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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#691

Post by gnicholas »

ahepp wrote: post #678
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?

unless you were deaf in the other ear, why would you want to use ANC in one ear only?

I use one ear at a time, both for battery purposes, and so I don’t have the two AirPods communicating with each other through my brain.

I realize that we think nothing bad happens from the emissions from AirPods, but this may change in the future. Some have pointed out that prior studies involved devices that were not stuck quite so far into our ears.

Since I listen to podcasts and books, I have no need to use two simultaneously.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#692

Post by saiya-jin »

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #681
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've similarly found AirPods both "just work" from a user experience, especially compared to alternative bluetooth audio devices, and also are quirky from a reliability standpoint. There have been fixes pushed out in past, particularly with the earlier models, where fixes could be done via OTA firmware updates. The remaining quirks all feel related to Bluetooth tech and, specifically, the low-power available to AirPo…

Man, you sure are overly optimistic. That part about bluetooth doesn't make sense, tons of products work reliably with similar dimension/weight restrictions as airpods. If Apple with its army of engineers can't make their products work reliably, how could have much smaller companies succeeded? Btw one of biggest disappointments for me with airpods (pro) is weak bettery life compared to competition.

I am currently shopping around for new truly wireless headphones for iphone and not a single comparison has apple airpods/pro as winners in 2 most important categories (for me but I believe for many others too): sound quality and battery life. Same for their smartwatches but thats another topic.

Apple, or any company, sees that even product with such flaws still sells very well, so there is little pressure to fix things asap. That some engineers somewhere are working on next gen (or even 2 next gens in parallel) is expected, but these generational updates are very iterative and never revolutionary (that's what new product lines are for, for much higher price).

One anecdote from today - had a year end review call with my boss while being on sick leave due to covid. He desperately tried to pair his new iphone 13 pro max with his new airpods (not sure if pro or regular) and gave up after some time. It just didn't work and we had good old phone-in-hand call.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#693

Post by mattnewton »

rgreasons wrote: post #484
mattnewton wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still like OP. I have tried three pairs of airpods and currently use a Bose Bluetooth headphones with an optional attachable wire. Airpods are very painful for more than two devices, get lost, go through the wash, forget the charging cable, etc etc. The problem for me is that apple removed the headphone jack even as an option, and many other phone manufacturers copied that on all but their budget models.

If one of your concerns is that you end up washing your headphones, you’re right - I don’t think you’re ready for wireless earbuds.

It's possible it wasn't your intent but this reads as condescending to me. It implies a progression where people can become "ready" to use a more advanced product rather than the product not being a good fit for the person which I think is a good way to blind yourself to real product problems. Instead of just saying "people drop their phones, maybe they aren't ready for expensive things" you can realize the incredible market that phone cases represent. Or in this case, maybe there is a market for waterproof wireless earbuds that survive the wash, that counteracts the additional manufacturing cost (probably not, but maybe).

Obviously the airpods are great for a great number of people, and I bought them too. I think it's safe to say Apple made good tradeoffs for their business. I ended up switching back to heaphones with a wired option and then switching phones to get a headphone jack because the dongle annoyed me enough. I am very much in a minority - don't get me wrong, apple will not miss my business. But that they lost it should be a conscious decision as "this won't work for everyone, but it will work for most people really well by default" - not, "when people are ready for it they will see the light". The former forces you to acknowledge and quantify who it won't work for when finding product market fit, and the later assumes you don't need to do that.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#695

Post by heleninboodler »

foogazi wrote: post #657
heleninboodler wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was a pretty reasonable compromise, except that whenever I need mine I can't find it. Today, I know exactly where it is, but that's 15 miles away. The funny thing about this problem is that the experience only suffers on Apple devices when I can't find the dongle. I can use my nice fancy favorite headphones everywhere else with no problem. Apple is not about to convince me to toss my favorite headphone…

You can use a wireless charger for this exact scenario

My phone doesn't support wireless charging.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#696

Post by oriolid »

saiya-jin wrote: post #692
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've similarly found AirPods both "just work" from a user experience, especially compared to alternative bluetooth audio devices, and also are quirky from a reliability standpoint. There have been fixes pushed out in past, particularly with the earlier models, where fixes could be done via OTA firmware updates. The remaining quirks all feel related to Bluetooth tech and, specifically, the low-power available to AirPo…

Man, you sure are overly optimistic. That part about bluetooth doesn't make sense, tons of products work reliably with similar dimension/weight restrictions as airpods. If Apple with its army of engineers can't make their products work reliably, how could have much smaller companies succeeded? Btw one of biggest disappointments for me with airpods (pro) is weak bettery life compared to competition. I am currently sho…

Could you give examples of some Bluetooth devices that work reliably?

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#699

Post by nneonneo »

Annoyances 1 and 7, at least, can be solved by disabling the automatic switching logic. When connected to the AirPods, under Bluetooth -> (AirPods name) -> Connect to this {iPhone/iPad/Mac}, select "When Last Connected" instead of "Automatically". Repeat for each Apple device.

It's a simpler mental model and it works way more reliably. No more weird handoff prompts and no unexpected switching. Yes, you have to select the device manually, but that takes just seconds from the control center or audio output menu.

I definitely agree with some of the other annoyances, although my AirPods have been generally very reliable (and much more so than my other set of wireless buds!). The weirdest one to me is that Apple is still using the crappy HFP profile for bidirectional audio, leading to annoyance #3; I'm surprised Apple hasn't just engineered their own bidirectional audio profile, because the sound quality drop is so noticeable that it's laughable.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#700

Post by guntars »

saiya-jin wrote: post #692
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've similarly found AirPods both "just work" from a user experience, especially compared to alternative bluetooth audio devices, and also are quirky from a reliability standpoint. There have been fixes pushed out in past, particularly with the earlier models, where fixes could be done via OTA firmware updates. The remaining quirks all feel related to Bluetooth tech and, specifically, the low-power available to AirPo…

Man, you sure are overly optimistic. That part about bluetooth doesn't make sense, tons of products work reliably with similar dimension/weight restrictions as airpods. If Apple with its army of engineers can't make their products work reliably, how could have much smaller companies succeeded? Btw one of biggest disappointments for me with airpods (pro) is weak bettery life compared to competition. I am currently sho…

If you know any bluetooth headsets that don't have similar quirks to what the post talks about, let me know, because otherwise I'm thinking this is Bluetooth and it wont get better until we ditch it.

Quirks of Bose AE2 that I'm dealing with:

1) Switching to the low fidelity Bluetooth headset mode when the mic is activated. Why does this still exist? I'd be happier if they just didn't add a mic if they can't support better quality audio. 2) The headset nominally supports connecting to two devices, except there's no mixing. One channel is primary and will override the other. Annoying when you're on a meeting on a laptop and a notification arrives on your phone and the audio cuts out to play the notification tone. 3) To add, sometimes Apple devices just play silence? Meaning, the secondary device will get muted and it will take a minute for you to figure out why it's not playing. There's no user control over this primary/secondary aspect. 4) Oh, yes, I use three devices daily which results in a lot of manual switching. 5) The devices or the headphones don't always automatically connect for some reason. It's not clear either if it's from me manually switching them or what.. 6) Endless issues with Spotify "Failing to play song" when the audio output switches. 7) Not bluetooth, but this headset gives the "Low power, charge me!" chime when the battery is low, even when plugged in and charging.

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