Say goodbye to headphone jack

[Almeuit]

Oh of course the iPhone X will sell as with all Apple products.

And I agree that things would never change if they didn't do things that annoyed certain people... but the change has to be necessary. The change from micro USB to USB C for example was necessary. Yes you have to buy new cables but the evolution is going that way. For the headphone jack not only are we not at a point where it's a necessity to remove it, nor was it requested by anyone, but there's no real evolution in the tech. BT is not better than wired by any means. The earphones have to be charged, BT in cars is not standard yet, so you have to pay for BT in your car when you buy the car or change your radio, you have to pay for new earbuds that you have to remember to charge and so on. That or carry a dongle.

It was only a necessity to remove the headphone jack to make THEIR jobs easier. And they get away with it somehow. I'm a Web programmer. If I told one of my clients "Yeah I didn't put a contact page on your website. Just tell people to find your number in the phone book and call you" while charging them the same price as if I would have included a contact page, see if I would get away with it.

Ehh I would say BT in cars is definitely standard. It obviously isn't standard if you are driving something from 2011 but any new car you go to buy today has BT as a standard feature. Such as my Truck has BT and I didn't have to upgrade/addon to get it.

The dongle can be annoying but is it truly that inconvenient? People carry chargers around right? For work, gym, car, etc. but don't seem to mind so is carrying one little dongle to have wired headphones that bad? I don't think so. Also yes BT has to be charged but I don't see how that is a negative. Your phone has to be charged right? So why not charge your headset every night like most do with their phones? Zero issue then. I do this with my BT headphones and I use them all day at work without the worry of them dying.

I know I am disagreeing a lot but for me, personally, the gripes about it just don't make enough sense to me to make it such a big deal. One little dongle when you carry chargers around isn't that big of a deal if you truly want wired headphones. If you get BT headphones charging them, again to me, truly isn't an issue. You just charge them at night when you sleep just like most do w/ their phones.

 

[dlalonde]

Ehh I would say BT in cars is definitely standard. It obviously isn't standard if you are driving something from 2011 but any new car you go to buy today has BT as a standard feature. Such as my Truck has BT and I didn't have to upgrade/addon to get it.

The dongle can be annoying but is it truly that inconvenient? People carry chargers around right? For work, gym, car, etc. but don't seem to mind so is carrying one little dongle to have wired headphones that bad? I don't think so. Also yes BT has to be charged but I don't see how that is a negative. Your phone has to be charged right? So why not charge your headset every night like most do with their phones? Zero issue then. I do this with my BT headphones and I use them all day at work without the worry of them dying.

I know I am disagreeing a lot but for me, personally, the gripes about it just don't make enough sense to me to make it such a big deal. One little dongle when you carry chargers around isn't that big of a deal if you truly want wired headphones. If you get BT headphones charging them, again to me, truly isn't an issue. You just charge them at night when you sleep just like most do w/ their phones.

My car's a 2015 and it didn't come with Bluetooth. Maybe it's changed since.

Yes you charge your phone but although it's not such a big deal it's another inconvenience to have to charge your earphones whereas with a wire you don't have to do it. That's not even taking into consideration the fact that it makes more batteries that will end up in the wild when those earphones are thrown in the garbage.

Of course the dongle is not THAT bad in itself. I'm only talking about the principle of pushing an inconvenience on your customers to make your own job easier. If it was a necessary change, I wouldn't have said a word about it. But this change is not necessary by any means.

All in all, I don't think we'll see eye to eye on the matter. If it suits you guys, fine, get the next Pixel and enjoy! I'm still irritated by it and it adds to the list of things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else for me which I find fascinating.

 

[Almeuit]

Yes you charge your phone but although it's not such a big deal it's another inconvenience to have to charge your earphones whereas with a wire you don't have to do it. That's not even taking into consideration the fact that it makes more batteries that will end up in the wild when those earphones are thrown in the garbage.

I think with how much of phone nuts most of us are on the phone .. I doubt worrying about a battery being in the wild is a true concern . Plus there are ways to dispose of them properly.

Of course the dongle is not THAT bad in itself. I'm only talking about the principle of pushing an inconvenience on your customers to make your own job easier. If it was a necessary change, I wouldn't have said a word about it. But this change is not necessary by any means.

All in all, I don't think we'll see eye to eye on the matter. If it suits you guys, fine, get the next Pixel and enjoy! I'm still irritated by it and it adds to the list of things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else for me which I find fascinating.

Yeah we won't see eye to eye on it. I don't agree on the "things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else" -- since I don't get what you mean. If all phones go away from headphone jacks then we have to accept it because what else can we do except build our own phone? Same thing as if another industry fully stopped doing something -- what else could we do? How could we not accept it if it is something of true importance like smartphones have become in day-to-day life?

My car's a 2015 and it didn't come with Bluetooth. Maybe it's changed since.

Ah you said not a standard as of today but I don't remember seeing one 2017 that didn't have BT on the entire lot when I was getting my truck.

 

[dpham00]

My car's a 2015 and it didn't come with Bluetooth. Maybe it's changed since.

Yes you charge your phone but although it's not such a big deal it's another inconvenience to have to charge your earphones whereas with a wire you don't have to do it. That's not even taking into consideration the fact that it makes more batteries that will end up in the wild when those earphones are thrown in the garbage.

Of course the dongle is not THAT bad in itself. I'm only talking about the principle of pushing an inconvenience on your customers to make your own job easier. If it was a necessary change, I wouldn't have said a word about it. But this change is not necessary by any means.

All in all, I don't think we'll see eye to eye on the matter. If it suits you guys, fine, get the next Pixel and enjoy! I'm still irritated by it and it adds to the list of things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else for me which I find fascinating.

You can always buy a Bluetooth kit for your car... It's around $20.

Also at least today... You have options if you must have a headphone jack...

 

[dlalonde]

I think with how much of phone nuts most of us are on the phone .. I doubt worrying about a battery being in the wild is a true concern . Plus there are ways to dispose of them properly.

I know but how many people will actually do it? And I think it should be a concern to us.

Yeah we won't see eye to eye on it. I don't agree on the "things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else" -- since I don't get what you mean. If all phones go away from headphone jacks then we have to accept it because what else can we do except build our own phone? Same thing as if another industry fully stopped doing something -- what else could we do? How could we not accept it if it is something of true importance like smartphones have become in day-to-day life?

As a mass we don't have to accept anything because money talks. If everyone annoyed by the headphone jack being removed refused to buy a certain phone, then the companies wouldn't remove it. The iPhone was a testing ground in that respect to determine what people were willing to accept. But it seems it's like gas price. They can do what they want because people need gas. A lot of people need a smartphone.

About that "things we accept from mobile companies that we wouldn't anywhere else" I'd have to go off rails so I'm not going to start. But we are very forgiving when it comes to mobile phones.

 

[dsignori]

...That or carry a dongle..

Most people are still getting this wrong. You have to "carry" your wired headphones anyway. If you keep the dongle attached to them, you don't need o "carry" anything extra at all.

I hate that they removed the port, but unless you charge and listen concurrently a lot, there really should be no difference with this change...

 

[Almeuit]

Most people are still getting this wrong. You have to "carry" your wired headphones anyway. If you keep the dongle attached to them, you don't need o "carry" anything extra at all.

I hate that they removed the port, but unless you charge and listen concurrently a lot, there really should be no difference with this change...

Good Point .

 

[mclarryjr]

Doesn't bother me since I haven't had wired headphones in a couple years. It's much more comfortable using bluetooth not having a wire dangling from your ears. They are a little more expensive but mine (Bose & Beats) have both lasted well over a year now and probably will for a couple more.

 

[Jeremy8000]

With the lack of capability of supporting wired headphones and a charging cable at the same time... I'm really hoping that the 1-2 second lag that Bluetooth audio suffers when streaming video on the original Pixels doesn't continue on with the 2nd generation. It's not any issue for audio-only, but trying to watch a movie or television program is a horrific experience if trying to listen via Bluetooth (that's been my experience on the Pixel XL with a couple of different Bluetooth headsets, my car, and a bluetooth speaker).

 

[Almeuit]

With the lack of capability of supporting wired headphones and a charging cable at the same time... I'm really hoping that the 1-2 second lag that Bluetooth audio suffers when streaming video on the original Pixels doesn't continue on with the 2nd generation. It's not any issue for audio-only, but trying to watch a movie or television program is a horrific experience if trying to listen via Bluetooth (that's been my experience on the Pixel XL with a couple of different Bluetooth headsets, my car, and a bluetooth speaker).

Weird I never ran into the lag and I watch media heavily on my phone.

 

[dlalonde]

Most people are still getting this wrong. You have to "carry" your wired headphones anyway. If you keep the dongle attached to them, you don't need o "carry" anything extra at all.

That is a good point indeed!

 

[Jeremy8000]

Weird I never ran into the lag and I watch media heavily on my phone.

Hmm... Has nobody else run into audio lagging behind video over Bluetooth? I'd experienced it in the past with Nexus devices and assumed it was just 'standard' - if not, maybe I need to contact Google while my Pixel XL is still under warranty.

 

[Almeuit]

Hmm... Has nobody else run into audio lagging behind video over Bluetooth? I'd experienced it in the past with Nexus devices and assumed it was just 'standard' - if not, maybe I need to contact Google while my Pixel XL is still under warranty.

Not that I remember. I watch video a ton. I just got done watching twitch.tv a bunch and I would notice the gun shots in the game being behind if so. I just have a LG headset for my work Bluetooth.

 

[Jeremy8000]

@Almeuit - Thanks - For the sake of maximum reasonable troubleshooting before I call them, I'll try streaming something on Twitch (which I don't think I've tried streaming on my phone with Bluetooth) just to make sure it's not only an issue with all the other streaming apps I use.

Then... Maybe I'll wait till the Pixel 2 XL launches and hope the Pixels are out of stock before my anniversary, and that they replace it with a Pixel 2 XL. Odds can't be much worse of that than winning the lottery. Twice.

 

[cbreze]

Doesn't matter to me. Don't use it. prefer it gone actually. The jack hole just gets pocket lint in it anyway.

 

[mookiekillsit]

Crap! With the same device size and a higher price, stuff like this shouldn't get deleted. It's not yet a deal breaker for me but something I'll have to factor.

Higher price AND you need to buy Bluetooth headsets if you don't already have one. IMO, this is stupid to get rid of.

 

[Aquila]

Higher price AND you need to buy Bluetooth headsets if you don't already have one. IMO, this is stupid to get rid of.

If you read the rest of the thread, you'll realize that's only two of the 4 options.

 

[mookiekillsit]

If you read the rest of the thread, you'll realize that's only two of the 4 options.

Yeah, I eventually did. I have the tendency to quote posts and not read through the conversation first. Bad habits are bad.

 

[Aquila]

Yeah, I eventually did. I have the tendency to quote posts and not read through the conversation first. Bad habits are bad.

lol I do the same

 

[mclarryjr]

Hmm... Has nobody else run into audio lagging behind video over Bluetooth? I'd experienced it in the past with Nexus devices and assumed it was just 'standard' - if not, maybe I need to contact Google while my Pixel XL is still under warranty.

I've never had that issue on my Pixel XL or Pixel C which I use both to watch movies during travels.