Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

kevinrooke.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 696 posts

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

#361

Post by vinay427 »

reaperducer wrote: post #266
vinay427 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To do away with the point of failure that you so aptly illustrated by getting salt water in your phone? That's Apple's point of failure. The rest of the industry (mostly) has worked out how to make a headphone jack water-resistant, years before Apple made any phone water-resistant at that.

The rest of the industry (mostly) has worked out how to make a headphone jack water-resistant Yes, by removing the headphone jack on high-end phones, just like Apple did. Let's not pretend this is an Apple vs. The Rest Of The Industry sort of thing. The whole sector is going that way; Apple just took the lead. See also: Floppy drives.

> Yes, by removing the headphone jack on high-end phones, just like Apple did.

No, this is clearly incorrect. As I said in my original comment, there were water-resistant phones with headphones jacks years before Apple released one without a headphone jack, and there are ones being released now as well. While Samsung removed a headphone jack for a generation of their flagship phones, the generations before and after were both water-resistant as well. Samsung's newest releases (S10 Lite and Note10 Lite) both have headphone jacks and are water-resistant.

From years ago: https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/27/apple-if-samsung-and-sony-...

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

#363

Post by Daneel_ »

filoleg wrote: post #332
yibg wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think one of the strokes of genius for Apple here was the fact that they made AirPods work just as well with Android phones as they do with iPhones (minus a few secondary features). Back when i bought airpods 2 years ago, I still had an Android, and they blew me away in terms of UX. Up to that moment, i have tried and failed to find a pair of fully wireless earbuds that worked as well and sounded as good (for earbu…

You know what doesn’t have that problem ever? Wired headphones. God I hate that they’ve removed the headphone jack.

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

#364

Post by paulddraper »

morganvachon wrote: post #217
paxys wrote: post #21

As always, none of the numbers are official, so take all of them with a huge grain of salt. The article also doesn't link to a single source, not even an unofficial one. > Assuming an even split of sales between Gen 1, Gen 2, and AirPods Pro, Airpods revenue was $12 billion in 2019 This itself is a terrible assumption. AirPods Pro launched in November 2019, so had just 2 months of sales. Even otherwise, there is neve…

It's not just the numbers, there are other wild assumptions going on. > That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all. I'm sorry, what? Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).

Imagine thinking that AirPods were the first wireless headset.

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

#365

Post by rolltiide »

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…

Interesting use cases, the Google variant is still a good choice but a sliver of the android market that I cant really consider it meaningful

Its one vs many variants

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

#366

Post by eikenberry »

lowboy wrote: post #333
ikeboy wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that the Airpods are not better than the high-end competition. There's plenty of $100-150 Bluetooth earbuds that have better sound quality, and a handful of sub-$100 ones that are just as good. You're paying for the name. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-review-wireles... >The biggest downside? Their sound is just OK. AirPods produce a perfectly average sound that's clear in the mid-t…

Audio quality is only one of the metrics for comparison, including: - form factor (my powerbeats pro case is huge compared to airpods) - handoff between different Apple devices - BT reliability/connection strength (mostly down to BT 4 vs 5) - fit and finish - noise cancellation People weigh all of these things differently to arrive at what is "best". If a broad range of wireless buds all meet someone's threshold for…

Audio quality may be only one metric, but it is by far the most important. When shopping for headphones/iems you first listen to them and find the ones that sound how you like, then you compare on all other factors. I think most people who buy them do so because the marketing, not due to the experience. They know the brand and know they won't suck. Not that they are the best.

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

#367

Post by filoleg »

londons_explore wrote: post #175
themagician wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. After 2 years I had to buy a second pair. Apple apparently DOES offer battery service for these, but it's $49 PER AirPod. If it was $49 for both I might be up for it. Apple's battery service across the board is just too damn expensive. I get that it's the labor costs involved, but I wish they would put more thought into this. I have three older iPads, a few older iPhones and a MacBook Air that are perfectly usa…

Do they actually change the batteries in them, or do they just give you new airpods? I can't imagine the genius bar has tweezers and microscopes for battery replacements in-store...

They send you a completely new one. I know of exactly just one person who did it. He noticed that the mesh on the earbud itself was straight up new (his one was dented a little bit in certain spots due to his attempts to clean out some earwax using a sim-card ejection tool), and the plastic was spotless clean with no scratches.

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

#368

Post by jtms »

mastazi wrote: post #141

I can't wear any earphones for more than 5 minutes without them falling off, this is due to the morphology of my ears. I wonder: how large is the percentage of people with the same problem? Anecdotal, but I know personally at least a couple other people that can't wear earphones for the same reason. Note: I'm talking about earphones/earbuds exclusively, headphones are fine for obvious reasons. Also some types of earp…

I lack that same bump! Historically I have only ever bought the kind of earbuds with the behind the ear hooks as well. That being said, the airpod pros stay put for me pretty well out of the box, but even better after I modded them with some memory foam.

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

#369

Post by tootie »

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…

Apple is marketing company.

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

#370

Post by scottrogers86 »

addicted wrote: post #186
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 strongly disagree about the fashion bit. The iPod was better than any competitor it faced ever. The UI with the click wheel was completely unmatched. Maybe the Zune, years later, came close, but Apple absolutely crushed it with the iPhone and iPod touch. The iPhone was leaps and bounds ahead of its time, to the point that the then King of the hill, BlackBerry, didn’t even think it was possible. And the smoothness o…

All made possible by multitouch coming out of MIT! This is the video if i am not mistaken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sz8ExZndc
Post reply on HN