> When was the last time you plugged your phone into anything except to charge?

Aside from headphones? March 15th, the last time I took a train (been at home due to covid since then)

> And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?

Last night, when I was watching futurama in bed

Now when it comes to both cases, the answer would again be March 15th, when I had my phone plugged into my laptop providing limited connectivity, my headphones plugged into my phone listening to (offline) spotify. I then unplugged my headphones from the phone and plugged into my laptop to listen to a short video, then back into my phone to continue to listening to music.

This is possible with a lightning+3.5mm jack dongle, but it's not as nice an experience as with the superior iphone of yesteryear.

> And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?

Not music, but phone calls. Working remotely means I spend a lot more time on the phone, and only recently I was frustrated by the fact that I could not charge my phone and use headphones on a call at the same time.

When was the last time you needed an airbag? I wouldn't be upset on _principle_ if it turns out my car doesn't have a working one; I don't even expect to use it frequently. However, when I do _need_ it, I'll need it badly.

Actually, I find it necessary to charge and listen and the same time pretty frequently (almost daily).

More importantly, though, removing the headphone jack is just plain stupid. Why should I support stupidity with my hard-earned money?

I have often wanted to charge my phone and listen to it at the same time. Wireless charging helped, but I really missed being able to plug my iPhone 8 into a power bank and my headphones at the same time.

Any time I go on a long drive with GPS running

Any time I get on a flight longer than 3 hours or so

When I've been using my phone a lot during the day but want to listen to music while I do dishes before bed

> When was the last time you plugged your phone into anything except to charge? And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?

It's been a while, because I dropped my adapter down somewhere in the center console of my car, past the hand brake, so it's gone. I've been burning CDs instead. A CD burner only costs about as much as 3 of those adapters and the media's dirt cheap.

[EDIT] before that, daily.

> And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?

On planes - although I guess it will be a while before I go on a flight again.

"And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?"

Well, I listen to audiobooks while walking in the Scottish mountains and 10+ hour days are possible and when running multiple apps (OS maps, Endomondo, Audible) I do need to charge and use my phone at the same time (I have a dual lightning/headphone adapter that supports charging and listening at the same time).

Over the last 8 weeks? Every single day. My regular bluetooth headset with built in mic picks up too much ambient noise, so I use a wired Jabra headset with a boom microphone, and I'm on this every day since I'm now remote from the people I need to speak to regularly.

Prior to the last 8 weeks? Not very often.

Over the next 8 weeks? I expect every day still.

Over the next year or two? 40% chance that it'll still be happening regularly.

> upset out of principle

Every single moment of "oh, I'll just plug my phone into the AUX... oh. right." is not "out of principle". It's made especially stark when contrasted with other devices: right now I'm 3.5mm'd into a 2019 MacBook for Zoom; I can trivially replug into the iPad next to me, but if I want to do the same with the equivalent era iPhone, I have to walk out of the room, root through a bag for the adapter, or go find the AirPods (hoping they're charged), probably re-select them as the output, while accepting the loss in quality from the old-school cans.

It's not some hypothetical: it's literally decades of habit and muscle memory, throwing away a simple and universal technology that worked insanely well. I can forgive this sort of short-term sacrifice for a transition to a better world: floppy for USB, HDMI for USB-C. One can debate whether the loss is necessary, but usually once we're on the other side, the new standard is inherently superior across every metric.

This is not the case for wired to wireless audio. Though I love the AirPods, they still have batteries, which still run down (short term, and long term). It's always more of a hassle to swap bluetooth connections than just replugging cables. If I want to not share my audio with the world, I can be 1000% sure of that by plugging in a cable, as opposed to the ephemeral "is my computer paired right now, and if so to what?", which could change at any moment when signal is lost or a battery dies. Sure, there's dongles, which is yet another piece of tech junk to juggle and find and lose, and which never seem to be around when you actually need it.

Imagine you went to your bookshelf to grab something to read, only to discover that your curated and beloved collection has all been pulped, and a Kindle with their contents is now in its place. Bezos enthusiastically tells you how much better the Kindle is, and how brave he is for "upgrading" you. That is how we feel. It's one thing to decide to make this sort of transition yourself; when a massive corporation does it on your behalf, "for your own good", yeah, we're gonna get peeved.

My car doesn't have bluetooth, so Monday?

When I wake up for an early meeting and find that I forgot to put the phone on the charger, so I need to charge ASAP and also get on the call with headphones.

>> lots of people who are going on and on about the headphone jack are upset out of principle, even though it won't actually degrade their user experience to a meaningful degree

But that is patently untrue.

1. I used to have a bunch of cheap, working headsets everywhere - laptop backpack, car, office, home. That whole use case and convenience is GONE.

2. If I was somewhere and needed to take a concall, I could just borrow anybody's headset. No longer the case.

3. Instead of having a good pair of headphones for 2 decades, I now have to buy new bluetooth headphones with unreplaceable battery and aging standards every few years, and worry about charging them etc.

My life has been so much worse since my employer switched to iPhone, that I wrote to my boss, project manager, practice lead, and in the end CFO. And not because "I'm one of those people" - I spend 3-6hrs a day on calls, and life just sucks now. (for those who think Airpods are "fine for calls" - yes. For YOU. Not for other 20 people on the call who have to hear everything happening in 5 miles radius of you. And heaven help us if multiple Airpods join the call!)

So even if we say life got worse for - whatever: 10%, 5%, 1% of population - how has it gotten BETTER for you guys that don't happen to have a need for a jack? The phone is not smaller, it doesn't have a better battery life, etc.

I just don't see the argument here other than "I don't need it, so nobody should have it".

I've now spent several hundred dollars on the best-reviewed, bluetooth headset for my conference calls, and it's nowhere near as good, or convenient, as my $29.99 wired headsets.

> And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time?

I'm doing it right now... I do it multiple times every day... And if I wasn't at home due to Covid I'd be doing so even more often.

Falling asleep to podcasts?

I regularly charge and listen - ill plug my phone into my 15,000 MA Lit battery when hike/walk for miles and listen to podcasts or the radio.

Something like this "addresses" it, it's just an inferior experience.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YFMNZ6T