Emily St. James: My single most "I am getting old" complaint is I miss when phones had a wired headphones jack. I spend at least half my writing session every day fighting with Bluetooth headphones.

My single most "I am getting old" complaint is I miss when phones had a wired headphones jack. I spend at least half my writing session every day fighting with Bluetooth headphones.

my phone, repeatedly reconnecting to the WRONG bluetooth device when a call comes in

Also the thing where my Mac is always, like, "So these bluetooth headphones are your microphone, too, right? You weren't going to use your actual, expensive microphone, correct?"

i'm holding onto my pixel 4a with clenched fingers hoping i get at least a few more years out of it specifically because of the headphone jack

Shockingly little science fiction correctly predicts technology getting worse. If phone audio quality decreases as much by 2060 as it has since 1990, everyone on the phone will just sound like bees

I mostly buy Motorolas for money reasons but the jack is a strong incentive too.

Signed.

The folks at Wired write about this occasionally. Don't know if you're in the market for a phone, but here are their recommendations. www.wired.com/gallery/best...

The Best Phones With an Actual Headphone Jackwww.wired.com Headphone jacks are endangered, but they’re not gone. Here are our favorite smartphones that still let you plug and play.

When Mrs B was in hospital, I ended up getting her the £9 headphone adapter for the iPhone and found a pair of wired earbuds because they just worked.

It’s too many things to keep charged!! I can barely charge myself!!!

I'm the complete opposite - I have lots of nits to pick about Bluetooth but with wired, one of two things would invariably occur: - ruining them in an instant because I stood up without thinking and yoinked them violently out of the port - getting them tangled up with ANY other cable, irretrievably

My elderly workaround? Ipod

God forbid you have multiple people in the household trying to use their airpods at once

Can use the lightning or usbc wired headphones or use the adapter for regular headphones (but the adapters break a lot)

Call me old but I do what I want 😅

The question arises though of what you're trying to listen to using your phone? Music, podcasts, radio can all be listened to with other devices. I'm just curious (I barely touch/use my phone).

When I write, I tend to listen to music on my phone because then I can use the entirety of my computer monitor screen to focus on what I'm writing.

Fair enough. Yeah not having a headphone jack is one of the dumbest things about certain phones. This I guess is another example in the wild of #enshittification.

I use a USB C to phono plug adapter and it is great 👍.

I tried this for a while, and the adapters just kept breaking.

My "I'm old" complaint is how everything needs to update every other day. Like just do it at night automatically, or something

I am still “plug-in headphones and plug-in headphones only” years old.

I keep wired headphones around on an old phone I only use for audiobooks and podcasts, not even connected to a plan. Basically the world's most overqualified iPod. I feel ridiculous but it stresses me out so much less than Bluetooth.

This is not an age thing. Bluetooth has been around for quite a long time but it has always been a mess. For some reason big brands have recently decided to double down on a flawed system though.

RIGHT!?

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