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Apple Seeks to Patent Thinner Headphone Jack

Article Comments  15  

Aug 18, 2011, 4:08 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

Apple has applied for a new patent that would halve the size of audio jacks for headphones and the ports needed to accommodate them. The jacks would be sliced in half lengthwise, decreasing the thickness from today's standard 3.5mm to 1.75mm. The housing for the jack would be placed on the outer edge of a device, rather than buried internally. The patent application notes that this would cause a few problems and Apple proposes how to solve them. First, though existing jacks would fit into the new design, there's nothing holding them in place, so they'd fall out. Apple proposes to solve this by creating a magnetic interface to hold the jack in place. Second, the half-exposed jacks would be visually unappealing. Apple suggests that future jacks include plastic caps to make them look better when magnetically attached to the edge of a device. In addition to removing 1.75mm from the thickness of the jack itself, the change would also reduce the size of the port by another 1.25mm. Apple would be able to shave a total of about 3mm off the design of audio jack ports, which could help it design thinner iPhones.

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island4prez

Aug 21, 2011, 12:44 PM

Another

Special part you need to use your Apple phone that will not be universal. I'm not getting it, why would I want to buy another pair of headphones that I can't even use on anything else.

I had an Ipod shuffle and all controls were on the wire, so when I broke those headphones I had to spend $35 just for another pair so I could even control Volume and song selection.

Pointless.. Well to me, some people will go for it and fall for this.
Kenzin

Aug 19, 2011, 8:53 AM

Wait a sec...

Didn't Nokia try this and it failed? They were having issues with the bands on the connector not having enough room to properly connect...or something along those lines. Which also lead to a decrease in sound quality.....why does Apple ALWAYS have to make things smaller?!
Maybe to make other things seem larger in comparison.... 👀 hahahaha!
It's not just about smaller though. It's also about exclusivity. You will be forced to buy their product and it won't be able to be used on any other device.
clemay

Aug 19, 2011, 9:32 AM

Keyword - Proprietary

Do you think they would allow anyone else to make accessories for this jack without a license? $$$$

This is one of the reasons I don't respect Apple anymore. They blatently do things to control you after you purchase their products.

It's more like you're renting it...

Once you invest in some accessories that ONLY work with Apple products, you are much more likely to keep buying them.

They know this, and exploit it fully.

* Full disclosure - I own an iPod Touch 4
It reminds of what happened a few years ago. A few manufacturers created portable DVD players with iPod docks built in so you can play videos on the screen without extra cables.

When the iPhone and iPod touch came out, Apple made changes to the ...
(continues)
...
ytravel

Aug 19, 2011, 8:43 AM

Patent hungry

The only reason they are doing this is to get another patent. They are truly desperate to edge out Android since they are buying Motorola. If apple truly want to be cutting edge, do away with wire and use bluetooth or even better come up with their own wireless headset. If they did that, they could actually make the thinnest phone 1mm.
netboy

Aug 18, 2011, 7:55 PM

no wonder they suing samsung!

cus apple are scare of samsung!
samsung phones are lighter and thinner than iphone! Samsung Galaxy S2 is thinner and lighter than iphone4 !
That's true. Just today I was chatting with my leasing office girl, and she has an Iphone 4, and I have the Samsung Droid Charge, mine is lighter.
geryfrie

Aug 18, 2011, 5:38 PM

Nokia tried this and failed

Nokia swam against the current for years with their smaller headphone jack. All they accomplished was to make folks mad.

Because Apple can sell swamp water to a Cajun, maybe they will succeed and "reinvent" and rename the Nokia headphone jack.
This is exactly why I won't get involved with Apple, way too much proprietary crap.
...
Tofuchong

Aug 18, 2011, 4:21 PM

OMG!

3mm thinner!! I MUST HAVE ONE!! PLEASE, TAKE MY $500.00!!!!
I will also not buy one unless they inlay water droplets into the background. I dont care if its an audio-jack, I WANT THE DROPLETS.
 
 
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