Phones should have 2 USB C ports

Steve Jobs died in 2011, the headphone jack disappeared from the iPhone 7 in 2016.

It wasn't Steve Jobs who took it away. Steve Jobs probably would have taken it away, but he also probably would have insisted on developing a technically superior but proprietary wireless technology.

I honestly don't think it made a noticeable difference in terms of selling AirPods, it simply reduced cost.

I only buy phones with 3.5mm jacks on principle, and yet I stilled jumped at the chance to get Pixel Buds cheaper when I got my 5a because of how convenient they are. The decision between wired and wireless is now nearly exclusively because you prefer either fidelity or convenience over the other. Not whether or not your phone supports them. Besides, if you're picking fidelity you probably scrutinize much more on a phone than headphone jack or not.

Rn I'm hoping the 5 V will be announced soon, my 1 II's battery is absolutely fucked lol.

This is why I made my dedicated audio player device an older LG phone with a headphone jack and microSD, and more importantly their quad DAC. Great wired audio fidelity and the ability to drive high impedance headphones/IEMs on the go while running on Android so I can run streaming and last.fm scrobblers. WiFi/data and Bluetooth are usually off but there when I need it. At least where I am, this was cheaper than an Android-powered dedicated Digital Audio Player. Of course a proper DAP would have more features like physical playback controls and being able to use them as DACs for other devices, but I'm happy with my old G7.

Just a cheap SanDisk one. For me the main advantage is reliability; I sleep with headphones for white noise, and even discounting the possibility of the battery dying because you can't play audio and charge at the same time, it is still basically impossible to set a smartphone up to be totally sure it will continue playing an audio file for 8 hours with no interruptions. Works great for playing music too though.

They're all wireless for years.

I'm disappointed Moto Mods didn't take off. They would've been a great way to provide a hermetically sealed phone with all the optional stuff you wanted slapped on the back. Beefier battery, better controls, all the ports you want, etc. Like, a phone with a weak internal battery but then a magnetically attached external one so you don't even have to open open the back of the phone to hot-swap.

Oh I agree but it's obviously easier to waterproof a phone with ports. Besides that ports and buttons are the most common point-of-failure (I'm looking at my kid's headphones on my desk where the power button was crushed in and my to-do list is to open it up and see if it's repairable). Honestly my biggest complaint comparing the old Walkmen to modern phones isn't the buttons and ports (I remember how miserable the buttons were on my 100-meter waterproof Casio watch back in the '80s) but rather the screws. I hate that glue has become a standard tool in electronics assembly. If I never have to do the gamble of the "hot enough to loosen the sealant but not to hot to damage it" dance with a heat-gun again it will be too soon.

Indeed. But it also makes the USB being very unwieldily to use for anything.

The main reason why Android cannot work as a general computing OS are the many barriers and restrictions it has compared to traditional desktop operating systems.
Linux for example, which Android is based on, works fine* on the desktop but also on tablets or phones.

*as in most modern apps scale properly and are usable on the desktop, tablet or phone. Support for the hardware, especially on phones and tablets, varies greatly.

What I call bastardisation is the many steps stopping us from using our phone as general computing platforms. Our phones have no reason to be confined by software locks like locked bootloaders, root login, etc.

As for the lack of 2 USB ports, it pictures that phones where never thought as general purpose computers. Maybe two ports is not the way to go but the lack of an interface which can act as a display output and a USB connection like what we have now with Thunderbolt on the desktop is a shame. The inability to turn my phone, which is more powerful than my current laptop, into a normal computer unencumbered by software and hardware restrictions is a shame.

The path taken by Pinephones and their Linux ecosystems is a step in the right direction. It shows that smartphone companies can do better.

As you said, it's basic economics, it's more profitable for them if we buy a new phone every two years, so they lock us out of our properties with software and hardware restrictions because they can.

Idk about your phone, but my phone has a mic on both ends and a speaker on both (though the speaker placement is a bit different on the bottom than it is on top).

Half press focus?

Sounds neat, but phone sensor is so small and focal length is wide so even if you just mash the shutter immediately, pretty much everything is in focus anyway. I can see why they did away with it.

If you have a Motorola phone then you should just be able to twist your wrist to open the camera instead. Also chop to turn on the flashlight. I miss chop to flashlight the most when I switched away from Motorola.

On my Pixel, I have long press of the power button for Assistant. Volume Up and Power brings up the power options which are rarely ever used.

The bit you've referring to was about devices designed FOR use underwater. Not devices that can operate under water. The OEMs will try and interpret it as you said and will end up getting fined.

That's fine, third party repair is good enough for me. Right now third parties can't even do battery swaps because Apple signs batteries to the phone and you lose features without that signature.