Yeah saw that yesterday. COURAGE MUTHERFUCKER. The tech press is all atwitter with grandpas whingeing about Apple as if the idea of Tim Cook smelling his own farts as he sells you two different colors of black for $1000 is something new. I'm impressed that a top-end iPhone now costs more than a low-end Macbook Air; that says something for damn sure. Meanwhile Sony's big announcement was "we're doing a mid-cycle update on the PS4 same as we did on the PS3 and we're leaving the price the same" and that, of course, is reason for pure scorn.
Something that just popped into my mind - they also announced that the new iPhone has "stereo speakers" in the sense that they amped up the speaker used for calls. So now you have two speakers with vastly different shapes and directions, IP67 rated, double the volume. Isn't it super likely that that combination is going to make any sound sound super weird and/or terrible?
I'm happy to mock Apple's latest bollocks, but then I made fun of the iPod when it came out because it was just an expensive MP3 player. I don't think I was wrong, but it sure made Apple a lot of money. Then I made fun of the iPad when that came out and I really was wrong there. I think tablets are very handy now. So even though I won't stop making fun of Apple's overpriced flapdoodle, history hasn't been on my side so far.
The iPod was where I developed my respect for UI. Creative Nomads were okay. I had... something else. It was french and weird. Fuckin' A. Archos Jukebox. Thanks, Google. the iPod actually made a library browseable. I actually still have a Gen1 iPod. it still spools up. I had a pretty good idea the iPad was going to make a mint, but I also had a pretty good idea that it was only useful for browsing the web, watching Netflix and playing Bejeweled. I think Apple eliminated the phone jack because they didn't want the thickness they'd get with an IP67-rated 1/8" jack. I think they'll weather this the same as they did with the "you're holding it wrong" antenna... but I also know that I'm exiting their ecosystem as fast as my feet will carry me. Congratulations, Apple. You're making Windows 10 look appealing.
I cannot believe how prescient this Onion video is Apple introduces new Mac Wheel (2009) "Here at Apple, we like to introduce features that customers don't even know they need."
"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away." -Pretty funny
The thing that surprised me most was that Apple offered $50 dollar lightning cable earphones, what? Why would you ever spend money on that? The whole thing is a trap, a massive trap. I feel bad for the uninformed consumer... Didn't they take part in making the USB-C? This seemed like the perfect time to ditch the lightning garbage, and just join a mainstream standard.
To be fair the Iphone music experience is so bad, why not just eliminate it. The 16GB iphone has about 6gigs of storage and wont sync up to your music collection, requires I tunes to work and is generally cumbersome to manage. I always had music on my previous phones but apple make that so difficult to do that my wife and I dont even bother anymore. When we need music we grab her old Ipod that syncs with 3rd party utilities like FooBar because its easier and you get more room.
While I'll agree that iTunes is jacked and getting music on one's phone isn't as easy as it used to be... I still have several GB's of music that I keep on my phone. Maybe I'm missing something? It's clear that Apple would rather I use their apple music service, but I am old fashioned enough to actually transfer music and movies manually onto my phone without a whole lot of trouble.To be fair the Iphone music experience is so bad, why not just eliminate it.
Funny story. I bought a 64GB OnePlus when I switched to Android. I assumed I'd sync up with iTunes and shit. Except T-Mobile offers free streaming from Google Music, and Google Music syncs with my iTunes, so my phone has literally no music on it, and I listen to literally my entire music collection. For free.
Google Music is life. Same price as most streaming services, includes streaming and 55k songs worth of cloud storage, plus it comes with YouTube Red, ie no ads, background/offline play on mobile, and the one decent YouTube original they've produced. Plus they pay artists better than almost anyone.
I never really understood the 1/4" jack until I realized that I have owned my headphones with the 1/4" jack for longer than I know my wife, I bought them used, and I've run over the chord with my chair a couple hundred times and still I've never had any issues with the cable. Compared to the 3.5MM cable for the JH4 IEMs that I had to replace 1 year and 6 months after use because the LH earpiece stopped working ($35+$15 shipping, what a ripoff).
I bought Jaybird X2 headphones for work when they were on sale last month. Wireless is nice because it's one less thing to object to avoid when moving in an out of a sterile hood. The advertised capacity for the X2's is 8 hours. In practice they'll die around 4pm if I'm playing them all day. The airpods boast 5 hours. So I'd be looking at about an afternoon's worth of listening before I'd have to set them aside. Magical indeed.
Is this a spoof? If not, this looks like some triple-A grade nottheonion shit. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/6/21/11991302/iphone-no-headphone-jack-user-hostile-stupid lmao. I just got got. I couldn't tell. Apple's marketing speak is so imitable.We removed the floppy drive, and people said we were wrong. We weren't. We removed the CD drive, and again people said we were wrong. We weren't. We never are.
mk and I read through their swim-50-meters-water-resistant-watch doublespeak like ten times today to figure out wtf they were even trying to say. I think they may have actually jumped the shark this time. The surprising thing to me is that it took this long. I thought they'd be today within 18 months of jobs dying.
You'd think that after 30 years of being consistently right, people would take a moment and think about why Apple does stuff, rather than just spouting off on the internet. Fucking morons. Apple has always pushed the boundary by eliminating "required" features, in the effort to move technology forward. ALL headphones absolutely suck. Period. The technology is stuck in the past, and manufacturers are happy to paint their shitty device a different color and call it "New!" Bullshit. And Apple is calling those manufacturers on their shit. Bluetooth is an utter failure. Wired headphones are great if you are in the recording studio, but suck in every single other use case ever. So Apple pulls the 1/8" jack, and forces the manufacturers to pull their heads outta their asses and innovate and come up with something better than a goddamn wire. And ya know what? It'll work. Because Apple is demanding it, and - say whatever you want about Apple - they have the market share to dictate exactly what the 3rd party market MUST make. So, Boom. Apple does it again, and in 18 months every single other device on the fucking planet will have effective, quality wireless headphone capability. Thank you Apple. From those of us who give a shit about user experience.
Actually, you are full of shit. Wired headphones are great if you want to hear your music. Bluetooth is great if you want it to cut out every ten minutes, or every time you touch the volume control, or every time you get a phone call, or every time the moon is in aquarius. Bluetooth is also great if you want your headphones to run out before your phone, or if you want a device that can discharge in a drawer because you haven't used it in a week, or because your car was too hot. Let's talk about ADC connectors. That's apple eliminating the "required" power and USB cables in an effort to "move technology forward." But as it turns out, you can't spit a monitor's worth of power down 30-gage wiring and USB interferes with high-bandwidth video. Six years of that bullshit - it came out the same time as the G4 Cube's magical mystical "electrical disturbances cause me to power down" capacitive power switch. Hey, how 'bout the Dock Connector? Yeah. Apple's "universal" connector includes bidirectional audio, two flavors of analog video, 3.3V DC power, 5V DC power, 12V DC power, Firewire data, USB data and two channels of serial control. All to guarantee that if you actually want to interface with any of that shit, you have to suck down Apple's proprietary connector. Know what I use? Koss fitclips. Know why? cuz I sweat them out every six weeks. Which is fine 'cuz they cost $14 and don't require a fucking ADC to listen to music. And I'm not even listening to music most of the time - I'm listening to 128k audiobooks. FUCK fidelity I want something that I can wrap around the goddamn spokes and not give a shit about. And that's what I got. I also like being able to buy charging cables two for a dollar off Amazon. But I got the fuck out of Apple three years ago. "Consistently right." Yeah - all headphones consistently suck... but only Apple will charge you $169 for them.
Seriously? I make all the points you make - Bluetooth sucks, wires suck, headphone UX sucks, and (right now) you have to have wires to have good audio - and then you make the same point? Oh right. You are upset about me mentioning that Apple pushes stagnating markets forward with "terrible" ideas... like removing floppy drives, or making color screens the default, or built-in Ethernet, or ... ah fuck it. I put the word "Apple" in the first sentence, so now your ears are turned off. Eh. Nevermind. Actually, you are full of shit.
Yeah - all headphones consistently suck...
Well hang on, now. Your point was that Apple has been "consistently right" for 30 years, and said that anyone who disagreed was a "fucking moron." Further, you're arguing that headphones without connectors are somehow better. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get the router working differently because I my Ethernet-free Macbook is having trouble connecting to the network.
man, my macbook loses connectivity to my router at LEAST twice a day.
I don't have any issue with cordless headphones, but $160 independent earbuds that don't stay in my ears are not going to make for a good user experience. I just can't justify buying them, because I'll lose them quickly. I also think it is important that wireless headphones work inside and outside their ecosystem. The fact that they don't makes them less useful.
Seriously? You can't actually believe that. Earbuds stay in your ears because of the SHAPE OF THE BUD, not because they have a wire dragging on the end of it, catching on your shirt buttons, seatbelt, steering wheel, etc. Removing the wire makes it less likely for you to catch them on something and yank them out of your ears, not MORE likely. What a weird claim to make!
No, it's true. They fall out. When I run, I hold the cord up high so it doesn't pull, and I still need to push them back in from time to time. I know people, including b_b, who can't even get them to stay in for any length of time. They aren't shaped well for everyone's ears. It might seem weird because they might fit your ears well.
Jogging with apple earbuds is the worst. They fall out every eight steps and then your sweat soaks into the mic and kills them permanently. It's spectacular. Now you don't need to worry about that because they'll fall into a puddle long before... actually, watch this space. I bet within two months someone is making an iSweatband that goes around your head to keep your fucking earbuds in your ears.
This is crazy... I must have really oddly shaped ears. The only earbuds that have EVER stayed in my ears consistently are the Apple "weirdo" shaped ones. You know, these things: All other earbuds just fall out. Is my experience really that unique? Nobody has ever mentioned me having weird-shaped ears before, and I've done a lot of different hearing tests over the years... Weird...
I've had the same experience as you, that generation of Apple headphones are the best thing I've had my entire life. I guess we're the odd ones out.
I'm really on the fence. On one hand, the wired headphones are simple and cheap. I first got into Apple because it just always worked. It was simple, and that's what wired headphones are. On the other hand, wires are annoying. My headphones endlessly catch on my collar, buttons or my corporate ID badge. If I'm out walking, the wire will catch on my watch, or if it's windy, the wind will blow it around. Will wireless headphones work as easily as wired ones do? Will I connect them once and literally never think about them again? I hope so. The cost bothers me a little. When I travel, I'll bring an extra set of ear buds just because I lose a pair about every fourth trip, and those are attached to each other. But maybe I lose them because they're cheap. I've been displeased with Apple before. I switched to Android for two weeks in 2012. I hated that experience. It wasn't the ecosystem switch, it was having issues with the phone and finding forum posts from 2009 saying "I hope they fix that soon." I'm still using a four year old iPhone. I want to replace it, but I'm so unenthusiastic about anything.
It wasn't really a problem until Apple decided we all needed to have silicone headphone wires that catch on everything and show off all the skunge that passes through our lives. Apple earbuds meant getting used to the sensation of headphone cables getting stuck in my fucking hair. Bluetooth is a fifteen year old technology that still isn't ready for prime time. You can get cheap bluetooth headphones for like $18... but you have to charge them. And get used to having software (shitty software) mediating the experience between your hand and your ear. Raise your hands if you've had trouble getting text messages in less than six hours for the past month or so. This is because Apple is doing something on their back end and shit gets lost for a while. Yep. Apple has managed to make a way for text messages to not go through.I first got into Apple because it just always worked
Maybe or maybe most people will just settle for shittier sounding music. Apt-x was almost passable but was still degraded performance. Charging headphones is a pain and now instead of 1 device to charge you have 3. I guess I like wired maybe I'm just old school
Yeah I don't get it. Every generation of phone gets progressively less innovative. I think they gave up on expanding maket share and now are fully focused on extracting as much cash as possible out of the people who are trapped in the apple Sysem. Also tech press is really bad and yes all gawker style reporting and it really should be taken out back and put out of it's misery
