After months of rumors and criticism online, Apple confirmed Wednesday that it will eliminate the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
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Speaking during the launch event at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller said that it took “courage” to ditch the headphone jack.
The company’s Apple Watch also was updated for the first time since it was introduced in 2014.
Accessory-maker Belkin to the rescue then, with it’s new £35 Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar – awful name, likely an essential buy for many just to use the included headphones and charge.
You don’t need special headphones to hear all the griping about Apple nixing the headphone jack.
Double-tapping the AirPods activates the Siri voice command tool, when can also now be accessed remotely to give instructions to other devices though built-in mic.
To save battery life, the AirPods have sensors that detect when they’re in your ears.
Built-in microphones also let users conduct conversations through the AirPods and interact with Siri. It turns out that murmurings about the new iPhone’s wireless headphones are true. The wireless earbuds use a proprietary technology that will make it only compatible with Apple’s current product line.
The most courageous move of all, according to one Twitter user, may be wearing the new AirPods in public. It is available only on the Apple.com website. These prices increase to £699 and £799 for the 128GB and 256GB iPhone 7 and £819 and £919 for the larger two iPhone 7 Plus.
But either way it seems to have worked, as availability of the new phone dwindles.
Apple’s own iPhone dock which costs more than Rs 8,000 in India is also being touted as a way to charge the phone and listen to music simultaneously.
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In the U.S., the cost of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus start at $649 and $769 respectively, putting them in line with the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus when they launched in 2015.
