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AirPods don't “just work”

philip.design

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Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#951

Post by Teckla »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #585
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'…

My iPhone 8 connected to my Bose SoundLink II has the same issues! Glad it's not just me.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#952

Post by guntars »

ChickeNES wrote: post #830
guntars wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

> 6) Endless issues with Spotify "Failing to play song" when the audio output switches. Are you on Windows? I have the same issue with iTunes on Win11

I'm a on Mac, but it's interesting that you have the same issue on an entirely different system. Clearly we haven't figured out how to reliably have audio devices popping in and out of existence, all while playing music.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#953

Post by throwaway946513 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #854
p2t2p wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's stuff _always_ have issues and annoying ones. My Homepod stopped seeing any HomeKit devices. Reboot didn't help. I didn't feel like digging into it so I just went to bed. Couple days later out of all a sudden they start seeing stuff again.

At least their issues are relatively benign compared to the hot mess that is Windows. Had to re-install a friend's Asus all-in-one PC last weekend and god this was not fun. Took over a day worth of downloading Windows updates, battling Realtek's audio driver and Intel's chipset drivers until everything was finally working as expected (and most of the drivers are from 2016 - only God knows how much exploit surface the…

New Pixel data transfer? Plugged in iPhone with the supplied USB-C -> A adapter, and all my contacts, photos, calendar data, etc. migrated to the new phone. Took less time than my mom migrating from an iPhone 6s to an iPhone 13.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#954

Post by spopejoy »

mschuster91 wrote: post #854
p2t2p wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's stuff _always_ have issues and annoying ones. My Homepod stopped seeing any HomeKit devices. Reboot didn't help. I didn't feel like digging into it so I just went to bed. Couple days later out of all a sudden they start seeing stuff again.

At least their issues are relatively benign compared to the hot mess that is Windows. Had to re-install a friend's Asus all-in-one PC last weekend and god this was not fun. Took over a day worth of downloading Windows updates, battling Realtek's audio driver and Intel's chipset drivers until everything was finally working as expected (and most of the drivers are from 2016 - only God knows how much exploit surface the…

Android isn't a fair comparison, since Apple is a single-manufacturer monoculture.

Samsung-to-samsung: I can give anecdata only but moving to a new samsung phone was completely effortless. The only things that broke, broke because there was a newer android OS version on the target (not much of that). This would of course break (and maybe worse) on iPhone -> newer iPhone.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#955

Post by spopejoy »

symlinkk wrote: post #747
AlotOfReading wrote: post #735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re #1: This is basically because it's written into the standard that everyone implements. There are non-standardized extensions to get around this that nobody implements because they're non-standard and a perpetual "This will be fixed by the next standard!". There are also codecs that mitigate the issue by solving the underlying bandwidth problem, but nobody implements those because there's licensing and thus it's no…

Which is why people pay extra for Apple products, because they don’t make excuses like “this sucks because of the Bluetooth standard”, they build something that works even if it’s incompatible with non-Apple systems.

#1 was explicitly mentioned in TFA, so not sure why this is an oppy to say airpods fixes common bluetooth problems, instead it seems Apple is equally burdened by them??

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#956

Post by spopejoy »

GraemeMeyer wrote: post #764
davidmurdoch wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How have consumers let companies get away with "premium" phones being the ones with fewer features?

I think of it like USB A ports. You miss it for a few years. And then you don't. And the products generally continue to improve along other lines

Haha what?? Look all over this thread, Bluetooth has just Stockholm-syndromed everybody, and the phone manufacturers are only too happy to drop the jack.

My anecdata is that as an exclusively wired headphone user, my shit ALWAYS works. Meanwhile my bluetooth zoom/discord counterparties are consistently making remote work a drag because:

- I can't hear the beginning or end of their sentence (some kind of bluetooth gating/noise cancellation that doesn't work)

- Connection drops

- 10-25 seconds of start-of-call fumbling (like in TFA)

- No backup if their P.O.S. bluetooth airpod whatever is really dying or even just having a fight with their device that the user gives up in disgust. I have a backup wired $5 headset ready to go anytime (and use it like once every two years).

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#957

Post by spopejoy »

asimilator wrote: post #868
grishka wrote: post #864

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managing device connections with software is always going to result in a subpar user experience, period. When you use wired headphones, you don't have to rely on a UI to tell whether they're connected or not, and to manage that connection. To move from your laptop to your phone, you unplug them from the laptop and plug them into the phone. That simple. Impossible to mess up and works every time.

Yeah, but wires are also a subpar user experience, period. Rolling them up to store them, untangling them to use them, getting caught on things, routing them to the device, etc. There's a reason bluetooth headphones are still popular despite the downsides.

Subjective, so nope. It's more a tradeoff. Wires are reliable and "just work" (see title of TFA), so the small convenience issues you describe do not make them "sub-par". Indeed I think the terrible experience I see others having on meets/calls is "subpar" and in a remote world, IMO, unacceptable.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#958

Post by spopejoy »

jdminhbg wrote: post #599
ho_schi wrote: post #564

3.5 mm jack Nasty. Yes ;) I'm sorry but it solves these problems and I think most of us have more prominent issues. Bluetooth - and even overpriced Apple products - are usually working well with one connection only. And the headset profile needs to sacrifice quality for voice input. This is to large degrees a question about priority of the user. If you need good or even excellent quality - opt for a good headset and…

None of the AirPod annoyances are as bad as having your headphones yanked violently out of your ears when the 3.5mm cable catches on a door handle.

Meh, if they're $5 headsets/earbuds they at worst harm themselves (so I pop out another $5 headset to last 1-3 years without issues)

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#959

Post by greazy »

SpelingBeeChamp wrote: post #932
crossroadsguy wrote: post #889

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sentiment is seen in almost every response on http://discussions.apple.com , on Apple's subreddits and often in HN comments as well. People are just too eager to jump on behalf on Apple - "but why you would rather not do this instead" ( Why? Because I was looking for something else and I mentioned it for heaven's sake! ) and these hacks and workarounds stack up while "Apple products and services just work" stays…

Any time I search the internet for a solution to a problem with an Apple product or device, I intentionally exclude discussions.apple.com domains from my search results. I have never found a solution there, and the forums seem to be dominated — and I mean DOMINATED — by two or three ‘experts’ whose bottom-line is that Apple’s products work, so you must be doing something wrong. One guy is convinced that uninstalling…

> The only solution is to reinstall macOS and never do that again!

Fuck the apple forums, they are usefulness. I'd like to add another type: return to apple for repairs alongside the 'reinstall os'.

There's gotta be a better answer than reinstalling the os! That's a nuclear option that should be a last resort. But it's recommended all the time.

Re: AirPods don't “just work”

#960

Post by CRConrad »

wtetzner wrote: post #476
dpark wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the choice has been made for all people who do not experience that What are you talking about? Is someone stopping you from using wired earbuds?

You're not technically stopped, you just have to pay extra money to get an adapter, with the additional downside that you can no longer charge the phone while using those headphones.

> get an adapter, with the additional downside that you can no longer charge the phone while using those headphones.

Shouldn't such an adapter have a female USB-C connector and pass that through to the male one, with the headphone jack being branched off? Do those not exist, or are they prohibitively expensive? Did the Apple "dongle" mentioned in sibling comments do it that way? (Sure oughta, IMO.)

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