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Ahh, this is real reason why the phone manufacturers want to get rid of the headphone jack. I was so naive to think it was only about DRM/licensing.
by Bluecobra 6y ago
Ahh, this is real reason why the phone manufacturers want to get rid of the headphone jack. I was so naive to think it was only about DRM/licensing.
- gruez 6y agoIsn't this really only an issue if you use the companion app? I doubt the usb-c/lightning/bluetooth headphones can exfiltrate data if you don't have the companion app installed.
- Lio 6y agoYou also can't get firmware updates if you don't install the companion app and allow them to spy on you.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jdsully 6y agoWhy do my headphones need firmware updates? Presumably they work fine at purchase.
- throwaway8941 6y agoNoise cancellation sometimes gets better (or worse) after a firmware update.
- sascha_sl 6y agoBose also added the in-device EQ to the Bose 700 via patch a few months ago.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoBecause we cut a corner somewhere to make a budget device and realized it was a lot more popular and now we have to patch it like if it was a fucking nuclear reactor....
- t0astbread 6y agoPatching a nuclear reactor sounds scary
- blackflame7000 6y agoNothing a little Gorilla Glue can't handle
- nogabebop23 6y agowhy do keyboards need firmware updates and companion apps? yet, that's exactly what my razer mech KB required for me to change the slow fade in/out to just "on". Pretty ridiculous and I too uninstalled it after, but who knows if I got it all?
- ubercow13 6y agoBecause they have complex software in for bluetooth connection, noise cancellation and other behaviours like automatically switching off when taken out for example. You don't have to update it of you prefer not to.
- aragorn9 6y agowhich is why bose for example only let you configure noise cancelling through the app.
- jsmith12673 6y agoThat's news to me. Guess I won't be ditching my QC25's soon/or ever
- kyrra 6y agoI got some Bose 700 this past week. There is still a button on these to adjust noise cancelation.
- oarsinsync 6y agoMy QC35IIs have a button on the side to adjust noise cancelling. No need for an app.
- pureliquidhw 6y agoI think you need the app to switch that to noise cancellation level from digital assistant activation.
- sascha_sl 6y agothe bose 700 has 3 buttons one for on/off, hold to pair, hold long to reset bluetooth one for noise cancellation one for assistant in addition it has the transport controls / battery response touch controls on the right earcup
- pureliquidhw 6y agoI was referring to the parent's QC35II's which has an app configurable button for voice assistant OR noise cancellation adjustments. The newer Bose 700's do have all that you have listed.
- oarsinsync 6y ago
- imglorp 6y agoOr just update your firmware and then remove the app. Not just Bose, the Sony WH* series is also guilty of this. Great cans, awful app.
- jacquesm 6y agoIt has an app?
- Shish2k 6y agoSony has the worst app I’ve ever seen[1], to the point where I legitimately don’t know how it passed the app store vetting process. Paragraphs of text have wrapping disabled so that the text goes off screen (important text, like the TOS!). Text which does have wrapping enabled wraps on character boundaries instead of word boundaries. Bullet-point lists don’t line up. I have no idea how they made it so bad, it feels like it must’ve taken effort to disable things which just work by default? [1] Circa 2018, I switched to Bose after that...
- jacquesm 6y agoIt also has two buttons. I really don't see the need for an app. Besides that I don't have a phone capable of running an app so that saves me from getting irritated at Sony. Again.
- comfyinnernet 6y agoMaybe the vetting process only applies to peasants and not the likes of Sony.
- vladvasiliu 6y agoI'm curious about the Sony App. What information does it get from the phone? The only kind of sensitive permission it asks for is location, and arguably there's a functionality related to that (change the adaptive sound reduction as a function of where you are). The other permission it asked for is Bluetooth, which I guess is expected since it uses that to talk to the headphones. It never asked for anything else. I didn't allow it to get my location and I can still get firmware updates and can use it to confirm the codec in use (that's the main reason I have it installed).
- month13 6y agoAfter the AirPods Pro noise-cancelling-regression (resolved, albeit after months), this may be a desirable feature.
- Answerawake 6y agoAre you talking about Rattlegate? From what I understand, it has been resolved by Apple replacing many people's earpods.
- lights0123 6y agoThanks for mentioning that, one of mine has been doing that for months and I'm contacting support now that I know that it's a common thing.
- BTCOG 6y agoWhy on EARTH would anyone EVER need to update firmware for a pair of headphones? That's asinine.
- sascha_sl 6y agoThe Bose 700 recently patched in EQ support, I'd say that's a reason.
- BTCOG 6y agoSo to each of you with the same response; You're totally ok being sold an unfinished product, paying too high of a price for it, and then having to opt into privacy violations to use a device which should have worked from day one out of the factory. Got it. Noise cancellation in headphones is a gimmick and a fad. High end studio monitors do not typically use it, and it distorts the experience. It makes sense if you're constantly packed in like a sardine on public transit or crowded spaces and you're simply trying to block out the surroundings, but may I suggest buying a real pair of headphones and carrying a pair of earplugs instead? To be very clear on my point. I see needing to update headphones and being conned into my headphones masquerading as a "smart device" equal to needing a smart toaster, or a connected can opener that some would justify should need firmware updates. It's senseless.
- jungturk 6y agoYou are surprised that devices can be improved after their launch via software updates? Or that people will see that as valuable? Or that people have different preferences in their products than you?
- wongarsu 6y agoI suspect they liked the device in the state they bought it in, and were pleased when it later got even better at no extra charge (except for installing the app). You can still buy dumb headphones without Bluetooth or noise cancellation of you don't like smart devices.
- ubercow13 6y ago
- Godel_unicode 6y agoI only installed the Bose app when I was going to be on a plane, as the app allows you to pair multiple Bose headphones to one source. Then you can watch the same movie with someone else. Edit: Bose also had a nice big opt-out button in the app, and asks during setup.
- Shalle135 6y agoWith the app you can also change the cancellation level, they’re pretty isolated even with the feature powered off entirely but it helps out in some situations.
- bitwize 6y agoMy Boses allow you to set the cancellation level with a button press. It cycles through three options: high, low, and off. Does the app enable more fine-grained control or something? Perhaps per-ear cancellation settings?
- egypturnash 6y agoMy QC35s don't have that button. It's only available in the app, and there is no fine-grained control or anything - just high/low/off.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bitwize 6y agoI have QC35s too. Maybe a newer rev?
- bitwize 6y agoApparently so. I have the QC35 II, which has a button on the left ear can. Bose calls it the Action Button, and it's used to summon Alexa/Google Assistant; but if you don't configure it to use an assistant (through the Connect app?) it will cycle through the noise cancellation level settings.
- ryder9 6y agofearsturbation > reality
- dangoor 6y agoThere were two things that happened when Apple got rid of the headphone jack: (1) they added water resistance, (2) the phones got thinner. Plus, Apple had seen the trends heading toward wireless headphones. They still included a dongle to give you a standard headphone jack. While Apple could likely have gotten their water resistance even with the headphone jack, they couldn’t have made the phones as thin. People may disagree with the product choice, but I don’t see any reason to think that those weren’t the real reasons.
- walls 6y agoThe phones are thicker now than they ever were with the headphone jack. In fact, the 7 was the last version to get thinner. https://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/301929-image/iPhone-sizes-2.jpg https://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/301929-image/iP...
- dexterdog 6y agoDoes anybody other than PR/marketing people care about phones being thinner than they are? It's just an excuse to not give better battery life which costs money.
- formerly_proven 6y ago> the phones got thinner No. They didn't. iPhone 5: 7.6 mm thin, 6: 7 mm iPhone 7: 7.1 mm > While Apple could likely have gotten their water resistance even with the headphone jack, they couldn’t have made the phones as thin. Except that's a pretty obvious lie. Not just that the phones did not get thinner (or lighter), they stayed around the same thickness (+- 0.5 mm), while getting larger, much heavier and much more expensive. But also the thinnest Android phone with a 3.5 mm jack is just 5.1 mm thick, for example. Sony even made a waterproof phone that's 6.5 mm thin and still has a 3.5 mm jack, which is thinner than any iPhone ever. Everything about this argumentation is wrong or an outright lie. The only reason they did this is because they could moneygrab through accessoires better when they eliminate standardized I/O.
- 6y ago
- snvzz 6y agoAs usual, if there's no headphone jack, I won't buy that device. Privacy isn't even the deal breaker there. Latency and the ability to use my favourite set (Sennheiser HD600) are.
- ubercow13 6y agoCan a phone reasonably drive such high-impedance headphones anyway?
- ta17711771 6y agoCould be a comfort thing, could be a "don't want to throw away perfectly good hardware" thing.
- bdefore 6y agoWith a pocketsize amp yes. When at my desk, I plug in through a Mont Blanc FiiO for my Beyerdynamic headphones. Makes a big difference with some audio. Wireless buds are obviously already a step down from wired, and one step further from amplified cans. And yeah, I'm an outlier and want to be.
- aidenn0 6y agoBut there are combined DAC/amps that will use lightning connectors, so if you use an external amp, you might as well use an external dac/amp instead and get audio quality that is certainly no worse than a random android phone, and possibly better.
- snvzz 6y agoTypically at the expense of latency, unfortunately. High enough to dramatically worsen the experience of rhythm games.
- Godel_unicode 6y agoAs one data point, the headphone jack-having iPhone would drive 26.39 mW into 33 ohms, which means that at max volume you'd be damaging your ears at a volume of around 100dB with the 300ohm impedance and 105dB/mW SPL. So yes, the previous poster could conceivably be doing the thing that they said they were doing.