Long Live 3.5mm: HTC Makes The Switch
Dongles. In-line adapters. Proprietary headset ports. If it’s an audio port on a mobile handset and it’s not 3.5mm, it’s junk. As we declared back in May, we’re done with all of it. Now HTC, sire of the T-Mobile G1, myTouch, and countless other smartphones plagued by non-3.5mm jacks, is done with it too.
If you’ve been keeping up with your Android handset news, you might already know that the HTC Hero will be the first HTC-made Android handset with a 3.5mm jack. As it turns out, it’s just the first of many; beginning with the Hero, HTC is moving away from requiring users to pump audio through their modified miniUSB port.
We’d heard this mentioned as a possibility at past press events. This was HTC’s response when we reached out for comment:
The vast majority of devices we launch after Hero will have a 3.5mm jack. Devices that we have already announced but that still come out after Hero will not necessarily be a part of this change.
So it sounds like we may still see a few handsets hit the shelves with worthless audio ports - but aural salvation is on the way. This is a hugely important move for HTC and, seeing as they’re the most fruitful supporter of the platform so far, for Android. People like using their own headphones, but hate carrying around 2 extra inches of an oh-so-easy-to-lose adapter cable. If you make using headphones a pain, the media playback functionality of the handset/platform tends to be abandoned. Long live the 3.5mm port!
source
If you’ve been keeping up with your Android handset news, you might already know that the HTC Hero will be the first HTC-made Android handset with a 3.5mm jack. As it turns out, it’s just the first of many; beginning with the Hero, HTC is moving away from requiring users to pump audio through their modified miniUSB port.
We’d heard this mentioned as a possibility at past press events. This was HTC’s response when we reached out for comment:
The vast majority of devices we launch after Hero will have a 3.5mm jack. Devices that we have already announced but that still come out after Hero will not necessarily be a part of this change.
So it sounds like we may still see a few handsets hit the shelves with worthless audio ports - but aural salvation is on the way. This is a hugely important move for HTC and, seeing as they’re the most fruitful supporter of the platform so far, for Android. People like using their own headphones, but hate carrying around 2 extra inches of an oh-so-easy-to-lose adapter cable. If you make using headphones a pain, the media playback functionality of the handset/platform tends to be abandoned. Long live the 3.5mm port!
source
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