Using technology that sounds like it comes straight out of Predator, Miku is a new baby monitor that watches and senses your baby’s vitals in real time. The system not only broadcasts a secure feed of your baby’s sleep time but it also analyzes the heart rate and breathing without wearables.
The system uses military technology to sense the baby’s vitals and it will store video even if the Wi-Fi goes out.
The Miku Baby Monitor uses patent-pending AI and machine learning technology called SensorFusion, which combines optical and wireless sensing to build a full and accurate picture of the baby’s critical health metrics with no wires or wearables. Beyond breathing and sleeping patterns, these sensors track temperature and humidity levels to ensure the baby’s environment is stable. Miku’s technology and corresponding app work with smartphones from anywhere in the world and sends instant alerts when it matters most, giving parents a tranquil peace of mind.
The app also records data over time, giving the parents a better understanding of sleep patterns and the like. Developed by CEO and new parent Eric White, the Miku builds on White’s experience building gear and software for the Department of Defense, ITT, L3 and Picatinny.
The team believes the monitor will also work will with elder care as well, allowing worried children to keep an eye on their parents.
“The Miku Baby Monitor is only the beginning for us,” said White. “As a new father, I know there is a huge need for this level of technology and sophistication in a product people entrust to help care for their loved ones. The applications for Miku’s technology are limitless.”
The Miku is available for order now and costs $399.
For Juul Labs, 2018 was a long year full of ups and downs, with the company coming under heavy scrutiny by the FDA over the popularity of the nicotine vaporizer with young people. But as we begin 2019, Juul is kicking off the year with a massive ad campaign focused on getting adult smokers to “make the switch” to Juul.
The marketing campaign is part of a broader effort for the company fresh off a $12.8 billion financing from cigarette juggernaut Altria and a bout of withering criticism from the U.S. government.
“It [underage use] is an issue we desperately want to resolve,” Chief Product Officer and co-founder James Monsees said in August. “It doesn’t do us any favors. Any underage consumers using this product are absolutely a negative for our business. We don’t want them. We will never market to them. We never have. And they are stealing life years from adult cigarette consumers at this moment, and that’s a shame.”
The difference between the 2015 campaign and these new TV spots is stark, with the new ads hyper focused on older individuals telling their stories of switching from cigarettes to Juul.
The main spend ($10 million) is going toward TV spots, with the ads airing on cable after 10pm, geared specifically toward an older audience. Radio, print and online ads featuring testimonials have already begun circulating, and total spend on the campaign is around $20 million. Juul intends to remain flexible on overall spend on the campaign, so that number could go up or down as the marketing push continues.
Juul’s sales figures are kept under wraps, giving us little insight into how public and government scrutiny have affected the company’s financials. That said, it’s clear that the brand has been eroded over the last year, despite the company’s scaled efforts to rectify the situation.
These ads seem to be a step in the right direction for the company. Studies have shown that Juul is effective in helping adult smokers switch from combustible cigarettes. Public Health England has also said that e-cigs are 95 percent less harmful than traditional smokes. That said, the scientific community has yet to determine whether or not there are long-term health risks associated with e-cigs.
However, the segment that is most likely to benefit from Juul is also a group that has been stigmatized over the last few decades and ultimately garner little empathy from the rest of society, despite suffering from an addiction to the leading cause of preventable death across the globe. But if Juul, and e-cigs in general, can show the life-saving potential that comes with disrupting traditional cigarettes, maybe the company can build up more credibility with the public as a whole.
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here:
The 20-qubit system combines the quantum and classical computing parts it takes to use a machine like this for research and business applications into a single package. While it’s worth stressing that the 20-qubit machine is nowhere near powerful enough for most commercial applications, IBM sees this as the first step towards tackling problems that are too complex for classical systems.
Nothing grows forever, not even Apple. Back in August we splashed headlines across the globe glorifying Apple’s brief stint as the world’s first $1 trillion company, but in the end it didn’t matter. Fast-forward four months and Apple has lost more than a third of its stock value, and last week the company lost $75 billion in market cap in a single day.
Starting today, free GitHub users will now get unlimited private projects with up to three collaborators. Previously, GitHub had a caveat for its free users that code had to be public if they didn’t pay for the service.
Uber’s public debut later this year is undoubtedly the most anticipated IPO of 2019, but the company’s lofty valuation (valued by some as high as $120 billion) has some investors feeling uneasy.
Amazon has announced a new partnership with Telenav, a Santa Clara-based provider of connected car services. The collaboration will play a huge role in expanding Amazon’s ability to give drivers relevant information and furthers the company’s mission to bake Alexa into every aspect of your life.
The future of in-vehicle entertainment could be VR. Audi announced at CES that it’s rolling out a new company called Holoride to bring adaptive VR entertainment to cars. The secret sauce here is matching VR content to the slight movements of the vehicle to help those who often get motion sickness.
Nothing like some CES drama to start your day. AT&T recently shared a shady marketing campaign that labeled its 4G networks as 5G and rivals Verizon and T-Mobile are having none of it.
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here:
The 20-qubit system combines the quantum and classical computing parts it takes to use a machine like this for research and business applications into a single package. While it’s worth stressing that the 20-qubit machine is nowhere near powerful enough for most commercial applications, IBM sees this as the first step towards tackling problems that are too complex for classical systems.
Nothing grows forever, not even Apple. Back in August we splashed headlines across the globe glorifying Apple’s brief stint as the world’s first $1 trillion company, but in the end it didn’t matter. Fast-forward four months and Apple has lost more than a third of its stock value, and last week the company lost $75 billion in market cap in a single day.
Starting today, free GitHub users will now get unlimited private projects with up to three collaborators. Previously, GitHub had a caveat for its free users that code had to be public if they didn’t pay for the service.
Uber’s public debut later this year is undoubtedly the most anticipated IPO of 2019, but the company’s lofty valuation (valued by some as high as $120 billion) has some investors feeling uneasy.
Amazon has announced a new partnership with Telenav, a Santa Clara-based provider of connected car services. The collaboration will play a huge role in expanding Amazon’s ability to give drivers relevant information and furthers the company’s mission to bake Alexa into every aspect of your life.
The future of in-vehicle entertainment could be VR. Audi announced at CES that it’s rolling out a new company called Holoride to bring adaptive VR entertainment to cars. The secret sauce here is matching VR content to the slight movements of the vehicle to help those who often get motion sickness.
Nothing like some CES drama to start your day. AT&T recently shared a shady marketing campaign that labeled its 4G networks as 5G and rivals Verizon and T-Mobile are having none of it.
Google Assistant is following Amazon Alexa into vehicles. One of the first products to offer the capability is from Anker — just like as one of the first in-vehicle Alexa products.
Called the Roav Bolt, the device plugs into a 12-volt power port and lets the driver access Google Assistant through the “OK Google” command. Once connected to the in-vehicle system through Bluetooth or a 3.5mm cable, the product will let drivers play audio, enable navigation, read text, make calls and more.
The Roav Bolt also has two USB ports for recharging devices too.
I tried out the Roav Viva a year ago and found the system clunk to configure and a pain to use. Also, at the time Alexa lacked features that made it compelling to use in a vehicle and the third-party device lacked some functionality like support for Spotify. This time around with Google Assistant, it’s likely the Roav Bolt offers enough features to make it more worthwhile for more people. This seems like an easy way to get the power of Google into a car.
The Roav Bolt will be available for purchase in February for $49.99
AT&T recently started a shady marketing tactic that labeled its 4G network as a 5G network. Now, rivals Verizon and T-Mobile are not having any of it.
In an open letter, in which AT&T is not named directly, Verizon says in part “the potential to over-hype and under-deliver on the 5G promise is a temptation that the wireless industry must resist.” TechCrunch agrees. The advantages of 5G networks are profound. The next generation of wireless networks will bring more than just increased speeds and AT&T’s current campaign of calling a 4G network a 5G network clouds the water.
T-Mobile is more direct in its criticism of AT&T. Because that’s how T-Mobile rolls. Watch.
This isn’t the first time AT&T has employed this mislabeling campaign. The wireless carrier did something similar prior to launching its LTE network and it was shady then and it’s shady now.
Disclosure: TechCrunch is a Verizon Media company.
Netflix has pioneered the age of cord-cutting and become synonymous with streaming. And Netflix is now producing more original content than ever. The latest, called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, is an interactive film that shows the power of streaming media.
Bandersnatch is the latest installment of Black Mirror, one of Netflix’s most popular titles. But what is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and why is everybody talking about it? Here are the answers to the questions you’re asking about Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
What Is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch?
Black Mirror has been a favorite among viewers since it first premiered in 2011. It’s a science fiction anthology series that focuses on a future where the technological advancements bring out the dark side of humans.
The show didn’t start as a Netflix Original but was instead bought over by Netflix after two seasons on the British TV network, Channel 4. Bandersnatch is a standalone “interactive” film in the Black Mirror series.
“Interactive” is the keyword here. Interactive means that the viewer gets to make choices in the film and these choices affect the flow and the ending of the story. Think of it like this—Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a movie that you can play like a game.
The story revolves around a young video game developer named Stefan as he tries to complete a choose your own adventure game called Bandersnatch. This is just one of the many “meta” references in the film.
Which Platforms Does Bandersnatch Run On?
While Netflix limits its content by region, content usually plays on any platform. So one would assume that Black Mirror: Bandersnatch runs on any device that runs Netflix. Unfortunately that isn’t the case.
Netflix states that Bandersnatch is available on newer platforms that are capable enough to run the interactive experience, like smart TVs, most modern browsers, Android and iOS devices, and games consoles.
It also said that the film wouldn’t be available on Apple TV, Chromecast, and specific older hardware that doesn’t support Netflix software updates. Bandersnatch also doesn’t work with Silverlight browsers, so you might want to look into Silverlight workarounds for Netflix.
The reason for this is that Bandersnatch isn’t a video file just available to stream on Netflix like most of its regular content. It’s a program written in a programming language called Twine.
You can best experience Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on a games console. The controller even gives you vibration feedback when presented with a choice, which is both cool and creepy.
How Long Does It Take to Watch Bandersnatch?
Netflix lists the official runtime of the film as 1 hour and 30 minutes. However, since this is an interactive film, there is no set time.
The shortest way through Bandersnatch will take you 40 minutes, and the longest can take you over 2 hours. The film does not let you rewind as typical video content does. However, you can sometimes loop back to the last choice and choose a different path.
The makers filmed over 5 hours of footage for Bandersnatch. And you’ll be able to watch most of it by choosing different paths through the story.
How Many Endings Does Bandersnatch Have?
There is no official count of the total number of endings to Bandersnatch. The most commonly accepted figure right now is five. However, some fans of Bandersnatch have found up to 10 different endings. And it’s almost certain that there are even more endings programmed in.
Some of the more dedicated fans have made detailed flow charts mapping the different endings and how to reach them, like the one below. Beware: Spoilers below!
Even the makers of Bandersnatch don’t agree on the number of endings it has. The Hollywood Reporter asked Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker how many endings Bandersnatch has, and his reply was: “All of them.”
So it looks like this question may never have a definitive answer, and is yet another thing for the viewer to figure out by themselves.
Are There Secret Endings and Easter Eggs?
As previously mentioned, Bandersnatch has a lot of underlying “meta” themes. That means that things can get creepily self-aware. Spoiler alert! At one point, you even get the option to tell the protagonist, Stefan, that we are watching and controlling him on Netflix.
There are multiple references to Netflix in the film. One of the references cycles after an ending, as a mid-credits scene. There’s also one that will take you beyond the camera, to the set of Bandersnatch.
Creator Charlie Brooker had revealed that there is a secret ending that even the creators themselves cannot access. Another secret ending can lead you to the download link for one of the games mentioned in the film.
There is a good chance that there are more secret endings that even the most ardent fans have yet to discover.
Why Exactly Is Bandersnatch So Special?
Bandersnatch is a milestone in Netflix’s attempt at making interactive content and a glimpse at what the future holds for streamers. However, that is not the reason that makes it so unique.
The main thing that makes Bandersnatch special is that it gives Netflix an insight into its users like never before. Every way you play Bandersnatch helps Netflix better understand what you want from its content.
Think of your choices in Bandersnatch as live feedback to Netflix. Data like this is an excellent tool for Netflix to improve its content, interactive or otherwise. This is important, especially since Netflix is set to face some tough competition from Disney’s streaming service.
The Future of Interactive Content
With Netflix’s big experiment creating such a buzz, the competition is bound to try and emulate this new model. This is not because regular content is boring, but streaming media companies are always looking for more and more ways to get people to cut the cord, and interactive content serves that purpose.
Netflix currently has a few other interactive titles, many of which they have designed for kids. Popular titles include Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, and Minecraft: Story Mode, and more are likely to be released in the future.
Bandersnatch itself might not be the last interactive installment in the Black Mirror series. A Black Mirror interactive film that is designed to collect data about user behavior flies in the face of the show’s premise, and that is an irony that Netflix is likely to milk to the fullest.
The Ctrl + Alt + Delete menu on Windows collects many handy utilities in one place. But pressing those keys on a Mac does nothing, so how do you Ctrl + Alt + Delete on a Mac?
While there’s no exact match, you’ll find that all the items on the Windows Ctrl + Alt + Del screen are available in macOS too. Let’s take a look.
What’s in the Control + Alt + Delete Menu?
A lot of people equate Ctrl + Alt + Del with only the Task Manager. But that actually has its own shortcut on Windows: Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
As it turns out, pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Del shortcut on Windows brings up a menu with the following options:
Lock: Displays the lock screen and requires your password to get back in.
Switch user: Swap to another user account without logging out of yours.
Sign out: Log out of your account, but do not shut down the computer.
Task Manager: Opens the utility that lets you manage processes and more.
The menu also contains shortcuts in the bottom-right to manage network settings, Ease of Access utilities, and power options. Let’s look at the ways to perform all these actions on a Mac.
How to Close Frozen Apps on Mac
You can use Cmd + Q to quit apps on a Mac. But if an app is frozen, it won’t respond to this. Instead, press Cmd + Option + Esc to bring up the Force Quit Applications window. This lets you forcefully close an app if doing it normally won’t work.
This is the quickest way to force-close processes, so it’s a shortcut all Mac users should know.
The easiest way to open the Activity Monitor is by launching Spotlight, your Mac’s search tool, with Cmd + Space. Then type Activity Monitor and press Return to launch it.
Power and Account Options on Mac
You’ll find equivalents for many Ctrl + Alt + Del menu options in the Apple Menu at the top-left corner of the screen.
You can choose to Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down here. It also holds Lock Screen and Log Out options. If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, use Ctrl + Cmd + Q to lock your screen, or Shift + Cmd + Q to log out.
For an equivalent of the Switch User option, you’ll need to visit System Preferences > Users & Groups. Click the lock at the bottom of the window to make changes, then select Login Options on the left sidebar.
Check the box for Show fast user switching menu as and choose an option. You’ll see a new option at the top-right of your menu bar. Click this, then pick another user’s name from the list to swap to it without logging out.
Network and Accessibility Options on Mac
The Ctrl + Alt + Delete menu also lets you access network and accessibility options, as mentioned. Most people probably don’t use those shortcuts often, but we include their Mac equivalents here for the sake of completion.
To access accessibility options, open System Preferences > Accessibility. Here you’ll find tools to change the zoom level, adjust mouse options, enable mono audio, and more.
For network options, visit System Preferences > Network. This lets you add a new network, change existing settings, and more.
Ctrl + Alt + Delete on Mac Made Easy
Now you know how to Ctrl + Alt + Delete on a Mac. While these utilities aren’t an exact replacement, they give you most of the same functionality of the equivalent Windows menu. Most importantly, keep the Cmd + Option + Esc shortcut in mind for closing rogue apps.
AT&T recently started a shady marketing tactic that labeled its 4G network as a 5G network. Now, rivals Verizon and T-Mobile are not having any of it.
In an open letter, in which AT&T is not named directly, Verizon says in part “the potential to over-hype and under-deliver on the 5G promise is a temptation that the wireless industry must resist.” TechCrunch agrees. The advantages of 5G networks are profound. The next generation of wireless networks will bring more than just increased speeds and AT&T’s current campaign of calling a 4G network a 5G network clouds the water.
T-Mobile is more direct in its criticism of AT&T. Because that’s how T-Mobile rolls. Watch.
This isn’t the first time AT&T has employed this mislabeling campaign. The wireless carrier did something similar prior to launching its LTE network and it was shady then and it’s shady now.
Disclosure: TechCrunch is a Verizon Media company.
Another day, another batch of bad apps in Google Play.
Researchers at security firm Trend Micro have discovered dozens of apps, including popular utilities and games, to serve a ton of deceptively displayed ads — including full-screen ads, hidden ads and running in the background to squeeze as much money out of unsuspecting Android users.
In all, the researchers found 85 apps pushing adware, totaling at least 9 million affected users.
One app — a universal TV remote app for Android — had more than five million users alone, despite a rash of negative reviews and complaints that ads were “hidden in the background.” Other users said that there were “so many ads, [they] can’t even use it.”
The researchers tested each app and found that most shared the same or similar code, and often the apps were similarly named. At every turn, tap or click, the app would display an ad, they found. In doing so, the app generates money for the app maker.
Some of the bad adware-ridden apps found by security researchers. (Image: Trend Micro)
Adware-fueled apps might not seem as other apps packed with malware or hidden functionality, such as apps that pull malicious payloads from another server after the app is installed. At scale, that can amount to thousands of fraudulent ad dollars each week. Some ads also have a tendency to be malicious, containing hidden code that tries to trick users into installing malware on their phones or computers.
Google told TechCrunch that it had removed the apps, but a spokesperson did not comment further.
We tried reaching out to the universal TV remote app creator but the registered email on the since-removed Google Play store points to a domain that no longer exists.
Despite Google’s best efforts in scanning apps before they’re accepted into Google Play, malicious apps are one of the biggest and most common threats to Android users. Google pulled more than 700,000 malicious apps from Google Play in the past year alone, and has tried to improve its back-end to prevent malicious apps from getting into the store in the first place.
Yet the search and mobile giant continues to battle rogue and malicious apps, pulling at least 13 malicious apps in sweep in November alone.
He wrote that he had finally bitten the bullet and shelled out to upgrade a more than three-years-old (but still working) iPhone 6 for a shiny new iPhone XR ($750+) — deciding at the last minute to spare his wallet the full $1,000 whack for the top of the range iPhone XS.
Ergo, even the famous Apple premium only stretches so far.
I bring even less good news for the company. I still can’t bring myself to upgrade my (still working but now heavily creaking on the battery and storage front) iPhone 6S because — and here’s my line — Apple removed the headphone jack. Which is absolutely an affront to usability and choice.
My (petite) ears do not conform to the one-size fits all shape Cupertino uses for its bundled earbuds. So even if the earbuds weren’t low audio quality I still couldn’t use them. Headphones that you have to walk around holding in your ears because otherwise every twist and head turn pops them right back out again are, to put it politely, not very useful.
And, yes, this also applies to wireless AirPods — even if I wanted to give Apple more money to be forever stuck having to charge a pair of headphones before being able to use them, which frankly doesn’t sound very smart to me.
On the earbuds front Apple does not cater to petite people, period. I have to use in-ear headphones, with replaceable rubber caps that come in a range of sizes (typically requiring the tiniest of the bunch). This means a 3.5mm jack, which lets me use my own choice of appropriately sized headphones, is not optional but essential.
A 3.5mm jack also lets me invest in higher audio quality kit, should I choose to.
Apple has other ideas, however. And judging by its own messaging at the time it ditched the headphone jack, it presumably thinks I should bravely ram its earbuds in my undersized ears anyway. Er, no thanks!
Of course I could upgrade and just plug in a dongle to (re)convert the Lightning port into the necessary 3.5mm headphone jack. But that’s yet another dongle tax ($9) I shouldn’t have to pay.
iPhones are a premium product, after all. Having to buy extra accessories that are actually essential to get you back to where you were doesn’t feel like progress. (A better word for these irritating wallet-gougers would be ‘unnecessaries’.)
Add to that there is of course the sheer irritation and hassle of having to remember to have the stupid thing with you whenever you want to use your headphones.
While, for those into Apple aesthetics, dongles are of course 100% pure eyesore.
Also — an extra kicker — the Apple Lighting to 3.5mm converter doesn’t appear to play nice with third party remotes. So your headphones’ physical volume control is probably going to be glitchy… (Just check out all these 1-star reviews.)
I won’t get started on Apple also vanishing the SD card port from the MBA. But the expense and hassle of trying to deal with that SNAFU, following a work laptop upgrade, has put me right off the prospect of ‘courageously’ forgetting about other ports that I really need to use.
Nor am I the only TCer affronted by Apple ditching the headphone jack. My colleague Greg Kumparak wrote in December that he’s still missing the 3.5mm port two years later. “It enabled happy moments and never got in the way,” he lamented of the missing jack.
Safe to say, no one is ever going to bemoan the lack of a dongle like that.
For TC’s Miller, he was finally pushed to upgrade his trusty old iPhone because of bad battery and a glitchy recharge cable.
My own iPhone 6S has also tipped over into bad battery territory. The original battery was replaced in 2017 (after being in a faulty bunch that Apple offered free replacements for). But the other day the phone experienced its first “unexpected shutdown” — and a pop-up informed me Peak Performance Capability had been switched on.
Aka the performance management feature Apple got in some hot water with consumer groups for not being clear enough about previously. So there’s now an option to disable this in iOS settings.
I could also, of course, pay to replace the battery. Which would be a lot cheaper than a new iPhone. Or else — even cheaper — just carry a spare battery pack.
So which is less hassle to remember? A spare battery or a headphone dongle?
At least a battery pack extends the daily longevity of the handset which feels like it’s offering some added utility (with the bonus social feature of being able to offer to juice up friends’ devices on-demand).
I’d certainly much prefer to keep a spare battery pack in my bag when I leave the house than always be trying to remember where on earth I left the dumb headphone dongle.
Ignoring Apple’s customary fraying charger cables (which can just be replaced), the other issue I’m facing with my current iPhone is storage. It’s almost full.
Apple offers cloud storage for a fee (after a small amount of free space). But I could also delete stuff I’m not using and buy an external hard drive for storing iPhone photo content (which is what’s taking up the most space) and offload the data to that.
Then I could wipe the iPhone 6S clean and start again.
Frankly the prospect of a rebooted iPhone 6S, which (battery wobbles aside) otherwise still works fine, is more appealing than paying a premium for an otherwise not so different handset which will, in certain key aspects, be less welcoming and useful to me than the one I already own.
It’s almost the more environmentally friendly choice, of course. And let’s not forget that lots of dongles = lots more unnecessary e-waste. So imposed dongle hell is bad for the planet too.
One size never fits all but when combined with an upwardly inflating Apple premium the Cupertino philosophy is starting to feel increasingly awkward.
While ‘reuse don’t replace’ feels more and more normal.
He wrote that he had finally bitten the bullet and shelled out to upgrade a more than three-years-old (but still working) iPhone 6 for a shiny new iPhone XR ($750+) — deciding at the last minute to spare his wallet the full $1,000 whack for the top of the range iPhone XS.
Ergo, even the famous Apple premium only stretches so far.
I bring even less good news for the company. I still can’t bring myself to upgrade my (still working but now heavily creaking on the battery and storage front) iPhone 6S because — and here’s my line — Apple removed the headphone jack. Which is absolutely an affront to usability and choice.
My (petite) ears do not conform to the one-size fits all shape Cupertino uses for its bundled earbuds. So even if the earbuds weren’t low audio quality I still couldn’t use them. Headphones that you have to walk around holding in your ears because otherwise every twist and head turn pops them right back out again are, to put it politely, not very useful.
And, yes, this also applies to wireless AirPods — even if I wanted to give Apple more money to be forever stuck having to charge a pair of headphones before being able to use them, which frankly doesn’t sound very smart to me.
On the earbuds front Apple does not cater to petite people, period. I have to use in-ear headphones, with replaceable rubber caps that come in a range of sizes (typically requiring the tiniest of the bunch). This means a 3.5mm jack, which lets me use my own choice of appropriately sized headphones, is not optional but essential.
A 3.5mm jack also lets me invest in higher audio quality kit, should I choose to.
Apple has other ideas, however. And judging by its own messaging at the time it ditched the headphone jack, it presumably thinks I should bravely ram its earbuds in my undersized ears anyway. Er, no thanks!
Of course I could upgrade and just plug in a dongle to (re)convert the Lightning port into the necessary 3.5mm headphone jack. But that’s yet another dongle tax ($9) I shouldn’t have to pay.
iPhones are a premium product, after all. Having to buy extra accessories that are actually essential to get you back to where you were doesn’t feel like progress. (A better word for these irritating wallet-gougers would be ‘unnecessaries’.)
Add to that there is of course the sheer irritation and hassle of having to remember to have the stupid thing with you whenever you want to use your headphones.
While, for those into Apple aesthetics, dongles are of course 100% pure eyesore.
Also — an extra kicker — the Apple Lighting to 3.5mm converter doesn’t appear to play nice with third party remotes. So your headphones’ physical volume control is probably going to be glitchy… (Just check out all these 1-star reviews.)
I won’t get started on Apple also vanishing the SD card port from the MBA. But the expense and hassle of trying to deal with that SNAFU, following a work laptop upgrade, has put me right off the prospect of ‘courageously’ forgetting about other ports that I really need to use.
Nor am I the only TCer affronted by Apple ditching the headphone jack. My colleague Greg Kumparak wrote in December that he’s still missing the 3.5mm port two years later. “It enabled happy moments and never got in the way,” he lamented of the missing jack.
Safe to say, no one is ever going to bemoan the lack of a dongle like that.
For TC’s Miller, he was finally pushed to upgrade his trusty old iPhone because of bad battery and a glitchy recharge cable.
My own iPhone 6S has also tipped over into bad battery territory. The original battery was replaced in 2017 (after being in a faulty bunch that Apple offered free replacements for). But the other day the phone experienced its first “unexpected shutdown” — and a pop-up informed me Peak Performance Capability had been switched on.
Aka the performance management feature Apple got in some hot water with consumer groups for not being clear enough about previously. So there’s now an option to disable this in iOS settings.
I could also, of course, pay to replace the battery. Which would be a lot cheaper than a new iPhone. Or else — even cheaper — just carry a spare battery pack.
So which is less hassle to remember? A spare battery or a headphone dongle?
At least a battery pack extends the daily longevity of the handset which feels like it’s offering some added utility (with the bonus social feature of being able to offer to juice up friends’ devices on-demand).
I’d certainly much prefer to keep a spare battery pack in my bag when I leave the house than always be trying to remember where on earth I left the dumb headphone dongle.
Ignoring Apple’s customary fraying charger cables (which can just be replaced), the other issue I’m facing with my current iPhone is storage. It’s almost full.
Apple offers cloud storage for a fee (after a small amount of free space). But I could also delete stuff I’m not using and buy an external hard drive for storing iPhone photo content (which is what’s taking up the most space) and offload the data to that.
Then I could wipe the iPhone 6S clean and start again.
Frankly the prospect of a rebooted iPhone 6S, which (battery wobbles aside) otherwise still works fine, is more appealing than paying a premium for an otherwise not so different handset which will, in certain key aspects, be less welcoming and useful to me than the one I already own.
It’s almost the more environmentally friendly choice, of course. And let’s not forget that lots of dongles = lots more unnecessary e-waste. So imposed dongle hell is bad for the planet too.
One size never fits all but when combined with an upwardly inflating Apple premium the Cupertino philosophy is starting to feel increasingly awkward.
While ‘reuse don’t replace’ feels more and more normal.
