Scotty Allen:
> I’ve spent the past four months in Shenzhen, China, modifying an iPhone 7 to add a fully functional headphone jack. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has done anything like this.
>
> In April, I decided to finally upgrade my iPhone 6s to an iPhone7 to get better camera quality for the videos I was shooting when I was out on adventures in the industrial markets and manufacturing world. But I was super annoyed that it doesn’t have a headphone jack! I already have headphones I really liked, and I didn’t like the idea of having to keep track of an adapter just to use them.
>
> So I figured I’d add my own – after all, how hard could it be?
>
> It turns out, really really hard. But possible.
Great self-interview. This is the guy who made his own iPhone 6s from scrounged parts. He’s open-sourced his design, if you are of a mind to do this yourself.
My favorite question:
> Q: How much did it cost?
>
> A: I haven’t kept perfect track, but I’ve spent easily thousands of dollars on this project. I’ve bought 3 iPhone 7s to take apart, a handful of new screens, several handfuls of backs I mutilated, and countless other parts I broke. I paid a factory to do 7 manufacturing runs of circuit boards. And oh god the headphone adapters. I bought lots and lots of official Apple headphone adapters to take apart.
Love it. Watch Scotty doing his magic in the video below.
I’m certain that what Apple shows next week will go a long way in explaining the removal of said jack.
Why hack anyway? An adapterr is $10
Love Scotty’s tenacity. I ended up liking the video more than I thought I would.
He now just needs a slick, Applesque, behind-the-scenes mercial to bring his project full circle. Maybe hit up Sir Ive for one of his famous prologues. A lá iPhone 7 – Design.
Because he’s an entitled nerd who is offended that the phone he wants to own no longer ships with a jack by default.
Seriously, though, if you only use the headphones you like with the phone, tape the adapter in place and forget about it. If you use the headphones with other devices, then ziptie the adapter to the headphone cord. Problem solved, without spending money and without destroying the waterproofing or resale value of your phone How hard is this, really?
they never ask and he never mentions whether the water gaskets are still effective.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say….of course not.
So to me, Apple made the right decision. It spurred the creation of AirPods and the W1 chip, which is a night and day experience compared to wired headphones that I can never go back.
so i guess it isn’t waterproof anymore?
I’d suggest a little dab of glue for a clean look, but tape works equally well.
Hobbyists are so cute.
In related news, I’ve retrofitted our entire apartment with gas lighting to replace the electrical fixtures. The constant beeping of carbon monoxide alarms on my smoke detectors, of course, meant that I had to take them down as well.
I think I’ll just lie down for awhile now.