AirPods succeed by not selling you a new pair
victorwynne.com
victorwynne.com
My AirPods Pro first gen are nearly 6 years old, same use up till I gave them to my wife. She uses them less, but they are still going strong as well.
I just wish the tips fit my ears better. I'v resorted to having to make custom tips by placing memory foam under the large silicone tips. It's the only way I can get a decent seal. I've tried a few different third-party tips (including Comply) and none work for me.
https://www.adv-sound.com/products/eartune-fidelity-custom-f...
At the same time, I also got custom sleeping earplugs. They've been really great. It blocks all the little noises that wake you up, even partially.
I have several pair, because I thought the batteries were going too quickly.
Turns out, I should have just not left the case on the charger, all the time.
Nowadays, I just let them charge for a couple of hours, every few days, take them off the charger, and leave them in my coin tray.
I haven’t had a single battery issue, since; even on the ones I thought were “dead.”
But I think it’s a big design error, that this happens. Everything else has”smart charging.”
It’s leaving the holder on the wireless charger, that’s the problem. The holder heats up, and I think that degrades the batteries in the buds.
I wouldn't feel too bad, because that's a design flaw.
[1] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-law-more-sustainab...
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj#:~:text=Artic...
Incredible for a tiny $100 - or whatever it cost back then - battery-powered device.
There’s your problem. Batteries are just like engines - dies when you don’t use them.
But at the same time, I know that most Apple users nowadays are sheep following trends so whatever...
Also, I feel like the change to not charge the airbuds themselves fully unless required has really made a difference, at least subjectively.
I still love Apple products, but under Tim Cook, it feels like they care more about margins than customers.
[0] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250494933?sortBy=rank
But I guess that's why quality has been allowed to decrease - the customers aren't leaving, myself included, so why would they bother until it's a real danger to their marketshare.
edit I'm also not sure who to put the blame on for software quality. I'm not entirely sure if it's Cook's direction, Craig, or a combination of a changing culture within Apple.
They care about customers, as long as happy customers means more profits. If they can make more money (long term) screwing you over, that's what they'll be doing.
For example: Apple Stores often had long lines of people buying cables and adapters until EU regulation forced Apple's iphones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU include USB‑C by end of 2024. Apple initially resisted.
Apple forced new and loyal customers to buy extra adapters just to do basic stuff:
- They removed the headphone jack
- They stuck with Lightning for ages while the rest of the world moved to USB-C.
- MacBooks lost all the ports. At one point they removed HDMI, USB-A, and SD card slots. So you needed a dongle for pretty much everything.
- Apple's dongles are overpriced, they charge a premium for their adapters, even though they're basic accessories. And if you buy them from another company, they sometimes don't work.
- Travel became a pain, I had to carry 3 or 4 dongles.
- Tim Cook pulled Fortnite from the App Store, purely out of corporate greed, with no consideration for the users, who in some cases had to buy a Nintendo Switch just to keep playing.
Tim Cook is the anti–Steve Jobs. All greed, profit, and corporate nonsense. He'd be a better fit as CEO of IBM.
Because he's great at making money, not so great at keeping loyal customers happy. The only reason I’m still using Apple products is because of what Steve Jobs built with the Mac and the iPhone.
Who held the gun to your head?
You made a choice, you could have made different choices. You can still make different choices. You have agency, exercise it instead of complaining that Tim Cook is locking you to an ecosystem that you can freely leave at any time.
Did I mention I also have around 10 AirTags? I'm trying to get rid of those too, but it hasn't been easy
they would 100% made them exclusive
That 1-2 second difference paired with the system notification "your apple brand headphones are connected to another device do you wish to override?" can save a bit of headache if you're using them all day and switching a lot.
I know it was enough for me to prioritize their airpods over others that do the same.
I might have just been unlucky, but I'd be happy to hear some positive experiences because as a product (especially the Pro), it really is brilliant.
Only weird thing is that they sometimes need to be put into the charger and taken out again to for one to connect. It just seems they should be able to reset without the ceremony.
The original AirPods were great. My first pair lasted years and I replaced them due to the batteries no longer lasting a full day for conference calls and such. I passed them down to my kids and replaced them.
The AirPods Pro had some teething issues but are clearly the better product IMO. My first pair had the "crackling" issue, so Apple replaced them under warranty. My second pair was great and lasted years. I left them home when I was on a work trip, so I picked up another set and passed the older ones down again. The third set developed the "crackling" issue after about six months.
Apple replaced them no questions asked, but managed to sell me on the Max while I was at the store. I was hesitant, but yielded after they revealed that they had a pair that had been returned open but apparently unused. They seemed perfect to me, and they offered to replace the ear pads "just in case".
At $350 for the returned pair, it still felt like too much to spend on headphones - but I was willing to give it a shot. I asked if I could hang out in the store for a while and try them. No problem. About fifteen minutes later another employee approached me that seemed more "manager-like" and told me that since I had brought in a pair of AirPods Pro for warranty replacement, she could issue me a $50 credit as a loyalty perk if I wanted to buy the Max.
All told, between the open-box discount, the offered credit, and a few random bucks I had in Apple Cash (which I never use and am not even sure how they got there), I walked out with them for ~$250.
Both my daughters now have AirPod Pros and I have the Max. My wife is the only holdout in the family, with her Galaxy Buds.
When they switch to their iPhone mic, it literally sounds like the audio version of upgrading from 144p to 4K.
Apple may have already fixed this issue in newer firmware/models.
Fundamentally they are fighting an uphill battle with physics and they'll probably never win no matter how much tech is developed.
They have settled on multiple mics with noise suppression technology to try to isolate and amplify just the voice but it's still so much worse than the cheap approach of a single mic along a cable not too far from your mouth that it's laughable really.
In my opinion this is a case of tech for the sake of tech, it only exists to "fix" a perceived inconvenience (at least marketed) of having a cable but to do so it creates more inconveniences and actually degrades the experience/quality.
When you think about it, it's really marketing genius that they are able to sell them at all. Basically, selling worse audio quality (both mic and speaker) than what was available in the late 2000's at 2-3 times the price, all that to not have a cable.
I've had WH XM3 and XM4 and they're essentially the same for the most part too.
The one about battery throttling is missing a lot of context and is extremely disingenuous. Apple noticed that aging batteries couldn't provide the voltage and would crash the phone, so they reduced the speed at which the CPU could reach full frequency so they wouldn't crash the device. It didn't throttle the peak speed of the CPU, but rather how quickly it would increase its clock. It wasn't done maliciously or for planned obsolescence reasons, but rather to provide existing iPhone owners a better experience on their aging device.
1. Lost a pair 2. Lost one bud from a pair 3. Washed them 4. Swam in the ocean with them 5. Had a pair generally degrade
So I know once I buy a pair, I'm good for about a year until I need another. That's also when I tend to notice the new features. :-)
Also the bluetooth pairing / switching between devices is much saner for me.
Shhh! Don't give Apple any ideas.
It may frustrate many that this continues to be brought up as the bar when discussing apple products, but getting the old folks onto wireless headphones was impossible prior to AirPods.
I have multiple 80+ year olds in my life and they just use them. Never asked me a thing about pairing. When things go awry they go to the apple story and pay $75 for the replacements.
Some may consider this a tax. For others, it’s a premium they’re willing to pay.
This. AirPods made wireless earbuds usable for the general population. They made it friction free. You'd be surprised at how "difficult" something as simple as pairing a bluetooth device to a phone or computer is for a lot of people.
It's a tax I'm willing to pay too. Yeah, there are much better products out there, both for quality and durability, but the convenience and friction free experience if you are in the ecosystem can't be beat.
Apple et al. want the benefits of being utilities without the regulations that go with it. If my _bank_ requires me to use one of two OSs, the corporations that control them can not claim all the freedoms private companies do.