Back in November last year, we listed over 55 free tweaking tools available for Windows 7. Just like tweaking tools, there are tens of good utilities avail.![]() But unlike 3.5mm headphones, which can be used with an iPhone 7 via the Apple-made dongle, there’s no way to do the reverse and get Lightning headphones to work. The Windows Club Downloads page lists free Windows downloads, tools, freeware, free windows utilities, applications & other releases for Windows 10/8/7. Why Apple's i. Phone 7 Headphones Don't Work on the Latest Mac. Book. Recently, a new staff member started at Lifehacker. She booted up her brand- new, company- issued Mac. Book Pro, and went to plug in her Ear. Pods to listen to some tunes while she worked. She was met with the same baffling conundrum as other Apple die- hards who rush to procure the latest release: Why the hell can’t you use the i. Phone 7’s Lightning connector headphones with the new Mac. Book Pro? Why Get Lightning Headphones in the First Place? First, some background. In 2. 01. 2, Apple introduced the smaller Lightning port on the i. Phone 5 replacing the 3.While the Lightning port necessitated a new charging cable, the Lightning connector was more compact than its predecessor and one could plug it into i.OS devices in either direction, making it more convenient. Win7 Patch All Versions Executive . With the i. Phone 7, Apple made the “courageous” decision to force the use of its Lightning- compatible Ear. Pod headphones by removing the 3. In short, your 3. Ear. Pods that came with the phone, you bought a new pair of Lightning headphones, or you went wireless with Bluetooth- compatible headphones to listen to music. Using your old 3. Phone 7 is still possible, but requires the 3. Lightning adapter that comes included with the new i. Phone. That meant carrying around an extra, easy- to- lose little piece of equipment. It’s an example of Apple making design decisions that impact function for the sake of form, a decision the company’s made at many points in its past (for example, its decision to remove the optical drive in its 2. Macs). I admit, I get a wee bit frustrated when trying to remember which cord goes in which slot for all…Read more Read. Removing the 3. 5mm headphone jack was was a positive change, by some metrics. By routing audio through the Lightning port, the phone can play higher quality, 2. Headphone manufacturers are also taking advantage of the fact that headphones can draw power from the i. Phone’s Lightning port, adding features like noise cancellation and interference- reducing DACs (digital- to- analog converters) to improve sound quality. But Lightning- only headphones only work on i. OS devices with Lightning ports. To listen to music on anything else, like your computer, or even an older i. Phone, you’ll need to tote around another pair of headphones. There Are No Functional Adapters Yet. Naturally, you might think there’s some sort of workaround, or an adapter that can easily fix this incompatibility issue. After all, Apple makes its own adapters for a variety of older interfaces (for instance, VGA port adapters for mirroring your i. OS device on a monitor). But unlike 3. 5mm headphones, which can be used with an i. Phone 7 via the Apple- made dongle, there’s no way to do the reverse and get Lightning headphones to work with anything that doesn’t have a Lightning port, making my colleague’s new Mac. Book Pro, with its four high- speed, reversible USB- C ports and single 3. We hate to break it to you, but the traditional USB ports you’ve used to connect your cameras,…Read more Read. A dongle does exist to plug Lightning port headphones into a USB- C port, and we tried one, but it still didn’t fix the problem. Lightning- to- USB- C adapters only work when charging or transferring data. Which means no audio support, which means no Ear. Pod- powered desk concerts in your open- plan office. Apple Is Comfortable With User- Hostile Tech. Apple’s Lightning connector is convenient for Apple, but not so much for the rest of us. It’s only available on Apple’s i. OS devices, making switching to, say, an Android device an inconvenient and pricey decision—you’ll need new cables, headphones, docks etc. To play nice with others, Apple should have either left the 3. Phone, or switched to USB- C, which is what every other cell phone manufacturer is doing. And while their move towards incompatibility with other company’s devices isn’t surprising, it does seem a little weird that they’d build this kind of glaring incompatibility into their two most recent devices—the i. Phone 7 and the latest Mac. Book pro. The decision to exclude the Lightning port from its Macs—and not to publicly address the compatibility issues —also runs counter to its history of transition tools. During the company’s switch from Power. PC to Intel processors, it released the Rosetta translator software to keep Power.PC apps running on Intel- powered Macs.When the Mac. Book Air debuted without an optical drive, the company’s external Super. What Is Java Tm 6 Update 21 there. Drive optical drive eased the transition.My theory? The removal of the headphone jack and inclusion of Lightning Ear. Pods is simply a stop- gap to the company’s true goal of forcing you to go wireless and buy Air. Pods or Beats Bluetooth headphones. Considering the options, going wireless might be the answer, though I’d rather get some headphones that, you know, sound good. How to bring back the Start menu and button to Windows 8. With Windows 1. 0 seemingly just around the corner, Microsoft plans to fix one of its most egregious mistakes with Windows 8: the missing Start menu. By now you may know the story, as the company has gradually backtracked throughout various updates since the OS launched in late 2. And Windows 1. 0 will bring the real thing back, albeit in an enhanced fashion that doesn’t depend on fiddly per- user shortcuts and extra folders. The thing is, unless you’re willing to experiment with Windows 1. Technical Preview, the new version won’t help you yet. For several years now, every Windows desktop and laptop sold in a store comes with Windows 8. While Windows 8. 1 Update somewhat improves the situation, it’s still no Windows 7 when it comes to ease of use. Here’s the problem, in a nutshell: Let’s say you’ve just installed Windows 8. Windows 8 PC. After poking around for a bit you’ve finally found your way to the desktop. In the bottom left corner, you’ll see what looks like the Start button, but when you click it, you’ll be rewarded with a hideous new Start screen, not the Start menu that you know and love from Windows 7 and Vista. For some reason, despite the aforementioned series of updates over the last two years that are meant to make Windows 8 more user friendly for mouse- and- keyboard users, Microsoft is still forcing us to use the Metro interface instead of a real Start menu. The good news is, despite Microsoft’s best efforts to ensure that the Start button and menu remain banished from its new OS, there are a bunch of third- party Windows 8 Start menu replacement apps that you can download today. Really, it goes to show how devoted the existing user base is. Microsoft completely stripped out the underlying Start menu code to quash potential Luddite revolutionaries, and yet now there are dozens of Start menu and Start button replacements — some of which are even superior to Microsoft’s own Windows 7 Start menu. If you’re running Windows 8. Start menu back, take a look at our list of the best, least expensive, and most authentic Windows 8 Start menu replacements. Windows 8 Start button and menu replacements. Start Menu Reviver 2. Start Menu Reviver 2 is a touch- screen- friendly option — one of the few that is, considering most people want the original Start menu back because they’re used to a keyboard and mouse. In this case, the new version is nicer, with plenty of sizing options and the ability to create shortcuts for documents, music, video, websites, and other tasks. It also embraces the Windows 8 tile design, without completely taking over the UI the way Windows 8 Metro does. It now includes scrolling tiles and a Windows 7- like mode as well. Download Start Menu River 2 (free)Vi. Start. Vi. Start is one of the most customizable Start menu restorers for Windows 8, and lets you choose from a variety of skins. Vi. Start includes a blurred, translucent menu that integrated well with Windows 8, as well as a Windows 7- like Start Menu skin that we imagine some people will want to head straight for. It also speeds up program launches thanks to built- in indexing, and advertises a faster- than- Windows- 7 search option for your local PC. Download Vi. Start (free)Start. Is. Back. If you want a Windows 8 Start menu replacement that looks exactly like Windows 7, Start. Is. Back is for you. You get the same Start button orb icon, the same Start menu search box, the same jump lists, and — for better or worse — even the same Aero transparency. As you can see in the screenshot above, Start. Is. Back even detects if your system needs to restart to apply some patches; it really is just like the Windows 7 Start menu. Where Start. Is. Back diverges from the Windows 7 Start menu, though, is configurability: You can adjust which hot corners are enabled, make your PC jump straight to the Desktop when it first boots up, and configure a key combo to show the Windows 8 Start screen (Win+Ctrl by default). Download Start. Is. Back ($3, free 3. Pokki. Where Start. Is. Back tries to replicate the Windows of yesteryear, Pokki (free) is very much its own beast — and as much as we love the Windows 7 Start menu, we have to admit that Pokki is probably even better. It utilizes a neat “pinning” system that isn’t unlike the home screen of your smartphone or tablet. You can also add widgets to Pokki, such as Gmail or Facebook, which display your latest email or status updates. By default, Pokki will configure your Windows 8 system to boot straight to the Desktop — and there is an option that will just completely disable the hot corners, if you so desire. Remember, Win+C pops open the Charms menu, if you need.)Download Pokki (free)Next page: A few more Windows 8 Start button and menu replacements.
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