Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak isn’t one to tow the party line, so when he disagrees with something happening at Infinite Loop, the world at large is sure to hear about it.
Woz’s latest target is the looming death of the 3.5mm audio out almost assured for the iPhone 7, out next month.
He said Apple risks alienating its fans by dropping the standard headphone connectivity.
See also: iPhone 7 release date 2016: Rumours, specs and features
“If it’s missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that’s going to tick off a lot of people,” he told the Australian Financial Review.
“Mine have custom ear implants, they fit in so comfortably, I can sleep on them and everything. And they only come out with one kind of jack, so I’ll have to go through the adapter,” he added.
The larger than life computing legend said he wouldn’t mind so much if Bluetooth audio streaming actually sounded like music.
He explains: “
“If there’s a Bluetooth 2 that has higher bandwidth and better quality, that sounds like real music, I would use it.”
Of course, there’s been multiple iterations of Bluetooth already, but none have quite mastered the art of proper audio transmission just yet.
Earlier this month Intel made the case for a new USB-C standard that would best the quality offered by the current analogue 3.5mm jack.
However, Apple is not going down that route for its iPhones and it appears there’ll be three options available for iPhone 7 buyers; Bluetooth, a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter or Lightning headphones.
“We’ll see,” Wozniak added. “Apple is good at moving towards the future, and I like to follow that.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.