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AirPods are now available

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Re: AirPods are now available

#361

Post by ClassyJacket »

eridius wrote: post #299
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…

Actually they do. What's "magical" and "reinvented" is the fact that the AirPods seamlessly switch to whatever device you're currently using, so you can switch between your desktop, laptop, iPhone, and iPad without having to actually do anything to trigger the switch. In addition, it automatically pauses your music when you take your AirPods out of your ears (and resumes it if you put them back in).

They don't switch to the Mac automatically. You have to select them in the audio menu.

Re: AirPods are now available

#362

Post by kevinstubbs »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #355
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 have to echo what others are saying. I don't see how you could possibly forget they're in. I've had issues with every Apple earbud design falling out when I lean over or even just move the wrong way. I'd be constantly worried these would fall out and be damaged. If anything, I'd be constantly reminded I'm wearing them.

Peoples' ears are all different. Apple's earbuds aren't comfortable for me, but they're the first choice for many people that I know. I can easily believe that the AirPods will be so comfortable that some subset of the population will forget they're in.

Re: AirPods are now available

#363

Post by prutschman »

bhauer wrote: post #270
j_jochem wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience, Bluetooth audio's sound quality is abysmal. I figure that's why an alternative system is getting so much hype.

I would agree that old Bluetooth devices (especially those from around 2005 or earlier) often sounded poor. But modern Bluetooth devices (say 2009 onward) have generally sounded fine/great. I would go so far as to say that if you're listening to MP3s and not FLAC, then Bluetooth isn't your biggest signal loss.

I haven't done work in the Bluetooth space for years now, but a big problem with audio streaming in the Bluetooth 1/2 days was that devices wouldn't reliably adjust their page and inquiry scan intervals (time the radio spends listening for connections and answering device discovery requests, rather than sending data).

The effective remaining bandwidth fell far short of what the default Bluetooth codec, SBC, required. SBC was already pretty low end, more like MPEG Layer-1 audio. Even so, for point to point streaming if the devices cooperated well there was enough bandwidth for fairly good audio quality. It's just that it was a crapshoot what any pair of devices would get you.

The other big issue is that there wasn't, at least at the time, any standardized method for synchronizing the audio sampling rates of the source and sink. This could have been achieved by slaving the audio PLL to the connection master's frequency hopping clock, which the slave has to follow to even maintain a connection, but there wasn't any requirement to do so. Plus it'd be a massive layer violation in the Bluetooth stack. We basically ran a software PLL on the sink side to try to match what the source was giving us, but packet retransmissions due to loss could gum up the timing. You could get a pitch-bending effect as a connection was starting up, or had just suffered a lot of loss.

I imagine they've sorted most of that out by now.

Re: AirPods are now available

#364

Post by archagon »

bhauer wrote: post #310
erikpukinskis wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly encoded MP3s are sonically indistinguishable in blind tests from FLAC, so I'm not sure what you're referencing.

That's actually my point. I believe modern Bluetooth headphones are indistinguishable from equivalent non-Bluetooth headphones. If you can tell whether headphones are Bluetooth or not—the other components being equal—then you have particularly acute hearing. And if that's you, then you are probably a FLAC aficionado. For what it's worth, I listen to MP3s on Bluetooth headphones and they sound great. (Though to be cle…

It's not all about the codecs. On my Sony MDR-1RBTs — which are admittedly a few years old at this point — you can hear the radio buzzing when there's nothing playing. I don't know if it's possible to design a pristine, noiseless set of Bluetooth headphones when there's just so little room in the earcups.

Re: AirPods are now available

#365

Post by Terretta »

FireBeyond wrote: post #296
Terretta wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bragi Dash: $249.99 after $50 off https://www.amazon.com/Bragi-Truly-Wireless-Smart-Earphones/...

I think this is hilarious, even as someone who owns multiple Apple devices. "This is revolutionary. Nothing else does anything like this." "These do." "Well they cost more!", or "doesn't look as cool". Moving goalposts. And eh, I realize that Apple almost never goes below MSRP/list, but don't act like the "after $50 off" is some special promotion. It's not a rebate, even an instant one, just 'cheaper than list'.

'Hilarious' describes the claim higher up that Apple didn't do anything to see here because wireless headphones are $20.

In reality, the only thing close costs markedly more, not at MSRP but at real selling price.

There's a reality distortion field, but it's inverted.

Not hilarious, just tedious.

Re: AirPods are now available

#366

Post by dkonofalski »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #271
veidr wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Messages is an utterly perfect, textbook example of software bloat. There are now so many garbage features, tangential to the core purpose of the app — self-deleting audio blips if you move the phone this way, internet GIF search if you swipe that way, weird drawing pad, stupid variable-location popup to add "HA HA HA" animation, recently-played music grid, full-screen-or-sometimes-not fingerpainting applet, image ed…

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…

Except you don't have to do that. If you need the full-screen camera, just swipe right from the smaller camera view. You'll get access to your full-screen camera and any previously taken photos/videos in your library.

Re: AirPods are now available

#368

Post by btym »

bhauer wrote: post #310
erikpukinskis wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly encoded MP3s are sonically indistinguishable in blind tests from FLAC, so I'm not sure what you're referencing.

That's actually my point. I believe modern Bluetooth headphones are indistinguishable from equivalent non-Bluetooth headphones. If you can tell whether headphones are Bluetooth or not—the other components being equal—then you have particularly acute hearing. And if that's you, then you are probably a FLAC aficionado. For what it's worth, I listen to MP3s on Bluetooth headphones and they sound great. (Though to be cle…

The quality has nothing to do with Bluetooth, it has everything to do with the digital-to-analog converter. A $25 headset is going to have the cheapest chip the manufacturer could find. Non-Bluetooth headsets don't process digital signals and don't have to do this conversion, it's up to the device you're listening on.

Re: AirPods are now available

#369

Post by dosethree »

kbar13 wrote: post #354
unfamiliar wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason my headphones ever "fall out" is because something catches the cable.

earbuds fall out all the time for me because generic earbuds are not shaped to fit everyone. it happens most often when i'm walking.

for me, it's a bit of column and a bit of column b

Re: AirPods are now available

#370

Post by jodrellblank »

tajen wrote: post #197
gdulli wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All companies play this puffery game but this goes far enough that it's practically insulting to the audience.

Well, the 1st and 3rd iPhones were revolutions. The Mac screens are stunning. It wasn't BS when Apple used to use it. Until they kept the same language and dropped innovation. In the same fashion, I was in a company whose motto was "Be the change you seek", which is really entrepreneur-minded and active. They changed their motto to "Advance humanity". Most employees said "It's ok, it's the kind of marketing bullshit…

https://mondaynote.com/the-power-of-company-mottoes-d5775414...

"Our vision is to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere — every person, every organization, and every community around the globe. This motivates us — inspires us — to do what we do. To make what we make. To invent, and to reinvent. To engineer experiences that amaze. We won’t stop pushing ahead, because you won’t stop pushing ahead. You’re reinventing how you work. How you play. How you live. With our technology, you’ll reinvent your world."

Seventy-seven words…to say what? How does this pablum tell an engineer, a sales person, or an accountant what the company is about, what it does, why and how?

I found this “vision statement” on HP’s website.

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