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AirPods don't “just work”
781–790 of 966 posts
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#782Wow. I do agree with some of the annoyances, now that I read them. But, to me, my feeling about my AirPods where the exact opposite. I only got them recently, because I didn't quiet see the point of yet another pair of earphones. But man, They Just Work, has been my feeling about them so far and I have not regretted getting them. Maybe I have not had them long enough to actually start having them annoy me...
Basically, yes. That's been my experience. Even though I listed all of these annoyances, I still really like them :)
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#783Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to wonder if it's time to just say screw Bluetooth, and deploy a new standard that's specially oriented for audio. Requirements aren't crazy. It just needs to support uncompressed 96/24, full duplex.
I know some people have experimented with WiFi direct for that, but I'm not really familiar with it's limitations besides "you have to be hooked up to a router for it to work". One thing's for certain though, if someone made a pair of lossless cans that could "find" devices over arbitrary WiFi networks, I'd probably switch just for the improvement in latency alone.
Wifi has an ad-hoc mode which doesn't require a router.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#7843.5 mm jack Nasty. Yes ;) I'm sorry but it solves these problems and I think most of us have more prominent issues. Bluetooth - and even overpriced Apple products - are usually working well with one connection only. And the headset profile needs to sacrifice quality for voice input. This is to large degrees a question about priority of the user. If you need good or even excellent quality - opt for a good headset and…
In the winter, with all the various layers over my ears and possibly tangling with the cord? Cord all over the place while I'm biking or running? I definitely do not miss cords.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#785Annoyances 1 and 7, at least, can be solved by disabling the automatic switching logic. When connected to the AirPods, under Bluetooth -> (AirPods name) -> Connect to this {iPhone/iPad/Mac}, select "When Last Connected" instead of "Automatically". Repeat for each Apple device. It's a simpler mental model and it works way more reliably. No more weird handoff prompts and no unexpected switching. Yes, you have to select…
This is true... but I like the automatic switching when it does work :)
I try my hardest not to adjust Apple defaults too much because on the whole, I really like their design decisions and their UX. So I don't want to start straying too far away from their core defaults. It's a slippery slope :)
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#786I think most of these annoyances can be taken broadly from the fact that everything about any Bluetooth experience is just absolute trash. Why does it take several tries to pair sometimes? When paired, why does it sometimes auto-connect and sometimes not? Why does it just never pair at all? What's with that pair code that it says to enter, but auto fills (sometimes)? And only sometimes do you have to use that code (w…
How have consumers let companies get away with "premium" phones being the ones with fewer features?
Because I don't miss anything about old phones. Yes sometimes the airpods can work a little funny, but on a whole, they are so far ahead of the wired headphones I used to use that I can completely forgive the issues they have. Yeah it was cool to put an SD card in my phone, but it never worked that seamless and my phone now has more storage than I'll ever use.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#787Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's stop to admire the excellent UX of the 3.5mm jack * tactile feedback when connected (it clicks, you hear it & feel it). * "find my device" : just pull on the wire * quickly switch between devices * instant pairing We just need a marketing guru to sell people on the 3.5mm wired headphones
It rotates and has no direction, so you can untwist your headphone wire without unplugging it, and plugging it in is foolproof.
It had some issues where in unplugging and plugging the cable would cause voltage spikes because the pins would get dragged across the wrong connectors and not all be disconnected at once. Which is why you hear that pop when using loudspeakers and (un)plugging the cable. This apparently lead to damage of the speaker over time as well.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#788Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think part of the problems you describe is the failings of the bluetooth stack in MacOS, not the Airpods themselves. I have had bluetooth device issues in MacOS on a brand new Macbook, and of course MacOS offers no advanced control options or access to underlying defaults it plugs into device and connection configurations, and there are forum posts about issues going back many years with no acknowledgement by Apple…
I have to reassure you, the Windows BT stack is actually a pile of garbage. And I’m talking about things like the whole audio system crashing when trying to use my XM4 on any videoconférence software, my Xbox controller randomly disconnecting for several seconds while in game (I play at a At this point I’m starting to believe that even Linux has a better Bluetooth stack than windows and OS X. iOS is okayish but I hav…
> At this point I’m starting to believe that even Linux has a better Bluetooth stack than windows and OS X.
With Pipewire, this seems to have come true in it's entirety. Connecting multipoint Bluetooth headsets to multiple Linux devices works astonishingly well, and I don't think I've ever had a connection drop or encountered a real "bug" with it. The only annoyance is that if you have one device playing audio and another starts playing, it will cut out for a fraction of a second while the headset negotiates it's connection. Besides that it's almost scarily flawless.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#789Earlier quoted context omitted.
None of the AirPod annoyances are as bad as having your headphones yanked violently out of your ears when the 3.5mm cable catches on a door handle.
If you're walking around, yeah, sure - wireless all the way. But for desk use, I don't see the appeal of wireless, given all of the tradeoffs.
Even for desk use, wired headphones feel like being leashed to the desk. It's amazing to be in a meeting and then be able to just mute yourself and walk off to have a drink while still listening in.
Re: AirPods don't “just work”
#790Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another option is 2.4 GHz wireless, which is common in gaming headsets, at least, for low-latency / high-quality audio. The downside is it requires a dongle.
>Another option is 2.4 GHz wireless Sorry to break it to you but Bluetooth also operates on the 2.4GHz ISM band. Those 2.4GHz dongles you're talking about is basically a custom wireless protocol that doesn't follow Bluetooth or any other open standard or OSI stack but is most likely based on some internal protocol of what the three major chip makers in the 2.4GHz space offer (Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs, Nordic S…
They put the complexity in to the dongle which if done right, just works. It's why I choose to use the usb dongle for my mouse/kb even when they support bluetooth. Because bluetooth works most of the time while the dongle works all of the time and doesn't have compromises like "It doesn't work here because the OS bluetooth stack isn't loaded yet"
Bluetooth almost needs to be lifted from the OS and become part of the higher firmware so it works everywhere.