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AirPods are now available

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Re: AirPods are now available

#511

Post by rospaya »

tormeh wrote: post #217
untog wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This quote is so overused it's basically a tech trope. The point is that, at the time, the iPod was a niche product, with several huge flaws. Subsequent iterations of the iPod fixed those flaws, but that doesn't mean you should have bought a v1 iPod. It made much more sense to wait. Exactly the same logic applies to the Airpods. Suggesting that people can't criticise them because at some point in the future the produ…

No, the iPod took what was a technically good-enough product category and slapped on a UI that didn't suck. UI is often the most important part of a product, and basically only Apple really got it when it came to MP3-players.

Except Apple nicked the UI from Creative Labs.

https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-settles-with-creative-for-10...

Re: AirPods are now available

#512

Post by Corrado »

mrb wrote: post #507
rl3 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since it's also so comfortable, the user might not even notice they lost an earpiece immediately if they are not listening to anything. Is it possible Apple could implement some sort of loss alert mechanism for this? Ideally each earpiece would have a low-power heartbeat even when in your pocket to continually verify they haven't been lost.

Good idea. The iPhone could vibrate/ring when it detects an earpiece is getting out of range (ie. fell behind when walking). Or the one earpiece left in your ear could tell you "you lost the other one" :)

It makes me chuckle to envision an earpiece screaming a high pitched whine as it falls to the ground.

Re: AirPods are now available

#513

Post by [deleted] »

mrb wrote: post #507
rl3 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since it's also so comfortable, the user might not even notice they lost an earpiece immediately if they are not listening to anything. Is it possible Apple could implement some sort of loss alert mechanism for this? Ideally each earpiece would have a low-power heartbeat even when in your pocket to continually verify they haven't been lost.

Good idea. The iPhone could vibrate/ring when it detects an earpiece is getting out of range (ie. fell behind when walking). Or the one earpiece left in your ear could tell you "you lost the other one" :)

[deleted]

Re: AirPods are now available

#514

Post by rl3 »

Corrado wrote: post #512
mrb wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good idea. The iPhone could vibrate/ring when it detects an earpiece is getting out of range (ie. fell behind when walking). Or the one earpiece left in your ear could tell you "you lost the other one" :)

It makes me chuckle to envision an earpiece screaming a high pitched whine as it falls to the ground.

Just partner with Disney and give it a legit R2-D2 scream.

Re: AirPods are now available

#515

Post by iddqd »

rconti wrote: post #473

Not airpods, but I've gotta plug my amazing Bose QC35. I've never owned (or seen the need for) noise-cancelling headphones, never thought I'd use wireless headphones. But the QC35 caught my eye with the built-in mic (probably on a day I had a phone conference). I bought them despite the steep $330 price, and haven't looked back. They're amazingly comfortable, the noise cancelling is best-of-breed, the battery lasts A…

I'm returning my pair of Bose QC35 today.

The built in mic is terrible to the point I couldn't use it for video conferencing. Had to switch to the mic on my MBP to be intelligible.

I haven't figured out if I like the noise cancellation or not. It leaks voices a lot, and when it's quiet there's a very faint constant background noise. Feels like I just replaced one noise with another. It also gives an illusion of a change in pressure in your ears when you put them on, but maybe that's something you get used to.

Sound quality is ok at low volume but it's very uninteresting overall. Maybe I've been spoiled by my other headphones.

Also, my head is really big, and they aren't really comfortable for me longer than and hour or two.

I'll agree that the bluetooth handoff implementation works great though.

Overall, if they were I'll be keeping a close eye on this space in the future though. I'm expecting some great innovation in the coming years.

Re: AirPods are now available

#516

Post by audunw »

FireBeyond wrote: post #7

There's like a next-level Apple marketing babble on that page: "AirPods introduce an effortless wireless listening experience packed with high-quality audio and long battery life. These magical wireless headphones use advanced technology to reinvent how we listen to music, make phone calls, enjoy TV shows and movies, play games and interact with Siri, providing a wireless audio experience not possible before." Magica…

"Not possible before."

This one is literally true though. They had a semi-custom chip designed to implement features/performance that don't exist with Bluetooth 4 yet.

I think Bluetooth 5 will catch up. In fact, I'm betting that what they have is basically a radio chip designed for Bluetooth 5 (it's basically just Bluetooth LE with higher bandwidth and range) with some extra features for their pairing tech, but since the spec wasn't finalized, and they couldn't wait, they just rolled it out as proprietary tech.

Re: AirPods are now available

#517

Post by Kiro »

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…

Pretty sure this problem is completely overblown and won't be a real issue in practice.

Re: AirPods are now available

#518

Post by icebraining »

jordache wrote: post #402
icebraining wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binaural audio just allows changing the (virtual) audio source relative to the ears; the novelty would be to track their location, so that you can use the binaural audio to keep the sound coming for a fixed place while the user moves around.

But the core mechanics of the audio method is flawed. Binaural has distinct sound characteristics, rather than a neutral canvas to project audio in whichever direction.

But flawed for what? It seems like you're making an argument, but only writing half of it down.

The concept explained by erikpukinskis wouldn't require a neutral canvas; it could generate the speech audio adapted to the binaural system.

Re: AirPods are now available

#519

Post by owenwil »

usaphp wrote: post #202

A lot of people here seem to be complaining about them falling out of their ears, while non of them actually tried to wear them first. Also everyone is stating things like this "I will use them two or three times during rush hours in London, bump into a couple people". But for me personally - I only use headphones while at my desk and I love current EarPods because unlike many other in-ear headphones they do not crea…

I've worn them and tried them out for a couple of hours. If you move around -- run/vigorous walk/jump -- they just slip out. Gone.

Re: AirPods are now available

#520

Post by test1235 »

stouset wrote: post #423
untog wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this comes back to same problem most things do these days: battery life. You're going to need to return these to their case every few hours, so no one is going to wear them uninterrupted for a day.

That's five hours of continuous audio. OP is talking about a world where you leave them in all day and get periodic audio. Not everyone listens to music 24/7.

>Not everyone listens to music 24/7

Nobody listens to music 24/7 ...

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