And we could have had that on all AirPods, for several years now, if Apple were to finally implement LC3 and Bluetooth LE Audio.
Other than enabling much lower latency for unicast, LE Audio even supports broadcast use cases (think gym TV audio, public announcements, hearing aid audio in cinemas etc) and much more.
I really don't understand why that's taking so long; this type of thing seems exactly like something Apple would usually excel at. (Maybe it's too open a standard, and they can't figure out a way to make gyms and cinemas pay for broadcasting to AirPods?)
LC3 still has 50ms or so latency from what I’ve seen. LC3+ is lower, but 20ms is still something. Wired you can be single digit ms easily.
but I have not found a single place in the US that uses it
I don't understand why the industry forced a move to wireless before the technology was up to it. The only company that's figured this out is Apple and they refuse to give up this market advantage. Until device management improves i'll stick with wired.
The industry realized this and honestly for most people a water resistant phone is worth losing the 1/8” jack and they win with fewer components and thinner phones
The Apple dongle actually measures very well. I’m using one right now for my wired headphones. As someone who has spent too much money on headphones and accessories I don’t miss OTG cables and external DAC/Amps and feel the OEM Apple equipment is great for $10
This would make sense if people didn't turn around and spend more than is saved on wireless headphones. I don't understand what people see in airpods (they work sufficiently but they're bleached and molded plastic; vomit, way too expensive for any possible use-case), but they're enormously successful and more than validated the removal of the jack. By like multiple orders of magnitude.
Anyway, I've definitely had waterproof phones with a headphone jack. I'm guessing they removed it just to save on space. I wish I gave a shit about the shape of the phone, but the primary difference is I view my phone as more of a toy than a tool.
"They work sufficiently" is already a high bar given experiences people had with earlier wireless headphones. They were also the very first reliable detached (split ear) headphones. And they added excellent ANC (at least in the Pro version).
As for being "bleached and molded plastic" what else would they be? Wood? Metal and genuine leather?
The only perceptual difference is that apple special-cases airpod management to ease switching of devices. They trash their own product by making such consumer-hostile ux obvious.
But for me there's just no going back - it's that big of a difference. I'll happily pay any price to have a wire-free experience. It's just magical, especially as someone who lives in a city and walks a lot / takes the subway / plays sports / spends time in the gym / etc.
fun fact: the 1/8th jack was never an issue with making a phone water resistant. It doesn't need to expose the internals any more than USB-C does (actually, even less).
Anyway, you can simply not run into stuff with a wire. There's nothing you can do about bluetooth glitching out randomly for five seconds. Not to mention playing the "what device is playing into my headphones" game. Wireless is for people who don't care.
Sure you can. Buy a quality headphone and transmitter device. Never had a BT issue with several airpod models (v1, v2, pro) and an iPhone for 7+ years. And I'm pretty sure most other brands have solved this by now too.
I had plenty of wired sets where you had to hold the cable just so in order to get audio to play through. Happened a ton with those cheap crappy skullcandy earbuds, but would also eventually happen with the higher quality stuff too.
Just try what most buy and report positive experience with. Do a test drive and return if not satisfied. Try a friend's device.
It's not rocket science.
Idk if you just became accustomed to it or what but it was my biggest pet peeve with wired headphones
The industry lives on selling units. A technology that "is not up to it" and can have several iterations re-sold as improved versions is the very thing the industry prays to God for.
I just pray we are not stuck with current versions of bluetooth in perpetuity. What a nightmare.
Since APPL and the rest have trillion dollar market caps, it appears to work fine so far