> When you plug an audio cable into a smartphone, it just works.
No, hardware-wise you're still going through a DAC, and the complex audio subsystem of the OS is still deciding, upon receiving the connection signal, to re-route the application audio through that headphone DAC. Or not. Jack or Lightning doesn't change this.
> Apple can choose which manufacturers get to create Lightning-compatible audio devices.
Sure. Or you can use the included lightning-jack adapter and just use normal, un-DRM'd headphones.
>Once Apple gets the ability to add DRM, the record industry gets the ability to insist that Apple use it
See my first point: the audio jack wasn't your last guardian of freedom.
>In other words, if it’s impossible to connect a speaker or other audio device to an iPhone without Apple software governing it
Use the adapter. And see the first point.
> the only way to connect an iPhone 7 to a recording or mixing device will be over the suboptimal Bluetooth connection or a dongle provided by Apple.
Aha! They finally acknowledge the adapter! But do they acknowledge that it's functionally identical to a built-in DAC?
> It's possible that iOS or specific apps will be able to disable the dongle.
It's also possible the phone will halt and catch fire if you run an unapproved app. But disabling the dongle would be moronic. For one thing, they'd be incurring the wrath of ADA-defender groups.
>the converter you rely on to hear your phone on your hearing aids—just became less useful.
See previous point.
>But you shouldn’t have to depend on a manufacturer’s permission to use its hardware however you like.
Then don't even buy Apple. They've been locked down in so many other ways for a long time.
Anyhow.
The simple explanation (see Occam's Razor) is that the designers noticed that they were using valuable internal space for a redundant connector (considering the hardware has been able to route audio over Lightning for a long time), and figured they could reclaim that space for something else. Clearly, people disagree with this change. The market will tell.
If a device has an audio jack with the aim that its owners make use of it, it has to provide audio when "something" is plugged in. It's not able to discern what's there. That is what "just works": not that audio is supplied, but that audio is supplied without the possibility to discern what (merely whether, and that a hack) it is being supplied to. That the software may disable the port when it's empty or just on a whim doesn't make the port "just work" any less.
The same applies to Lightning-connected DACs. You might believe that there is something special about an internally connected DAC versus an externally connected DAC, but "just works" is not a point of difference. They both need to work in order to achieve their purpose.
At some point, sound needs to make it into your ears.
> The same applies to Lightning-connected DACs. You might believe that there is something special about an internally connected DAC versus an externally connected DAC, but "just works" is not a point of difference. They both need to work in order to achieve their purpose
Internal DAC has only 1 piece of information: a device has been connected to the jack. A lightning jack has access to way more information: like the manufacturer of the DAC & type of the device (headphone, midi/DAW, car radio, DJ's Mixer, etc) and may opt out of "working" in some instances: e.g. this song should only be played on this headphone whitelist- this is simply not possible to achieve with 3.5mm jacks. Remember the "analogue hole"[1]? Apple just closed it on the iPhone.
Apple included that only to test the waters and possibly later revoke the "analog hole".
If they were really being "courageous" about removing the headphone jack, they would have shipped it without the adapter and not made one available.
The people who think that just because they included an adapter, there won't be DRM, need to remember that from now on any service played on an iphone can decide whether or not to enable analog output, or even have a different output over analog. Cue the services that have decided not to work on analog, and paid ad-free audio.
You'd have to be very naive to not be worried about this in my opinion. calinet6 wrote a great comment about it in the comments here.
if your phone only has a 3.5mm jack, you will have to provide high quality audio through it (if you want to be able to sell it to people interested in listening to music on high quality earphones)
if your phone only has a digital jack and a certification process, you can decide to provide high quality audio to your digital headphones and low quality audio to the 3.5mm adapter.
It's not guaranteed that the DAC you are getting in the 3.5mm adapter is as good as the DAC that you were getting before inside the phone (and given that the 3.5mm adapter costs $9.99 I would be surprised if it was)
I am personally really interested in somebody testing the new external adapter DAC against the 6s internal DAC and see what the quality loss is like. Maybe these days you can create a quality DAC and sell it for super cheap, but it might also be the case that the adapter DAC is going to be much worse than it was before, and in that case there's not much you can do about it if Apple does not license the technology to 3rd parties to create their own.
Apple could degrade it in software. They already degrade DRM'd video playback when it's on a display connection unprotected by HDCP, e.g. when using a VGA dongle.
I've generally been in favor of Apple's hardware changes; for example the original iMac helped the entire industry adopt USB and the Lightning connector is much better than the 30-pin connector (and has a number of advantages over the microUSB pretty much everyone else uses). I've been in favor of their video port changes (except microDVI on the original MacBook Air) even though it created problems for me and my colleagues at work. I'm unhappy about Ethernet being dropped from all their laptop models but it really was an obstacle in their physical design. This change seems unnecessary and I don't like how Lightning is on Apple devices only.
I'm not sure there's an evil DRM plot, I could totally believe Jonny Ive or some designer just didn't like this analog turd messing up the symmetry and digital purity of their designs, especially a connector that's 30+ years old.
Apple waged a war against DRM on MP3 files and won. They tried to do the same with movies and haven't prevailed yet, so we're stuck with DRM on those. It sucks.
Blame the MPAA here. Apple would rather have it DRM free. It's better for consumers, it's better for their sales.
Rumour is, Amazon threatened to stop selling CDs for record companies who wouldn't let them sell DRM-free MP3 files. Certainly they used their massive sales presence to negotiate a deal with the record companies.
I think that was the major tipping point for DRM on music. Apple followed after that.
That's not what happened. Around 2006 all of digital music services were failing because thier DRM was incompatible with the iPod. Once Jobs refused to license FairPlay and gave the record industry the alternative of licensing music DRM free they had no choice but to either allow DRM music or let Apple keep a stranglehold on the market.
My understanding, talking from a few folks who worked on that sort of thing, is that they tried. Of course this is all rumours and chit-chat, so I have no idea how true it is.
But the book publishers would apparently be happy for ebooks to go away, Amazon to stop selling books, and their higher margin deals with Borders to come back. So they called Amazon's bluff.
Competition. I bet you Apple wanted to sell that adapter as premium addon, but because of the angry folks talking about it for a while now due to rumors, they decided to include that adapter with each phone.
Yeah, why should we assume that a company that has a history of making unnecessarily proprietary equipment would do so again in the future? that'd be absurd, right?
"Look at all these new great features you get with this update! Oh, btw your old, obsolete headphone jack won't work with this version anymore... but look at all these new great features! It's entirely your decision, but don't you want all these great new features? Oh btw, here's a voucher for a discount on these awesome new air bud 2's!!"
When have they ever done that before? Everything is within the realm of possibility, but just because someone has the technical ability to do something doesn't mean they will.
This is how I see all the Cory Doctorow/BoingBoing fear mongering. He's made a career out of scaring people and being as disingenious as possible, but because he picks on "the man" the typical college/highschool types praise him as some sort of freedom fighter. Internet fandom really deserves better heroes. The EFF itself is almost as bad and is run by seemingly the most paranoid and reactionary people out there. I imagine their hearts are in the right place but angry and poorly sourced hit pieces hurt their reputation.
>Then don't even buy Apple. They've been locked down in so many other ways for a long time.
Once in a while my Nexus will piss me off, but then I remember what the realistic alternatives are. I do like Apple products, but the lock-downs become a hassle. I can't imagine having to carry around yet more adapters for them. The market probably won't even punish them as the Apple brand is so strong and BT headphones so common, that it'll just royally piss off only a very small percentage of buyers. They're welcome to buy a Nexus/Pixel/Whatever. Apple isn't changing its ways for us. That's fine because we have a choice in mobile OS's.
What would Cory do without Apple to hate on? I worry about the guy.
Nobody's forcing you to buy an iPhone 7. Nobody's taking away all your analog ports. It's like the NRA here getting all up in arms because someone had the audacity to declare a gun free zone in a school which impinges on their freedoms.
Seriously, get a grip Cory. You're free to criticize Apple's decisions but don't make it out like Apple's destroying the world.
It's never been easier to make your own phone. If Cory and the EFF were really interested in changing the world they'd go and make an open-source, open-hardware smart phone so they had something to point to when people are feeling cheated by companies like Apple.
Let's talk again in 12 or 24 months, when all the other manufacturers have done their usual thing of stampeding blindly to ape whatever Apple's done lately.
> It's never been easier to make your own phone.
Making a phone is the easy part.
Getting permission to use that phone on closed, proprietary networks controlled entirely by a giant telcos who have absolutely no interest in letting you do so, on the other hand...
You'll have nobody to blame but the other vendors, and I think they'd be stupid to follow Apple here. The answer to headphones that Apple has now is the Lightning connector/adapter plus their wireless solution.
Other companies have nothing. Can USB-C do the job? Do they have a wireless standard they can all agree on? I have my doubts.
> Getting the telcos...
They have no say in it. You can use an unlocked phone on any network you want. You can already build your own phone with a Rasperry Pi and a GSM module. There's really nothing they can do.
They won't sell it in their retail stores, that's a huge barrier, but not if you don't care.
No, hardware-wise you're still going through a DAC, and the complex audio subsystem of the OS is still deciding, upon receiving the connection signal, to re-route the application audio through that headphone DAC. Or not. Jack or Lightning doesn't change this.
> Apple can choose which manufacturers get to create Lightning-compatible audio devices.
Sure. Or you can use the included lightning-jack adapter and just use normal, un-DRM'd headphones.
>Once Apple gets the ability to add DRM, the record industry gets the ability to insist that Apple use it
See my first point: the audio jack wasn't your last guardian of freedom.
>In other words, if it’s impossible to connect a speaker or other audio device to an iPhone without Apple software governing it
Use the adapter. And see the first point.
> the only way to connect an iPhone 7 to a recording or mixing device will be over the suboptimal Bluetooth connection or a dongle provided by Apple.
Aha! They finally acknowledge the adapter! But do they acknowledge that it's functionally identical to a built-in DAC?
> It's possible that iOS or specific apps will be able to disable the dongle.
It's also possible the phone will halt and catch fire if you run an unapproved app. But disabling the dongle would be moronic. For one thing, they'd be incurring the wrath of ADA-defender groups.
>the converter you rely on to hear your phone on your hearing aids—just became less useful.
See previous point.
>But you shouldn’t have to depend on a manufacturer’s permission to use its hardware however you like.
Then don't even buy Apple. They've been locked down in so many other ways for a long time.
Anyhow.
The simple explanation (see Occam's Razor) is that the designers noticed that they were using valuable internal space for a redundant connector (considering the hardware has been able to route audio over Lightning for a long time), and figured they could reclaim that space for something else. Clearly, people disagree with this change. The market will tell.