AirPods don't “just work” • Hacker News Board

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#181

Post by prox » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

Causality1 wrote: post #150

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Y’know what headphones really did “just work” though? Wired headphones, circa 2017. Their battery life was infinite. You could “pair” them in seconds to any device with a headphone jack, aka any device, because we’re in 2017. Oh, and they were cheaper and better for the environment. Courage, indeed. And this is why I’m currently typing my comment on an iPhone 6S...

Not to mention zero latency. Trying to have multiple people in a car play music/podcasts is a nightmare over bluetooth when you used to be able to just pass an aux cable around.

I bought a Sony that does BT and wired, I love the whynotboth movement personally. Why do we have to choose?

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#182

Post by Raed667 » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #170

Raed667 wrote: post #129

For anyone who wants something very close to "just works" checkout the Jabra Elite 85t or 75t.

I have the 65t, absolutely love them, insanely solid, always seem to have charge, pair to everything instantly. I wear them during workouts and they get covered in sweat and chalk still sound beautiful. Love them a lot and agree. Check out Jabra!

Had the 65T for years and can confirm. They are very solid and sound great.

I only upgraded when I lost them. And appreciate the smaller size on the 75 model.

I still very much recommend them to anyone on a budget.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#183

Post by richiebful1 » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

toastal wrote: post #109

Graffur wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Android and bought the cheapest wireless/bluetooth earphones I could find. They "just work". When I open the charging case, they connect to my phone. The bad points are the sound quality and the lack of noise cancellation

Additional anecdote, I have Sony XM3s and they are constantly having issues on both Android and Linux while being expensive and having excellent noise cancelation. They just worked for like the first 2-3 months but after a year, they've seemed to have gotten worse in basically all aspects (although interestingly switching from Sony's app to GadgetBridge for pairing and config, I seem to get better battery life). The…

A laptop not having a headphone jack is irritating.

The 2021 MacBook Pro has a headphone jack. I can understand taking the jack out of a phone because it makes it more water resistant and frees up space, but in a laptop there's a much larger footprint to work with. And users are more concerned with plugging in peripherals vs waterproofing in a laptop.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#184

Post by dep_b » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

I had AirPods since the launch day. The battery was not great to begin with and they decayed pretty fast. After that they're basically trash as replacing the batteries is about as expensive as buying new ones.

I'm back to EarPods now. Don't listen to music on my phone anyway.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#185

Post by blinkingled » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

klmr wrote: post #145

blinkingled wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OP should try using another brand of Bluetooth headphones for a week Extensive user of various BT headphones on Android for few years now - went through everything from cheap Corwin E7 to Galaxy Buds to Bose QC to latest one Sony WH-1000XM4 - had minor issues with the Galaxy Buds - had to wiggle them in the case to get the charging going but other than that all of the other ones work really well - Sony being the ki…

I’m a huge fan of the Sony high-end line, and am currently using the WH-1000XM4 myself. They’re excellent, but they do share quite a few of the annoyances listed in the OP article (in particular the delay when going from call to audio and vice versa, and the audio quality degradation; though, truth be told, I believe that’s a macOS issue), and they have their own annoyances. Most prominently, the utterly useless “sec…

Oh yeah I forgot about the second device pairing message - definite annoyance! I actually have used it with work macOS laptop (Big Sur) a few times but did not notice anything odd.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#186

Post by DoingIsLearning » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

323 wrote: post #152

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #52

I would add to the list that it is environmentally negligent to allow for such a complex device to be near irreparable (specifically on battery replacement). Unless you are selling medical devices your electronics should never be thrown away because after-sales cannot swap a battery. Then again Google just dropped the Pixel 3 after just 3 years so this is clearly an issue with the consumer electronics business model.…

How many people do you see using 2010 smartphones with replaceable batteries? Or put another way: people throw away phones after 3-4 years regardless of if you can replace the battery or not. You can pretty cheaply replace the battery in any phone at a repair shop. But people don't want that, they want the new phone with new look and new features.

> How many people do you see using 2010 smartphones with replaceable batteries?

How many 2010 smartphones have security updates that you can safely use? It's a chicken and egg problem.

For every person that chases the shinny new thing there are plenty of people who don't care about that and just want to have minimal functions, phone, sms, video chat, some decent photos/video, and occasional online banking.

However due a broken business model from Tech giants and firmware lock-in from Mobile SoC manufacturers this is unattainable at the moment.

Vendors should be forced to maintain an LTS work stream to give the alternative to those costumers who do want to act sustainably. Unfortunately that will never happen unless they are forced by regulatory changes.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#187

Post by TurningCanadian » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

klmr wrote: post #145

blinkingled wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OP should try using another brand of Bluetooth headphones for a week Extensive user of various BT headphones on Android for few years now - went through everything from cheap Corwin E7 to Galaxy Buds to Bose QC to latest one Sony WH-1000XM4 - had minor issues with the Galaxy Buds - had to wiggle them in the case to get the charging going but other than that all of the other ones work really well - Sony being the ki…

I’m a huge fan of the Sony high-end line, and am currently using the WH-1000XM4 myself. They’re excellent, but they do share quite a few of the annoyances listed in the OP article (in particular the delay when going from call to audio and vice versa, and the audio quality degradation; though, truth be told, I believe that’s a macOS issue), and they have their own annoyances. Most prominently, the utterly useless “sec…

I believe the audio quality degradation when using the mic is a limitation of Bluetooth bandwidth. It switches to a different profile capable of sending and receiving audio instead of only receiving.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#188

Post by IshKebab » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

dt2m wrote: post #63

All valid annoyances, but I really think OP should try using another brand of Bluetooth headphones for a week just to get some perspective of how well AirPods "just work" compared to the competition. Manually having to re-pair once in every blue moon, one earbud playing while the other isn't, no automatic device switching without having to go through the Settings app everytime, A/V desync, dodgy mic quality, earbuds…

I have Google's Pixel Bud A series and they have none of these issues to be honest. By far the biggest issue is that they don't let you connect to more than one device simultaneously. Fine if you only use them with your phone, but a pain if you want to use them with a computer too.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#189

Post by FredFS456 » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #106

dt2m wrote: post #63

All valid annoyances, but I really think OP should try using another brand of Bluetooth headphones for a week just to get some perspective of how well AirPods "just work" compared to the competition. Manually having to re-pair once in every blue moon, one earbud playing while the other isn't, no automatic device switching without having to go through the Settings app everytime, A/V desync, dodgy mic quality, earbuds…

> OP should try using another brand of Bluetooth headphones for a week Extensive user of various BT headphones on Android for few years now - went through everything from cheap Corwin E7 to Galaxy Buds to Bose QC to latest one Sony WH-1000XM4 - had minor issues with the Galaxy Buds - had to wiggle them in the case to get the charging going but other than that all of the other ones work really well - Sony being the ki…

I have a pair of XM4s, I could never get two devices (Ubuntu laptop and Android phone) to work right without getting atrocious sound quality ("headset/handsfree profile") on one.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#190

Post by Cthulhu_ » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #167

chii wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be like you. Then i tried, for real, a pair of bluetooth headphones. The disadvantages of the bluetooth is by far outweighed by the wireless advantage. The mobility, flexibility and convenience of no tangles and accidental wire pulling and causing phone to drop - all worth it. And wireless UX is only going to get better. Wired is dead.

The mobility, flexibility snd convenience of me still sitting on front of the same PC for eight hours?

I've got some Sony bluetooth / noise cancelling headphones, I don't like the lag but that's only an issue for videos and it switches to low latency (low quality) for voice calls. But I really appreciate not managing a cable, it's always in the way, or touching my arm or something (some sensory things really annoy me while sitting at a computer). Plus, great battery life.

And it Just Works. Although my Mac has a tendency to switch back to my speakers (also bluetooth) after ~15 minutes without my input, that's really annoying. Might have to do with the speakers turning themselves off?