I lost my air pods case again last night so almost perfect timing. Last time I lost it, the replacement case was $70 so it has only gotten $10 more expensive
It is not as fun to be honest, you have to book an appointment at the Apple store and they don't just sell you one if you walk-in. Then you would have to wait for their technician to verify Airpods were not stolen for them to finally sell you a new case
The issue is that you have tiny chemical batteries inside and they deteriorate with use and time, so it will hardly hold any charge after 3 years (some report much faster deterioration). Does Apple replace those batteries? How much does it cost? And can it be done outside of US? (e.g. in EU countries with no official Apple Store presence). Otherwise it's pretty expensive to pay $200 for a pair headphones and throw them away after 3 years.
Yeah the price doens’t really scale but if you consider your time worthwhile, then add up the total amount of time it has saved you from having to untwist a jumbled mess of earphones / roll up earphones into some easily tangled roll.
you should also consider the time it takes to charge the case and the times when you want to listen to music but alas, you forgot to charge your earphones! The jumbled mess of earphones don't need to be charged.
The airpods are the only wireless headphones I've owned where this is pretty much a nonissue in practice. It's easy to develop the habit to put the case on the charger when not on the go and to put the headphones in the case when not listening. At least for me those two things is sufficient to pretty much guarantee I'll always have charged headphones.
>It's easy to develop the habit to put the case on the charger when not on the go and to put the headphones in the case when not listening.
Except the original post said to "count the time you spend untangling the cord" (which, for most good, flat-wire headphones is almost zero). Habit or not, charging takes more time than properly rolling the cord on wired buds.
That's an understatement. If your fine motor skills aren't impaired, you should spend maybe a few minutes each year rolling and unrolling your wired headphones. I'd argue it takes nearly as long to put your AirPods in their case and set them down on a charging station.
I’ve never thought of charging my AirPods or the case outside of plugging the case for half an hour once a week. I don’t even check the battery percentage.
Keeping cables nicely coiled is a solved problem. Humanity has used string and rope for millennia. There's been plenty of time to figure this out.
To this old fart, this sounds like the thousand other cases of "why learn a simple and generally useful skill, when we can use modern technology to avoid this one specific case?"
Learning a basic transferable skill is the scalable solution to this problem. You're not using wireless power cables, wireless rope to tie things to your car, wireless thread in your sewing machine, etc.
Count to 5. That's how long it just took me to coil wired earbuds. Probably the same amount of time to pull the tic tac box out of your pocket, flip the lid, put them in one by one, and shut the lid back up.
I think you may be overestimating the time it takes me to do things, and also trying to double dip on time: Both of us have to take things out of pockets and put things in ears.
Only one of us have to coil and uncoil wires, and put wires where we want them and keep wires where we want them when they shift or are moved by external forces. Only one of us can use our headphones with a smartwatch.
AirPods aren't perfect: I've probably had connection issues ~5 times which seem to have gone away with the latest update. I haven't lost them, but they are really small and it seems like it would be easy to lose them. $170 is a lot tougher to lose than $8 (though there are also wired earbuds in the same price neighborhood). I do have to charge the case, but with my use-pattern I haven't yet run into a spot where I wanted to keep using my AirPods and didn't have charge available. Using them one ear at a time while the other charges for longer use is non-ideal, but that's mitigated by how quickly they charge.
Until I had to go back to wired earbuds for a week after using wireless for a while I didn't fully appreciate how nice wireless is.
But this is missing the other problem AirPods solve, a problem created by Apple and other tech giants - the now missing standard 3.5mm jack.
I have a laptop, desktop, iPad and iPhone - for wired I would need USB-C->3.5mm, Lightning->3.5mm, and a 3.5mm extension cord for my desktop. AirPods "just work" with each of those with only a single click or tap. So no cord tangles and no bluetooth connect/disconnect dance every time you swap devices. To me that makes them easily worth the $170 cost.
I have bose wireless earbuds that are connected to each other by a short cable. It never gets tangled. And when I want to take them out I just pop them out and they hang round my neck. As a bonus, since they aren't in a pocket I don't run them through the wash. I don't know how much time airpods uses spend fumbling around in their pockets (for the airpods....), but I spend 0 time doing that and 0 time untangling cables.
It isn't hard or time-consuming or even thought-consuming to coil 2.5' of headphone cable and stick it in your pocket in such a way where it comes back out still in a coil. Ball it up and shove it among your keys and pens and wallet and phone and of course it will be tangled.
As an aside, this is the most HN justification possible for these. "Just estimate your time spent coiling headphones and multiply it by your hourly rate then you will see how $160 is fair." Absurd.
I’ve had my AirPods for a while. The battery life has indeed degraded, but they’re pretty good for an hour of listening, and I never really do more. I’d be more disappointed as a heavy user.
They’re also the only earphones I can stand while exercising. Before the AirPods, the annoyance of the wire flopping around or on my skin, etc. made me mostly just not listen to anything. So, I don’t really compare them to anything wired, because I don’t consider them an actual alternative. I just won’t listen anymore.
Interestingly, I seem to be one of the few people the AirPods don't work for when it comes to exercising - they don't fit well in my ears, so they'd fall out if I tried to exercise in them :( .
Love them in general though, they are good enough for the price & what they do.
The audio quality is also massively improved because of the better fit. The downside is you have to take the skins off before putting the AirPods back in the case. I also bought one of these pouches to keep the AirPod case and EarSkinz in. Works well, all in all
If you get the old foam slip-on covers that used to come with all Apple headphones, they might stay in your ears a little better, and you can close the case over them.
They seem to be doing much better than mine! Mine are about a year old, and they seem to run about half of their original life, and I've used them perhaps 2 hours per day. I was a bit surprised at how soon it became apparent they didn't have their original battery life. I could probably listen for about 1.5 hrs now, but they still charge pretty quickly, so I usually just put them back in the case for a few minutes.
I pre-ordered my Airpods the first day they were available at the end of 2016 and have used them almost exclusively for conference calls. I use them maybe once every day or so, and they sit in their charging case the rest of the time (which gets recharged periodically)
I had a call yesterday and the Airpods were beeping that they were dying at the 20min mark, and didn't make it to 30min on the call.
I love the form factor, and I just ordered the "new" Airpods, because I am hoping the battery life has improved - the old ones are basically a disposable item after the first year, from my experience.
> I had a call yesterday and the Airpods were beeping that they were dying at the 20min mark, and didn't make it to 30min on the call.
> I love the form factor, and I just ordered the "new" Airpods, because I am hoping the battery life has improved - the old ones are basically a disposable item after the first year, from my experience.
The OP complained about battery life and the $200 "disposable" headphones he bought a year ago, but happily bought the next iteration, hence my comment.
I am complaining, yes, that the battery wore out much faster than I expected, but other than the battery life I love them. The new one is supposed to have much better battery life, and it's only $160 for something that I said I use every day, so it will be worth it if they are better.
Even if they aren't, and I had to buy a pair every year, that's like 50 cents a day for something that I enjoy using (until the battery dies)
I also use them for conference calls. I think one of the super awesome but barely talked about features of the airpods is how you can use it to handle calls nonstop all day long -- you can just wear one at a time. Both airpods have a microphone. So while you're using one, the other one is in the charging case! You can even switch them out in the middle of a call. So no need to go "oh crap I need to recharge my headset", just swap them out and you're at 100% for continuous non-stop talking.
Most days, however, I don't have calls all day long, and I can just wear both no problem and not run into the low battery beep.
I think one of the super awesome features of wired headsets is that one never needs to recharge them. Also, they are a lot cheaper than wireless headsets.
Airpods dying on conference calls has become another common part of the joke that is conference calls generally. Seeing that happen constantly has turned me off buying them :-/
Well, that and the fact that I'd definitely lose one in the first month of ownership.
They aren’t really designed for conference calls. It’s more for listening to music and answering a few calls when they happen. AirPods are more of a light workout or entertainment headphones. Jabra, Plantronics, and the like are for conference calls.
I do use them for conference calls but I know they have limited capabilities. My 14 hour Jabra headset will do just fine and have noise cancellation.
At this price point you are paying form factor and lightweight. Bose and Sony have much better headphones at a similar price point. Both are much bigger and may have cords but the quality is much better. They last longer too.
At this price you're paying for recognisability and affluence signalling. Apple will be able to launch a 'limited series' of 'black airpods with gilded touch rings' - with the colour being the only differentiator from the regular product - at a 50% price increase and see considerable sales.
The Airpods sound...not great. Especially when compared to the Sennheisers. Still, I am not going to carry a large pair of headphones (or a dac/amp) everywhere I go just so I can have the very best (tm) audio experience. The reality is that most listening environments are _terrible_ and much of the quality of a given audio device is lost. Airpods check a lot of boxes that are not checked by my other headphones.
It's more the hip PMs and business-side folks who are on calls a good percentage of any given day, trying to use them for work, than too-long meetings killing them all at once. I don't think they've got the battery life for people in those roles, but boy do they really want to use them. Good for a chuckle a week or so if you're spending even 2-3 hours a week on calls with those sorts.
I find the best solution is to just use one at a time. The other charges while talking. They charge must faster than they get consumed, so you can use steady-state schema all day with zero interruption.
Airpods dying on conference calls has become another common part of the joke that is conference calls generally. Seeing that happen constantly has turned me off buying them :-/
Like everything in life -- you use the right tool for the job.
If you're on a lot of conference calls, then you buy a headset or something else suited to that task. AirPods are not that item. They're for listening to music while running, or at work, and answering the occasional phone call.
I don't complain that my Hello Kitty-branded eeePC 701 can't run the latest AI framework.
If you want to do business, you buy a business tool.
You're not expected to keep them that long, it's targeted to people who buy the new generations pretty much as soon as they are released.
Who's going to pay 30%-50% of a new version to replace his airpods or apple watch battery ? [0]
It's the same with all these hi tech gadgets relying on tiny glued/soldered batteries. You can't replace them yourself because it's either proprietary hardware or you need to literally break the product to get to the battery. And companies either don't offer replacements or charge insane amount of money for them.
Apple can boast all day long about ecology and using 100% recycled aluminium, at the end of the day they're shipping unfixable gadgets. [1][2] But it's thin and slick looking so I guess most people don't give a damn.
The first time I saw a bose QC25 with AA batteries I almost burst out laughing but it's actually much more convenient than proprietary battery packs. Compare that to the new QC35: > As you were correctly advised, battery replacement is not a service that is offered. [3]
We'll drown in these gadgets way before we drown due to the sea level rising.
[0] > Run through your battery, and it’ll likely cost you $138 to replace both year-old batteries, which is nearly the cost of a new pair.
I absolutely agree with everything in this post, but the newest model of QC35s has like 15 hours of battery life. Even if it degrades 50% over 3 years they will be perfectly usable. Airpods don't have enough physical size to overprovision battery that much.
Unserviceable laptop and cellphone batteries are terrible and apple is by far the biggest offender.
The QC35s also only need the battery for wireless use/active noise cancelling, so even if your battery dies on you you can still use them with a wire and a standard 3.5 mm jack. That is, assuming you still have a 3.5mm port to plug that jack into :)
It's also a lot harder to crucify the QC35s on their cost when comparing to airpods, which don't seem to have comparable noise cancelling. If you are going to shell out for a premium product at least make sure you get a premium product.
I have a pair of Sony over-ear Bluetooth headphones, with NFC, about 7 years old now, MDR-1RBT.
I have used them 5 days a week, for ~2 hours a day for almost the entirety of those 7 years, I charge them approximately once per month.
They cost £400 at the time and have been by far the best consumer electronic investment I have ever made. When the battery becomes unusable I'll find a replacement and fit it my self, but I have no plans to replace them until they are deader than dead.
I don't care much for "fashion" and they already have more features than I need (I use the physical switch to toggle off the NFC because I never need to use it), they do high enough quality audio (AAC/AptX) for streaming 320/16/44.1 and the battery life is better than any other battery powered device I own (barring the TV remote) even after all this time.
I'd love to see a premium pair of over the ear headphones driven by a licensed Apple Bluetooth stack, which by all accounts is vastly superior. It's still a win for Apple since the added bluetooth features only activate when paired to another compatible apple device; otherwise it's just standard bluetooth.
I know nothing about Apple's Bluetooth stack so I'll take your word for it; have they not licensed it to anyone to make some high quality over-ears? I just don't see Apple ever making any in-house, and I'm not sure why that is (maybe not compete with those awful Beats headphones).
I was bracing for downvotes on that comment for shilling. It appears the QC35s are loved by many, myself included.
Honestly if you regularly write code in an open office like I suspect many here do; a serious, professional pair of headphones are one of the best things you can get. Wireless with active noise cancelling that are comfortable and have a robust battery life. The Sony model mentioned by another poster appear to be quite nice as well.
Smart management would make sure these things are available to their employees no questions asked.
> Smart management would make sure these things are available to their employees no questions asked.
My experience with this made me laugh. I had a company that had the right idea when they moved everyone to open floor plans; buy them "premium" headphones. The headphones they bought were expensive (valued around $150 new), but were utter garbage. I can't tell the difference audio between $5 earbuds, and $100 earbuds ... but I can tell when these beats headphones have the sizing for children. Nearly everyone ended up selling theirs and letting them collect dust.
Yea, unfortunately HR or accounting is going to be lurking around waiting to torpedo any incarnation of this; but the best option is to set a reasonable dollar amount for gear and let your engineers allocate it as part of the onboarding process. Desktop/laptop, phone, headphones, monitors, keyboard etc. If engineers want to go above the amount you set, support that as well and reimburse up to that maximum.
I worked at a company and our team was the first to move to the open floor plan.
I convinced my manager to get us all Bose headphones.
Several people from other teams (all of which had private offices) raised a stink to the CEO, who refused to approve the purchase, leaving my boss to foot the bill by himself.
Loved my qc25’s, but when time came to upgrade to wireless - new Sony’s are just so much better - better noise cancelling and USB-C charging (Bose has much better feel overall).
You're not wrong, but I have no noticeable issues with my QC35 or AirPods after 2 years. the battery life on the QC35 is simply astounding. I once wore them on a transatlantic flight including lounge stays. Got to my destination after 16+ hours of them being on the entire time, save 60mins during a nap. Some noise cancelling, lots of podcasts and music... Battery was at 60% still.
I often hear people saying that making such things repairable would entail massive increases in complexity and less thinness/etc., but in this case it's relatively easy to imagine how Apple could have made the batteries in each AirPod replaceable (as for the charging case, that one is pretty trivial...) while maintaining the dimensions and weight:
This is a metal-cased cell, like an AAA battery, only smaller. They could simply make the "stem" of the AirPod unscrew from the top to access the battery. They came up with an unserviceable design because they didn't want to, not because they couldn't. Think of things like quartz watches too --- they have just as small if not smaller dimensions, and yet you can still replace the batteries in them. (And if you think threads of that size are impossible for Apple... look at the few screws that hold iPhones together.)
It's all about conspicuous consumption. AirPods are not a lot less conspicuous than the long earlobes of the Dayaks[0] (nor in my opinion a lot less ugly), but in order for them to fulfill their signalling function they must be consumed.
I really, honestly believe that in a decade we're going to look back at AirPods as our generation's bell-bottoms. Only bell-bottomed trousers at least have some function: AirPods are a style & sustainability own goal.
First, the form factor of AirPods are integral to their function. There is no separating them. Wires are a major design tradeoff.
Also, the function (multiple actually) -- social communication, gaining knowledge, entertainment -- is of high importance to many. So even small improvements are valuable.
I really don't think you're understanding this correctly.
I’ve had mine since they were released and have experienced very little deterioration. I even left them outside and out of their case for A MONTH! During summer I was house sitting, left them outside at my house for a month by complete accident, came back home and found them. Once I charged them up they worked like a charm. During this month it rained a few times too.
That’s not really the deterioration people are talking about. Using them every day multiple times will destroy them quite quickly. Seems to be around the year and a half mark.
I've used mine everyday since launch, so a little over two years. They now only hold a charge for about 45 minutes, so I end up doing one ear at a time for longer voip meetings. The case held up fine, I charge that like once every two weeks. I'd say they were generally fine for my purposes until about a month ago when they started cutting out at the end of hour long meetings.
Even still, I ordered the new ones. The convenience is easily worth it for me since I am primarily in the Apple ecosystem.
Having used my airpods 2-3 hours every day, since release. I've found the talk time to drop to a little over an hour. It hasn't been too much of an issue for me as I just charge one bud in the case when it's low and swap it out with the other.
3 years? These things are consumables. Toss them at least annually, they won't sound as good as new by that point.
[edit: Really? You guys expect 3 years life out of your socks and underwear too? If you use the hell out of it, even a wired pair that's a year old doesn't sound as good as a pair fresh out of the box.]
I'm fine with 3 years replacement. 3 years is a very long time for a particularly small and useful device. Also $200 is not a lot of money. Inflation is under-rated in the USA.
Pedantic but it is using induction coils to generate and receive a magnetic field, not using actual magnets. Still, not producing anything I’d worry about at all
If you are concerned about wireless charging causing harm to living creatures due to radiation: yes there has been countless studies on the effects of (EM) radiation. There are also strict regulations about the use of EM radiation. [0]
But since Qi wireless charging has such a weak low frequency radiation, and (mostly) magnetic coupling, I wouldn't worry about it.
If you are talking about fire/explosion safety: wireless charging will heat up the charging device slightly more than charging by cable due to a lower efficiency. The charging device usually monitors the battery temperature and may decide to stop charging if it exceeds a certain threshold. Some cheap devices (!= apple) may not implement this and overheat when charging, but this has little to do with the wireless aspect of charging.
If you are worried about electrical safety of the wireless chargers: they need to comply with safety regulations before they are allowed to be sold. [1]
I really believe the AirPods are an amazing New platform.. I think people are far more on the go lately and so the AirPods are a perfect way to consume content, that isn’t just music and I do believe the big rise in Podcast consumption is very much due to their popularity. It started as a silly joke that everyone made fun of but now, at least where I live in NYC, seemingly everyone on every train has them on.
I am a little disappointed in Apple for not adding storage to these though, it wouldn’t be very hard to add a few gigabytes to them and then they would work even without your phone and it would be the iPod all over again. Missed opportunity by Apple for sure.
As a shameless plug I am working on what I think is the perfect companion App for iPods. My app let’s you listen to any article by using some amazing sounding Machine Learning models to grab the articles and convert them to audio. You can check it out here if you like:
https://articulu.com
I doubt they could fit any storage on airpods, they're already filled for batteries. Apple watch is the companion for working out without your phone and that has onboard storage
I have the Bragi Dash which has 4GB of storage. Because their bluetooth is pretty crummy, they actually work best as an in-ear mp3 player, no phone required. It's pretty nice for running because carrying a giant phone in running clothes is a nuisance.
The Samsung Gear IconX (last year's model) had 4 GB of storage. However it was useless to me as I no longer manage my own MP3 files. I use Pandora/Spotify/Google Music/etc.
If Apple adds storage, they hopefully will do it in a way where it's easy to "cache" playlists or albums easily without having to manage files.
As a slightly out-of-context suggestion: Add the ability to try the app to your website. I'd be more likely to download if I could try it without commitment first :)
Take a look at the front and back of the Airpod flexible circuit board, there is pretty much no room for anything else. Even the smallest nand flash chips take up more room than the circuit board can offer. The airpod case has more room in it, maybe there could be a storage chip added to that for on the go music (like an ipod shuffle!) but Apple would probably just rather you buy a watch.
> I really believe the AirPods are an amazing New platform.
Headphones have existed since 1919. The Sony Walkman was released in 1979.
> I think people are far more on the go lately and so the AirPods are a perfect way to consume content, that isn’t just music and I do believe the big rise in Podcast consumption is very much due to their popularity.
What do AirPods add to content consumption, other than expense, ease of loss and charging cycles?
> My app let’s[sic] you listen to any article by using some amazing sounding Machine Learning models to grab the articles and convert them to audio.
I … I can't tell if this is satire or not. It's definitely Peak 2019.
I’m sorry but none of those devices had a CPU in them, the H1 chip in these is actually a CPU.. it’s not satire I mean it’s like saying phones have existed since the 1970s when the iPhone came out...
Funny how there's so much criticism everywhere for these products yet you step outside and loads of people have them. Usual reaction to Apple products I guess.
Yeah, I was shocked by how many teenagers in my neighborhood had them until I realized they were all knock-offs. I doubt Apple is concerned, though. Airpods solidified their dominance of earbud design
Knockoffs? Having shopped for AirPods for my kids, and also shocked by the price, I'd be eager to hear more. Most of the other brands use an "in ear" design which my kids wouldn't like (ex: AirDots)
Huh? I think people buy these despite them looking a little goofy because they are quite convienent. Which company offers the best wireless pods in your mind?
Check out the Sony WH1000XM3. Ugly name but great noise cancelling, the sound quality is so much better than Bose, and I'm a big fan of the design. USB-C charging and very long battery life.
I haven't heard of others with connectivity that is even close. The fact that the airpods simply work, even long distances from my charging phone in the office, make them very valuable to me.
I don't think that's the use case of all the < 18 years old getting in/out of the school I pass by daily on my way to work but welp.
You create the use case of needing extra range while charging the phone because audio over bluetooth significantly reduce the battery life in the first place. You shouldn't need to charge at the office even if you called non stop from 9 to 5.
Phone in pocket + wired headphones = unlimited range and > 20 hrs talk time.
Apple removed headphone jacks from their phones, so some AirPod owners probably would have been happy to not own them and continue with traditional headphones.
To be fair, airpods ended up being a lot more convenient than I imagined before trying them. I still carry around my tin audio t2s for when I'll be listening to music for an extended period of time. But in most cases, the convenience of not dealing with a cord and being able to pause/skip with a tap outweighs the loss in sound quality.
With the old wired ones you can also play/pause/skip/change volume/use a mic/whisper your fantasies to siri/etc. I mean all you really get with these is not having to deal with 2.5' of wire, at the cost of having to charge them and the whole $160 business
Are you talking about the earpods? I just bought the iPhone XR and I got the earpods but I didn't see any lightning adaptor. Now I have two earphones, one that only works on my phone and another that only works on my laptop - it's a real pain.
Apple has been doing that with headphones ever since the iPod came out. iPod commercials featured black silhouetted people with the bright white headphone and cord contrasted on top[0]. Like AirPods today, it used to be a status symbol to have white headphones as that basically meant they came from Apple.
Anyone who bought an iPhone without a headphone jack got a pair of Lightning compatible wired headphones in the box.
If they bought Airpods they decided against using those headphones, getting a Lightning-headphone adapter to use with their favorite wired headphones, or buying any other type of bluetooth headphones.
I would have bought AirPods regardless of an audio jack (I love them to death), but am furious about the removal nonetheless. It isn't often that I find myself needing the jack, but whenever I do it's infuriating, either to have to go hunt for the adapter, or to just not have the ability to export audio at all in that circumstance.
It isn't often that we achieve a universal connector format with basically no downsides (how many iterations of USB have there been now?), but we actually accomplished it with the 1/8" audio jack, and it's exasperating to see that coordination equity be so "bravely" discarded.
I am in the same boat. I am still using my iPhone 6 because of the headphone jack. But I have AirPods and use them daily. Not going to upgrade phone until USB-C is an option (maybe never?).
I use to teach fitness classes even before the iPhone was a thing. Even then I used a 30 pin to 1/8" adapter so I could get line level output. I also had a cassette adapter with a 30 pin connector for my car. I could hit fast forward and rewind on the cassette player and it would fast forward the audio on the iPod. When I took the adapter out or stopped the car, the iPod stopped. Of course these days even my cheap low end car has Bluetooth.
I would just carry a lightning to headphone cord (not adapter) if I were still teaching.
AirPods are so convenient compared to wired earbuds for me, I’d say they’re in my top 3 electronics purchases of last year. They’re not simply a “lifestyle brand” as you’re dismissing them as.
Apple products are lifestyle-brand, that's why you compared AirPods to wired earbuds despite the fact there were many AirPods-like products from other brands and Chinese no-brands before AirPods - you just didn't care until Apple announce their own version.
No. Other brands have weird Bluetooth bugs, sketchy reliability (compared to generally rock solid Apple products), or don’t integrate nearly as tightly with my iPhone.
I didn’t buy them because they’re a “lifestyle”, I bought them because they’re the best on the market.
I had Bragi Dash headphones and took them back within 24 hours. The set up took me like 4 hours. Then the sound quality was so terrible it made my head spin....the sound quality was noticeably worse than even my earpods at the time. Also you had to have your phone in your right pocket otherwise you'd lose the connection. Walk three feet away and also lose connection.
The reviews are not great for Bragi Dash headphones at that time either. I though people were just hating but it turns out the reviews were accurate in this case.
Apple products _are_ a lifestyle brand, and my lifestyle is buying a charger without worrying that it's a crappy piece of shit that will overheat and set my house on fire, or setting up a new system without downloading and installing a bunch of drivers by hand, and being able to walk into one of three flagship stores in Toronto for service, or any of a dozen authorized service centres.
Some people enjoy being their own sysadmins and customizers. That's their lifestyle choice. Every product choice is a lifestyle choice.
No, they're not the same, they're the first bluetooth device that I've used that actually works flawlessly enough to be worth using at all. It has nothing to do with aesthetic design.
Do you somehow imply that wireless earbuds didn't exist lol? We've had them for _years_. I used to go to the pool with a set that was also _water-proof_ like 3 years ago, watch out for the _new_ waterproof airpods coming out!
Being deeply into buying "the most powerful technology," or "the most customizable technology" is also a lifestyle choice and tribal signalling choice.
There is no "I'm above choosing things for their lifestyle or tribe membership implications" position to take.
I own QC35 and some Jaybirds X3. Went back and forth on buying the AirPods forever. Figured it'd be a waste of money. Did it anyway.
I LOVE them. Single-ear is the killer use for me, I used them bike commuting in my non-traffic ear, and i frequently listen to a podcast in just one ear. It sounds stupid, but it's SO much more convenient than having another bud dangling from a cord like I'd have to with the Jaybirds.
And the difference between a hard plastic case and a floppy vinyl carrying pouch is the difference between something that is part of my every day kit, in my pants pocket, and something that sits.. at home.. in a drawer, probably. Somewhere. I have no idea where, frankly.
This was my experience with Apple products from like 2003-2010 when I finally decided I should just accept that regardless of my first impression, I was going to like most Apple stuff once I tried it out.
I'm always surprised how many people haven't come to that conclusion.
I have a feeling it’s more of an emotional self-rightous rant similar to the ones people have when picking their favorite football team or car brand. I’ve read many of the anti apple comments around here - and most of the criticisms have solid reasoning. But, I still got a new MacBook Pro, and low and behold it works great.
And here's the other comment that appears in every HN thread about a new Apple product. Just need someone to complain that Apple forgot about its pro users and I'll have a bingo.
AirPods have a lot of criticism? I would understand that if you made the same claim about iMac, Mac mini, iPad mini, i9 MacBook Pro or the stupid butterfly keyboards.
AirPods sold 36 million units and everyone and their grandma got it on Christmas. They have been sold at most holidays.
I personally think this is one of the best device Apple has created in a long time. It’s not for everyone but once you get used to it, you won’t go anywhere without them.
I mean their overpriced and look absolutely stupid.
Airpods seem to be entirely an US thing and a result of great marketing. If anyone could convince people to buy and wear this it would be apple in USA.
When you say hands free Siri, does that mean you can activate with 'hey Siri'? And a follow up question: is there a way for iOS to read out new text messages or phone calls incoming and ask you if you'd like to take it?
I'm also seeing claims of 2x faster connect times. They leapfrogged the other bt headphones I had previously tried with the first airpods, but there are still annoying things about bt I hope they're quietly fixing.
Sticking to lightning connector for the wired charging? Guarantees I won't be getting it. Why are Apple delaying their inevitable switch to USB-C, when they've already started the transition with macbooks and ipad pro?
I'd bet that nearly 100% of people that buy AirPods already have an iPhone and a lightning cable. It would be pretty annoying to have to carry two cables to charge your stuff.
You may not have noticed that Apple just two days ago released two brand new iPads (a new iPad Mini and a revised iPad Air) still with lightning connector.
Unfortunately it appears that USB-C will remain a Pro-only feature for the foreseeable future.
This is a disappointing update. Introducing the wireless charging case at an additional charge without an accompanying release of Airpower is curious. No new color options. More importantly, no new control options. I can't change volume without resorting to my Apple Watch or phone. Hey Siri is a non feature akin to the Bixby button on Samsung phones.
The battery on my first gen Airpods has deteriorated but this isn't the upgrade I was waiting for. I'll give the Galaxy buds a go or maybe even venture into the wireless noise-cancelling headphones category which has greatly improved since Airpods first launched
It's not the battery life per charge, it's the battery lifespan. Similar to iPhones (which are rated for only 500 charge cycles because gotta pad those profit margins... so good luck using one battery for even 2 years), AirPods experience battery degradation to a point where they last < 1 hour and just shut down randomly because they can't provide enough charge to the buds. In just 2-3 years.
This is true. However, the build quality is abysmal. Plastic pieces have come unglued and buttons are faulty on both my fiancée's pair and mine. I don't think I can recommend the SoundSports as much as the QC35s.
The QC35s have been near life-changing for my urban existence. Much better transit experience, and can listen to really loud action movies on my headphones through Apple TV without worrying about disturbing my neighbors. Helps at work to drown others out (thanks open office).
as an airpods user the first thing that disappointed me was how we don't have as many controls on the airpods as we did on the wired earphones that they replaced. You can change the double tap functionality to be any one of: siri, next track, previous track, play/pause... but honestly it would be better if you could do all of those things. I was hoping they would address that with this update.
The "old" airpods will work with the new wireless charging case, so that's not really much of an upgrade on the headphones themselves.
Looks like the only real upgrade is longer battery life. Always welcome, but still not drastically different. I was googling for airpods 2 release all this week, but now that I see it, I'm not sure if I want to go through the hassle of buying the new ones and liquidating my old ones. I probably will though. Maybe the slightly longer battery life will be worth it, and if I can disable "hey siri" I might be able to eek out just a bit longer battery life.
it is odd. That said, everyone was expecting Apple to force you to buy their new product. It's actually fairly un-Apple-like to release the new product with the OPTION of paying extra for the new wireless charging case, or NOT paying for it if you don't want wireless charging, OR buying the case separately if you don't want to throw away your old product.
They're making their money, but at least they're not also encouraging folks to throw out old tech that works just fine. (well, except for your old case, i guess :)
They obviously over promised on Airpower. My suspicion was that these Airpods weren't originally supposed to be Qi compatible (only Airpower compatible), but the delay of Airpower forced their hand and they probably had to redesign these. I think this is a better outcome (even though I was trying to hold out for wireless charging to buy any in the first place) because now you're not beholden to Apple Airpower for charging these wirelessly.
Compared to the Apple Earpods with either lightning or jack-cable I would describe the Airpods as having just slighty more bass in the sound and just slighty more volume. What they lack in audio quality compared to bulkier proper headphones they make up for with their amazing portability and convenience.
I don't know that they are worth $200, I thought $160 was pretty expensive when I got mine. But that seems to be the price range for premium bluetooth headphones.
Personally: I don't find any earbud-style headphone to be very good audio vise compared (my experience with them is also limited) as compared to headphones or speakers. I can wear them for a long time without feeling fatigued. In the first two weeks with the Airpods my ears became very sore after ~30min wearing them, despite being very accostumed to the Apple Earbuds, luckily that is not the case any more.
What's going on with Apple releasing so many updates without holding a press event? (It's not like they have always announced significant updates at their keynotes.)
There is an upcoming event which is supposedly focused on their upcoming subscription service. My guess is that they don’t want to detract from that, so they are getting these smaller updates out of the way.
They have an event scheduled for the 25th March, but it's probably going to be focused on their new video streaming service. I imagine they don't want that cluttered with a load of minor product revisions (none of the recent updates are new product lines).
I have airpods and a pair of Sennheiser PXC 550's. I use the Sennheiser's on long flights and when I'm working at home and the airpods everywhere else.
Both are great for their use cases, but the best feature of the Sennheiser's that I miss on my airpods every day is the ability to adjust the volume and song by swiping on the outside of the ear cup. I realize that there are trade-off's when moving from a much larger pair of headphones to ear buds, but to me voice to adjust volume or change songs is a non-starter. I wish that Apple could figure out a way to include touch or manual controls to airpods and that alone would make me seriously think about upgrading. This update is a nothingburger. There's nothing about these that are exciting compared to the first gen. If they continued to sell the first gen for $20 less I would opt for them. I'm starting to think that the Apple naysayers are right.
the airpod case actually charges with conventional contacts. bottom of an airpod has two conductive polarities that contact with the polarities on the case. Like plugging the airpod into an outlet, it's a "wired" charge, where the airpod is the actual wire/plug and the case is the outlet.
Everyone who buys these should be put on a government list, rounded up, and be burned for fuel to provide energy for the rest of us who are not drooling retards.
can anyone chime in on the cancer concerns? I own a pair of airpods and use them daily, and want to buy the new ones, but recent press about this has been concerning me. Is there any merit to the concerns? Last I heard, non-ionizing radiation can't damage tissues, but I don't know too much about the subject. I want to enjoy my airpods so if it's fearmongering bs I can ignore it. I'm asking here because I searched the two posts today about airpods and nobody has discussed it
I was among the first to receive my AirPods back in end of 2016. They are now down to <2.5hours listening on my iPhone and <2hours on my MBP (for some unknown reason). They are great on the go but the lack of sound isolation is problematic because you really have to crank the volume up. That really isn’t ideal in the long run. I also suspect the sound quality has degraded somewhat because of the dirt etc that has accumulated behind the vents.
I’m probably going to use them till the batteries are too degraded and change to BT ANC headphones afterwards.
I actually like the Airpods lack of sound isolation. I use them when I want to be able to hear things around me still, walking/biking/etc.
When I want quiet and music I switch to my Shure SE215's w/Bluetooth. Way better sound quality and with the foam earplug style earbuds they really block out the noise.
I think those are just the different classes of headphones. Even with wired headphones earbuds were my daily driver. I had over the ear for isolation on airplanes, but they were way too inconvenient for day to day and kind of gross if I was working out. There are a bunch of other big types, but I've never had a need for things like in-ear monitors or open air headphones.
My wife was actively looking for something with active "pass thru" and tried a few headphones. I suspect (like you) she was expecting airpods to have more isolation because she's very happy with them.
I imagine your MBP supports different bluetooth specs and is slightly older. Since people upgrade their phones more often they tend to get these things first. Last month I got a loaner MBP and completely forgot my mouse requires BT4 and would work. I never tried airpods, but I suspect they either wouldn't work at all or be forced to use higher-powered, older BT protocols. I also remember hearing something about the mic being on in unexpected circumstances, killing battery life.
Ended up buying a wireless charging AirPods case off AliExpress for $15 last year. I feel like I’ve been living the AirPods 2 life for a while now. It is a small but nice luxury to be able to set the headphones on your charger instead of having to plug plugin them in, especially if you use them a lot throughout the day.
I don’t think the, “Hey Siri” is worth the upgrade.
Do you mean one of those cases that wrap on the outside of the original? If so, how much bulkier are those? Thinking of getting one since I have a mostly unused Qi charger on my workdesk.
427 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 331 ms ] threadWhat I’ll actually do is drop some hints and see what shows up for my birthday in a few months...
$50 per airpod for new batteries.
I'm guessing they don't literally give you yours back with new batteries, but instead give you replacements and then send yours for refurbishing.
Are there any tips to make the batteries last longer?
$100 < $200. I wouldn't call half the price "approaches."
Extend battery life by substituting them with wired earpods when possible.
Except the original post said to "count the time you spend untangling the cord" (which, for most good, flat-wire headphones is almost zero). Habit or not, charging takes more time than properly rolling the cord on wired buds.
To this old fart, this sounds like the thousand other cases of "why learn a simple and generally useful skill, when we can use modern technology to avoid this one specific case?"
Learning a basic transferable skill is the scalable solution to this problem. You're not using wireless power cables, wireless rope to tie things to your car, wireless thread in your sewing machine, etc.
Also there's a lot of time spent fiddling with the cables in use that I didn't realize I was doing until I used wireless and went back for a week.
Only one of us have to coil and uncoil wires, and put wires where we want them and keep wires where we want them when they shift or are moved by external forces. Only one of us can use our headphones with a smartwatch.
AirPods aren't perfect: I've probably had connection issues ~5 times which seem to have gone away with the latest update. I haven't lost them, but they are really small and it seems like it would be easy to lose them. $170 is a lot tougher to lose than $8 (though there are also wired earbuds in the same price neighborhood). I do have to charge the case, but with my use-pattern I haven't yet run into a spot where I wanted to keep using my AirPods and didn't have charge available. Using them one ear at a time while the other charges for longer use is non-ideal, but that's mitigated by how quickly they charge.
Until I had to go back to wired earbuds for a week after using wireless for a while I didn't fully appreciate how nice wireless is.
I have a laptop, desktop, iPad and iPhone - for wired I would need USB-C->3.5mm, Lightning->3.5mm, and a 3.5mm extension cord for my desktop. AirPods "just work" with each of those with only a single click or tap. So no cord tangles and no bluetooth connect/disconnect dance every time you swap devices. To me that makes them easily worth the $170 cost.
As an aside, this is the most HN justification possible for these. "Just estimate your time spent coiling headphones and multiply it by your hourly rate then you will see how $160 is fair." Absurd.
They’re also the only earphones I can stand while exercising. Before the AirPods, the annoyance of the wire flopping around or on my skin, etc. made me mostly just not listen to anything. So, I don’t really compare them to anything wired, because I don’t consider them an actual alternative. I just won’t listen anymore.
Love them in general though, they are good enough for the price & what they do.
The audio quality is also massively improved because of the better fit. The downside is you have to take the skins off before putting the AirPods back in the case. I also bought one of these pouches to keep the AirPod case and EarSkinz in. Works well, all in all
I've had mine almost two years. I listen at work M-F, 8am-11:30am, then let them recharge at lunch, then use them 1:00pm-4:00pm. So far, so issues.
How long do you think I have before the batteries start to degrade?
I had a call yesterday and the Airpods were beeping that they were dying at the 20min mark, and didn't make it to 30min on the call.
I love the form factor, and I just ordered the "new" Airpods, because I am hoping the battery life has improved - the old ones are basically a disposable item after the first year, from my experience.
> I love the form factor, and I just ordered the "new" Airpods, because I am hoping the battery life has improved - the old ones are basically a disposable item after the first year, from my experience.
The OP complained about battery life and the $200 "disposable" headphones he bought a year ago, but happily bought the next iteration, hence my comment.
Fool me once...
Also, OP said they purchased them in 2016 - not a year ago.
Even if they aren't, and I had to buy a pair every year, that's like 50 cents a day for something that I enjoy using (until the battery dies)
Most days, however, I don't have calls all day long, and I can just wear both no problem and not run into the low battery beep.
This afternoon I had a call while walking my dog.
It’s a new world.
Well, that and the fact that I'd definitely lose one in the first month of ownership.
I do use them for conference calls but I know they have limited capabilities. My 14 hour Jabra headset will do just fine and have noise cancellation.
If only. At this price, you have hundreds of options with much better sound quality
Give it a rest, Apple makes great hardware with great software. That's why people buy it, nothing to do with being cool.
Requirement: in-ear and no wires or over ear hook thing.
Like everything in life -- you use the right tool for the job.
If you're on a lot of conference calls, then you buy a headset or something else suited to that task. AirPods are not that item. They're for listening to music while running, or at work, and answering the occasional phone call.
I don't complain that my Hello Kitty-branded eeePC 701 can't run the latest AI framework.
If you want to do business, you buy a business tool.
Who's going to pay 30%-50% of a new version to replace his airpods or apple watch battery ? [0]
It's the same with all these hi tech gadgets relying on tiny glued/soldered batteries. You can't replace them yourself because it's either proprietary hardware or you need to literally break the product to get to the battery. And companies either don't offer replacements or charge insane amount of money for them.
Apple can boast all day long about ecology and using 100% recycled aluminium, at the end of the day they're shipping unfixable gadgets. [1][2] But it's thin and slick looking so I guess most people don't give a damn.
The first time I saw a bose QC25 with AA batteries I almost burst out laughing but it's actually much more convenient than proprietary battery packs. Compare that to the new QC35: > As you were correctly advised, battery replacement is not a service that is offered. [3]
We'll drown in these gadgets way before we drown due to the sea level rising.
[0] > Run through your battery, and it’ll likely cost you $138 to replace both year-old batteries, which is nearly the cost of a new pair.
https://www.inverse.com/article/49363-airpods-battery-warran...
[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Apple+Watch+Battery+Replacement...
[2] https://ifixit.org/blog/8690/airpods-are-disposable/
[3] https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/Bose-Quietc...
I really don't think that's the case. I was really quite tempted by them, but was put off by the lifespan.
Unserviceable laptop and cellphone batteries are terrible and apple is by far the biggest offender.
disclaimer: typed from a macbook :(
I have used them 5 days a week, for ~2 hours a day for almost the entirety of those 7 years, I charge them approximately once per month.
They cost £400 at the time and have been by far the best consumer electronic investment I have ever made. When the battery becomes unusable I'll find a replacement and fit it my self, but I have no plans to replace them until they are deader than dead.
I don't care much for "fashion" and they already have more features than I need (I use the physical switch to toggle off the NFC because I never need to use it), they do high enough quality audio (AAC/AptX) for streaming 320/16/44.1 and the battery life is better than any other battery powered device I own (barring the TV remote) even after all this time.
Honestly if you regularly write code in an open office like I suspect many here do; a serious, professional pair of headphones are one of the best things you can get. Wireless with active noise cancelling that are comfortable and have a robust battery life. The Sony model mentioned by another poster appear to be quite nice as well.
Smart management would make sure these things are available to their employees no questions asked.
My experience with this made me laugh. I had a company that had the right idea when they moved everyone to open floor plans; buy them "premium" headphones. The headphones they bought were expensive (valued around $150 new), but were utter garbage. I can't tell the difference audio between $5 earbuds, and $100 earbuds ... but I can tell when these beats headphones have the sizing for children. Nearly everyone ended up selling theirs and letting them collect dust.
I convinced my manager to get us all Bose headphones.
Several people from other teams (all of which had private offices) raised a stink to the CEO, who refused to approve the purchase, leaving my boss to foot the bill by himself.
https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/30055-49077-999-Air...
This is a metal-cased cell, like an AAA battery, only smaller. They could simply make the "stem" of the AirPod unscrew from the top to access the battery. They came up with an unserviceable design because they didn't want to, not because they couldn't. Think of things like quartz watches too --- they have just as small if not smaller dimensions, and yet you can still replace the batteries in them. (And if you think threads of that size are impossible for Apple... look at the few screws that hold iPhones together.)
I really, honestly believe that in a decade we're going to look back at AirPods as our generation's bell-bottoms. Only bell-bottomed trousers at least have some function: AirPods are a style & sustainability own goal.
0: https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/borneo_for...
First, the form factor of AirPods are integral to their function. There is no separating them. Wires are a major design tradeoff.
Also, the function (multiple actually) -- social communication, gaining knowledge, entertainment -- is of high importance to many. So even small improvements are valuable.
I really don't think you're understanding this correctly.
Even still, I ordered the new ones. The convenience is easily worth it for me since I am primarily in the Apple ecosystem.
[edit: Really? You guys expect 3 years life out of your socks and underwear too? If you use the hell out of it, even a wired pair that's a year old doesn't sound as good as a pair fresh out of the box.]
I'm surprised they don't want you to step foot in an Apple store anymore.
If you are concerned about wireless charging causing harm to living creatures due to radiation: yes there has been countless studies on the effects of (EM) radiation. There are also strict regulations about the use of EM radiation. [0] But since Qi wireless charging has such a weak low frequency radiation, and (mostly) magnetic coupling, I wouldn't worry about it.
If you are talking about fire/explosion safety: wireless charging will heat up the charging device slightly more than charging by cable due to a lower efficiency. The charging device usually monitors the battery temperature and may decide to stop charging if it exceeds a certain threshold. Some cheap devices (!= apple) may not implement this and overheat when charging, but this has little to do with the wireless aspect of charging.
If you are worried about electrical safety of the wireless chargers: they need to comply with safety regulations before they are allowed to be sold. [1]
[0] https://www.ices-emfsafety.org/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonant_inductive_coupling#Re...
I am a little disappointed in Apple for not adding storage to these though, it wouldn’t be very hard to add a few gigabytes to them and then they would work even without your phone and it would be the iPod all over again. Missed opportunity by Apple for sure.
As a shameless plug I am working on what I think is the perfect companion App for iPods. My app let’s you listen to any article by using some amazing sounding Machine Learning models to grab the articles and convert them to audio. You can check it out here if you like: https://articulu.com
Also commented on here, but the discussion seems to have split. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19441487
If Apple adds storage, they hopefully will do it in a way where it's easy to "cache" playlists or albums easily without having to manage files.
iFixit photos: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/XwBdUPqAmhHbWgWn.h... https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/1ZnAZMJBfmIxFr1f.h...
Headphones have existed since 1919. The Sony Walkman was released in 1979.
> I think people are far more on the go lately and so the AirPods are a perfect way to consume content, that isn’t just music and I do believe the big rise in Podcast consumption is very much due to their popularity.
What do AirPods add to content consumption, other than expense, ease of loss and charging cycles?
> My app let’s[sic] you listen to any article by using some amazing sounding Machine Learning models to grab the articles and convert them to audio.
I … I can't tell if this is satire or not. It's definitely Peak 2019.
If you want to listen to music/podcasts without a bulky phone in your pocket, you can use the watch. It allows you to sync music/podcasts to it.
Afaik other companies make similarly priced wireless buds with better sound quality and similar battery life.
You create the use case of needing extra range while charging the phone because audio over bluetooth significantly reduce the battery life in the first place. You shouldn't need to charge at the office even if you called non stop from 9 to 5.
Phone in pocket + wired headphones = unlimited range and > 20 hrs talk time.
Apple has successfully turned the airpods into a fashion/status symbol, which was their goal. "only smelly android users have headphones with a CORD"
Look on the back of the EarPods. It's attached to the cardboard carrier.
Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure iPhone XS didn’t come with this.
[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHUz99l-eo
If they bought Airpods they decided against using those headphones, getting a Lightning-headphone adapter to use with their favorite wired headphones, or buying any other type of bluetooth headphones.
It isn't often that we achieve a universal connector format with basically no downsides (how many iterations of USB have there been now?), but we actually accomplished it with the 1/8" audio jack, and it's exasperating to see that coordination equity be so "bravely" discarded.
I would just carry a lightning to headphone cord (not adapter) if I were still teaching.
A) used the included lightning headphones
B) used the lightning adapter that come with the iPhones until this year and are now $9.99 and used any other headphones
C) used third party lightning headphones
D) used any BT headphones.
No one was forced to buy $160 Airpods.
I didn’t buy them because they’re a “lifestyle”, I bought them because they’re the best on the market.
I'll wait.
https://youtu.be/o-SIreqSrIY
The reviews are not great for Bragi Dash headphones at that time either. I though people were just hating but it turns out the reviews were accurate in this case.
Some people enjoy being their own sysadmins and customizers. That's their lifestyle choice. Every product choice is a lifestyle choice.
Being deeply into buying "the most powerful technology," or "the most customizable technology" is also a lifestyle choice and tribal signalling choice.
There is no "I'm above choosing things for their lifestyle or tribe membership implications" position to take.
I LOVE them. Single-ear is the killer use for me, I used them bike commuting in my non-traffic ear, and i frequently listen to a podcast in just one ear. It sounds stupid, but it's SO much more convenient than having another bud dangling from a cord like I'd have to with the Jaybirds.
And the difference between a hard plastic case and a floppy vinyl carrying pouch is the difference between something that is part of my every day kit, in my pants pocket, and something that sits.. at home.. in a drawer, probably. Somewhere. I have no idea where, frankly.
I'm always surprised how many people haven't come to that conclusion.
A lot of this is very US-specific.
Also, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and all that.
Edit: Oh well the reference is almost 20 years old. I knew someone wouldn't know it.
https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...
AirPods sold 36 million units and everyone and their grandma got it on Christmas. They have been sold at most holidays.
I personally think this is one of the best device Apple has created in a long time. It’s not for everyone but once you get used to it, you won’t go anywhere without them.
They're literally best in class for the money.
So better if you talk on the phone a lot, the same if you don't.
Unfortunately it appears that USB-C will remain a Pro-only feature for the foreseeable future.
The battery on my first gen Airpods has deteriorated but this isn't the upgrade I was waiting for. I'll give the Galaxy buds a go or maybe even venture into the wireless noise-cancelling headphones category which has greatly improved since Airpods first launched
Citation needed?
Macbook batteries are designed for 100p cycles IIRC.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown...
The "old" airpods will work with the new wireless charging case, so that's not really much of an upgrade on the headphones themselves.
Looks like the only real upgrade is longer battery life. Always welcome, but still not drastically different. I was googling for airpods 2 release all this week, but now that I see it, I'm not sure if I want to go through the hassle of buying the new ones and liquidating my old ones. I probably will though. Maybe the slightly longer battery life will be worth it, and if I can disable "hey siri" I might be able to eek out just a bit longer battery life.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/09/reports-apple-airpow...
https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/19/latest-ios-12-2-beta-includes...
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/29/apple-cancels-airpower-pro...
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/29/apple-cancels-airpower-pro...
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/29/apple-cancels-airpower-pro...
They're making their money, but at least they're not also encouraging folks to throw out old tech that works just fine. (well, except for your old case, i guess :)
Compared to the Apple Earpods with either lightning or jack-cable I would describe the Airpods as having just slighty more bass in the sound and just slighty more volume. What they lack in audio quality compared to bulkier proper headphones they make up for with their amazing portability and convenience.
I don't know that they are worth $200, I thought $160 was pretty expensive when I got mine. But that seems to be the price range for premium bluetooth headphones.
Personally: I don't find any earbud-style headphone to be very good audio vise compared (my experience with them is also limited) as compared to headphones or speakers. I can wear them for a long time without feeling fatigued. In the first two weeks with the Airpods my ears became very sore after ~30min wearing them, despite being very accostumed to the Apple Earbuds, luckily that is not the case any more.
"We've got sooo much insanely great stuff to announce these great updates don't even make the cut."
I think the constant stream of updates is to ramp up anticipation for the main event.
Both are great for their use cases, but the best feature of the Sennheiser's that I miss on my airpods every day is the ability to adjust the volume and song by swiping on the outside of the ear cup. I realize that there are trade-off's when moving from a much larger pair of headphones to ear buds, but to me voice to adjust volume or change songs is a non-starter. I wish that Apple could figure out a way to include touch or manual controls to airpods and that alone would make me seriously think about upgrading. This update is a nothingburger. There's nothing about these that are exciting compared to the first gen. If they continued to sell the first gen for $20 less I would opt for them. I'm starting to think that the Apple naysayers are right.
You can’t adjust volume, which is a major limitation. But you can change songs with taps.
I strongly suspect you know this, but the way you wrote it is a bit ambiguous so I’m erring on the safe side and checking.
~xzibit
I’m probably going to use them till the batteries are too degraded and change to BT ANC headphones afterwards.
When I want quiet and music I switch to my Shure SE215's w/Bluetooth. Way better sound quality and with the foam earplug style earbuds they really block out the noise.
My wife was actively looking for something with active "pass thru" and tried a few headphones. I suspect (like you) she was expecting airpods to have more isolation because she's very happy with them.
I imagine your MBP supports different bluetooth specs and is slightly older. Since people upgrade their phones more often they tend to get these things first. Last month I got a loaner MBP and completely forgot my mouse requires BT4 and would work. I never tried airpods, but I suspect they either wouldn't work at all or be forced to use higher-powered, older BT protocols. I also remember hearing something about the mic being on in unexpected circumstances, killing battery life.
I don’t think the, “Hey Siri” is worth the upgrade.