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Librepods: AirPods liberated

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111–120 of 194 posts

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#111

FYI android 17 fixes the bugs in the Bluetooth stack that previously required root to fix. But, this app still charges $5 for using features your air pods have. I'll be spending my afternoon forking and enabling them.

Hi! The developer here. The app requires a purchase only when you install it from Play Store. The FOSS version available on GitHub takes you to my GH Sponsors page where you can wait for a few seconds and return back to the app. Or you can also just click the Restore Purchases button. There's no need for a fork :)

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#112

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

You can use your AirPods as both a speaker (playback) and a headset (microphone) at the same time on Linux, but you must switch the Bluetooth profile to HFP (Hands-Free Profile) or HSP (Headset Profile). Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux).

> Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux).

Yeah, I have the impression most people assume Apple magically solved sound/mic quality in bidirectional mode. Or they just don't care. In any case, I'm unhappy about how much Airpods are used for meetings. They sounds so much worse than any wired mic! Or your laptop's mic, as long as you're not using the speakers.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#113
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.

Be wary - I do not have an iPhone, and I once connected my AirPods to my wifes MacBook. They now chirp at me loudly every time I pick them up, automatically try to connect to her phone etc, and I cannot unregister them from her account. I want to add them to Find My - I cannot add them to Find My from my MacBook, I 'need' an iPhone or iPad to do that...

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#114
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure. But on the other hand it makes sense to reward manufactures that make good hardware. And AirPods are very good hardware for me so I'm perfectly ok rewarding them for it.

By "reward manufacturers that make good hardware" do you mean "purchase their hardware" or do you mean some other long term commitment to them? Or is this a jab at the person who suggested you not buy their "good hardware" for other reasons?

Personally, I will use whatever gear is good as long as there's no risk of it becoming a paperweight because the manufacturer aggressively gets in the way of using it with other operating systems. I'm not "all in" on Apple and never will be. I love certain apple hardware but I'll likely never buy an M series Macbook because one day they'll stop supporting it even though it still works perfectly, and it doesn't support Linux.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#115
post #92
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they try to make the AirPods a worse purchase? Apple is happy to let you run whatever operating system on your Mac -- they aren't actively hostile there, but they don't help the community either. Still, I would recommend the Sony WF-1000XM6 if you're not an Apple computer or phone user already. The UX is reportedly worse and a bit buggy, but the sound should be better.

> Apple is happy to let you run whatever operating system on your Mac -- they aren't actively hostile there Weird to praise Apple for the one line of devices they let you install your own operating system on and ignore that every other device doesn't .

Even that is a lie. It allows other OSs, but they know quite well, that without drivers, it’s an empty promise. I can’t run anything else on my Mini for example.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#116
post #38

I respect the work/hack involved. However why support a company (by buying airpods) that is this hostile. i.e. I wouldn't be surprised to see a patch to stop this.

It's less hostile and more lazy. The Airpods use standard bluetooth for everything that bluetooth has. The stuff that doesn't work on non apple platforms is the configuration, changing what the squeeze actions do and loading firmware updates. There is no way to do this with standard bluetooth, you have to have a custom app for it. Apple just didn't build a custom app for other platforms but there is no reason they wo…

The fact that simple VendorID spoofing makes features available tells otherwise.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would be surprised if they could. They can. Require a valid signature from the mac's secure cryptoprocessor in order to interoperate. There's nothing we can do. Remember when we used to use cryptography to protect ourselves from government and corporation espionage? Good times. Now cryptography is used by governments and corporations to protect themselves from us. One day we'll need such hardware attestations to…

> Now cryptography is used by governments and corporations to protect themselves from us. Just in case you're not kidding, I'll remind you it was always thus. The Nazi Enigma machines were not created by libertarian anarcho-punks to distribute The Whole Earth Catalog.

I was referencing the time period that saw the invention of the personal computer which democratized access to strong cryptography, leading to the crypto wars as the US government attempted to restrict civilian use.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#118
post #115
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is happy to let you run whatever operating system on your Mac -- they aren't actively hostile there Weird to praise Apple for the one line of devices they let you install your own operating system on and ignore that every other device doesn't .

Even that is a lie. It allows other OSs, but they know quite well, that without drivers, it’s an empty promise. I can’t run anything else on my Mini for example.

I'm expecting them to lock down future devices because of this. Asahi can't keep up so the feature is basically unused.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use your AirPods as both a speaker (playback) and a headset (microphone) at the same time on Linux, but you must switch the Bluetooth profile to HFP (Hands-Free Profile) or HSP (Headset Profile). Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux).

> Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux). Yeah, I have the impression most people assume Apple magically solved sound/mic quality in bidirectional mode. Or they just don't care. In any case, I'm unhappy about how much Airpods are used for meetings. They sounds so much worse than any wired mic! Or your laptop's mic, as long as you're not using the speakers.

I kinda assumed apple had a magic sauce way to have higher sound quality on the iPhone rather than using the BT spec HFP, isn’t that the case?

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#120
post #38

I respect the work/hack involved. However why support a company (by buying airpods) that is this hostile. i.e. I wouldn't be surprised to see a patch to stop this.

This is my big conundrum with Apple. Their hardware is absolutely brilliant, but their combative nature against the users freedom on their hardware means I will never use it.

Even if you can hack around it, it is the culture that treats the users as someone to be controlled and coddled that bothers me.

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