Apple starts pushing AirPods owners into Transparency mode, with no easy opt out • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple starts pushing AirPods owners into Transparency mode, with no easy opt out

#41

Post by tpmoney » Thu, Jan 16, 2025, 1:15 AM UTC

Suppafly wrote: post #32

sethaurus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is the option to use the AirPods in “normal” mode being removed? I'd challenge the idea that off/passive really is the "normal" mode, from the ordinary user's POV or Apple's POV. The headphones just don't sound good in this configuration, with neither the background nor the audio sounding clear. They aren't engineered to give good sound isolation OR good background pass-through without active support, and until…

>which users would expect to be working whenever they are wearing the headphones (or at minimum, whenever music is playing). Why would that be the case?

One would assume because it's part of the reason for buying the AirPods in the first place. "Off" mode literally turns off all the ANC/Passthrough and other functionality and turns your AirPods into a basic set of in ear headphones. If people aren't expecting to use them with those features turned on, they are vastly overpaying for an experience they can get with any number of other cheaper non-anc headphones.

I suppose there are probably some people who buy AirPods for the better device to device bluetooth integration but otherwise don't use ANC, but I suspect they don't even approach a significant fraction of Air Pod owners.

Re: Apple starts pushing AirPods owners into Transparency mode, with no easy opt out

#42

Post by aoanevdus » Thu, Jan 16, 2025, 2:10 AM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #28

Kirby64 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that’s a valid reason for a broken use case … but it’s still a broken use case. If your mics weren’t broken then the other modes would be better.

Agreed, but quality products are designed to continue operating as best as possible when components fail. You can definitely take that overboard to extreme level, but a basic think through of especially common failure causes (like ear junk buildup) and design around it is what great product designers do.

Based on the noises I experienced that time, I think the microphone was detached and hanging by a wire. The sound was rhythmic and depended on my movement, kind of like what would happen if you had a bell hanging on a pendulum inside a cylinder. I don’t think this was caused by debris buildup on the device. To Apple’s credit, whenever I had a defective AirPod, it was easy to get them to replace it. Happened to me multiple times in the first few months of the AirPods Pro release.

Re: Apple starts pushing AirPods owners into Transparency mode, with no easy opt out

#43

Post by Suppafly » Thu, Jan 16, 2025, 4:11 PM UTC

tpmoney wrote: post #41

Suppafly wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>which users would expect to be working whenever they are wearing the headphones (or at minimum, whenever music is playing). Why would that be the case?

One would assume because it's part of the reason for buying the AirPods in the first place. "Off" mode literally turns off all the ANC/Passthrough and other functionality and turns your AirPods into a basic set of in ear headphones. If people aren't expecting to use them with those features turned on, they are vastly overpaying for an experience they can get with any number of other cheaper non-anc headphones. I supp…

>but I suspect they don't even approach a significant fraction of Air Pod owners.

A significant portion of Air Pod owners buy them solely because they are the apple brand of ear buds and don't think about it beyond that. A basic set of ear buds is mostly what people are buying and the other features are nice to have things and not the selling point. People in tech suppose that people shop based upon specific features and technology, but that's rarely true. Mostly it's people with an Apple device needing ear buds and the Apple brand of ear buds is AirPods, that's literally the amount of thought most of them are putting into it.