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Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

kevinrooke.com

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

#471

Post by baybal2 »

macintux wrote: post #419
baybal2 wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HTC had touch UI few years before Apple, Apple just happened to be very good with marketing. Apple spent around 40-50m on the initial rollout, a sum completely unheard of in the industry. And they bested themselves every iphone release since. Even today, closest contenders are far from that mark.

Someday I need to turn this into a blog post. HTC may have had a touch UI, but they didn’t have a capacitive touch screen (did the XDA use a stylus? I’d wager it did). More importantly, Apple was the only company willing to: * commit all their resources to a single UI and single phone * write their own operating system for said phone to have control over its fate and optimize for that UI * offer a sales experience wh…

HTC had capacitive touch screens, with Touch being the flagship model

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

#473

Post by Fezzik »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #455
morganvachon wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Reporting from Toronto: You see a lot of AirPods (I was gifted a set myself) but you see even more wireless over-ear headphones. I probably notice those the most. And wired are still common, though not necessarily 3.5mm.

I dunno... I was watching an NBA game* the other day and 4/5 players had AirPods in as they entered the arena and the other singleton had over the ear headphones. This totally caught me off-guard, and was so noticeable I made a mental note of it.

* I know, not representative of the general population, and USA-centric, but the A list tends to be representative of what people want and, if they can afford it, what they have.

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

#474

Post by mikestew »

ikeboy wrote: post #466
filoleg wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried using any of them with multiple devices? Not at the same time, obviously, but in scenarios like "listening to them connected to phone while on the bus, getting into your office, switching to listening to them on your laptop". If not, I recommend you testing out this specific scenario. For a lot of the ones I tested, it becomes an exercise in patience and frustration. There were even some that refused t…

I've been switching between my Ubuntu laptop and Android phone. Pretty simple, I do need to disconnect it manually on one device before switching to the other but that takes a second. I don't believe Airpods would be any better in that scenario.

I do need to disconnect it manually on one device before switching to the other but that takes a second.

Only a second if your kids don’t have it, or you didn’t leave it at home, or...

With AirPods, one does not need track down the other device.

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

#475

Post by macintux »

baybal2 wrote: post #471
macintux wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someday I need to turn this into a blog post. HTC may have had a touch UI, but they didn’t have a capacitive touch screen (did the XDA use a stylus? I’d wager it did). More importantly, Apple was the only company willing to: * commit all their resources to a single UI and single phone * write their own operating system for said phone to have control over its fate and optimize for that UI * offer a sales experience wh…

HTC had capacitive touch screens, with Touch being the flagship model

Not 5 years before the iPhone.

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

#476

Post by nikhizzle »

intopieces wrote: post #472

I would love them to be an Apple Watch accessory. My dream is to leave my iPhone at home and do Siri on watch only.

As far as I understand, the Apple Watch has Siri, and the AirPods can pair directly with the Apple Watch...no need for a phone.

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

#479

Post by baybal2 »

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…

iPod was a shitty player few tiers below the competition. Tiny battery life, tons of bugs, IO limitations, iTunes nonsence, original, but unergonomic ui, mechanically unsound engineering.

iRivers, Cowons, and Samsungs were a head above it without any doubt. They were just never marketed in US.

Same with Smartphones. Japanese phones had all features of a smartphone a decade before the rest of the world, but they never bothered to market them outside thinking of outside world being "not advanced enough" to culturally absorb a phone as an integral lifestyle element, and not as a work tool.

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

#480

Post by Grazester »

hk__2 wrote: post #318
Grazester wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am like you but with the Android. Every time I use my wife iPhone I want to toss it across the room. I think primary because it doesn't have a dedicated back button.

> I think primary because it doesn't have a dedicated back button. Why is this an issue? Do you need dedicated back and forward buttons to browse through your pictures? Of course not, you just swipe left and right. That’s how the iPhone handles the “back” movement.

facepalm

I just clicked on an album in "Photos", I could scroll through them swiping left and right to go through the photos but now I have to rely on the arrow at the top left of the screen to go back to view all albums. I like having a back button always present on the buttom of my screen in Android for this.

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