iPhone 7: Get over the 3.5mm headphone jack, luddites!

Apple has always pushed the envelope in terms of adopting new technologies, and discarding ones that have been around forever. And it looks like that might happen again with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Rumors are swirling that the company might remove the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 to make the phone thinner and free up more internal space for a larger battery or other enhancements.

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. And there are always luddites that try to desperately hang onto old technologies. So some Apple customers have started a petition to try and force Apple to keep the standard 3.5mm headphone jack in the iPhone 7.

I’ll share my thoughts below, but here’s the text of the petition found on the Sum Of Us site:

Apple is about to rip off every one of its customers. Again.

If the rumours are true, the new iPhone 7 will have a non-standard, proprietary headphone jack — making every pair of headphones on earth useless. Not only will this force iPhone users to dole out additional cash to replace their hi-fi headphones, it will singlehandedly create mountains of electronic waste — that likely won’t get recycled.

There’s only one reason for this change: to leverage Apple’s market share in order to extract even more profit from its customers. With virtually no third-party manufacturers ready to fill the new market gap, Apple stands to make a killing while we — and our planet — pay the price.

This is right out of the Apple corporate playbook. A few years ago it swapped out the original iPod-dock connector with a new one, making countless cords, cables and chargers obsolete — for limited performance improvement. The screws in Apple products can’t even be opened with a traditional screwdriver — making it harder to repair a product you paid for.

According to the United Nations, up to 90% of the world’s electronic waste is illegally traded or dumped each year. We need to bring more care and attention to this growing issue — not aggravate it through reckless, profit-driven decisions that will deliver countless perfectly useable items straight to the landfill.

Apple was making devices filled with toxic chemicals and running on filthy coal energy — until people pressured the company to improve. But Apple isn’t a green company, and even if it was, other headphones makers certainly aren’t. We have only one planet to live on, and can’t keep wasting resources unnecessarily. Tell Apple to respect its customers and our planet. Keep the standard headphone jack.

More at Sum Of Us

I have to admit that I find this petition more than a little hilarious. The tone of outrage over a headphone jack made me guffaw while I sipped my coffee while reading it. Really? A headphone jack? This is an important problem to these first-world whiners? Give me a break.

I also found the “save mother earth” propaganda worth a chuckle or two. It reminds me of a two-year-old trying to blackmail their parents to get something they want. If the parents don’t give in, bad things will happen! And that’s exactly the tactic being used by the luddites in their arguments: keep the 3.5mm headphone jack or mother earth will die!!! Ha, ha. Priceless!

Who cares about the 3.5mm headphone jack in the iPhone?

I’m already on record in favor of dumping the 3.5mm headphone jack in the iPhone 7. Apple can’t get rid of it fast enough for me. I could care less about having it, and I’d be very happy indeed if it meant better speakers, longer battery life or some other enhancement to the next iPhone.

And I recently bought a great pair of bluetooth, noise reduction headphones. They work incredibly well with my iPhone 6s Plus. So now I care even less if Apple keeps the 3.5mm headphone jack because I don’t use it anymore anyway. I’ve moved on to a newer, better technology.

I love my bluetooth headphones. I listen to music and audiobooks while cleaning the house and doing other things. And there’s no wire to get caught on furniture and other objects while I move around. It’s a far, far better experience than my previous wired headphones, and I would never go back to them now.

Bluetooth headphones and earbuds are the future, like it or not luddites. Apple knows this and is acting accordingly. In the short term the company is going to ruffle some feathers, but over the long term an ancient and now unnecessary technology will be retired, and that’s a good thing.

It’s called progress, luddites. And it’s going to happen, whether you like it or not. And your petition won’t save you from having to adapt and move on.

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