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Steve Wozniak says Apple must fix iPhone 7 Bluetooth or revive its headphone jack

John Davidson
John DavidsonColumnist

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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has warned Apple is going to frustrate a lot of customers if it removes the headphone jack from the upcoming iPhone 7.

When the next iPhone comes out, rumoured to be in early September, one thing that's expected to be missing is a place to plug in earphones.

Though Apple is yet to confirm the rumour – indeed, it's yet to confirm it will even launch a new iPhone in September, or that it will be called the "iPhone 7" – the company is widely thought to be moving to a new type of Bluetooth "EarPod", that will connect wirelessly to the iPhone.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he will be sticking to his cabled earbuds, which he had custom-made. Nic Walker

Customers wanting to use their existing, wired earbuds and headphones might have to buy an adaptor that attaches to the iPhone's Lightning port, or to whatever port does remain on the phone. (The Lightning port, which is used for recharging and for attaching accessories, is rumoured to be changing, too, possibly to a magnetic one.)

"If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people," Mr Wozniak told The Australian Financial Review.

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"I would not use Bluetooth … I don't like wireless. I have cars where you can plug in the music, or go through Bluetooth, and Bluetooth just sounds so flat for the same music."

Mr Wozniak co-founded Apple together with Steve Jobs in the mid-1970s, and left Apple in 1985. But he continues to provide Apple with advice, if not directly then at least through the media.

He has previously spoken about his pride at still being officially on the company's payroll.

Mr Wozniak said he would probably use the adaptor to connect his existing earphones to his next iPhone, and said that, like many other users he is attached to the accessories that he uses alongside the phone.

Steve Wozniak together with RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro at the Talent Unleashed awards night in Sydney. 

"Mine have custom ear implants, they fit in so comfortably, I can sleep on them and everything. And they only come out with one kind of jack, so I'll have to go through the adaptor," he said.

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"If there's a Bluetooth 2 that has higher bandwidth and better quality, that sounds like real music, I would use it. But we'll see. Apple is good at moving towards the future, and I like to follow that."

Though he stopped short of advising Apple not to go with the rumoured magnetic port for the iPhone 7, and to instead follow the lead of Google and Samsung and adopt a USB Type-C port, Mr Wozniak did say he thinks more highly of phones that use USB-C.

"One of my favourite Android phones, the Nexus 5X, uses that connector. It gives it a higher level in my own thinking.

"I think USB-C is going to be the future," he said.

Mr Wozniak also provided Australian technology companies with some free advice. He was in Australia to judge the annual Talent Unleashed technology innovation awards, where many of the winners had products that were based on mobile phones rather than PCs or web apps.

One winner, the Australian company ResApp, developed a phone app that could diagnose respiratory disorders with a high degree of accuracy, when a patient simply coughed into the phone's microphone.

Another winner, ODOCS Eye Care, came up with a lens that can be attached to a mobile phone, to help diagnose eye disease.

"Mobile [is] a good strategy for a country like Australia. When I'm here, it's been a long time coming to get decent broadband even on the wired spectrum. Hotels here, they don't really match up to the rest of the world, especially the United States," he said.

John Davidson is an award-winning columnist, reviewer, and senior writer based in Sydney and in the Digital Life Laboratories, from where he writes about personal technology. Connect with John on Twitter. Email John at jdavidson@afr.com

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