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> Where on earth would I even have to go to find a place without there being any 2.4Ghz signal interference?

Unironic answer: most airports. Even small ones will have avionics shops, those avionics shops will have to test Emergency Locator Beacons, and those beacon signals are not meant to escape to the outside world during testing.

Thus, most have Faraday rooms, cages, or just small (2-3 cubic feet) boxes to block signals. I used to work for one of those teeny-tiny companies. Would not recommend working in aviation. That said, knocking on the door and offering to come back with doughnuts if they can help you out when it's not crazy busy, feels like less an insane idea than I'd have expected previously.

> Would not recommend working in aviation

Why not?

Low pay. High stress. High responsibility. You can't report a lot of health problems(anything mental health will get your license taken away).

Aviation is expensive and shitty. The FAA is a garbage organization that covers it's own ass first.

Agreed to everything in the first paragraph - second isn't something I can speak to as a Canadian. Came back to say you forgot the boom-bust cycle and the constant layoffs that come with it. Would like to reiterate on the stress and (corresponding) responsibility too, with again, the low pay not helping.

Can't say how glad I am to be out of aviation. I will say that it can play well on dating apps though - it can be dressed up to look very nice

Sure there are places. But if you're an average consumer I doubt that you would be thrilled to book a gateway room to update your device...

I also have a pair of XM4s. I installed the app briefly when I first got them so I could turn off the voice notifications on connection/mode change, and then immediately uninstalled it and have never needed it again. Why on earth would I want to update the firmware on my perfectly working headphones?

What if they release a firmware update that ads “immersive advertisements” to your audio? I’d hate to miss out on that.

"Want a break from the ads?"

The app enables other features like changing EQs, etc.

Yeah, I'm not sure why I'd want that on my headphones themselves. I just set it to a neutral EQ during initial setup, and now I change the EQs elsewhere in the audio pipeline (music app, mixer, etc) just like we were all doing before the advent of headphones with their own apps.

None of my headphones have firmware to update. They connect with copper (8000BCE) wires (1830CE) to a 3.5mm jack (1950CE) based on a 1/4" phone plug (1890CE). Some of them use neodymium (1885CE) magnets.

If I want equalization or convolution I apply them upstream shortly after decoding.

The EQ settings should depend on what you device you are using to listen - your headphones or your phone's internal speaker - according to their natural response curves.

I don't think major music listening apps will switch your EQ automatically settings based on your listening device. So either you are doing that manually every time you switch devices, or you set your headphone EQ directly.

In any case, the software around this is not clean, and has lots of room for improvement.

I use EQ only to get speakers to a more baseline neutral response so it makes sense to set them on the device themselves.

I’ve had to set EQ on Bluetooth speakers themselves that didn’t sound so good out of the box.

Though at that point I rather throw away the speakers and get better ones…

How is the audio compression codec[0] negotiated between the phone and the headphones over Bluetooth? IIRC, Sony supports higher quality codes outside of the standard BT required ones. Is the app required for that negotiation or is it all in the operating system now?

[0] There is no lossless high quality audio over BT, only a bunch of lossy codecs.

IIRC, the app isn't actively involved in bluetooth audio negotiations, but it does allow you to change settings within the headphones around what codecs it will advertise support for and prefer to use. Those settings have reasonable defaults and any changes you make persist on the headphones even if you uninstall the app.

Actual answer: better ANC. ANC algorithm improvements are one of the more common items I've seen in headphone firmware changelogs. Also, Bluetooth upgrades. I can't remember which, but one of my pairs of headphones gained multipoint support a year or so after release via a software update.

Or worse ANC.

On the Bose 700 headphones there was quite a bit of controversy after many users reported the ANC performance getting worse after an update. This was a few years after the headphones were released, so there were theories of it being intentional degradation to get people to upgrade.

Personally I didn't notice any difference. Bose denied any wrongdoing and seemed to spend real effort on investigating the customer complains.

* Resolves Bluetooth security issues (17 October 2024)

* Enhances the security features of the system software

* Improves Bluetooth connection stability

* Improves the hands-free calling quality

* Fixes an issue where the headphones cannot be paired on a Windows computer

* Fixes an issue where, when there are 2 Bluetooth devices connected at the same time, the connected devices repeatedly disconnect and reconnect

* Improves general performance of the headphones

Only 5th and 6th to be believed. Every time a manufacturer says vague descriptions like "security" or "performance" fixes, be wary - they probably removing perfectly working functionality for "reasons".

If it was something that really added value to the user they would mention it specifically (like on the 5th and 6th items).

I have a Dell laptop that mentioned such vague "improvements". After updating the firmware I couldn't undervolt anymore. Luckily I was able to downgrade.

> Every time a manufacturer says vague descriptions like "security" or "performance" fixes, be wary - they probably removing perfectly working functionality for "reasons"

I have a pair of WF-1000XM3s and this is painfully true. ANC was brilliant on these until I naively updated, and whoosh - instantly and grossly degraded ANC, to the point I previously almost didn't hear people talking at distance, keyboard chatter, city traffic etc. and now I do, no matter the app settings.

I wanted to upgrade to the in-ear XM4s, but after this? NEVER again Sony. At least for portable audio. I got instead a pair of cheap QCY HT07s (then $28, now ~$20) and got quite surprised with ANC performance on these: easily beats the crap of the XM3s-on-latest-firmware, and gets close to the previous one in audio quality. Which is a lot to say about Sony "updates".

updates are malware

Because a version 1.0 of anything predates power management bugs fixed in 1.28, massive connection improvement in 1.33, basic compatibility fix in 1.57, whole load of problems added in 2.00.00 and binary signature enforcement added at some point(not real world examples).

By the way, Sony wearable products make use of their proprietary NN inference library called Nnabla, with a free helper GUI app Neural Network Console for Windows that can export low-code code into Spresense board codes. It is apparently used across the brand for tiny and transparent features like on-head detection through accelerometers. Not super related, but just so you know...

The firmware update does fix/cause battery issues depends on your batch. The wf-1000xm4 changed the battery model(thus voltage) it's using. And update the firmware to match the new battery model. However the new firmware did not handle different type of battery correctly. And damaged quite a few devices with incorrect voltage setting. (Some devices are also preload with these incorrect config) There is a firmware update to correct this setting problem.

My girlfriend had to wear a sleep monitoring device, and the instructions also had stuff to that effect. including putting all phones in airplane mode and unplug any assistant speaker things you might have. I assume the real purpose of this is to make you actually sleep. But they claimed it was to make the data collect properly...

It’s much more just typical manufacturer trying to avoid liability. It costs them nothing to say don’t do that, and if it cuts tech support costs by 1%.

The key is to call in and ask how to put your device in airplane mode ;)

I love when I last called my cell phone carrier and they asked me to try putting my phone in airplane mode. I said "wouldn't that disconnect the call?", they went "no it will not", and guess what happened when I turned on airplane mode.

they obviously knew that was going to happen and so did you. The correct response should have been "okay I am in airplane mode now what?"

yeah, I normally use that trick for other stuff, but I guess I was just especially gullible at that moment. If it really was just some ploy to get me off the line because they just didn't want to talk to me or something, well that's hilarious honestly, I wouldn't even be mad at them for that.

I think it's a ploy. I shared your comment with a friend who works in a call center and agents have been known to resort to shenanigans to get rid of a call (or just take a break). In her specific case they had a combined support/sales line where you get commission for sales but not for support, so if someone is just ranting at you about some issue you have no power to fix, you might be tempted to unplug your phone's Ethernet cable and re-roll for a new call that might be sales instead of support. Could easily be the same thing for cell phone providers, though this was a hotel chain.

The real reason is that Bluetooth is awful for data transmission and the bitrate absolutely plummets when there's crosstalk. I live in an older building with a ton of interference on the 2.4GHz band (WiFi, BT beacons, "smart" appliances) and updating any device over bluetooth is impossible.

The new models actually handle update much better. The update is way slower (requires about 1 hour) compare to old model. But it allows you to continue using it while update. (It probably rate limited itself?)

Perhaps you could stick the phone and earbuds in a (non-running) microwave. They keep 2.4GHz in just fine, and Faraday cages don't discriminate based on direction.

You might have to line the inner walls with something to prevent the signal from bouncing back? I'm not sure.

Where on earth would I even have to go to find a place without there being any 2.4Ghz signal interference?

Inside a microwave oven.

Actually doesn't work particularly well. I suspect signal reflections destroy the signal.

You get similar problems in other larger metal boxes, eg caravans. In a caravan, short high data rate packets are transmitted properly, but bigger packets get lost because they interfere with a reflection off an internal wall.

> In any case, it's mind boggling how a multi billion dollar company lacks proper rollout strategies.

Having worked for several billion-dollar companies, I can tell you it's very common. The extremely short answer to why is "silos on silos on silos on silos". Quite often, each team rolls things out however the hell they feel like. And the teams don't have very good people on them. It doesn't have to be this way, but the people at these companies simply don't give a shit about doing it in a better way. Bad leadership ensures it continues.

a faraday cage should do the trick