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Google Pixel Buds

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Re: Google Pixel Buds

#221

Post by tenacious_tuna »

mattacular wrote: post #200
crazygringo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire product is a copy of the AirPods. But you know what? I'm fine with that. That's how competition works, and competition is what brings down prices. And I personally find the scrolling page design (both Apple's and Google's) pretty cool. It would drive me nuts if a site I used daily implemented something like that, like if it became a trend for news sites. But to show off a new product where I'll scroll thro…

Seems like a really inefficient system. Bringing down the price of a finished good requires another entity's ability in making a separate clone of it?

I'm not sure how that's inefficient, it's pretty normal market dynamics. If the demand for a thing is high enough and the supply is low (or artificially controlled), then the provider can just freely set the price wherever they want.

Enter a competitor, and now the competitor has incentive to undercut the original producer to capture their market segment, and then it's a battle between the two between the cost to produce, market price, and value of the good to consumers.

I suppose there's 'inefficiency' in that both producers are now providing identical goods, but very rarely are the goods actually identical. In this case there's also the surrounding product ecosystem of Apple and Google, which is a significant difference at the very least.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#222

Post by ExactActuation »

plantain wrote: post #215
marcus_holmes wrote: post #192

Please Google, just because my browser is in Berlin, that doesn't mean I speak German. I'd like to look at your product. I might even be interested. But I can't understand what you're telling me. I have language preferences in my account, and you definitely know who I am because you're showing my picture in the top right corner. So why does where I am take precedence over who I am?

And for the bonus - changing your language at the bottom takes you back to the home page rather than staying on the screen you were looking at.

But their engineers passed leetcode so they're super smart /s

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#223

Post by BoorishBears »

fxleach wrote: post #186
crazygringo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire product is a copy of the AirPods. But you know what? I'm fine with that. That's how competition works, and competition is what brings down prices. And I personally find the scrolling page design (both Apple's and Google's) pretty cool. It would drive me nuts if a site I used daily implemented something like that, like if it became a trend for news sites. But to show off a new product where I'll scroll thro…

How are they a copy of the AirPods? The AirPods, to me, look hideous. You take the original Apple headphones and cut off the wire. But putting that aside I'm finding it hard to see how these headphones resemble anything like AirPods. I mean, they're wireless headphones...? Is that the issue?

The original AirPods looked hideous, so hideous I stopped wearing them outside of my home.

But the AirPod Pros have fixed up the dimensions a bit, now they look like a communication device rather than a piece of jewelry resembling a miniature cigarette.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#224

Post by Kalium »

kadoban wrote: post #214
kelw22 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: has anyone ever made the claim that being rechargeable is what makes AirPods unique?

What _is_ unique about AirPods? All I can come up with is the look. These ones from Google look way different. Are they really clones in some way?

When you're selling a luxury good, one of the important aspects is it being recognizable. Other people in the target demo need to be able to see and understand that your customer owns and uses a status symbol without it being tastelessly obviously flashy.

Think the Birkin bag.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#225

Post by Octoth0rpe »

kadoban wrote: post #214
kelw22 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: has anyone ever made the claim that being rechargeable is what makes AirPods unique?

What _is_ unique about AirPods? All I can come up with is the look. These ones from Google look way different. Are they really clones in some way?

The easy pairing / switching between devices. There are cheaper wireless headphones out there, ones with longer batter life, ones with better sound (haven't tried the pros yet myself), but none pair as easily. Supposedly the next version of bluetooth will enable all devices to do that, but we're not there yet.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#226

Post by chrismorgan »

po1nter wrote: post #30
clusmore wrote: post #20

Off-topic but this website is such a blatant rip-off of the AirPods Pro landing page[1] (EDIT: Discussed at the time [2]), and I _hate_ the UX. I'm not sure what device this is optimised for, but it requires a tonn of scrolling, it's janky, you end up scrolling past the info you want, it breaks basic functionality like Ctrl+F. Why not just make a video instead of a webpage, since that's clearly the effect they're goi…

I 100% agree with the point you're making but at least Apple's landing page is scrolling smoothly on Firefox (76.0b8 (64-bit) on Windows 10) unlike Google's which is "jumpy".

On Windows 10 on a Surface Book (high-DPI): both are utterly unusable in Firefox Nightly, and lousy (but just barely usable) in Chrome. I despise such sites. It’s fundamentally impossible to do such scrolljacking well, and I wish they’d all agree to just stop trying.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#227

Post by bananicorn »

clusmore wrote: post #20

Off-topic but this website is such a blatant rip-off of the AirPods Pro landing page[1] (EDIT: Discussed at the time [2]), and I _hate_ the UX. I'm not sure what device this is optimised for, but it requires a tonn of scrolling, it's janky, you end up scrolling past the info you want, it breaks basic functionality like Ctrl+F. Why not just make a video instead of a webpage, since that's clearly the effect they're goi…

The page is in fact almost completely blank for me - I don't think it loaded properly, all I can see are the related products at the bottom...

Maybe it's because I'm on firefox?

Edit: it works in chromium, what a piece of junk.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#228

Post by kadoban »

shrimpx wrote: post #216

These prices are horrendous. I bought some GoNovation Demi buds for $40 and they are ipx7 with aptX and sound amazing with great battery life. No way in hell these pixel buds are 4.5x better. Apple Google and Samsung are using propaganda to spread the lie that $150-200 is the price point of earbuds. Look at GoNovation, MEE, Anker, and other companies doing amazing work delivering quality under $50.

Not a new concept in marketing, but yeah these are not what I'd buy even if I were into wireless headphones. You're paying more for the name than anything else.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#229

Post by programmertote »

I will always have a difficult time deciding to buy a new hardware from Google (maybe except Pixel phone because I have read some good things here and there on HN about it and my wife have been using it for about six months now and does not have a major issue so far although she said the UI is really confusing/annoying at times) after buying two Google home minis at two different times only to end up with both only being half-functional after just about a year of light use.

Good: I have Echo and I can tell that the AI in Google Home (mini) is more advanced than that in Alexa.

Bad 1: Every time my wife (who uses Pixel phone) and I (I have an iPhone 6) connect via Bluetooth to our Google home minis, it drops after a few minutes consistently even when we are using YouTube, which is Google's own app. We tried all kinds of ways that we can find online to reset these Home minis, and still that connectivity issue still persists. That went on for about 8 months and now, both of these minis (bought separately 3-4 months apart) are no longer connectable through Bluetooth. I really wonder if other Google Home owners face the same issue.

Bad 2: Google Home app is very confusing to use. Another bad example is--I have the temperature metric set to Celcius (I grew up in a non-US country) and both of these minis no longer read temperature in Celcius (after reading it for about the first six months of use) despite how many times I attempt to reset it in the app connected to my Google account. I don't know if it has to do with the firmware upgrades or the app upgrades that has failed to update the parameters within, but even as a relatively tech-savvy person, I still have trouble understanding the UI and worse, how to get these minis do such simple thing as reading out temperature in the metric that I want to use.

Re: Google Pixel Buds

#230

Post by legolas2412 »

333c wrote: post #217
fxleach wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they a copy of the AirPods? The AirPods, to me, look hideous. You take the original Apple headphones and cut off the wire. But putting that aside I'm finding it hard to see how these headphones resemble anything like AirPods. I mean, they're wireless headphones...? Is that the issue?

The (rounded, white, shiny) charging/carrying case is definitely heavily inspired by the AirPods. While the headphones, visually, don't look a lot like the AirPods, in terms of functionality they're very similar, as they're wireless earbuds that don't have a wire even between the earbuds, and they feature noise cancellation that adapts to the environment.

If your criteria is that loose, then iPhones were a copy. And I think airpods were certainly a copy too.
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