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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

#161

Post by w0m »

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.

As seemingly half my coworkers needed batteries replaced on 2018 macbooks last year roughly as applecare ran out due to not being able to charge and work at the same time.

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

#162

Post by w0m »

deathtrader666 wrote: post #143
mmastrac wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, has anyone gotten 1000 out of a MacBook? Mine always goes to "service battery" around 300-400.

I have a "Service Battery" notification since 3 years, still gives me 4 hours.

Can charge while working the machine still? Teams/Docker/etc chugging and charge % steadily dropped irregardless of port/charger used.

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

#163

Post by w0m »

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%.

I think they start cutting performance significantly for that final ~10%; screen dims; cpu undervolts, etc.

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

#165

Post by whywhywhywhy »

internet2000 wrote: post #53
lights0123 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they actually open them up and swap the battery and resell, i.e. refurbishing. Apple just throws them away.

Are we sure Apple just throws them away?

Why wouldn't they?

They're designed to be disposable tech.

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

#166

Post by themeiguoren »

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…

> And if even one person starts using less plastic because of that, it was a success.

I can buy not relying on the first order impacts of banning plastic straws for the coat-benefit analysis, but relying on second-order effects doesn’t mean you get to toss out cost-benefit altogether.

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

#167

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

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?)

> I don't think Apple currently does this for pods?

There are comments on Reddit by Apple store employees who claim there's absolutely no repair policy for Apple pods, That they go straight to the bin.

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

#168

Post by ddingus »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #19
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

Good point, and it is/does for many products. EVs beyond Tesla all do this for instance. I do wish there was a little more of treating your users like adults though. If I have enough battery to make an urgent call, but it puts me under the 20% recommended, I want to make that call at the cost of long term battery life. My products treat users like adults, I wish it was a more common consideration.

My Note 8 phone has a charge battery notification at 15 percent.

I just replaced that phone, and yes with another one because I happen to like that model a lot, and my old one did 1500+ cycles with respectable battery capacity remaining. I replaced it due to a cracked screen, not battery trouble.

My general experience has been to avoid fully charging the battery and leaving the device on the charger, plus avoiding high demand use under 15 to 20 percent adds very considerably to longer term battery health.

This has played out across a number of devices, lenovo laptop, various phones.

After, say a few hundred cycles, it's very important to avoid taking the battery below 5 percent or even to zero. When that happens, the battery capacity is reduced every time, and it's by a significant amount.

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

#169

Post by ddingus »

swiley wrote: post #147
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…

They're replacing wired headphones which were only thrown out after physically breaking and didn't put batteries in landfills.

I really dislike batteries in this use case and basically bought 10 years worth of great wired earbuds for like $50.

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

#170

Post by sushid »

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…

I disagree. I think if anything, it'll lead to people being more angry/disillusioned about recycling. It's the equivalent of your teacher/parent/manager micromanaging you on trivial tasks. Let the person figure out what they want to do but make sweeping changes that are meaningful (e.g. reg cap on companies producing/importing disposable plastic goods).
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