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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#581

Post by BoxOfRain »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #465

It's weird to me how many people are like "yeah but every other bluetooth is worse". I have Airpod Pros and experienced every one of these issues and many more on the regular with them, but my several years old now Bose QC 35II never have any of these problems, still last like 5 times as long on battery after years of recharge cycles, interact better with two simultaneously connected devices, have better signal range…

That's even more weird given my experience with a pair of Beats Studio 3 headphones I have which are de facto a brand of Apple headphones. They've never given me Bluetooth grief once in years of very regular use, it's not like they can't do reliable Bluetooth equipment.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#582

Post by gnicholas »

I also find the automatic device switching to be super annoying. In my experience it is both under inclusive and over inclusive. I have no idea how this passed muster for release at a company like Apple.

There is a way to turn off this feature in settings, BTW.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#583

Post by rootusrootus »

I do get some of the quirks, but not nearly that full list. If I'm on a call or listening to music through my AirPods when connected to my Mac, and then open my phone, they do connect to the phone, but it does not switch the audio away from the computer unless I tell it to on the phone.

I also have a pair of fancy Sony noise canceling wireless headphones, and they're much more finicky about connecting and staying connected than my Airpods are. Fundamentally the problem seems to be that bluetooth kinda sucks.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#584

Post by falcolas »

dont__panic wrote: post #496
INTPenis wrote: post #486

It's nice for someone like me who left the Apple ecosystem many years ago to see that an image for producing fancy gadgets does not mean you can eliminate common software issues. Because this sounds just like any pair of BT headphones I've used in the last 2 years. Since I finally gave in and started using BT headphones All in all I love them, I love being able to clean with headphones on and not snag on anything. I…

Yeah, there's something comforting about a physical connection I can inspect for defects or just unplug, then plug back in if audio isn't working right. Even when I used AirPods/Pro for a while, I never really trusted the headphones. Sometimes I would take them out of the case and they just didn't connect to my phone. Sometimes they didn't seat quite right in the case and didn't charge overnight, and would be totally…

Logitech has had a competing standard for years (I have decade-old wireless G series headphones which work flawlessly).

I'm not sure why their low-latency/high quality system hasn't been more broadly adopted. Probably requires too much power.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#585

Post by chipotle_coyote »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #465

It's weird to me how many people are like "yeah but every other bluetooth is worse". I have Airpod Pros and experienced every one of these issues and many more on the regular with them, but my several years old now Bose QC 35II never have any of these problems, still last like 5 times as long on battery after years of recharge cycles, interact better with two simultaneously connected devices, have better signal range…

I don't know about "every other Bluetooth," but I certainly experience different problems with other Bluetooth devices. :) My regular experiences:

- The AirPods Pro and AirPods Max generally work well. I've experienced most of the annoyances the OP lists occasionally, but not regularly, although the "autoselect the device want you want" outsmarts itself semi-regularly. (Not quite enough to make me disable it, but it's close.) I have never attempted to control the volume of the AirPods Pro using Siri because it sounds like a bag of hurt.

- My Bose SoundLink II will immediately say it's connected to the last device that it paired with when I turn it on, but sound won't come out of it. Depending on what seems to be random chance, either it'll start playing in ~15 seconds, or it will repeat its "Connected to [Device]" voice cue and then immediately be available for play, or once in a while it will put itself back in "I'm not connected!" mode and I will have to go into Bluetooth settings to manually connect.

- My Vanatoo desktop speakers have Bluetooth, and once they're connected to the phone they don't want to let go. I'll have successfully sent sound to the SoundLink, or the AirPods, or just the phone's own speaker, and then suddenly the sound will mysteriously vanish because the Vanatoos have woken up and grabbed the signal. (This sometimes happens before the Vanatoos have powered up their own internal amplifiers.)

- The Bluetooth pairing in my mother's car consistently has the weirdest behavior: I connect, it starts playing a podcast or music, and the audio just cuts out every four seconds or so at a regular cadence. It seems like it might be playing just a little too fast and there's a buffering issue. If I disconnect the Bluetooth and reconnect it, then everything's fine. But the first connection after the car starts will always be broken.

I mean, I know that's all anecdotal. But at least for me, the AirPods are the least broken Bluetooth audio devices I use. I get that "it works less frustratingly for many people most of the time" is not nearly as catchy as "it just works," but until Bluetooth gets properly sorted out in 2083 or whenever, I guess I'll live with it.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#586

Post by gnicholas »

ynniv wrote: post #579
gnicholas wrote: post #572

Apple doesn’t allow you to use ANC on AirPods when you have only one ear inserted. But there’s actually a setting — buried deep inside the Accessibility preferences — that enables this feature. Why wouldn’t they make this the default? Who would want ANC to work only some of the time? And what does this setting have to do with accessibility/disability?

I've had it run with only one ear, and it feels uncomfortably lopsided. Maybe if you could only hear in one ear or had a hearing aid in the other you would want to enable this. In general, accessibility settings seems to be a place immune from the simplicity police at Apple. There are often useful features in there.

I completely agree. I actually just wrote a blog post called The Best Accessibility Features You've Never Heard Of, which details some of these features that Apple, Google, and Amazon hide within accessibility settings. [1]

1: https://beelinereader.medium.com/the-best-accessibility-feat...

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#587

Post by glxxyz »

I've given up with AirPods Pro. I had to replace them several times during the warranty period (once was a recall). Even when working correctly they would have annoying connection problems, for several conference calls I had to switch back to an old school wired pair, which just always works.

My attempt to have the case (which only showed life while connected to power) resulted in Apple throwing away my working AirPods and trying to upsell me a whole new case + 2 AirPods (at above market price, with no charging cable, and a shorter warranty).

If you do still have AirPods out of warranty- a support adviser admitted to me that they don't actually service them, and they don't replace one component alone- if you send them in for repair they just toss the whole thing and sell you a new set. So if only one piece is broken just report it as lost and they'll charge you to replace it.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#588

Post by bredren »

hellomyguys wrote: post #573
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #465

It's weird to me how many people are like "yeah but every other bluetooth is worse". I have Airpod Pros and experienced every one of these issues and many more on the regular with them, but my several years old now Bose QC 35II never have any of these problems, still last like 5 times as long on battery after years of recharge cycles, interact better with two simultaneously connected devices, have better signal range…

Yeah, using my AirPods Max is one of the most frustrating experiences. In the past week I've had to force reset them so many times and it almost seems arbitrary when it actually connects. I can't imagine a non-savvy tech person being able to easily debug it.

With Mac / iOS devices? It should not behave like this. Consider swapping them out.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#589

Post by bredren »

namelosw wrote: post #314

I'm using AirPods Pro & Max and multiple Macs. They're frustrating sometimes, but still substantially better than most Bluetooth devices especially Bluetooth headphones. Bluetooth is such a crappy technology that blocks for better wireless implementations we could have.

I also think these are overall the best wireless headphones on the market. Not just in Bluetooth connectivity.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#590

Post by rashkov »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #47

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 recently upgraded from an iPhone XR and a lot of frustrating software problems just went away. Nothing to do with AirPods in my case, but it made me realize the effect of having an older phone with less processing power and less developer attention paid to it. I wonder if your AirPods problems might have to do with having older devices connecting — ie. the other side of the Bluetooth connection.
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