[cloogshicer]

That's fair if the device we're talking about is a phone. Those will of course become obsolete much sooner. But headphones don't get worse just by the passage of time. I'd love to still use them in 15+ years. Do you think Apple will still service them then?

Also, why not make it so that they can be used passively? What's the downside?

[duhi88]

Same reason they put the charging port for their mouse on the underside. It's a wireless device, and for some reason, they think that if it supports a wired mode, it won't be as special (or whatever their idiotic reasoning is).

And, why use the lightning port?! Aside from the price, choosing to not use USB-C for a charging port killed it for me. I like being able to charge all my devices off one power brick, and I'm not spending $600 on headphones if I need a stupid lightning port for the next 6+ years.

[bfgoodrich]

You know that it's only lightning on the headset side, right? That it's USB-C on the other side, though you're free to include any adapter cable you'd like.

[horsawlarway]

This misses the point. EVERY device I carry with me charges via USB-C right now.

My laptop, my work laptop, my headphones, my phone, my tablet/e-reader (remarkable).

It's insanely liberating to know that I can pretty much always find a charger for everything, and I only ever need to pack a single wall-wart.

Flying? One charger. Road trip? One charger. Biking to work? One charger.

Better yet - Leave a charger at work, keep a charger at home, don't need to carry 5lbs back and forth every day.

Forgot my charger? Every person I hang out with has a usb-c charger floating around somewhere.

----

You know what I really don't want to have to carry around anymore? Fucking cable adapters. You know what no one will have if I forget my charger? Fucking cable adapters.

Honestly - I probably wouldn't have bought these headphones yet because I'm quite happy with my current headphones.

But I'm very, very close to no longer even considering devices that ship without a USB-C port. And that's a shame, because I otherwise really like the Max, and probably would have slotted it in when my current cans die.

Getting over the hump to convert to USB-C initially was fairly expensive, but my job is good and I can splurge. I don't want to go back.

[bfgoodrich]

If your complaint is carrying a USB to lightning cable -- though you keep jumping to wall warts/chargers and not a 17 gram cable -- yeah, I guess that's a big burden.

But your comment seems like it might be contrived to begin with. This headset only really makes sense for iPhone users. That is the target. Those people are already carrying using lightning cables in their life. Pretty much anyone in the Apple ecosystem has to charge a multitude of things with lightning still.

[rpeden]

They make plenty of sense for users of newer MacBooks and iPad Pros, too. Those people will be carrying USB-C to USB-C cables because that's what their MacBook and/or iPad Pro uses.

I'm not really what's contrived about the other poster's comment. If these headphones look good and sound good and have good noise cancelling, why would I only want to use them with my iPhone? I'm sure they'll sound great whether I use them with my MacBook, or iPhone, or my Dell XPS, or my Windows desktop, or my smart TV.

The lightning port isn't a deal breaker, but it can be an ergonomic annoyance. I've recently been favoring on Galaxy S9 over my newer iPhone because all of my other devices charge via USB-C and the iPhone is the odd duck that requires extra work. I have a USB-C to lighting cable so it's not that bad, but it's still extra annoyance I would rather not deal with.

[bfgoodrich]

"I'm not really what's contrived about the other poster's comment."

The guy I replied to 20 days ago here on HN, talking about Apple: "Don't buy their shit. Period."

No, they were never going to buy this headset. They are not the target market. What they demand would actually be detrimental to the target market.

Of the actual target market, the majority will have no problem with it needing a lightning cable. Their iPhones use lightning. Any iPad but the newest use lightning. The AppleTV remote uses lightning. The Magic Keyboard and the Magic Mouse use lightning. It just seems to be something that a person who would have no interest in this device would see as a problem (in the same way that people who don't use the Magic Mouse are absolute certain that the charger port on the bottom is an egregious deadly fault, while actual users just enjoy a fantastic mouse and it's an utter non-issue. It's why Apple should never listen to these people).

[rblatz]

IPads pro and the new iPads all charge with usb-c. And for the last two years my iPhones shipped with a usb-c to lightning cable.

I just yesterday picked up a few more usb-c wall adapters and some 6 feet usb-c to lightning cables to get most of my day to day charging off of usb-a

[robotresearcher]

A Lightning to USB-C cable is included in the box, not USB-A.

[bfgoodrich]

My mistake. I guess they have even less of a complaint then.

[floatboth]

No, it's still stupid that you have to use a different cable.

I have a C cable on my desk, the charger is hidden under it, I don't want to replace the cable ever. This one cable can charge my phone, laptop, power bank, earbuds, gaming headset, Nintendo Switch, heck, it powers my soldering iron – of course I don't ever want to buy anything with a different port!

[bfgoodrich]

Again, the iPhones have lightning ports. Almost everyone who buys this is going to be an iPhone users.

This is like complaining that the microwave at Best Buy doesn't have a Europlug because you're in Italy and that's what you use. Great, but not important to the actual buyer of the microwave in Milwaukee.

[snypher]

They may have a usb-c charger they want to use eg for a laptop. By making it lightning on the headset side they just reinvented a corded headset.

[bfgoodrich]

How does not having one specific standard of charging port (you know -- the one that came when everyone was rolling with the junkpile that was micro-USB) "reinvent a corded headset"?

Regardless, this complaint is pretty spurious. The device is clearly marketed to iPhone/iPad users, who carry a USB to Lightning cable with them as a matter of normative standards.

People just like bitching sometimes.

[duhi88]

I have an iPad that doesn't have a lightning port.

I have a battery pack that doesn't charge with a lightning port, and can charge my phone without a lighting port (wireless).

When I'm traveling light, I don't need a lightning port for anything.

When I'm at my office, I can top off my headphones/iPad/etc off with the same cable I use to connect my laptop to my screen. I never have to worry about bringing an extra cable with me to work.

---

It's just too bad, that's all. Apple seemed like they were ready to phase out the lightning port in favor of USB-C and wireless charging. They've done such a great job with all their other audio accessories that a lot of tech-minded people like myself were looking forward to these.

[gnicholas]

Many people charge their iPhone wirelessly these days. I’m not among them, but I can see why they’d be frustrated by this.

I personally think it’s pretty silly that it has neither usb-c nor wireless charging, given the price point and when it’s being launched.

[snypher]

Well, as someone who doesn't own a lightening cable, it means that I would need a specific cable for these ones. Which kind of negates the point of a wireless headset if I need a specific cable to charge it.

I get I'm not the target market but that doesn't make my point valid. Please don't negate it as bitching.

[Joeri]

Noise canceling heaphones used passively often sound a lot worse, because they can’t soundshape their way out of a suboptimal earshell and speaker design. Apple probably felt that either they had to compromise too much on the shape, or on the way they sounded passively, so they chose to just not allow for it entirely. I expect other manufacturers to follow suit because it creates more freedom in design.

[adamlett]

Also, why not make it so that they can be used passively? What's the downside?

If by passively you mean plugged into a headphone port, the answer is that they can’t because they need power. Their big selling point is supposed to be computational audio. That obviously doesn’t work without the compute part, which in turn requires power.

[huffmsa]

With $200 billion in the bank, I'm sure Apple could have figured out how to get power to them over a wired connection

[rblatz]

I’m sure the product team at Apple considered that use case, and it didn’t make sense to include it in this version due to time/weight/cost/complexity constraints.

[patja]

Key features like the spatial effects only work with an iPad or mac. So now you have a dependency on Apple keeping that part going for years as well, if you want to keep using them as you would have expected to at launch.

[FabHK]

> Key features like the spatial effects only work with an iPad or mac

iPad or iPhone only, apparently. Not with a Mac or Apple TV, or, of course, anything else.

(source: article)

[billiam]

Stainless and aluminum headphones that weigh a pound are made to last a century, not a couple of years. I have a closet full of incredibly durable, beautiful Apple products that will show up in an archeological dig of our sad epoch but were only supported by Apple for five years max.

[jacquesm]

From Apple's point of view you are their ideal customer (not even selling your stuff to the secondary market when you upgrade) and proof that their strategy works.