Why Apple's i. Phone 7 Headphones Don't Work on the Latest Mac. Book. Recently, a new staff member started at Lifehacker. She booted up her brand- new, company- issued Mac. Book Pro, and went to plug in her Ear. Pods to listen to some tunes while she worked. She was met with the same baffling conundrum as other Apple die- hards who rush to procure the latest release: Why the hell can’t you use the i. Phone 7’s Lightning connector headphones with the new Mac.
Recently, a new staff member started at Lifehacker. She booted up her brand-new, company-issued MacBook Pro, and went to plug in her EarPods to listen to some tunes. The latest news articles from Billboard Magazine, including reviews, business, pop, hip-hop, rock, dance, country and more.
Book Pro? Why Get Lightning Headphones in the First Place? First, some background. In 2. 01. 2, Apple introduced the smaller Lightning port on the i. Phone 5 replacing the 3. While the Lightning port necessitated a new charging cable, the Lightning connector was more compact than its predecessor and one could plug it into i.
OS devices in either direction, making it more convenient. With the i. Phone 7, Apple made the “courageous” decision to force the use of its Lightning- compatible Ear. Pod headphones by removing the 3.
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In short, your 3. Ear. Pods that came with the phone, you bought a new pair of Lightning headphones, or you went wireless with Bluetooth- compatible headphones to listen to music. Using your old 3. Phone 7 is still possible, but requires the 3. Lightning adapter that comes included with the new i. Phone. That meant carrying around an extra, easy- to- lose little piece of equipment. It’s an example of Apple making design decisions that impact function for the sake of form, a decision the company’s made at many points in its past (for example, its decision to remove the optical drive in its 2.
Macs). I admit, I get a wee bit frustrated when trying to remember which cord goes in which slot for all. By routing audio through the Lightning port, the phone can play higher quality, 2. Headphone manufacturers are also taking advantage of the fact that headphones can draw power from the i.
Phone’s Lightning port, adding features like noise cancellation and interference- reducing DACs (digital- to- analog converters) to improve sound quality. But Lightning- only headphones only work on i. OS devices with Lightning ports. There Are No Functional Adapters Yet.
Naturally, you might think there’s some sort of workaround, or an adapter that can easily fix this incompatibility issue. After all, Apple makes its own adapters for a variety of older interfaces (for instance, VGA port adapters for mirroring your i. OS device on a monitor). But unlike 3. 5mm headphones, which can be used with an i. Phone 7 via the Apple- made dongle, there’s no way to do the reverse and get Lightning headphones to work with anything that doesn’t have a Lightning port, making my colleague’s new Mac.
Book Pro, with its four high- speed, reversible USB- C ports and single 3. We hate to break it to you, but the traditional USB ports you’ve used to connect your cameras. Lightning- to- USB- C adapters only work when charging or transferring data.
Which means no audio support, which means no Ear. Pod- powered desk concerts in your open- plan office. Apple Is Comfortable With User- Hostile Tech.
Apple’s Lightning connector is convenient for Apple, but not so much for the rest of us. Bronx Gothic (2017) Theater Movie. It’s only available on Apple’s i.
OS devices, making switching to, say, an Android device an inconvenient and pricey decision—you’ll need new cables, headphones, docks etc. To play nice with others, Apple should have either left the 3. Phone, or switched to USB- C, which is what every other cell phone manufacturer is doing. And while their move towards incompatibility with other company’s devices isn’t surprising, it does seem a little weird that they’d build this kind of glaring incompatibility into their two most recent devices—the i. Phone 7 and the latest Mac. Book pro. The decision to exclude the Lightning port from its Macs—and not to publicly address the compatibility issues —also runs counter to its history of transition tools. During the company’s switch from Power.
PC to Intel processors, it released the Rosetta translator software to keep Power. PC apps running on Intel- powered Macs. When the Mac. Book Air debuted without an optical drive, the company’s external Super. Drive optical drive eased the transition.
My theory? The removal of the headphone jack and inclusion of Lightning Ear. Pods is simply a stop- gap to the company’s true goal of forcing you to go wireless and buy Air. Pods or Beats Bluetooth headphones.
Considering the options, going wireless might be the answer, though I’d rather get some headphones that, you know, sound good.