adapter and controls fine. One is a Sony MDR-1R (v1) and the other is a Beoplay H6.
- RandallBrown 8y ago
  The adapter works just fine with the inline controls on Apple's ear buds.
bogomipz 8y ago
The problem with the headphone jack adapter is that it is mutually exclusive with input for the power cable. Where this is particularly frustrating is when you are on a particularly long conference call and your phone starts to run out of charge. This happened regularly enough for me ditch the iphone. I'm sure there yet another dongle you can buy to address this shortcoming though.
- lowercased 8y ago
  we'll get wireless charging at some point (though probably only if it doesn't interfere with 'thinness') and then we'll only have a couple hundred millions devices with that problem....
  - AstralStorm 8y ago
    Hey most lines have support for Qi standard. The trouble is that it's slow. As in slower than old USB 2 charging without any high current protocol.
  - skgoa 8y ago
    The iPhone already has wireless charging.
- threeseed 8y ago
  Yes you can get a dual charging/headphone adapter for $2.65. I really don't understand people who change entire platforms over such small amounts of money. I know for me personally my investment in apps and content is significantly more than just $2.65.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - Natanael_L 8y ago
    And how practical is it to keep track of yet another adapter?
lloeki 8y ago
While I mourn the practicality of the embedded jack on my iPhone 8, I've had quite a few headphones in a row whose jack ended up failing due to the way my phone is placed inside my pocket, and a repair was impossible, so that was quite an unexpected improvement to have the adapter possibly fail and be replaced at a very small cost instead of a full headset† going bust. † five actually (100-300€ price range), two of which the cord is replaceable (which I did) but how long will that specific cord be available?
- MaikuMori 8y ago
  You can cut off the jack and solder a new one. You also don't need specific cord, buy a new cord and add the jack. For non replaceable cords you can open up the headphones unsolder the old cord and solder a new one. Or you can cut the cable somewhere high and patch another cable. If you can't do these things your self there is probably some cheap electronic repair shop nearby. Most likely cheaper than shipping new brand cable or replacement parts. On side note plastic in one of my shure 840 joints broke and I managed to fix it by modeling and 3d printing it. They're working fine now. The only official way to fix that was to buy original head assembly and ship it, but that's almost as expensive as getting a new pair. Repair is possible, just sometimes you need to be a bit creative.
  - lloeki 8y ago
    > Repair is possible, just sometimes you need to be a bit creative. Indeed, and I attempted to do so myself since I know how to handle a soldering iron... yet some of them were in-ear, one was over ear but cracking its case was a one way destructive operation; some had those hair-thin copper wires downright coated with an insulating material that makes soldering a pain, if at all possible. I swear it's made on purpose to thwart attempts at repairs. I bet I have broken more jacks in a couple of years than during the 20 years before that. Crazy. Anyway that doesn't change the fact that before that I never thought about having a small, cheap jack-to-jack part in between the headphones and the playing device, as using the adapter was the first time I happened to do something similar, but that's not a property of the adapter itself; or rather, DAC, really, and I find it nice that there are alternative DACs available, at which point if I always have a DAC at hand, well it's less of a problem to not have a jack embedded), but really, I'd rather still have the jack, or having the removal of the jack coincide with the replacement of Lightning with USB-C (together with the USB-C situation not being such a bloody mess) and have some new universal standard emerge across all devices.

by skgoa 8y ago

> they've alienated so many people to find their own path when they don't include the adapter. My iPhone came with an adapter, though. I continue using the same headphones as I did with my old phone.

wish5031 8y ago

anecdotally, the adapter Apple provided me broke after about three weeks, and it seems like most of my family/friends are in similar situations

pseudolus 8y ago
I've experienced a similar problem. I wear my headphones for about 1.5 - 2 hours per day while walking and I've found that I have to purchase a new adapter about every 45 days. I'm surprised that for the approximately $10 they charge for the adapter that they can't come up with a more durable design.
novaRom 8y ago
Most of Apple original cables are getting broken pretty much quickly. This is my experience. Why is that?
laken 8y ago
All official first-party Apple cables have a 1-year warranty. You can just take it into an Apple Store and they'll just replace it.

daveFNbuck 8y ago

I felt the same way about the adapter my phone came with, until I wanted to use the headphones on my desk at work and realized I couldn't do that because I left the adapter with the headphones in my car.

pookieinc 8y ago

My understanding is that the latest version of iPhone doesn't ship with the adapter anymore.[0] 0: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17827970/no-more-free-iphone-dongles https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17827970/no-more-free-iph...

mcintyre1994 8y ago
Confirmed - XR didn't come with it, only lightning headphones.
skgoa 8y ago
Well that sucks. Apple's policy of not including commonly needed adapters is a general point of criticism with this company, though. (and a very valid one.) IMO it's not an issue that stems specifically from the headphone jack removal.

rosser 8y ago

The included adapter only works for listening to audio. If your earbuds offer a mic or inline controls, those don't.

Mtinie 8y ago
Not in the case of Bose QC15s, the mic works just fine through the adapter.
b3b0p 8y ago
I have the adapter and both my headphones work with the adapter and controls fine. One is a Sony MDR-1R (v1) and the other is a Beoplay H6.
RandallBrown 8y ago
The adapter works just fine with the inline controls on Apple's ear buds.

bogomipz 8y ago

The problem with the headphone jack adapter is that it is mutually exclusive with input for the power cable. Where this is particularly frustrating is when you are on a particularly long conference call and your phone starts to run out of charge. This happened regularly enough for me ditch the iphone. I'm sure there yet another dongle you can buy to address this shortcoming though.

lowercased 8y ago
we'll get wireless charging at some point (though probably only if it doesn't interfere with 'thinness') and then we'll only have a couple hundred millions devices with that problem....
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  Hey most lines have support for Qi standard. The trouble is that it's slow. As in slower than old USB 2 charging without any high current protocol.
- skgoa 8y ago
  The iPhone already has wireless charging.
threeseed 8y ago
Yes you can get a dual charging/headphone adapter for $2.65. I really don't understand people who change entire platforms over such small amounts of money. I know for me personally my investment in apps and content is significantly more than just $2.65.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- Natanael_L 8y ago
  And how practical is it to keep track of yet another adapter?

lloeki 8y ago

While I mourn the practicality of the embedded jack on my iPhone 8, I've had quite a few headphones in a row whose jack ended up failing due to the way my phone is placed inside my pocket, and a repair was impossible, so that was quite an unexpected improvement to have the adapter possibly fail and be replaced at a very small cost instead of a full headset† going bust. † five actually (100-300€ price range), two of which the cord is replaceable (which I did) but how long will that specific cord be available?

MaikuMori 8y ago
You can cut off the jack and solder a new one. You also don't need specific cord, buy a new cord and add the jack. For non replaceable cords you can open up the headphones unsolder the old cord and solder a new one. Or you can cut the cable somewhere high and patch another cable. If you can't do these things your self there is probably some cheap electronic repair shop nearby. Most likely cheaper than shipping new brand cable or replacement parts. On side note plastic in one of my shure 840 joints broke and I managed to fix it by modeling and 3d printing it. They're working fine now. The only official way to fix that was to buy original head assembly and ship it, but that's almost as expensive as getting a new pair. Repair is possible, just sometimes you need to be a bit creative.
- lloeki 8y ago
  > Repair is possible, just sometimes you need to be a bit creative. Indeed, and I attempted to do so myself since I know how to handle a soldering iron... yet some of them were in-ear, one was over ear but cracking its case was a one way destructive operation; some had those hair-thin copper wires downright coated with an insulating material that makes soldering a pain, if at all possible. I swear it's made on purpose to thwart attempts at repairs. I bet I have broken more jacks in a couple of years than during the 20 years before that. Crazy. Anyway that doesn't change the fact that before that I never thought about having a small, cheap jack-to-jack part in between the headphones and the playing device, as using the adapter was the first time I happened to do something similar, but that's not a property of the adapter itself; or rather, DAC, really, and I find it nice that there are alternative DACs available, at which point if I always have a DAC at hand, well it's less of a problem to not have a jack embedded), but really, I'd rather still have the jack, or having the removal of the jack coincide with the replacement of Lightning with USB-C (together with the USB-C situation not being such a bloody mess) and have some new universal standard emerge across all devices.