iPhone 7, the audio jack is gone: what changes now? – Wired.it

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Here is how you listen to music on the new iPhone? Not necessarily better or worse

Live

7 September 2016

in the end, audio jack in the new iPhone is not really more . It was spoken for weeks, the keynote at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco confirmed everything, or almost. The new iPhone 7 will no longer have the old hole 3.5mm. “It takes vision and courage, and we have a vision for how it will be mobile audio. Our vision is the wireless “, said Phil Schiller during the keynote presentation. “It was useless to keep an analog line” . Then he presented the AirPods, the new wireless headphones, for sale in late October at 179 euro. Let’s try to summarize what changes.

As you listen to the audio on iPhone, now?
In four ways. A: with traditional EarPods, they now have a lightning connector and are included in each package. Two: a jack adapter, which is also included in every package, which allows you to use the older headphones. Three: with any bluetooth headset, for example, Apple announced a new Beats line.

Four: with new AirPods.

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  ( photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

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  Apple AirPods

  (Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

It is best to use the audio cable?
It depends. Schiller is right in saying that the lightning connector allows you to directly process the audio signal digitally and the analog one is obsolete. So far were very few headphones of this type in circulation, almost all very high-end. But we must see whether the new EarPods with cable lightning advantage of this option and if they have good quality (which is not one of the best virtues of Apple headphones). With lightning-jack the quality will be the same as always.

It is best to use the wireless audio?
Apple claims to have developed a new chip, the W1, for AirPods, but its use in the communication is referred especially to the use of sensors and to saving energy. Promises “a high-quality sound” , but we must listen to understand.

As for Bluetooth headsets: the market is flooded now for at least a couple of years and there are dozens of choices in every price range: will always feel a bit ‘less well of those with the wire, of course, but especially among the “cuffione” there are wireless models with excellent quality: especially if you do not have the ear end dell’audiofilo not feel the difference.

Those who usually feel worse are the bluetooth headsets, they tend to significantly lower average quality earphones with wire. The reason? So far, this type has been designed especially for those who make sport: for those who run or go to the gym, practicality is more important than quality audio.

It will be more practical ? in this field the
AirPods, on paper, they make great strides: bluetooth headphones have limited battery life, especially the ear, and the “pairing” can turn into a nightmare. The AirPods promise exceptional ease of use , lasting 5 hours (under the standard, which is 6-7), but they have a portable charger in the case that brings it all to 24 hours. Of course, the fact that they are totally wireless, even between a headset and other things, will require close attention: look very easy to lose , small as they are.

But they sound great, and they take away one automatically pausing the playback: nothing new in an absolute sense – already happens with larger bluetooth headphones, those with sovraurali halls – but it is the first time that this technology arrives on the small wireless earphones. Plus, with a double tap on any of AirBuds you can wake Siri, if only to ask you to raise or lower the volume.

(Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wired)

How to use the adapter to the jack, the dongle, in many already complain of an additional cable. But the first iPhone, the one that never arrived in Italy, had a similar problem: the jack attack was sunken and only worked with Apple headphones: It took a third-party adapter to use them.

the headphones become smart?
the use of lighting or wireless accessory will make the smartest, because in both cases the phone can switch different from audio data. Like other manufacturers, Bose has already presented the Bluetooth headsets that measure heartbeat , and the same AirPods have motion sensors . We’ll see if this option will be used.

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