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> Apple has a long, long history of doing this. Headphone jack? Gone. Ethernet port? Gone. VGA port? Gone. Floppy disk drive? Gone. The MBP designers still bra

> Apple has a long, long history of doing this. Headphone jack? Gone. Ethernet port? Gone. VGA port? Gone. Floppy disk drive? Gone. The MBP designers still bravely include the 3.5mm headphone jack [0], though it is certainly true that the iPhone designers courageously jettisoned the jack. [0] https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/specs/ https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/specs/

vmception 5y ago
I’ve never had any consequence from this except now my headphones also dont have the option of being a wired headphone, which means I have to ask the flight attendant for headphones to watch a movie on their screens. Everyone else is in the same situation though so its commonplace. Dont know if you’ve flown anywhere in the last year but a lot of people have.
- dlivingston 5y ago
  I think most over-ear Bluetooth headphones have the ability to also act as wired headphones, via some flavor of USB -> Aux cord/adapter.
dmitriid 5y ago
> The MBP designers still bravely include the 3.5mm headphone jack And in Jony Ive designs they've had it on the wrong side for years. The 2021 model finally moves it back the left side.
RHSeeger 5y ago
> iPhone designers courageously jettisoned the jack. There are a LOT of us that still believe this was a horrible choice.
- Miraste 5y ago
  That was probably sarcasm, Apple was widely mocked for referring to the removal as "courageous" at the time.
  - npongratz 5y ago
    Indeed, I was lampooning their terrible decision to remove the headphone jack and their gall to refer to it as "courage." I'm still salty about the whole ordeal.
    - dwaite 5y ago
      That they decided to remove it in the face of many people saying it was a terrible decision was exactly why they referred to it as "courage". A lot of phones have removed it since for most of the same reasons - the modern 3.5mm is a pretend spec.
      - npongratz 5y ago
        That may well be, and everyone, I'm sure, saw it differently. I happened to perceive their use of "courage" as condescending, hubristic elitism. Anyway, I'm happy they are including a genuine, pretend-spec'ed 3.5mm audio output jack in their newest laptops.
      - lukifer 5y ago
        "Pretend spec" misses the forest for the trees: amongst the vast, complex ecosystem of audio-visual ports, 1/8" audio stands out: we actually managed to converge on a connector format that is universal, omni-present, excellent quality, DRM-free, and which boasts an intuitive "no-code" UI affordance that Just Works. I love my AirPods. But the instant I have to start digging through screens to do a pairing dance with some third-party speakers, car stereo, etc, I pine for the simpler times when you could just plug in the AUX, and I mourn for what has been lost.
        dwaite 5y ago
        3.5mm is very much _not_ universal. In particular there is a wide variety of required gain/impedance as well as multiple different proprietary options as people attempted to adopt it to add microphones, controls/signals, and/or video. This is why Android, Apple, Microsoft and Playstation all have incompatible accessories. The number of contacts can vary between 2 and 5. The length of the primary contact is not consistent, thus the mechanism to retain the plug often does not engage. Likewise, there is no specification on overall plug size to guarantee a jack will fit into the device case. Thats excluding other extensions such as toslink. It is also worth noting that making the wrong connection, e.g. attaching an AV output to an audio input, can physically damage equipment. Generally what people see is that the headset they got for whatever device works and assume there is broad compatibility - but to work best the jack on the headset is being designed for and tested against a particular subset of supported phones/controllers/music players. And broader support is typically not possible without separate connectors (e.g. a headset cord sold for apple, for xbox, for playstation, for android).

vmception 5y ago

I’ve never had any consequence from this except now my headphones also dont have the option of being a wired headphone, which means I have to ask the flight attendant for headphones to watch a movie on their screens. Everyone else is in the same situation though so its commonplace. Dont know if you’ve flown anywhere in the last year but a lot of people have.

dlivingston 5y ago
I think most over-ear Bluetooth headphones have the ability to also act as wired headphones, via some flavor of USB -> Aux cord/adapter.

dmitriid 5y ago

> The MBP designers still bravely include the 3.5mm headphone jack And in Jony Ive designs they've had it on the wrong side for years. The 2021 model finally moves it back the left side.

RHSeeger 5y ago

> iPhone designers courageously jettisoned the jack. There are a LOT of us that still believe this was a horrible choice.

Miraste 5y ago
That was probably sarcasm, Apple was widely mocked for referring to the removal as "courageous" at the time.
- npongratz 5y ago
  Indeed, I was lampooning their terrible decision to remove the headphone jack and their gall to refer to it as "courage." I'm still salty about the whole ordeal.
  - dwaite 5y ago
    That they decided to remove it in the face of many people saying it was a terrible decision was exactly why they referred to it as "courage". A lot of phones have removed it since for most of the same reasons - the modern 3.5mm is a pretend spec.
    - npongratz 5y ago
      That may well be, and everyone, I'm sure, saw it differently. I happened to perceive their use of "courage" as condescending, hubristic elitism. Anyway, I'm happy they are including a genuine, pretend-spec'ed 3.5mm audio output jack in their newest laptops.
    - lukifer 5y ago
      "Pretend spec" misses the forest for the trees: amongst the vast, complex ecosystem of audio-visual ports, 1/8" audio stands out: we actually managed to converge on a connector format that is universal, omni-present, excellent quality, DRM-free, and which boasts an intuitive "no-code" UI affordance that Just Works. I love my AirPods. But the instant I have to start digging through screens to do a pairing dance with some third-party speakers, car stereo, etc, I pine for the simpler times when you could just plug in the AUX, and I mourn for what has been lost.
      - dwaite 5y ago
        3.5mm is very much _not_ universal. In particular there is a wide variety of required gain/impedance as well as multiple different proprietary options as people attempted to adopt it to add microphones, controls/signals, and/or video. This is why Android, Apple, Microsoft and Playstation all have incompatible accessories. The number of contacts can vary between 2 and 5. The length of the primary contact is not consistent, thus the mechanism to retain the plug often does not engage. Likewise, there is no specification on overall plug size to guarantee a jack will fit into the device case. Thats excluding other extensions such as toslink. It is also worth noting that making the wrong connection, e.g. attaching an AV output to an audio input, can physically damage equipment. Generally what people see is that the headset they got for whatever device works and assume there is broad compatibility - but to work best the jack on the headset is being designed for and tested against a particular subset of supported phones/controllers/music players. And broader support is typically not possible without separate connectors (e.g. a headset cord sold for apple, for xbox, for playstation, for android).