People rarely criticize Apple for the products themselves. Apple gets criticism because of the "weird" (for lack of a better word) restrictions on the products. I've stopped using a Mac for quite a while now - but I recall examples - when the first Macbooks came without a optical drive you could buy an external one. But it will only work with _that particular Macbook model_ (after googling around I found that you could send a magic SCSI string to make it work). There is no iPhone with a SD card slot - my dad _LOVED_ iOS and his iPhone 6S but he had to switch to an Android phone so that he can use a 500GB SD card to store all his photos (he wants _ALL_ his photos available locally on the phone, so cloud sync is not an option).
I could go on. Apple makes some amazing products, but then adds quirks that makes the amaze short lived.
The headphone jack on the phone, I can actually see it. Not a lot of real estate inside a phone, and they wanted people to try AirPods (which I love, and might not have tried if it weren't for the missing jack).
But... no headphone jack on a 13" tablet? I edit movies on there sometimes and I grumble every time I dust off the dongle to plug in a mic for voiceovers.
But, no, people criticize Apple for everything they can think of. It's one of those companies where there's a set of people who, for whatever weird reason, have decided it's the enemy. They're against Apple and everything it stands for.
It's strange, I think the only company I feel that way about is Facebook. Maybe because phones are the most intimate things we own, they become part of our identities?
This is especially dumb from Apple considering the number of pro audio apps marketed for the iPad that require the use of a wired connection for latency reasons. (no, Bluetooth audio will never have low enough latency for music production)
I think it's because Apple competitors try to copy the look and feel (round corners, hiding stuff away, make it convoluted to get to advanced settings to make the settings look less "intimidating") to try to pull Apple userbase and it waters down the experience for the people who are against Apple.
iPhone got thicker and bigger when they removed the headphone jack.
Although personally i think there still should be one, and a headphone jack!
Even the immense photo and video/graphics userbase of Apple wasn't enough to stop the SD card slot removal. :-(
Apple prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrducts smetimes prrrrrevent them frrrrrrrrrm ding s
Edit: after more reading I believe the main difference is the sensors in the Airpods Pro track head movement. For instance the virtual center (dialog speaker) would always appear to be coming from the display device, even if you move or tilt your head.
As for comparing the two... the iOS one is absolutely better, but the VLC one is still a really nice improvement. But it's definitely not just the head tracking. The VLC one somehow feels like it spreads the audio out "horizontally", so background sound comes from outside the head, but people speaking still sound "between my ears". Whereas with iOS, the people speaking genuinely sound like they're in front of me -- it puts the center audio forwards -- and nothing sounds "between my ears".
I would guess Apple can produce something superior because they know the exact shape and positioning of their own headphones, as opposed to a generic stereo headphone plugin?
Not to mention, of course, the lack of head tracking in VLC. I just researched Dolby Atmos for Headphones to compare, and it looks intriguing but appears to be Windows only.
Sony's Mark Cerny had a fascinating talk on PS5's spatial audio implementation. Sony might even support importing a custom-measured HRTF for even greater sound placement accuracy. No idea where you'd get it measured though!
You can buy silicon flaps that slip over the top and will keep them comfortably in your ear. The problem is that they don’t fit in the case with the flaps on.
I haven’t tried AirPod Pros but I assume they are better in this regard.
I actually have no problem with the origin AirPods, but the AirPod Pros always slip out of my ear. The former relies on the shape of your ear to hold it in, the latter relies on friction of the insert in your ear canal; and I guess my ears are just unusually slippery. I've tried all the different sizes, and not found anything that works. When I'm working out or cycling I always use the original AirPods.
YMMV of course.
But the worst is that sometimes my own voice resonates back in my ear, its hard to describe but very unpleasant and disturbing in a conversation.
Like you it’s worse in my left ear too.
That earbud style just fundamentally doesn’t work for some anatomical reason in a percentage of the population.
Does anybody else with "wrong" ears used to get awful outside ear pain with the old all plastic iPhone earbuds? I physically cringe in pain just looking at them.
I've tried cheap ones, I've tried expensive ones, I've tried swappable tips. Nope.
I also hate the Darth Vader soundtrack I get when I shove in-ear plugs in my head. I can hear every single breath I take.
Regular old AirPods though? They stick to my ears like glue.
People have different shaped ears, no one model can fit everyone. Even over the ear headphones differ on how they fit people with glasses. PortaPros are a complete no-no for me for example. Great headphones, absolute nope with glasses.
Airpods Pro are awesome in terms of sound and features, but no matter which of the included eartips I use for it, they always tend to wiggle out. Never fully to the point of falling out, but plenty of times it got to that weird in-between stage of falling out and staying in. No idea why. Hopefully there are more third party eartips available for Airpods Pro now as opposed to the last time I checked (which was just a month or two after the release), so I can finally find a pair that makes them stay in.
LifeHacker put out a guide a few hours ago about which streaming services support it on their iOS app [1], the upshot being:
Supported: Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max
Not yet supported: Netflix, Prime Video, Showtime Anytime, PBS, TNT
[1] https://lifehacker.com/which-apple-devices-and-video-service...
I agree. Some solutions from Apple are uniquely wonderful.
Imagine if they opened up this feature for 3p companies like Netflix. And let’s suppose Netflix commissions original content that is tailor made to take advantage of this type of audio. Of course, Netflix would benefit from increased subscribers and one could argue Apple would benefit from the availability of the content too — more people likely to buy airpods.
However, I’m personally convinced that Apple’s 30% commission charge to Netflix is completely justified. After all, they’re taking advantage of an end to end solution built by Apple. But of course, Netflix could bypass the IAP policy and not past the benefits into Apple. But I’m just using Netflix as an example. Any 3p app such as game or music app or movie app would benefit from this feature.
I only bring up the 30% point because it’s been make headlines recently and the hn community also has been vocal on the topic.
(Disclaimer: I don’t know enough about the spatial audio feature to say if it works with apps like Netflix or not. I’m presuming it doesn’t for illustrating my argument.)
Maybe it comes with Big Sur?
What about when using the AppleTV? (This question isn't really for crazygringo who wouldn't be using the Mac to watch video if they owned an appleTV.)
Being pedantic here: it is not actually free for you. The costs of improvements delivered through software updates are built into the original price you paid for it through deferred revenues and "subscription accounting". [1] In other words, Apple is not subsidizing new feature delivery from other sources of revenue or from debts. This came from the collective AirPod Pro users' pockets.
Accounting (and the related legality) aside, it is great to see hardware products get enhancements and a longer useful life through such means (whenever it happens).
[1]: https://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/01/apple-now-sitting...
...and it's stunning. Seriously. It's actually three separate features in one. First, all the audio is outside of you rather than stuck between your ears. Second, it's surround sound so that dialog actually comes from your iPad, while music comes from all around. And third, it tracks, so if you look left the dialog all comes from your right AirPod -- and it's positively disconcerting it's so real. I thought for a second all the sound was actually coming out of my iPad and, oh crap, I have to turn it down not to bother the neighbors! Before realizing... oh my god it's actually that realistic.
So not only does it blow me away technologically, but also that I got it as a free upgrade almost a year after buying the headphones! People love to criticize Apple, but man do they do some wonderful things for their customers.
Now I'm just so disappointed the feature is iOS-only, and not for Macs. I watch all my TV on a projector hooked up to my Mac, and man... if I had spatial audio while viewing that... I can't even imagine. It would beat any movie theater I've ever been to. (And sadly, iPad HDMI output is low-quality, as it heavily compresses the output.)
My understanding is they don't support Macs because they don't have accelerometers/gyroscopes so the AirPods wouldn't know what they were relative to spatially. But man, I'd be happy just for a button I could click that says "my head is looking directly at the screen now". Wouldn't that be enough? But there's no mention of it being in Big Sur, so oh well...