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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#311

Post by nirava »

oofbey wrote: post #297
bloppe wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is in fact significantly harder for Apple. Because nobody expects random spare time GitHub project to work perfectly. Or even very well. Apple’s reputation, and trillion dollar market value, is based on the idea that their stuff works perfectly.

good god man, just accept that this is objectively an EXTREMELY easy thing to do for anyone. Yes theoretically there are things that are easier for OSS devs than large companies, THIS AIN'T ONE OF THEM.

Ugh, trillion dollar market value doesn't mean they are incapable of making a basic android app. Check their move to ios app if you have any doubts.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#312

Post by dmitrygr »

Zetaphor wrote: post #299
dmitrygr wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

part of which spec revision? what date did it come out? and what date did airpods come out. compare the two dates. i'll wait...

The multipoint spec was added to Bluetooth 4.0 in 2010: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/core-specific... The Battery Service 1.0 spec was officially adopted in 2011: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/battery-servi... The first airpods were released in 2016... Please consider that simping for a trillion dollar company might actually not be in your best personal interests...

What do you mean by "multipoint spec"? I have written a few BT stacks (you might have even used one I wrote at one point or another) and I have no idea what you mean by that phrase. Please cite a section of the spec or proper name of what you are talking about.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#313

Post by thewebguyd »

andrewchambers wrote: post #69

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.

That's backwards.

It's not AirPods being closed that's unfair. Apple should be able to sell first party tech that only works with their own products.

What's unfair is Apple locking everyone else out. Not allowing or documenting for third parties to use the same APIs to enable something like automatic device switching in third party bluetooth headphones is the unfair part.

Same goes for the watch. That the Apple Watch only works with iPhone isn't the problem. The problem is no other third party is able to make a smartwatch that competes on an level playing field with the Apple Watch on Apple Devices, because Apple locks them out.

lock-out is the unfair problem.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#314

Post by boxfire »

WD-42 wrote: post #20

Cool project, not cool that it needs to exist. Apple isn’t only content to leech off OSS software, they have to force the existence of more of it to workaround what they closed off.

It’s exactly the same to try to use pixel buds on an Apple phone too. I don’t blame Apple or Google so much as the ridiculous pissing matches of a society that refuses to find ways to cooperate efficiently. So much energy is wasted in the name of vendor lock-in and related. Would it take more energy for Google and Apple to share in expanding into the Bluetooth capabilities in a shared way? Sure for their developers, in the short run. In less than a year the society wide savings far outweighs that. Apple people might cross pollinate and buy pixel buds. Android people will get airpods. Both companies could make even more money and save us all sanity. But we are organized for short term gains. Gradient descent without knowing or using the topology of the global complex. This isn’t Apple or Google’s job to fix, not even the government. it’s an issue at the social fabric level to have deep conscientiousness… so none of this is ever gonna change in our lives.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#315

Post by CharlesW »

xps wrote: post #205
exitb wrote: 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.

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.

You're proving the parent commenter's point that "this is about availability of special features which require a dedicated driver non-Apple devices are not expected to have", because there is no standard way in BLE to report more than one battery value. Wireless earbuds are a device pair, each with its own battery.

Apple, like every other vendor, does not have a choice but to implement this as a proprietary characteristic. Pre-BLE, other vendors copied Apple's de-facto `HFP AT+IPHONEACCEV` standard for reporting battery levels to the OS.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#316

Post by robertoandred »

isoprophlex wrote: post #105

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

They’ve always been able to.

The ignorance of Apple haters never ceases to amaze.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#317

Post by nerbert »

KolibriFly wrote: post #190
roman_soldier wrote: post #181

A lot of Apple products are designed to best work with other Apple products, that's part of their selling point. Would it not be easier to just buy non Apple headphones if you are not in the Apple eco system?

Yet if someone likes the sound quality, fit, or ANC of AirPods (which are genuinely good), why should they lose out on functionality just because they're not using an iPhone?

I'm all for everything being compatible with everything, but why should apple invest resources in testing/debugging android compatibility for something that they make?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#318

Post by [deleted] »

angoragoats wrote: post #262
trollbridge wrote: post #252

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 responding in a sub-thread where others have specifically called out the fact that you can't get battery status from AirPods on non-Apple platforms. This is, to my knowledge, a feature that is supported natively by the Bluetooth stacks on every mainstream OS and requires no "apps" at all. For example, I can connect my Bluetooth mouse to my Linux machine and it happily reports the state of the battery. Care to…

[deleted]

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#319

Post by lloda »

xps wrote: post #205
exitb wrote: 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.

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.

Not just non-Apple devices. I have a machine with older MacOS and the current Apple keyboard doesn't report battery status. I can't think of a reason why that would work differently from Apple's own older keyboards, but it does.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#320

Post by StopDisinfo910 »

roman_soldier wrote: post #181

A lot of Apple products are designed to best work with other Apple products, that's part of their selling point. Would it not be easier to just buy non Apple headphones if you are not in the Apple eco system?

I decided to not buy another iPhone when I changed phone because I dislike how Apple both overprices the phone in Europe yet refuse to ship features and keep lying through their teeth about the impact of regulation. I would still like to keep using my AirPods which work fine and I have already paid.
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