Steve Jobs would hate the iPhone 7's wireless ear buds
The new iPhone 7 features caused a lot of excitement during Apple's announcement event Wednesday — but Apple co-founder Steve Jobs might not have been so pleased with the progress. One of the day's most buzzed-about reveals involved the new iPhone model doing away with the traditional headphone jack, forcing users to either use headphones with a Lightning-friendly cable, or go totally wireless.
It's exactly those wireless ear buds, however, that Jobs might have taken issue with. "Steve Jobs once argued with me about doing wireless earbuds," The Verge's Walt Mossberg recalled. "'You want yet another thing to charge?' he said."
Mossberg added that Apple's new wireless headphones, or "AirPods," which run $159, will indeed be annoying to charge. "Five hours of battery life between charges on the new AirPods won't likely get you through a cross country flight," he pointed out.
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Apple's other co-founder, Steve Wozniak, has also frowned upon the company's decision to make such a change to the new iPhone. "If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people," Wozniak told the Australian Financial Review in August.
The new iPhone will reportedly come with an adapter that will allow traditional earphones to plug into the new Lightning jack — hopefully a happy compromise for everyone.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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