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AirPods are now available

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Re: AirPods are now available

#461

Post by sooheon »

seanwilson wrote: post #153
ishields wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it comes down to a few things. Bluetooth has some major downsides: First, you now have to charge your headphones or you can't use them. This is a HUGE downside when coming from something that literally never needs to be charged, I mean considering nothing else, would you rather have something that needs to be charged daily or something that never needs to be charged? Second, transmitting audio over bluetooth r…

When you can get bluetooth headphones that last 40 hours I don't see battery life as an issue. Quality sounds fine to me as well. Are there any blind tests that show people can notice differences with Bluetooth? Even if the difference is slightly noticeable I doubt you would notice wearing headphones on the move, at the gym, in the office etc. > How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wire…

> Quality sounds fine to me as well

I would happily bet any amount of money that I can tell the difference between my nice pair of IEMs and the stock apple ones every time. It's not the bluetooth transmission that's the problem, it's the actual sound producing hardware. Customers like you dwarf customers like me, so Apple and Beats don't bother to produce great sounding phones beyond a certain point--it even appears AirPods have basically stock earphone sound quality.

I would love the convenience of AirPods, just upgraded with nicer drivers, and would be willing to pay $400 for them. There just isn't a big enough market, so I'm left feeling the pain of people that fall outside of Apple's inner circle.

This is even more perplexing to me because Apple consistently puts screen quality as a very high priority. I'm just flabbergasted at how much they could be dropping the ball for audio.

Re: AirPods are now available

#462

Post by jsemrau »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #336
josu wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. These are my personal reasons: 1. I would hate to talk to a person with those things in their ears. 2. I use my bluetooth headphones the same way I use my wired headphones. 3. I don't feel comfortable talking out loud to nobody in public. It doesn't feel right to talk the phone, I will probably never talk to the air. I'm not a self conscious person, but I care if people think I'm crazy.

Regarding #1, I don't mind talking to someone using ONE earphone, because I can get visual cues about the attention in our conversation.

I regularly use the 'one side' earphones for a while now and people are initially a bit setback but realize quickly that I am fully focused on the conversation and move along with it.

Re: AirPods are now available

#463

Post by giarc »

mesh wrote: post #376
giarc wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the exact same problem. They just aren't a great fit. I walk my dogs every night for 1 hour and enjoy listening to podcasts during this time. I tried some Mopow bluetooth earbuds but they weren't any better. I'm considering some large headphones this holiday season. On a lighter note, I live in Canada so for 6 months of the year, my toque holds the Apple earbuds in my ears.

It might be worth trying in ear ear buds. I use etymotic ER6s http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones.html which are in ear and noise blocking. They also have different size attachments so you can get a good fit, although they cause ear fatigue sometimes if you keep them in for extended periods (i.e. hour plus).

Look kind of similar to these that I have tried [0] but still don't fit well with the various attachments. Maybe my ears are weird.

0- https://www.amazon.ca/Mpow-Bluetooth-headphones-Wireless-Ear...

Re: AirPods are now available

#464

Post by scarecrowbob »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #400
threeseed wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the strange thing about these. Why didn't Apple allow for custom earbuds e.g. Comply or provide some way to modify the physical design to accomodate people with different ears.

You can rest assured that there will be an aftermarket of artisinally crafted earpods, hand carved and remolded to fit into your laser scanned ear canals.

As a musician who uses in-ear-monitors weekly, I very much wish I had custom molded ones.

It's not a hipster 'artisinal' thing as much as they ostensibly work better, and they aren't "hand carved"... there are refined process for this.

But they are supposed to be much more comfortable and sound better. I can't comment becasue I don't play enough (or make enough playing) to justify spending $500-800 on them.

Re: AirPods are now available

#465

Post by arcdigital »

kevinstubbs wrote: post #449
brian-armstrong wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't work for either of us and yet Apple wants to force us into using them

Apple sells wired headphones for the lightning port. I'm personally not interested in upgrading because I don't want to use their headphones or get a lightning port adapter just for the phone. You're not forced to use the AirPods, but you are forced to use the lightning port (bleh) or bluetooth (meh).

The lightning port adapter comes with the phone.

Re: AirPods are now available

#466

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

nomel wrote: post #250
jsatk wrote: post #8

I truly do not get the hype around this.

Oh come on, have some fun. We're slowly moving into that future tech world that we saw in movies and dreamt up when we were kids. These are wireless earbuds . My first pair of wireless headphones used IR, took two AA batteries, were huge, heavy, and sounded horrible once you started losing sight of the transmitter! Sure, it's a small step in mass-market technology, but that's the only way tech moves forward for most…

Well Jaybirds have been out for years, and are pretty much the same thing with a wire around the neck, but also rather popular.

And actually the Dash was a kickstarter from two years ago which is the same as the Airpods, where each pod is separate with no wire at all. Started shipping a year ago.

People who know Apple are getting sick of them jumping on bandwagons' years late and claiming to be first.

Re: AirPods are now available

#467

Post by prawn »

jodrellblank wrote: post #388
prawn wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you would have to sync the iPod Shuffle equivalent as you would the AirPods. Maybe the issue is more with their syncing? (I know I find it annoying.) DHH from 37Signals mentioned on Twitter recently that he has two iPhones - 6+ and a 6. Larger one for around the house, in bed, etc and the other when out and about. It struck me as an almost affordable luxury for some people, if you can endure any syncing ha…

almost affordable luxury Is it markedly different from having an iPhone for portability and an iPad+4G for around the house?

On the surface it would seem not, but going by my usage, I think there's a difference. Since getting a 6+, my iPads go largely unused. There are 3 iPads in my house and my wife and I both regularly watch streaming content on our phones. I think it's because you tend to have your phone with you as you move from the kitchen to the couch to the home office to read/watch before bed, etc.

For DHH, I guess it's a combination of that and the fact that he doesn't want something as large as a 6+ in his pocket all the time.

But in terms of having the two devices, then little different. Obviously an affordable luxury given that many households would have phones and a tablet. I just hadn't thought of it being two different sizes of phone before.

Re: AirPods are now available

#468

Post by beedogs »

amlib wrote: post #331
erikpukinskis wrote: post #304

I find this headphone war discussion a bit boring. The AirPods are much more interesting as Apple's first foray into augmented reality. If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your…

But what about the possibility of losing the earpieces? They don't have a cable and don't secure into your ear like a hearing aid or even a normal bluetooth device. If they are so comfortable to the point of the user "forgetting they are there" the rate at which people will lose these things might be huge. They don't dangle from a cable when falling like normal headphones or Bluetooth headphones that have a cable bet…

They also have, as far as I'm aware, a pretty lousy battery life. They simply cannot be left in the ear all day; they'll need to be charged a couple times during the day.

Re: AirPods are now available

#469

Post by charlesism »

peteretep wrote: post #442
charlesism wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's different. For me, and possibly most people, buying wireless earbuds just taught me I care more about phone earbuds in theory than in practice. In practice, it isn't actually worth it for me to worry about whether they are paired, charged, and not misplaced. Life is less hassle with boring $15 earbuds.

> and possibly most people This is where you and Apple disagree, and Apple's record here is pretty good.

Especially from 1997 to 2011.

Re: AirPods are now available

#470

Post by beedogs »

jen729w wrote: post #414
apsdsm wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they see this as a music device either. I think they see it as a way of making money from their decision to remove the audio jack from the phone. That said, you're spot on with your forecasts of how great this could be, the AR of audio is potentially awesome.

That's such a cynical, boring view. I'm sorry, but it is. You really think that Apple removed the headphone jack to make a bit more cash? Seriously? Hand-on-heart honestly, you think that's why? Come on. I think it's because they love cool new things. Thank f k they do because, frankly, nobody else seems to be doing anything interesting. I know, I know, they're not perfect. AirPods are late. They're expensive. I know…

No one I know uses Siri, by the way. I've literally never heard anyone in the office ask Siri a question. Never heard it in public, either. It's not really a thing outside of the tech bubble, I reckon.

I'm positive most people will still be using cheap wired headphones 3 years from now. If you're willing to lay money on it, I'll take any bet you offer.

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