As many major smartphone brands trend away from including headphone jacks in the pursuit of smaller, thinner, and lighter designs, we are faced with the challenge of keeping our older audio gear connected to our newer phones. This is definitely an issue when it’s time to listen and charge at the same time.
Anyone who works in a noisy environment or flies a lot can tell you that, when it comes to headphones, nothing beats active noise cancellation. I have a set of IFROGZ Impulse Wireless that have “passive noise isolation,” which is just a fancy term for padded cups that seal off low-level noise. They do a good job, but nothing beats combatting noise pollution with software and circuitry.
This time last year, we were being inundated with all of the reports and rumors of a new iPhone without a headphone jack. There was endless debate in tech blogs and on podcasts leading up to the release, then we had Phil Schiller telling us how “brave” Apple was. Then we had more hand-wringing and opinions after the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launched. It finally did die down after a while, but it was all anyone in tech was talking about for a LONG time.
No one needs any reminder of Apple’s controversial (or courageous, if you take their word for it) decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhones 7 and 7 Plus. However, as with everything in technology, we all adjust and move on. Apple was good enough to include a Lightning Headphone Adapter in the box with the newest iPhones, but that still leaves us with the issue of how to play music or audio and charge a the same time. Anyone who listens to music or podcasts in the car via an Aux port in their car audio system like I do knows this is not a trivial matter.