We’re used to cables for every device we have: to charge our smartphone or laptop and to listen to our favorite music. And these are the exact cables that Apple wishes to delete. Apple is trying to do that for some years now, and the iPhone 7 release on September 2016 could confirm our suspicion.
Why does Apple want to eliminate cables?
Apple does not want to eliminate the cables usage: it rather wants to delete the ports on its devices like phones and laptops. This is the only way, in fact, to reach the thinnest product design as possible. As Wired says, Apple has a history of “addition by subtraction” when it comes to its devices. For example, many of us are now used to plug external devices to Macbooks through the Thunderbolt port, instead of HDMI. After all, you just need a simple adaptor to make it work. And what’s the benefit in all of this? On one hand, hardware producers should convey towards a unique standard for cables, but on the other hand (which is Apple’s hand) you get the possibility to design and produce thinner laptops and smartphones, because this is the way consumer prefer them. But is it true?
There won’t be a jack audio on the iPhone 7
The rumor is – but it’s official for someone, like Fast Company – that iPhone 7, to be released on September 2016, won’t even have the 3.5 mm jack audio, the standard port that in every technological device equals the audio output. This is a standard that we are used to for decades, and that users won’t easily drop. The Verge thinks it’s an “arrogant and silly choice”, because users don’t look for less ports, but rather for a more efficient battery autonomy. In this regard, no producer has found a solution yet, but everyone has grown the battery capacity. The most effective solution for users is to buy a power bank.
iPhone 7 concept design without headphone jack. Image credit: Handy Abovergleich
Another bad reason for the Apple’s elimination of jack audio is the fact that wireless and Bluetooth headphones have not a high quality transmission yet, because the signal is often blocked by external sources. And what’s more: Bluetooth sets is another device we have to charge. Another one.
Technology should improve or simplify human life, not get it more complicated.
What’s Apple’s solution for iPhone 7? Providing an adaptor, of course, which can make you use your normal headphones with 3.5 mm audio jack with the Lightning port. And this is all Apple will give us, beyond the thinner design, of course. Will loyal consumer be happy?
The new Macbook and the Type-C USB port
In 2015 the thinnest Macbook in history was released: that’s not casual, since it provides only one in and out port, the Type-C USB port. This port, in fact, is a standard plug for the new generation USB devices and cables (3.1 version), and it can be used as a charging port for every kind of device.
For the technology news site CNET, Apple’s choice to put its last Macbook (released in 2015) with only one port is a clear signal of the direction is taking technology. In fact, devices will use more and more wireless technology, according to Apple. Phil Schiller, senior president of Global Marketing Apple, said: “The only intelligent vision for the future of the notebook is one without wires, where you don’t have to plug up cables to connect to things”.
It is not the first time Apple changes the technology rules:
- In 1998 the iMac eliminated in just one shot both the bus connector for keyboard and mice and the floppy disks
- In 2008 the Macbook Air eliminated CDs, as the Macbook Pro some years later did.
And years from then: are you still using floppy disks? Are you still using CDs? Of course, it took us many years to get used to it, and in the meantime the market responded offering us new ways of music listening and to movie watching. The penetration process, though, is slow, and it takes years.
Future could really be wireless: this sure is the direction. Also, it is sure that it will take a lot of years before we will be able to sustain our technological needs only on wireless technology.
In the meantime, we should take delight about what USB Flash Drives allow us to do (which have a lot of advantages rather than cloud technology). And if we use Tribe USB Flash Drives, combining technology with fun, this wait will be more pleasant!
