Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[englishrider91]

Rose, are you comfortable using in-ear headphones? I have a $20 or so in-ear 
Sony headset with a mic that sounds decent.
Product name:
SONY DR-EX12IP In-Ear Stereo Headphones with Mic and Remote (Black)
Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004QOA93E/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8=1

If you would rather view the page opens in Safari, flick right twice ffom the 
address fiepd, and you'll get to something called view in the Amazon app. 
Double-tap that, and the Amazon app will open with that product up.


Thanks,
Ari

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 3:06 PM, Rose Combs <roseco...@q.com> wrote:
> 
> I lost my corded headset over the weekend.  I thought I had another one on my 
> desk at home, but apparently not. 
> Would like to know what is small, either corded or maybe not, that works well 
> with a microphone to answer or make calls, but mostly for using the phone in 
> private when I am not home.  I can replace the Apple one, of course, but they 
> are not that comfortable and I used them either when at the hospital before 
> my late husband passed or when I was visiting away from home, especially a 
> cousin who like to watch a lot more TV than I do, usually I was reading, 
> sometimes doing Facebook or Twitter.   I can’t even find the Bluetooth 
> earphone I once had. 
>  
>  
> Rose Combs
> roseco...@q.com
> A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the 
> memory!
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> cd
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 8:59 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> I don’t think you are in the minority.  This would be a horrible thing as at 
> least for me I find the regular Bluetooth a nightmare with the latest IOS 
> update especially.  Give me my corded headset any time!  Yes this would truly 
> suck!
>  
> Carla
>  
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Jonathan Mosen
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 7:49 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>  
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
>  
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it ar

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rose Combs]

I can use in-ear and I am getting some from Amazon soon need them small to 
carry in my purse.  Only use them when in public or as a guest some place.  

 

 

Rose Combs

 <mailto:roseco...@q.com> roseco...@q.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the memory!

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
englishride...@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2015 7:43 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Rose, are you comfortable using in-ear headphones? I have a $20 or so in-ear 
Sony headset with a mic that sounds decent.

Product name:

SONY DR-EX12IP In-Ear Stereo Headphones with Mic and Remote (Black)

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004QOA93E/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8 
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004QOA93E/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8=1> =1

 

If you would rather view the page opens in Safari, flick right twice ffom the 
address fiepd, and you'll get to something called view in the Amazon app. 
Double-tap that, and the Amazon app will open with that product up.

 

 

Thanks,

Ari


On Dec 1, 2015, at 3:06 PM, Rose Combs <roseco...@q.com> wrote:

I lost my corded headset over the weekend.  I thought I had another one on my 
desk at home, but apparently not.  

Would like to know what is small, either corded or maybe not, that works well 
with a microphone to answer or make calls, but mostly for using the phone in 
private when I am not home.  I can replace the Apple one, of course, but they 
are not that comfortable and I used them either when at the hospital before my 
late husband passed or when I was visiting away from home, especially a cousin 
who like to watch a lot more TV than I do, usually I was reading, sometimes 
doing Facebook or Twitter.   I can’t even find the Bluetooth earphone I once 
had.  

 

 

Rose Combs

roseco...@q.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the memory!

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of cd
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 8:59 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

I don’t think you are in the minority.  This would be a horrible thing as at 
least for me I find the regular Bluetooth a nightmare with the latest IOS 
update especially.  Give me my corded headset any time!  Yes this would truly 
suck!

 

Carla

 

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 7:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Ap

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Kramlinger, Keith G., M.D.]

I hope everyone who doesn’t like this prospect drop Apple a note.

I usually send it to  accessibil...@apple.com<mailto:accessibil...@apple.com>, 
and ask them to forward it to the people at Apple who need to hear the message.

Keith

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Marie
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 2:59 PM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

I feel strongly enough about this that the IPhone 6 could be my last IPhone. I 
absolutely refuse to use BT headphones because I dislike the sound and the 
hesitation when using anything BT. I have Sony headphones with retractable 
cords and fit over the top of my ears and the sound is terrific. I also have a 
Bose headset for times when I need to be able to answer the phone or control 
music, etc. without taking the phone out of my pocket. I actually prefer 
holding my old IPhone 4 because I like the size and even the thicker shape. I 
find it easier to hold on to without the need of any sort of case.
If Apple wanted to offer the phone with or without the headphone jack that 
would be great for those who prefer it without. But eliminating the jack and 
forcing you to use a stupid adapter would be, in my opinion, very foolish of 
them.
Marie


From: Jonathan Mosen<mailto:jmo...@mosen.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 7:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com<mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.
I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.


I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English su

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Marie]

I feel strongly enough about this that the IPhone 6 could be my last IPhone. I 
absolutely refuse to use BT headphones because I dislike the sound and the 
hesitation when using anything BT. I have Sony headphones with retractable 
cords and fit over the top of my ears and the sound is terrific. I also have a 
Bose headset for times when I need to be able to answer the phone or control 
music, etc. without taking the phone out of my pocket. I actually prefer 
holding my old IPhone 4 because I like the size and even the thicker shape. I 
find it easier to hold on to without the need of any sort of case.
If Apple wanted to offer the phone with or without the headphone jack that 
would be great for those who prefer it without. But eliminating the jack and 
forcing you to use a stupid adapter would be, in my opinion, very foolish of 
them.
Marie


From: Jonathan Mosen 
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 7:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com 
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets. 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.

Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of the 
headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of us 
really, genuinely need it.

The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.

If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Marshall;

You’re not stupid! :) That’s a great question.

My point is really that rather than us waiting for more news on things or 
wishing that something would work for us, that we simply take the first step 
and really go ahead and start a friendly dialogue with anyone we may know 
between us and that which we are working toward.

In regard to Apple, we have an email address and a phone number. Some of us 
have other connections as well. Use these. That’s all.

For Android and other companies, just take the step to find their contact 
details and go ahead and follow that. You will find that there are people who 
will listen.

It does not mean we need to fight or be confrontational. There are many people 
in these tech companies as well as small developers alike who are really 
interested in what we have to say.

Our job I feel very strongly now, is really to come together and lend our 
voices, not as iPhone users or Android users, not as Mac users or Windows 
users, but just as customers who really rely on all of these various 
technologies (and more) to have a good quality of life or very much enhance or 
improve our lives..

So many times, we wish that something was accessible and so many of us just 
stay at that point, (I’ve done it myself) when really what would help would be 
just to add your voice to the mix. Even just one comment, question or tweet can 
really make a difference because it may start a ball rolling somewhere that you 
may not even know about.

We have almost two thousand five hundred people here on this list alone. While 
that’s not many in the grand scheme of the entire world population, it sure is 
a lot when it comes to a company receiving emails or phone calls or tweets.

If you were to receive even a thousand emails in a week, all commenting on or 
asking for the same thing, I guarantee you you would sit up and take notice.

I am on this journey right along with you and everyone else here. So while I 
may not personally have every answer we need, I am absolutely confident beyond 
any doubt that we can do more now to really assure that our voices be heard and 
that we take that extra step to do all we can to make the technology we need 
accessible or to make sure it stays usable and beneficial for us.

As has already been said here, if the touch tone bug had happened to the 
sighted market, there would have been nothing short of outrage. -But you know 
that that kind of bug would never have happened to sighted purchasers of the 
iPhone. So my point is that while yes, we need absolutely, to be thankful for 
what we have and what some amazing folks are willing to go the extra mile to 
make available to us, we also need to simply speak up and guide them. -Or in 
some cases, we need to really bring about the point that these common 
technologies now are a real need for us.

This sort of thing is our responsibility. What I am saying is to use the tools 
that we have in order to connect with the developers or companies that we can 
connect with and don’t give up. Continue to intelligently let them know that 
you need equal access and how important it is for all of us. Understand that 
access is not just being able to use a device but it is also being abel to use 
that device as easily and comfortably as compared to our sighted counterparts 
in as much as that is possible with current technologies and capabilities. This 
means making the experience of using that product helpful and enjoyable for us, 
not an arduous and frustrating process. We can take the definition of 
accessibility and move it forward and help others to understand that.

As I said, there are people who are interested and who will listen. If you 
don’t find them on the first try, then just do it again. You *will* find them 
and they *will * listen.

There are also organizations that we already have that have been helping us all 
throughout this process. Maybe you don’t agree with one or the other of them, 
but just make the step to check in with one of them. That’s a start. See what 
they think of the situation and if they may already have a plan to address it.

If you want better Android accessibility for example, perhaps someone at a 
local chapter of ACB or NFB or perhaps your local rehab organization has 
someone who has also given this some thought. By doing this, you have just 
created an alliance where there was none previously. This way more ideas happen 
and those ideas find motion. Does this make sense?


These are just a few ideas I have. What are yours? How do you think we might 
help ourselves to assure that accessibility can continue to thrive and improve 
and grow as it needs to now?…

Thanks so much for reading and for your question.

Have a great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Dec 1, 2015, at 12:50 PM, Marshall Scott 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rajmund]

Hello Cara,

Do we use accessibil...@apple.com or some kind of other address for this? Its 
not a direct accessibility feature, after all.

- Original Message -
From: Cara Quinn  <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 8:53 pm
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

>
>
> Hi Marshall;
> 
> You're not stupid! :) That's a great question.
> 
> My point is really that rather than us waiting for more news on things or 
> wishing that something would work for us, that we simply take the first step 
> and really go ahead and start a friendly dialogue with anyone we may know 
> between us and that which we are working toward.
> 
> In regard to Apple, we have an email address and a phone number. Some of us 
> have other connections as well. Use these. That's all.
> 
> For Android and other companies, just take the step to find their contact 
> details and go ahead and follow that. You will find that there are people who 
> will listen.
> 
> It does not mean we need to fight or be confrontational. There are many 
> people in these tech companies as well as small developers alike who are 
> really interested in what we have to say.
> 
> Our job I feel very strongly now, is really to come together and lend our 
> voices, not as iPhone users or Android users, not as Mac users or Windows 
> users, but just as customers who really rely on all of these various 
> technologies (and more) to have a good quality of life or very much enhance 
> or improve our lives..
> 
> So many times, we wish that something was accessible and so many of us just 
> stay at that point, (I've done it myself) when really what would help would 
> be just to add your voice to the mix. Even just one comment, question or 
> tweet can really make a difference because it may start a ball rolling 
> somewhere that you may not even know about.
> 
> We have almost two thousand five hundred people here on this list alone. 
> While that's not many in the grand scheme of the entire world population, it 
> sure is a lot when it comes to a company receiving emails or phone calls or 
> tweets.
> 
> If you were to receive even a thousand emails in a week, all commenting on or 
> asking for the same thing, I guarantee you you would sit up and take notice.
> 
> I am on this journey right along with you and everyone else here. So while I 
> may not personally have every answer we need, I am absolutely confident 
> beyond any doubt that we can do more now to really assure that our voices be 
> heard and that we take that extra step to do all we can to make the 
> technology we need accessible or to make sure it stays usable and beneficial 
> for us.
> 
> As has already been said here, if the touch tone bug had happened to the 
> sighted market, there would have been nothing short of outrage. -But you know 
> that that kind of bug would never have happened to sighted purchasers of the 
> iPhone. So my point is that while yes, we need absolutely, to be thankful for 
> what we have and what some amazing folks are willing to go the extra mile to 
> make available to us, we also need to simply speak up and guide them. -Or in 
> some cases, we need to really bring about the point that these common 
> technologies now are a real need for us.
> 
> This sort of thing is our responsibility. What I am saying is to use the 
> tools that we have in order to connect with the developers or companies that 
> we can connect with and don't give up. Continue to intelligently let them 
> know that you need equal access and how important it is for all of us. 
> Understand that access is not just being able to use a device but it is also 
> being abel to use that device as easily and comfortably as compared to our 
> sighted counterparts in as much as that is possible with current technologies 
> and capabilities. This means making the experience of using that product 
> helpful and enjoyable for us, not an arduous and frustrating process. We can 
> take the definition of accessibility and move it forward and help others to 
> understand that.
> 
> As I said, there are people who are interested and who will listen. If you 
> don't find them on the first try, then just do it again. You *will* find them 
> and they *will * listen.
> 
> There are also organizations that we already have that have been helping us 
> all throughout this process. Maybe you don't agree with one or the other of 
> them, but just make the step to check in with one of them. That's a start. 
> See what they think of the situation and if they may already have a plan to 
> address it.
> 
> If you want better Android accessibility for example, perhaps someone at a 
> local chapter of ACB or NFB 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rajmund]

Hello Cara,
Yes, I would like to thank him for the link, I think that is the way forward. 
That's why I was wondering, since I am not sure whether the things would really 
reach, from accessibility's desk. Thanks a lot, once again.

- Original Message -
From: Cara Quinn  <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 11:05 pm
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

>
>
> Hi Rajmund,
> 
> I would say to use the method that is most convenient for you, knowing that 
> you may be offered another means of communication so that your concern 
> reaches the right person.
> 
> Jonathan has been kind enough to post a link, so unless that is somehow 
> prohibitive for you, then that would really be the way to go.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Dec 1, 2015, at 2:15 PM, Rajmund <brajmund2...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Cara,
> 
> Do we use accessibil...@apple.com or some kind of other address for this? Its 
> not a direct accessibility feature, after all.
> 
> - Original Message -
> From: Cara Quinn  <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 8:53 pm
> Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
> 
> > 
> > 
> > Hi Marshall;
> > 
> > You're not stupid! :) That's a great question.
> > 
> > My point is really that rather than us waiting for more news on things or 
> > wishing that something would work for us, that we simply take the first 
> > step and really go ahead and start a friendly dialogue with anyone we may 
> > know between us and that which we are working toward.
> > 
> > In regard to Apple, we have an email address and a phone number. Some of us 
> > have other connections as well. Use these. That's all.
> > 
> > For Android and other companies, just take the step to find their contact 
> > details and go ahead and follow that. You will find that there are people 
> > who will listen.
> > 
> > It does not mean we need to fight or be confrontational. There are many 
> > people in these tech companies as well as small developers alike who are 
> > really interested in what we have to say.
> > 
> > Our job I feel very strongly now, is really to come together and lend our 
> > voices, not as iPhone users or Android users, not as Mac users or Windows 
> > users, but just as customers who really rely on all of these various 
> > technologies (and more) to have a good quality of life or very much enhance 
> > or improve our lives..
> > 
> > So many times, we wish that something was accessible and so many of us just 
> > stay at that point, (I've done it myself) when really what would help would 
> > be just to add your voice to the mix. Even just one comment, question or 
> > tweet can really make a difference because it may start a ball rolling 
> > somewhere that you may not even know about.
> > 
> > We have almost two thousand five hundred people here on this list alone. 
> > While that's not many in the grand scheme of the entire world population, 
> > it sure is a lot when it comes to a company receiving emails or phone calls 
> > or tweets.
> > 
> > If you were to receive even a thousand emails in a week, all commenting on 
> > or asking for the same thing, I guarantee you you would sit up and take 
> > notice.
> > 
> > I am on this journey right along with you and everyone else here. So while 
> > I may not personally have every answer we need, I am absolutely confident 
> > beyond any doubt that we can do more now to really assure that our voices 
> > be heard and that we take that extra step to do all we can to make the 
> > technology we need accessible or to make sure it stays usable and 
> > beneficial for us.
> > 
> > As has already been said here, if the touch tone bug had happened to the 
> > sighted market, there would have been nothing short of outrage. -But you 
> > know that that kind of bug would never have happened to sighted purchasers 
> > of the iPhone. So my point is that while yes, we need absolutely, to be 
> > thankful for what we have and what some amazing folks are willing to go the 
> > extra mile to make available to us, we also need to simply speak up and 
> > guide them. -Or in some cases, we need to really bring about the point that 
> > these common technologies now are a real need f

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Arnold Schmidt]

When I have heard about this in the past, they were, (are?), planning to use 
the lightning connector, some way or other, to connect the headphones. Hey, 
this way, they will be able to sell their own headphones, or, hopefully, 
adapters to make everybody else's headphones usable with the iPhone.  

Arnold Schmidt  
  - Original Message - 
  From: Jonathan Mosen 
  To: viphone@googlegroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:49 AM
  Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away


  Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.


  There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so 
Apple can make the phone thinner.

  I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.


  I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

  When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s 
Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

  After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

  Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

  Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

  There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

  So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

  There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.

  Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

  You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.

  Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of 
us really, genuinely need it.

  The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.

  If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
have been available since 2014.

  According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to 
analogue converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There 
is no word in the story that this Lightning port would be in addition to the 
one already on iPhones, implying that you’ll have one port for both charging 
your device and listening to wired 

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rose Combs]

How can we express ourselves regarding the subject of the earphone jack?  
Forgive me, I have been away for many days and am way behind, so reading fast 
to get caught up.  Came home to over 800 e-mails, much more in Twitter may 
never catch up there.  Had it on my phone but lost earphones and did not want 
to disturb my hose with a jot of jabber from my phone.  

 

 

Rose Combs

 <mailto:roseco...@q.com> roseco...@q.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the memory!

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 9:11 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
feeling increasingly trapped.

There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone that 
it's tricky to find an alternative for.

Jonathan Mosen

Mosen Consulting

Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training

http://Mosen.org

 

On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten <motte...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Hi Jonathan,
I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not know 
what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not hearing 
impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this possibility. We 
don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice one 
stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little 
connector to use my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it 
even though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just looks like 
a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of people who are willing 
to keep paying top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they did this, 
and android weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for blind  
screen reader users, I would really consider switching to android. But, web 
browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so bad on that 
platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your device 
efficiently. My opinion only of course.
Mary

Mary


Sent from my iPhone


On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen <jmo...@mosen.org> wrote:

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willin

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Rajmund,

I would say to use the method that is most convenient for you, knowing that you 
may be offered another means of communication so that your concern reaches the 
right person.

Jonathan has been kind enough to post a link, so unless that is somehow 
prohibitive for you, then that would really be the way to go.

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Dec 1, 2015, at 2:15 PM, Rajmund <brajmund2...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Cara,

Do we use accessibil...@apple.com or some kind of other address for this? Its 
not a direct accessibility feature, after all.

- Original Message -
From: Cara Quinn  <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 8:53 pm
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

> 
> 
> Hi Marshall;
> 
> You're not stupid! :) That's a great question.
> 
> My point is really that rather than us waiting for more news on things or 
> wishing that something would work for us, that we simply take the first step 
> and really go ahead and start a friendly dialogue with anyone we may know 
> between us and that which we are working toward.
> 
> In regard to Apple, we have an email address and a phone number. Some of us 
> have other connections as well. Use these. That's all.
> 
> For Android and other companies, just take the step to find their contact 
> details and go ahead and follow that. You will find that there are people who 
> will listen.
> 
> It does not mean we need to fight or be confrontational. There are many 
> people in these tech companies as well as small developers alike who are 
> really interested in what we have to say.
> 
> Our job I feel very strongly now, is really to come together and lend our 
> voices, not as iPhone users or Android users, not as Mac users or Windows 
> users, but just as customers who really rely on all of these various 
> technologies (and more) to have a good quality of life or very much enhance 
> or improve our lives..
> 
> So many times, we wish that something was accessible and so many of us just 
> stay at that point, (I've done it myself) when really what would help would 
> be just to add your voice to the mix. Even just one comment, question or 
> tweet can really make a difference because it may start a ball rolling 
> somewhere that you may not even know about.
> 
> We have almost two thousand five hundred people here on this list alone. 
> While that's not many in the grand scheme of the entire world population, it 
> sure is a lot when it comes to a company receiving emails or phone calls or 
> tweets.
> 
> If you were to receive even a thousand emails in a week, all commenting on or 
> asking for the same thing, I guarantee you you would sit up and take notice.
> 
> I am on this journey right along with you and everyone else here. So while I 
> may not personally have every answer we need, I am absolutely confident 
> beyond any doubt that we can do more now to really assure that our voices be 
> heard and that we take that extra step to do all we can to make the 
> technology we need accessible or to make sure it stays usable and beneficial 
> for us.
> 
> As has already been said here, if the touch tone bug had happened to the 
> sighted market, there would have been nothing short of outrage. -But you know 
> that that kind of bug would never have happened to sighted purchasers of the 
> iPhone. So my point is that while yes, we need absolutely, to be thankful for 
> what we have and what some amazing folks are willing to go the extra mile to 
> make available to us, we also need to simply speak up and guide them. -Or in 
> some cases, we need to really bring about the point that these common 
> technologies now are a real need for us.
> 
> This sort of thing is our responsibility. What I am saying is to use the 
> tools that we have in order to connect with the developers or companies that 
> we can connect with and don't give up. Continue to intelligently let them 
> know that you need equal access and how important it is for all of us. 
> Understand that access is not just being able to use a device but it is also 
> being abel to use that device as easily and comfortably as compared to our 
> sighted counterparts in as much as that is possible with current technologies 
> and capabilities. This means making the experience of using that product 
> helpful and enjoyable for us, not an arduous and frustrating process. We can 
> take the definition of accessibility and move it forward and help others to 
> understand that.
> 
> As I said, there are people who are interested and who wi

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rose Combs]

I do not want the jack removed either, I don’t use it often when alone but do 
when out in public or visiting someone.  

Prefer something that is not a battery hog.  

 

 

Rose Combs

 <mailto:roseco...@q.com> roseco...@q.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the memory!

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Feliciano Godoy
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 9:00 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

I didn't like the idea of the 3.5 mm headphone jack  removal in the future 
iPhones if it were to be true. I was thinking, they may have some sort of 
lightning connector for the headphones, which means that Apple would probably 
sell  a 3.5 mm to lightning connector adapter. Sounds like something they would 
do just to Paten   such adapter.



Regards,

Feliciano

For tech tips and updates, 

LIKE ..facebook.com/theblindman12v

Follow www.twitter.com/theblindman12v


On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen <jmo...@mosen.org> wrote:

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English summary of the story at  
<http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/27/iphone-7-no-3-5mm-headphone-jack-lightning/>
 Mac Rumours.

Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of the 
headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of us 
really, genuinely need it.

The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Rose Combs]

I lost my corded headset over the weekend.  I thought I had another one on my 
desk at home, but apparently not.  

Would like to know what is small, either corded or maybe not, that works well 
with a microphone to answer or make calls, but mostly for using the phone in 
private when I am not home.  I can replace the Apple one, of course, but they 
are not that comfortable and I used them either when at the hospital before my 
late husband passed or when I was visiting away from home, especially a cousin 
who like to watch a lot more TV than I do, usually I was reading, sometimes 
doing Facebook or Twitter.   I can’t even find the Bluetooth earphone I once 
had.  

 

 

Rose Combs

 <mailto:roseco...@q.com> roseco...@q.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it takes up three times the memory!

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of cd
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 8:59 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

I don’t think you are in the minority.  This would be a horrible thing as at 
least for me I find the regular Bluetooth a nightmare with the latest IOS 
update especially.  Give me my corded headset any time!  Yes this would truly 
suck!

 

Carla

 

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 7:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English s

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Gerardo Corripio]

 Yes me too! Don't take away the headphone jack! Here in Mexico, where 
Apple-specific adapters and the like are expensive, and sometimes hard 
to come by since there's no Apple Store as of yet, there's nothing 
better to grab any earphones and away connect them to my phone!


El 01/12/2015 10:59 a.m., 'Carol Pearson' via VIPhone escribió:

Hi Jonathan,

I agree totally with what you're saying and will certainly be watching 
this space with interest. If anyone hears anything else which they 
consider to be credible, One way or the other, I am sure we will all 
want to know. Obviously, if they are going to take it away then we 
want the opportunity to shout loud and long! :) Carol P

Sent from my iPhone using MBraille

On 1 Dec 2015, at 4:10 p.m., Jonathan Mosen > wrote:


Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess 
to feeling increasingly trapped.
There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the 
phone that it's tricky to find an alternative for.

Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org 

On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten > wrote:


Hi Jonathan,
I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not 
been trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so 
I do not know what the public reaction to that story has been. But, 
while I am not hearing impaired, I absolutely join you in your 
condemnation of this possibility. We don't need thinner iPhones. We 
just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice one stinking millimeter? 
For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little connector to use 
my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it even 
though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just 
looks like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of 
people who are willing to keep paying top dollar for increasingly 
shoddy products. If they did this, and android weren't such a mess in 
some fairly fundamental ways for blind  screen reader users, I would 
really consider switching to android. But, web browsing and 
continuous reading and some other things are still so bad on that 
platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your 
device efficiently. My opinion only of course.

Mary

Mary


Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen > wrote:


Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be 
raised by someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm 
not sure whether Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what 
reaction this idea gets.


There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past 
been credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a 
headphone jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 
72 hours ago. Here goes.


I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion 
that determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the 
performance I need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.


When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m 
on the 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The 
battery life and the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it 
the right choice for me.


After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 
15-inch MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB 
of RAM and 1TB solid state storage.


Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my 
backpack just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to 
take places, and the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having 
OS X for a few apps and functions, but Windows is still my primary 
operating system. With a laptop this fast and powerful, I can run 
JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still tend to 
iMessages and FaceTime calls.


Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I 
done? This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon 
reminds me that I made the right decision for my particular needs.


There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If 
you want to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina 
MacBook, which is just adorably thin and light, with compromises to 
match. It sports a single USB type C port, which is the only way 
both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. And the keyboard 
is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.


So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the 
needs of the road warrior 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Jonathan Mosen]

Hi Paula, it wouldn't hurt to let Apple know that you appreciate the headphone 
jack.
YOu'd want to use some sort of general feedback mechanism, since this is a high 
level hardware decision and not accessibility-specific.
Hopefully, they won't take it away. As I said in the article, even the best 
sources get it wrong sometimes. But it's such a horrible prospect that perhaps 
it is good for us to let Apple know that we value the jack.
Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org

> On 2/12/2015, at 5:45 AM, Paul and Paula Jordan  wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan and all.  I completely agree about not losing the earphone input 
> jack.  Is it time to contact Apple and let our voices be heard, or is that 
> premature.  If so, who is the best person or department to contact.  While I 
> could use blue tooth devices, I prefer to use wired headphones and want the 
> freedom to continue to use them.
> Thanks.
> God bless!
> Paula and Boston
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com  
> [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com ] On Behalf 
> Of Jonathan Mosen
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:49 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com 
> Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>  
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
>  
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours 
> 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[rajmund]

Hello,
Is the roomer about the home button also true? Apparently it will be no more?

Sent from an iPad. Please excuse any spelling errors. 

> On 1 Dec 2015, at 3:49 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
> 
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
> 
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> 
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
> 
> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some 
> of us really, genuinely need it.
> 
> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
> because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
> the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.
> 
> If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
> Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
> have been available since 2014.
> 
> According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to 
> analogue converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There 
> is no word in the story that this Lightning port would be in addition to the 
> one already on iPhones, implying that you’ll have one port for both charging 
> your device and listening to wired headphones or connecting the device to a 
> mixer.
> 
> My first objection to this rumour is a philosophical one. 3.5mm headphone 
> jacks are ubiquitous. The standard is 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Jonathan Mosen]

I guess since these things are rumours, we don't know if any of them are true, 
which is what makes them rumours :).
But I have heard the one about the disappearing Home button for a few years 
now. It wouldn't surprise me if it happens at some point, although I'd have 
thought the arrival of Touch ID may make it less likely.
Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org

> On 2/12/2015, at 5:56 AM, rajmund  wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> Is the roomer about the home button also true? Apparently it will be no more?
> 
> Sent from an iPad. Please excuse any spelling errors. 
> 
> On 1 Dec 2015, at 3:49 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  > wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>> 
>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
>> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>> ago. Here goes.
>> 
>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>> 
>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
>> 
>> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
>> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
>> solid state storage.
>> 
>> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
>> therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack 
>> just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and 
>> the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and 
>> functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop 
>> this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb 
>> results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
>> 
>> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
>> This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I 
>> made the right decision for my particular needs.
>> 
>> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
>> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
>> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
>> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
>> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
>> 
>> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
>> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
>> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty 
>> of grunt and is willing to lug it around.
>> 
>> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
>> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen 
>> sizes. So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm 
>> headphone jack in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
>> 
>> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
>> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
>> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend 
>> to be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site 
>> Mac Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like 
>> this gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple 
>> wants to monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But 
>> there’s no doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, 
>> or probably have already been taken.
>> 
>> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours 
>> .
>> 
>> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
>> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some 
>> of us really, genuinely need it.
>> 
>> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
>> because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they 
>> removed the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the 
>> phone.
>> 
>> If this 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[rajmund]

Hello,
OK, ∫thanks. :) We shall look out, and see

Sent from an iPad. Please excuse any spelling errors. 

> On 1 Dec 2015, at 5:00 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> I guess since these things are rumours, we don't know if any of them are 
> true, which is what makes them rumours :).
> But I have heard the one about the disappearing Home button for a few years 
> now. It wouldn't surprise me if it happens at some point, although I'd have 
> thought the arrival of Touch ID may make it less likely.
> Jonathan Mosen
> Mosen Consulting
> Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
> http://Mosen.org
> 
>> On 2/12/2015, at 5:56 AM, rajmund  wrote:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> Is the roomer about the home button also true? Apparently it will be no more?
>> 
>> Sent from an iPad. Please excuse any spelling errors. 
>> 
>>> On 1 Dec 2015, at 3:49 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>>> 
>>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone 
>>> jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>>> ago. Here goes.
>>> 
>>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>>> 
>>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
>>> 
>>> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
>>> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
>>> solid state storage.
>>> 
>>> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
>>> therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my 
>>> backpack just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take 
>>> places, and the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a 
>>> few apps and functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. 
>>> With a laptop this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine 
>>> with superb results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
>>> 
>>> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
>>> This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I 
>>> made the right decision for my particular needs.
>>> 
>>> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you 
>>> want to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is 
>>> just adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single 
>>> USB type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it 
>>> and charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
>>> 
>>> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
>>> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
>>> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty 
>>> of grunt and is willing to lug it around.
>>> 
>>> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
>>> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen 
>>> sizes. So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm 
>>> headphone jack in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
>>> 
>>> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no 
>>> official statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a 
>>> rumour. But I read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which 
>>> sources tend to be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese 
>>> technology site Mac Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that 
>>> reports things like this gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also 
>>> possible that Apple wants to monitor customer reaction to the idea, by 
>>> letting it leak. But there’s no doubt that decisions as fundamental as this 
>>> are being taken now, or probably have already been taken.
>>> 
>>> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
>>> 
>>> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
>>> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. 
>>> Some of us really, genuinely need it.
>>> 
>>> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
>>> 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[rajmund]

Hello,
Would be much nicer than having 2 speakers on the same side, actually. I 
thought it was mono, at first.

Sent from an iPad. Please excuse any spelling errors. 

> On 1 Dec 2015, at 4:49 p.m., Robert Doc wright <yeshua.talmi...@gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> I wish that Apple would place speakers on both sides of the device.
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Paul and Paula Jordan
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 9:45 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> Hi Jonathan and all.  I completely agree about not losing the earphone input 
> jack.  Is it time to contact Apple and let our voices be heard, or is that 
> premature.  If so, who is the best person or department to contact.  While I 
> could use blue tooth devices, I prefer to use wired headphones and want the 
> freedom to continue to use them.
> Thanks.
> God bless!
> Paula and Boston
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Jonathan Mosen
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:49 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>  
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
>  
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, o

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Donna]

Oh no! I sure hope that this is just a false rumor! I use the earphone jack on 
my iPhone daily. Guess it is a good thing that I have the iPhone 6, so 
upgrading my phone won't be for at least another almost 2 years. Maybe by this 
time, if this is true, Apple will have realized their mistake. 

DonnaHi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
> 
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
> 
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> 
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
> 
> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some 
> of us really, genuinely need it.
> 
> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
> because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
> the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.
> 
> If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
> Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
> have been available since 2014.
> 
> According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to 
> analogue converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There 
> is no word in the story that this Lightning port would be in addition to the 
> one already on iPhones, implying that you’ll have one port for both charging 
> your device and listening to wired headphones or connecting the device to a 
> mixer.
> 
> My first objection to this rumour 

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Paul and Paula Jordan]

Hi Jonathan and all.  I completely agree about not losing the earphone input 
jack.  Is it time to contact Apple and let our voices be heard, or is that 
premature.  If so, who is the best person or department to contact.  While I 
could use blue tooth devices, I prefer to use wired headphones and want the 
freedom to continue to use them.

Thanks.

God bless!

Paula and Boston

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English summary of the story at  

 Mac Rumours.

Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of the 
headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of us 
really, genuinely need it.

The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.

If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
have been available since 2014.

According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to analogue 
converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There is no word 
in the story that this 

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Robert Doc wright]

I wish that Apple would place speakers on both sides of the device.

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Paul and Paula Jordan
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 9:45 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi Jonathan and all.  I completely agree about not losing the earphone input 
jack.  Is it time to contact Apple and let our voices be heard, or is that 
premature.  If so, who is the best person or department to contact.  While I 
could use blue tooth devices, I prefer to use wired headphones and want the 
freedom to continue to use them.

Thanks.

God bless!

Paula and Boston

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English summary of the story at  
<http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/27/iphone-7-no-3-5mm-headphone-jack-lightning/>
 Mac Rumours.

Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of the 
headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of us 
really, genuinely need it.

The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.

If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include E

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

['Carol Pearson' via VIPhone]

Hi Jonathan,

I agree totally with what you're saying and will certainly be watching this 
space with interest. If anyone hears anything else which they consider to be 
credible, One way or the other, I am sure we will all want to know. Obviously, 
if they are going to take it away then we want the opportunity to shout loud 
and long! :) Carol P
Sent from my iPhone using MBraille

On 1 Dec 2015, at 4:10 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  wrote:

Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
feeling increasingly trapped.
There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone that 
it's tricky to find an alternative for.
Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org

> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan,
> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not know 
> what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not hearing 
> impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this possibility. We 
> don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice 
> one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little 
> connector to use my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it 
> even though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
> which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just looks 
> like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of people who are 
> willing to keep paying top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they 
> did this, and android weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for 
> blind  screen reader users, I would really consider switching to android. 
> But, web browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so 
> bad on that platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your 
> device efficiently. My opinion only of course.
> Mary
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>> 
>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
>> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>> ago. Here goes.
>> 
>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>> 
>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
>> 
>> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
>> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
>> solid state storage.
>> 
>> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
>> therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack 
>> just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and 
>> the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and 
>> functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop 
>> this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb 
>> results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
>> 
>> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
>> This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I 
>> made the right decision for my particular needs.
>> 
>> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
>> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
>> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
>> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
>> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
>> 
>> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
>> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
>> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty 
>> of grunt and is willing to lug it around.
>> 
>> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
>> usually now two 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Margaret Booth]

I hope is just a roomor and apple doesn't get rid of the head phone jack. I use 
my head phones all of the time. 

Margaret 


Sent from my iPhone

> On 2 Dec 2015, at 11:52 AM, Gerardo Corripio  wrote:
> 
> Yes me too! Don't take away the headphone jack! Here in Mexico, where 
> Apple-specific adapters and the like are expensive, and sometimes hard to 
> come by since there's no Apple Store as of yet, there's nothing better to 
> grab any earphones and away connect them to my phone!
> 
> El 01/12/2015 10:59 a.m., 'Carol Pearson' via VIPhone escribió:
>> 
>> Hi Jonathan,
>> 
>> I agree totally with what you're saying and will certainly be watching this 
>> space with interest. If anyone hears anything else which they consider to be 
>> credible, One way or the other, I am sure we will all want to know. 
>> Obviously, if they are going to take it away then we want the opportunity to 
>> shout loud and long! :) Carol P
>> Sent from my iPhone using MBraille
>> 
>> On 1 Dec 2015, at 4:10 p.m., Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
>> feeling increasingly trapped.
>> There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone 
>> that it's tricky to find an alternative for.
>> Jonathan Mosen
>> Mosen Consulting
>> Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
>> http://Mosen.org
>> 
>>> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Jonathan,
>>> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
>>> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not 
>>> know what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not 
>>> hearing impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this 
>>> possibility. We don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is 
>>> going to notice one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy 
>>> some stupid little connector to use my   headphones 
>>> with? And they will probably charge $30 for it even though the parts cost 
>>> them five. And then when I lose said connector, which is almost inevitable, 
>>> I will get to buy another one. This just looks like a cheap crappy trick 
>>> for Apple to make more money off of people who are willing to keep paying 
>>> top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they did this, and android 
>>> weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for blind  screen 
>>> reader users, I would really consider switching to android. But, web 
>>> browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so bad on 
>>> that platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your 
>>> device efficiently. My opinion only of course.
>>> Mary
>>> 
>>> Mary
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>>> 
 Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
 someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
 Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
 
 There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
 credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone 
 jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
 I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 
 hours ago. Here goes.
 
 I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
 determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
 need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
 
 When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
 absolutely   enormous, and I thought I’d never 
 get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and would never go back to a 
 smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen for Braille screen 
 input make it the right choice for me.
 
 After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 
 15-inch MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM 
 and 1TB solid state storage.
 
 Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
 therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my 
 backpack just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take 
 places, and the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a 
 few apps and functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. 
 With a laptop this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine 
 with superb results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
 
 Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
 This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Devin Prater]

Oh yes. Even though I'd be fine with using the lightning headphones, what will 
happen when they break? I'm not going to use bluetooth headphones, too much 
latency. The software and new, enovative features like that screen that can 
form braille or shapes feelable by the fingers, that's what Apple needs to work 
on.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 10:10 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
> feeling increasingly trapped.
> There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone 
> that it's tricky to find an alternative for.
> Jonathan Mosen
> Mosen Consulting
> Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
> http://Mosen.org
> 
>> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Jonathan,
>> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
>> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not 
>> know what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not 
>> hearing impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this 
>> possibility. We don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is 
>> going to notice one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy 
>> some stupid little connector to use my headphones with? And they will 
>> probably charge $30 for it even though the parts cost them five. And then 
>> when I lose said connector, which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy 
>> another one. This just looks like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make 
>> more money off of people who are willing to keep paying top dollar for 
>> increasingly shoddy products. If they did this, and android weren't such a 
>> mess in some fairly fundamental ways for blind  screen reader users, I would 
>> really consider switching to android. But, web browsing and continuous 
>> reading and some other things are still so bad on that platform that such a 
>> switch is untenable if you want to use your device efficiently. My opinion 
>> only of course.
>> Mary
>> 
>> Mary
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>>> 
>>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone 
>>> jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>>> ago. Here goes.
>>> 
>>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>>> 
>>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
>>> 
>>> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
>>> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
>>> solid state storage.
>>> 
>>> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
>>> therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my 
>>> backpack just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take 
>>> places, and the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a 
>>> few apps and functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. 
>>> With a laptop this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine 
>>> with superb results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
>>> 
>>> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
>>> This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I 
>>> made the right decision for my particular needs.
>>> 
>>> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you 
>>> want to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is 
>>> just adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single 
>>> USB type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it 
>>> and charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
>>> 
>>> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
>>> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
>>> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty 
>>> of grunt and is willing to lug it around.
>>> 
>>> There is not so much flexibility in 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Marie]

My opinion is winging it’s way to Apple.
Marie


From: Kramlinger, Keith G., M.D. 
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 1:13 PM
To: mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com 
Subject: RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

I hope everyone who doesn’t like this prospect drop Apple a note.

 

I usually send it to  accessibil...@apple.com, and ask them to forward it to 
the people at Apple who need to hear the message.

 

Keith

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Marie
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 2:59 PM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

I feel strongly enough about this that the IPhone 6 could be my last IPhone. I 
absolutely refuse to use BT headphones because I dislike the sound and the 
hesitation when using anything BT. I have Sony headphones with retractable 
cords and fit over the top of my ears and the sound is terrific. I also have a 
Bose headset for times when I need to be able to answer the phone or control 
music, etc. without taking the phone out of my pocket. I actually prefer 
holding my old IPhone 4 because I like the size and even the thicker shape. I 
find it easier to hold on to without the need of any sort of case.

If Apple wanted to offer the phone with or without the headphone jack that 
would be great for those who prefer it without. But eliminating the jack and 
forcing you to use a stupid adapter would be, in my opinion, very foolish of 
them.

Marie

 

 

From: Jonathan Mosen 

Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 7:49 AM

To: viphone@googlegroups.com 

Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets. 

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Jonathan and all;

I absolutely agree here. I myself have been considering the possibility of 
other phone options in light of what I consider to be a real concern of 
degrading quality and user experience. Yes, I have felt trapped as well so to 
speak.

This is part of the reason I feel that as a community, now more than ever, we 
really need to be seeing ourselves not as iPhone users vs Android users, or 
Apple vs Windows users, but simply as blind or visually impaired people who 
need accessible technology in their lives.

I feel that we all need to really push for a good access experience in all of 
the technologies we need to rely on on a daily basis. I feel this is vitally 
important for us. We need to have choices at this point and companies need to 
know that we need this. This is not a want. This is not a nice-to-have at this 
point, this is a need.

Technology is now not only ubiquitous but is a crucial part of daily life for 
everyone and we absolutely need to stay in the forefront of all of it.

We have been fortunate to have this experience with Apple products and this has 
made so many people’s lives infinitely better. I not only wish to see this 
continue to go forward with Apple but also with Android and other technologies 
as well. Please know how important it is to support companies that are 
providing us with accessible offerings and that they need to know how much you 
need these but also how they can improve these experiences for all of us.

Remember, technology is a need for us now, the days of it being a nice-to-have 
are gone. The landscape has changed. Because of the place that technology now 
occupies in the world and in people’s lives, it is now basically a right. 
Developers and companies need to really understand this in a positive way. We 
can help them to do this.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to you all for such a great thread.

Have a great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Dec 1, 2015, at 9:10 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:

Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
feeling increasingly trapped.
There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone that 
it's tricky to find an alternative for.
Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org

> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan,
> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not know 
> what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not hearing 
> impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this possibility. We 
> don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice 
> one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little 
> connector to use my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it 
> even though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
> which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just looks 
> like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of people who are 
> willing to keep paying top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they 
> did this, and android weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for 
> blind  screen reader users, I would really consider switching to android. 
> But, web browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so 
> bad on that platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your 
> device efficiently. My opinion only of course.
> Mary
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>> 
>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
>> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>> ago. Here goes.
>> 
>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>> 
>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Marshall Scott]

I may be particularly stupid this morning, but how do you suggest that we do 
so.  Do organizations like ACB and NFB do anything to make these kind of 
suggestions?
Thanks,
Marshall

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 12:27 PM, Cara Quinn  wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan and all;
> 
> I absolutely agree here. I myself have been considering the possibility of 
> other phone options in light of what I consider to be a real concern of 
> degrading quality and user experience. Yes, I have felt trapped as well so to 
> speak.
> 
> This is part of the reason I feel that as a community, now more than ever, we 
> really need to be seeing ourselves not as iPhone users vs Android users, or 
> Apple vs Windows users, but simply as blind or visually impaired people who 
> need accessible technology in their lives.
> 
> I feel that we all need to really push for a good access experience in all of 
> the technologies we need to rely on on a daily basis. I feel this is vitally 
> important for us. We need to have choices at this point and companies need to 
> know that we need this. This is not a want. This is not a nice-to-have at 
> this point, this is a need.
> 
> Technology is now not only ubiquitous but is a crucial part of daily life for 
> everyone and we absolutely need to stay in the forefront of all of it.
> 
> We have been fortunate to have this experience with Apple products and this 
> has made so many people’s lives infinitely better. I not only wish to see 
> this continue to go forward with Apple but also with Android and other 
> technologies as well. Please know how important it is to support companies 
> that are providing us with accessible offerings and that they need to know 
> how much you need these but also how they can improve these experiences for 
> all of us.
> 
> Remember, technology is a need for us now, the days of it being a 
> nice-to-have are gone. The landscape has changed. Because of the place that 
> technology now occupies in the world and in people’s lives, it is now 
> basically a right. Developers and companies need to really understand this in 
> a positive way. We can help them to do this.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and thanks to you all for such a great thread.
> 
> Have a great day!
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Dec 1, 2015, at 9:10 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
> feeling increasingly trapped.
> There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone 
> that it's tricky to find an alternative for.
> Jonathan Mosen
> Mosen Consulting
> Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
> http://Mosen.org
> 
>> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Jonathan,
>> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
>> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not 
>> know what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not 
>> hearing impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this 
>> possibility. We don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is 
>> going to notice one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy 
>> some stupid little connector to use my headphones with? And they will 
>> probably charge $30 for it even though the parts cost them five. And then 
>> when I lose said connector, which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy 
>> another one. This just looks like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make 
>> more money off of people who are willing to keep paying top dollar for 
>> increasingly shoddy products. If they did this, and android weren't such a 
>> mess in some fairly fundamental ways for blind  screen reader users, I would 
>> really consider switching to android. But, web browsing and continuous 
>> reading and some other things are still so bad on that platform that such a 
>> switch is untenable if you want to use your device efficiently. My opinion 
>> only of course.
>> Mary
>> 
>> Mary
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>>> 
>>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone 
>>> jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>>> ago. Here goes.
>>> 
>>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Feliciano Godoy]

I didn't like the idea of the 3.5 mm headphone jack  removal in the future 
iPhones if it were to be true. I was thinking, they may have some sort of 
lightning connector for the headphones, which means that Apple would probably 
sell  a 3.5 mm to lightning connector adapter. Sounds like something they would 
do just to Paten   such adapter.


Regards,
Feliciano
For tech tips and updates, 
LIKE ..facebook.com/theblindman12v
Follow www.twitter.com/theblindman12v

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
> 
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
> 
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> 
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
> 
> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some 
> of us really, genuinely need it.
> 
> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
> because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
> the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.
> 
> If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
> Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
> have been available since 2014.
> 
> According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to 
> analogue converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There 
> is no word in the story that this 

RE: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[cd]

I don’t think you are in the minority.  This would be a horrible thing as at 
least for me I find the regular Bluetooth a nightmare with the latest IOS 
update especially.  Give me my corded headset any time!  Yes this would truly 
suck!

 

Carla

 

 

From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
Jonathan Mosen
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 7:49 AM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

 

Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether Apple 
may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.

 

There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been credible, 
that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, so Apple can 
make the phone thinner.

I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
ago. Here goes.

 

I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.

When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed absolutely 
enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 6s Plus and 
would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the bigger screen 
for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.

After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB solid 
state storage.

Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.

Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
right decision for my particular needs.

There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want to 
go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB type 
C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and charge it. 
And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.

So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of the 
road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word processing, 
email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of grunt and is 
willing to lug it around.

There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are usually 
now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. So when I 
read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 
models, it had me concerned.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt 
that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.

You can read an English summary of the story at  

 Mac Rumours.

Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of the 
headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some of us 
really, genuinely need it.

The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If they removed 
the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the thickness of the phone.

If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning port 
have been available since 2014.

According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to analogue 
converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm headphones. There is no word 
in the story that this Lightning port would be in addition to the one already 
on iPhones, implying that you’ll have one port for both charging your device 
and 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Alex Stone]

Jonathan, I completely agree. I too thought the 6plus was enormous when 
I bought it, and like you I wouldn't want to have to go back to a 
smaller iPhone now unless I absolutely had to.


On 01/12/2015 15:49, Jonathan Mosen wrote:
Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised 
by someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure 
whether Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this 
idea gets.


There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone 
jack, so Apple can make the phone thinner.
I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 
hours ago. Here goes.


I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion 
that determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the 
performance I need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.


When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m 
on the 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The 
battery life and the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it 
the right choice for me.


After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 
15-inch MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of 
RAM and 1TB solid state storage.


Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my 
backpack just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take 
places, and the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X 
for a few apps and functions, but Windows is still my primary 
operating system. With a laptop this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS 
in a virtual machine with superb results, and still tend to iMessages 
and FaceTime calls.


Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I 
done? This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds 
me that I made the right decision for my particular needs.


There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If 
you want to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, 
which is just adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It 
sports a single USB type C port, which is the only way both to connect 
peripherals to it and charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it 
charitably, an acquired taste.


So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the 
needs of the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit 
of word processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who 
needs plenty of grunt and is willing to lug it around.


There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen 
sizes. So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm 
headphone jack in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.


Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no 
official statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a 
rumour. But I read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know 
which sources tend to be more reliable. The source of this story, the 
Japanese technology site Mac Otakara, has a good track record. No news 
site that reports things like this gets it right 100% of the time 
though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to monitor customer 
reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no doubt that 
decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably have 
already been taken.


You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours 
.


Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a 
defence of the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be 
a big deal. Some of us really, genuinely need it.


The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed 
with, because it’s preventing Apple from making the iPhone thinner. If 
they removed the jack, they could shave more than 1mm off the 
thickness of the phone.


If this rumour is correct, Apple would probably include Earpods with a 
Lightning connector, since specs for headphones that use the Lightning 
port have been available since 2014.


According to the story, the Lightning port would include a digital to 
analogue converter, so you’d still be able to connect 3.5mm 
headphones. There is no word in the story that this Lightning port 
would be in addition to the one already on iPhones, implying that 
you’ll have one port for both charging your device and listening to 
wired headphones or connecting the device to a mixer.


My first objection to this rumour is a philosophical one. 3.5mm 
headphone jacks are ubiquitous. The standard is supported by a massive 
number of 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Mary Otten]

Hi Jonathan,
I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not know 
what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not hearing 
impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this possibility. We 
don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice one 
stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little 
connector to use my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it 
even though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just looks like 
a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of people who are willing 
to keep paying top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they did this, 
and android weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for blind  
screen reader users, I would really consider switching to android. But, web 
browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so bad on that 
platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your device 
efficiently. My opinion only of course.
Mary

Mary


Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
> 
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
> 
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> 
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
> 
> Even if the story is wrong, 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Mary Otten]

I certainly agree about the current state of Bluetooth. With iOS 9 and my 
iPhone, it is horrible. There are weird volume issues among other things, along 
with the ridiculous latency, which instead of getting better with the new 
Bluetooth standard, has actually gotten worse. Rather than screw around trying 
to make something unnoticeably thinner, Apple needs to dig in and fix the 
problems that they keep not fixing as new iterations of software roll out.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:59 AM, cd  wrote:
> 
> I don’t think you are in the minority.  This would be a horrible thing as at 
> least for me I find the regular Bluetooth a nightmare with the latest IOS 
> update especially.  Give me my corded headset any time!  Yes this would truly 
> suck!
>  
> Carla
>  
>  
> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Jonathan Mosen
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 7:49 AM
> To: viphone@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away
>  
> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>  
> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
> ago. Here goes.
>  
> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
> 
> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and the 
> bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
> 
> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
> solid state storage.
> 
> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve therefore 
> given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack just fine 
> when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and the thing is, 
> it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and functions, but 
> Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop this fast and 
> powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb results, and still 
> tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
> 
> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? This 
> thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I made the 
> right decision for my particular needs.
> 
> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
> 
> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty of 
> grunt and is willing to lug it around.
> 
> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen sizes. 
> So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm headphone jack 
> in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
> 
> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend to 
> be more reliable. The source of this story, the Japanese technology site Mac 
> Otakara, has a good track record. No news site that reports things like this 
> gets it right 100% of the time though. It’s also possible that Apple wants to 
> monitor customer reaction to the idea, by letting it leak. But there’s no 
> doubt that decisions as fundamental as this are being taken now, or probably 
> have already been taken.
> 
> You can read an English summary of the story at Mac Rumours.
> Even if the story is wrong, and I hope it is, I want to write a defence of 
> the headphone jack for those who think its loss wouldn’t be a big deal. Some 
> of us really, genuinely need it.
> 
> The story suggests that the 3.5mm headphone jack will be dispensed with, 
> because it’s preventing Apple from making the 

Re: Apple, Don't Take my Headphone Jack Away

[Jonathan Mosen]

Hi Mary, yes, when it comes to mobile phones at least, I must confess to 
feeling increasingly trapped.
There are excellent alternative tablets and computers, but it's the phone that 
it's tricky to find an alternative for.
Jonathan Mosen
Mosen Consulting
Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training
http://Mosen.org

> On 2/12/2015, at 5:02 AM, Mary Otten  wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan,
> I saw the same article you did in mac rumors. I admit that I have not been 
> trolling the Apple forums or the MacRumors comment sections, so I do not know 
> what the public reaction to that story has been. But, while I am not hearing 
> impaired, I absolutely join you in your condemnation of this possibility. We 
> don't need thinner iPhones. We just don't. And 1 mm? Who is going to notice 
> one stinking millimeter? For that, Apple will make me buy some stupid little 
> connector to use my headphones with? And they will probably charge $30 for it 
> even though the parts cost them five. And then when I lose said connector, 
> which is almost inevitable, I will get to buy another one. This just looks 
> like a cheap crappy trick for Apple to make more money off of people who are 
> willing to keep paying top dollar for increasingly shoddy products. If they 
> did this, and android weren't such a mess in some fairly fundamental ways for 
> blind  screen reader users, I would really consider switching to android. 
> But, web browsing and continuous reading and some other things are still so 
> bad on that platform that such a switch is untenable if you want to use your 
> device efficiently. My opinion only of course.
> Mary
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Dec 1, 2015, at 7:49 AM, Jonathan Mosen  > wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone, I waited a few days to see if this issue might be raised by 
>> someone else. But I'll raise it here myself, because I'm not sure whether 
>> Apple may be flying a kite here and seeing what reaction this idea gets.
>> 
>> There's an unconfirmed rumour from a source that has in the past been 
>> credible, that the next generation iPhone will not include a headphone jack, 
>> so Apple can make the phone thinner.
>> I'm pasting a blog post that I wrote and published on this subject 72 hours 
>> ago. Here goes.
>> 
>> I like thin, lightweight technology, but it isn’t the only criterion that 
>> determines what I use. If thin and light doesn’t give me the performance I 
>> need, I’m happy to choose something heavier or bigger.
>> 
>> When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I bought one. Initially, it seemed 
>> absolutely enormous, and I thought I’d never get used to it. Now I’m on the 
>> 6s Plus and would never go back to a smaller iPhone. The battery life and 
>> the bigger screen for Braille screen input make it the right choice for me.
>> 
>> After being a MacBook Air user for three years, I recently bought a 15-inch 
>> MacBook Pro with all the specs maxed out. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB 
>> solid state storage.
>> 
>> Compared to my MacBook Air, the Pro feels heavy and thick, and I’ve 
>> therefore given it the nickname “The Big Kahuna”. But it fits in my backpack 
>> just fine when I travel, it isn’t really that arduous to take places, and 
>> the thing is, it goes like a rocket. I enjoy having OS X for a few apps and 
>> functions, but Windows is still my primary operating system. With a laptop 
>> this fast and powerful, I can run JAWS in a virtual machine with superb 
>> results, and still tend to iMessages and FaceTime calls.
>> 
>> Sometimes I pick up my old MacBook Air and think, “oy, what have I done? 
>> This thing is so cute!” But the performance factor soon reminds me that I 
>> made the right decision for my particular needs.
>> 
>> There’s plenty of choice of form factor in the MacBook line now. If you want 
>> to go ultra-portable, there’s the new 12-inch retina MacBook, which is just 
>> adorably thin and light, with compromises to match. It sports a single USB 
>> type C port, which is the only way both to connect peripherals to it and 
>> charge it. And the keyboard is, to put it charitably, an acquired taste.
>> 
>> So when it comes to Mac, Apple now has a line-up that can meet the needs of 
>> the road warrior who wants something really light for a bit of word 
>> processing, email and web surfing, all the way to someone who needs plenty 
>> of grunt and is willing to lug it around.
>> 
>> There is not so much flexibility in the iPhone stable, where there are 
>> usually now two current models with similar specs but different screen 
>> sizes. So when I read a rumour that Apple may dispense with the 3.5mm 
>> headphone jack in iPhone 7 models, it had me concerned.
>> 
>> Before I explain why, let me be clear that Apple itself has made no official 
>> statement about the future of the headphone jack. It’s only a rumour. But I 
>> read a lot of technology sources, and have come to know which sources tend