The most controversial feature of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is something they lack: a headphone jack.
Following the sapphire controversy, Business Insider reports iPhone 7 owners have found Apple’s new Lightning EarPods regularly ‘crash’. This leaves users still able to hear music, but the EarPod’s controls are frozen so you are unable to operate their volume controls or use the shortcuts to answer calls and activate Siri.
The reason for this all comes down to one thing: software.
Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are likely to be the biggest selling smartphones of 2016.... [+]
Unlike analog 3.5mm pairs, Lighting jack-based earphones and headphones are reliant on software to function and Apple has confirmed to Business Insider that a bug in iOS 10 and iOS 10.0.1 is to blame. The good news is Apple said it is already working on a fix and this will be issued in a future update (presumably iOS 10.0.2 or iOS 10.1).
Until then users are advised to unplug their Lighting EarPods each time a crash happens then plug them back in, which temporarily fixes the problem. As the issue seemingly occurs at random that can mean long spells without any problems followed by multiple crashes in a row.
Of course the incident is a perfect example of why so many users were against the removal of the headphone jack from iPhones in the first place. The 3.5mm port is ubiquitous, simple, unaffected by software updates and, crucially, far less prone to damage from wear and tear.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus both remove the headphone jack so the Lightning port has to be used for... [+]
This latter point is interesting given the Lightning port has proved to be a weak spot on Apple devices and can break over time. But since it will now be used far more both as charger and headphone point, as well as a reset option for any headphone bugs, there is understandable concern over how the port will hold up as devices age.
My personal feeling is Apple removed the headphone jack a generation early and it would’ve been more credible to tie its omission to an iPhone which brought an additional charging option, like wireless charging. That said, the potential for ‘smart headphones’ and for developers to eventually code around the software required by Lighting headphones to deliver additional functionality could prove a masterstroke in the long term future of wired audio.
But for now iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners will just want Lightning headphones to work like the boring, old, reliable 3.5mm ones always did…
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