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Librepods: AirPods liberated

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Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#131

Post by cl3misch »

ornornor wrote: post #119
cl3misch wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

They use hardware tricks (beamshaping) and software tricks (audio processing) to get as much out of them as possible, and they do sound better than generic cheap Bluetooth earbuds, but the Bluetooth connection is still the bottleneck.

They did announce a special "high quality recording mode" for Airpods in iOS 26 (which I didn't know, so thanks) but I couldn't find much except their developer announcement. It's not documented and I don't have the feeling it's being used.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#132

Post by leokennis »

stasomatic wrote: post #80
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.

That's not why one buys the AirPods. These things go with me from the iPhone to Apple TV, to my MBP, to the Mini. There is better sound available for less, but the sound is the least of the story.

Unfortunately, somehow AirPods also at random go from my wife's iPhone to my iPad. And then when she "steals" them back switch to my Mac a minute later.

Doesn't matter that they are linked to her iCloud account/Apple ID and my devices are linked to mine.

Apple "it just works" smarts are very nice, until it doesn't just work anymore and you have no way to disable them.

It's the reason I switched to JBL earbuds with a touch screen case, where I can explicitly tell them what device to connect to.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#133

Post by Handrail »

socks wrote: post #113
Aurornis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I had the same problem but for me resetting them fixed that quickly. Then I was able to add them on my Macbook so they don't do that anymore when connecting to other peoples apple devices.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#134

Post by atanasi »

ornornor wrote: post #119
cl3misch wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Airpods use AAC-ELD for better microphone quality. While the codec is an open standard, activating it with Airpods is proprietary.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#136

Post by marysol5 »

culi wrote: post #106
Springtime wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed, like Apple's Airtags (which use Bluetooth LE), that they used some proprietary pairing that's incompatible with non-Apple devices.

Airtags can be scanned with your non-Apple smartphone's NFC reader which gives you contact info for the owner. Beyond that, all tracker devices are proprietary. The Tile/Chipolo network only works with Tile/Chipolo; Samsung's SmartTag only works with the SmartThings app which is exclusive to Samsung phones; etc. I just don't think the comparison is apt

Loads of 3rd party tags that work on the other networks though.

That was the point they were making, not that they had some NFC extra-functionality

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#137

Post by marysol5 »

ruszki wrote: post #115
Rohansi wrote: 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.

This is the same Apple that sued people making "Hackintosh" machines...

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#138

Post by puszczyk »

vlod wrote: 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.

i don’t know the devs motivation, but i own airpods and iphone

every few years or so i consider jumping ship to android, but i don’t want to buy another set of headphones for that — projects like this make the migration path easier before fully committing

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#139

Post by zombot »

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.

I cannot see my AirPods in my Linux Bluetooth device list, ever.

Re: Librepods: AirPods liberated

#140

Post by tentacleuno »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #88
taimurshasan wrote: post #85

This project is great. Hopefully one day AirDrop is liberated too. https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop looked promising, but it seems stale. maybe one day.

This was solved a little while ago. https://www.android.com/quick-share/

Is that implementation open-source? I'm sure it's bundled as part of Google Play, not AOSP.
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