Something that just popped into my mind - they also announced that the new iPhone has "stereo speakers" in the sense that they amped up the speaker used for calls. So now you have two speakers with vastly different shapes and directions, IP67 rated, double the volume.

Isn't it super likely that that combination is going to make any sound sound super weird and/or terrible?

The iPod was where I developed my respect for UI. Creative Nomads were okay. I had... something else. It was french and weird. Fuckin' A. Archos Jukebox. Thanks, Google. the iPod actually made a library browseable. I actually still have a Gen1 iPod. it still spools up.

I had a pretty good idea the iPad was going to make a mint, but I also had a pretty good idea that it was only useful for browsing the web, watching Netflix and playing Bejeweled.

I think Apple eliminated the phone jack because they didn't want the thickness they'd get with an IP67-rated 1/8" jack. I think they'll weather this the same as they did with the "you're holding it wrong" antenna... but I also know that I'm exiting their ecosystem as fast as my feet will carry me.

Congratulations, Apple. You're making Windows 10 look appealing.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away." -Pretty funny

This is why you must sign up for Apple Music.

Because things won't get truly shitty until you're paying a recurring fee to house your music on someone else's server.

To be fair the Iphone music experience is so bad, why not just eliminate it.

While I'll agree that iTunes is jacked and getting music on one's phone isn't as easy as it used to be... I still have several GB's of music that I keep on my phone.

Maybe I'm missing something? It's clear that Apple would rather I use their apple music service, but I am old fashioned enough to actually transfer music and movies manually onto my phone without a whole lot of trouble.

"Boast?" lol. Nicely worded. They're certainly not for people who travel regularly.

mk and I read through their swim-50-meters-water-resistant-watch doublespeak like ten times today to figure out wtf they were even trying to say. I think they may have actually jumped the shark this time. The surprising thing to me is that it took this long. I thought they'd be today within 18 months of jobs dying.

Actually, you are full of shit.

Wired headphones are great if you want to hear your music. Bluetooth is great if you want it to cut out every ten minutes, or every time you touch the volume control, or every time you get a phone call, or every time the moon is in aquarius. Bluetooth is also great if you want your headphones to run out before your phone, or if you want a device that can discharge in a drawer because you haven't used it in a week, or because your car was too hot.

Let's talk about ADC connectors.

That's apple eliminating the "required" power and USB cables in an effort to "move technology forward." But as it turns out, you can't spit a monitor's worth of power down 30-gage wiring and USB interferes with high-bandwidth video. Six years of that bullshit - it came out the same time as the G4 Cube's magical mystical "electrical disturbances cause me to power down" capacitive power switch.

Hey, how 'bout the Dock Connector?

Yeah. Apple's "universal" connector includes bidirectional audio, two flavors of analog video, 3.3V DC power, 5V DC power, 12V DC power, Firewire data, USB data and two channels of serial control. All to guarantee that if you actually want to interface with any of that shit, you have to suck down Apple's proprietary connector.

Know what I use? Koss fitclips. Know why? cuz I sweat them out every six weeks. Which is fine 'cuz they cost $14 and don't require a fucking ADC to listen to music. And I'm not even listening to music most of the time - I'm listening to 128k audiobooks. FUCK fidelity I want something that I can wrap around the goddamn spokes and not give a shit about. And that's what I got. I also like being able to buy charging cables two for a dollar off Amazon.

But I got the fuck out of Apple three years ago.

"Consistently right."

Yeah - all headphones consistently suck... but only Apple will charge you $169 for them.

I don't have any issue with cordless headphones, but $160 independent earbuds that don't stay in my ears are not going to make for a good user experience. I just can't justify buying them, because I'll lose them quickly.

I also think it is important that wireless headphones work inside and outside their ecosystem. The fact that they don't makes them less useful.

I'm really on the fence. On one hand, the wired headphones are simple and cheap. I first got into Apple because it just always worked. It was simple, and that's what wired headphones are.

On the other hand, wires are annoying. My headphones endlessly catch on my collar, buttons or my corporate ID badge. If I'm out walking, the wire will catch on my watch, or if it's windy, the wind will blow it around.

Will wireless headphones work as easily as wired ones do? Will I connect them once and literally never think about them again? I hope so. The cost bothers me a little. When I travel, I'll bring an extra set of ear buds just because I lose a pair about every fourth trip, and those are attached to each other. But maybe I lose them because they're cheap.

I've been displeased with Apple before. I switched to Android for two weeks in 2012. I hated that experience. It wasn't the ecosystem switch, it was having issues with the phone and finding forum posts from 2009 saying "I hope they fix that soon."

I'm still using a four year old iPhone. I want to replace it, but I'm so unenthusiastic about anything.

Maybe or maybe most people will just settle for shittier sounding music. Apt-x was almost passable but was still degraded performance. Charging headphones is a pain and now instead of 1 device to charge you have 3. I guess I like wired maybe I'm just old school

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/its-official-apple-is-just-milking-its-cash-cows.html