Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 966 posts

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#301

Post by 6510 »

toxik wrote: post #262
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...

Cars these days are the same -- you know what didn't need fancy pants computer tools to diagnose? Horses. Let's bring back horses.

You might love your car, the horse will love you back.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#302

Post by StevePerkins »

geoduck14 wrote: post #78
StevePerkins wrote: post #55

I have a $200-250 pair of AirPod Pros, and a $40 pair of Tozo NC7's that I bought for a backup. The Tozo's get way more use, to the point where I regret buying the AirPods. Your ears may vary, but "dot" style earbuds are WAY more comfortable (and likely to stay put in my ears) than the "stem" style buds. The spatial audio thing turned out to be a pointless novelty that wore off quickly, and isn't even supported on ha…

I have a pair of fancy Bose over-the-ear headphones. They have the "connect to 2 devices" feature you mentioned. And it inconvenient. It will connect to my cell phone and computer at the same time. I'll be on a zoom call (computer) and something will make it decide to disconnect and reconnect from my phone - so I'll get a 10 second interruption notifying me of this glitch. Also, if someone calls me, I haven't figured…

That doesn't sound like simultaneous-connection support is inconvenient. It sounds like Bose's buggy implementation of it is inconvenient.

Back when I used to lug around over-the-ear headphones, I mostly used a $50 pair of bluetooth headphones by Taotronics (a no-name, fly-by-night company that doesn't even seem to exist in Amazon's catalog now). And they work flawlessly with two simultaneously connected devices.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#303

Post by hnburnsy »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #100
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…

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...

Agreed, but I wonder why all the complaints about wired headphones using a lightning\USBC 3.5 mm adapter. I don't find it obtrusive, and the iPhone (and many phones now) can be charged wirelessly when the adapter is in place.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#304

Post by mmcdermott »

cabirum wrote: post #199

I want so much the wireless headphones fad to go away. When batteries deplete in the middle of a meeting, what are you supposed to do? Connect a spare pair via usb dongle?

I don't generally struggle with battery in meetings (I prioritize battery life when buying ear buds), but I keep a set of wired earbuds with a USB-C in my laptop case as a backup. They don't come out often, but they have gotten me through a couple of meeting marathons.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#305

Post by lowercased »

stillblue wrote: post #117
lowercased wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPod Pro 4, coming in 2025, will like have a feature to let you choose custom alert sounds, tied to ios 19. And it will be heralded with enormous classy custom Helvetiral fonts in a multi parallax scrolling site announcing "we've heard the future, and it's quiet". Or... "If you listen carefully, you can hear the future". Or they'll provide haptic in-ear custom vibrations in AirPod Pros 5, and their slogan will be "…

I read way too much of this comment before I realised you were joking. Got me good.

I'm not actually 100% sure I'm 'joking'. I think we'll see some in-ear haptic feedback stuff in a few years, which take a few more years to get 'right', and will be confusing as heck, but will be useful. If it's customizable, there will be a small but fervent ASMR community around it. It will be pitched as accessibility-friendly, helping people with hearing issues or other sensory issues just 'feel' indicators. Wire it up to 'apple home' and you'll get little in-ear tinglings when certain people come home or leave, or when the garage door opens, and so on. Happy/sad emojis in iMessage will trigger certain ear vibrations, etc.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#306

Post by hbn »

thenerdhead wrote: post #191

Here's a few more: - Airpods sometimes do not charge when in the case. Usually need to pull it out and put back in again. - Knowing what airpod(s) and case are charging. The UI on the phone, the open the case sliding window, the widgets, and the case light itself are not very useful. - Spatial audio working on some apps but you're not usually aware if it's on until you tilt an ear one way to confirm. - Out of ear det…

Am I crazy or have Airpods gotten worse recently? I didn't get mine until recently (November?) and for the first month or so they kinda did work perfectly. The auto-pairing was annoying like the article mentions (switching from my Mac where I want it to my phone cause I pulled it out to look at something), but I turned that off and it was all good. But at some point in December I started constantly getting the issue where one doesn't have audio playing and I have to put it in the case to reset it, sometimes the tap gestures don't work, it'll pause when I pull one out (as intended) but doesn't unpause when I put it back in, etc. I wonder if they pushed some bad firmware.

Oh, also here's another complaint: when your Airpods are connected to your iPhone, they HAVE to be the microphone. Which is annoying because for one thing, their microphone is way worse than the one built into your phone, and the other thing is in winter I usually have my AirPods concealed under my toque so my ears don't freeze off, but that means literally no sound will make it to the microphone, and I'm just SOL if I want to use my microphone (and when it's freezing out, I'm less likely to want to try typing a message with the keyboard, so it would be nice to just send a voice message to someone, but I can't). Of course no one at Apple will ever experience this cause they're all in California!

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#307

Post by ziml77 »

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 have a wireless headset for my PC and it's hard to go back to wired. I have much nicer wired headphones, but I rarely switch to them. Being able to get up and walk around while not interrupting what I'm listening to is great (yes desktop speakers would let me do the same but they also let everyone hear what I'm hearing). Also with wired headphones I had a constant issue where no matter how I routed them, they would end up tangled in my chair. It was super easy to think they were resting safely on my desk, only to turn my chair and fling them to the floor.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#308

Post by InitialLastName »

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 2010 smartphones are still getting security updates, or updates that let them work with modern network standards? LTE was only barely available in 2010, and 3G is almost gone now.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#309

Post by criddell »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #260
uzbit wrote: post #231

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 (w…

How have consumers let companies get away with "premium" phones being the ones with fewer features?

Maybe they don't mind putting the adapter on their headphone cable? If you aren't switching devices a lot, it's a one-time operation that's pretty easy to manage.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#310

Post by sjm-lbm »

33084901 wrote: post #255
toyg wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but the awkward "omg an airpod fell off after bumping into something/someone" is also a real thing. They should have an optional cord between the pair.

I use the "PowerBeats Pro" for this. I don't know if they've been updated with some of the newer features, I bought mine a couple years back when they came out.

The current version of the Powerbeats Pro has separate buds for each ear, but I have the newest revision of the regular Powerbeats for this exact reason.

They even have the H1 chip and all of the quick pairing/built-in Apple magic that Airpods do.

Post reply on HN