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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#231

Post by uzbit »

I think most of these annoyances can be taken broadly from the fact that everything about any Bluetooth experience is just absolute trash.

Why does it take several tries to pair sometimes? When paired, why does it sometimes auto-connect and sometimes not? Why does it just never pair at all? What's with that pair code that it says to enter, but auto fills (sometimes)? And only sometimes do you have to use that code (which is a security thing only implemented on things with screens I'm guessing). I'm sure there's more, but I've already dedicated my days frustration to this.

All that being said, I was very happy to "upgrade" to a Pixel 5a for the 3.5mm headphone jack. It's been a supreme experience to live in the past and future.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#232

Post by poink »

Annoyance 4 is the biggest one for me, with the additional annoyance that "only one works sometimes" extends to charging, too. One of my AirPods will be dead when I go to use them ~10% of the time.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#234

Post by thebean11 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #213
dimmke wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also pretty much confirmed at this point that the next pair of AirPods won't be using bluetooth - which they will get a lot of shit for but is probably necessary to address a lot of these issues.

That also further increases the interoperability problem though, if I can't use my headphones with non-Apple devices even after going through the pairing dance. (Unless Apple uses some other open protocol, which I doubt!)

I hope it's an open protocol that operates on WiFi spectrum. Every implementation of Bluetooth is horrible, and you start to wonder if the Bluetooth spec itself is the issue..

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#236

Post by EamonnMR »

hetspookjee wrote: post #5
rogual wrote: post #3

Annoyance 8: When I'm using the (good) noise cancelling of the AirPods to eliminate distracting background noise so I can focus, after a few hours the battery will run down to 15% and trigger the EXTREMELY LOUD "PING-pong-pong-pong" low-battery noise, right in my ear, without warning. And it's Apple, so of course you can't turn it off.

You'd be no better off with a Sony Headphone that screams in your ear that a device connected, the device is turned on and the battery is almost empty. The flagship Sony headphone is so bug ridden it's a joke if you ask me.

I have a pair of (I wanna say Honeywell? Maybe 3m?) hearing protection bluetooth headphones that I simply keep off my head while pairing and unpairing because it's loud enough that I can hear it clearly with the phones down in my hand.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#237

Post by 323 »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #186
323 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 du…

For the last 6 years, the average number of new smartphones sold per year was 1.5 billion. There are 6.5 billion people with smartphones in the world. So that's at most a 4 year churn rate.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263437/global-smartphone...

https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-w...

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#239

Post by shaunpersad »

Airpods are by far the worst Apple product I've ever owned, for all the same reasons the author listed. I genuinely don't understand how they can still say they Airpods are "fantastic" and "wonderful".

I would say on average I encounter these issues 50% of the time. Most of my day is doing Zoom calls and either myself or the other party (using Airpods as well) will spend the first 30-60 seconds either switching out for another pair of headphones or trying to get theirs to connect.

I'm sure most of these issues actually have to do with Bluetooth, but the criticism still stands. Have we just convinced ourselves that they're great for some mysterious reason?

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#240

Post by DoingIsLearning »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #218
delecti wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they’d have to be bulkier Then make them bulkier. What's worse, filling the planet with garbage, or a few industrial designers having slightly less impressive portfolios?

That's entirely fair, but the issue is the demand for the less bulky bluetooth headset isn't there. To think that this will be solved from the supply-side is wishful thinking at best; if folks really demanded repairable headsets, the supply would take care of itself.

I mean there was no demand for more expensive unleaded fuel but we still regulated leaded fuel out of existence. What consumers want and what is needed for the environment is not always aligned.

Consumer demand is not a very good guiding principle for environmental protection.

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