TECHNOLOGY TIPS – The New Type-C USB
Apple made it official that the iPhone 7 will be announced on Wednesday, September 7. The new phone will be very similar to the iPhone 6 externally. There will be improved cameras and no headphone jack, which will instead be a Type-C USB port.
For those who don’t know the headphone jack you currently use is a 3.5mm audio jack. The jack came out with the Sony Walkman portable tape player and at the time was groundbreaking in its technology. According to Wikipedia, “the phone connector was invented for use in telephone switchboards in the 19th century and is still widely used.” Once it was reduced in size for use in other technologies like a smartphone and computing devices, it was the standard bearer for this technology.
The proponents of the new USB port are excited about the prospects including thinner devices, faster charging, digital sound improvements and better video. The jack takes up precious real estate within the technology and can cause interference. The opponents to the new USB port are concerned about the many headphones and earbuds that become obsolete unless they have an adapter in addition to the power consumption a USB will have on their smaller devices like a smart phone or tablet.
For those who are unfamiliar, USB Type-C is already in use by Apple MacBook, HP Spectre laptops, Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and Google Nexus 6P. These mainstream users are paving the way for this change because the USB Type-C is not going away.
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