Yesterday Apple took the veil off the brand new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and even if you may have missed the keynote, chances are that since yesterday, one Internet meme or another has already informed you that Apple’s latest flagship phones have done away with the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. This change in design has been rumored for many months already, but nevertheless, once it became official it also became the source of numerous debates and more or less funny memes. In the “best meme / Internet troll” category, however, we have Nicer Studio and their latest “parody of the good folks at Apple”, which comes in the form of a fictional product called the Apple Plug.
Nicer Studio is a small design and development studio based in Greenville, South Carolina, whose employees seem to have a great sense of humor. Not long after the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have been introduced, Nicer Studio published a spoof webpage called “appleplugs”, which looks an awful lot like a regular Apple product page. The fictional product showcased on the webpage is called the Apple Plug, and aside from the obvious innuendo, it is described as an upgrade to iPhone 7 for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S series. It comes in the form of a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack “crafted with precision” out of aluminum, and is accompanied by marketing keywords such as “Pure Invention”, “Innovation” and “Perfect Fit”. The Apple Plug is designed for iPhone users who may want to upgrade to an iPhone 7 without having to buy the new flagship, and the installation process is as easy as it gets. “This isn’t 2009” reads the spoof webpage “your phone doesn’t have a floppy drive, and it shouldn’t have a headphone connector either. […] Fill in your archaic headphone connector with beautiful aluminium and plug yourself into the future”. Clearly, Nicer Studio is poking fun at Apple’s reasoning for ditching the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, but at the end of the day, this is all fun and games, and a way for Nicer Studio to gain exposure.
Apple’s Phil Schiller described the decision to remove the 3.5 mm port as a courageous step towards the future, and joking aside, Mr. Phil did make a couple of interesting points in regards to the benefits of using the proprietary Lightning connector for audio (or specifically, switching from an analog port to a digital one), such as having the ability to control noise reduction levels in headphones and earbuds that support active noise cancelling, directly from the smartphone. Not to mention that 3.5-millimeter headphone jacks are being slowly phased out from Android smartphones too. But whether you are for, against, or neutral in regards Apple’s decision to abandon this particular standard, Nicer Studio deserves recognition for its sense of humor and proper Internet trolling skills. Just keep in mind that the Apple Plug is a fictional product and is not actually for sale.