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The Engadget Podcast, Ep 5: Applesauce

10 months ago
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Editor in Chief Michael Gorman, executive editor Christopher Trout and managing editor Dana Wollman join host Terrence O’Brien for a special all Apple edition of the podcast from San Francisco. On the show they’ll search for the definition of courage, tell you what it’s really like on the floor of a major press event and give a state of the Apple union.

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Relevant links:

  • The new Apple Watch mostly looks like the old one
  • The Apple Watch Nike+ is a running watch I might actually use
  • Two years later, Apple has figured out what its watch is good for
  • Apple announces the water-resistant iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
  • The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are all about subtle, powerful changes
  • Apple’s AirPods are smart wireless earbuds with a new W1 chip
  • Apple’s AirPods toe the line between usefulness and gimmickry
  • Apple adds real-time collaboration to iWork
  • What happened at the iPhone event
  • Courage is not how you sell iPhones
  • Nintendo loses a little piece of its identity with ‘Super Mario Run’

You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.

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9 Comments

  • courageous would have been replacing the proprietary lightening port with USB 3.0
    Then the world could move from 3.5mm headphones to USB3.0 headphones.
    Now we have to have at least 2 models for every headphone, that is lightening and 3.5 or lightening and USB 3.0.
    And also all peripherals fitting USB 3.0 could potentially be made compatible with iPhone and probably more important iPad.
    An opportunity missed that will never come back.

    Reply
  • I know when I buy a new music player, phone, laptop, computer, etc. I sit there for hours looking for a device that has removed that old, outdated headphone connector. I mean, why use that old, outdated tech?
    In fact, let’s look at some other tech in computers that are old and outdated:
    1) The glass in the screen. Glass was ‘invented’ thousands of years ago as the Neanderthals sat around a campfire and discovered the cooked sand was clear. Do we really want a glass screen, an item invented by Neanderthals? Get rid of it.
    2) The metal casing of a phone or laptop. Over 10,000 years ago men (and women, don’t want to leave you out, ladies) they found this hard material just laying on the ground. Over 1000s of years of trial and error, they were able to bend and shape that metal into items such as samurai swords. Do you want a product that is millions, nay billions of years old, has been in use by man for 10,000 years, is found in the dirty ground, and has been used to kill people? Do you really want that in your phone?
    3) Light. My laptop, my phone, my computer, my watch, etc. all emit light. Light was created 14 billion years ago in the primordial universe and was brought forth in an explosion! I say that all my devices should be devoid of that 14 billion year old invention that has associations with blowing stuff up. We should have moved beyond destruction, and imagine those people who have been victims of explosions. Think of the children, get rid of the light!
    4) Keyboards, touch pads, touch screens. Is there anything more primitive than touching things? People, animals, etc. have been using touch since they became self-aware to explore their environment. Don’t you think it is time we left behind such primitive, tactile interaction with our world? I think it is about time to leave it behind.
    So the first company that is courageous to remove glass, metal, light, and the need to touch it, then I will be here thanking them from the bottom of my heart, and pledge my life to that company for freeing us from those 10,000 year to 14 billion year inventions. You think 100 years is enough, I think it is time to give up on 14 billion years, it would be very courageous of that company to do so.
    Reply

  • “We’re trying to make great products for people, and we have at least the courage of our convictions to say we don’t think this is part of what makes a great product, we’re going to leave it out. Some people are going to not like that, they’re going to call us names […] but we’re going to take the heat [and] instead focus our energy on these technologies which we think are in their ascendancy and we think are going to be the right technologies for customers. And you know what? They’re paying us to make those choices […] If we succeed, they’ll buy them, and if we don’t, they won’t, and it’ll all work itself out.”

    No, that is NOT the “courage” speech that Phil Schiller made about removing the ancient analog headphone jack.
    That is a quote from Steve Jobs in 2010 explaining Apple’s decision NOT to support Adobe Flash in iOS devices.
    Phil Schiller could have used that Steve Jobs quote in his presentation when he used the term “courage”. It would have given the change to remove the old headphone jack much more validity, considering that everyone NOW agrees that NOT supporting Flash was the right thing to do… Despite all of the moaning and screaming that went on at the time, from people who didn’t understand or appreciate why Apple made that decision.
    Let’s face it, people who don’t like Apple, its products, or its users are going to complain about the iPhone 7 EVEN if it still had the ancient analog headphone jack. If it wasn’t about the headphone jack, it would be about something else irrelevant.
    The reality is that there are hundreds of millions of people who are either NOT upset about the removal of the headphone jack, or who (like me) are actually happy that Apple has finally removed that old (more than 100 years old) technology and replaced it with something MUCH BETTER.
    Apple will likely sell hundreds of millions of iPhone 7 units in the coming year, and it will probably be the best selling iPhone in Apple’s history… Despite the ridiculous negative comments we’ve been reading about the removal of the headphone jack (which is the way all smartphones will be in the future).
    If you don’t want to buy the iPhone 7… Don’t! Just complaining about it is futile. Complaining doesn’t make your life any happier, and it CERTAINLY doesn’t dissuade others who ARE planning on buying the iPhone 7.
    So you have a choice of either saving your indignation and mental health, or living in anguish over something that is inconsequential to others.
    Reply

  • Do site administators/designers ever visit the comment section? If so, then can I ask to add volume regulator to the SoundCloud frame? Thanks in advance

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  • Troops are courageous, the take real risks!!! So please Apple, stop insulting the world just because you have run out ideas. Real people use real words, what are you? For sure not a soldier…!

    Reply

  • As a hard-core Apple user, I do find the use of the word courage to be a bit cringe-worthy. But it pretty much indicates that even they were worried about the move. That’s pretty significant coming from the company that’s not afraid to cannibalize their own products, force the industry to adopt USB, drop the floppy drive, and the optical drive as well!

    Apple is a company that doesn’t faint when things get tough. No other company comes close to their sometimes brazen choices. But at least they are consistent.
    Reply

  • There is absolutely no benefit from removing the 3.5 port for consumers, none. Digital sound has to be converted into analog before it is transmitted to speakers and from mics, it makes no sense to move that conversion to a cheap dongle or create more complexity in the headphones. The phone has to have the converters for its own internal speakers and mics anyway, why double that?

    This is not that same as DVDs, Floppies, or Flash. The 3.5 standard has survived for over a hundred years because it just works and it works flawlessly across all sound producing devices. It allows any vendor in any country to product any audio device with a 3.5 to work with any other device simply by plugging it in. No worries about chip failures, vendor incompatibility, etc. It just works and it works everytime.
    What the 3.5 does not allow is monetization for Apple. They make nothing for devices that plug into their iOS devices. But remove it and now Apple can charge vendors licensing fees. This will create a $billion segment for Apple.
    Reply

  • Yes, Apple is huge.. if anybody is going to push people to move towards the future, it will be them, others will follow. People have said the same thing about previous things, and always end up moving forward. Just like Flash to HTML5. People complained so much that if a phone didn’t have Flash they wouldn’t buy it, yeah. The headphone jack is old. I think it’s about that time. The same was said with FAX machines, phones with no keyboards, cassette tapes, floppy disks, ect… People were just as annoying as today talking about how they’ve messed up for removing this and that. Even directors argued with film vs digital, now you see all the big name directors using Red. Millions of people already don’t use the headphone jacks and prefer wireless. They’re not trying to make you buy the lightning jack with headphone jacks, it’s just an option for you to have that way you can still use your older devices. They’re really pushing for the wireless tech they have. This is not bluetooth, you’re getting more bandwidth (12x), more bit-rate (300x), more range (4x) if the wireless is anything like wifi.

    Reply

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