More like, "We know you might need it." I plug audio in quite infrequently on my Note as I use bluetooth most of the time. Kill them for introducing a new, proprietary standard for wireless audio, but not for removing the jack which in my case is just a dust magnet which frequently requires a cleanout to solve the blocked proximity sensor problem.
You're right. I guess the way they pitched it, given their track record I was just assuming. That being said, I'm not sure what they did that was so world-changing with wireless connectivity since I never had the bluetooth connection problems that they say everybody has.
With the later versions of bluetooth I don't have a problem with that. Also, we haven't seen this in the wild yet so I'll reserve judgement and praise.
Yep. The 3.5mm audio jack comes in the box, so they didn't really remove it, they just moved it off-device. Maybe they could move the battery off-device too and make the iPhone 8 even thinner.
I sincerely doubt that someone would be anti-Apple on HN just because it's cool. What Apple is doing is a conscious choice of direction, which has a lot of potential for discussion.
What Samsung did is catastrophic, yes. However, it doesn't have any depth for discussion. Yes they messed up big time, and yes the situation has been down-played, but in the end, it affects Samsung market share and the health of the poor people who got affected. Discussing the market-share of Samsung and their policies doesn't have any meaning, and for the people, you can only hope that the authorities take enough precautions.
On the other hand, Apple has been making decisions, which, in the end, can affect far more many people, regardless of their usage of Apple products, in a good or bad way, for a far longer term. It is a statement, at the very least.
No, my complain is that they're removing a standard port in favour of their own propietary alternative while they know that a lot of users would be more comfortable with the standard one. I also think that using the lightinig port has no real advantage over the audio jack but I admittedly don't know much about lightning, so maybe somebody can prove me wrong.
(Removing a component from the phone isn't in my opinion an advantage because the audio jack uses a very tiny space and removing it gives you far less choices if you want to buy a new pair of headphones).