There’s A Big Rumor About The Next iPhone

With every new release, Apple somehow manages to make the iPhone thinner and thinner, rearranging the device's inside parts in an ever-shrinking game of computer-chip Tetris. But eventually, it gets to the point when the phone can't get any slimmer and still accommodate all the ports and buttons that fit along the sides. That's about where Apple is with the iPhone 6 and 6s. So, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, Apple may just ditch one of those ports — the 3.5mm headphone jack. If the rumor is true, that would mean you'd need to either use Bluetooth headphones with your iPhone (which require no cable to stream audio), use new headphones with a Lightning cable connector rather than a headphone jack, or plug your old headphones into a dongle that plugs into the phone's Lightning port. Using the Lightning port instead of the headphone jack actually has several benefits. Headphones would work the same way they normally do, of course, but could also launch a specific app whenever you plug them in. They could be charged by your iOS device, or be used to charge it (power can flow both ways through the Lightning connector). And audiophiles can use a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for improved audio. But right now, we think this rumor is a bit far-fetched. Wireless headphones are growing in popularity, but aren't that prevalent yet. And there aren't that many headphones that use Apple's Lightning connector instead of the headphone jack. However, now that this news is out there, it's entirely possible we could see a lot more crop up over the next year. While it would be annoying to have to buy a new set of headphones that fit the Lightning standard, since iPhones come with a pair of EarPods anyway, it wouldn't be that big a deal. The other concern here is how thin the next iPhone could possibly be. Seriously, if phones get much thinner, I might accidentally slice my hand open. Or am I the only one who's that clumsy?