It’s so sad how derivative phone designs are becoming. This looks even more like an iPhone than the redesigned Galaxy S series. The only market with any originality is the folding/flip one and that’s only because Apple have entered it yet.
It’s not over, though. Many mid-range and low-end phones are still being released with headphone jacks. Clearly there is a) still a market to sell this feature to and b) still a way of incorporating a headphone jack into the design of a modern smartphone. We can theorise and speculate over whether this market had crossover with the one that bought high-end phones (before the manufacturers forcibly split them into separate groups by only offering the headphone jack on their cheaper models) or whether a mid-range or low-end phone has the same design limitations as a high-end phone, but I think it’s perfectly valid to continue to question why the headphone jack disappeared on more expensive phones. I don’t think consumers have received an honest or acceptable explanation yet from manufacturers, and for as long as that is the case there will be people who feel like they’ve been fucked over by yet another “courageous” example of planned/forced obsolescence.
That’s half of the question. The other half is whether wired earphones would have died out as quickly as they have appeared to if phone manufacturers had not removed the headphone jack whilst simultaneously pushing their own brand of TWS earphones, often in a bundle with the new phone. Prior to TWS you didn’t see that many Bluetooth earphones. A lot of people still got around with the famous wired iPhone ones, for example.
Dealing with a government welfare system for the first time in a while.
Last time there were still people you’d talk to who’d smooth over the process.
Now it’s all online and automated.
And holy fucking hellscape Batman.
They’ve just shipped the whole bureaucracy along with their own software bugs.
And as the welfare seeker you have to navigate all of the details and jargon (and bugs/broken links) without any assurance that anything is ok, hoping the money comes.
Just wait till you hear about the “we’ve rejected your medical certificate because your medical condition is permanent - you need to apply for DSP - we’ve rejected your DSP application because your medical condition is not permanent” loop.