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The Walled Garden Closes In

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wraith808:
The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

I'm sure that everyone now has heard of the fact that the iPhone 7 will remove the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack.  They give a lot of reasons for it, but in the end, it's more about securing the walled garden than anything else in my opinion.

So what do you do?  The part that I have a problem with is that even among those that in the know on technology, the blame is placed on the user for buying it, rather than with the company where it firmly belongs.  "Just buy another phone" is a refrain that I've seen multiple times.  It's not just the phone- phones have stopped being just phones a long time ago if we're honest.  It's an ecosystem, and when you look at the investment, it's hard to just throw that away.

So in the end, is it the fault of the consumers?  Or are the companies doing measured things to inhibit choice, and being given a pass in the name of capitalism?

IainB:
Sorry, I'm a bit stumped on this one.
I vaguely recall reading something to that effect about the 3.5mm headphone jackplug being removed on future models of something, but I don't usually pay much attention to what is happening with iPad design or any other Apple products and so am fairly ignorant about them.
Does what you say mean that iPad users will no longer be able to listen to audio via headphones on newer iPads?

Stoic Joker:
Does what you say mean that iPad users will no longer be able to listen to audio via headphones on newer iPads?
-IainB (September 08, 2016, 05:36 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yes, they're dropping the venerable 3.5mm stereo jack in favor of forcing people to go with the newer-fangled Bluetooth device$.

...I guess that's why they worked so hard to get it renamed - in people's minds - to the "iPhone Jack" ... So nobody would think to miss it anymore when they killed it off.

Deozaan:
I dunno how I feel about it. On the one hand, it's "progress" and in a couple of months there will be plenty of earphones with the new connector. I can see this as being desirable if the new connector were something open and ubiquitous, like USB-C (which isn't quite ubiquitous yet, but will likely get there within a couple years).

On the other hand, it's Apple, and their connector is proprietary so they can charge you $75 for an adapter which costs them $0.35 to make. Either that or $125 for some Bluetooth earbuds.

Also, reading that article you linked has caused me to consider some other possibilities that I hadn't thought of before. :-\

IainB:
Well, presumably they are trying to force the upgrading of the LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) to something they have a proprietary and $ interest in - more profitable. Good luck to 'em. It's probably a valid marketing bid.
A bit like Aodobe and Acrobat/.PDF, I suppose, only more up-market.
Many of the people who make up the iPad buyers as a group might not realise that that could be an implication, and might not even care if they did. There's probably nothing rational about buying an iPad anyway - though people will always rationalise their buying decisions, post-fact.
I don't think I'd be a member of that group though, so I can't speak for them.
I'm not sure that this necessarily has something to do with DRM though. I mean, I can't see an explanation as to why it would.

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