Intel wants to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack with USB Type-C connector

[Celyle]

This is all about Digital Restrictions Management. There's no payment system associated with audio encoded as a voltage on a wire. There's no royalty or licensing or patent encumbrance on the 1/8 inch TRS analog connector. Therefore, analog audio must be phased out. No sound will be heard without paying the fee. Not even your own recordings. Richard Stallman was right, as usual.

 

[Julian Clayton]

I'm wondering "where is the need", other than for them to eliminate one more port and sell more connectors. Personally, I often have my phone charging while I'm using it. Not a fan of wireless because of some interference issues I've experienced and frankly I see little to any advantage to the consumer .... what am I missing?

Isn't your phone wireless?

 

[failquail]

You may have missed something important - after a certain period of time the batter will stop holding a charge. The question is, buy a new battery ($40) or by a new phone ($800).
and THAT is why companies are removing the option of the replaceable battery - they would rather get the $800 instead of $40.

I've never had a phone battery die on me, nor loose enough charge for me to notice it. Unless you get a bad unit, it's pretty difficult for a phone to outlive the battery. And even then, it should be pretty simple to change the attached battery for a phone anyhow, you go into a specialized shop where they open it and change it.

Are you really saying you've never seen a battery die? Even if not in person, none of your friends/family have had that happen?
If so you are immensely lucky. Battery death is a major problem, I've seen plenty devices fail even within a single year due to the batteries failing to hold a decent charge. One of my friends is currently walking around with a 14month old iphone almost permanently attached to an external battery bank because it's battery is near useless now.

This is one of the prime reasons I will never buy a device with a non-replaceable battery as long as alternatives exist.

 

[SirGCal]

I don't like re-posting my own comments, but here it was: https://www.techspot.com/community/...adphone-jack-with-usb-type-c-connector.226391

If I'm not mistaken, none of the USB connectors support click-in connection, which is essential for any wearable electronics to keep the plug in. May end up with your phones connector sliding out all the time. That's gonna suck.

Either nobody agrees or nobody cares?

I agree completely have they actually used a C connector? The cables pop right out all the damn time without wanting to there is literally nothing holding them in... *sigh* MORONS ARE DEISGNING THIS ****!!!

THIS is entirely dependent on who made the connector and cables. Cheap connectors have no click, but others DO. I have hung my new LG G5 off the cable more then once when it slipped off the desk. Cable doesn't pop out easily and it clicks cleanly and clearly into place. If they use a crap connector in the device or you buy a $0.99 bargain cable, what do you expect?

 

[SirGCal]

Now if you stick with your phone for 3 years that's something totally different... 3-4 years ago I had an Optimus One and single core was all the blast, 1-2 years later dual cores and almost a year ago the first gen Moto G showed up and delivered awesome entry level quad core performance and blew away the competition. Before that the only way to get a quad core phone was having a flag ship.

A year later, performance hasn't improved noticeably to change phones, still, having one for over 2 years is either you don't really need more in which case is perfectly fine or you are on a budget or simply don't see a reason to change it, either way a small fee to replace it doesn't seem that bad.

I kept my Galaxy S4 until the LG G5 came out. And the original battery wouldn't even keep the phone operating without being plugged in anymore. Bought a new battery and now the kids have a make-shift tablet to play games on that is far more robust then the Nexus 7's they broke by the tiniest of drops (another topic but OMG they shattered so easy).

Now my S4 also took a while to charge. And I heard about the new Quick Charge 2's with the Galaxy S6's and 7's but without removable batteries for the long haul, no way. (and my 128G SD card full of music. The streaming services can bite me. Though it seems to be making a comeback.)

In comes the G5 with it's Quick Charge 3, SD Card and Removable Battery. So when I'm at a show or event, I can swap batteries and keep on keepin on. Otherwise I can use the extra battery and the charging base as an external power supply! Double-kudos. And they were FREE. As with a uUSB-B to USB-C adapter to keep old cables going (but that doesn't mean they can handle QC3 speeds, still very good cables are less then $1 a foot so, spend a Pizza and get some new cables.)

I can fully charge my new phone in just over an hour (compared to the Galaxy S7's QC2 which would only be at ~ 70% by then) from totally dead. I can use the included extended battery charger, or just swap out the battery. And use my music memory stick. That's why I finally upgraded. I really don't give a crap which CPU it has, they all run fine. I have 16 cores in my desktop for real work, don't need my phone to do much then play music, take photos, the occasional map. Even my 'old' S4 did all that with no problems to performance or speed. Sure the new one is 'faster' but to what end? So what? Old one worked just fine. I really upgraded cause I got it for $100 each and all the extra stuff. And the camera. Those were the reasons...

 

[SirGCal]

USB Type C has to be one of the jankiest as phuck connectors ever created, it's lose, falls out, doesn't make great contact, truly a terrible solution to headphones that need a constant connection so you don't get static or buzzing. They took something that worked and worked well and ruined it in the name of making things cheaper, what a surprise and now they want it to do everything so they can reduce production cost, thank you big industry for not actually give a flying phuck about the consumer, but does this really surprise anyone these days? We just keep buying this crap because what the hell else are we going to do?

I agree it's not for headphones, but I do not agree on the USB-C being a crap connector, lose, etc. That's the connector the manufacturer put in the device and/or the cables you purchased or they supplied. It is very secure with quality parts. See my post a few above.

 

[Adhmuz]

I agree it's not for headphones, but I do not agree on the USB-C being a crap connector, lose, etc. That's the connector the manufacturer put in the device and/or the cables you purchased or they supplied. It is very secure with quality parts. See my post a few above.

Funny, because you say this.

THIS is entirely dependent on who made the connector and cables. Cheap connectors have no click, but others DO. I have hung my new LG G5 off the cable more then once when it slipped off the desk. Cable doesn't pop out easily and it clicks cleanly and clearly into place. If they use a crap connector in the device or you buy a $0.99 bargain cable, what do you expect?

All the LG G5s I've seen on demo at cell phone shops have had the most shotty connectors on them, now I know what your going to say, it's a demo product so it's been abused, but isn't that the whole point in my argument of it being cheaply made? Other phones which use USB mini did not have the same issue, phones right next to the G5 in fact, and the same issue applied to multiple G5s at different kiosks and retail outlets, they all barely held in place, breathing on it caused the cable to fall out in some instances. Hardly a great demonstration of the durability of the type C connector in my opinion, could all the demo phones be purposely made with lower quality parts, unlikely (these were working phones and when I went to check the battery history it was the worst looking graph I have ever seen), could they have been overly abused by the general public, perhaps, but until I buy my own or see one that isn't incredibly loose I'm going to stand by what I've seen out in the wild. Not to mention my current G3 and it's USB mini still hold very firmly in place, so it came as a surprise that the G5 would be any lower quality.

 

[Kibaruk]

Are you really saying you've never seen a battery die? Even if not in person, none of your friends/family have had that happen?
If so you are immensely lucky. Battery death is a major problem, I've seen plenty devices fail even within a single year due to the batteries failing to hold a decent charge. One of my friends is currently walking around with a 14month old iphone almost permanently attached to an external battery bank because it's battery is near useless now.

This is one of the prime reasons I will never buy a device with a non-replaceable battery as long as alternatives exist.

It hasn't happened to me, to family yes, old batteries and they kept the phone on the charger all day long which instead of improving things killed the battery even more. Or them having EVERYTHING they could get their hands on installed, and then asking "my battery is dying" "no man, you have a bazillion services running, uninstall all the crap".

And to this day they still believe on the "keep the battery charging for the first 24-48 hours on first use" and well... it's only so much one can do...

I feel it's like everything, if you keep things tidy they'll work like a charm.

 

[SirGCal]

All the LG G5s I've seen on demo at cell phone shops have had the most shotty connectors on them, now I know what your going to say, it's a demo product so it's been abused, but isn't that the whole point in my argument of it being cheaply made? Other phones which use USB mini did not have the same issue, phones right next to the G5 in fact, and the same issue applied to multiple G5s at different kiosks and retail outlets, they all barely held in place, breathing on it caused the cable to fall out in some instances. Hardly a great demonstration of the durability of the type C connector in my opinion, could all the demo phones be purposely made with lower quality parts, unlikely (these were working phones and when I went to check the battery history it was the worst looking graph I have ever seen), could they have been overly abused by the general public, perhaps, but until I buy my own or see one that isn't incredibly loose I'm going to stand by what I've seen out in the wild. Not to mention my current G3 and it's USB mini still hold very firmly in place, so it came as a surprise that the G5 would be any lower quality.

The first demos out might have had a different connector, no way to know. Or you didn't push hard enough? Wife did that a few times. But I know my kids abuse the pants off mine and it still holds firm. Though it's only been out for a month today, I got mine release day and it gets a cable 2-3 times a day depending what I'm transferring around via USB. And it holds a heck of a lot better then the uUSB-B from my old S4. In the end, I've not seen a Demo phone pre-release that I was impressed with. So I stopped looking at them before they come out. Too many reviewers I think use pre-release information in their reviews (especially for cameras, etc.).

OR .. The cables they used could have not had whatever is necessary for locking, I've had two cheap bargain cables that won't lock for bunk in the new USB-C connector. Quality might be more picky then before with the uUSB-B connector. Or the cables were worn out... dunno. Wearing out the port itself might be hard to do. Time will tell but since it's the coming standard, rather have it now. PLUS, if the G5 did wear out, just replace the bottom part of the phone. (battery plug-in and speaker module). They aren't even expensive. Plus there are multiple options (better Audio, better camera controls with extended battery, etc.).

To me, not having to look which way the cable is in the device is a win-win for me all on it's own. And it locks in super securely and if it did fail, it's easier then any other device to replace. If they did find a failure in the connector, doing RMA replacements would be as easy as shipping out new bottom part of the phone to those affected. No problem what-so-ever.

 

[Adhmuz]

OR .. The cables they used could have not had whatever is necessary for locking, I've had two cheap bargain cables that won't lock for bunk in the new USB-C connector. Quality might be more picky then before with the uUSB-B connector. Or the cables were worn out... dunno. Wearing out the port itself might be hard to do. Time will tell but since it's the coming standard, rather have it now. PLUS, if the G5 did wear out, just replace the bottom part of the phone. (battery plug-in and speaker module). They aren't even expensive. Plus there are multiple options (better Audio, better camera controls with extended battery, etc.).

Your probably right on the cables being sub par, cheap cables, or just don't have the locking pins, I didn't look too closely at them, it was the fact that all the stores (Bell, Fido, Videotron) all had the same issue, perhaps they all get their cables from the same supplier? Being able to replace the whole bottom portion of the phone is just an advantage the G5 has at the moment, so kudos to LG for thinking ahead in that regard.

To me, not having to look which way the cable is in the device is a win-win for me all on it's own. And it locks in super securely and if it did fail, it's easier then any other device to replace. If they did find a failure in the connector, doing RMA replacements would be as easy as shipping out new bottom part of the phone to those affected. No problem what-so-ever.

This has become so irrelevant for me, all my cables have a bend in them from always charging my phone face down or connecting it one orientation, making it super simple to connect my phone for charging or transferring data. I understand they made it dummy proof for the masses but ultimately I don't feel that to be a huge advantage for me personally. Not like it really matters though either, all devices are going to adopt this format of connector in the next few years and by then any issues will likely have been ironed out, at least one could only hope.

 

[SirGCal]

Your probably right on the cables being sub par, cheap cables, or just don't have the locking pins, I didn't look too closely at them, it was the fact that all the stores (Bell, Fido, Videotron) all had the same issue, perhaps they all get their cables from the same supplier? Being able to replace the whole bottom portion of the phone is just an advantage the G5 has at the moment, so kudos to LG for thinking ahead in that regard.

FWIW, another user for claimed there was no locking system in the specs. Easily proven wrong I took 10 minutes to scan through the specs. What I found could easily point to weak or abused cables as being a problem... Or possibly weak locks breaking, but again, if that's the case, LG can easily swap them out. Here's the information:

Per the USB Specifications: http://www.usb.org/developers/usbtypec/

Within the spec ZIP file and in the Type-C folder, the file: USB Type-C Specification Release 1.2.pdf

Page 29, part 3.2.1 sub part 3. See for yourself. Or there is a full part detailed on page 49, under section 3.2.2.2

Enjoy!

I'd upload the file but it's simple enough to go to the source. It's tiny and includes all specs to date anyhow.

This has become so irrelevant for me, all my cables have a bend in them from always charging my phone face down or connecting it one orientation, making it super simple to connect my phone for charging or transferring data. I understand they made it dummy proof for the masses but ultimately I don't feel that to be a huge advantage for me personally. Not like it really matters though either, all devices are going to adopt this format of connector in the next few years and by then any issues will likely have been ironed out, at least one could only hope.

Most of my uUSBs have cracked or effectively broken. Not to mention the wires in most of mine can't sustain QC3 (or 2) charging in most cases. I was ready to replace a bunch anyhow so, simple enough to get one instead of the other. But I ALWAYS seemed to be trying to plug my old phone in upside down, every time. So did the wife. So this was a happy change for us and I figure many others. But if it's no biggie to you, cool. And ya, I see everything getting this new connection sooner or later. Smaller, handles a lot more data and power, etc. It's just a no-loss, no brainer change. I'm really surprised Samsung waited for it.

 

[Tribalcheetah]

There is no such thing as immediate adoption.


I think my phone might be unique cause it can last more than 5 hours on a single charge with heavy usage. Removable batteries are a waste of time -you have to shutdown your phone, open it, put it, charge it turn it off, then put the other one, charge it and if you need to replace it you need to turn it off-, external batteries on the other hand are awesome, just plug it in and charge it or give charge while having the phone in your pocket, purse or backpack and they could also charge other usb devices you have if needed, the best part if you change your phone model you don't need to buy another expensive battery, you want to help a friend in need? check, he has another brand of phone? check, he has an iphone?? check.

Get on the modern wagon.

Removeable batteries have always been in high demand in work industries due to high and abusive usage. Most casual users do not burn through a battery in a single day, and can easily charge it in the car, from the PC, or a wall jack.

But that isn't the issue. Replaceable batteries are great because there are still such things as bad batteries. If I get a lemon, I have to return the ENTIRE DEVICE. I think the main reason is it also gave people an excuse to hold onto older devices longer. My wife loves her iPhone 5 but noted its much shorter battery life now. She has no reason to upgrade...but if the battery is dying you can try and rip it out or pay to have it replaced (both having a chance to destroy your device), or as most people do, replace the entire device.

With integrated batteries eventually failing to hold charge after a few years, there is built-in obsolescence to push upgrading every few years. Cell phones from 4 years ago are just fine, except their battery life is going to suck if you can't replace it. Cell phone companies live on churn, why else would they come out with new phones every year?