Apple could drop the headphone jack from the next iPhone so that it can get even thinner, according to reports.
The iPhone 7 might have people plug their headphones into the Lightning port rather than the traditional 3.55mm hole, according to a rumour from MacOtakara.
As well as allowing the phone to become much slimmer, the change could also bring new features to the headphones. The new headphones would be able to draw power so that they could include an amplifier, for instance, or send more detailed information back to phones such as a request to open specific apps.
But it will also mean that owners of existing phones will have to buy adapters, which will be able to convert the old format to the new USB one.
The report said that the phone kept much of the same shape, but slightly thinner. The current iPhone 6s is not much wider than the size of the 3.55m slot, which is a standard port and so cannot be re-sized.[related-posts]
MacOtakara has been the source of disproved rumours in the past, and it is apparently based only on leaks of the phone’s size. But Apple has been pushing to make the iPhones more and more thin, and that is thought to have been part of the reason that Apple dropped its old connector for the new and much thinner Lightning one.
Other companies that make super-thin phones have already made the same move, using USB audio rather than the traditional input.
Apple’s next major iPhone is expected to be released in September, a year after the current iPhone 6s
