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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#341

Post by gdwatson »

thewebguyd wrote: post #303
talkingtab wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

Could you explain your reasoning? I don’t see any moral difference between deliberately limiting compatibility from the peripheral side and doing so from the “computer” side (i.e., iPhone, iPad, Macintosh). One type of device may produce more inadvertent incompatibilities than the other, but that’s different.

Besides, I think this will create surprise and confusion for less technical users. In my experience, many will blame the incompatibility on whichever device is new, without understanding who is gating out whom. And even for technical users, consider CarPlay and Android Auto: From the phone’s perspective, the car is a peripheral, and that makes sense; but lots of people will still consider the car the “core device.”

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#342

Post by seemaze »

What realllly irks me is that Apple did not even make the new AirPods Pro 3 backwards compatible with iOS 18. Features that are available with the AirPods Pro 2 on iOS 18 were not available with the APP3. SAME iOS device, SAME H2 chip, but I was forced to upgrade to (the dumptser fire of a release) iOS 26 to maintain feature parity with the APP2 in an all Apple ecosystem.

So f*ing steamed. Still. And Apple support had no clue and kept telling me it should all 'Just Work'.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#343

Post by spacedcowboy »

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…

Yeah, there are two batteries, the one in the earbuds and the one in the container. There's no way in BLE to transmit both values - and choosing either one is lying to the user about something.

It's not uncommon (at least for me) to have a low earbud battery level (because I've just binged Slow Horses) or a low container battery (because I've just charged the earbuds from the container for the third time and drained the container). There's a suggestion above that you should "just choose the lowest one because 99% of the time that's what you're interested in", except that's not true in the second case.

I'm fairly sure that if you could report both, then Apple would report both using this hypothetical standard method, but since you can't, and there's no easy way to just "choose one" without misleading the user about something, they choose to do it properly, even though that means it's an Apple-only thing.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#344

Post by sroussey »

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…

The multi battery levels thing is native proprietary on every platform since there is no Bluetooth spec for more than one battery level and even that just uses uint8.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#346

Post by sroussey »

bloppe wrote: post #286
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 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.

Except if you read the page this links to, for Android you need a rooted device only and you want Apple to make software with those requirements.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#347

Post by thewebguyd »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #340
thewebguyd wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

I'm not entirely sure if the distinction you're making exists. Let's say I'm Samsung and I want to make a phone that works with the Apple Watch. Isn't the Apple Watch locking me out? Apple is preventing third party devices from working with the Apple Watch.

I’m saying it’s fine for Apple to make first party tech that only works either their other tech.

Samsung not being able to make a phone to work with Apples first party accessory isn’t the problem.

The problem is Samsung can’t make a watch that functions on par with the Apple Watch on iPhones.

Having first party, integrated accessories is fine. Locking out third party accessories is the issue.

Whatever Apple makes first party for the iPhone , third parties should also be able to make for the iPhone with the same level of access and functionality.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#348

Post by itsnoone »

joeevans1000 wrote: post #338

I've wanted to try AirPods for my dad as hearing aids, but haven't done so because he would have to have the iPhone on hand. He's too old and blind to operate an iPhone. Can anyone here tell me how to take this awesome repo and make a hearing aid possibility for him with a simpler interface?

setting up hearing aids is a one time thing. then, the main adjustment is the amplification, which can be controlled by swiping on the stem. there is no need for an iphone for using it as hearing aids.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#349

Post by itsnoone »

peatmoss wrote: post #333

Tunable transparency mode sounds great, and I wish Apple would do something like this as first-party support. As a casual trombone player, who often plays in louder settings, the airpods pro are almost excellent hearing protection. Passive (even "audiophile" or "concert") earplugs make me feel like I'm under water. Airpods Pro attenuate a lot of sound but don't feel so unnatural. Unfortunately, they tend to drop my o…

apple doesn't allow much customization, only the 9 presets under accessibility>hearing>headphone accomodation. this eq then also applies to the audio played and transparency settings both. maybe one of those nine presets suits your needs?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#350

Post by hluska »

nirava wrote: post #311
oofbey wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It doesn’t matter how frustrated you get or how many times you write capital letters, Apple is a private company and can do exactly what they want to do. If you would like Apple to do your bidding, acquire a controlling interest - it’s public so there’s nothing stopping you.
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