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AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

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Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#401

Post by baxtr »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #379
baxtr wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love my AirPods. I am in full panic mode when I realize that I forgot them at home (happens rarely). They are the best Apple products in years. Why? Because they simply work, seamlessly. Product development in perfection. Can’t be charged while being used? Who cares? They last long enough. 1 out of 50 times I wear them they run out of battery. Charging them takes 5 minutes, so it’s not a big deal. Also, the whole p…

"They are the best Apple products in years. Why? Because they simply work, seamlessly. Product development in perfection." I can't remember ever trying to use headphones/earphones and not have them "just work."

Wireless ones? Really?

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#402

Post by exergy »

mbrock wrote: post #356
exergy wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's come back to this thread in two more years and continue this chat. Are you in good faith arguing that airpods and quality earphones will last the same amount of time and have the same environmental impact? It's one thing to have wanton disregard for the environment and say "Fuck climate change, convenience rulez", but a whole another thing to try to convince yourself that there IS no difference between the two…

How many monitors do people deserve? Is anyone allowed to have a car? What about food processors? Are wifi routers okay, I mean wired ethernet worked just fine for decades.

Two monitors, unless you're working at a NASA control center. No cars for journeys under five miles, unless you have disabilities. Food processors and wifi routers are OK, because they both are closer to BIFL compared to airpods. Wired ethernet IS better if you've got a desktop.

Anything else?

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#403

Post by exergy »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #392
mbrock wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many monitors do people deserve? Is anyone allowed to have a car? What about food processors? Are wifi routers okay, I mean wired ethernet worked just fine for decades.

Seriously. At least be consistent. If you're living off your own land, growing your own tomatoes and dreadlocks, and own zero technology, I'd understand and probably agree with you as you rant about the selfish decadence of humanity over the fire pit. But these comments here are basically the height of virtue signaling and weird oneupmanship. The fact that they are posting on HN about it on their high-tech device is…

Why does the conversation always devolve into "go live in a cave"? Surely you must agree that there is a spectrum of possibilities, and the further along it one can be the better? Eating mostly vegetarian food, driving as little as possible, owning as little tech as possible, having as few children as one can. These would have seemed to me to be relatively uncontroversial opinions.

The implications of all these comments seems to be that it's perfectly OK to buy Airpods every two to three years for decades to come, because there are other avenues in which we are also fucking the environment.

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#404

Post by exergy »

greedo wrote: post #374
exergy wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shure, and many other good companies, make earphones with removable cables. These MMCX cables can be bought relatively cheaply (decent ones on Amazon france seem to be about EUR 15 onwards). Even better, the ones that come with the earphones are burly as fuck, and as I said, mine have lasted three years with no damage or loose soldering to report.

I did a review of Shure in ear monitors. They sent me their entire product lineup, though I only reviewed two of their products. The highest priced monitor had a cable break 2 years later, with only minimal use in that period. They had/have outstanding customer support for this class of monitor, and replaced it for free. Cable broke 6 months later. They would have replaced that too, but I didn't pay for the monitors,…

Don't know what to tell you, except my experience didn't match yours. The only special thing I do to care for them is to fold them in figure-of-eights so that there isn't much stress on the cables when stowed. They've gotten caught in doorknobs etc. during my time of owning them, but still going strong.

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#405

Post by exergy »

toyg wrote: post #363
exergy wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about arguing for the environmental cost of our throwaway culture? Airpods have a MUCH higher environmental impact than ordinary earphones. A lot of tech is crammed into these things, all of which uses energy, resources, distilled water and so on to produce. I have a pair of Shure earphones that have "just worked" for going onto three years now. I had to change NOTHING on them, and they've never complained. I've…

Following the same line of argument, why are we even discussing this stuff on the internet, using devices that consume electricity, going through servers that likely consume tons of power... when we could all meet in a field and talk? Honestly, this sort of attitude is why I just struggle to trust any “green” activism, despite fundamentally being a leftie. You are happy to live in a cave, fine, do that; but myself, I…

What is your brilliant solution then? It's rather simple. There are billions of us on the planet. You cannot have them all live the standard American lifestyle full of chromecasts and Apple Homepods and use-and-dispose Airpods.

The best that I can think of is minimizing my impact. This heavily involves minimal tech.

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#406

Post by exergy »

rickycook wrote: post #365
exergy wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's come back to this thread in two more years and continue this chat. Are you in good faith arguing that airpods and quality earphones will last the same amount of time and have the same environmental impact? It's one thing to have wanton disregard for the environment and say "Fuck climate change, convenience rulez", but a whole another thing to try to convince yourself that there IS no difference between the two…

i would wager that your argument is a rounding error compared to laptops, phones, and tvs... are airpods less environmentally friendly than regular headphones? sure, but let’s tackle things that actually matter before nitpicking. my airpods are devices that i’ve had longer than many of my other electronics purchases, and they’re certainly a quality of life improvement

Fair enough, but I'm already trying to tackle the other things: travelling by train when possible, /r/nocar, biking everywhere, making my phones and laptops last as long as I can, no children, eating mostly vegetarian (not that difficult when you're Indian).

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#407

Post by exergy »

stouset wrote: post #345
exergy wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, that blows big holes in the argument that Airpods are better than wired earphones. It's compromises up and down the chart with the sole benefit being wirelessness? Are people nowadays really that rich that they can dump 150 USD EVERY two to three years just to get rid of a wire?! Also, I just can't fathom people's willingness to let so much tech into their lives. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, ai…

> It's compromises up and down the chart What compromises? They're literally always on my person. At all times. Without even having to think about it, because they just come along with my phone and keys whenever they change pockets. I can wear them all day and basically forget they're there, even when pausing audio to have conversations with people physically in front of me. For phone calls, they're measurably more c…

My wired phones are also on my person. At all times. Without even having to think about it. I can also wear them all day and forget they're there. Actually even better because foam is softer than the hard plastic of the airpods.

The compromises are that you have to charge them all the time. You cannot wear them constantly on an 8 hour flight. One-size-fits-most. They come packaged with an expiry date. Yours are going fine, but on balance, I'd say a careful user could make wired, QUALITY, earphones last longer than Airpods. The audio quality, despite you confident proclamations, isn't even in the vicinity of wired stuff you can get for that price range.

Guilty as charged about being a self-annointed gatekeeper. I'm driven to a low-level despair at our relentless forward march towards a scorched planet. Nevertheless, to conclude the argument, yeah, wireless throwaway airpods and home theaters ARE perhaps where we should draw the line. Where would you draw the line? Or do you think it's all dandy even if we never draw the line?

As to your last point, you're probably right. I have in all seriousness considered moving back to a flip phone. Since I don't have any social media, all that smartphones give me is access to boarding passes for flights, and GPS. But meanwhile, I turn it off at night and make the battery last two to three days between charges.

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#408

Post by exergy »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #393
exergy wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, that blows big holes in the argument that Airpods are better than wired earphones. It's compromises up and down the chart with the sole benefit being wirelessness? Are people nowadays really that rich that they can dump 150 USD EVERY two to three years just to get rid of a wire?! Also, I just can't fathom people's willingness to let so much tech into their lives. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, ai…

Are you sure $150 every 2-3 years actually sounds like a lot of money to you? Especially on something as important as listening to audio? I don't even think you believe this. My headphones last longer than that, but that's irrelevant to my counterargument. Show me your receipts and I'll find things I "can't fathom" and all sorts of environmentally questionable decisions. You clearly are willing enough to let technolo…

Perhaps I would. I have terrible gear acquisiton syndrome when it comes to music and also outdoors-gear. In my defense, though, both of those hobbies tend to have BIFL gear. Guitars and tents last a long time.

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#409

Post by jiaweihli »

muraiki wrote: post #266
LynxInLA wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is still $160 for the airpods, and $200 if you want wireless charging. Tapping the Airpod, uou still have 2 controls vs. the 5 with an inline mic. You can almost say 3 controls since pulling one out of your ear acts as play/pause. Mine were a gift, but I'll likely drop $160 on a set in the future if these crap out in a year or two. About once a week, I used to get my wire snagged and it would sometimes yank my pho…

Note that even at relatively low volumes, sleeping while listening to something can cause hearing damage. There's an interaction between both the volume and the duration of sound exposure. If you're using your device to drown out other sounds, that might be too loud.

Why does this happen at low volumes?

Re: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

#410

Post by ryanlol »

avcdsuia wrote: post #385
gcommer wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being wireless is just that good. Especially when exercising or otherwise out-and-about. The charging is not nearly that obnoxious, I've gone through a wide range of wireless sets and they've all had multi-day charges. Personally I have a nice set of IEMs for longer, sitting use cases and otherwise use a cheap (~$20) wireless set; so that when it inevitably breaks/gets lost/battery wears down after a ~year, it's negl…

How about getting a pair of BeatsX earbuds, cut those crappy units off and make what's left a Bluetooth adapter with MMCX connectors that are compatible with your IEMs. Seems to have the best of the both worlds.

This works quite well, but I still often use my airpods instead of my shures because the airpods don’t block out all the sounds around me.
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