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AirPods are now available

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Re: AirPods are now available

#331

Post by amlib »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #304

I find this headphone war discussion a bit boring. The AirPods are much more interesting as Apple's first foray into augmented reality. If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your…

But what about the possibility of losing the earpieces? They don't have a cable and don't secure into your ear like a hearing aid or even a normal bluetooth device. If they are so comfortable to the point of the user "forgetting they are there" the rate at which people will lose these things might be huge.

They don't dangle from a cable when falling like normal headphones or Bluetooth headphones that have a cable between each earpiece. Since it's also so comfortable, the user might not even notice they lost an earpiece immediately if they are not listening to anything. (which will specially happen if the user has incentives to use it day long).

And more annoyingly, you will most likely lose just one of the pair. Will you be able to buy just one eapiece and pair it alongside the old pairless earpiece? I don't think so...

edit: fixed wording as eric_h pointed out

Re: AirPods are now available

#332

Post by AceJohnny2 »

untog wrote: post #74
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #26

> "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." -- Slashdot creator CmdrTaco/Rob Malda about the iPod in 2001. I'm not saying these will have the impact of an iPod, but I am entertained by the amount of naysaying here. For one thing, how often have you fiddled with the knots in your headphone cord? It's frustrating enough to prevent me from using them in situations where I otherwise would.

This quote is so overused it's basically a tech trope. The point is that, at the time, the iPod was a niche product, with several huge flaws. Subsequent iterations of the iPod fixed those flaws, but that doesn't mean you should have bought a v1 iPod. It made much more sense to wait. Exactly the same logic applies to the Airpods. Suggesting that people can't criticise them because at some point in the future the produ…

> This quote is so overused it's basically a tech trope.

OK, how about "The only problem is that you have to install something. See, it's not the same as USB drive.", the top comment in response to the Dropbox announcement on HN, 9 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

It's a cliche because we techies are particularly bad at recognizing the mass-market appeal of products. What seems easy to us can be an unsurmountable hurdle for the target market, and what we may perceive as an unnecessary flourish can turn out to be an essential quality-of-life feature. It's a cliche because we keep doing it.

Re: AirPods are now available

#333

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

benlovell wrote: post #325
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I really wonder who's in charge of this mess. Like I said somewhere else in this thread, all these new features are for Apple, not for users. If they designed it for users, they would have NEVER made it so that they have to tap twice to take a photo before sending. Not to mention how they don't even allow you to open the camera as fullscreen. Isn't it really ridiculous how nowadays when you want to take a quick…

I'm not seeing this. I can take and send a picture directly from the messages app. Perhaps you need to grant access to your camera?

Before iOS10, you could press the little camera button from the messages app and a camera would just launch. You take the pic, and send.

Now all you get is this tiny preview rectangle at the bottom. It doesn't launch a full camera so is useless for most cases. That's why I have to open the "real" camera app and take the picture and come back.

Re: AirPods are now available

#334

Post by gurkendoktor »

monochromatic wrote: post #121
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because... it IS a marketing page? As much as I've also become an apple hater recently because of what they've done to iOS10 and the new macbook pro, I think criticizing a marketing copy for being a marketing copy is not fair.

What do you hate about iOS10? The new Messages app annoys me, but otherwise it seems fine.

Health: The iPhone 5s+ automatically counts my steps anyway, so I started entering my weight and blood pressure every few days. It felt really satisyfing to look at the Health dashboard every day.

https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ios8-he...

In iOS 10, they've replaced the dashboard with huge colourful video thumbnails. It feels like a bad onboarding screen that just won't go away:

https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge/pu...

I could probably buy (and trust!) third-party dashboards that use HealthKit. But instead I just stopped using Health. Chances of me getting an Apple Watch for health tracking: now zero, even if it was free.

Game Center: I'm aware that people hated the old and the new design, but Apple didn't kill it, they moved the invitations functionality into (gasp) a Messages mini-app. Syncing your game progress between iOS devices is a hodgepodge of Facebook, iCloud, Game Center, and most commonly, "not at all". That's not going to change if Apple cares so little about its own frameworks.

Re: AirPods are now available

#335

Post by dragonwriter »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #26

> "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." -- Slashdot creator CmdrTaco/Rob Malda about the iPod in 2001. I'm not saying these will have the impact of an iPod, but I am entertained by the amount of naysaying here. For one thing, how often have you fiddled with the knots in your headphone cord? It's frustrating enough to prevent me from using them in situations where I otherwise would.

"They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." -- Carl Sagan

Re: AirPods are now available

#336

Post by edgarvaldes »

josu wrote: post #322
erikpukinskis wrote: post #304

I find this headphone war discussion a bit boring. The AirPods are much more interesting as Apple's first foray into augmented reality. If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your…

I don't think so. These are my personal reasons: 1. I would hate to talk to a person with those things in their ears. 2. I use my bluetooth headphones the same way I use my wired headphones. 3. I don't feel comfortable talking out loud to nobody in public. It doesn't feel right to talk the phone, I will probably never talk to the air. I'm not a self conscious person, but I care if people think I'm crazy.

Regarding #1, I don't mind talking to someone using ONE earphone, because I can get visual cues about the attention in our conversation.

Re: AirPods are now available

#337

Post by djrogers »

Karunamon wrote: post #238
djrogers wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why did they not make the charging port USB C? Because there are about half a billion potential customers out there who already have phones that charge via lightning?

Since when has that ever bothered them? There was the dock connector -> lightning connector switch. There's the ADB -> USB switch back in the day. And now there headphone jack -> wireless thing switch. Apple cares not one whit for obsoleting the stuff you have.

The dock connector lived for 13 years, ADB lived for about as long, and both were obsolete and replaced by better ports.

I don't doubt that one day iPhones may use USB-C or whatever replaces it, but the lightning port is going to be around for a long time - it was designed to last at least a decade, and I don't doubt that it will.

Re: AirPods are now available

#338

Post by eric_h »

amlib wrote: post #331
erikpukinskis wrote: post #304

I find this headphone war discussion a bit boring. The AirPods are much more interesting as Apple's first foray into augmented reality. If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your…

But what about the possibility of losing the earpieces? They don't have a cable and don't secure into your ear like a hearing aid or even a normal bluetooth device. If they are so comfortable to the point of the user "forgetting they are there" the rate at which people will lose these things might be huge. They don't dangle from a cable when falling like normal headphones or Bluetooth headphones that have a cable bet…

I would imagine that the cable itself contributes more to the headphone falling out than the weight of the headphone itself.

Also, I imagine you mean "likely lose just one of the pair", as losing one pair means losing both of them (not intended as a dig, just helping to clarify; your intentions seemed clear)

Re: AirPods are now available

#339

Post by gurkendoktor »

jodrellblank wrote: post #186
FireBeyond wrote: post #7

There's like a next-level Apple marketing babble on that page: "AirPods introduce an effortless wireless listening experience packed with high-quality audio and long battery life. These magical wireless headphones use advanced technology to reinvent how we listen to music, make phone calls, enjoy TV shows and movies, play games and interact with Siri, providing a wireless audio experience not possible before." Magica…

Pick up bluetooth device. It's dead. Press and hold buttons. Wave phone around. Turn bluetooth off and on. Press and hold buttons again. Blue lights appear. Stare at empty pairing list. Wonder why it's not working. Curse at it. If they can make wireless not-be-shitty, that will count for 'magical' and 'not possible before' afaiconcerned. Except, Apple laptops are plagued with "wifi broken after sleep", so I have no h…

Not to mention that AirDrop has been a disaster since its inception, and I haven't heard a single good thing about unlocking Macs wirelessly with the Apple Watch.

Re: AirPods are now available

#340

Post by eric_h »

mynegation wrote: post #326
erikpukinskis wrote: post #304

I find this headphone war discussion a bit boring. The AirPods are much more interesting as Apple's first foray into augmented reality. If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your…

Forget that they are in?! For my particular shape of ears their hard shell design does not work at all. Every time I have to wear apple earbuds because I cannot find my day to day earbuds, I want to rip them out immediately, and my ears hurt after few minutes of using them. Unless the came up with better design there is no way I am forgetting I am wearing apple earbuds.

My problem with apple headphones is that my ear holes are apparently different sizes. The right ear is always fine and the left is always less comfortable (if only just). I switched to over the ear bluetooth headphones a while ago and haven't looked back.

Edit: I should add that with in-ear headphones, I was always able to get a good fit by using the one-step smaller rubber ends for the left ear and the default one for the right ear. Never had a problem that way. Still, I prefer over the ear these days, and they also double as earmuffs in the winter time!

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