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Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

lumafield.com

61–70 of 137 posts

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#61
post #4

I'd be interested in some fake airpods if they lasted twice as long and sounded 80% as good. Literally I get perhaps a year out of a set of genuine bought at Apple Store airpods before the case gives up or one airpod goes muffled or craps out. After a year Apple don't want to know or care unless you have AppleCare. Decided I wasn't going to fish out for a fourth set, so I bought some Sony ones for £20 with a wire bet…

Wow that's crazy, what are you doing with them? I have my second pair (upgraded to pro) and I had them under water so many times. I even jumped into a pool once and did a few laps before noticing I have them in my pocket (without the case). They fall down every 2 days. Both going strong for 2 years or more.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#62
post #54
post #44

> The counterfeit AirPods even resort to using internal weights with no other function than to mimic the heft of the genuine product That's ironic, as being lighter would actually be an advantage (makes them less likely to fall out on sudden movements).

I'm not sure that's true, I'd assume gravity is doing _some_ kind of job in keeping them inside by pulling down. I think losing them would be a lot easier if they were very light.

In the sudden movement scenario, gravity is overcome by rapid acceleration in the upward direction. In the no-dropped-item scenario, friction within your pocket (presumably) comes to the rescue to make up the difference between gravity and upward acceleration so that the item doesn't make a successful escape.

The friction in a pocket should be a function of tension (how tight your pants are, especially around the item) and not, as often is the case, proportional to the mass of the item. So this particular method of losing the item should be less common with something lighter.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#63

This is the second time inside a month I've seen Lumafield portray Apple products engineering prowess. First time being when they compared the USB-C cable (unfairly because they compared against the wrong type of third party USB-C). Is this just happenstance or is there a connection between the two companies?

It would be even more interesting for me if they'd compare these things against "real" competitors, i.e. in the same price range or the same quality, and not just "here is the XXX$ apple product vs this XX$ counterfeit". Otherwise these scans are really cool

I would like to see comparisons for things in the same price category too. Especially for something like usb-c cables where it's hard to know if you are just paying for a brand or actual quality.

Most of the time when you buy Apple you are buying a better engineered product and maybe these scans are just proving that it's actually hard to match their quality for the price.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#64

What is the moral calculus of counterfeiters? Fake power adapters can kill.

It would be cool if they could put a chip inside the chargers and have the charger communicate over USB C whether it's authentic or not. Of course you could still use third party chargers that would lack this chip, but for people who like first party chargers or buying chargers from reputable brands (that would probably license this from Apple) it would be nice.

Anything that can be communicated by an authentic charger could also be communicated by a counterfeit charger. You may have raised the cost of the scam (e.g. by requiring another chip), or delayed the start of a scam (e.g. until the inevitable leak of hardward signing keys), but at the end of the day you're trying to validate a device through a communication channel controlled by that very same device.

It's the same problem as with the satirical "evil bit" proposal for IPv4 [0]: Someone who is scamming you has already shown no compunction against lying to you through social means, and will lie to you through technical means as well.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_bit

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#65
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or buyer will try to resell as non-fake…

I doubt it. Zero profit (since I charged the going rate) and a real waste of time/gas to drive to my house to pick up a single pair. The fake sellers must buy them by the crate for cheap to see any real profits.

If you charged the going rate for pre-used, maybe the buyer is planning to put them in official looking packaging (likely really official packaging picked up elsewhere, perhaps from their own purchase of an official product) and sell them as new for a profit?

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#66
post #2

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them…

> We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them.

A good will gesture to reduce the chance of you reporting them as selling fakes, and tarnishing their carefully manicured feedback scores, if they were in the business of doing this regularly.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#67
post #2

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them…

>Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes.

Someone wants ear buds, they want to signal wealth so choose expensive brand, but they want knockoffs because they're actually poor[er].

The main risk with knock-offs is they arrive broken, or just don't arrive, or... basically it's a scam of some sort.

So, you took on the risk of buying, assessed the earphones as working, the earphones are now probably worth more as they've been QC-ed (by you), moreover the buyer can actually see them working and refuse them if they wish.

Within the context the buyer seems relatively rational.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#68
post #2

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them…

> We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. A good will gesture to reduce the chance of you reporting them as selling fakes, and tarnishing their carefully manicured feedback scores, if they were in the business of doing this regularly.

They asked for a positive review and we refused and threatened to contact Ebay, so yes... exactly that.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#69
I got some AirPods Pro 2 knock offs from Temu for £16.

Paired exactly like AirPods, was super shocked. Work great with an Apple TV. They don’t have multi connect though. But are actually more comfortable than the real deal. I find the originals hurt after about 45 mins.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#70
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. Zero profit (since I charged the going rate) and a real waste of time/gas to drive to my house to pick up a single pair. The fake sellers must buy them by the crate for cheap to see any real profits.

If you charged the going rate for pre-used, maybe the buyer is planning to put them in official looking packaging (likely really official packaging picked up elsewhere, perhaps from their own purchase of an official product) and sell them as new for a profit?

Probably more likely:

1. Buy a new pair off Amazon.

2. Return the fake and get a refund from Amazon.

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