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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#221

Post by toyg »

monerozcash wrote: post #174
vee-kay wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason Apple ditched Lightning port and finally gave USB-C port in the iDevices, is because EU forced Apple to do so. But do you think your oh-so-common USB-C cables will work with a new iPhone? In my country (India), Apple still doesn't sell charger and cable along with its new iDevices, even though those gadgets are exorbitantly expensive. And Apple doesn't allow custom repair here, even though my country…

>But do you think your oh-so-common USB-C cables will work with a new iPhone? They seem to work just fine, yeah.

"Seem". Until they don't. I've had multiple instances of Airpods stopping to connect with phones until I charged them at least once with original Apple cables. They might work fine for months, then stop ehaving unless connected through an all-Apple power pipeline (cable and charger). It's probably firmware updates requiring some sort of validation every now and then.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#222

Post by hopelite »

naIak wrote: post #200
matwood wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently there's absolutely zero magic reasons why their airpods are unable to connect to non-Apple devices I've had almost all of the versions of AirPods and AirPod Pros and they have connected to non-Apple devices just fine.

[flagged]

I’ve long found that whole feud and dynamic odd, like humanity could learn some major things about inter-group dynamics and even psychology by studying and unlocking what it’s all about.

You have Apple users just happily going about their day, paying a premium because the things just work well enough together to the point that even the slightest hiccup feels like a major event, but the devices just meld into the background of their life and work.

Meanwhile you have Android, Linux, Windows zealots just brooding in dark corners, audibly grinding their teeth over the happiness and ease in which Apple users go about their day, not having to tinker and adjust and fix things and hunt down drivers and check compatibility and relearn every new device they come in contact with and the 38 different paths to accomplish simple tasks, seething with anger that Apple users don’t want to struggle and suffer too.

It’s just a bit of humor. I repent, I repent. You baby is just as pretty as all the other babies.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#223

Post by gf000 »

gf000 wrote: post #152
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still connect AirPods to an android device using Bluetooth, you just don’t get the seamless connection or support for Spatial Audio that use the extended protocols

You can't even change noise cancel's mode.

It's just on and off, and doesn't let you choose between the different ones (transparency, conversation aware, etc)

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#224

Post by trueno »

olirex99 wrote: post #188

Companies are doing some crazy stuff to block other devices. One of the worst things that I have seen is that on MacOS you cannot use the AirPods in a Microsoft Teams call.

I’ve used virtually every version of AirPods with Microsoft teams, including AirPod maxes. I use AirPods with teams calls every day.

Let’s definitely not pretend like Teams isn’t the crappiest app in the Milky Way. Any user issues can be squarely placed on Microsoft teams with confidence. Actual garbage app.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#225

Post by worldsavior »

KolibriFly wrote: post #186
moonleay wrote: post #2

A cool project, when you want to use AirPods outside of Apples ecosystem. Sadly, you have to use a rooted android device with a small patch due to a bug in the Android Bluetooth implementation. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/371713238

Still, it's kind of amazing that one person hacked around both Apple's walled garden and Android's jank to make this work at all

It's not really hard to reverse engineer AirPods. Just watch the bluetooth communication between a mac and the AirPods, turn specific features on/off, see how it reacts, then replicate exactly. I wanted to do it myself but saw something like this already exists (librepods, previously called "Airpods like normal (aln)").

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#226

Post by pbhjpbhj »

fingerlocks wrote: post #179
a13n wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is there evidence it’s for vendor lock in purposes? airpods have a pretty stellar connection for bluetooth, wouldn’t be surprised if there were performance reasons for them going off spec

No there isn’t. I’ve said this a million times before, but usually just downvoted: this is about reducing support costs, not increasing revenue from lock-in. This is not a theory, I’ve sat in meetings at Cupertino and been told first hand. Support is very expensive. Say what you want about Apple, but they provide absolutely stellar support, especially with the stupidly inexpensive Apple Care insurance. This is only c…

They couldn't just write (and make people aware at point of sale, ofc) 'no support for using devices with non-Apple Computers products' into Apple Care. They had to purposely break compatibility?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#227

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Aurornis wrote: post #86
indentit wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specifications are there for a reason... Why use Bluetooth at all if they don't actually use it properly?

> Why use Bluetooth at all if they don't actually use it properly? Because they needed a way to get audio to the AirPods wirelessly and to work with their devices? That’s a pretty good reason to use Bluetooth. I doubt they got together and tried to scheme a way to break Bluetooth in this one tiny little way for vendor lock in. You can use the basic AirPod features with other Bluetooth devices. It’s just these extende…

>doubt they got together and tried to scheme a way to break Bluetooth in this one tiny little way for vendor lock in.

No conspiracy needed, surely it would be unilateral? It seems exactly the sort of thing Apple Computers would do to protect their ecosystem.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#228

Post by zoover2020 »

ufmace wrote: post #58
teraflop wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that it's already the most upvoted open Android framework bug, and the Google employee it's assigned to hasn't touched it in almost a year, it seems unlikely that more upvotes will make any difference whatsoever.

Where's the meme of the guy who gets hired on to a tech company, fixes one bug that always annoyed them, then quits immediately

Geohot at Twitter

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#229

Post by frumiousirc »

dotancohen wrote: post #218
moonleay wrote: post #2

A cool project, when you want to use AirPods outside of Apples ecosystem. Sadly, you have to use a rooted android device with a small patch due to a bug in the Android Bluetooth implementation. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/371713238

Any idea how much latency there is between the beginning of audio being played in an app, and it then coming out the headset? I use wired headphones to study with Anki (AnkiDroid) because I've found most (inexpensive) Bluetooth headphones require a second or two to begin playing. As I'm dealing with short audio clips, this use case necessitates restarting the "audio playing" situation every few seconds. Maybe the app…

> I use wired headphones to study with Anki (AnkiDroid) because I've found most (inexpensive) Bluetooth headphones require a second or two to begin playing.

1-2 seconds is an eon for audio latency so I guess something else is going on than anything BT related in the headphones. Unless you have particularly bad luck in what headphones you use.

FWIW, I use a variety of cheap and not so cheap BT headphones across multiple devices and apps including AnkiDroid and have not perceived any latency.

If switching to wired removes the latency then it does seem to indicate something in the BT stack of your device. I wonder if you experience the lag when using AnkiDroid + BT on another device.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#230

Post by Wowfunhappy »

varenc wrote: post #57
t1234s wrote: post #3

This excellent.. there needs to be a macos version as well. Using Mavericks I was unable to adjust any settings on my airpods pro 2

Check out AirBuddy for something that provides similar control in macOS. Closed source and costs money though. It doesn't need to rely on the reverse engineered protocol, and instead just calls out to macOS APIs to manipulate the Airpods. (I presume)

Not going to help on Mavericks, which doesn’t have those APIs.
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