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AirPods 2 Teardown

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Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#81

Post by danShumway »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #3

And the repairability score is zero . I am quite concerned about these all ending up in landfills due to battery degradation. Apple claims it can "recycle" them, but that's legitimately hard to believe. I would not feel morally comfortable owning one of these.

I'd be interested in seeing data about what the average ecological impact of buying Apple products.

I used to be of the opinion that as long as you recycled, everything was just fine, but the recent recycling horror stories about sorting and costs have made me more reconsider that. Apple has (insofar as I can tell) an excellent recycling program, but realistically speaking, is a good recycling program enough? I don't know how it balances against:

A) increased consumption rates (your airpods are basically guaranteed to need replacing in 2 years max).

B) the limited number of consumers that are actually going to the trouble to send airpods back in to get recycled instead of throwing them in the garbage bin.

This is something I'd be interested in reading more about.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#82

Post by LyndsySimon »

mhh__ wrote: post #76

Pointless(And fuck-ugly IMO), but the engineering on display is very impressive.

I agreed with you... before I picked up a pair. As with several of Apple's best products, the reality of using them exceeds what you'd expect from merely reading about them. The iPad was the same way for me when they came out.

I bought an LTE iPad a couple of years ago, and had been using Sony Bluetooth headphones for some time for conference calls and such. I was at PyCon and my headphones crapped out on me - since I use them for work daily, my employer was reimbursing me anyhow and I decided to go ahead and splurge on AirPods.

WOW. Just wow. I found myself pairing them to my iPad and purposefully leaving it uncovered in my backpack while walking around so I could talk to Siri. I had a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge at the time, and while I was very happy with it, I went out the next week and bought an iPhone X primarily so I'd be able to access Siri from my AirPods more easily and without having to leave the cover off my iPad.

I've since upgraded my iPad to an 11" iPad Pro - and all because of the AirPods, honestly. I've spent almost $3k in total because of them, and am happy with that.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#83

Post by everdrive »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #23
jessriedel wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a surprisingly small density of lazy jokes to completely derail constructive conversation. Derisive sarcasm is especially pernicious because it prompts reprisals.

Agree in general, although the joke in question actually makes a strong case in itself, albeit not an original one. I'm surprised it got downvoted so harshly.

HN is probably a better place having downvoted me. That said, I think Airpods are completely ridiculous.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#84

Post by coldtea »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #58
coldtea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc. The green thing is not to expect a company like Apple to merely add batteries, but to not consume as much, and to get stuff that works long term and is not prone to such improvements (e.g. a good old pair of high quality wir…

> In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc. Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. You can improve audio quality but that happens at a slow pace, and much of the public doesn't care. I don't think all that many people would rush to replace a $200…

>Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add.

I can think of enough stuff. New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). And those are just off the top of my head.

Heck, just the same model available in black too, would make tons of people replace their AirPods 3-4 years after they got them.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#85

Post by mises »

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?

I'd guess that max bluetooth transmission strength is less than the maximum allowed by the FCC's spec for the 2.4ghz band (bluetooth and many other things use this). We'll probably just end up in an arms race of transmission strength until we hit legal limits.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#86

Post by nickthegreek »

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?

their RSS just shows it below the comic as well.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#87

Post by Wowfunhappy »

coldtea wrote: post #84
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc. Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. You can improve audio quality but that happens at a slow pace, and much of the public doesn't care. I don't think all that many people would rush to replace a $200…

> Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. I can think of enough stuff. New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). And those are just off the top of my head. Heck, just the same…

> New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing).

Most of these hinge on the earbuds becoming more self-sufficient computing devices, rather than pure audio devices. I think we're a long way off from that becoming practical, because battery tech is improving at too slow a pace.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#88

Post by [deleted] »

news_to_me wrote: post #9
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?

I have the same issue in semi-congested Seattle — it's the biggest downside to the AirPods, imo. I'm very interested in how the new ones perform. I've heard anecdotally that the problem is not only interference, but physical surroundings: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2018/04/heres-why-your-airpods-or...

[deleted]

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#89

Post by taternuts »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #82
mhh__ wrote: post #76

Pointless(And fuck-ugly IMO), but the engineering on display is very impressive.

I agreed with you... before I picked up a pair. As with several of Apple's best products, the reality of using them exceeds what you'd expect from merely reading about them. The iPad was the same way for me when they came out. I bought an LTE iPad a couple of years ago, and had been using Sony Bluetooth headphones for some time for conference calls and such. I was at PyCon and my headphones crapped out on me - since…

I bought into the hype as well even with every angle of my headphones covered (JayBird for workouts, Bose SoundSports for all-day/work, Sennheiser Momentum over-ears for quality), probably a drunken buy, but it's kind of replaced my all-day pair. The no-wires thing is kind of nice, but really it's how well they work with other apple products that does it for me. First pair of bluetooth headphones that didn't annoy the shit out of me until I just went back to wired.

Re: AirPods 2 Teardown

#90

Post by coldtea »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #87
coldtea wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. I can think of enough stuff. New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). And those are just off the top of my head. Heck, just the same…

> New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). Most of these hinge on the earbuds becoming more self-sufficient computing devices, rather than pure audio devices. I think we're a long way off from…

Yeah, but we're talking 3-4 years between each step. Those are enough features for 4 such iterations, or 16+ years.

Let's consider phones 16 years ago and today (or watches, for that matter).

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