Since its humble beginnings, Apple has always
worked to reinvent the wheel when it comes to its product range, and most of the time its efforts are well received. However, amid rumors that the rm is planning to ditch the iPhone’s
headphone jack, more than 300,000 people
have rallied together against the move,
claiming that the need for a headphone jack is
still there. Apple is obviously ready to untangle
us from those pesky cables and take us into the
future, but are we ready for the wireless world? Since the release of AirPort back in 1999, which
brought wireless networking to the home, Apple
has been scissor happy when it comes to cutting
away the wires from our favourite products. Back in 2004, the iMac G5 came packaged with the Apple Wireless Mouse and the Apple
Wireless Keyboard, two short-lived accessories
which reduced the clutter of the desktop.
Although the wireless mouse and keyboard
were welcome developments in the home
computing market, many complained about
poor ergonomics and bad battery life. The
mouse and keyboard were later replaced by the magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard respectively,
and the rest is history. Who really uses a wired
mouse or keyboard in 2016!? However, this stepped up a notch with the
introduction of MobileMe and iTunes Over the
Air, which allowed users to sync their iTunes
to their iPhones without the need for a USB
cable. This move was clearly the beginning of something bigger for Apple, who in 2011
announced the launch of iCloud, an over-
the-cloud service which hundreds of millions
of us rely upon daily to store photos, chat with
friends, print from the cloud and manage our
online space. Apple has recently increased its wireless
offerings, with its latest hardware incarnation
coming in the form of the Apple Watch. With
it, the Apple Magnetic Charging Cable was
born, allowing users to charge their wearable
devices without the need of plugging in a
cable. It was the first time the technology rm
has directly offered wireless charging on any
of its devices, despite mass public interest in
such a service. The Apple Watch brings many useful wireless
features with it, too, such as pairing it with
your iPhone to check the battery, answer
phone calls, write text messages and now with
the new watchOS, control your home, call SOS
and use Apple Pay without even touching
your phone. It’s not just the Watch that’s gone wire-free,
though. Earlier this year, Apple announced
Apple Home, a new core app as part of its
iOS 10 operating system. The new app o ers a
way for users to interact with their home – for example they can control their lighting, heating,
security and other features using third-party
hardware and linking it to their iDevice. Upon
release in September, users will be able to
program their smart home accessories to work
automatically and create ‘Scenes’ to change the mood of their home with a simple tap. The
service will even allow users to integrate their
outdoor security camera to work like FaceTime,
allowing them to see who’s at their front door
and decide to let them in or not, without the
need to leave the sofa. With the launch of the new Apple TV in 2015,
there’s more emphasis than ever on wireless
controls. The new Apple TV remote includes a
touch surface but now comes with Siri integration
so you don’t need to lift anger to get to the
show you want to watch. The Siri experience is
also being introduced into Apple CarPlay and the
macOS, too, o offering a deeper level of integration
across devices and making it more convenient
than ever to access the content you want.
WIRELESS HEADPHONES
Since its acquisition of Beats back in 2014 for an eye-watering $3billion, Apple has placed
emphasis on Music, as demonstrated by the
launched of its Apple Music streaming service
back in 2015. Despite facing strong competition
from the likes of Spotify and Google Play, Apple
has managed to convert 13 million users into
paying subscribers, and recently announced
plans to overhaul the service as part of iOS 10. In
September, the service will be given an overhaul
including a newly-designed Apple Music app,
larger artwork displays and lyrics for every song
on the streaming service, giving users a more convenient way to access and enjoy the music
they love. It’s clear that Apple isn’t alone in thinking
wireless is the way forward for music and phone
calls – indeed, several audio manufacturers have
been producing wireless headsets for decades to
much success. Apple’s Beats has been producing
wireless headphones for several years, and the
Beats Solo 2 Wireless range is regarded as one of
the best pairs of wireless headphones in terms
of sound quality. Despite being criticized for a
bass-heavy sound in the past, its later offerings
o er a more balanced sound and is making
stead in the marketplace.Other manufacturers, such as Bose, Jabra,
Sennheiser and Sony have all continued to see a growth in sales of their headphones as
more emphasis is placed on sound quality in
our ever-increasing tech-savvy market. The
industry is not set to slow down, either, with
experts predicting that the earphone and
headphone market will top $17.55 billion by
2022, with wireless headphones playing their
own role in the marketplace.
THE AIRPOD RUMUOR
Since the release of the iPhone 5 back in 2012,
Apple’s Made for iPhone program has allowed
manufacturers to create Lightning Adaptor
headphones for their smartphones. Although
some companies stuck to the audio jack, Audeze and Phillips are amongst those who currently
o er Lightning Adaptor headphones, as well as
Apple’s own Beats range. Therefore, it’s little wonder that with speculation
over the new iPhone 7, which is expected in September, fans and experts alike are
speculating over what Apple could do to
improve their already impressive smartphone
offering. Apple is famously known for killing old technology – the floppy drive, CD drive,
USB-A – and replacing it with their own – like the
Lightning Adaptor, Thunderbolt, so waving o
the 3.5mm audio jack isn’t unfeasible. If Apple does decide to remove the audio jack,
they’ll be able to shave o 1mm from the width
of their flagship smartphone. While this doesn’t
sound much, it’s valuable space which could be
used for extra battery power, a rumored second
back camera or a thinner overall casing. Wireless headphones are a convenient option
for workouts, home entertainment and on-
the-go use, but many fans of the Cupertino
brand have criticized them over their rumored
decision, as it will render any current earphones useless. Of course, if Apple does decide to kill on the jack, they’ll likely o er adaptors and
alternative ways of using headphones, but it’s an
inconvenience many fans just don’t want to face. Despite 300,000 people signing a petition
against the decision, recent blueprint leaks
suggest the rm at de nitely going ahead
with an audio-jack-free iPhone 7 design. In
the world of Apple, however, nothing can be
taken as truth until we hear it directly from Tim
Cook himself at the next product unveiling
event in September. Until then, though, it may be worth making good use out of your
EarPods... you probably won’t need them for
very much longer!
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