We’re supposed to pay money for this…

Apparently the smartphone industry is bent on getting rid of everything that’s not the screen.

The upcoming iPhone 8 is rumored to not have a headphone jack.  They make up for it by extending the screen all the way to the edges.

Which to me just means more glass to wipe away my prints.

Now third party devices are coming out in response to this.  Enter the Astell & Kern XB10.  It’s a bluetooth device that allows you to use wired headphones by connecting to your phone via bluetooth.

So we’re supposed to pay $189 for a feature that was free.  Is the demand for extra millimeters of screen so big we’d pay hundreds extra?

There are bluetooth headphones which should make this device moot.  But bluetooth headphones have horrible reception.  Move the phone an inch and your Led Zeppelin playlist is interrupted by static.