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September 9, 2016

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Headphone jack in iPhone 7 axed

Source: Agencies | September 9, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

APPLE is out to make a splash with new waterproof iPhones and a smartphone game starring Nintendo’s beloved “Mario”, but it has raised eyebrows by eliminating headphone jacks in a push for wireless.

The iPhone 7 and larger iPhone 7 Plus, with sophisticated camera technology, improved water resistance and other features, were shown off to applause on Wednesday at an Apple event in San Francisco.

The flagship devices with boosted memory capacity will be sold at roughly the same price as the models they replace, starting at US$649 for the iPhone 7 for US customers, with deliveries in 25 countries beginning September 16.

But gone is the traditional headphone jack, requiring audio to be delivered via Apple’s proprietary “lightning” connector or by wireless.

While some fans opposed the widely anticipated move — one online petition urging Apple to keep the headphone jack drew more than 300,000 signatures — equipment suppliers and experts heralded a change in how users will interact with their devices.

Axing the jack, they say, paves the way for discreet, bean-sized earbuds that can simultaneously translate, filter out unwanted noise or let us control other devices by voice — and drive up the value of the so-called ‘hearables’ market to US$16 billion within five years.

It’s the vision of the futuristic 2013 movie “Her”, where a human has a love affair with a disembodied voice in his ear. But some who follow the industry say it’s closer than many think, noting improvements in wireless technologies, materials, artificial intelligence and battery life.

“It’s surprisingly close,” says Nick Hunn, a UK-based consultant who works with manufacturers and a group defining the short-range wireless Bluetooth standard.

Apple justified the removal of the jack as a courageous move to ditch a 100-year-old technology and make more space inside the iPhone. It offered as alternatives a lightning cable earphone and an adapter for the old type, but touted new wireless earphones.

“It makes no sense to tether ourselves with cables to our mobile devices,” said Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide marketing, announcing the launch of AirPods, Apple’s own wireless earbuds using the firm’s new wireless W1 chip, and costing US$159.

“We’re just at the beginning of a truly wireless future we’ve been working towards for many years,” added chief design officer Jonathan Ive.

And that great uncabling has already begun.

Speakers were first: more than 100 million wireless speakers will be sold this year, most of them using Bluetooth, according to SAR Insight and Consulting.

Now it’s headsets: spending on wireless headsets overtook wired ones last year, says Steven LeBoeuf, founder of Valencell, a developer of biometric sensor technology for wearable devices.

The next step is to make those earphones smarter.

German wireless earbud start-up Bragi, for example, last week announced a partnership to hook up its earbuds with IBM’s artificial intelligence engine, Watson. IBM said users would be able to communicate, monitor vital signs, receive and give instructions and translate from one language to another using Bragi’s smart earphones.

Firefighters would be better able to hear and locate victims and colleagues, and co-workers could collaborate using both hands, said Bragi CEO Nikolaj Hviid.

“This is not about making headphones,” he said. “It’s about taking the user interface from your eyes and hand and having a much more discreet one when needed.”

Apple also pointed to improvements in its Siri voice control software, which can be activated by double tapping the AirPod.

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