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Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill

thepodswap.com

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

#131

Post by eitland »

stefan_ wrote: post #66
eitland wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope all those gets replaced under warranty? I hounded Dell for months and got them to replace I guess 2 or 3 dozens of Optiplex DL270 motherboards and it felt good: forcing them to take the cost for their shoddy work.

They do but in the meantime you got a laptop that only works off AC.

Sad to hear.

The times I had an issue with an HP business laptop I called them and either a technician came to my office and replaced the part (a screen in that case) or they sent a spare after confirming I was capable to change it myself.

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

#132

Post by deanclatworthy »

ryana wrote: post #49

I’ve used podswap for my Gen 1 AirPods and it was fantastic. It took a couple cycles for everything to be back to normal (full charge, full volume) but they were up front that it takes a few recharges for everything to settle in. Absolutely no complaints.

Can you explain why this is the case? Why would it take a couple of cycles for everything to return to normal if it's just a straight battery swap?

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

#133

Post by gnicholas »

unilynx wrote: post #130
gnicholas wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with a pretty big pricing gap ($100 for Apple and $60 for Podswap, per pair), this seems like a risky business to enter. What makes them think that Apple won't drop the price of their service by $30 and put them out of business? Apple could do swaps much more efficiently due to their physical stores (where you could swap in real-time), and most people would pay a $10 premium over Podswap to have the Apple name b…

Apple isn’t really in the business of undercutting competitors on price

That’s true, and I wasn’t suggesting they would undercut Podswap on price — just that they would drop their own price somewhat and eat up enough market that this business wouldn’t be sustainable.

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

#134

Post by fomine3 »

tbrock wrote: post #55
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…

Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that even gets close to 1000 cycles of great battery life.

Lenovo and other manufacturers provides configuration app to limit State of Charge for battery over a decade ago. Apple just implemented similar feature (but automatic) in 2020. Without that, battery is unnecessary degrading while plugged into AC with 100% SOC.

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

#135

Post by namibj »

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…

Where are the electronics in the battery?

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

#136

Post by theshrike79 »

tjbiddle wrote: post #102
alisonkisk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

The plastic straw thing is not to make an impact on the environment, it was chosen to make an impact on everyone's life.

Yes, we could do something bigger, but people won't notice because they can't see the effect in their day to day life.

Ban plastic straws though and EVERYONE notices and talks about it constantly everywhere. And if even one person starts using less plastic because of that, it was a success.

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

#137

Post by theshrike79 »

namibj wrote: post #135
alisonkisk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where are the electronics in the battery?

Every Li-ion battery has a control circuit in it. Batteries stopped being just containers of electrons a long while ago.

All high-capacity batteries need a management chip.

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

#138

Post by theshrike79 »

slim wrote: post #120
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…

The airpods are compared to wired ear buds. Once Apple removed the jack port, they effectively created the added waste which was not there before.

YMMV.

I'm on my second pair of airpods since launch. (Left pod on the previous pair stopped connecting).

As for wired headphones, no pair lasts over 2 years in my use. The cord always gets tangled and broken and off to the bin they go. No matter how thick, thin or even swappable the cord is, I still manage to break them.

It's wireless or silence for me =)

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

#139

Post by TaylorAlexander »

samatman wrote: post #92
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems way too conveniently dismissive of the environmental issue. Apple is the 800 lb gorilla that sets industry expectations. They have been gluing batteries and making repair difficult across their product line for a decade. This leads to higher consumer costs and manufactured goods filling landfills prematurely. As one of the most visible companies in the world making repair difficult, the criticism is well-d…

Apple laptops and phones objectively last longer than the competition. Most of that is software support. Some of it is that they make few models, and sell at a premium, so there is a robust secondary market in used devices. They continue to make and sell batteries for old models, and there are plenty of counterfeits available if you want to risk it. Apple recently (late last year) replaced the battery on my Mom's iPh…

> Apple laptops and phones objectively last longer than the competition.

I'm not sure if you've spent much time watching Louis Rossman's youtube channel, but it is full of examples of Apple telling customers a device needs to be replaced when simple repairs are possible. [1][2][3]

Apple worked with US Customs and Border Patrol to seize replacement batteries for laptops that apple will no longer service. [4]

Rossman has a lot of videos so I did not find original sources for the following, but he has also called Apple support about replacing a charging port on a phone. Apple support told him the charging port was soldered to the motherboard and the phone needed to be replaced. But that charging port on that device is attached via a cable and is not soldered to the board. It can be replaced for a few dollars in five minutes.

Rossman also says that apple prevents third party chip manufacturers from selling to repair shops. So Rossman could repair certain macbooks with a $6 chip from (I believe) Intersil, but Apple (being an 800lb gorilla) has asked Intersil not to sell those chips to anyone else. So apple won't replace that chip on your motherboard but they also won't let anyone else do it.

It's great that apple will replace batteries, but I seem to recall there was significant consumer (or government?) pressure to offer those replacements. And I would be curious if they do that worldwide or only where legally required.

But watching Rossman's youtube channel, it is clear that repair is about much more than batteries. It's good that their products are long lasting, but at some point they will all eventually break. Millions of apple products must break each year. Apple could help extend the lives of those products, saving customers money and cutting down on waste. Instead, they seem eager to blame every problem on water damage and quote $1200 for repairs which could be done for a few dollars. (the first three video links make that clear)

I don't see the point in defending Apple here. I am sure other companies are bad too, but Apple is the industry leader and their failure to embrace repair sets expectations across the board. If it was consumer pressure that led to their battery replacement program, we may be able to apply similar pressures for right to repair. But only if we're willing to acknowledge the problems with their behavior and push back against them.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1A9y4S60kg

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7RXJP4mxCc

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVL65qwBGnw

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

#140

Post by beckman466 »

SilverRed wrote: post #128
crooked-v wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently, "proper disposal" of most plastic producta means just dumping them in a landfill somewhere anyway.

Which isn't that bad. The oil came from under ground. Stick it back there and its not too bad. The real problem is when it ends up in rivers and oceans.

> Which isn't that bad. The oil came from under ground. Stick it back there and its not too bad.

I’m curious what you based this on?

Did you fall victim to ultracrepidarianism / the fallacy of transferable expertise [1]?

” The millions of tons of plastic swirling around the world’s oceans have garnered a lot of media attention recently. But plastic pollution arguably poses a bigger threat to the plants and animals – including humans – who are based on land.

Very little of the plastic we discard every day is recycled or incinerated in waste-to-energy facilities. Much of it ends up in landfills, where it may take up to 1,000 years to decompose, leaching potentially toxic substances into the soil and water.

Researchers in Germany are warning that the impact of microplastics in soils, sediments and freshwater could have a long-term negative effect on such ecosystems. They say terrestrial microplastic pollution is much higher than marine microplastic pollution – estimated at four to 23 times higher, depending on the environment.” [2]

[1] https://twitter.com/bjorn/status/953778121764831232

[2] https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-h...

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