News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by askafriend on Friday November 02, 2018 @03:05PM (#18365767)
I'm sorry but to anyone who's actually tried and lived with AirPods, there's no going back and there's no comparison to anything on the market at any price (even at a higher price).

It's so drastically better than anything on the market, that I'll immediately buy a new pair if I lose my current ones. I wouldn't even think twice about the price.

There is no other headphones on the market where I can play 1:1 basketball for hours, have the headphones never fall out, and I don't even notice I have them on the entire time. They're a part of me. I literally forget that I have them in my ears, and they easily switch between all of the devices in my life in a way no other headphones do. It's a signficant quality of life improvement for me.

Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by samfisher83 on Friday November 02, 2018 @03:33PM (#18366013)
The airpods I used a couple times fell out when I was running.
Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by askafriend on Friday November 02, 2018 @03:48PM (#18366132)
That's fair - I have a coworker whose ears are shaped weirdly and he cannot use AirPods at all (or even the previous wired EarPods, for that matter)

It's a one-size-fits-all design and if it's a little off you're kinda out of luck. They fit me perfectly though which is one of the things that blew my mind initially. I didn't realize how many of previous fit issues were a result of having a cord that tugs when you make any movements.

Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by marpstar on Friday November 02, 2018 @03:56PM (#18366198)
I don't know if Apple changed the shape for AirPods (they look very similar to the EarPods) but the AirPods stay in my ears so much better, it's night and day. I've been attributing it to the weight/tug of the cable.
Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by sridca on Saturday November 03, 2018 @09:25AM (#18370060)
They have terrible fit for my ears.
Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by lh7777 on Friday November 02, 2018 @04:32PM (#18366467)
I'd never understood the appeal of wireless headphones, and I guess I kind of do now that I have AirPods. Mine fit fine and stay in while running, but that's the only use I've found for them. Anywhere else and I'd much rather use my 15 year old Sennheiser earbuds because I have so many problems with the AirPods:

* like pretty much all Apple earbuds, they don't seal to my ear so they're totally useless in loud places like airplanes (my #1 use case for headphones)

* audio frequently drops out, especially when outside (and there's nothing for the bluetooth signal to reflect off of)

* terrible mic quality for phone calls

* unreliable pairing to my Surface Pro

* one more thing for me to forget to charge

Some of this is anecdata and maybe I just have lemon AirPods, but my experience has been very far from "there's no going back and there's no comparison". I'd sell them without reservation if I didn't feel weird in general about selling earbuds.

Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by askafriend on Friday November 02, 2018 @04:43PM (#18366568)
You should take them into the Apple store.

A couple of those points are not my experience at all. My audio never drops out unless I'm far out of range or in a weird weather environment and my mic quality is excellent (in fact, I take calls regularly).

Re:Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord by lh7777 on Friday November 02, 2018 @06:27PM (#18367248)
They're over a year old, so probably not worth the trouble. Just dug the AirPods out of the junk drawer and they seem to be working better than I recall. Recently got a new iPhone, so perhaps some of my problems were the old phone's fault instead of the AirPods. I don't have any other bluetooth devices so there wouldn't have been anything else to tip me off.