A piece of code discovered in the latest iOS 9.3 beta suggests Apple really is planning to remove the headphone jack for upcoming devices. The find follows a number of reports that have claimed the Cupertino company is ditching the port to make the upcoming iPhone 7 even thinner.
iOS developer @uloshe posted the screenshot below on Twitter, which shows a line of code in iOS 9.3 that reads, “Headphones.have.%sinput.NO.” It’s very cryptic, but it’s thought that this all but confirms future iOS devices will have no headphone jack input.
Of course, it’s not definitive just yet; it certainly seems like Apple is testing devices without headphone jacks using iOS 9.3, but that doesn’t mean the final iPhone 7 design won’t have one. Although, there have been a number of rumors that have claimed this will be the case.
Should it happen, it’s thought Apple will push Lightning-compatible headphones instead, and may even give away new wireless Bluetooth EarPods with the new iPhone. Some manufacturers are already making Lightning-compatible headphones, but we haven’t seen many so far.
This finding comes just days after another developer discovered references to “Li-Fi” technology in iOS 9.3, which suggests Apple could be working on new devices that use light-based wireless data networks.
Thanks Cody, Sebastian!