Methinks HWEng made a breach in Industrial Design's north flank, and provoked a rout. The tide is turning!

“Oh my god! The engineers are revolting!”

“You’ve worked here all these years and you only just noticed that?”

Why does this feel (in a fun and positively humorous way) like something pulled straight out of Douglas Coupland's "J-Pod"?

Love the picture, but I think it's the opposite: engineering's defence of the announce-o-tron went down for a moment, design pushed into the breach and gained a brief moment of unsupervised access. Now they face the consequences.

You're giving me flashbacks of Tesla's beleaguered engineering team.

Were it "just like others with their markup", why would people pay more for the same thing?

Quality materials, nicer fit and finish, no obnoxious blue LEDs...

> no obnoxious blue LEDs...

:) True! But for $10 I'll live with it.

Then again, not everyone wants the same thing, just like some people value their annoyance much higher than others (making a more expensive purchase actually turn out less expensive).

People are weird. But that is fine.

To me, the AirPower mat seems like a really hard thing to make. Qi charging needs concentric coils, but AirPower as a Mat needs a reconfigurable matrix to do what it needs to do.

A piece of color matching electrical tape does wonders.

well yeah but applying electrical tape to a product does kinda ruin its aesthetic in almost all cases don’t ya think

Another option is nail polish. It comes in plenty of colors and you can add a thin layer of polish to make the LED dimmer but not totally blacked out.

There's a reason you find a matching color and cut the smallest piece that covers the LED, I haven't seen any aesthetics ruined by tape if they already have an ungodly bright blue LED indicator.

I have a set of various colors of electrical tape. If the color is even close to the same, you can't even tell it was there unless you are looking for it.

Quality, QA, Design, Branding.

That is like asking why are people buying lightning connector from Apple where there are cheaper options.

That's branding 101. Conspicuous consumption, perceived quality due to marketing, brand loyalty ... quite a few reasons.

Same reason people buy $1500 plastic Louis Vuitton handbags and belts.

Apple doesn't release products that have no distinguishing features other than "made by Apple in Cupertino". Accessories without distinguishing features they prefer to just work with third parties on (such as Belkin). In fact, I'd wager that this particular Belkin charger was done in cooperation with Apple: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HLZ42/belkin-boost-up-spe...

What is the differentiator for the $39 silicone iPhone cases?

I bought a cheaply iPhone case for my XR. Fell apart after a few months. Bought another. The edge around the screen and camera was not raised enough. I got the one I have now on sale, but it retails for like $30 plus. It’s also the best one so far.

Cases are like cables. You need to have them available, and the only way to guarantee that they're available is to make them yourself (given that they're not based on industry standards). If case you bought 2 years ago still fit on the new phone today, then there's not much pressure for Apple to have a case, but since cases are tied to specific phone designs and form-factors, the only way to guarantee high-quality cases available at launch is to make them.

It occurs to me, cases are also like chargers. Nobody questions why apple sells their own USB-C charger even though you could in theory use a generic USB-C charger.

They've been going 2 generations with each form factor. 7/8 were identical, X and XS are identical. I do appreciate that, even though I don't update every gen anyway (or even every two).

Or a credit card ;)

Designed by Apple in Cupertino

Made in China

Not sure I agree. AirPods really have almost no distinguishing features from other earphones. They’re generally worse. The only “feature” is seeing their charge on your phone, which is a pretty lousy differentiator.

You are, in all seriousness, the only person I have ever seen declare that AirPods are worse than other competing earphones. AirPods have one of the higher consumer satisfaction ratings ever, and anecdotally everybody I've ever seen talk about them absolutely loves them, even people who are normally very critical of Apple.

I never tried the AirPods so I can't comment on their quality, though I'm all for wired ones so it won't happen anytime soon. Quality aside, psychology can explain a things or two on why people absolutely love what they spend money on.

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/19/fanboyism-and-brand-...

But then everybody who bought anything (that at least worked) would love it. This theory has no explanatory power to distinguish why any particular company has higher that average satisfaction ratings.

I shouldn't post replies when in a hurry (just like now:). I left out some important details: the point was why sometimes people end up loving stuff they spend a lot of money on, to the point they become fanboys even when the item purchased albeit good doesn't deserve that. I'm not bashing Apple, this happens in a lot of contexts, take for example the audiophool world. Are those hundreds €/$ per meter audio cables good? Yes, definitely! So are they worth that price then? Asbolutely not, but people keep shoveling money at them although neither the best instruments in the world nor the best ears could tell the difference when conducting a proper blind test (aka: the famous "coat hangers cable" experiment). This is where psychology plays an important part. Back to the Airpods, they could give the best audio experience in the world -I trust Apple on this, they for sure know a few things about music- but I'm also someone who doesn't like being forced by marketing to accept excessive compromises. The Airpods batteries aren't replaceable so once they fail (a few years max) one is forced to throw them away. To me it seems a price too high to pay for eliminating the headphone port, which I use and like to have on every device. I have no doubt Apple users love their Airpods, but it's a fact that those devices are not perfect. If users accept criticism for iPhones with no user replaceable batteries I would expect the same open mindset about the Airpods.

disclaimer: always in a hurry... girlfriend getting out of the train in 35 minutes and I have to drive to get there.

> The only “feature” is seeing their charge on your phone

FWIW there are many Bluetooth headphones that show their charge on your phone, it's a standard Bluetooth feature.

>AirPods really have almost no distinguishing features from other earphones.

You've got to be kidding. The kind of pairing made possible by Apple's W1 chip, and the completely cordless design, was absolutely and undeniably groundbreaking when the AirPods were first released. Even now you'd be hardpressed to find a pair of earphones that work as smoothly and seamlessly as AirPods do.

Is there another brand that pauses your music/audiobook when you take them out? If so I'd like to try it; AirPods don't fit my ears well (fall out when I bend forward.)

The iCloud pairing and tap-controls are nice, but I guess I could live without them.

Jabra Elite 65t does that and they are absolutely amazing.

I don't know what it's called but someone sells a silicone attachment for the AirPods that anchors it inside your ear. I know this because one of my coworkers has it.

There were at most 1 or 2 semi-equivalent products when they came out. Some have caught up with the specs, but fewer with the easy switching between devices.