Lightning and Bluetooth are the future of audio. Apple's

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81KB, 546x310px

Lightning and Bluetooth are the future of audio. Apple's decision to remove the outdated 3.5mm standard is progressive and will ultimately lead to a better experience for all of us. Imagine this scenario:

You have a large speaker and your room and a pair of earbuds. You often switch between these two.

Scenario 1: All of your media devices use the current 3.5mm analog standard. When switching between different audio outputs, the relative volume will change drastically in a difficult to predict way. For example, when you switch from speaker to earbuds, your ears may get blasted for a moment because the combination of your phone's internal volume setting and your earbuds' power, which is different from the power of the speaker. This is not an ideal scenario.

Scenario 2: All media devices use the same standard. This allows all ports used be used for data transfer, video, audio, power. This in itself is very convenient. In this scenario, the two audio devices can "speak" using the phone as a mediator. For example, from switching from speaker to earbuds the following data transaction may happen:

>Speaker sends current power usage to phone.
>User removes speaker connection (or disconnects via bluetooth)
>Phone calculates the relative volume of the speakers, compared to an audio standard
>User plugs in earbuds
>Earbuds send phone their relative power usage
>Phone calculates the proper internal volume settings such that a user hears both at the same real volume from a "relative" distance which the device also sends the phone. This distance would identify the distance from which a user would hear a standard decibel (a small distance for small devices, a large one for large devices).

I'm sure we all can agree the second scenario is better.