1) Your link only mentions the magnets, nothing else in relation to rare earth elements.
2) Plastic is not recyclable in a lot of jurisdictions. Seattle stopped collecting it all together.
3) Most people will not ecycle things. Most people will just throw them in the trash instead of driving to a big box store to drop of headphones for ecycling.
3a) Sure, this behavior is common across electronics (being lazy, throwing away) but when you design an electrical device to never be repaired you are just making things worse.
Fine, consider the entire "cost" of manufacturing, shipping, etc. I'd wager my 1 pair of AirPods is hilariously tiny verses what some companies do in a hour if not a few minutes. Framing this as an environmental issue is just ridiculous. It's the same BS behind oil companies trying to convince people that not recycling is the big issue, not them.
Oh the humanity! I cannot take people like you seriously. I could by 100 pairs and still do considerably less damage than some companies do in the time it takes me to check out.
I’m holding on to my iPhone 6S until it dies irreparably, and would have probably bought a new iPhone by now otherwise, exclusively because all of my headphones are wired and I hate messing with bluetooth. But sure, great decision.
I've seen more people with wireless than wired headphones for many years now, there's been a couple of instances since I got my fairphone when I miss the headset jack, mostly in cars with old stereo systems. If I had a car like that I'd buy a Bluetooth DAC probably.
I'd bet that many (most?) people would plug their headphones into the adapter and leave it until the headphones or adapter failed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not for Apple or the adapter, but I'm not convinced by the adapter hate either. I do wish I could find Bluetooth devices that didn't suck, though.
Haha, I might be unreasonably amused by your rephrasing of the question.
The adapters (cheap, tiny copper cables) seem as sturdy or sturdier than many of the cables attached to headphones and ear buds (also cheap, tiny copper cables).
So maybe the question should have been "do they fail more frequently than the cables would themselves?"
I understand it. I was annoyed by the removal of the headphone jack at first. I have a pair of Sennheiser headphones with 3.5mm and I previously used the adapter with them. I didn’t notice any lower fidelity audio with them and leaving the tiny adapter on the 3.5mm jack didn’t really feel like I was carrying anything more around. I’ve replaced the headphone cable on my senns twice and it was never through use of the adapter(usually because I’d get up and pull my computer to the floor and it fell on the jack), plus the Sennheiser cables are like $30 vs $9 so I’d rather have the adapter fail. I did a sound test with my wife’s Bose QCs and they sounded the same or better than my wired Senns. Now I have my own pair and I don’t miss fucking around with wires at all.
> Audio quality of Apple Lightning to 3.5mm adapter (A1749) is almost as good as in-built mobile audio solutions by Apple, though it has slightly worse df-measurements. Mostly due to the higher jitter. But if you listen music you will not hear the difference; it is too subtle to be perceived.
Now argue to the risk of stepping outside your house.
Come on, the truth is almost none of us need to worry about this. To each their own and you get to pick what your balance of security and convenience but disabling bluetooth is a little too tin-foil-y for my tastes.
You know the vast majority of users don't care? No one is saying you should use AirPods as your monitors while you record but for listening to music/calls/podcasts/etc they work just fine.
And I'd argue the number of people who actually do have a "need" are stretching the definition of "need" to it's breaking point. Yes, if you need near-zero latency then AirPods might not be for you but that's a tiny segment of the population.
But in those cases you wouldn't want to use a 3.5 mm headphone jack even if your phone or computer had one. You'd want to use a digital interface such as Lightning or USB.
Music on a phone or computer is digital. To get analog output for the headphone jack the device includes a DAC to convert that digital audio to analog and probably analog amplifiers to get the analog signal to the right level. The quality of the DAC and the analog amplifiers chosen by the device maker place an upper limit on the quality of the audio.
To get the highest quality you want to be able to choose the DAC and amplifiers yourself.
That’s a joke. 7 years later I am still picking up headphones then remembering I can’t plug them in without going to find a dongle. If there was an iPhone with a headphone jack I would buy it.
I can’t imagine having to use a cord for a headset in 2022. My AirPods switch seamlessly between my Mac, iPad, Watch and MacBook. Cords her tangled, caught in things are horrible for running etc.
Not to mention that would I run and go to the gym with just my watch.
Cultural norms change. Everyone thought that the people were going to look silly and pretentious when the AirPods came out. Now it’s normal. The same with the Apple Watch.
What's funny is that I'm far from an Apple lover and I could be accused of being a shill for removing the headphone jack. I was initially skeptical, but it forced me onto bluetooth headsets which had come a long way up to that point. I listen to podcasts quite a lot, and I'd often snag the cord on door handles (it's amazing how catchy that cable could be), and audio quality isn't a huge factor. So overall it was a good change for me.
I feel the opposite about touchid if it matters. Honestly it seems forgotten, but I much prefer the intentionality of touching my phone in order to unlock it as well as having a physical home button.
2: I have many headphones with higher quality sound than earbuds can provide.
3: Bluetooth still kinda sucks, even after all this time.
4: Bluetooth is subject to denial of service, security concerns.
5: Apple's purpose with the decision was to increase revenue, that is all. You all are now paying $$$ for headphones with batteries, etc. onboard, and they no longer had to implement an audio amp or jack. win for apple, not the consumer.
It's salty because it's made up worry. What does CarPlay have to do with DRM? DRM isn't mentioned once in that link and I have no clue what point you are trying to make.
Can you play your own purchased music easily with an aux cable like we've been doing for decades? People have been making mix tapes for 40 years. Now you can't do that unless you listen to the track of the day and the promo for the new arsenal of podcasts, and did you know that french fries taste good and they are 300 meters to your west?
I want to listen to what I want to listen to. They want us to listen to what is most profitable.
DRM keeps me from playing my files. It treats them like viruses. It extends the walled garden to choose what art I'm allowed to appreciate.
It's not rights management, it's restriction. The name is a lie.
If you put your music in the Music app or any other app that supports CarPlay you can play it. CarPlay is not required, it's always an "also" in cars. You can always Bluetooth to the car or buy a car that has an aux port. I'm thoroughly confused as to why you think CarPlay is DRM or what that has to do with Bluetooth in this discussion.
I am a simple man. I play a track. That track is played. No commercials, no promos, no greyed out tracks because of licensing issues. I press stop. The sound stops. The toolset is cheaper. It lasts longer. It sounds better. It's a standard that works with a wide span of devices. There's no security risks. There's no hijacking the attention span.
What world are you living in where Apple Music (subscription or just the app with your own tracks) or something like a paid Spotify subscription don't give you this? We can ignore the subscription and look just at the Apple Music app which supports DRM-free music without issue, has no commercials, no promos, no licensing issues. You are describing an experience that everyone can have today, using CarPlay, using Apple Music or any other music playing app that has CarPlay support. At worse just skip CarPlay and Bluetooth or Aux-in to your car (with the dongle).
Well, for one, there's no hole anymore to plug in these perfectly good headphones. For two, I didn't need an internet connection to play local files. Three, I didn't need 3 different battery emplacements, one was sufficient. Four, I don't have to leave my front door unlocked to look out the window (bluetooth attack surface). Five - Spotify and probably apple music inject content I don't want to listen to, don't respect my shuffle choices, and sell everything I listen to and linger on to anyone with a cent and a pulse. Six - My headphones will last at least an order of magnitude longer than your AirPods. Seven - When i open up my stock music player, it won't need to 'update' (where updates are acutally prebuffered crap (remember that U2 album?) and title cards and features I do not require for my application experience.
There's a reason Apple stopped making the iPod. It wasn't for your benefit. It was to monetize your habits, and enslave your consumer urges. I know people who have lost 5 digit music collections, because Apple just paved over them, knowing they'd line right up to buy it all over again.
> 2: I have many headphones with higher quality sound than earbuds can provide.
Then use the dongle
> 3: Bluetooth still kinda sucks, even after all this time.
Then use the dongle
> 4: Bluetooth is subject to denial of service, security concerns.
Ok suuurrreee, then use the dongle
> 5: Apple's purpose with the decision was to increase revenue, that is all. You all are now paying $$$ for headphones with batteries, etc. onboard, and they no longer had to implement an audio amp or jack. win for apple, not the consumer.
Or you could, you know, use the dongle. Literally everyone I know that has AirPods loves them and wouldn't consider going back to wired.
The culture of "Apple Knows Best" died years ago. People are realizing the lightening port and removing the Jack isn't innovation--it's just a cash grab.
At some point there needs to be some sympathy for consumer preferences. I'm an Apple customer due to the bloat/clunkiness of their competitors rather than an appreciation for Apple itself.
Wired headphones suck for 90%+ of the population. We can talk about the cost of AirPods but they are objectively better in most all situations.
I was a hold-out on the AirPods having using bluetooth headphones before and hated them but I got AirPods as a gift and almost immediately fell in love. Way easier to carry (no tangled wires, and yes, I knew how to wind them up but that wasn't always foolproof), super easy to pop in your ears for a few minutes or a few hours, and no cables to get in your way.
I lost my original AirPods (or they were stolen) and I decided to just use the wired headphones while I continued to hope they would turn up. WIthin 2 days I had an order placed for a new AirPods because wired headphones are a huge step backwards (wires get caught on things and tug at your ears when you extend too far).
I generally find audiophiles to be nearly completely full of shit when it comes to "audio quality" and while I know bluetooth doesn't allow for the highest quality possible it's well past "good enough".
Ahem. On headphones
Pros:
- Not bound to an insecure protocol.
- Compatible with jacks a century old.
- Decent headphones can cost as low as 5EUR on a convenience store and still sound better than most of BT headphones
Cons: You can't do jogging fine, but you have tiny and cheap media players with clips easily attached to the neck of your T-shirt.
If I use the same pair of headphones paired to my work computer and my phone, I cannot unlock and look at my phone without it taking over.
I have "solved" this by having three pairs of headphones. #1 paired to my phone. Used for my commute. #2 left at work, paired with the computer. #3 left at home, paired with the computer when I'm WFH.
It gets expensive/old pretty fast. Also a lot of charging needs to be done.
Apple charges more for less and their users line up to pay instead of walking away.
As long as this keeps happening, Apple will keep taking away and
gouging their users.
People are stupid and gullible so I think Apple is doing the right thing here - fleece the sheep while they keep coming.
The main downside is that other companies observe this behaviour and try to emulate it but that doesn't work because people who avoid Apple probably don't want to pay premium for substandard products so these companies die of and there is less and less competition and innovation in the market so we are left with Apple and Samsung $1200 phones/tablets instead of decent XYZ brand devices for more reasonable price - say $300-$500.
So, I guess there is no possibility that their hundreds of millions of customers recognize that they are paying more for more? I guess all of us are just idiots. Markets don't work that way. Over time unsatisfied customers change the market dynamic. That hasn't happened. Perhaps you should reevaluate your criteria for determining "more" and "less" in terms of product value to the consumer.
Markets work by way of hype. Among that artificially creating the impression of wanted hotness, by hiring student extras camping in front of the store, which opens the next day.
I love having AirPods Pro. Super easy, seems to just work™. Where I have issues with connecting to vehicles.
I have a pickup truck that has bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack. The problem is that when I start the truck, it takes about a minute for it to connect to my iPhone. While it's connecting, it's playing FM radio extremely loud. It's gotten to the point now where I just gave up on bluetooth and use a permanent dongle to 3.5mm just so that I don't have to deal with bluetooth.
Bluetooth headphones are good != Apple was right to remove the jack
There is no reason to remove a feature that works perfectly and is invaluable in some situations. Bluetooth headphones will never be sufficient for music performance, audio production, and rhythm games, for example. And it's not like Apple shies away from features that affect only a tiny portion of their userbase, such as Lockdown Mode.
76 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 163 ms ] threadBut we aren't asking any end users in the article, because screw them, right?
Anything that enables the environmental irresponsibility of AirPods is only "right" from the perspective of the shareholder.
Certainly not the species.
There are rare earth minerals in the speaker drivers.
And use 100% recycled rare earth elements according to the tech specs https://support.apple.com/kb/SP856?viewlocale=en_US&locale=e...
2) Plastic is not recyclable in a lot of jurisdictions. Seattle stopped collecting it all together.
3) Most people will not ecycle things. Most people will just throw them in the trash instead of driving to a big box store to drop of headphones for ecycling.
3a) Sure, this behavior is common across electronics (being lazy, throwing away) but when you design an electrical device to never be repaired you are just making things worse.
"It would cost more than it's worth to like... break it apart, to open it up, and replace the battery" (because we designed them that way)
Have you ever heard of planned obsolescence?
To your second point, the problem isn't that they come from recycled. The problem is that they won't be recycled again.
And that's not even addressing the issue of the charging curves of lithium batteries that make those batteries fail sooner than they should.
Spare me. Companies are busy dumping waste all over this planet and you want me to care about something the size of 2 grapes?
Now they should have lower fidelity audio, and/or more shit to carry around and fiddle with, and/or fail unexpectedly when least needed?
You actually can't understand the consumer side of this? Or just like Apple?
I'd bet that many (most?) people would plug their headphones into the adapter and leave it until the headphones or adapter failed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not for Apple or the adapter, but I'm not convinced by the adapter hate either. I do wish I could find Bluetooth devices that didn't suck, though.
How long have you been sampling the electronics market?, heh
The adapters (cheap, tiny copper cables) seem as sturdy or sturdier than many of the cables attached to headphones and ear buds (also cheap, tiny copper cables).
So maybe the question should have been "do they fail more frequently than the cables would themselves?"
Like most things audiophiles say: I call bullshit.
http://soundexpert.org/articles/-/blogs/audio-quality-of-lig...
> Audio quality of Apple Lightning to 3.5mm adapter (A1749) is almost as good as in-built mobile audio solutions by Apple, though it has slightly worse df-measurements. Mostly due to the higher jitter. But if you listen music you will not hear the difference; it is too subtle to be perceived.
Come on, the truth is almost none of us need to worry about this. To each their own and you get to pick what your balance of security and convenience but disabling bluetooth is a little too tin-foil-y for my tastes.
I'm guessing no.
(it's probably better than BT, but nothing beats a hard line)
There are use cases for audio where "good enough" is simply not sufficient. You may never have need for these use cases.
And I'd argue the number of people who actually do have a "need" are stretching the definition of "need" to it's breaking point. Yes, if you need near-zero latency then AirPods might not be for you but that's a tiny segment of the population.
Music on a phone or computer is digital. To get analog output for the headphone jack the device includes a DAC to convert that digital audio to analog and probably analog amplifiers to get the analog signal to the right level. The quality of the DAC and the analog amplifiers chosen by the device maker place an upper limit on the quality of the audio.
To get the highest quality you want to be able to choose the DAC and amplifiers yourself.
Nothing about Bluetooth, which seems to be buggy, insecure, widely-poorly-implemented..mWiFi's bastard-child.
As for Bluetooth, especially when talking about the AirPods, it works just fine for vast majority of use cases normal people have.
Not to mention that would I run and go to the gym with just my watch.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Lobot
There’s something retro and cool about cords.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bluetool
"Apple was right all along, says Apple"
I feel the opposite about touchid if it matters. Honestly it seems forgotten, but I much prefer the intentionality of touching my phone in order to unlock it as well as having a physical home button.
2: I have many headphones with higher quality sound than earbuds can provide.
3: Bluetooth still kinda sucks, even after all this time.
4: Bluetooth is subject to denial of service, security concerns.
5: Apple's purpose with the decision was to increase revenue, that is all. You all are now paying $$$ for headphones with batteries, etc. onboard, and they no longer had to implement an audio amp or jack. win for apple, not the consumer.
Do you have a real example of this? Because this sounds like BS.
I want to listen to what I want to listen to. They want us to listen to what is most profitable.
DRM keeps me from playing my files. It treats them like viruses. It extends the walled garden to choose what art I'm allowed to appreciate.
It's not rights management, it's restriction. The name is a lie.
If you put your music in the Music app or any other app that supports CarPlay you can play it. CarPlay is not required, it's always an "also" in cars. You can always Bluetooth to the car or buy a car that has an aux port. I'm thoroughly confused as to why you think CarPlay is DRM or what that has to do with Bluetooth in this discussion.
You do you, man.
There's a reason Apple stopped making the iPod. It wasn't for your benefit. It was to monetize your habits, and enslave your consumer urges. I know people who have lost 5 digit music collections, because Apple just paved over them, knowing they'd line right up to buy it all over again.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/analog-last-defense-ag...
edit: removed unnecessary words.
Then use the dongle
> 2: I have many headphones with higher quality sound than earbuds can provide.
Then use the dongle
> 3: Bluetooth still kinda sucks, even after all this time.
Then use the dongle
> 4: Bluetooth is subject to denial of service, security concerns.
Ok suuurrreee, then use the dongle
> 5: Apple's purpose with the decision was to increase revenue, that is all. You all are now paying $$$ for headphones with batteries, etc. onboard, and they no longer had to implement an audio amp or jack. win for apple, not the consumer.
Or you could, you know, use the dongle. Literally everyone I know that has AirPods loves them and wouldn't consider going back to wired.
/s
At some point there needs to be some sympathy for consumer preferences. I'm an Apple customer due to the bloat/clunkiness of their competitors rather than an appreciation for Apple itself.
I was a hold-out on the AirPods having using bluetooth headphones before and hated them but I got AirPods as a gift and almost immediately fell in love. Way easier to carry (no tangled wires, and yes, I knew how to wind them up but that wasn't always foolproof), super easy to pop in your ears for a few minutes or a few hours, and no cables to get in your way.
I lost my original AirPods (or they were stolen) and I decided to just use the wired headphones while I continued to hope they would turn up. WIthin 2 days I had an order placed for a new AirPods because wired headphones are a huge step backwards (wires get caught on things and tug at your ears when you extend too far).
I generally find audiophiles to be nearly completely full of shit when it comes to "audio quality" and while I know bluetooth doesn't allow for the highest quality possible it's well past "good enough".
Maybe ask yourself why you're so unwilling to be wrong?
Perhaps sunk cost fallacy?
Cons: You can't do jogging fine, but you have tiny and cheap media players with clips easily attached to the neck of your T-shirt.
I have "solved" this by having three pairs of headphones. #1 paired to my phone. Used for my commute. #2 left at work, paired with the computer. #3 left at home, paired with the computer when I'm WFH.
It gets expensive/old pretty fast. Also a lot of charging needs to be done.
I have a pickup truck that has bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack. The problem is that when I start the truck, it takes about a minute for it to connect to my iPhone. While it's connecting, it's playing FM radio extremely loud. It's gotten to the point now where I just gave up on bluetooth and use a permanent dongle to 3.5mm just so that I don't have to deal with bluetooth.
There is no reason to remove a feature that works perfectly and is invaluable in some situations. Bluetooth headphones will never be sufficient for music performance, audio production, and rhythm games, for example. And it's not like Apple shies away from features that affect only a tiny portion of their userbase, such as Lockdown Mode.