4 ms·
> They gave that away for free (later $20) and it could piggyback on any phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack. The fact that we had such a robust, simple, and uni
by stcredzero 4y ago
> They gave that away for free (later $20) and it could piggyback on any phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The fact that we had such a robust, simple, and universal interface which was taken away from us, effectively increasing the cost of the equivalent peripherals by 2 or 3X, while decreasing their potential usefulness and lifespan by a similar factor is yet more evidence of a new technocratic corporate disdain for users.
Big companies would rather control their users through marketing, branding, and technological lock in, than genuinely benefiting their users at the deepest level.
Another example: The Lightning cable.
- vel0city 4y agoIts almost kind of a quirk of history that it worked though. Magstrips were essentially already waveforms in near-audible space when passed through a magnetic pickup. There were already plenty of software libraries around based around reading that kind of data from an audio stream. It wouldn't make sense to use the headphone jack to transmit data otherwise. It's extremely low bitrate, subject to lots of noise and other issues. When they switched to Bluetooth for chip/tap card readers they didn't avoid the headphone jack because nobody had it, they avoided it because a bluetooth serial connection makes a ton more sense.