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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#721

Post by timtimmy »

lajosbacs wrote: post #35
rogual wrote: post #3

Annoyance 8: When I'm using the (good) noise cancelling of the AirPods to eliminate distracting background noise so I can focus, after a few hours the battery will run down to 15% and trigger the EXTREMELY LOUD "PING-pong-pong-pong" low-battery noise, right in my ear, without warning. And it's Apple, so of course you can't turn it off.

Agree completely. My ears actually hurt when this happens, cannot be healthy. The 'device connected' sound is pretty loud as well.

I can feel my ears tense when those "pings" go off (on the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max). This can't be healthy.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#722

Post by greggman3 »

Well, since we're ranting about Airpods

My Gen 2 Airpods work great. I tried Airpod Pro's and Airpod Gen 3. Both have the crappy "pinch" controls instead of the awesome "tap" controls. Pinching requires more fingers free so for example walking home from the grocery store with heavy bags in both hands and trying to control my Airpods (next song, pause), is much easier with tap (single finger, knuckle, palm) than with pinch (2 free fingers). Also while cooking, can tap with knuckle if hands are dirty but can't pinch with dirty fingers.

Otherwise, they've worked for me 98% of the time. A few times they've failed to connect to one device or another and the only solution was to re-pair them (only ever used them on Apple devices). The other is they suck in crowded places like busy trains and stations in Japan, they'll cut out OFTEN! (Shibuya, Shinjuku, rush hour).

My current ones cut out in my living room. No idea why but it's really annoying, I'm 1-2 meters from my M1X Mac and they're cutting out quite often.

But overall I like them alot.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#723

Post by CTmystery »

I'm only an indirect user of AirPods and I really do not like them: Every time my team does a google meet / hangout the folks using AirPods sound terrible to the point that it's distracting. I don't know if it's in the microphone, the bluetooth connection, or the interaction with a google product, but it is much worse than (a) wired earbuds and (b) the folks using Bose QC 35s (which the company gave out a while back)

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#724

Post by tobyjsullivan »

erichurkman wrote: post #715
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only other bluetooth headset is a set of Bose QC35s. As sibling comments reported, quality is about par overall. I find UX of Bose is worse on all counts when working with multiple devices. And the battery life of my AirPods is less on a single use, but much better overall considering I can recharge in the case. My airpods, generally, also have to put up with more. I don't use my Bose with my phone or on the go wh…

> I don't use my Boss with my phone or on the go which is, generally, where the AirPods experience 90% of their quirks. My experience is the opposite. When I'm not on the go, the likelihood that my AirPods pick up the right device is slim -- like trying to connect to an iPad on a complete different floor vs. the phone I'm trying to make a call on. When I'm on the go, the only device they can find is my phone, and all…

Yeah, makes sense for that problem specifically. I don't really have that problem ever. All my problems are skipping audio, dropped connections in one pod, and other intermittent problems.

My Bose always connect to the wrong device in my home and have zero method to correct. So I'm quite satisfied with the AirPods which seem to get the right device 99% of the time (no exaggeration - probably use 4x per day and connect to unintended device maybe once per month). I'm sure it helps that my phone is always on silent mode.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#727

Post by dnhz »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #716

The most annoying thing about my AirPods Pro, which I generally like very much ... my phone starts playing music from its speakers when I take the AirPods out of my ears (and was not previously listening to music). Not all the time, but maybe 15% of the time, enough to be annoying. I have no idea what's going on. I've tried googling it, but nobody else seems to be having this problem. I've combed through settings but…

I don’t have AirPods but this sometimes happens to me when I turn off my Bluetooth headphones. Usually it’s Spotify that begins playing on my computer. I agree that google searching has been unhelpful.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#728

Post by smoldesu »

TylerE wrote: post #687
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

I have to wonder if it's time to just say screw Bluetooth, and deploy a new standard that's specially oriented for audio. Requirements aren't crazy. It just needs to support uncompressed 96/24, full duplex.

I know some people have experimented with WiFi direct for that, but I'm not really familiar with it's limitations besides "you have to be hooked up to a router for it to work". One thing's for certain though, if someone made a pair of lossless cans that could "find" devices over arbitrary WiFi networks, I'd probably switch just for the improvement in latency alone.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#729

Post by initplus »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #716

The most annoying thing about my AirPods Pro, which I generally like very much ... my phone starts playing music from its speakers when I take the AirPods out of my ears (and was not previously listening to music). Not all the time, but maybe 15% of the time, enough to be annoying. I have no idea what's going on. I've tried googling it, but nobody else seems to be having this problem. I've combed through settings but…

Do you use Spotify? There is a really annoying feature on IOS Spotify where it hijacks the system volume control, and syncs it with the Spotify desktop app running on another computer. Sometimes even when the mobile app is closed!

And inevitably because I don't use the desktop app volume adjust just the system volume, it syncs my phone volume to 100% every time.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#730

Post by pahomov »

TylerE wrote: post #687
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

I have to wonder if it's time to just say screw Bluetooth, and deploy a new standard that's specially oriented for audio. Requirements aren't crazy. It just needs to support uncompressed 96/24, full duplex.

And zero delay, please. I'll take two.
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