iPad Pro may be dropping the headphone jack but adding Face ID

[Greg S]

Rumor mill: Apple might be removing the headphone jack and adding Face ID to its newest iPad Pro models. Despite carrying the "Pro" moniker and shipping with apps for multimedia production, you may have to buy a dongle to use studio quality wired headphones.

For each new Apple device that has arrived in recent years, dropping features seems to be just as popular as adding them. This year's iPad Pro models may arrive without a 3.5mm headphone jack according to rumors from Macotakara.

In the report provided, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro shaves a few millimeters off of the width and height with no significant change to overall thickness. Dimensions are believed to be 247.5mm x 178.7mm x 6mm compared to the existing model at 250.6mm x 174.1mm x 6.1mm.

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro will see more evident reductions in physical size. Predicted dimensions come out to 280mm x 215mm x 6.4mm down from 305.7mm x 220.6mm x 6.9mm. This shrink will result in a noticeably shorter and slightly narrower body.

Most importantly, both sizes of the iPad Pro are believed to be dropping the headphone jack. Worse yet, Apple will allegedly not be including a dongle for Lightning to 3.5mm as it still does with iPhones. AirPods or other wireless headphones may be a fine option for mobile listening, but for a "Pro" product that has multimedia tools included, many users will likely still want to use some nice wired over-ear headphones.

Additionally, Face ID may be incorporated into the upcoming iPad Pro models. Contrary to previous reports, Face ID is believed to only work in the portrait orientation. Considering many iPad apps work better in landscape mode, this could prove to be somewhat of a nuisance.

Knowing Apple's design philosophy of form over function, especially true of the latest Macbook Pro, it is no surprise that there is a willingness to potentially compromise the user experience a little bit to gain a sleeker appearance.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75714-ipad-pro-may-dropping-headphone-jack-but-adding.html

 

[m4a4]

Fashion over function.

 

[amghwk]

FaceID....reminds me of the recent movie Skyscraper.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Yes, Im sure they needed all the space a 3.5mm jack takes on a 12 inch tablet.

And of course they are to including a dongle. Why would apple give you a $10 adapter with your $1K ipad when they can charge you $29.99 instead?

how "courageous" of them.

 

[ForgottenLegion]

Removing features, very pro.

 

[Vulcanproject]

I honestly think that their engineers must design hardware with a gun held to their heads by upper management, because absolutely no engineer worth their salt would willingly omit that jack on what will likely end up as a $1000 tablet.

Surely their professional audio engineers would say this is BS, because I know I would. I would walk around the campus with an Android tablet just for the lolz

 

[texasrattler]

The engineers work for Apple, sure they can complain but it's Apples decision. The engineers do what there told or Apple will find ppl who know how to listen.

Majority of engineers that work within any company have zero say so. They are just like any other employee they do what they are told or move on. Just about anyone is expendable these days, no matter how good you think you might be.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Lol at the people here who think no engineers have a say on one of the most successful selling tablets on the planet.

Yeah headphone jacks are out of date, a bit like SCART leads are out of date. People who can afford an iPad Pro can afford a wireless headset. Most “Sound engineers” wouldn’t use a normal headphone jack anyway.

Oh and the lightning to headphone apapter is $10 from Apple. Not $29.99...

 

[Uncle Al]

What a shame .... a once good product just gets worse and worse ....

 

[Dimitrios]

Word on the sheep farm street is that next years ipad with have no buttons at all. Saves them pennies and customers will have a tablet that doesn't turn on at all and never has to be charged!

 

[Nobina]

Lol at the people here who think no engineers have a say on one of the most successful selling tablets on the planet.

Yeah headphone jacks are out of date, a bit like SCART leads are out of date. People who can afford an iPad Pro can afford a wireless headset. Most “Sound engineers” wouldn’t use a normal headphone jack anyway.

Oh and the lightning to headphone apapter is $10 from Apple. Not $29.99...

How can something that is literally used by millions of people every day and is considered to be a standard without a doubt be out of date? The sort of mental gymnastics Apple fanboys have to go through to defend their cult is mind blowing. Correcting the price of the adapter really shows the whole point flew over your head.

 

[Sausagemeat]

How can something that is literally used by millions of people every day and is considered to be a standard without a doubt be out of date? The sort of mental gymnastics Apple fanboys have to go through to defend their cult is mind blowing. Correcting the price of the adapter really shows the whole point flew over your head.

I don’t own any Apple products and I wouldn’t buy them. That doesn’t mean I don’t use wireless headphones. How can you say that running a cable to connect any two bits of personal tech isn’t out of date? There is literally nothing else anyone connects to a phone anymore. We even wirelessly charge!

And correcting the price of the adapter is more my lack of tolerance for bullshit than anything else.

At the end of the day Apple know exactly what they are doing, they will sell millions of devices no matter how angry grumpy has-beens like you slag off Apple and the people who buy their products.

 

[SirCanealot]

Yeah headphone jacks are out of date, a bit like SCART leads are out of date. People who can afford an iPad Pro can afford a wireless headset. Most “Sound engineers” wouldn’t use a normal headphone jack anyway.

Yes, SCART cables are out of date, but how on earth are headphone jacks out of date? There's no (or very little) difference between the function and audio quality compared to a set of lightning headphones/headphone+dongle. I mean, if you want to run with that example, I think SCART technically tops out at 1080p (though HD SCART is very rare), but is generally thought of as topping out at 576p/RGB. It's out of date because it doesn't support 4k like HDMI/etc does.

How on earth are headphone jacks out of date? What technology can I replace it with that will increase audio quality by 50x like moving from RGB SCART to HDMI?

Simply amazing... xD

 

[funglebuddy]

TBH I dont expect the new iPad to be anything special other than a minor bump in performance and their Face ID thing.I dont expect ill be upgrading..(I prefer using my fingerprint rather than my face its easier to use in dark areas and I dont have to spasm my neck to set it up)

 

[Nobina]

I don’t own any Apple products and I wouldn’t buy them. That doesn’t mean I don’t use wireless headphones. How can you say that running a cable to connect any two bits of personal tech isn’t out of date? There is literally nothing else anyone connects to a phone anymore. We even wirelessly charge!

And correcting the price of the adapter is more my lack of tolerance for bullshit than anything else.

It's not out of date because there's nothing better to be set as standard. You don't have lack of tolerance for bullshit cause otherwise you wouldn't have tolerance for yourself.

At the end of the day Apple know exactly what they are doing, they will sell millions of devices no matter how angry grumpy has-beens like you slag off Apple and the people who buy their products.

I'm sure they will keep getting millions as long as people like you are there to bite everything they throw at you. I'm sorry you don't see the difference between valid criticism and slagging off.

 

[ChrisH1]

Yes, Im sure they needed all the space a 3.5mm jack takes on a 12 inch tablet.

And of course they are to including a dongle. Why would apple give you a $10 adapter with your $1K ipad when they can charge you $29.99 instead?

how "courageous" of them.

I don't much like the removal of the 3.5mm, and I think not supplying the adaptor is poor. But, $29.99 - really? Even here, in Australia where things are more expensive, it's only $12 from the Apple store.

 

[DelJo63]

Wired connections are so passe - - Bluetooth is far more convenient.

 

[treetops]

Who makes these terrible decisions?