"Earbuds without a wire" is a reductive characterization of the AirPods. The audio delivery mechanism leads to a bunch of quality-of-life changes:

- You don't need your device on your person. I leave my iPhone around the house somewhere and use these while cooking, or run with AirPods + Apple Watch (cellular not required, I just download podcasts or audiobooks).

- You are not tethered to a listening device. I don't worry about the cable catching on kitchen drawer handles or gym equipment (this happened to me way more often than every 6 months). I can jump from phone podcasts to a video call with a few clicks or taps, instead of changing headphones or transferring cables.

- Your call quality improves dramatically from wired headphones. Others are complaining about background noise, but wired headphones are far worse, with their microphones on their remotes (IIRC). I hated "speaking up" by holding the little remote to my mouth.

The concerns you mention are also minimal in practice. The case has excellent battery life, requiring a charge only weekly or so. If you're on a streak of calls, you can charge one AirPod at a time to stay connected. I have also used mine for over 18 months almost daily, and the battery has been fine.

Are AirPods a convenience? Yes. But there's always a market for convenience.

> If you're on a streak of calls, you can charge one AirPod at a time to stay connected.

Does this work? Nice tip, thanks

Yup :)

It is still $160 for the airpods, and $200 if you want wireless charging. Tapping the Airpod, uou still have 2 controls vs. the 5 with an inline mic. You can almost say 3 controls since pulling one out of your ear acts as play/pause.

Mine were a gift, but I'll likely drop $160 on a set in the future if these crap out in a year or two.

About once a week, I used to get my wire snagged and it would sometimes yank my phone out of my pocket. Luckily it was on carpet and I had a case on it so there wasn't any damage.

More importantly, the convenience has been well worth it. Even if I'm just saving 30s a day untangling, that is worth the price to me over a few years. Throw in being able to sleep with one pod in and my phone plugged in across the room and this has might be my favorite and most used gadget of the past few years.

Note that even at relatively low volumes, sleeping while listening to something can cause hearing damage. There's an interaction between both the volume and the duration of sound exposure. If you're using your device to drown out other sounds, that might be too loud.

Thanks, I just use it on a timer to listen to something for 15 min as I fall asleep.

Why does this happen at low volumes?

I used to replace my Apple headphones every year, these ones going to seem to last forever(except battery).

Still disappointed they haven’t added more feaures, especially as competition getting hotter...