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Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

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Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#181

Post by diebeforei485 »

lucideer wrote: post #132
mrtksn wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would totally pay for major upgrades when fixes are indeed needed, but not per month or year by default That's one model I like too and unlike one time payment for lifetime support, it's sensible. However, there's no straightforward way to implement it. How do you do it? Ship all the versions every time and show the user the latest version they have a license for? Ship a "shell" which will download the latest bin…

The best model I've seen for this is to simply charge for major version upgrades. It's totally at the developer's discretion what they put into any given major/minor/patch version so you can demarcate development in whatever way suits.

This has several downsides:

(1) If you purchased something just before the new version comes out, it feels like you got screwed over.

(2) It requires a lot of new features be released at once for the new major version. This is actually more difficult to develop for vs releasing one feature at a time.

(3) It makes planning and budgeting much more difficult, for users and for developers. If there is a bug (especially a compatibility bug for the latest annual version of iOS/macOS, or a security bug) affecting version N, version N-1, and version N-2, all will require bugfixes. This raises the cost of bugfixes. Not to mention potential bugs related to future physical AirPods products.

(4) It leads to bloat from gimmicky new features being added to attract new customers.

I'd much rather pay, say, $0.99 per month or $9.99 per year, and get regular compatibility and security updates, and know that this developer will not go out of business, compared to paying $50 for a product I might not actually use very long if it won't work on a new computer.

If you want good software that gets regular updates, bugfixes, and compatibility updates, it's best time to pay for it on a regular basis.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#183

Post by mrtksn »

car wrote: post #180

This is an interesting topic for a hearing aid user like me. For FaceTime and other calls on my computer or iPad/iPhone, I always physically switch from my Bluetooth hearing aids to AirPods, since the hearing aid microphone isn't that good for calls (other party has problems hearing what I say). Now, this could be a bandwidth issue. Apple Audio MIDI Setup shows the hearing aid microphone as an 8kHz/16bit mono input d…

Great feedback, I should totally incorporate special needs features. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#184

Post by diebeforei485 »

kllrnohj wrote: post #149
organsnyder wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a $5/year app—not a $20/year one. Or, make it a one-time $10 charge; if future MacOS versions require significant work to keep it up to date, charge an upgrade fee.

This seems like a $5 app full stop, not per-year. There's ~zero ongoing costs involved, and bugfixes that justify renewed purchases would be keeping up with any OS breakages which realistically should be exceptionally rare, but definitely aren't yearly regardless.

Annual macOS releases regularly make changes to the bluetooth stack and the sound stack.

Additionally, there are always new Mac products as well as new AirPods products being released, and getting them working on new hardware has costs (including but not limited to acquiring that hardware).

I find it extremely frustrating when apps stop getting updated and become abandonware because they relied on new customers to pay recurring bills (rent, groceries...) instead of relying on recurring payments from existing payments who derive value from their product.

Everyone wants the price to be lower, which is fine, but saying that you don't want to pay on an ongoing basis but still want to receive ongoing updates is not fair.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#186

Post by talldayo »

isoprophlex wrote: post #5

> it's not one time payment because I don't know what would the right price be for supporting an app for years to come and still have people willing to pay for it I dislike this very, very, very much. You do realize that with this attitude, we'll soon be bickering with our toilets to please let the seat down without making a small 4$/month in-loo purchase first?

If Apple sold their own toilet, you can damn well be certain you'd pay a per-shit fee as their customer. This is exactly what you get supporting a platform that relies on monetizing it's users.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#187

Post by ovao »

talldayo wrote: post #186
isoprophlex wrote: post #5

> it's not one time payment because I don't know what would the right price be for supporting an app for years to come and still have people willing to pay for it I dislike this very, very, very much. You do realize that with this attitude, we'll soon be bickering with our toilets to please let the seat down without making a small 4$/month in-loo purchase first?

If Apple sold their own toilet, you can damn well be certain you'd pay a per-shit fee as their customer. This is exactly what you get supporting a platform that relies on monetizing it's users.

Weird comment. I have three or four Apple devices at the moment and I don’t pay Apple a subscription fee for anything, let alone pay-per-use fees.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#188

Post by solarkraft »

kokada wrote: post #59
solarkraft wrote: post #32

This has been one of my fixations. That it‘s still an issue 20 years after Bluetooth audio has become a thing and 10 since telephony has become good quality is crazy to me. It has been a few years since LE Audio has standardized and a lot of digging has led me to the conclusion that it should support decent audio with multiple channels (as it‘s not artificially limited like the Hands Free Profile). I‘d have expected…

Yes, LE Audio is supposed to improve the situation in multiple ways (e.g.: lower latency, lower battery usage, multiple channels, etc) but sadly there is still no headset that supports LE Audio without hacks (e.g.: my wf-1000xm5 supports it but you need to flip a flag inside the app and it only works in specific devices and it also disables lots of features).

Crazy, eh? I‘d make good quality phone calls a selling point. After some conversations about this I’d wager that a non-trivial number of people at least knows this problem.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#189

Post by sib »

happyopossum wrote: post #56

I'm not going to compare this to a cup of coffee, as that analogy has been beaten to death. What I will say is that $20/yr is far higher than many apps, that are much more complicated, do a a lot more, and are self sustaining businesses. Why would anyone want to pay 2x for this compared to what a really good podcast app costs? Or 7x what a good gif manager costs? This app doesn't even do anything that native macOS to…

Third this.

I know ~everybody hates Adobe, but I pay about $120 / year for Lightroom + Photoshop, which are way, way, way, way, way (I ran outta "ways") more complex to build and valuable to me as a user than this.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#190

Post by replwoacause »

lucideer wrote: post #135

I think you may be underestimating the volume difference in paying users you're likely to get with a one-time vs subscription model. Looking at similar apps on the market, I suspect you would earn more revenue overall with a one-time payment (many more users paying slightly less each).

This is an important point OP should consider. While I defend his position and right to choose the pricing model that makes the most sense for him as a dev, and I personally don’t think $20/yr is very much if it solves a pain point, this is a valid POV to keep in mind that he may actually be leaving money on the table going an all subscription route. It sounds like he is also being limited by the kinds of pricing models the App Store supports (i.e. only subscriptions)
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