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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

#151

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#152

Post by kllrnohj »

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 [..] objectively last longer than the competition.

Massive citation needed. Especially if you're going to talk about software support here since MacOS kills software support for old hardware long before Windows or Linux does.

The comment of "check eBay" isn't very compelling. Check it for what? What's your hypothesis and methodology here? Especially since you're claiming it's objectively longer lasting?

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

#153

Post by kllrnohj »

alisonkisk wrote: post #73
an_opabinia wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own AirPods, I like them, but it sucks that they die when their battery dies, and they have to be thrown away for pretty much no good reason - just because that's how Apple designed it, and it could have many design priorities, and one of those priorities is to not throw nice shit away after two years. In the spirit of advancing curiosity, it was interesting to just see, is it possible to reduce environmentalism to…

The point is that the environmental focus on airpods is irrational. look at everything in your trash can this week . If you are upset that they are too expensive, don't buy them. The price isn't going to waste; it has an enormous profit margin over the BoM. (a lot, perhaps most, of the true cost is fixed overhead, so buying more airpods makes them more efficient!)

> look at everything in your trash can this week.

My trash can almost never has electronic waste in it? It seems really odd that you're seemingly claiming that it's common for people to regularly throw away ewaste to such a degree that airpods are a rounding error.

There's more to airpods than plastic after all.

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

#154

Post by layer8 »

santialbo wrote: post #126
pieterk wrote: post #114

FYI Apple does this for $49 each, this website charges you $59.99 a pair. https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service#battery Edit: updated pricing thanks to comment by tanduv

It costs 75€ in Europe, which is stupid since a new pair costs 130€. https://support.apple.com/es-es/airpods/repair/service

Battery service is "only" 55€ in Europe.

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

#155

Post by pmx »

gnicholas wrote: post #122
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.

I understand how full charge might have an adjustment period, but how is volume affected?

Higher volumes require more current, the circuit probably limits what it pulls from the cell until it has learned about it to avoid damaging it.

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

#156

Post by playpause »

theshrike79 wrote: post #136
tjbiddle wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 star…

If someone feels they are already doing their part by sacrificing the convenience of plastic straws, how does this make them more likely to reduce plastic use elsewhere in their life? I would expect the opposite.

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

#157

Post by cduzz »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #24
denimnerd42 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% vs 30% corresponds to whatever arbitrary voltage they select but I doubt they are selecting for battery durability over all else since marketing max run time is so important.

Automotive engineer that doesn’t work on EVs here… there is a lot that goes into the battery. Heating and cooling elements for instance. You’re right, max runtime is the number one factor, but this can be gamed just like MPG ratings. I’m not sure many reviews are checking 0-60 times at 20% battery for example. My EV has a hilarious “miles remaining” number that INSTANTLY changes when the HVAC is on, doesn’t matter if…

Depends on the locations and cars in question; on the east coast there are lots of DC Fast charging stations between anywhere and anywhere else.

This is double true for Tesla where there are superchargers nearly everywhere. With access superchargers, road trips are roughly as complex as driving a diesel with a 5-8 gallon tank.

Also the tesla UI is very good at managing the trip so it is trivial to offload the "how do I get there including charging" task to the UI.

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

#158

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

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.

That's not been my experience, all the Dells I've owned have had great long lasting batteries.

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

#159

Post by lathiat »

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…

Apple actually does this both with your iPhone battery and your AirPods but it’s automatic and you can’t ask to switch to that mode. I see it holding my AirPods at 80% overnight quite a bit. They call it “optimised battery charging”.

I use my AirPods so much all day every day I do wish I could ask it to use that mode permanently.

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

#160

Post by culopatin »

ashayh wrote: post #8

Why do we need a separate business for this? Apple should be made to pay for it. If anyone finds an Airpod on the street or in trash/landfills, they should be able to take it to the nearest Apple store or mail it and get 20-40$ back for it. This should be the law for _all_ and any products, not just electronics. Large corporations have cleverly shifted the responsibility of recycling on the consumer, while they get t…

You’re looking at it from the wrong end. These guys saw an opportunity and opened a business. This is capitalism, it’s all around us.
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