Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

thepodswap.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 191 posts

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#101

Post by Scoundreller »

ylyn wrote: post #48
Scoundreller wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can't use the service if they have any external/cosmetic damage My guess is that you're not getting your own airpods back, but someone else's. Quick turnaround that way and I think people want that for a product like this. Positioning in Miami isn't ideal for turnaround, somewhere more central or a courier hub (Memphis or Louisville) would make more sense. As repair-turnaround time is no longer an issue, and Airpod…

> My guess is that you're not getting your own airpods back, but someone else's. I guess reading the linked site before commenting on it is no longer in fashion. They clearly state that they send you a new (or refurbished rather) pair before you send in your old pair.

I'm not wrong, just that their turnaround time is negative. Which makes other speedups a good idea to minimize their already long float time.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#102

Post by tjbiddle »

alisonkisk wrote: post #69
Etheryte wrote: post #2

As someone who gets a ridiculous amount of use out of their pods, I really hope this business pans out. I think the product is great, but batteries are consumable products. In fact, I would hope that one day it would be mandatory to offer battery replacements for all products you sell. (Do correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think Apple currently does this for pods?)

Look at an airpod. Why should the battery be consumable but not the airpod? They have about the same amount of electronics. The average airpod user throws out more than an airpod's worth of plastic per day . I get junk mail with electronic trash that is bigger than an airpod. Airpods are used with iPhones that have 20x the amount of electronics, so should last 20x as long. People's real concern is the price which is…

This was exactly my thought when I saw the headline. The air pods are so small, they're not contributing a large part to plastic waste.

It's the same story with trying to get rid of plastic straws.

In both cases, I don't want to dismiss the problem - it's just that there are bigger fish to fry to make a much large impact to the bottom line of plastic pollution.

Now, after reading through the "Our Story" of Podswap's website, I can see that the real selling point is: "Our batteries keep dying prematurely, and we don't want to fork over the cash for a whole new pair."

Recycling is great - keep it as a value proposition, but it shouldn't be the main marketing push here.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#103

Post by recycledmatt »

JoBrad wrote: post #76
crazygringo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, I never understand the "environmental waste" argument as applied to AirPods . The pair of buds weighs a third of a single disposable AA battery. There's less plastic than in an average Chinese takeout container. If you want to complain that they're expensive to replace then go ahead. But as soon as anyone brings up the environment , give me a break. We're not talking about a 65" television that weight 55 p…

I think the problem is volume > individual cost. Apple sold 60 million AirPods in 2019[1]. That number has surely gone up in 2020 and may even be larger in 2021. 1 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-sold-nearly-60-million...

If we use the 4 gram number, 240 million grams is about 264 tons. In recycling terms, that is really nothing - the equivalent of about 10 well packed sea containers or 13 tractor trailers. Some decent size single facilties can do that in a day.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#104

Post by BrissyCoder »

system2 wrote: post #98

I love my Tozo T6, screw apple. $25 and I have better sounding way more cheaper product. I wouldn't care at all if my $25 headsets fail after a year or two. I'd get 6 pairs instead of one Apple. My other bluetooth earbuds worked over 2 years and had no battery problem until I lost them. Stop throwing money at Apple.

Second this. I also don't understand how people get these things to stay in their ears... I must have large or weirdly shaped earholes or something.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#106

Post by cptskippy »

elliekelly wrote: post #34
polishdude20 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might be what's already happening behind the scenes though. They tell you you're at 10% but that's actually 30% for example

It does feel like the final 10% of battery lasts way longer than the drain from 20% to 10%.

As batteries discharge their voltage drops. This is known as a discharge curve. The curve is based on a constant current, different current draws have different curves.

http://learningrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Lipo-Discha...

Battery capacity is guessed by the Voltage output at the current draw when measured.

Laptops usually throttle components, reducing current draw, when they fall below certain percentages. This prolongs the battery so that last 10% really does last longer.

This article goes into some nitty gritty details if you're curious.

http://learningrc.com/lipo-battery/

Determining actually battery capacity and runtime are educated guesses because all the factors impacting them are constantly changing.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#108

Post by Wowfunhappy »

Others wrote: post #78
bluescrn wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just feels like a disposable $159 product is vastly more wasteful than a disposable <$1 AA battery

1. The parent comment is referring to waste in the environmental sense. Nature does not care how expensive the trash was--just the volume/composition 2. It's a big stretch to call AirPods "disposable" I (and many others) keep them for years. In the long run everything is rubbish; an expensive electronic device that lasts for years and years is not "disposable"

> Nature does not care how expensive the trash was

No, but the price is often a stand-in for how much energy/carbon it took to make the product, which is what I always assumed was the case here. I'd love to be wrong...

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#109

Post by numpad0 »

nomoreplease wrote: post #88
denimnerd42 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's frustrating is that while batteries are consumable products they could last much longer if they stay between 80 and 20% capacity without overheating. (this is similar to what tesla does) I wish there was a "battery care" settings on all electronics that would respect limits like this so that I could get thousands of cycles out of my devices instead of only Apple has added a feature which tries to do this intel…

Why 80%? Is 100% dangerous?

Li-ions are charged in Constant Current mode from cutoff voltage(2.75V-3.2V) until maximum voltage(4.2-4.3V), and charged some more in Constant Voltage mode until cutoff current(I believe these (cutoff voltage, CC->CV switch, cutoff current point) are commonly referred to as (0%, 80%, 100%) levels respectively, if safety margins and psychological tweaks are not considered.

Which leads to an assumption that it is this Constant Voltage region that is often said to be damaging to cells, though I don’t know exactly why.

Re: Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

#110

Post by dnhz »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #6
Etheryte wrote: post #2

As someone who gets a ridiculous amount of use out of their pods, I really hope this business pans out. I think the product is great, but batteries are consumable products. In fact, I would hope that one day it would be mandatory to offer battery replacements for all products you sell. (Do correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think Apple currently does this for pods?)

what's frustrating is that while batteries are consumable products they could last much longer if they stay between 80 and 20% capacity without overheating. (this is similar to what tesla does) I wish there was a "battery care" settings on all electronics that would respect limits like this so that I could get thousands of cycles out of my devices instead of only Apple has added a feature which tries to do this intel…

I don't think you could get thousands of cycles, but you might be able to go from Consider a Tesla that gets ~250 miles of range per full cycle. The battery would reach 1000 cycles after 250k miles of driving, at which point you have a pretty old car. Depending on factors like time, environmental conditions, driving style, a battery replacement might be necessary at some point in the car's life. So the batteries in EVs probably cannot sustain thousands of cycles. The battery capacity is large enough that the overall cycle count is reasonable within the lifespan of the vehicle, and the battery cooling system keeps degradation reasonable given the high demands EV batteries must fulfill.
Post reply on HN