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Apple officially ditches headphone jack for Lightning, will include adapter in iPhone 7 box

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will ship not only with a pair of Lightning-connected EarPods, but also a legacy headphone adapter in the box, Apple announced on Wednesday.

It takes "courage" to move on from the longstanding 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said on Wednesday. He said users want new features in their phones, where space is at a premium —  eliminating the headphone jack allows for that kind of innovation.

Every iPhone 7 unit will ship with Lightning EarPods, utilizing the digital audio capabilities of Apple's proprietary port. And to ease the switch, Apple is also including an adapter in the box that will allow users to connect traditional headphones to the Lightning port.

Apple did not indicate how much additional Lightning to Headphone Adapters will cost when purchased separately from the iPhone 7. The company also unveiled new AirPods wireless headphones, which will be sold separately from the iPhone.



113 Comments

mac_128 12 Years · 3452 comments

Definitely surprised these will be in the box. And they're not really as slim as I'd hoped. I expect third parties to really improve these. No mention how these can be used for charging and listening. Hope Apple adds a simple pass-through to the charging cable in the box. Wonder when that will be confirmed?

Boy Phil sure looked like he was uncomfortable making that announcement. Definitely took some balls to face the headphone jack removal head on as they did, rather than just focus on what they're adding and where they're going.

zmas 8 Years · 1 comment

Remember when you could charge your phone and listen to music at the same time?

twidan911 8 Years · 1 comment

What a fool. How do u charge it while listening now?!?!? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Bring back the jack!!!!

tallest skil 14 Years · 43086 comments

zmas said:
Remember when you could charge your phone and listen to music at the same time?

Remember when no one did that, ever.

rogifan_new 9 Years · 4297 comments

I hope they made improvements to Music. It really drains my battery on my 6S.

No price mentioned for the wireless buds so I'm assuming they'll be very expensive.