The Demise of Analog line-out on Apple portable devices: the new Lightning connector

**Hombre de Maiz** · 14-09-12, 13:30

Apple's introduced its new port, the Lightning, to be featured in all future portable devices. The bad news: no analog audio line-out. The new Lightning connector is all digital. You want to get an audio signal out of the iDevice? You'll have to extract it digitally (and then run it through a DAC that I'm sure Apple will be happy to sell you or license out to third party manufacturers).

What does it mean to you? Your iDevice dock or cables won't work on future devices if those docks/cables now pull out an analog signal.

**wombat** · 14-09-12, 14:12

Same old trick - built in obsolescence

**Hombre de Maiz** · 14-09-12, 14:16

I'm sure the all-digital port offers benefits (in addition to increasing share price), but from my narrow perspective it means that I won't be buying an iPod 8.

**ricky_id** · 14-09-12, 15:52

Early sign of running out of steam post-Jobs?

**Hombre de Maiz** · 14-09-12, 15:59

No, the introduction of a new port is no such thing either way. If anything, it's par for the Apple course.

**nd_eric_77** · 14-09-12, 17:13

"Solution" looking for a problem...

**redsnapr** · 14-09-12, 23:12

You could purchase additionally the Lightning to 30-pin adapter:

But, yea, I agree; Apple is alienating a lot of people with this upgrade.

**Hombre de Maiz** · 15-09-12, 13:07

Here's the thing. An iDevice will naturally come with some way of getting an analog audio signal out so that you can watch videos or listen to music via headphones. (Unless Apple also will want to charge you extra for this). This means that the iDevice will have a DAC somewhere in it. Why should I have to buy another (likely inferior) DAC in the form of an adapter when I already bought one, the one inside my iDevice? This would be non-issue if Apple didn't charge DAC manufacturers to extract the digital signal. Good thing, Android is finally coming around...