AirPods Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: AirPods Pro

#41

Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

krastanov wrote: post #34

webwielder2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why spend $100 on a nice dinner, we'll just have to eat again in 8 hours.

There used to be an expectation of longevity in the electronics we purchase. Even while Moore's law was in full effect, you could find good uses for a 6 year old computer. Today's computer hardware can easily remain fully usable for a decade. The notion of buying a laptop or phone, let alone headphones, every year is ludicrous and actively harmful to the environment.

> The notion of buying a laptop or phone, let alone headphones, every year is ludicrous and actively harmful to the environment.

Is this notion in your head? My electronics, especially recent ones, last many years.

Re: AirPods Pro

#42

Post by tudelo » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #25

kofejnik wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sooo going to buy them the moment they are available; convenience is totally worth it for me, even if they have to be replaced every year

what convenience? I do not understand the appeal of air pods over any other wireless earplug.

FWIW it seems like if you stay within the apple ecosystem apple products have a much better user experience

Re: AirPods Pro

#43

Post by webwielder2 » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #35

bsamuels wrote: post #3

I will personally love to see someone justify spending $250 on wireless earphones whose batteries cannot be replaced. I'm a year and a half into my normal airpods and they already need new batteries.

Still shocked Apple gets such good PR about their environmental work when one of their most popular products is 3 batteries in plastic sarcophaguses that needs to be replaced every 18 months. At the end of humanity there will still be corroded burst airpods and funko dolls washing up on beaches.

My food truck curry order contains more unrecyclable waste than AirPods.

Re: AirPods Pro

#44

Post by headcanon » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

bsamuels wrote: post #3

I will personally love to see someone justify spending $250 on wireless earphones whose batteries cannot be replaced. I'm a year and a half into my normal airpods and they already need new batteries.

Apple is a premium brand, and so you pay premium prices.

$250 seems in line with high-end noise-cancelling earbuds: https://headphonesaddict.com/best-noise-cancelling-earbuds/

Can't speak to quality since they're not released yet, or the complaint about replaceable battery, but I imagine the demographic of people who want a replaceable battery isn't the largest, and for better or worse Apple has eschewed replaceable batteries for going on a decade now.

Re: AirPods Pro

#45

Post by tommaho » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

Is hearing assistance in development yet? How far out is that?

I'd shell out hundreds with a smile if these could be used to offset my hearing loss.

Re: AirPods Pro

#46

Post by Waterluvian » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

webwielder2 wrote: post #9

bsamuels wrote: post #3

I will personally love to see someone justify spending $250 on wireless earphones whose batteries cannot be replaced. I'm a year and a half into my normal airpods and they already need new batteries.

Why spend $100 on a nice dinner, we'll just have to eat again in 8 hours.

This is such a bad frame of mind if you're someone who owns more than a dorm room of stuff. I used to feel like this about stuff. "Oh it's just $100 and we use it every day, totally okay to replace every few years."

But it adds up when you start having to replace 100 different "it's pretty cheap given how often we use it" items in a year.

And it's not just the cost. It's also the time you commit to being a consumer. Thinking about which one to buy, reading reviews, etc. Some people enjoy being consumers and that's fine. But it takes away from what I want to be doing with my life. I want to buy something once and not have to think about it for a long time.

I don't think people have a frame of reference in their short lives to realize just how much time they spend being consumers and how that doesn't have to be normal.

Re: AirPods Pro

#47

Post by xoa » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

I have no problem with the AirPods being highly integrated, nor did I inherently think dropping the 3.5mm jack was an issue. Working wireless is a lot better. But I do really wish Apple would make the W1 chips and associated stack generally available to 3rd parties, that's what really got lost in the transition and they were wrong to keep vertical. Their strategy has surely sold more AirPods, but they will never be able to match all the niches served by a functioning market and it's a bummer to have that kind of variety unnecessarily reduced. For example it's fairly of niche, but I'd love a W1-based MMCX set. That would then allow the use of a wide range of high quality earphones from Shure/Westone/UE etc.

And I wonder if Apple isn't missing a bit of a trick in areas like this, where they do something which will increase the attached revenue value of each iPhone sold but that could reduce the attractiveness of iOS as a platform in general. If Apple made their own wireless implementation generally available but it only worked at its best with iOS/Macs, would a thriving wireless headphone/earphone/music market based around that increase the sales of iDevices and Macs more than whatever AidPod sales Apple lost?

Re: AirPods Pro

#48

Post by chrisjc » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #2

The price is $250, which is what everyone expected (note: the Wireless Charging case is mandatory; for comparison, the AirPods with Wireless Charging SKU is $200). Will have to wait and see how the reviews are, although it sounds like we'll hear sooner than later (pun intended).

Was hoping for a case that wasn't wireless charging. Save a couple of bucks for a feature I would never use.

Re: AirPods Pro

#49

Post by danso » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

The customizable fit is all I was looking for. I bought the originals but gifted them to my parents, because my ear is messed up from years of high school wrestling without wearing headgear. I know I'm an edge case, but there have been plenty of other great earbuds (wireless and traditional) that use soft flexible tips over the past decade.

Re: AirPods Pro

#50

Post by Phillips126 » Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

sandyarmstrong wrote: post #6

I just end up immediately closing these sites that don't work at all reasonably with a scroll wheel.

Normally I roll my eyes at these types of comments but you are totally justified. I'm in front of a desktop using a mouse and am getting scroll fatigue just trying to get to about the 1/2 way point of the web page. Literally scrolling through individual video frames is moronic.

Edit - Just noticed that the animated scroll-breaking stuff seemed to stop when using a mobile view (noticed using Chrome Dev tools) which makes it a better read.