Librepods: AirPods liberated • Hacker News Board

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#41

Post by KomoD » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #30

To clarify because this is confusing: The AirPods work as regular old BlueTooth earbuds on other devices already. This is an implementation of some of the extra features and interfaces that are integrated into Apple products.

How is it confusing? The top of the README explains it.

> LibrePods allows you to use AirPods features that are exclusive to Apple devices. It implements the proprietary protocol used to exchange data between AirPods and Apple devices

And then has a table listing the features.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#42

Post by code_duck » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #22

jamwise wrote: post #12

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

I would be surprised if they could. Linux on Macs is still a thing. In fact, Linux on Mac is why I keep all the Macs we have in the house from the mid to late 2000s because they still turn on and work, if I choose to install Linux on any of them they are still usable.

Linux on older Macs, currently. I'd love to install Linux on my M5 (or even ARM Windows 11) but it's not possible due to Apple's lack of documentation and some other issues.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#43

Post by jamwise » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #31

jamwise wrote: post #12

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

The AirPods already work outside of the Apple ecosystem. This is just someone building out interfaces for their extra features that are already integrated into Apple operating systems.

Yeah I understand. But there are plenty of good headphones that work with Android and include most of the features. That's kind of the point of Librepods right? To bring AirPods up to par for non-Apple devices and make them a viable option for Android and/or non-Mac users. So "this working" means those features.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#44

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

Dang, was hoping this would let me use Airpods as both speaker and headset at the same time on Linux

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#45

Post by ghostly_s » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #30

To clarify because this is confusing: The AirPods work as regular old BlueTooth earbuds on other devices already. This is an implementation of some of the extra features and interfaces that are integrated into Apple products.

The very first paragraph of TFA adequately explains this.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#46

Post by ghostly_s » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

jamwise wrote: post #12

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

I wouldn't. Most uncomfortable earbuds in the market at any price.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#47

Post by FrinkleFrankle » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

teravor wrote: post #39

jackhalford wrote: post #15

> The aacp.rs and the att.rs files were translated from Kotlin to Rust with AI. Some parts of the media_controller.rs file, mainly the pulse integration, was also AI-generated. The future is now.

that's nothing. you can grab a proprietary binary, open it up in IDA Pro (with MCP), spend some 10 minutes crafting a good prompt and after a few million (mainly input/cached) GLM 5.2 tokens you have a python script fluently speaking the proprietary protocol.

Sounds cool. Do you have a link or more info to share?

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#48

Post by teravor » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

FrinkleFrankle wrote: post #47

teravor wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's nothing. you can grab a proprietary binary, open it up in IDA Pro (with MCP), spend some 10 minutes crafting a good prompt and after a few million (mainly input/cached) GLM 5.2 tokens you have a python script fluently speaking the proprietary protocol.

Sounds cool. Do you have a link or more info to share?

aside from https://github.com/mrexodia/ida-pro-mcp (which isn't mine) i have nothing i can publicly share. it's amusing how glm 5.2 jailbreaks itself, you ask it to quite literally break someone's software and it talks itself into it being a capture the flag competition.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#49

Post by drnick1 » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

jamwise wrote: post #12

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

Since the AirPods are an offline device, if you buy a pair now they should work indefinitely. But perhaps it would be better to reward manufacturers that don't make you jump through such hoops to use the hardware that you bought.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#50

Post by nunez » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

jamwise wrote: post #12

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

AirPods update while charging in their case and paired with an xOS device. You'll need to make sure that they never connect with an Apple product to "version pin" them.