How does my iPhone know which set of headphones I'm using?

Asked by Lightlyseared (34866

) March 5th, 2009 from iPhone

I have two pairs of headphones I use with my iPhone, the pair that came with it and a pair of Ultimate Ears. Now with the Apple pair I ussually have the volume turned up high and with the ultimate ears I have the volume much lower. I’ve just noticed that when I swap between them the iPhone automaticlly changes the volume. How does it know which pair is which?

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5 Answers

Magic.

seekingwolf (10410

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That was my first thought too.

Lightlyseared (34866

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damn! I was going to say magic too!

willbrawn (6619

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Apple uses a special 4-section jack and plug. AppleInsider.com recently posted an article explaining some of the connectivity problems people are having with their new Macbooks.

It gives a pretty good overview of the jack setup (w/ pics) and I think you can extrapolate some of the info there to apply to your iPhone and 3rd party headphones (which likely do not have a 4-section connector).

robmandu (21331

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@rodmandu nice to see you again, seems like you havent been on in awhile.

willbrawn (6619

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