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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#301
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Sounds like you have a flaky / damaged device or bad cables. If there really was some kind of conspiratorial timer requiring you to use 1P cables it would certainly be documented. Can’t hide that stuff. Loads of people use Apple devices with 3P cables all the time and they work just fine, as long as the cables aren’t junk. There really are quality and capability differences in USB C cables. Just because it looks right and physically connects doesn’t mean it can electrically do all the things.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can another company federate with WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger?

Yes, because the EU mandated them to. Just no one seems to want to federate.

And you are perfectly capable of interacting with iMessage users now through SMS/MMS/RCS

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 onl…

> The fundamental question is whether Apple should be able to sell products with lock in.

Unpopular opinion in these parts, but I think yes, they should be able to (continue) to sell products with lock in.

Where Apple should get in trouble is specifically locking others out, rather than locking their own stuff in. If Apple wants to make a smartwatch that only works with iPhones, fine. What they shouldn't be able to do is block (either intentionally or via undocumented/private APIs and TOS violations) third parties from making a smartwatch for iPhone that can compete on the same playing field as the Apple Watch, with access to all of the same features.

Same goes for all tech companies. If you want to lock-in your own first party products, fine, but you absolutely should not be allowed to lock-out others.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#304
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 devi…

You're commenting on a post where a random guy provides this "nightmare of supplying and supporting an app" in his spare time, except he actually has to work around Apple's malicious obfuscation and standards non-compliance, so it would actually be way easier for Apple to do it themselves.

Are you saying this would the first time an unpaid open source effort has done something a big company declined to do because of the operational costs they face?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#306

From a bit further down the page > Bluetooth DID (Device Identification) Hook > Turns out, if you change the manufacturerid to that of Apple, you get access to several special features! I hope Apple gets slammed hard by some regulatory body. Apparently there's absolutely zero magic reasons why their airpods are unable to connect to non-Apple devices; pretend you're an iPhone and you're in. EDIT: read "unable to conne…

> 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.

Yeah. I have a set of APP 3 (and previously the 2s) and both worked just fine with my Windows laptop, I use them daily with it and even bounce between Windows & my Apple Devices just fine.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#307
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Even multi-device connectivity?

When you pair AirPods with a non-Apple bluetooth device, you lose the automatic device switching is all. You can still "enter and exit" the Apple ecosystem with them by just going into Bluetooth settings and tapping on the AirPods and they'll reconnect to Apple-land and start switching again, and vice versa. Once paired with, say, Windows, it'll auto-connect or you can manually trigger it by just tapping them in Blue…

I mean ya, if they couldn't do that, then you couldn't even call it Bluetooth.

I was asking about multi-device connectivity, which is a slightly more advanced feature that lots of other earbuds can do in a cross-platform way.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#308
post #74

Great project

I wonder why people keep pouring energy into this bottomless pit of a vendor locker.

Surely, Apple will close this hole in the next version.

They're a user-hostile company. I stopped bothering with it years ago.

Yes, their hardware might be slightly better than the competition, but the difference is not earth-shattering. Certainly not worth all the trouble and uncertainty of what will happen next year when Apple improves their vendor locking.

My advice: stop feeding the beast, and start owning your hardware!

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#309

From a bit further down the page > Bluetooth DID (Device Identification) Hook > Turns out, if you change the manufacturerid to that of Apple, you get access to several special features! I hope Apple gets slammed hard by some regulatory body. Apparently there's absolutely zero magic reasons why their airpods are unable to connect to non-Apple devices; pretend you're an iPhone and you're in. EDIT: read "unable to conne…

Especially blocking hearing aids features for people who need those should be criminal

Hearing aids are highly regulated in many markets, as they are medical devices. Not building and getting certification / approval doe software to support every operating system is far from ”criminal”

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#310

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.

Personally I've tried the ones of my wife on my Galaxy S23 and I have frequent audio cuts, since it's the only Bluetooth device I've ever experienced that, there's some shenanigans for sure in their firmware.

Used mine with a Galaxy S22 for about ~6 months, zero connectivity issues. Also given others also are saying they've had no issues I'd say it's pretty fair to assume this was an isolated problem unrelated to the topic at hand.
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