When Apple announced that they’d be getting rid of the 3.5 mm jack, the entire iPhone loving world reacted with shock, anger, and indignation. But soon enough, the uproar subsided and people saw the logic behind the move. After all, who doesn’t like a thinner phone?
But then surfaced the relevant question – What would Apple replace the standard earphone connector with? We were given two main contenders — Bluetooth and Lightning EarPods!
In the battle that ensued, Lightning EarPods won, mostly because it was easier to create computer renderings of them. Such as this one:
The Internet suddenly burst forth with many such images. They looked more or less the same, barring a few minor changes. I mean, how creative can you get with one lightning connector anyway?
However, we’re now seeing what might be authentic images of the nearly confirmed Lightning EarPods! Weibo, a Chinese website notorious for leaking a lot of Apple product images, came up with this set of images for theLightning EarPods:
The internet community has overwhelmingly deemed these images to be authentic, so won’t question their origin. Besides, they look so original that it’s easy to believe they could be real.
As can be seen, the renditions are just what most people had predicted – Standard Apple EarPods attached to the lightning connector. Nothing else seems to have changed.
Some discussion forums are also of the opinion that Apple will ship a lightning-to-stereo converter along with these EarPods. It’s meant to bridge both worlds, letting people plug their lightning EarPods into a standard 3.5 mm stereo socket. This way, they will be able to use their new gen EarPods on older iPhone models or other Android phones.
I am not very convinced Apple will do anything like that. Of course, they might design and produce one such converter, but they’re more likely to sell it separately than ship it along with the iPhone. When did you ever hear of Apple giving anything away for free out of the goodness of their hearts?
Will the iPad and iPad family join the Lightning EarPods club? Given that the iPads and iPods usually go hand-in-hand with the iPhone in terms of software and hardware, I am inclined to believe they will get the upgrade too. However, I am not in a position to confirm or deny that theory.
What about the new Macs? Will they be upgraded for this new technology? I don’t think so. For the iPhone, the change serves a very specific purpose — to make the phone thinner. With the Macs, on the other hand, that incentive doesn’t exist. For this reason, the Lightning EarPods might not be coming to the Macs anytime soon.
But that shouldn’t dampen your spirits. We at AppleSutra supported these new lightning EarPods for a while. So much so that we even wrote a post about Why Getting Rid of the 3.5 mm Jack Is Great.
While these new EarPods are going to be great, what I would really loved is if Apple released truly wireless Bluetooth EarPods. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen! But until such a time, I will make my peace with Lightning EarPods. As they say, something is better than nothing!