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AirPods 2 Teardown

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Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#71

Post by 52-6F-62 »

bretthopper wrote: post #67
52-6F-62 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I received some first-gen Airpods as a gift recently. I haven't really had problems downtown Toronto. I have had the odd blip, but no real cutting out or anything like that.

I have this exact problem all the time in downtown Toronto. There's a even a few intersections where I know it's going to be bad (University/Richmond, Yonge/Adelaide, Front/George). So obviously some signals at intersections interfere, but I've wondered if a replacement would help.

I'm usually on a bit of a different circuit than yourself, so there are a few variables in there as is.

I'm in Liberty Village where I never notice any issues and bus from there, up past King/Shaw, Queen/Ossington, Dundas/Ossington to Ossington Station. I debark at Sherbourne/Bloor and walk to Jarvis/Bloor. I think that stretch on Bloor is the only time I notice blips.

Last weekend I rode the King streetcar to Peter and walked north to Queen and didn't have any issues there, either.

Might be some hotspots around town, though.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#72

Post by glaurung_ »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #62
mikestew wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever seen these before You've...never seen an iFixit teardown before? Much like discovering the alt-text of XKCD years after you started reading it, you've got some back catalog to catch up on. And if you ever get the DIY itch, they'll sell you every tool they use. Decent quality kit, too. (EDIT: and to those of today's 10,000 with regards to XKCD, I am so, so sorry. Enjoy the rest of your non-prod…

I'm one of today's 10,000 then. I didn't know about alt-text!! Does every XKCD contain alt-text?

Haha yeah pretty much! I think there's one our two where the alt text is just "..." or something like that, but it's always there. A lot of the pictures in his what if posts have an alt text too!

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#73

Post by Verath »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #62
mikestew wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever seen these before You've...never seen an iFixit teardown before? Much like discovering the alt-text of XKCD years after you started reading it, you've got some back catalog to catch up on. And if you ever get the DIY itch, they'll sell you every tool they use. Decent quality kit, too. (EDIT: and to those of today's 10,000 with regards to XKCD, I am so, so sorry. Enjoy the rest of your non-prod…

I'm one of today's 10,000 then. I didn't know about alt-text!! Does every XKCD contain alt-text?

As far as I know, yes they do. The mobile version (https://m.xkcd.com) makes the alt text readable on mobile via click instead of hover btw!

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#74

Post by everdrive »

swah wrote: post #12
everdrive wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is actually a pretty simple device that deals directly with this sort of interference. It actually works by constraining the signal to a medium that isn't easily modified by air interference. PM me if you want to know more.

Why reddit allows jokes like this but HN is so unforgiving?

It's not the end of the world. Just consider it a joke tax!

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#75

Post by pfranz »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #63
pfranz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking back, I've handed down and repurposed so many Apple products. Way more than any other company--especially for tech. I hear so many stories about hand-me-downs with kids, too. There's only a few items I've dropped off to Apple to dispose of...most were part of a buy-back program (I'm curious where those ended up; one was an original Apple Watch they recently gave $25 for and another a few year old iPhone. I w…

I think the responder was talking about re-use of parts, though, not devices. On the day of the iPad Mini announcement last week, my iPad spontaneously threw itself off the bed in a fit of grief and shattered on my concrete floor. Battery is a bit old but the logic board is perfectly okay; Apple is just gonna shred it into confetti.

The comment ended with "recycling should be a last resort (after reuse). Apple is deliberately obstructive of that."

My disagreement is that for multiple reasons (build quality, longevity, and small number of popular SKUs), which are because of Apple, there is a much larger secondhand market than most tech products or even non-tech products in general. This also means I can more easily find replacement parts by buying things like your broken iPad on ebay/craigslist.

I also think it sucks Apple gets dinged for their Takeback program. I do have a problem with things that make the consumer feel good without actually materially improving anything and with situations where companies pressure cities to build half-hearted recycling programs when companies should accept more of a burden.

I have a young kid and their toys burn through batteries. My wife has battery recycling at work. After giving up nagging her to take them I remembered Best Buy has a prominent display for electronics recycling. After keeping used batteries in my car for a few weeks I finally stopped by one and found it explicitly did not accept alkaline batteries. I can't imagine the hoops needed to acceptably dispose of rechargeable headphones or laptops.

Sure, these programs make some people feel a little better about consuming these things, but after decades of this I haven't seen any of this consumer energy going to anything more productive. Often, it's the city/waste collection taking the burden instead of the company that produced it.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#77

Post by sofaofthedamned »

dmitrygr wrote: post #66
jaxbot wrote: post #2

My main interest is in Bluetooth 5. Walking around NYC, in even semi-congested areas of Manhattan, my audio cuts out with my phone in my front pants pocket. I literally have to hold it in my hand or coat pocket in order to cut through the interference. Has anyone experienced improvement when upgrading in this regard?

> My main interest is in Bluetooth 5 Bluetooth 5 does not help you here at all. Stereo audio is still done over Bluetooth classic which has not been updated since version 2.1 source: i work on bluetooth

Not arguing with your knowledge, but how does the LDAC codec on Sony headphones work then? Is this a later standard or a crowbar?

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#78

Post by sharkjacobs »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57
yoodenvranx wrote: post #45

How can anyone in their right mind claim that Apple is a 'green' company? In 5-10 years we will have 10s of million dead and useless AirPods due to degraded and broken batteries. So much unnecessary e-waste!

It's a good point. And the concomitant packaging and freight requirements. It'd be good to see a "10,000,000 AirPods is the equivalent of" various other things. How many AirPods would you need to recycle to have enough metal / plastic / battery material to build an electric car, for example.

well, the roughest possible back of napkin math:

A pair of Airpods and their case weigh 46 g. And the curb weight of the standard Tesla 3 is 1611 kg (all numbers from wikipedia)

So you would need 35022 sets of Airpods just to make up the mass of a Tesla 3, and you would have to recycle at least that many Airpods (likely far more) to get enough material to manufacture a Tesla 3

I wouldn't be surprised if it took more than 100000 sets of airpods to get enough battery and metal for a car. With lots of extra leftover plastic.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#79

Post by snaky »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #52
snaky wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they appear at Aliexpress with fresh batteries for half the price.

From the teardown, it doesn't seem possible to replace an airpod's battery without destroying it.

Never underestimate Chinese low-fi engineering genius.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#80

Post by dmitrygr »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #77
dmitrygr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My main interest is in Bluetooth 5 Bluetooth 5 does not help you here at all. Stereo audio is still done over Bluetooth classic which has not been updated since version 2.1 source: i work on bluetooth

Not arguing with your knowledge, but how does the LDAC codec on Sony headphones work then? Is this a later standard or a crowbar?

A2dp optionally allows multiple codecs. Anyone can make their own. Codecs are negotiated at connection time and if the headphones and device both support a given codec, they can choose to use it. SBC is mandatory, all others optional, including ones you can invent later (even after the spec is final and in use).
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