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What Hi-Fi?
What Hi-Fi?
Technology
Becky Roberts

R.I.P the aux input, the epitome of audio convenience; I already miss it

Portable music player: Sony NW-A306.

Last year saw the sun set on several technologies. Netflix’s postal DVD service finally gave in to video streaming, Google’s AR glasses were laid to rest (again) following an ill-fated resurrection, and Amazon’s Halo fitness device division met a miserable end having hardly gotten off the ground. Most significantly perhaps, Apple’s Lightning connector lost its battle against, well, the EU, consequently succumbing to the universal USB-C. But that wasn’t the only port we have had to wave goodbye to in recent months…

Having hung on for dear life ever since smartphones snubbed the headphone jack for Bluetooth (the iPhone 7 was the first to in 2016), the resilient 3.5mm auxiliary input for audio devices is seemingly, finally, dead and awaiting burial. And I would like to propose that its epitaph reads: "In loving and grateful memory of the aux port. Gone too soon. Our lives are poorer without you."

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