8th September 2016, 8:02 PM
It's official, Apple's new phone won't have a headphone jack. It's opted for a proprietary format, but they are making a little accessory that'll convert the old standard to lightning. While they made that announcement, I kept thinking back to Nintendo's exclusion of the audio jack from the GBA SP, with a similar adapter made for it, and the similar restriction of not being able to charge the GBA while using headphones.
Then Miyamoto suddenly showed up on stage.
I think it all makes sense now.
![[Image: TjJxM.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/TjJxM.gif)
Apple is asserting this is just progress, and it was brave of them to do this. I just have to ask why it's progress now and it wasn't back then. We've had USB headsets for years after all, and I've yet to notice any real quality difference between an analog and a digital signal. This is probably because no matter how that attachment works, in the end it has to turn into an analog signal anyway before it reaches your ears. The signal, in all modern computers, also always starts out as a digital one. What difference does it make, ultimately, whether the signal turns to analog at the phone end or by your ears? It's a pretty short distance to travel after all, and not really much to degrade it. I suppose if nothing else, it'll prevent their own designs from adding noise before it's even left the phone. So... there's that.
Really though, even if there was a good reason to make the signal digital for longer (for example, Ultra HD just isn't doable over a VGA connection, at least not without some ridiculously expensive signal tuning hardware and an incredibly high gauge cable, though I don't see anyone introducing Ultra High Def sound equipment pushing out those frequencies fast enough to need a digital solution), the biggest issue is they made it proprietary. I'm not buying two headsets just so I can use one with Apple products and another with everything else (everything else opting for USB-C, as it happens).
The real reason for all this has been leaking out all over the place. Digital signals can be encoded, and encoded signals mean DRM schemes, and there's already an active push to implement DRM into the upcoming USB-C audio standard. The music industry has relented and current online music stores sell their music in DRM-free forms. There's simply no point in trying any sort of DRM when anyone that knows how to connect an output jack to an input jack can circumvent it. If it's protected though, well, the music industry is going to start encoding their new releases and advertising them as "lightning/USB-C connector exclusive", making ridiculous claims about how this "new music standard" sounds way too good to work correctly on old analog connectors.
There's reason to hope though. The switch to HDMI made logical sense and brought with it substantial upgrades, but this switch is so pointless any claims about music quality would be exposed as lies almost immediately. It's just a matter of us getting out there and making sure they don't get a chance to get their message out ANYWHERE without it being immediately challenged.
Then Miyamoto suddenly showed up on stage.
I think it all makes sense now.
Apple is asserting this is just progress, and it was brave of them to do this. I just have to ask why it's progress now and it wasn't back then. We've had USB headsets for years after all, and I've yet to notice any real quality difference between an analog and a digital signal. This is probably because no matter how that attachment works, in the end it has to turn into an analog signal anyway before it reaches your ears. The signal, in all modern computers, also always starts out as a digital one. What difference does it make, ultimately, whether the signal turns to analog at the phone end or by your ears? It's a pretty short distance to travel after all, and not really much to degrade it. I suppose if nothing else, it'll prevent their own designs from adding noise before it's even left the phone. So... there's that.
Really though, even if there was a good reason to make the signal digital for longer (for example, Ultra HD just isn't doable over a VGA connection, at least not without some ridiculously expensive signal tuning hardware and an incredibly high gauge cable, though I don't see anyone introducing Ultra High Def sound equipment pushing out those frequencies fast enough to need a digital solution), the biggest issue is they made it proprietary. I'm not buying two headsets just so I can use one with Apple products and another with everything else (everything else opting for USB-C, as it happens).
The real reason for all this has been leaking out all over the place. Digital signals can be encoded, and encoded signals mean DRM schemes, and there's already an active push to implement DRM into the upcoming USB-C audio standard. The music industry has relented and current online music stores sell their music in DRM-free forms. There's simply no point in trying any sort of DRM when anyone that knows how to connect an output jack to an input jack can circumvent it. If it's protected though, well, the music industry is going to start encoding their new releases and advertising them as "lightning/USB-C connector exclusive", making ridiculous claims about how this "new music standard" sounds way too good to work correctly on old analog connectors.
There's reason to hope though. The switch to HDMI made logical sense and brought with it substantial upgrades, but this switch is so pointless any claims about music quality would be exposed as lies almost immediately. It's just a matter of us getting out there and making sure they don't get a chance to get their message out ANYWHERE without it being immediately challenged.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)