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Comment by StopDisinfo910 | Hacker News Reader

The contrary is literally written in a large yellow box on the page you linked: “Note: Google Translate works with all Assistant-optimized headphones and Android phones.”

But I mean, you are free to buy overpriced Apple headphones which sounds worse than Sony, only properly works paired with an Apple phone or laptop and whose killer feature was available on their competitors buds years ago if that rocks your boat.

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I have both a pair of the over ear Sony XM4’s and AirPods Pro 2 and I’m not sure I’d characterize the Sony’s sound as “better”, even when using lossless audio. They sound good but the sound profile is mostly just different, with the Sony’s leaning more bassy and the AirPods more balanced.

The noise cancellation are neck and neck but the AirPods had much less of that “pressure” sensation when using it. AirPods transparency is just plain better. Comfort for long use sessions is better on the Sony’s. Mic is better on the AirPods.

There's no EQ in the Sony iPhone app?

There is, but I haven’t had the patience to tweak that. My phone also isn’t the device that I usually use those headphones with.

You didn’t look at the prices of other “Google assistant” compatible headphones did you?

And those Sony ones aren’t cheap.

The first review I found comparing them..

https://wasteofserver.com/sony-wf-1000xm4-vs-apple/

Why would I want to by a none Apple laptop with horrible battery life, loud, and that produces enough heat to ensure that I don’t have offspring if I actually put it on my lap?

Over the course of this thread your argument went from "It's not technically possible" and "they will have to train their own models" to "I don't want to buy certain devices".

No I said it wasn’t technically possible on any cheap headphones because while the processing was done on the phone, the audio capture was done by the outside microphones on Apple headphones that have ANC and even the older ones of those required Apple to update the firmware on its own AirPods working in concert.

This is no different than Google not supporting just any old headphones.

Then the argument came that Apple’s AirPods are “overpriced” even though the cheapest AirPods that support it - AirPods 4 with ANC are in the same price range as Google’s and cheaper than the worse sounding and more expensive Sony Earbuds.

I prefer the Apple ecosystem myself but the Sony WF-1000XM are frequently available on sale (refurb WF-1000XM5 are $110 right now). I used to have the WH-1000XM3 (over the ear) and those are good too.

The whole argument seems kind of silly. Just buy the platform you want that has the features you want. If the European thinks Apple is overpriced then it's no harm that they aren't bringing features to Europe. He wasn't going to buy them and now is going to not buy them even harder.

As a reminder, the initial argument was that Apple doesn’t bring their feature to Europe because they would have to open it via an API to their competitors. Someone replied that it’s not a refusal but a technical impossibility which is easily countered by Google having done just that for years. The fact that it’s heavily downvoted despite being factually completely correct is actually hilarious to me.

The rest, which is to say that everything Apple sells beside laptops is subpar, their strategy regarding European regulations deprive them of any credibility when they pretend to care about consumers and their prices conversion in Europe is daylight robbery, is just my opinion and accessory to the discussion. I just couldn’t help myself.

No one said it’s a “technical impossibility”. The original statement was that it wouldn’t work on any cheap headphones. It’s assumed that you thought the iPhone was capturing the audio. Even then, there was some work done between the headphones and the phone and the firmware of the AirPods 2 had to be updated.

You aren’t going to save any money by getting a pair of $50 ANC headphones and hoping they work with the system - the Android variant doesn’t.

> It’s assumed that you thought the iPhone was capturing the audio.

Absolutely not. It assumed the AirPods Pro 2 unique processing was required which it clearly isn’t.

Nobody ever talked about saving money.

The whole discussion is about the EU mandating Apple play fair which would mean letting competitors access their phone processing exactly like Google is already doing.

> Nobody ever talked about saving money.

You didn’t say this?

> But I mean, you are free to buy overpriced Apple headphones

> which sounds worse than Sony,

And the Sony headphones sound worse and are more expensive.

> only properly works paired with an Apple phone or laptop

Which also isn’t true.

The fact that I rightfully qualify Apple products as overpriced don’t magically make the discussion about saving money.

Sony headphones sounds noticeably better than AirPods Pro 2 by the way and their EQ is better. AirPods have great noise cancellation but their sound quality is not that great.

> > only properly works paired with an Apple phone or laptop

> Which also isn’t true.

Care to explain to me how I set what presses do on AirPods without an Apple product. How do I disable noise cancellation and pass through? Where do I setup the level of noise cancellation?

Yes, exactly.

So noise cancelling headphones that are worse at noise cancelling are better?

And the headphones are “overpriced” even though they are the same price as comparable devices that have worse ANC?

And a simple Google search tells you how to pair AirPods to none Apple devices

https://support.apple.com/en-sg/guide/airpods/dev499c9718b/w...

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