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Comment by Zak | Hacker News Reader

The floppy disk stopped being good at moving files between computers and making backups because single files of popular types regularly exceeded its capacity at the time it stopped being a standard feature. Modems and CD drives had fallen into disuse in favor of alternatives by the time they started getting left out.

The analog headphone jack still does as good a job of connecting headphones, speakers and such in a practical sense as it always did. Perhaps even better since cars have aux in ports most of the time now[0]. It hasn't fallen into disuse either. While bluetooth headphones exist and enjoy some popularity, most people I know own, and regularly use wired headphones.

I don't think the analogy holds. The headphone jack is still as useful and popular with consumers as it ever was.

[0] Yes, they also usually have bluetooth, but getting a car and a phone to pair, and getting the right phone to be paired at the right time isn't always a good UX.

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> The floppy disk stopped being good at moving files between computers and making backups because single files of popular types regularly exceeded its capacity at the time it stopped being a standard feature. Modems and CD drives had fallen into disuse in favor of alternatives by the time they started getting left out.

There were still people who had stuff on floppies who wanted floppy drives.

There was a big fuss when Apple first removed CD drives from their laptops.

> The analog headphone jack still does as good a job of connecting headphones, speakers and such in a practical sense as it always did.

Many people -- I'm not claiming it's the majority -- disagree. Many people find headphone cables a big pain in the ass.

> While bluetooth headphones exist and enjoy some popularity, most people I know own, and regularly use wired headphones.

At least part of that is that wireless headphones tend to be expensive and many of them aren't the best at pairing and staying connected. Those things aren't inherent to wireless technology and will change over time.

> Yes, they also usually have bluetooth, but getting a car and a phone to pair, and getting the right phone to be paired at the right time isn't always a good UX.

Again, that's nothing inherent to wireless. Apparently the Apple wireless pairing works pretty perfectly.

> Many people find headphone cables a big pain in the ass.

But they don't also find having to charge headphones, and eventually to throw them out and purchase new ones, to be 'a big pain in the ass'?

> At least part of that is that wireless headphones tend to be expensive and many of them aren't the best at pairing and staying connected. Those things aren't inherent to wireless technology and will change over time.

I'm pretty sure that expense and complexity are inherent to wireless. No wireless connexion is going to be as cheap and reliable as an equivalent wired connexion, if only because the wireless connexion terminates in … a wire.

The complexity in wireless such as Bluetooth is strictly because it's a digital, packed-switched network driven by a fairly complicated software stack.

Basically, chaos originates from the involvement of computer science.

Cordless home phones and "900 Mhz" wireless headphones to use around the house are dead friggin' simple and reliable.

(Not to mention insecure: another story).

> But they don't also find having to charge headphones, and eventually to throw them out and purchase new ones, to be 'a big pain in the ass'?

you have to buy at least one pair of wireless headphones (and eventually they'll be bundled with phones), but you wouldn't need to replace them any more frequently than other headphones. This is the way with all changes. When wifi first became available we had to buy new modems.

As for charging them, that doesn't seem like a big pain to me. I charge my phone and laptop each day, this is just one other thing. For me the benefits -- no cables to get tangled (and have to untangle) or get caught on things -- outweigh the costs.

> I'm pretty sure that expense and complexity are inherent to wireless. No wireless connexion is going to be as cheap and reliable as an equivalent wired connexion, if only because the wireless connexion terminates in … a wire.

I hear the air pods are very reliable.

Regarding expense, if economies of scale get going, which I believe will happen, and manufacturers get more experience making them, then this will make the prices come down.

> but you wouldn't need to replace them any more frequently than other headphones

Except that the batteries will eventually stop holding a charge. This is not a problem with wired headphones. I can plug a 40 year old pair of headphones my Dad got in college into my phone and they work the same now as they did then. You can't do that with wireless headphones.

> Except that the batteries will eventually stop holding a charge.

You're wrongly assuming that this always means the headphones will no longer work. There are wireless headphones with replaceable batteries -- e.g. https://www.beoplay.com/products/beoplayh8#techtalk

And, it's not like most wired headphones last forever. I must have gone through 5 - 10 pairs in the last few years. Admittedly most of these were towards the lower-end, but still, they just stopped working.

This is an argument against non-removable batteries more than against wireless headphones in general. There's no reason headphones can't have both onboard charging and removable batteries in standardized sizes. It's fairly common in higher-end flashlights, for example.

>> The analog headphone jack still does as good a job of connecting headphones, speakers and such in a practical sense as it always did. >Many people -- I'm not claiming it's the majority -- disagree. Many people find headphone cables a big pain in the ass.

I agree completely - wireless headphones are amazing, I hate dealing with cables.

My first pair of bluetooth headphones were shit, and very difficult to switch devices, so I went back to wired. My second pair of bluetooth headphones (Bose QC something) are fantastic! Easily connect to multiple devices, easily switch between the devices. My third (AirPods) are similarly amazing, easy to switch devices, easy to pair.

I'm never buying a pair of wired headphones again.

That's great for you.

I still want cheep, easy to find, simple, reliable personal audio that doesn't depend on a low-noise RF environment.

I still want to EASILY interface with /all/ of the current devices that accept standard electronic line-in signal.

Sure, my use case is different than your's, but that port is still useful and it is a feature.

Just make the battery a little thicker to keep things uniform and give us all a full 10 hours of watching videos on a plain / train / etc.

When Apple released the imac without a floppy drive, public opinion definitely wasn't with them.

As far as I can tell, that move is now seen as prescient rather than premature.

It also dropped ADB, SCSI, serial, and parallel ports in favor of USB (1.1).

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