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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#41

Post by _1 »

m12k wrote: post #13

>Annoyance 4: Sometimes, only the left or right AirPod plays sound. Taking them in/out of your ears doesn't fix it, you need to put it back into the case and take it back out, which sometimes, doesn't fix it. So you need to put your AirPods in/out of your case two or three times to fix it. I run into this too, anyone know what's up with that? Is there some "listen with only one headphone in" feature that I'm accident…

I don't think that's specific to AirPods .. I have Sony's bluetooth earbuds and that occasionally happens. Sometimes just waiting a bit and one of the ears will reconnect on its own. I chalked it up to the bluetooth standard.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#43

Post by mbreese »

Annoyance 1 actually has a setting. You can setup the AirPods to actively switch to a preferred source (your phone), or stay connected to your computer. This one bugged the hell out of me for months before I found the option.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/switch-airpods-betwee...

> To prevent AirPods from automatically switching between devices, go to Settings > Bluetooth. Tap the Actions Available button next to the name of your AirPods, tap Connect to This iPhone, then tap When Last Connected to This iPhone.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#45

Post by whynotminot »

I would posit that the AirPods used to be the most magical "Just Works" Apple product I've ever owned, but over-time as Apple has added more features and complications to them, they've lost the magic.

Those first generation AirPods were a thing of beauty. Newer ones now are technically better--better sounding, longer lasting, ANC, etc. But I've experienced a lot of the same annoyances that OP is complaining about.

I still love them, but the experience is definitely a little fiddly these days.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#46

Post by tluyben2 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #10
kayodelycaon wrote: post #4

Apple stuff "just works" until it doesn't. As much as a fan I am of Apple, the lack of feedback when things stop working is absolutely infuriating.

Had Music.app completely hose my entire data plan last month because it was downloading about 12 albums I had in “Downloaded Music” then deleting them then downloading them over and over last month. Not to mention Apple Music keeps turning itself back on when I turn it off. All impossible to diagnose why and the only advice is reset and delete everything and start over.

I was wondering why my phone battery kept running down some days faster than others. Seems it randomly turns on Apple Music even when the volume is down to 0% and I don’t really notice that until I see it is actually playing on the notifications centre. I never, ever want it to play without me touching the play button on my phone, but that is not an option I guess.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#47

Post by PragmaticPulp »

I generally enjoy my AirPods. They are occasionally quirky, but most of the time they really do “just work” for me. The annoyances are annoying when they happen, though.

The strangest part is that the annoyances aren’t getting any better over time. At first I assumed that they were growing pains of an early product launch. Yet now we’re years into the AirPods experience and they continue to be just as quirky as when I first got them.

Apple seems so hot or cold on fixing their own bugs. Certain bugs get rapidly patched in the next iOS or Mac software release. Other bugs languish for what feels like forever. Do Apple execs just not use AirPods? Are they using a different configuration or hardware combination that doesn’t have these bugs? Have they just trained themselves to overlook the bugs because the workarounds have become a reflex? I can’t imagine working at any tech company where one of the flagship products had such a high rate of annoyances without having a lot of engineers diverted to replicating, diagnosing, and fixing it ASAP.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#48

Post by nuccy »

m12k wrote: post #13

>Annoyance 4: Sometimes, only the left or right AirPod plays sound. Taking them in/out of your ears doesn't fix it, you need to put it back into the case and take it back out, which sometimes, doesn't fix it. So you need to put your AirPods in/out of your case two or three times to fix it. I run into this too, anyone know what's up with that? Is there some "listen with only one headphone in" feature that I'm accident…

I have a solution for that: with bare hands close your ears tightly with Airpods in them. Depending on the duration of such covering Airpods either just mute for a moment, or disconnect and reconnect right away. This helps to re-sync if one is ahead/behind another, or if one is not connected. I do that occasionally with my Airpods Pro connected to iPhone, Android or Macbook Pro - same outcome in all these cases. Such connection "reboot" helps in most described cases, though occasionally explicit Bluetooth toggle Off/On is needed, especially with the Macbook.

I imagine that hands and head create an improvised Faraday cage. Though 2.4GHz Bluetooth signal should nevertheless pass thought the body tissue, likely there is just a signa-to-noise ratio rapid drop which forces Airpods to re-establish the connection.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#49

Post by martneumann »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #30

Still loving my cords and headphone jack…

I'm not using Apple ear phones, but wireless head phones are seriously practical. Anytime I have to use my corded ones when walking the dog I get reminded of how they are actually pretty handy.

Still use cord ones in other circumstances. When lying down, for example. I like to have the choice at least.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#50

Post by wccrawford »

MereInterest wrote: post #37
kayodelycaon wrote: post #4

Apple stuff "just works" until it doesn't. As much as a fan I am of Apple, the lack of feedback when things stop working is absolutely infuriating.

And sometimes it "just works", but only if everybody is within the Apple ecosystem. Otherwise, it's just a net exporter of problems. See, for example, SMS message of "Liked an image.", email attachments converted into icloud download links, .DS_STORE files scattered everywhere, and so on. Any time Apple comes up with a new feature that would require improving capabilities at a lower level, Apple instead makes a new l…

I overheard someone the other day ranting about Android phones and their broken SMS support. They apparently didn't realize it's actually Apple that has the buggy code/design and will try to send proprietary data to a non-Apple device.
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