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AirPods are now available

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141–150 of 591 posts

Re: AirPods are now available

#141
post #5

To me these seem pretty stupid. Major features (to me) of ear-buds with wires and 3.5" jack are: 1) being attached with wires means I don't easily lose them when they slip out of my ear/hand/pocket. 2) the 3.5" jack actually keeps them pretty solidly attached to my phone (again, less risk of losing them). Walking around with two loose tiny objects seems less than ideal - at least to me; I'd lose them within days.

Being attached with wires means they catch on something and are violently ripped from my ear at least a couple times a week.

I cannot overstate how angry this makes me. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. It can literally ruin an hour. I'd rather be randomly slapped by a stranger.

Re: AirPods are now available

#142
post #5

To me these seem pretty stupid. Major features (to me) of ear-buds with wires and 3.5" jack are: 1) being attached with wires means I don't easily lose them when they slip out of my ear/hand/pocket. 2) the 3.5" jack actually keeps them pretty solidly attached to my phone (again, less risk of losing them). Walking around with two loose tiny objects seems less than ideal - at least to me; I'd lose them within days.

Bluetooth headphones are great. You don't have to worry about the wire snagging on things and getting in the way. Wires have been progressively eliminated everywhere else e.g. wireless networking, wireless mice, wireless keyboards, wireless phones...I'm not understanding why people are clinging to wireless headphones so hard. Your risk of losing your headphones is really that high?

For me it comes down to a few things. Bluetooth has some major downsides: First, you now have to charge your headphones or you can't use them. This is a HUGE downside when coming from something that literally never needs to be charged, I mean considering nothing else, would you rather have something that needs to be charged daily or something that never needs to be charged? Second, transmitting audio over bluetooth requires digital compression, which affects sound quality. For some this might not matter, but when I listen to music on headphones I want the highest level of quality. This is probably less of an issue for anyone considering airpods, as apple's headphones, even the wired ones, have never been great. Now the classic response to these points is "But just charge them at night, I never have to worry about it!" or "I can't even tell the difference in quality!" and these things may be true, however for me, if I'm sacrificing sound quality (even if it's minimal) and sacrificing unlimited "battery life" (in quotes because there is no battery life for wired headphones but you get the point) I better be getting something well worth it in return. In this case, that something is what, not having to plug my headphones in? Not having a wire connecting me to wherever the sound is coming from that literally never gets in my way except MAYBE very occasionally when working out? I'm sorry but that is absolutely nowhere NEAR worth the tradeoffs. It's not that I'm against bluetooth headphones, it's that the benefits do not outweigh the costs. How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones? I know for me the answer is almost never (realistically only when working out, which is the only situation where I'd even consider wireless headphones)

Re: AirPods are now available

#143

Why is Apple so obsessed with calling everything "magical". If anyone believes this is magic, they also need to believe Apple employs wizards & witches.

They need only believe in a standard definition of the word "magical:"

2 beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life: it was a magical evening of pure nostalgia.

Re: AirPods are now available

#144
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like wireless headphones for the simple situation that I switch from podcasts on my phone to video on a kindle fire and back during my commute, and pairing with various devices from a variety of manufacturers seems like it would be very slow compared to popping the jack. Though, to be fair, I've never used wireless headphones (other than xbox), so don't know what the pairing process looks like. I just know that in…

My headphones (Plantronics) will connect to two devices at the same time. The controls interact with whichever was playing more recently, and an existing stream takes priority over a new one. So I can quite happily stop my music from my phone and start up a call from my laptop, then switch back, without re-pairing at all. If I did need to re-pair, it's as simple as picking the phone from the phone or laptop's recentl…

It's less about the process of pairing being painful and more about the amount of time it takes to pair. I also use a plantronics headset sometimes and it usually takes somewhere from like 15-60 seconds to actually pair up and have audio coming through. Vs the 2 seconds it takes for me to plug in a wired pair

Re: AirPods are now available

#145

Why did they not make the charging port USB C? I feel like a lot of this mess with needing a different dongle and special wire for each product would have been less of a big deal if everything they did just moved to USB C all at the same time. Now if you want to charge your air pods with a macbook pro you need a cable to go from usb C to thunderbolt (not included) or an adapter to use the previous-gen-usb to lighteni…

I get the feeling we're going to see lighting on apples mobile devices for a very very long time yet.

Re: AirPods are now available

#146

Why is Apple so obsessed with calling everything "magical". If anyone believes this is magic, they also need to believe Apple employs wizards & witches.

Apple just wants to make sure the public understands how little it respects its engineers.

Re: AirPods are now available

#147
post #5

To me these seem pretty stupid. Major features (to me) of ear-buds with wires and 3.5" jack are: 1) being attached with wires means I don't easily lose them when they slip out of my ear/hand/pocket. 2) the 3.5" jack actually keeps them pretty solidly attached to my phone (again, less risk of losing them). Walking around with two loose tiny objects seems less than ideal - at least to me; I'd lose them within days.

1) I love it when that cord gets hooked on something and damn near rips my ears out.

2) I don't lose things.

This is like a guy leaving a negative review of feminine hygiene products. When a product designed for people with different needs and desires than yours, it’s not necessarily “stupid.”

Re: AirPods are now available

#148
post #5

To me these seem pretty stupid. Major features (to me) of ear-buds with wires and 3.5" jack are: 1) being attached with wires means I don't easily lose them when they slip out of my ear/hand/pocket. 2) the 3.5" jack actually keeps them pretty solidly attached to my phone (again, less risk of losing them). Walking around with two loose tiny objects seems less than ideal - at least to me; I'd lose them within days.

Being attached with wires means they catch on something and are violently ripped from my ear at least a couple times a week. I cannot overstate how angry this makes me. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. It can literally ruin an hour. I'd rather be randomly slapped by a stranger.

Just out of curiosity, what type of situations cause this to happen to you? This literally has never happened to me except while working out, and workout time amounts to probably 5% or less of my headphone usage

Re: AirPods are now available

#149
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is forcing you to upgrade! They must make changes to make progress.

Yes they are. Apple forces you to upgrade all the time. They keep sending push notifications until you find the option hidden somewhere in the settings and turn it off. You're assuming all changes are progress. They are not.

How the hell do you turn that off? I'd love to know, because I'm not going to upgrade to iOS 10 until I'm sure it won't hose my phone, and I'm sick and tired of being bothered about it twice a day.

Re: AirPods are now available

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed "interact with Siri"

I'm genuinely curious to see how often Siri is used, and in what contexts. Not to be cynical, but to re-calibrate my barometer. The only person I know who uses it is my partner's nine year old daughter, and even then not often.

I have an Apple Watch and I use Siri multiple times daily. Most frequently to set timers, but sending iMessages to friends and family is a close second. I also frequently use Siri to control music while I'm washing dishes or my hands are otherwise busy. If there's a faster way to skip a track when my hands are soapy, I don't know of it.

Also, FWIW, I've gotten pretty good at discreetly talking to my wrist in public. In any moderately loud area I don't think anyone even notices me doing it.

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