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Comment by sxcurry | Hacker News Reader

Well, it's official - Apple has failed again! Doomed I tell you, doomed! Forget the performance enhancements, better battery life, fantastic new cameras, etc, etc - I have to use a new earbud cable. Plus, Jony Ive is going around putting super glue in all the old iPhone audio jacks, so I can't even use my existing earbuds with my existing iPhone. Plus, Apple is charging me $0.00 for the adapter so that I can use my ratty old earbuds with my new phone. Doomed, I tell you.

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Oh gee you sure saw right through those people. Definitely true that that only possibilities are "every decision is correct" and "utter doomed failure". I'm glad you were here to remove all nuance.

You jest, but only the first adapter is free. Subsequent adapters will be $9.99.

You can always buy a new iPhone 7 for another free adapter.

Joking aside, I think most people won't notice as the new EarPods connect to the Lightning. That is what I mostly see people with iPhones around having.

Super extreme nitpick, it's listed at $9.00 on Apple's store:

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-...

I must say, I'm a bit shocked at the price. I wouldn't have expected Apple to sell a paperclip for under $19. Their Lightning to USB cable, which seems like it must be strictly simpler than this adapter (no DAC!) costs $19.

How small are DACs? I was surprised that the new Lightning earbuds basically look identical to the current ones besides the jack. Do they definitely have a DAC built in or is it still in the phone body?

Looks like they're pretty small. They're single chips, and small ones at that. Here's a datasheet for one I found at random:

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm1754-q1.pdf

That lists the size as about 6x5x2mm. Should fit comfortably within a lightning connector.

Consider that the new wireless earbuds have a DAC in each earbud, plus a full Bluetooth radio, all squeezed in there.

I don't think this cable contains a DAC. I would imagine they use some pins of the Lightning connector to transport Analog audio. They still need a DAC for the speaker and such.

I wonder how much the publicity angle plays into their decisions on retiring interfaces? Looking at this one, they've had thousands of articles and comments written over a headphone jack. Would the phone's release receive quite the same level of coverage had they left it unchanged?

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