AirPods are now available
apple.com
apple.com
"AirPods introduce an effortless wireless listening experience packed with high-quality audio and long battery life. These magical wireless headphones use advanced technology to reinvent how we listen to music, make phone calls, enjoy TV shows and movies, play games and interact with Siri, providing a wireless audio experience not possible before."
Magical. Reinvent. Not possible before.
None of these words applies.
[Of course, I say this as someone who has been happily using wireless Jaybird earbuds with a variety of iOS and macOS devices for the past three years without many complaints. I won't be buying the AirPods since pairing problems have not been an issue for me.]
https://www.bose.com/en_us/support/article/pairing-a-bluetoo...
"Touch the devices and they will pair".
That's what makes the pairing more than just NFC (you're right, that's been around for years).
Hopefully it's implemented well. My Text Message Forwarding still lists:
- iPhone
- iPhone (2)
- iPhone (3)
- iPhone (4)
- iPad
- iPad (2)
etc, et al. Note that I don't own four iPhones, I've just upgraded over time. I have to play a guessing game as to "Which MacBook Pro is the one sitting in front of me?"
As much as I've also become an apple hater recently because of what they've done to iOS10 and the new macbook pro, I think criticizing a marketing copy for being a marketing copy is not fair.
I guess people don't like changes to the things they've grown accustomed to.
I'm not in love with "click to unlock" either, although the 7 makes it bearable with raise-to-wake (it's just stupid on my 6, though).
However, more and more I'm running into things that are just stupid or buggy or both.
The TV app is the latest annoyance. All our purchases are under my wife's account, and there seems to be no way to view family sharing purchases with the app.
I'm using a beta of iOS and I keep hoping it'll be added, but this is the seventh beta I think, and I've pretty much given up.
Trust me I used to be one of those people who would say the same thing you're saying. I was like "What's the big deal? These people just don't like change. They'll get used to it."
Except that you don't anymore.
The reason I hate these changes is because things just don't work smoothly and disrupt your workflow, not to mention the UI being messy design-wise (I have NEVER complained about Apple's design changes ever since the first iPhone).
And this is all because of the new features they introduced they're trying to shove down user's throats. Most of these features are built to satisfy Apple's agenda instead of making it easier for users to use. Just read what others have already said, these are features built for Apple, not for users.
You're assuming all changes are progress. They are not.
Ridiculous, right?
I'm now seeing the 10.2 update available, but it hasn't (yet) been downloaded; if a day goes by and it still isn't, then I'd have to say I owe you a beer, or several, for pointing me at a way to relieve what was getting to be a real pain in the neck. (Although why I failed to find this clue for myself is a curious question in its own right - it's certainly not for want of looking! In any case, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to point it out.)
So yes, ridiculous..
On the other hand, I'm increasingly sure I have never had automatic updates enabled on this device, yet I had the iOS 10 update downloaded regardless. Perhaps I forgot having done that by hand, or perhaps the setting doesn't apply to OS updates; in any case, time will tell.
Thanks again! That was really getting on my nerves.
1) Unlock process: When the fingerprint reader fails it now takes several presses on the home key to get a keypad to pop up so I can input my code. With previous versions I could just swipe when I knew the fingerprint reader would fail (e.g. wet hands).
2) App updates: When apps are updating on my phone it decides it really wants to stay on the home screen. I can swipe to get to the other screens, but it goes back before I can tap any apps. Also, when I can get into an app they tend to lag and crash more when updates are happening in the background.
3) Control Center (bottom menu): Trying to slide the brightness or volume controls on the control center menus usually gets interpreted as a swipe to the next control menu. I have to be very precise when touching them for the sliders to actually work.
4) Safari: Auto-hide of the control buttons does help page visibility, but showing them seems to be glitchy as hell. They appear and then disappear before I can move my finger to tap them.
5) Crashes: At least daily now the whole phone crashes to a black screen and then comes back to the lock screen a few seconds later. Seems to involve location services.
Also, not exactly iOS 10, but the new Watch OS completely broke the usability of the Weather app for me. Something that was fairly intuitive and useful is now cumbersome and basically useless to me.
3 was allegedly fixed in iOS 10.2, which just came out.
A friend has a 16gb iPhone and has managed to deal with that little space until just recently. She'd run out of space completely, I'd hand-update apps one-at-a-time trying to free up temp download space. Deleted her local music. A few weeks later deleted her local photos. iMessage claimed 1gb of space, it's a little opaque and manual to clean delete things. I finally convinced her to delete all messages older than 1 year. She got 500mb back. The next day her phone was full again without an obvious reason. Backed up her phone and restored. Everything seems to be there and now she has 5+gb free.
I was having the battery issue they're fixing the 6s for. Because I knew they'd ask I restored my phone (and grabbed yesterdays update because that had a fix related to this, too). It seems to be fixed as well by restoring.
...but all of this is souring me on Apple. I wish I was more confident about other options.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/out-of-space-on-your-iphone-try-...
However, in my case had I tried this and it didn't work.
Also I've found that apple music CONSTANTLY loses my place if I pause my music for more than a couple minutes. This never used to happen with the old music app.
They are pushing this new notification thing which is pretty out of touch with how people actually use the phone--they think interacting directly from the notification is how people want to use it, when most people feel claustrophobic and would rather see the whole thing before making any action--and because of this, it introduces another step for people who just want to open the app and do the damn work
I like interacting with the notification instead of losing context to respond to some message.
the current version supposedly fixes the battery drain (not sure about the shutdown bug) but introduced a bug into another app that i use and don't want to risk upgrading for either.
and this is the problem. apple charges premium prices but their software has gotten sloppy. macos and ios10 included. i upgraded to the latest macos version, sierra, and my escape key would not work for some reason (i was using vim and ended up doing ctrl-c? to activate) then i find out that killing siri on mac would fix the problem. then i found out a couple days later that their new macbook pro would not have an escape key. gee i wonder why they never caught this bug in testing?
Check here: https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/
I checked there and my phone is eligible for the battery replacement.
my original's lcd screen had the touch disease, since it was just inside warranty they "replaced" it by just giving me a new phone.
the replacement died within a week. serious wtf. so i went in and got yet another one.
this one has been fine, mostly. but i'm probably not going to get a iphone for my next device. not saying no other devices do this but that touch disease should be fixed even if you're outside warranty and not be charged with the $329 it cost. my original phone was susceptible to it and only by sheer "luck" did it happen within my warranty.
Brand new mbp on 10.11.6. Opening new tabs in safari then cmd-L to put focus in the location bar would beachball safari for multiple seconds.
The solution after much debugging was to disable com.apple.imklaunchagent
These lazy engineers really should be ashamed of themselves. This was an out of box install on a brand new laptop on their browser with minimal 3rd party software installed (chrome, brew, intellij, but nothing that should interfere with the os.) I wasted 5 free hours trying to make the damn browser work.
- Photos. Wtf is the distinction between 'photos' and 'albums'. Why does Photos pretend to be a chronological hierarchy of Year -> Month -> Day but then drop to Tumblr style 'related' links, while Memories contain your grouped photos in any order, but so does Albums. Albums also try to dynamically group things by 'location' and 'selfies' and 'video' and 'camera roll'. Oh, they're all showing the same thing - the last thing I recorded? Useful. It's a complete mess and super frustrating to use.
- The changes to take and send photos in iMessage. Used to be that taking a photo meant pressing and holding the photo button, sliding up to take a video. Now it's more steps, and the camera shutter button is awkwardly at the bottom of the screen, then there's another slider to the left to reveal another camera button, to switch to the camera app, to take a video. More steps for everything, which also displaces 'insert a previously taken photo'. Who benefits?
- Video editing (trim) was glitchy in iOS9 and still is in iOS 10. Seriously, take photo, play with trim, randomly the video stops changing with the slider position, then the screen goes black, have to task-end the Photos app and try again. Video playback in Safari, also glitchy - pause somewhere, or skip forwards, get it playing from the start at 10x framerate (or more) with no audio, to 'catch up' to the new seek location. Seeking is still fiddly and often doesn't work well.
- Still need to care about WiFi vs. Cellular because "we changed our App icon to a Christmas one" still means tens or hundreds of download.
...though I cringe to think of the pressure at this time of year to release a product whose quality is not yet vetted by early adopters.
A pair of headphones a month later than they should be that look exactly like their old headphones
Because it IS an entry into a nascent market. Apple sees this as a new IO device, not a "pair of fucking headphones".
Take a look at the specs
There are not many wireless earbuds in this form-factor / category.
The AirPods honestly do seem like a somewhat unique entry into the market to me, but it's such a crowded market that I could have easily missed a competitor somewhere.
That said, the lack of any sort of wiring is actually a negative to me, because that's primarily what makes it seem like these will be so easy to lose.
https://www.amazon.com/Bragi-Truly-Wireless-Smart-Earphones/...
And eh, I realize that Apple almost never goes below MSRP/list, but don't act like the "after $50 off" is some special promotion. It's not a rebate, even an instant one, just 'cheaper than list'.
In reality, the only thing close costs markedly more, not at MSRP but at real selling price.
There's a reality distortion field, but it's inverted.
Not hilarious, just tedious.
Motorola VerveOnes - $150
SmartOmi Boots Mini - $75
Rowkin Bit Stereo - $110
Rowkin Mini Plus - $60
Sol Republic Amps Air - $150
Your lack of awareness of the market does not mean that it does not exist. It is not helpful to pretend that your unwillingness to do simple research on the matter makes you an expert.
I will now predict your next objections:
"I don't like these companies"
"These are not exactly the same product"
"The colors are off"
"The Apple Store doesn't carry them"
Even Reddit finds more plausible comps:
- Samsung Gear IconX ($200) 4GB of on-board storage+, fitness tracking+ -- 1.6 Hours
- Motorola VerveOnes ($200) Can look up last connected location if lost+ -- 2-3 Hours
- Bragi Dash ($300) Fitness tracking+, gesture control+, 4GB storage+, Audio passthrough+ -- 4 Hours
- Bragi Headphone ($150) Hardware buttons+, no case charging or BLE -- 6 Hours
- Earin M-1 ($200) claims good sound quality+, no mics- -- 3 Hours
- Jabra Elite Sport ($250) Fitness tracking+, waterproof+ -- 3 Hours
- Apple Airpods ($160) W1 Chip to quickly switch devices+, Can use either headphone independently+, 24 add hrs of charge in case, only comes in one size- -- 5 Hours
I'm not sure your list is made of nice things:
- "Sol Republic Amps Air Are Truly Wireless Earbuds That Kind of Suck" http://gizmodo.com/sol-republic-amps-air-are-truly-wireless-...
- "Review: Apple AirPods Are Pretty F--king Cool" http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/review-apple-airpods-are...
But it's irrelevant. You can say "apple's product is better." You can say "these other products are terrible." You can even say "I hate everything that is not from Cupertino." But the claim here is that these things are some kind of revolution. The claim we are trying to rebut is not "apple airpods suck and are not worth buying." I, and many others, are merely explaining that there is nothing magical or even particularly new about airpods. They are an iteration on an existing product segment.
You, so far, have done nothing to demonstrate otherwise.
Apple might have executed particularly well, but I see his point.
The problem with the MBP is its 10 hours of a 'light workload'. And it meets that. But a HEAVY workload may be 4 hours and they don't advertise that.
I don't remember reviewers saying anything bad about battery life on the AirPods back in October.
Let's wait to see what real world use looks like. I mean, if you take the emoji touch bar at face value it's the coolest thing since sliced bread. However, real world use indicates that it might not be as useful as Apple wants it to be.
The problem here is that Apple hasn't given numbers about what it's like under heavy load. Or really any load it all. If you stick to doing the kind of things Apple does in their battery life test you WILL get what they say.
Unfortunately as we seem to be finding out if you go outside of that you're screwed. Obviously harder workloads always hit the computer more, but this year the delta seems much much higher. They are cherry picking tests that make their battery life look reasonable.
I should also note that this is not the first time Apple did this. The quoted battery life on the iPhone 7 is basically the same as before, but they made a slight change to the wording. This year there tests are all with wireless headphones. This is likely because it's always been down that using the speaker on an iPhone to listen to music will lower your battery life pretty significantly, and now that the new iPhone 7 has a double speaker arrangement it's likely an even bigger effect than before.
Apples not lying like so many PC makers used to do, they're playing lawyer games and choosing their words incredibly carefully.
This is not a good turn. Apple giving real life accurate battery estimates used to be one of the things that put them above PC makers in my mind. If they're going to start redefining the workload to doing nothing on your computer... why bother?
Wireless headphones that "work well" don't cost $20. And especially in this form factor (separate).
They could absolutely be better, if for example, the charge lasted two weeks, or the sound was higher quality (I'm no audiophile but I'm sure if I was I'd find they could be better) but they're Good Enough.
> Because it IS an entry into a nascent market. Apple sees this as a new IO device, not a "pair of fucking headphones".
It really is just a pair of headphones. This isn't a new market.
Hope this answers your question.
I've had a set of $25 Motorola wireless (Bluetooth) headphones that I use on my daily walking commute to and from work for many years. They work and sound great. They double as a wireless microphone and playback controls. I charge them every day via a USB cable. Woohoo.
I can't see anything specs-wise with the Apple headphones that is interesting. Auto-pause? Okay, cool, but I can press the pause button on my Bluetooth headphones from 2010. Switching between devices? I can enable or disable Bluetooth on my devices, I guess, if I had wanted to use the headphones with more than my phone (though I do not want that).
These new features seem incremental at best. The clamor for these—and the fact that their availability is a high-ranking news item on HN—seems to suggest I am missing something very fundamental. And yet, it feels that I am not. These are wireless headphones with a couple incremental features and an Apple logo.
Auto-mono: I guess I see some people listening in only one ear sometimes, but that's not my way of listening to music or podcasts. The cheap Motorola headphones I use are traditional "headphones" and not earbuds. I prefer headphones over earbuds. But even if I used earbuds, I'm not interested in single-ear listening.
Carrying case: This is a big deal? On my walks, I "carry" my headphones on my ears. When I get home, I charge via a USB cable.
Whatever; I suppose I don't begrudge anyone for being excited by Apple headphones. I just find the hype level amusing and silly.
They're from ~2009 or thereabouts. Traditional headphone form factor. Works great for my use case (pedestrian commutes to and from the office).
That said, I'm not a fan of earbuds, wired or otherwise. So whether removing the bridge wire is a revolution is lost on me since I'm not interested either way.
The whole point of the brand is that you're getting a quality, consistent product.
But I understand you. If you've not previously used wireless headphones and you're satisfied with Apple quality, this new offering is a known quantity. I'm still not really feeling the innovation. Except of course, as someone pointed out, this is a subtle redefinition of "wireless" to mean not just removing the wire to the device, but also any bridge between the two ears. For me, that bridge isn't something I care to remove. But okay, that's cool.
They're tiny, they pair to multiple devices trivially, and are well designed. They're one of the big reasons Apple is supposed to have removed the headphone jack off the iPhone 7. "You don't need it, let us show you why" kind of thing.
The other reason is that this is releasing MONTHS LATE. It was supposed to be released at the end of October, now it's coming out end of December. That's HUGE.
When was the last time Apple screwed up the launch of something big like this? The biggest one people can recall is the white iPhone 4 which basically released 9 months late. At that point most people just waited the extra 4-5 months for the iPhone 4s.
Ignoring that they're neat little headphones, this is big news today because APPLE SHIPPED LATE. That just doesn't happen. Maybe quantities are low (Apple watch), but not a flat out delay on a major product after announcing a release date.
It's months late, it's still not here yet, AND there's a "big" warning on the page that even when it is here it will only be in limited quantities and that prospective buyers are "advised" to check online for stocking levels... very un-Apple.
I believe modern Bluetooth headphones are indistinguishable from equivalent non-Bluetooth headphones. If you can tell whether headphones are Bluetooth or not—the other components being equal—then you have particularly acute hearing. And if that's you, then you are probably a FLAC aficionado.
For what it's worth, I listen to MP3s on Bluetooth headphones and they sound great.
(Though to be clear, I've not actually researched the bit rate of Bluetooth, though I suspect it's high enough for 44 KHz stereo. To my ears, Bluetooth is indistinguishable from an analog 3.5mm connection.)
Again, that's my point. Bluetooth has a undeserved/outdated bad reputation for adversely affecting audio. I contend that, all else being equal, I could not distinguish a modern Bluetooth wireless headphone from a wired headphone.
Yes, as you point out, they also need a DAC. So I will clarify my contention: all else being equal, I could not distinguish a Bluetooth wireless headphone from a wired USB headphone that uses the same DAC.
The effective remaining bandwidth fell far short of what the default Bluetooth codec, SBC, required. SBC was already pretty low end, more like MPEG Layer-1 audio. Even so, for point to point streaming if the devices cooperated well there was enough bandwidth for fairly good audio quality. It's just that it was a crapshoot what any pair of devices would get you.
The other big issue is that there wasn't, at least at the time, any standardized method for synchronizing the audio sampling rates of the source and sink. This could have been achieved by slaving the audio PLL to the connection master's frequency hopping clock, which the slave has to follow to even maintain a connection, but there wasn't any requirement to do so. Plus it'd be a massive layer violation in the Bluetooth stack. We basically ran a software PLL on the sink side to try to match what the source was giving us, but packet retransmissions due to loss could gum up the timing. You could get a pitch-bending effect as a connection was starting up, or had just suffered a lot of loss.
I imagine they've sorted most of that out by now.
I think they have. Giving some leeway to my bluetooth Motorola headphones since they are super-aural, to my ears—and I feel I am fairly picky—they are not significantly worse than my circumaural Sennheiser HD 380 pros on my workstation. I suspect the principal reason I feel my circumaural headphones sound a bit better is simply that they are circumaural.
Just go grab a pair of BT headphones with aptX support and you should be fine. Unless you are a tube amp and $1.5k headphone kind of person - then you most definitely aren't in the target segment.
A few features that make them new/innovative:
• Smart switching between multiple devices logged into iCloud. You need only pair with one of your iCloud devices and the rest will auto pair.
• Auto-pause when removed from ears.
• Auto-mono when only one is in your ear.
• Carrying case that charges them rapidly and keeps them safe in your pocket.
Edit: I said AirPods when I meant EarPods (the current wired ones). I don't currently have the AirPods.
Edit 2: Another reason I'm excited about these: I absolutely abhor talking on the phone (like holding the phone up to my ear) and find single ear bluetooth devices to be lame in both function and appearance. I might be a smidge hard of hearing, so I much prefer to have both ears in on the action. I've tried a handful of Bluetooth headsets in the past, and they've all left me seriously wanting. Connectivity isn't consistent. Audio quality isn't great. If something doesn't just work like my wired headphones, I'm not going to switch. If these turn out to have the same issues, I'll gladly report how inaccurate Apple's marketing was and how disappointed I am.
http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/voyager-legend-case
(I know that this product is not specifically music-oriented, but the operation principle is there still).
This Plantronics case isn't that great. You have to open it with two hands in front of you, and carefully place the awkwardly shaped headset in. You probably have to look at it while doing so. It's rather large, and the clear plastic cover looks like it can break pretty easily. It's also only one ear, and it's a $30 accessory.
The AirPods can be opened one-handed while in your pocket, and you can place them in without looking. They're also smaller, the case looks quite a bit more durable, and they work with the charger you already have as an iPhone user (lightning). The AirPods and case were designed with a broader UX scope - the entire user experience, from opening to listening to putting away - as one unified product.
The process that most hardware teams typically take is more narrowly focused on the core product hardware, rather than the entire scope of its use. If Plantronics had designed their headset with a broader UX scope in mind, they probably would have designed the headset itself differently, because its awkwardly shaped and hard to store. Instead I imagine they optimized the headset design for solely when its on-ear, and then asked how they could make a case for that shape. Such are the little differences that distinguish between regular products and category-defining ones (see also: iPod with iTunes).
I've got a pair of Bose QC 35s and though their pairing experience is standard annoying bluetooth pairing, their support of multiple devices/easily switching between them is the best I've seen in bluetooth headphones I've purchased. The AirPods are, apparently, comparable to the Bose in this regard, with a better onboarding experience.
From who? They're not available, not even any pre-release reviews around.
I'm probably not switching soon because I love my Atomic Floyd's sound quality (don't get me started on their customer service) but I'm just curious how they did with the sound quality aspect, which feels like the most important thing to me.
I've never been able to use the traditional wired Apple earbuds because my ear is too small and they start hurting after 5-10 mins of use.
Then at some point the design of the earphone changed and I had the same problem as you ever since:-( I was quite disappointed at the time
Genuine feature, and a neat one at that. Previously I had to rely on stuff like NFC or saved pairs, which is still more than 1 pair.
>• Auto-pause when removed from ears.
Also a genuine feature. Takes some real thinking to make that a priority in the UX.
>• Auto-mono when only one is in your ear.
Is that really a feature? I mean I guess that's cool, but it seems like a play on the previous feature sensing if in use or not.
>• Carrying case that charges them rapidly and keeps them safe in your pocket.
This is a necessity rather than a feature per say.
Wired headphones don't need to be charged. Wireless headphones with a headphone port for backup also don't require a charge.
Most modern headphones are a single unit, so they don't need a case to be kept from getting lost.
That said, many have cases to keep them from getting tangled or damaged in transport, the latter which is true for the airpods, however if your case were damaged, so is your charger.
> If these turn out to have the same issues, I'll gladly report how inaccurate Apple's marketing was and how disappointed I am.
If they have the same issues as other Bluetooth devices, hopefully you find out about it before you spend your money on some expensive tech.
I think the distinction is that its not just turning off one of the phones. Its switching from stereo to mono so you can still hear everything you previously required both sides of the stereo mix (left + right) for. Definitely not a big jump from the other feature, but still goes to show how they are thinking about the small details.
I don't think however people were having a "crippled" xp when using just one wired earbud in "mono" rather than "combined stereo"
I think the feature really should be "senses when individual pods are in use" and because of that feature, some automatic tasks can be applied like combining stereo or pausing the music.
I guess I am just complaining that it feels like they used one feature and got two marketing points out of it, which is fair game.
??? Maybe we have different standards on what 'look different' should be, but these are functionally and design-wise worlds apart from their existing headphones.
I'm not sure if you have a bias against Apple or not but you're distilling your adjectives down to the simplest level in order to attack them. I do not believe that is a fair assessment.
The AirPods include some interesting UX changes not typically seen (open case to connect, etc) and while some abilities have been done before (the tiny ear buds, the recharging case, etc) it also has some interesting aspects with voice commands and gestures.
Yes I wouldn't necessarily call them world class but a "pair of fucking headphones" seems possibly even more inaccurate to me.
I rise to the level of my competition.
But I do agree it's kind of corny...
In the past it may have been true. That's why a lot of people hated iOS7 just because it was different.
But Apple's recent updates are all bad because the root cause goes up to how Apple is trying to push their own agenda--they want to become the "Services" company, because the wall street thinks their device growth has stalled. For example their stickers is an attempt to monetize their user base with app purchases. They don't care that people would rather be able to take a photo and send with one tap, because they know users have no choice anyway.
But this is super short sighted, Apple's recent moves reminds me of how Windows lost significant size of their users with Vista and went downhill.
The reason the UI is designed this way is because they decided to cram 100 features in a space that simply can't accomodate it properly. Stickers, Apps, Photos, Animations etc all of that takes space.
It seems like you're saying the same thing, so please, don't come at me with this "makes absolutely no sense" hyperbole.
There are now so many garbage features, tangential to the core purpose of the app — self-deleting audio blips if you move the phone this way, internet GIF search if you swipe that way, weird drawing pad, stupid variable-location popup to add "HA HA HA" animation, recently-played music grid, full-screen-or-sometimes-not fingerpainting applet, image editor, heartbeat monitor, fucking kiss simulator (what the fuck), and I know from sorry experience (usually when trying to send a message with one hand while carrying something heavy and awkward) that there's more shit buried in here that I can't even figure out how to navigate to right now, like a signature editor — that I have had to help my dad, my wife, and my kids figure out how to get back to where send a fucking message with it, repeatedly.
You could use iOS 10 Messages to create a 6-episode TV miniseries called Software Design Gone Horribly Fucking Wrong and surely win an Emmy award for best documentary.
Like I said somewhere else in this thread, all these new features are for Apple, not for users.
If they designed it for users, they would have NEVER made it so that they have to tap twice to take a photo before sending. Not to mention how they don't even allow you to open the camera as fullscreen.
Isn't it really ridiculous how nowadays when you want to take a quick picture and send it while messaging, you have to close the messages app, open the camera app, take the photo, and share it back to messages? Used to be: tap the camera button. Take the pic. Send.
Now all you get is this tiny preview rectangle at the bottom. It doesn't launch a full camera so is useless for most cases. That's why I have to open the "real" camera app and take the picture and come back.
So now it's tap-swipe-tap instead of just tap, but in exchange the old functionality of sending an existing photo has changed from a long series of actions to just tap-tap-send.
But my point is exactly this. How many taps did it used to take to quickly take a pic and send? One.
Now with iOS10, you tap the camera button, swipe to the right, and then tap the "real" camera button one more time. That's 3 times the number of gestures it used to take pre-iOS10.
p.s.
How did you even discover that swipe feature? I'm pretty sure most people have no idea that's how it works. I am an iOS developer so I'm not exactly a laggard, either.
https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/14/ios-10-how-to-hate-pressing-t...
https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ios8-he...
In iOS 10, they've replaced the dashboard with huge colourful video thumbnails. It feels like a bad onboarding screen that just won't go away:
https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge/pu...
I could probably buy (and trust!) third-party dashboards that use HealthKit. But instead I just stopped using Health. Chances of me getting an Apple Watch for health tracking: now zero, even if it was free.
Game Center: I'm aware that people hated the old and the new design, but Apple didn't kill it, they moved the invitations functionality into (gasp) a Messages mini-app. Syncing your game progress between iOS devices is a hodgepodge of Facebook, iCloud, Game Center, and most commonly, "not at all". That's not going to change if Apple cares so little about its own frameworks.
In fact, it is MORE of a fad these days to be an Apple hater than an Apple fanboy. Why do you have to be a follower and hate on Apple? Try thinking for yourself.
In the same fashion, I was in a company whose motto was "Be the change you seek", which is really entrepreneur-minded and active. They changed their motto to "Advance humanity". Most employees said "It's ok, it's the kind of marketing bullshit that no-one even listens to". It wasn't about building something awesome together. The motto was here, hanging in the hall, just saying "We're strongly delusional, we all speak bullshit now, and we know you won't even debate about it because no-one believes it anyway! Look at us, we're kings of the universe!"
As you say, it is insulting to the audience.
"Our vision is to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere — every person, every organization, and every community around the globe. This motivates us — inspires us — to do what we do. To make what we make. To invent, and to reinvent. To engineer experiences that amaze. We won’t stop pushing ahead, because you won’t stop pushing ahead. You’re reinventing how you work. How you play. How you live. With our technology, you’ll reinvent your world."
Seventy-seven words…to say what? How does this pablum tell an engineer, a sales person, or an accountant what the company is about, what it does, why and how?
I found this “vision statement” on HP’s website.
Reinvent - well it certainly seems like a reinvention of the wireless headphone. What else would it be?
Not possible before - without W1 it wasn't possible to jump between audio coming from multiple sources transparently
Not possible before - without W1 it wasn't possible to jump between audio coming from multiple sources transparently
Uhh, I have a desk-based headset that can switch audio streams automatically.
In any case, this: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/7/12829190/apple-w1-chip-ipho... seems to suggest that it's a refinement on Bluetooth with the NFC pairing that, well, already exists in numerous products out there.
Nice refinements? Sure. But it also likes to compare itself against a Bluetooth world that frankly, hasn't existed in several years... "poor audio quality that skips and cuts out", and "pairing that is constantly problematic, where users don't know whether they will re-pair the next time" (https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/12/apple-w1-chip-how-it-works/ )
That's every day for me! What earbuds, stereo or mono, are you using that never have this problem?
Pretty much never had a problem with skipping or quality for any of those supporting apt-x.
This is true even when i'm also wearing a bluetooth watch, etc.
(If you're not sure what kind of device I'm talking about here, the Rowkin Mini is a good example - note the complete lack of protrusion beyond the pinna. I suppose the AirPods themselves don't really qualify by this standard, since they seem to have their antennae in the microphone boom which protrudes below the ear; on the other hand, I'm willing to tolerate such a protrusion if it's the only reasonable way to get good signal, and improved microphone pickup is a pretty good bonus besides.)
I do like _some_ of Apple's products, but I would never spend 150 dollars on these headphones. I'm hoping that Apple cheerleaders will drive down the cost so I can get the version 2/3 for cheap when all the bugs have been ironed out.
Surely you can see that comments could have different moods. Some might simply be sarcastic, others cynical, or maybe people just venting at Apple for a bad experience they had with some other Apple product, etc, etc.
I would argue it's a reimplementation of Kanoa's reinvention of the wireless headphone, similar to Bragi, Earin, Nextear, Freewavz, and samsung Iconx.
I would even trace this earbud revolution back to the Moto Hint (2014)
Not to be cynical, but to re-calibrate my barometer. The only person I know who uses it is my partner's nine year old daughter, and even then not often.
I don't like the errors voice messaging causes (you can tell when someone's sending texts with it), so I never use that.
It's OK for setting alarms or timers but I've only done that a couple times because I always forget about it and do it manually instead, or (for timers) my phone's farther away than a microwave or something.
Tried using it to record notes by voice once. It was entirely terrible at that task.
My phone would be at most 1% worse if Siri were simply gone.
I also occasionally use it when I wake up in the middle of the night and don't want to abuse myself with a bright phone display in order to find out what time it is - I don't keep a clock on my bed table, but my phone always charges there. "Hey Siri, what time is it?" is handy in that circumstance, unless the "Hey Siri" part decides not to trigger, which happens often enough that I don't really find it reliable. (I think that must be because a half-asleep voice sounds different; this isn't a problem I generally have at other times, even when using a $15 Bluetooth earbud which can't possibly have a very high-quality microphone.)
Also, FWIW, I've gotten pretty good at discreetly talking to my wrist in public. In any moderately loud area I don't think anyone even notices me doing it.
"Set an timer for 5 minutes" is very handy.
"Open auto lock settings" etc gets you to nested prefs screens quickly.
"Remind me to..." for adding things to my OmniFocus inbox.
I recently purchased a Bose QuietComfort 35 and I've noticed that the lack of chords + noise cancellation have made it so that I wear the headphones for the entirety of the day. The lack of fatigue while wearing the head phones is a big deal. Additionally, the lack of wires has changed my behavior in ways I did not expect pre-purchase. For example, I no longer need to take off my headphones to go to the bathroom. Or when I leave the desk to grab something, etc.
These AirPods seem like they could make this behavior even more extreme. I can imagine just keeping them on all day without taking them off. That would be enough of a behavioral change personally to warrant the superfluous marketing copy of "Magical" and "Not Possible Before".
Beyond that, if people really start walking around with AirPods in their ear all day, it could more of a fashion symbol success (new age earrings basically) than what Apple envisioned with the Watch.
But, at the price they're going for, I doubt this will happen, but you can see where the marketing enthusiasm is coming from.
I usually use earphones, with the wire tucked under my shirt(it's not noise cancelling), and connected to my phone - that way the cable doesn't get stuck with things.
The cable is also long enough use the phone for surfing too.
And they're on me all day long, either in ear or on the shirt. And i prefer that arrangement to my long lasting(13 hours) bluetooth earphones.
The biggest public facing change at Apple since the death of Steve Jobs is their move to terrible marketing copy and ads.
Under Jobs, that quote would be reduced to just a few words, whereas now it is a slog to get through. I've tried re-reading it a few times and still haven't made it to the end.
If they can make wireless not-be-shitty, that will count for 'magical' and 'not possible before' afaiconcerned.
Except, Apple laptops are plagued with "wifi broken after sleep", so I have no hope that they can.
Do we still have to use ears?
[1]: https://www.plantronics.com/us/product/voyager-legend-uc
Wait... Honest question: How?
Does it switch based on which input source is currently playing audio? What if more than one is playing at a time?
Maybe you're not primitive enough to understand the page as-is.
This one is literally true though. They had a semi-custom chip designed to implement features/performance that don't exist with Bluetooth 4 yet.
I think Bluetooth 5 will catch up. In fact, I'm betting that what they have is basically a radio chip designed for Bluetooth 5 (it's basically just Bluetooth LE with higher bandwidth and range) with some extra features for their pairing tech, but since the spec wasn't finalized, and they couldn't wait, they just rolled it out as proprietary tech.
Idiots, if it were Microsoft writing things on The Verge, it would be ok.
If they add positioning, this product becomes Magic Leap without the visuals. I don't think they see this as a music device, they see it as a new platform for audio. Interesting things start happening when people start leaving one or both in their ears all day. Arrival times in your ear at the bus stop. Ask Siri for a price check while at the store, etc.
A cable to your phone makes the earbuds hard to forget. This makes it easy, but the design details have to be right for you to truly forget they are in.
I know "forget they're in" doesn't sound like a groundbreaking feature, because it's not connected to any obvious technical challenge, but I think if they succeed at that it would in fact put these in a new category.
Positional audio would seal the deal. You can walk around your kitchen and it would feel like your invisible conversation partner was in the room with you.
1. I would hate to talk to a person with those things in their ears.
2. I use my bluetooth headphones the same way I use my wired headphones.
3. I don't feel comfortable talking out loud to nobody in public. It doesn't feel right to talk the phone, I will probably never talk to the air. I'm not a self conscious person, but I care if people think I'm crazy.
I think we're already past the point of that being a barrier.
These things are probably the (nearish) future. I thought the Moto Hint was great a year or so ago and with Apple stepping into the market it should encourage the competition.
Unless the came up with better design there is no way I am forgetting I am wearing apple earbuds.
Edit: I should add that with in-ear headphones, I was always able to get a good fit by using the one-step smaller rubber ends for the left ear and the default one for the right ear. Never had a problem that way. Still, I prefer over the ear these days, and they also double as earmuffs in the winter time!
The concept explained by erikpukinskis wouldn't require a neutral canvas; it could generate the speech audio adapted to the binaural system.
This product category is not worth the hassle for the average user. Very few people will buy a second pair of wireless earbuds. Not enough to warrant building all the features you mention.
> and possibly most people
They don't dangle from a cable when falling like normal headphones or Bluetooth headphones that have a cable between each earpiece. Since it's also so comfortable, the user might not even notice they lost an earpiece immediately if they are not listening to anything. (which will specially happen if the user has incentives to use it day long).
And more annoyingly, you will most likely lose just one of the pair. Will you be able to buy just one eapiece and pair it alongside the old pairless earpiece? I don't think so...
edit: fixed wording as eric_h pointed out
Also, I imagine you mean "likely lose just one of the pair", as losing one pair means losing both of them (not intended as a dig, just helping to clarify; your intentions seemed clear)
I don't think I'm alone in that though, which is great for Apple: if they're working better than expected, then consumers will love it. Expectations are everything.
Why didn't Apple allow for custom earbuds e.g. Comply or provide some way to modify the physical design to accomodate people with different ears.
It's not a hipster 'artisinal' thing as much as they ostensibly work better, and they aren't "hand carved"... there are refined process for this.
But they are supposed to be much more comfortable and sound better. I can't comment becasue I don't play enough (or make enough playing) to justify spending $500-800 on them.
And I believe (but am not sure) that there are existing bluetooth solutions, though I couldn't imagine using those in a professional music monitoring context.
So I can easily imagine that there will be custom refitting of these devices. However, custom molds often cost $200-300 (or more) by themselves, plus the drivers, so not in my proce range.
I do use my "cheap" (Shure se215 ~$100) wired IEMs with my iphone now when I want more isolation than open-backed earbuds like ones that came with my phone. They are great for mowing the lawn.
But maybe the airpods are more reliant on the ambient sound, so I dunno if there is much to gain from custom molds.
Physics?
>But what about the possibility of losing the earpieces?
10-15 years ago people the argument could have been made about cell phones, "why carry a phone you're bound to leave at a restaurant or on a train..."
If the AirPods or wireless mini computers in your ears become so integrated into our day to day lives one falling out will become obvious pretty quick. And the price will drop, maybe not for the Apple versions, but what about Google Now in $40 wireless earbuds in two or three years?
I don't want more batteries and dongles to carry around. A phone and a headphone are already cumbersome in my pocket.
Eventually we will have batteries powerful enough to eliminate the need for that dental floss thing, and the industry will finally standardize induction charging making charging the earpieces anywhere a reality.. but until then, apple is just ahead of the time.
But in a bad sense. Instead, they could just have made a product that is more realistic with the technology we have.
I will politely disagree. If the automation/augmentation/functionality provided is good enough then losability is a non-factor. If the capabilities afforded by the wireless W1 chips don't live up to the hype then dental floss ain't going to save them.
Could. But it wasn't because they were big and exciting so you would look pretty stupid saying that.
Losing those cigarette buts though is not a big problem. I have some Plactronics for some years now and there is a reason why they still hang at your neck.
But I guess, people who jump on that right now will have no problem spending that money again and again and...
Is it possible Apple could implement some sort of loss alert mechanism for this?
Ideally each earpiece would have a low-power heartbeat even when in your pocket to continually verify they haven't been lost.
(Apple has already said there will be a way to replace a lost single unit.)
Have you never seen anyone jogging or on a train or a bus?
I've seen plenty of men with the stud earrings that are probably upwards of $400 that go jogging and do everything as normal but I've never heard of those falling off.
Get on any rush hour subway in NYC and see how very wrong you are.
My particular form of obsessive-compulsive behavior revolves around finding and losing things. One of my big life lessons is that things don't get lost when you have a place for them — the keys go here, the wallet goes here, the phone goes here, they never get lost.
If the Airpods never needed to be charged, or could charge wirelessly by being dropped on a magnetic pad or something, I fully expect that they would get lost all the time. But the tic-tac case is an integral accessory — when you're wearing Airpods, the case is in your pocket, and when you're not wearing Airpods, the the Airpods are in the case.
(I was sad when Apple stopped including docks with iPhones, those solved a problem that most people don't realize they have)
I think the number of people who lose these things will be surprisingly low.
Where is the augmented reality device they're going to be targeting with this?
If anything you'll see them take on something like google cardboard or oculus directly before they do something really left field with headphones. But even that is a couple years away.
Just look at any product in their history - they took music players that were fine but bulky and time-consuming to use and turned them into a single intuitive device that could fit in your pocket, carry your entire library, and sync to the computer without any user intervention. I know a lot of tech people are annoyed with iTunes and want to be able to manually drag and drop the files that they want, but, for the non-tech user, iTunes (which already had all their music organized) would just let them sync their music by plugging in without any intervention at all. Apple may have made an assumption for the masses by assuming everyone's music was organized on the computer they were syncing from (and in iTunes, no less), but, when it worked, it was amazing from an experience standpoint.
That's what these headphones are. Just think about the list of things that suck about headphones in a perfect world - cables and wires suck on anything, wireless is more convenient in every case, pairing bluetooth headphones sucks when they get disconnected, the batteries on wireless headphones suck. These are their answer to those complaints - headphones that last much longer than others with a charger that is also a case that syncs to all your devices and intelligently plays wherever from whatever device you're using. Whether they succeed is another story, but the explanation for this product is there.
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vue/vue-your-everyday-s...
[2] http://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/16/apple-augmented-reality-...
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-14/apple-sai...
That said, you're spot on with your forecasts of how great this could be, the AR of audio is potentially awesome.
You really think that Apple removed the headphone jack to make a bit more cash? Seriously? Hand-on-heart honestly, you think that's why? Come on.
I think it's because they love cool new things. Thank fk they do because, frankly, nobody else seems to be doing anything interesting. I know, I know, they're not perfect. AirPods are late. They're expensive. I know.
But I guarantee you that, come 2020, you will be hard pushed to find a set of wired headphones that resemble those we wear today. I would bet my current net worth on it†. The time has come to do new things with headphones. You want to call them "magical"? Maybe not. But a tiny thing that sits in my ear, Star Trek style, that I can tap and talk to Siri, that detects when I'm talking, that mutes itself, that swaps between paired devices seamlessly, that charges in a little tic-tac case, that's cool. That's what the world wants. It's certainly what I want.
But hey, I guess we can just assume they're trying to scrape a few more dollars out of everyone. Yep, that's probably what this is about.
(†Not currently all that much, but hey.)
Siri sucks. Once you've spoken to Google via "Ok Google" you quickly realize how bad Siri is.
The world doesn't need Airpods. I get that you want them, but the overwhelming majority in the _world_ can not afford Airpod. I would bet that sales of Airpods will be as transparent as the iWatch... as in completely opaque.
And it overtook all other regular watchmakers, except for Rolex, in sales: http://wornandwound.com/apple-second-rolex-worldwide-sales-m...
Apple doesn't make products for "the world", they make products for well-off people who have the cash to spend. "The World" still uses sub-$100 Android phones or dumbphones and will do so for the foreseeable future.
But I guarantee you that, come 2020, you will be hard pushed to find a set of wired headphones that resemble those we wear today.
I'm biased. When I want to put on earphones, I want to hear, not be heard. That's the primary function. Not to be some bizarre com. THESE Airbuds are totally useless to me, even if I have a device that supports them. Can I take them running, or cycling? That's a good majority of my "not sleeping, not working" time. I don't need another attempt at augmented reality, I need to remember I used to go to places to talk to people, not manipulate a screen, or talk to a computer assistant.
I remember when Bluetooth headsets came out. They were decidedly not cool. Like, "look at the crazy person talking to themself while walking" not cool.
(†Not currently all that much, but hey.)
But when I'm out and about, cycling to work, listening to a podcast on the train, at work on a conference call? The AirPods are going to be amazing for that sort of thing. That's what I mean by "hard pushed to find a set of wired headphones that resemble those we wear today".
I wasn't clear in my frothing rage, for which I apologise. ;-)
Yes.
And honestly, if you think a big company like Apple does anything without the motivation of making money, then frankly you're being starry-eyed and naive.
Maybe if they were a little start-up or something, sure, I could buy that argument. But yes, I entirely, whole-heartedly believe that Apple is doing this for money. If not, why not release the air pods first, then release a few generations of iPhones with audio jacks? It's not like having that little hole in the bottom of a phone would stop Apple from generating more "magical" technology.
I don't doubt Apple thinks that air pods are cool, but come on, seriously.
So do you really think they will jeopardize sales of their most profitable iphone devices to squeeze some extra cash from a niche earpod device?
Also water proofing.
I'm positive most people will still be using cheap wired headphones 3 years from now. If you're willing to lay money on it, I'll take any bet you offer.
Today:
- "Call John Smith on speaker"
- "What's 110 pounds in kilograms?"
Both simple, granted, but both got me what I wanted much quicker than I could have done manually.
There is like 4-5 others simple interactions like that that I do in private every day and it's totally worthwhile.
"Hey siri, delete all my alarms"
A simple press of a button on my BT headset (Sony btw, not Apple) and "Call my wife" is a lot easier in the winter than digging out my phone, removing my glove for TouchID and browsing to my wife's contact in the phone app.
A quick shout of "Hey Siri, set timer for 12 minutes" while cooking is faster than fiddling with the kitchen timer - which I had lost. Again.
Also "What's the weather like tomorrow morning" when I come home to see if I need to plug in my car heater for the night or not.
There are just some things that are faster spoken to a digital assistant (Siri, Cortana or Google Assistant) than done by tapping on a screen.
On the other hand, tapping the screen is a lot more appropriate in public than asking "Navigate to my proctologist appointment" :P
If you really dislike wireless for some reason, you can also get lighting earbuds (I think the iPhone 7 actually includes some).
Finally, if you like all these ideas so much, you can avoid purchasing the product you dislike. It's not like they're forcing this onto existing clients by disabling the existing 3.5mm jack.
Well yeah, they sort of are. The future is wireless, there's really no denying that at this point.
You wear them, they ache until your ears adjust, then it's second nature.
Assuming you wear them more than 10 minutes at a time.
I can't be the only one who used those garbage earbuds included with the game boy for years afterwards.
(This is a rhetorical question. You don't have to answer, because the answer is self-evident.)
Two extra months isn't going to fix that IMHO. If you are struggling to get a minimum viable product, it's worrisome.
Who knows though, maybe the problems they had were in the actual manufacturing of them.
Nobody listens to music 24/7 ...
I don't have a problem with a cable. I actually don't understand why people would want to replace a cheap, robust, simple technology like a cable with non-replaceable batteries and signal-degrading wireless.
Also I don't need my phone to talk at me all day.
But, "courage".
These are light weight, designed for comfort.
I am sceptical
And Siri will just open the Wikipedia entry for "price" :)
Jokes aside, Siri has fallen really, really far behind Google Now. It's jokingly bad at even the most mundane tasks.
The best thing about Google Assistant (not Google Now) is the context sensitivity. You can ask "how tall is Tom Cruise", get an answer and then ask "how old is he" and Assistant will pick up who you're talking about. Siri will just get completely baffled.
I feel like a lot of this mess with needing a different dongle and special wire for each product would have been less of a big deal if everything they did just moved to USB C all at the same time. Now if you want to charge your air pods with a macbook pro you need a cable to go from usb C to thunderbolt (not included) or an adapter to use the previous-gen-usb to lightening cable it does come with.
It feels to me like the different product development teams at Apple didn't communicate with each other at all w.r.t. what ports to use.
Because there are about half a billion potential customers out there who already have phones that charge via lightning?
There was the dock connector -> lightning connector switch.
There's the ADB -> USB switch back in the day.
And now there headphone jack -> wireless thing switch.
Apple cares not one whit for obsoleting the stuff you have.
I don't doubt that one day iPhones may use USB-C or whatever replaces it, but the lightning port is going to be around for a long time - it was designed to last at least a decade, and I don't doubt that it will.
All of Apple's "accessories" (things that will request charge from a host over their cable: phones, tablets, keyboards and touchpads, and now headphones) have a Lightning port.
All of Apple's "computers" (things that won't: computers that are wired for power, and devices that are wired for power like the Apple TV) have, or will have, USB-C ports.
The vague middle case is laptops, like the new MBP: they do charge over their USB-C cables. But they'll only do this from a wall-socket power adapter; they won't attempt to drain the battery of a peer device they're connected to.
Besides that HCI hint of charging semantics, though, Lightning is just physically different in a few important ways that Apple relies on: for one, the connectors are solid metal, so an upward-pointed male connector can be used as a freestanding dock. That's not true of USB-C. Apple isn't going to converge them.
I ended up getting this battery [0] from Anker, and it's done a great job with my 2016 skinny Macbook and iPhone.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015FMV3JE/ref=oh_aui_deta...
I'm not saying these will have the impact of an iPod, but I am entertained by the amount of naysaying here.
For one thing, how often have you fiddled with the knots in your headphone cord? It's frustrating enough to prevent me from using them in situations where I otherwise would.
AirPods look to be perfectly fine (and extremely expensive for what they bring) if your usage of them is while sitting at your desk.
On the other hand, this is a silent failure mode in a good sense: if you lose them, then you'll know instantly (because of no music), so at least have a chance of looking for them nearby.
EDIT: Ah, throwanem (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13170546) points out the crucial difference between headphones and earbuds. For me, earbuds are undesireable, so I didn't realise that the form factor was meant to be a selling point.
Until, of course, they start to produce some of the same little pops and interruptions I always get from Bluetooth earphones when I'm walking. I don't seem to get quite as many with the AirPods, but the skips and interruptions, when they happen, make me wish for something wired.
Did they stay connected?
Mostly, but I still heard audio pops from time to time. Not as many as I usually get with Bluetooth headphones, but they were still there.
If AirPods have this issue, they're clearly inferior to 8-year old tech.
(NOTE: I have had skips when leaving my phone and walking into another room, or stuff like that, but that's just because I walked out of range).
So other than some non-sequitur facts, what's so interesting? CmdrTaco's take is the classic example of tech spec-naysaying by pundits completely misreading demand in the market. Meanwhile, AceJohnny says that it may very well apply here, which remains to be seen.
Apple seems to be good at figuring out which drawbacks are deal breakers and which ones are not.
"Apple’s total iPod sales climb past 10 million, with 8.2 million units sold in 2004 alone" [0]
[0] http://www.macworld.com/article/1053499/home-tech/ipodtimeli...
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/ipod-sales_n_468000...
[2] http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/01/29/apple-stops-divulgin...
The sales explosion really happened when they released it for Windows. All of a sudden a HUGE market was there and it snapped them up as fast as they could.
The point is that, at the time, the iPod was a niche product, with several huge flaws. Subsequent iterations of the iPod fixed those flaws, but that doesn't mean you should have bought a v1 iPod. It made much more sense to wait.
Exactly the same logic applies to the Airpods. Suggesting that people can't criticise them because at some point in the future the product line will become successful is asinine.
My point is that this initial criticism of the iPod was not wrong. It was a flawed device. It was eventually improved into a successful device, but using that logic to shut down any criticism of future products is just silly.
https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-settles-with-creative-for-10...
The software UI (especially as described by that spokesman) is somewhat obvious. That said, the hardware UI of the iPod (click-wheel) was miles ahead of what Creative and others were offering (D-pads).
OK, how about "The only problem is that you have to install something. See, it's not the same as USB drive.", the top comment in response to the Dropbox announcement on HN, 9 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
It's a cliche because we techies are particularly bad at recognizing the mass-market appeal of products. What seems easy to us can be an unsurmountable hurdle for the target market, and what we may perceive as an unnecessary flourish can turn out to be an essential quality-of-life feature. It's a cliche because we keep doing it.
Knots occur in headphone cables because of how people wrap or store them. If you take each end of the cable and fold it in half a few times (I do it 3 times) then you're far less likely to get any tangles than if you wrap them around your fingers in a continuous loop.
They're amazingly comfortable, the noise cancelling is best-of-breed, the battery lasts AGES (far beyond the rated 20 hour (!!!) life), the sound quality is epic, they play plenty loud, handle bluetooth handoff better than anything I've used.. I just can't stop talking about them.
It seems like just a year or so ago bluetooth was still an impossible-to-pair never-works-right pile of crap, and now it's turned a corner. I've always got my FitBit, Apple Watch, and often my headphones paired to my phone. Everything just works. I can be on a call on my headphones, hop in the car, and the call seamlessly transfers to the audio system in the car (2016 VW Golf).
My phone and laptop both play sound through the headphones just fine, it keeps both paired at the same time.
And they don't even support whatever high-resolution codec Apple uses (aptx or the other one, I can't remember). But the sound quality has to be heard to be believed, the noise cancelling makes tiny details in the music way more audible than ever before.
I'm not in the market for AirPods, but I'm a total believer in wireless headphones now.
The built in mic is terrible to the point I couldn't use it for video conferencing. Had to switch to the mic on my MBP to be intelligible.
I haven't figured out if I like the noise cancellation or not. It leaks voices a lot, and when it's quiet there's a very faint constant background noise. Feels like I just replaced one noise with another. It also gives an illusion of a change in pressure in your ears when you put them on, but maybe that's something you get used to.
Sound quality is ok at low volume but it's very uninteresting overall. Maybe I've been spoiled by my other headphones.
Also, my head is really big, and they aren't really comfortable for me longer than and hour or two.
I'll agree that the bluetooth handoff implementation works great though.
Overall, if they were < $200 I'd kept them around, but $330 is just to pricey for what you get.
I'll be keeping a close eye on this space in the future though. I'm expecting some great innovation in the coming years.
My 'main' headphones are Audiotechnica M50s which are, of course, cheaper, but damn well should be without noise cancelling or BT. I use them with an external DAC+headphone amp, but I prefer the QC35 at all volumes (short of ear-splitt, which the Bose won't do-- but at least they don't clip, ever!)
I sorta agree on noise cancelling tech. Of course voices leak, that's normal. But I, too, sometimes wonder if I'm just replacing one set of sounds with another. Where I really like them is in addition to music. Just by itself, meh.
https://www.cnet.com/products/apple-airpods/preview/
Regarding specs:
+ Bluetooth
+ No cables
+ 5 hours battery life
+ Charging case with total 24 hours battery life
+ Automatically turn off when removing from your ears
+ Key synchronization via iCloud (makes pairing process simpler - and could make sharing process simpler as well - but is Apple-only)
+ Peripheral to Apple Watch
+ Including microphones and double-tap to activate Siri (no direct volume shortcut)
So you can't actually use these on your [non macOS] laptop? Wow, requiring two pairs of headphones certainly is a huge dis-qualifier.
For headphones it doesn't make much of a difference. However, if you're manufacturing more devices that all needs to be setup and shared with multiple people it's a pity that the key deployment is Apple-only. That is, I don't know of an official way to get to the keys to get a seamless experience across vendors.
Sound quality is often much much better too.
The main reason earphones fall out of your ears is the wires. Most existing wireless earphones have some sort of wire attached to them. They're called "wireless" but that's technically not true because they do have wires, and these wires are what pulls the earphones out of your ear. It's physics.
(They're silicone EarPod covers with little hooks that keep them perfectly placed in your ears.)
As the owner of an iPhone 7, I have encountered some frustration from not being able to charge and listen to headphones at the same time. I realized that if lightning cables were USB, I could just use some sort of hub.
But it seems that Apple has declined to offer a splitter, leading to many shoddy attempts for sale on Amazon, most with fewer than three star average ratings.
Viewed as an independent gizmo, these are a great idea and will appeal to some people. But viewed as an alternative to the convenience of the 1/8th inch jack on the back of the phone, a lot is left to be desired.
The picture of the futuristic woman wearing them evokes the single-ear bluetooth headset, only worn over both ears.
$150 doesn't seem so bad to me but: - Not in ear - No lanyard
On a lighter note, I live in Canada so for 6 months of the year, my toque holds the Apple earbuds in my ears.
http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones.html
which are in ear and noise blocking. They also have different size attachments so you can get a good fit, although they cause ear fatigue sometimes if you keep them in for extended periods (i.e. hour plus).
0- https://www.amazon.ca/Mpow-Bluetooth-headphones-Wireless-Ear...
Check out "earhoox" (or, if you prefer a non-branded item, just search for "earpod covers" on Amazon, etc.).
I have no connection with that particular (or any) brand, but I did the thing I tend to do which is spend $50 buying every single model of silicone earpod cover on Amazon, try them out, and figure out which is best. Earhoox won.
Solved the problem perfectly, and I actually enjoy wearing my earpods now.
the apple headphones and the bose qc20 are the only two in-ear headphones that I can comfortably wear
I like the idea of AirPods. Unfortunately, my main concern though is that I will use them two or three times during rush hours in London, bump into a couple people on the tube and they'll be gone.
"Optical sensors and motion accelerometers work with the W1 chip to automatically control the audio and engage the microphone, giving you the ability to use one or both AirPods."
5 hours and then I have charge them? That won't even last me a work-day.
Count me out.
For someone who listens to mainly podcasts, I found them to be really really convenient. And the wire between the two pods makes it seem a bit harder to lose compared to AirPods.
Now, in the gym, I can throw my phone in my gym bag and not worry about it while working out. I'll never go back to wired.
Exactly, doing anything active with wired headphones on isn't fun. They keep getting snagged in things and get pulled off your ears.
If your ears are ill-shaped for this style of earphone, then they might fall out.
I do active things with wired headphones all the time, and they rarely get snagged on anything or pulled from my ear.
That said, not having to carry the device that provides the sound source is a convenience that's worth something (though nowhere near the additional cost of these over wired earbuds.)
Granted, now you have to cary a hard plastic case in your pocket.
It's a pet peeve of mine. Wireless is a good thing.
I don't need more than 2 hours tops when running, so the 5+ hour battery life is great.
I never had any problems with the current earphones slipping out of my ears while running - rain, wind, or shine. Airpods seem to follow a similar model, so I don't anticipate issues there either.
Try putting your smartphone in a safe place, and have wired or wireless headset, and use some kind of smartwatch to control your phone and receive feedback on your performance. I use a Pebble 2 for that, but there's other alternatives available.
Bonus points is my phone is stored safely without saying to random strangers "rob me".
I don't come across too many even semi-consistent runners who take their phone with them. Most can't stand a big iPhone 6/7 or Samsung strapped to their arm like a piece of armor. I don't think these AirPods will improve the running-music duo at all. The technology doesn't quite cater to us yet. Lightweight, sturdier earbuds (check out yurbuds) with a cord under the shirt down to the waist isn't noticeable and is hard to beat.
Your risk of losing your headphones is really that high?
If I did need to re-pair, it's as simple as picking the phone from the phone or laptop's recently-used devices list. I usually only have to do that if the phone has decided it wants to keep talking to my headphones while I'm in the car. Pairing from scratch with the phone is as simple as holding the phone to one of the ear cups, but I've only had to do that once and I can't remember which one now.
I'm also enjoying auto-pause when I take the headphones off -- no more fiddling for the pause button when someone wants to talk to me.
Quality sounds fine to me as well. Are there any blind tests that show people can notice differences with Bluetooth? Even if the difference is slightly noticeable I doubt you would notice wearing headphones on the move, at the gym, in the office etc.
> How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones?
Multiple times a day. Any time you're doing anything active besides just walking (e.g. reaching for things, carrying something) or putting on a jacket the wire gets in the way. Getting them caught on a door handle and having in-ear headphones ripped out of your ears is really unpleasant.
In the end it seems more of a question of which bothers you more:
1. degraded sound quality and drastically shorter (since one is unlimited) battery life or
2. having a wire from your headphones to your audio source.
For me, there's no question that 1. is more of an issue, for others, 2. is a bigger problem. I consider bluetooth an alternative to wired headphones but absolutely not a replacement since both have tradeoffs
That said, I've personally tried a half-dozen wireless headphones over the past few months. I strongly feel that the technology has progressed to where the tradeoffs of battery life and sound quality are minimal for the general consumer.
Right now, price is probably the limiting factor in adoption. However, as the price decreases over the next 3 years, I think you'll find that wireless will become the primary means of audio consumption for the average Joe.
I would happily bet any amount of money that I can tell the difference between my nice pair of IEMs and the stock apple ones every time. It's not the bluetooth transmission that's the problem, it's the actual sound producing hardware. Customers like you dwarf customers like me, so Apple and Beats don't bother to produce great sounding phones beyond a certain point--it even appears AirPods have basically stock earphone sound quality.
I would love the convenience of AirPods, just upgraded with nicer drivers, and would be willing to pay $400 for them. There just isn't a big enough market, so I'm left feeling the pain of people that fall outside of Apple's inner circle.
This is even more perplexing to me because Apple consistently puts screen quality as a very high priority. I'm just flabbergasted at how much they could be dropping the ball for audio.
So IOW, you just don't like wireless headphones, whether Apple makes them or not. Thanks for sharing.
Still 1) is a good question. I thought they came with a tiny casket, so they wouldn't fall out of your pocket like that. Still subtle when you remove them from your skull.
I'm not sure what I expect with regard to staying in ears, though. They appear to be closely modeled on the wired EarPods, which in my experience don't reliably stay in the ear on their own, to the point where they are best worn with the cable wound around the crease of the pinna - both for strain relief, and so that they're easier to recover and less likely to be damaged when they do inevitably pop out.
Right now I have some cheap headphones I bought at Ross and even if they're wireless, the little rubber headband is uncomfortable when I'm bench pressing.
These things are going to be magic!!!
Please someone tell em if this is not the case. I really want it to not be true.
I cannot overstate how angry this makes me. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. It can literally ruin an hour. I'd rather be randomly slapped by a stranger.
Second place: the corners of my desk (or maybe doorknobs). Basically, any protruding object in a tight space.
It's pretty unlikely to happen if you're sitting still, but it's routine if you wear them while moving around inside.
2) I don't lose things.
This is like a guy leaving a negative review of feminine hygiene products. When a product designed for people with different needs and desires than yours, it’s not necessarily “stupid.”
Wireless headphones are about as stupid as wireless Internet.
Just like wired Internet, wired headphones will continue to have a place for people who need certain capabilities or ruggedness or etc., but for most people, wireless headphones are the way to go. Let me walk you through some of the advantages:
1. Working out. Wired headphones constantly get caught on things and sometimes get violently ripped from your ears. 2. Related to point one, any activity or job where you could risk a loose wire being caught is perfect for wireless headphones. It very well may be significantly safer. 3. Wireless headphones have bigger range than wires. You don't have to place your phone in your pants pockets, for instance, to use wireless headphones. You could even have your phone in your bag, and everything will still work. Much of women's fashion either has no pockets or pockets of little value. This is a major reason women carry around purses. But you can't use headphones with a phone in your purse, hence why women are often physically carrying their phones in your hands. With wireless headphones, they can keep their phone in their purse or jacket and still listen to music or respond to calls. 5. Or if you are doing something around the house, you don't always have to have your headphones on you at all times. This could be particularly useful if you are doing something like washing a car where you might get your pants wet and don't want to have your phone on you. 6. With this new class of wireless earbuds that are small and lightweight, you could keep one of two of them in much of your day to answer phone calls or ask Siri or Google questions.
If you cared about watching beautiful movies, would you downgrade to a wireless display with grainy definition, because "no wires"? That's how I feel about audio quality, and why I'm not an apple or beats customer (and why I lament the iPhone7 headphone jack changes).
Of course time will help, and in a few years the sound quality streamed over wireless should be transparent, at which point I'd gladly convert.
Or are you correlating your one experience with half a decade old BT headphones to current top of the line wireless? That's like saying all Wifi is shit because your PCMCI 802.11a Wifi card in 2005 had shit speeds and range.
On the other hand, Panasonic makes simply the most comfortable earbuds I've ever worn, even for 8+ hour sessions, for $10: http://a.co/4ztIdDw
I almost always have both my Macbook Pro an iPhone connected. The switch from listening to music from the laptop to the iPhone (such as when I leave the office and get on the bus) is seamless. Simply stop playing music on the laptop and start playing music on the phone. I highly recommend them.
Way under 100 monetary units, IP57 protection, aptX support. Integrates perfectly with iOS (I can see the remaining battery right in the header and dashboard).
[1] http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/ste...
So yes, not quite yet, but also not necessarily a full month away.
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/earphones/qui...
That's probably jsatk's (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13169976) point: Apple seems to be trying very hard to generate hype, but there isn't any.
We're slowly moving into that future tech world that we saw in movies and dreamt up when we were kids. These are wireless earbuds. My first pair of wireless headphones used IR, took two AA batteries, were huge, heavy, and sounded horrible once you started losing sight of the transmitter!
Sure, it's a small step in mass-market technology, but that's the only way tech moves forward for most of the world. It's never really existed before, it's something new!
Some of us find advancements in tech exciting, whether it's some incremental advancement in AI, or an incremental advancement for silly earbuds.
If you think in terms of small increments, you'll never see, or be impressed with, the big changes that are happening around you.
And actually the Dash was a kickstarter from two years ago which is the same as the Airpods, where each pod is separate with no wire at all. Started shipping a year ago.
People who know Apple are getting sick of them jumping on bandwagons' years late and claiming to be first.
"AirPods will be shipping in limited quantities at launch and customers are encouraged to check online for updates on availability and estimated delivery dates."
That's like "We look like fools. At least get -something- out there".
There are plenty of cheap, great sounding earbuds out there (Head-Fi has a whole 1000+ page thread discussing them: http://www.head-fi.org/t/441400/earbuds-round-up), but literally none of them are wireless. Right now I'm resorting to hacks like using earbuds with removable cables and bluetooth cable replacements like these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Custom-Made-Wireless-Blu...
The sound is good (at least as good as I've ever heard from earbuds), they're cheap, but most importantly, they TWIST into your ears instead of simply pressing.
This emulates what you'll find in really high end, custom-fit earplugs.
They absolutely will not fall out unless you PULL them out.
While these are expensive and may not be popular among the slashdot/hn crowd, Apple knows which way the wind blows.
2 beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life: it was a magical evening of pure nostalgia.
It is the same with "Air", "Pod", iSomething", and "Pro". Meaningless buzzwords. Then again, every company has their set ("Surface", "ThinkPad", "Yoga", "Zen"). Trust me, it has nothing to do with real yoga or zen. I'll refrain to make a comment on "Pro".
Just ignore the buzzwords, insofar that they don't tell you anything about the quality of the product and instead look at price/feature/quality comparisons and make up your own mind.
I've been thinking about this for a while now. Whenever I'm asked for directions or something on the train/commute to and from work I wish I could just take my headphones out and they'd be smart enough to instantly pause and rewind the podcast/audiobook a second or two.
http://4dpavshx5ly3quwy2v9yv83i.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-c...
Seriously, I have very little to add to this. It's overly expensive wireless earbuds to go alongside a failure of 3.5mm jack.
:)
Except that it doesn't. Yes, you have to use an adapter now, and that's slightly (but only slightly) more clumsy than before, but "Square readers don't work any more!" is a particularly tired piece of FUD, which it would be nice not to see spread around any more by people such as HN participants who really should know better.
Also, will Apple include these within iPhone box to replace the clunky new lightning things?
Hell, I know I ended up picking up a Jabra Halo Smart because I got so annoyed having to deal with the stupid dongle to use my $10 pair of Sony AS200's and the cheap Chinese Kinivo bluetooth headphones I had had substantially worse audio quality than even these cheap wired ones.
I thought about the AirPods, but I'd lose them in a heartbeat. I'm constantly forgetting where the hell I put my headphones as is, at least my Halo Smart is big enough that I can find it easily - if I lost one of the little AirPod's I would end up tearing my house apart looking for the dumb thing.
As far as them falling out, like on the subway or something, that'll be the problem.
Since no one has production units in hand, you'll have to take Apple's word for it: "a charging case that holds multiple additional charges for more than 24 hours of listening time.(3) Need a quick charge? Just 15 minutes in the case gives you 3 hours of listening time.(4)"
Also, will Apple include these within iPhone box to replace the clunky new lightning things?
A rhetorical question, I assume.
Most of the reviews of the preproduction units said Apple's 5 hour claim was about right. That's about 1-2 hours more than I get from my current earbuds, and they can't charge one-at-a-time or give me 3 hours of use in a 15 minute charge.
I imagine it won't happen because in some ways it's kind of backwards, but I hate running with my phone, especially because I have a huge 6+.
It seems like a simple thing to just want to be able to take some of my music/podcasts with me running, but it's not realistic unless I own a separate iPod shuffle that I then have to deal with. Adding a small amount of memory to AirPods would make this possible and relatively seamless.
DHH from 37Signals mentioned on Twitter recently that he has two iPhones - 6+ and a 6. Larger one for around the house, in bed, etc and the other when out and about. It struck me as an almost affordable luxury for some people, if you can endure any syncing hassles.
Is it markedly different from having an iPhone for portability and an iPad+4G for around the house?
For DHH, I guess it's a combination of that and the fact that he doesn't want something as large as a 6+ in his pocket all the time.
But in terms of having the two devices, then little different. Obviously an affordable luxury given that many households would have phones and a tablet. I just hadn't thought of it being two different sizes of phone before.
I sync a playlist of my music from my 6S onto my Apple Watch rev. 1 and use a pair of beats solo 3. Works daaaaandy.
The Apple Watch is far, far too goddamn expensive, though. Let's get it down to at least $199, guys, and don't force us to pair an iPhone with it. It's what the iPod Nano turned into. Why is it so much more expensive?
If people could just buy an Apple Watch, it could convince them to buy further into the Apple ecosystem, in the same way as the iPod did (but obviously not to such a scale).
*beginning next week.....
>you can listen for 5 hours on a single charge
You could buy a DS for that much right? That's about how much the ps2 slim costed back in the day.
Curious. Will there be third-party headphones that work here?
The fancypants features like iCloud sync and inserted ear detection though, I suspect that'll take some manufacturers some reverse engineering or exchanges of money for details.
3rd party headphones have always worked with the iPhone - what exactly are you asking?
Seems Apple is just always ahead of the crowd in getting rid of things.
Also, given that the vast majority of earbuds people use are sub-$20, I bet the audio quality isn't that great to begin with.
Some people even use quality headphones, and also don't want another device to charge.
Anyway, I won't be buying a phone without a headphone jack, or these airpods.
I still have a $25 pair of Sony earbuds I bought in an airport store years ago. They are comfortable, sound great and have the mic support. Sure, they have the cord which is annoying, but I've tried Shure, Bose and a lot other wired & bluetooth earbuds and none of them sound as good as the Sony pair I have.
It's too bad Apple didn't include some kind of silicone adapter for comfort because if they did, I would consider the AirPods. But again, they're just uncomfortable.
Oh, and my wife likes her Apple headphones because they let a lot of outside sounds in. That's another reason I don't like the Apple headphones and I have a pair of Beats for noise canceling when I want it. I didn't see anywhere that the AirPods had noise canceling, so you're probably going to hear a lot of background noise when using them.
Furthermore, why isn't there a better way of attaching these to your ear? I hate shoving a piece of dirty plastic into the innermost part of my ear. It'd be much nicer to have something with that shark-fin rubber piece[1] or the over-ear clip[2].
1 - http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/bose-soundsport-in-ear-headphone...
2 - http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/powerbeats3-wireless-beats...