Journal Critique 3: Lightning Earphones
Apple made waves in the tech community when they announced they will be removing the 3.5mm audio port from their latest line of iPhones. This move was in an effort to move the industry towards Apple’s long-term grand vision of a wireless future, as the lack of an audio port on the latest iPhone meant users were forced to either use Lightning-connector earphones or buy wireless earphones. Apple packages lightning-connector earphones with their new iPhones.
The issue: the lightning-connector earphones that work with the new iPhones do not work with anything else, including Apple’s own products.
Regular 3.5mm jack earphones do not fit with Apple’s latest iPhones.
Apple’s Lightning connector earphones do not even work with their latest MacBook Pros.
My current workaround: I currently carry around two sets of earphones, one with a standard 3.5mm jack, and another with the Lightning connector, as I sometimes listen to audio from my laptop and other times from my iPhone.
A possible solution: Apple should package their latest iPhones with earphones that have both Lightning and 3.5mm connectors. They already provide 3.5mm to Lightning adapters, but due to their small size they are very easy to misplace, and having an earphone with two connectors means I just have one item to worry about instead of two.
An even better solution: Bring back the 3.5mm audio port to the iPhone!