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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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251–260 of 479 posts

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#251

Hi. I'm not here to troll. This is an amazing project. Why did they select AGPL license over just plain ol' GPL? It seems hard to imagine where the "A" is useful for this software.

The developer here- I didn't plan to release an app for android, or even linux. The android app just started out as a personal project. My plan was to make a service for linux that can talk to various headphones, and any UI can talk to the service. And this was supposed to be under AGPL. But, as I graudally reverse-engineered most of the protocol from the bluetooth stack on macOS, I decided to release the app for Android and make one for linux as well.

Going to change it to GPL, though. never paid attention to the license in use as I developed.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#252
post #213
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't report battery status to non-Apple devices. This is a pretty basic feature and without this I wouldn't consider them to perform "on par" with other Bluetooth headphones.

Also if the README is to be believed the following are also hidden behind an Apple DID (not driver): - Multi-device Connectivity - Accessibility Settings and Hearing Aid While the following are exclusive to Apple devices for market reasons: - Receive Battery Information - Set/Receive ANC Modes - Set Adaptive Audio Noise settings - Receive In-Ear detection Status - Personalized Volume (use at your own risk - might ran…

Or Apple just doesn't want to bother with the nightmare of supplying and supporting an app to do all those things on other platforms, and in particular, there are regulatory approvals around the "hearing aid" feature that would pretty much require a specific device.

They have a basic app for some of their other devices like the Beats line. One other thing you simply can't do without pairing AirPods with an Apple device is enrol them in AppleCare One.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#253
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods can connect to any device and perform on par with other Bluetooth headphones. This is about availability of special features which require a dedicated driver non-Apple devices are not expected to have.

This is patently incorrect. Wife switched from iphone 13 mini to samsung s24, and airpods pro 2nd gen immediately started behaving extremely annoyingly to the point of becoming completely useless for any serious use and she just gave them away to her sister which still is on apple, although she loved them before. Literally all other earpieces work flawlessly with that phone including dirt cheap chinese stuff, apart f…

Just take apple to small claims court. If everyone who is scammed by Apple takes them to small claims they will have an incentive to change. Without this they have -0.00000000000 incentive to do anything. Even a class action suit won't help. The fundamental question is whether Apple should be able to sell products with lock in. Since there is lockin on all Apple products it is not accidental. In my humble opinion only. You, dear reader, work out your own thoughts.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't. I love my airpods but it's not viable to use them with anything other than my phone.

What sort of laptop/desktop do you have? I regularly use my AirPods with my Steam Deck and they work great!

Same, use them with my Switch 2 without issues.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#255

Mark Zuckerberg explicitly called out the airpod pairing being closed as unfair in a semi recent interview, maybe he can throw some dollars that way and get it all working nicely in some meta products.

It's not up to a third party to invest into opening up Apple's purposely locked-down ecosystem.

…unless someone has sufficient time and/or money to spend on it, and wants to do so as a point of principle.

If I had large amounts of spare money, I’d love to seed small endeavours that (according to my personal world view) made the world incrementally better.

As has been noted before, what’s the point of having ‘FU money’ if you don’t use it to say ‘FU’ now and again?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#256
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods can connect to any device and perform on par with other Bluetooth headphones. This is about availability of special features which require a dedicated driver non-Apple devices are not expected to have.

This is patently incorrect. Wife switched from iphone 13 mini to samsung s24, and airpods pro 2nd gen immediately started behaving extremely annoyingly to the point of becoming completely useless for any serious use and she just gave them away to her sister which still is on apple, although she loved them before. Literally all other earpieces work flawlessly with that phone including dirt cheap chinese stuff, apart f…

My pro 2s worked fine on my S21 and S24 ultra. What annoyed me the most is that they would auto connect to my iPad first (if audio was playing)

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience, Apple people believe Apple products are flawless and when presented with a problem will find every reason to excuse Apple or say "I never do that". User: Ran into a printing issue on my Mac Fan: I never print, my Mac experience is flawless User: Screen Mirror breaks all the time Fan: I never use Screen Mirror. My Mac experience is it's flawless User: For some reason my Airpods lose audio once in a whil…

> when presented with a problem will find every reason to excuse Apple or say "I never do that" ...or maybe you shouldn't do that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45706811

You're absolutely right! Every Apple user knows they shouldn't be holding it wrong.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#258
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A no-nobody: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#259
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not up to a third party to invest into opening up Apple's purposely locked-down ecosystem.

…unless someone has sufficient time and/or money to spend on it, and wants to do so as a point of principle. If I had large amounts of spare money, I’d love to seed small endeavours that (according to my personal world view) made the world incrementally better. As has been noted before, what’s the point of having ‘FU money’ if you don’t use it to say ‘FU’ now and again?

Yeah, but saying "maybe super rich people will do random illogical things" isn't really a great argument. For all we know, Mark Zuckerberg wants to spend his "fuck you" money locking the ecosystem down even more, as a "fuck you" to consumers.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 back…

My experience, Apple people believe Apple products are flawless and when presented with a problem will find every reason to excuse Apple or say "I never do that". User: Ran into a printing issue on my Mac Fan: I never print, my Mac experience is flawless User: Screen Mirror breaks all the time Fan: I never use Screen Mirror. My Mac experience is it's flawless User: For some reason my Airpods lose audio once in a whil…

This is also my experience, it's not necessarily Apple fans, people just get used to some garbage but necessary workflow/ritual and forget they are doing it. I witnessed multiple colleagues and friends, who are avid and experienced MacOS users, struggle with basic tasks like ..finding the window of an open application after it was minimised, fullscreening applications, screensharing. Yet, somehow, none of that registered for them and their experience was still reported as flawless.
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