Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#131

Post by kingosticks » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

frenchie4111 wrote: post #44

Waterluvian wrote: post #26

Has anyone found any info/study on "average likelihood of losing or damaging an airpod in a given year"? That's all that's stopping me from buying this and other premium products. I love premium products but not if I have to replace them every year.

It's definitely anecdotal, but I know probably 30+ people who own Airpods and have never heard of anyone losing or having to have them replaced for any reason.

Except all the people that have to replace them when the battery lifetime expires. You can take as much care as you want with airpods, they will need replacing and you'll need to fork out again.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#132

Post by crooked-v » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

sevencolors wrote: post #65

sadmann1 wrote: post #3

Are airpods really worth it or is it just marketing

The killer feature is the connection awareness. You put them in your ears and it immediately connects. You take them out and it pauses the audio. I’ve had several wireless earbuds and they all suffer from connection frustrations and letting audio continue playing when not used.

> You take them out and it pauses the audio.

Even better, if you put that earbud back in it then continues playing in both ears - which makes it a perfect intuitive enhancement of the physical actions you'd already take to talk to somebody while you have earbuds in.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#133

Post by Aromasin » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #80

gz5 wrote: post #40

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices. And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itsel…

Beats invented the first cool bluetooth headset.

Agreed. I'd be more specific and say Apple invented the first fashionable wireless earbuds. I owned a pair of the first Jabra earbuds (of which the latest edition I still use and love) and plenty of those horrid looking, wrap-around, sports ones before Apple came along; I never had anyone say "I want a set of those" until I wore my AirPods for the first time though. They just seem to nail the aesthetics every time.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#134

Post by mintocean » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

skyyler wrote: post #24

jackhalford wrote: post #17

I have a pair of Airpods. What bugs me most is that le lithium battery is not replaceable, and will degrade after a couple years. which makes these a high-end throwaway device...

That doesn't differ from their other offerings... Their laptops and phones do not have replaceable batteries, why would their headphones?

That’s false. I’ve had the battery in my Apple laptops and phones replaced many times. They even monitor its health and tell you when to replace it.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#135

Post by kristianc » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #73

gz5 wrote: post #40

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices. And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itsel…

Not sure about the marketing swaying people these days. People are going for the easiest devices to use that get out of the way and are high quality.

Which I guess would explain why there are Android phones that crush the iPhone on tech specs but make a minuscule (and sometimes negative) proportion of the industry’s profit?

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#136

Post by yibg » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

gz5 wrote: post #40

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices. And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itsel…

Not sure if I’m typical in this or not but I’m a heavy apple user but have been mostly “forced” into it but ended up loving them.

Got my first MacBook because of work. Was previously a windows / Linux user and didn’t get macs but ended up loving the MacBook Pro. Got an iPhone from work too, ended up loving that too. Got a pair of AirPods as present, use it pretty frequently now.

Seems like both a good thing (like it after using it) and a bad thing (wouldn’t have gotten into it if not for the unplanned opportunity) for Apple.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#137

Post by aduitsis » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

radlad wrote: post #82

rolltiide wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech is cool too Zero people have been swayed by the observation that the components can be acquired for cheaper And the non-iOS phone users that are married to “how much control they have” have touched an iphone since 2014.

Sorry to burst your bubble, I'm a long-time Android user who switched to the iPhone 6S for about a year and a half, then back to a Pixel 2. Following its release, I bought the iPhone XS expecting to love it and be done with Android. Oh, how wrong I was. Siri is still garbage, CarPlay is terrible compared to Android Auto. And there's nothing even similar to Google Home. Apple's hands-free story is completely nonexiste…

Can Android today handle voice dialing non-English names in the address book? If not, their hands-free story leaves a lot to be desired as well.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#138

Post by freepor » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

gz5 wrote: post #40

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices. And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itsel…

It’s not just the marketing - it’s that if you buy all of your tech from Apple you have 1) top-quartile product quality and 2) remarkable little upkeep to do compared to compiling a collection of multiple brands.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#139

Post by pascalxus » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

gz5 wrote: post #40

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices. And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itsel…

i mean, i know airpds are the new platform on top of which things will be built.

"what the tech can do"? you mean the airpods?

what else is there?

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#140

Post by mrtksn » Tue, Jan 07, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

barkingcat wrote: post #53

jackhalford wrote: post #17

I have a pair of Airpods. What bugs me most is that le lithium battery is not replaceable, and will degrade after a couple years. which makes these a high-end throwaway device...

almost everything apple makes has that feature ... degrades in a few years, throw away, buy another. ipads, iphones, even some modern mac laptops that have the disks soldered and batteries glued, etc.

Apple products have really long life span compared to the alternatives, actually. That's why their products have very good re-sell value. Nothing degrades, you pass your iProduct down the line in the family to the less tech-savvy members. My father is using my iPhone 5 now and works great after the battery replacement. People still user their iPods, iPad 2's and so on.

Airpods are an exception to the rule here.

I wonder where this narrative comes from, can you please explain why do you think that Apple products degrade rapidly and are thrown away?