The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate” • Hacker News Board

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#81

Post by rathel » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #57

This might be off topic or overly pedantic but why must this be referred to as 'rattlegate'? How is this a 'gate'? In what way does a line of rattling heaphones resemble an incident where the president of the united States was caught incriminating himself on tape in a hotel? Why must this term be used for everything?

To reify something you have to name it, apparently.

I see nothing wrong about it. Apple spends billions on R&D yet still manages to push crap designs to the market (as evidenced by Louis Rossmann).

If naming something *-gate will make a dent in the public's "premium" image of Apple, I'm all for it. They sell the same crap as others, just overpriced, maybe with software that's better in some aspects.

Apple almost never owns up to their mistakes when it comes to defective product design.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#82

Post by shepardrtc » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

Up until the other day, I had only needed to replace my AirPods twice so far. But then the microphone died on the right one and now I will need to replace them yet again.

I love my AirPods but this is so incredibly frustrating.

Pro tip: Use the Voice Memo app to determine which microphone is failing, and then go into the Bluetooth settings. You can make the microphone default to the side that isn't broken.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#83

Post by xnyan » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #35

picks up her trusty B&O earbuds and kisses them Never need to worry about charging them, soft replacable rubber cups fit into my asymmetrically-sized earholes, they're always there waiting in my bag on the rare occasion I want to use them, I am gonna be so sad when my 6s breaks and I have to replace it with either an Android phone or an iPhone with no audio jack, maybe I'll just get one of those lightning⟷audio adapt…

Cables. It's fair if they are not a problem for you, but they are for me and getting rid of them is a gamechanger. I move around a lot all day, most days. They were constantly getting caught in things throughout my day and pulling at my ear in a very unpleasant way, or got caught snagged on something like ladder I'm climbing and would go flying out of my ears. Hatred.

Airpods (not pro) are fantastic for what they are. They last for hours, charge in minutes, pair reliably with my iphone 11 and sound very ok. Not great, but not bad. Ok. Perfect for podcasts, audiobooks, lectures, and calls I have to take throughout the day.

The famous photography advice "the best camera in the world is the one you have on you when you need to take a picture" definitely applies. It lets me listen to spoken word and a little music very comfortability throughout the day, and I have big cans at home for everything else.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#84

Post by tyre » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #79

Mine rattle too! Man, I hate that. I assumed it was just my bad luck, and since peaceful protestors looted my local Apple Store I wasn't able to bring them in.

> since peaceful protestors looted my local Apple Store

There is a difference between peaceful protestors and people who engaged in looting. Don't conflate the two for the sake of a snarky comment.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#85

Post by dewey » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

NullPrefix wrote: post #60

WildGreenLeave wrote: post #16

I've gotten both my left and my right Airpod pro replaced on different occasions. My right one after 4 months and my left one 1 month later. So far, all of my friends/coworkers that own the pro's also got them replaced at some point within 6 months, or are dealing with the 'Rattlegate' issue. I am blown away by the quality of the pro, both positive and negative. How is it that we are all paying $280 and still have to…

>CreditCard got charged I somehow misunderstood this part. Do you have to pay for warranty replacement?

No, but they "reserve" the amount on your credit card and only release it again once they received the shipment from you.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#86

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

pvarangot wrote: post #68

grawprog wrote: post #57

This might be off topic or overly pedantic but why must this be referred to as 'rattlegate'? How is this a 'gate'? In what way does a line of rattling heaphones resemble an incident where the president of the united States was caught incriminating himself on tape in a hotel? Why must this term be used for everything?

I like to think how everything must be so right in the world were this people live that what makes them the most active and angry is their pieces of cheap consumer electronics not working perfectly. And yeah your Airpods are cheap, $250 for a wireless noise cancelling pair of headphones that fit in a pocket is wonderfully cheap and Apple can only sustain that pricing because this fashionable products are almost a los…

[deleted]

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#87

Post by Iwork4Google » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

kawfey wrote: post #77

I just had my right airpod returned and replaced under warranty, it's only a matter of time before the left goes. It took me two hours to get a person on the phone, and we went through no less than 3 reset cycles. :| Then the advisor told me I have to return it in person to an apple store (which is closed) or to an apple authorized repair store, and mentioned there will be a $29 fee, but fortunately for me, she was r…

Try using the official Apple Support App and chatting w them. They should send you a replacement airpod pro the same way you got a cable. They will just place a hold on your card for the amount of the replacement part until you return the defective one. They ship with a pre-filled return label - at least in the US

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#88

Post by fnordprefect » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 11:00 PM UTC

moltar wrote: post #64

Interesting. I’ve had mine since November last year and use them for many hours per day. Haven’t had any issues. Could it be the way it is being used causing it? Maybe dropping a lot? Or carrying it in a bag with other items, E.g. magnets?

I don't think so, on my anecdatum.

I've also had mine since early November last year, and also use them many hours a day, mostly at my desk. Never dropped. Either left on desk in case or carried in a trouser pocket with nothing else except my iPhone.

They were absolutely perfect until about ~6 weeks ago, when the right bud started to make an awful tinny noise (which I thought was imperfect cancellation, and a software bug of some kind) when I coughed, which it had never done before.

Yesterday, I started getting the rattling sound when walking, right earbud only. Goes away for a couple of steps if you take it out and reseat it, then comes straight back. Rattles in time with footstep.

Since it's an impulse thing for me (force of cough, force of bouncing when walking), I'm guessing defective connection (defective solder joint?) that is misbehaving when stressed?

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#89

Post by Teknoman117 » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 11:01 PM UTC

akkartik wrote: post #75

More on the environmental effects of airpods: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-trag... That they're unreliable is just the icing on this sandwich.

Admittedly not tiny little wireless earbuds, and costing twice what airpods do, my Sony XM3 noise cancelling headset had 30 hours of battery life when it was new.

After 1 year of full day usage during the work week, they last 24 hours. Kinda surprised the Airpods battery dies so quick.

Re: The AirPods Pro “Rattlegate”

#90

Post by chrisseaton » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 11:01 PM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #73

> The first generation of the AirPods was generally regarded as a perfect product If you don't care about sound quality, isolation, noise cancelation, mic quality, or using it with a non-apple device of any kind, sure. In other words, if you primarily care about form and only peripherally about function. Edit: for reference, rtings gave them a 6.4 https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-1-tr...

They didn't advertise any isolation or noice cancelation features, did they?

> if you primarily care about form and only peripherally about function

Well yeah the form was the revolutionary bit about the AirPods. I'm sure I could get a longer list of fancy functionality squeezed into an ugly pair of baubles if I didn't care about form, but what I want is something tiny and simple for daily use. I think that's what most people want outside the tech bubble.

Yet again Apple showing that a genuinely well-formed product is better than something that looks better technically on paper from the list of functionality.

Creating a great product isn't about functionality Top Trumps as you think it is.