10 ms·

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but f

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but feel good about the innovation it took to make it as easy to use and comfortable. * If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. * They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) * Lasts reasonable amount of time on its battery and quickly charges while in case. I could not get this experience ever before and honestly, even after I have had it for a year. I don't know of a better competition to it. But, letting the Mac lineup vanquish with old internals for years and gouging prices on soldered SSDs and memory - no excuse, that's just shitty.

izzydata 8y ago
All those terrible things would be fine if people stopped buying them. You vote for what you want with money and if people are willing to buy terrible things then they will continue making it.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  People aren't buying terrible things, they're buying the best thing available to them. Edit: Samsung/Microsoft/Google are free to come up with their own ecosystem and quality hardware devices that don't have the drawbacks that Apple's do. But for some reason they don't.
  - Green_man 8y ago
    edit: Apple isn't the best choice. (previously: I think it's increasingly obvious that for everyone except osx stans, it's not the best choice available) and it hasn't been for a long time. Apple was at their peak imo with the MacBook pro a generation or two back. They took out the disk drive (everyone said that was radical, but hadn't used it in years) and worked with the single piece of aluminum. Nowadays, that's not just familiar, it's pedestrian. There's plenty of options in the PC world that have that. What has apple done since? Removed magsafe and usb a??? Made the worst laptop keyboard to be on a flagship in memory? It used to be that Apple was the only place you could get great design, a phenomenal screen, and good battery life in the same package. But other manufacturers (especially Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft) have seriously stepped up.
    - d35007 8y ago
      > I think it's increasingly obvious that for everyone except osx stans, it's not the best choice available, and it hasn't been for a long time The problem with arguments like this is that they're self-reinforcing. If I try to refute it, you'll just peg me as an "osxistan" (is that a country?) and say I've proven you right.
      - Green_man 8y ago
        thats a fair criticism, i'll consider rewording (stan is a reference to a superfan of eminems, from his song stan). alternatively, you could of course explain why you think apple laptops are the best choice still in 2018(if that's how you feel), its not as if i didn't have some reasoning in my comment that you are free to clash with.
        vogon_laureate 8y ago
        I have a Macbook Pro with touch bar and a Dell XPS. Windows seems to have endless updates and little control over them. Drivers are a pain, bios updates seem to be really important. Blue screens. Unreliable Bluetooth. I've had dell support need to replace almost everything in that machine. And this is supposed to be one of the best Windows laptops. After six months of struggle with the Dell, I got a MBP. I actually love the keyboard. The speakers are amazing. The trackpad is the industry best. Bluetooth works perfectly. The screen is gorgeous, the build quality is unmatched, and Mac OS is intuitive, clutter free, and stable. Night and day difference between them.
        Green_man 8y ago
        I think windows updates are the worst part of windows, with apple, it seems to be fanfare to new features, with occasional bugs, but with windows, its not communicated to the user what's being fixed, or how long it will take until it begins. the experiance with the dell bluescreen on a new machine is unacceptable, full stop. at the same time, i'd be terrified of the possibility of the macbook pro keyboard bricking at any time. do you miss USB A?
  - gaius 8y ago
    But for some reason they don't. Microsoft are adding headphones to the Surface range very soon, early reviews are very positive.
    - bepotts 8y ago
      Windows just isn't cool, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to rebrand it. It'll never be cool until Microsoft does something to not make it ubiquitous. Windows is what you use when you're a kid at a public school or have parents that don't have the money to buy a Mac. Macs and iPhones are trendy because not everyone owns them, they're really nice, and they're pricey. Windows is like Wal-mart while Apple is Whole Foods.
      - lotsofpulp 8y ago
        Windows isn't cool because of BSODs, constant restarts and waiting for it to update, and Candy Crush advertisements in the start menu. And the hibernate/sleep function worked terribly (at least for the longest time, don't know if it's fixed now), compared to Apple's fold down the screen when you want to go and open it back up to what you were doing and it works all the time.
        bepotts 8y ago
        That too. Microsoft allows venders with terrible design teams to sell their product and customers associate Windows with these product lines. Microsoft cannot control their brand. Apple controls the entire stack so they're able to constantly deliver a quality experience. If all Windows machines were like the Surface Book then this conversation would be different.
        Wowfunhappy 8y ago
        But Microsoft themselves is now the one putting candy crush ads on the start menu, and forcing everyone into a two-major-upgrades-per-year cycle that's causing so many headaches.
        8y ago
  - izzydata 8y ago
    The idea that people think there is no better / equivalent alternative is an issue. Why people are willing to begrudgingly spend thousands on something without doing research doesn't make a lot of sense.
    - nradov 8y ago
      Often there really is no better / equivalent alternative. If you have a specific need for a particular feature then there may be only a few devices with offer it at all. So as a consumer you have a choice between buying crap or nothing at all. There's no economic way to signal that you'd be willing to pay for something better.
    - matwood 8y ago
      I do research and my couple forays into Android, while less expensive, were not good experiences. Admittedly my last Android phone was a Nexus 5, so maybe I should look again? The problem is after other poor experiences I will only get a Google phone. The Pixel 3 XL with 128gb is $999. A new iPhone Xs is 1249 for the 256gb. Is taking yet another chance on Android worth $250? How well will that Pixel 3 XL even be supported? It just isn't as simple as no one does any research.
      - izzydata 8y ago
        The negatives were mainly concerning their desktop / laptop designs and business model of said desktop / laptops.
      - rkho 8y ago
        Exactly this. I've made four attempts to consider an Android ecosystem and have owned the following: Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Note 5, and Pixel 2XL. The Nexus/Pixel phone hardware were fine, but I found that the software ecosystem was heavily lacking. I got the impression that to the majority of Android devs, UX was the last thing they cared about. The Note 5 on the other hand was one of the most disrespectful, anti-consumer experiences I had ever encountered since ditching a dumbphone years ago. The carrier I used (Verizon) felt it was appropriate to plaster its own logo on the back of the phone and in a loading splash screen when powering on the phone, plus preload the phone with a bunch of useless apps that could not be uninstalled. Every single time that I've purchased an Android device hoping that it was finally good enough, I've ended up carrying my iPhone as a secondary device within a week and either returning or throwing the Android device in the drawer within a month.
iscrewyou 8y ago
I love the fact that I can keep them in my ear and just go on my Macbook and select the output from the volume icon. I’m always amazed by that.
- Reason077 8y ago
  Yeah, that's the most annoying thing about my Sony bluetooth headphones. They really don't like to switch between my phone and my Mac.
  - icelancer 8y ago
    Bluetooth in general is so shitty about this. How iOS/Apple gets it right and no one else does is beyond me.
    - dangero 8y ago
      Tight OS integration is their advantage. Airpods can do things in ways other manufacturers cannot. The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem. Try Airpods on Windows. They aren't as simple to setup.
      - OkGoDoIt 8y ago
        While the pairing process with non-Apple devices is the slightly more cumbersome standard Bluetooth pairing process, they still switch between multiple devices much more easily than other wireless headphones I own. I just tell windows to connect to my AirPods and they connect. I tell my android phone to connect my AirPods and it connects to those instead. Often with other wireless headphones I have to fiddle with the pairing mode on the headphones to get it to allow me to connect it to a different device, even if it’s already been paired in the past. My $350 Bose wireless headphones (2018 model) can only remember pairing with two devices before it needs to be re-paired. So using it with my phone, iPad, and computer is a bit of a pain. There must be other headphone manufacturers that get this right, but the AirPods are my first experience with not being frustrated by Bluetooth headphones, and the first time I’ve found wireless headphones to be less hassle than wired headphones.
Reason077 8y ago
Part of the problem with the Mac is that Intel has been slow to make progress. Particularly when it comes to faster low-power chips, Moore's Law has been failing us for some time now. How long till Apple start putting their A-series chips in Macs?
- illumin8 8y ago
  I think it's coming very soon, perhaps in the next generation of Macbook Pros. The writing was on the wall when Apple released the new iPad Pros: https://bgr.com/2018/11/01/new-ipad-pros-speed-will-be-a-nightmare-for-qualcomm-and-intel/ https://bgr.com/2018/11/01/new-ipad-pros-speed-will-be-a-nig... I know these are synthetic benchmarks, but it's incredible to see the A12X outperform the iMac 27" Retina... These chips have the potential to blow the doors off of Intel's Core i7/i9 while having 2x the battery life.
- matwood 8y ago
  > How long till Apple start putting their A-series chips in Macs? What most people call a Mac? I'm betting 2020. If you expand your thought a bit, you could say they already have the A-series chips in a Mac with the new iPad Pros. It looks like before long Adobes creative suite will be on the iPad Pro. It has a keyboard, can hook up to external monitors, etc... And, while it still would not work for most people on HN, it is getting very close to a full computer replacement for many.
- askafriend 8y ago
  The new iPad Pro already benchmarks as high as some of their recent laptops (Yes, I know the thermals are different, etc but bear with me here) My bet is that over the years iPad Pro will expand to do more and more of the jobs that people traditionally use MacBooks (or laptops in general) to do. We'll eventually see a world where most people have iPads, not laptops - thereby relying on A-series chips, not Intel, to get their work done. iPad sales are already encroaching Mac sales, and Apple already acknowledges that for most people, the iPad is enough to be their primary computer or soon will be (you can see this in their communications and commercials). I know it might be difficult for a somewhat technical (and maybe a little bit older) community like HN to imagine, but this is one of my strong beliefs with regards to Apple's product lineup. I truly think the iPad Pro is the dark horse that no one will see coming (especially given that Apple themselves hadn't really focused on iPad deeply for the first couple years of its existence).
cowmoo728 8y ago
The word you probably intended to use is languish instead of vanquish.
chadash 8y ago
I think their biggest innovation is making devices where everything just works. Look no further than any two year old who has been exposed to an iPad to see that their interfaces are super-intuitive. Plus, unlike most manufactures, they control all the hardware plus the software, so they can make sure that the entire experience is seamless.
- hyperbovine 8y ago
  I do agree with this. When I was younger I would happily blow a whole weekend getting my window manager set just so or figuring out how to load load songs onto my Diamond Rio from RedHat. Now I’m middle aged and I’m willing to pay all sorts of $$ to have it just work in a sensible way. And work it does — nothing in android or windows land even comes close. It’s surprising how many comments I see here that are completely oblivious to this and insist on trashing apple for being “not free”. The market has spoken. Almost no one cares.
  - rorykoehler 8y ago
    I have both android and ios devices. Android is far superior for file management. Ios is a joke in that regard. Folders weren't broken but somehow ios managed to break them. Now if I want to save a random file on my ipad I have to choose a directory related to some unrelated app!? Why can't I just create a directory like I do on every other device I own?
    - hellisothers 8y ago
      why are you trying to “manage files”? More control comes at the expense of ease of use (generally) it seems like, if you can’t give up one you won’t get the other
      - rorykoehler 8y ago
        Because I need to reference files quickly on the go and can't risk not being able to access them due to poor/no internet connectivity. I also want to be able to save files that ios doesn't provide a way to save (eg download YouTube) and have now found a third party app that lets me do that. Should be a core part of ios. ITunes is shit.
antpls 8y ago
It's soon 2019, I never used any wireless earbuds/plugs and I'm doing well.
jotjotzzz 8y ago
I'll wait until the AirPods has noise-cancelling. I can't wait until Apple enters into the NC game!
- adt2bt 8y ago
  They already are in it with Beats. [1] I imagine the engineering challenge of ANC with earpods is enormous. If they can shrink that down to AirPod size, that’d be one of the biggest technological marvels they’d accomplish. 1. https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MTQW2LL/A https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MTQW2LL/A
- FabHK 8y ago
  Yeah, I carry AirPods and good old Bose noise-cancelling in-ear earphones. The AirPods are convenient eg inside, but just too permeable to sound; when there is any noise around, I have to revert to the Boses.
- threeseed 8y ago
  I don't think this will ever happen. They were designed to be used whilst people are walking around doing everyday things. That includes being near traffic where cancelling all of the noise can kill you. Expect them to do noise cancelling in over ear form as part of Beats brand similar to 1000MX3 and QC35.
wsinks 8y ago
The battery life and charging is arguably the best thing, and they do sound great, but they also have a high pitched electronic frequency in them that I've gone through a replacement and still had. Pain in the ass. I love 'em, and I want them to be better :)
rauhl 8y ago
> I could not get this experience ever before and honestly, even after I have had it for a year. I don't know of a better competition to it. Real, wired headphones. Seriously, let’s address each of your points: > If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. Whenever I plug headphones into a jack, they pair, and I needn’t worry about battery levels, because there’s no battery. > They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) Headphones sound awesome, because there’re no wireless issues, and the DAC is a good, high-quality one in the phone. > Lasts reasonable amount of time on its battery and quickly charges while in case. Headphones have an infinite battery life. And they have a service life measured in years, about a decade or so. Every time I see someone using AirPods in public, I make sure to make good, solid eye contact — and then I smirk. They’re even better than Google Glass at identifying folks who pay more for less.
- crooked-v 8y ago
  Do you also react the same to people with any of the many, many wireless headphone brands out there, or do you reserve your wannabe-cool smugness only for Apple users?
  - rauhl 8y ago
    Most wireless headphones don’t really call attention to themselves. AirPods are truly, terribly ugly, and do. Granted, taste is a subjective matter. If I’d ever noticed someone wearing the ridiculous Google Pixel Buds, I’d probably do the same thing. Life’s too short to waste on poor technology — and Bluetooth headphones are a poor replacement for headphones (and keyboards, and mice). I’m reminded a bit of those ludicrous TV infomercials: ‘Aren’t you tired of the hassle of tying your own shoes? Try new Velcro TieMasters™, and never tie a shoe again!’
- jackconnor 8y ago
  I hate it when corded headphones get caught in door handles and yank out of your ears, it's such an uncomfortable feeling. Also, i've never heard anyone admit to smirking before.
OkGoDoIt 8y ago
The AirPods are my favorite purchase I’ve made in the last several years and definitely the best new technology product I’ve seen in a long time. I use mine for hours every day and have for the last year and a half. Before I got my AirPods I had used and returned multiple other wireless earbuds and none of them hold a candle to the AirPods. And somehow the AirPods are half the price of any of those others. I’ve kept an eye on the industry and all the new things coming out and I still haven’t seen anything that has the size, battery life, functionality, range, and audio quality as AirPods at any price point. Even if you use them entirely with android/windows and don’t get any of the benefits of apple’s fancy pairing, the size, quality, and battery life are still light years ahead of any of the competition. (by quality I mean the audio doesn’t cut out except for on very rare occasions, and I can hear everything clearly whether I’m using the pair or just one. I’m not an audiophile so I’m not going to judge on that metric, but they sound great to me for music, audiobooks, podcasts, and phone calls)
- zeveb 8y ago
  > I still haven’t seen anything that has the size, battery life, functionality, range, and audio quality as AirPods at any price point Walmart has wired earbuds for under $5, which are quite small (they fit in your ears), have perpetual battery life (because they have no battery!), the same functionality (they play sound, in your ears), great range and great audio quality. And you won't have to replace them in two years. Isn't that great?
  - stuartd 8y ago
    Wired earplugs on a phone are a usability nightmare as soon as you stand up. No thanks.
    - asdff 8y ago
      Huh? Are you 8 feet tall?
      - trafnar 8y ago
matthewmacleod 8y ago
There are lots of similar features which are just really nice from a UX perspective. The whole WiFi password sharing thing is basically perfect - and underlying a lot of these features are relatively complex technologies. I agree it doesn’t excuse the lack of attention to Mac hardware though. That’s something I find absolutely baffling; I don’t understand the reason why they’re not periodically releasing newer Macs instead of letting whole chunks of the product line rot. I get that consumer devices are more profitable, but I struggle to think that they wouldn’t still make a handsome sum of money. The product lineup is still kind of spotty and weird. That said, it’s possible that the recent releases and upcoming Mac Pro will mark a bit of a change of pace on this front.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  TBH Cook seems rather miserly. There seems to be a "Bare minimum with the odd cool extra thrown in to give us a USP and maximum margins" approach, and not so much of the "How OMG wow can we make everything we do?" of the Jobs days. (Hit and miss as it was - more hits than misses, IMO.) It's a fine big pile of beans financially, but ambitions for the future UX and brand image - including support - seem to be shrinking rather than expanding.
shittyadmin 8y ago
Is there any decent data on those AirPods? I am considering them against the OnePlus Bullet Wireless if I'm forced to go this way with a new phone. Overall I'm not a big fan of the completely separated earbud style Apple went with and I'm not using them with any other Apple hardware. The OnePlus design seems better, the price is much cheaper and the charging time is much less, but if the quality isn't there then maybe the Apple ones are the way to go. I just wish they had decent objective quality numbers like I can find for even fairly cheap wired headphones via InnerFidelity. Anyone know if these are widely published for any of the wireless headphones?
- screye 8y ago
  Yes. Here it is : https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-wireless https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-wire... They have most truly wireless earphones, but the OP Bullets aren't on there yet.
  - shittyadmin 8y ago
    That's pretty disappointing, looks like they lose a lot of the lows compared to even the $20 Xiaomi Piston 3 (wired) ones I'm used to or the slightly more expensive VSonic VSD1 series. This is my biggest worry with wireless - paying a lot more money for a lot less in the quality department. Thanks for the link though, seems like good data and I'll definitely check out some other options.
    - ashildr 8y ago
      AirPods have no latency issues since the latency is taken into account when playing back video. It seems the video is belt back by the expected latency of the Bluetooth connection.
      - shittyadmin 8y ago
        Thanks, that was the impression I got on my phone - it seemed to automatically compensate for the Bluetooth delay, maybe it's more of an issue when using it on a desktop which doesn't have that functionality.
naravara 8y ago
Unless we see some major innovations in battery or display technology, I don't even know what new territory we expect Apple to pioneer at right now in smartphones. The tech press cares a whole lot about having a steady stream of new and shiny things. But I think most people want to live in a world where their relationship to technology involves just buying the best one you can afford at the time and use it until it either stops working or is no longer adequate to your needs. Then you repeat. Banking on loyalty isn't a bad thing. It means people think your product is reliable and served them well the last time they made the purchase.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  I don't expect Apple to pioneer anything in smartphones. I expect Apple to pioneer in health, home automation, anyone-can-play content distribution, robotics, non-ridiculous comfortable VR/AR, conversational AI, and customer support quality. These are all open product frontiers, and the next+++(+) iPad Pro is going to become increasingly irrelevant unless Apple develops a strong lead in at least some of them. You can see the movement being made in a few of these, but there's no evidence so far of any likely game changers in the pipeline - just slimmer and more minimal hardware, with a few OS tweaks.
biglenny 8y ago
Anyone who wears "AirPods" is a massive cookie cutter. I lose respect for people the instant I see those things in their ears
- criddell 8y ago
  Why? They're a good product.

izzydata 8y ago

All those terrible things would be fine if people stopped buying them. You vote for what you want with money and if people are willing to buy terrible things then they will continue making it.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
People aren't buying terrible things, they're buying the best thing available to them. Edit: Samsung/Microsoft/Google are free to come up with their own ecosystem and quality hardware devices that don't have the drawbacks that Apple's do. But for some reason they don't.
- Green_man 8y ago
  edit: Apple isn't the best choice. (previously: I think it's increasingly obvious that for everyone except osx stans, it's not the best choice available) and it hasn't been for a long time. Apple was at their peak imo with the MacBook pro a generation or two back. They took out the disk drive (everyone said that was radical, but hadn't used it in years) and worked with the single piece of aluminum. Nowadays, that's not just familiar, it's pedestrian. There's plenty of options in the PC world that have that. What has apple done since? Removed magsafe and usb a??? Made the worst laptop keyboard to be on a flagship in memory? It used to be that Apple was the only place you could get great design, a phenomenal screen, and good battery life in the same package. But other manufacturers (especially Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft) have seriously stepped up.
  - d35007 8y ago
    > I think it's increasingly obvious that for everyone except osx stans, it's not the best choice available, and it hasn't been for a long time The problem with arguments like this is that they're self-reinforcing. If I try to refute it, you'll just peg me as an "osxistan" (is that a country?) and say I've proven you right.
    - Green_man 8y ago
      thats a fair criticism, i'll consider rewording (stan is a reference to a superfan of eminems, from his song stan). alternatively, you could of course explain why you think apple laptops are the best choice still in 2018(if that's how you feel), its not as if i didn't have some reasoning in my comment that you are free to clash with.
      - vogon_laureate 8y ago
        I have a Macbook Pro with touch bar and a Dell XPS. Windows seems to have endless updates and little control over them. Drivers are a pain, bios updates seem to be really important. Blue screens. Unreliable Bluetooth. I've had dell support need to replace almost everything in that machine. And this is supposed to be one of the best Windows laptops. After six months of struggle with the Dell, I got a MBP. I actually love the keyboard. The speakers are amazing. The trackpad is the industry best. Bluetooth works perfectly. The screen is gorgeous, the build quality is unmatched, and Mac OS is intuitive, clutter free, and stable. Night and day difference between them.
        Green_man 8y ago
        I think windows updates are the worst part of windows, with apple, it seems to be fanfare to new features, with occasional bugs, but with windows, its not communicated to the user what's being fixed, or how long it will take until it begins. the experiance with the dell bluescreen on a new machine is unacceptable, full stop. at the same time, i'd be terrified of the possibility of the macbook pro keyboard bricking at any time. do you miss USB A?
- gaius 8y ago
  But for some reason they don't. Microsoft are adding headphones to the Surface range very soon, early reviews are very positive.
  - bepotts 8y ago
    Windows just isn't cool, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to rebrand it. It'll never be cool until Microsoft does something to not make it ubiquitous. Windows is what you use when you're a kid at a public school or have parents that don't have the money to buy a Mac. Macs and iPhones are trendy because not everyone owns them, they're really nice, and they're pricey. Windows is like Wal-mart while Apple is Whole Foods.
    - lotsofpulp 8y ago
      Windows isn't cool because of BSODs, constant restarts and waiting for it to update, and Candy Crush advertisements in the start menu. And the hibernate/sleep function worked terribly (at least for the longest time, don't know if it's fixed now), compared to Apple's fold down the screen when you want to go and open it back up to what you were doing and it works all the time.
      - bepotts 8y ago
        That too. Microsoft allows venders with terrible design teams to sell their product and customers associate Windows with these product lines. Microsoft cannot control their brand. Apple controls the entire stack so they're able to constantly deliver a quality experience. If all Windows machines were like the Surface Book then this conversation would be different.
        Wowfunhappy 8y ago
        But Microsoft themselves is now the one putting candy crush ads on the start menu, and forcing everyone into a two-major-upgrades-per-year cycle that's causing so many headaches.
      - 8y ago
- izzydata 8y ago
  The idea that people think there is no better / equivalent alternative is an issue. Why people are willing to begrudgingly spend thousands on something without doing research doesn't make a lot of sense.
  - nradov 8y ago
    Often there really is no better / equivalent alternative. If you have a specific need for a particular feature then there may be only a few devices with offer it at all. So as a consumer you have a choice between buying crap or nothing at all. There's no economic way to signal that you'd be willing to pay for something better.
  - matwood 8y ago
    I do research and my couple forays into Android, while less expensive, were not good experiences. Admittedly my last Android phone was a Nexus 5, so maybe I should look again? The problem is after other poor experiences I will only get a Google phone. The Pixel 3 XL with 128gb is $999. A new iPhone Xs is 1249 for the 256gb. Is taking yet another chance on Android worth $250? How well will that Pixel 3 XL even be supported? It just isn't as simple as no one does any research.
    - izzydata 8y ago
      The negatives were mainly concerning their desktop / laptop designs and business model of said desktop / laptops.
    - rkho 8y ago
      Exactly this. I've made four attempts to consider an Android ecosystem and have owned the following: Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Note 5, and Pixel 2XL. The Nexus/Pixel phone hardware were fine, but I found that the software ecosystem was heavily lacking. I got the impression that to the majority of Android devs, UX was the last thing they cared about. The Note 5 on the other hand was one of the most disrespectful, anti-consumer experiences I had ever encountered since ditching a dumbphone years ago. The carrier I used (Verizon) felt it was appropriate to plaster its own logo on the back of the phone and in a loading splash screen when powering on the phone, plus preload the phone with a bunch of useless apps that could not be uninstalled. Every single time that I've purchased an Android device hoping that it was finally good enough, I've ended up carrying my iPhone as a secondary device within a week and either returning or throwing the Android device in the drawer within a month.

iscrewyou 8y ago

I love the fact that I can keep them in my ear and just go on my Macbook and select the output from the volume icon. I’m always amazed by that.

Reason077 8y ago
Yeah, that's the most annoying thing about my Sony bluetooth headphones. They really don't like to switch between my phone and my Mac.
- icelancer 8y ago
  Bluetooth in general is so shitty about this. How iOS/Apple gets it right and no one else does is beyond me.
  - dangero 8y ago
    Tight OS integration is their advantage. Airpods can do things in ways other manufacturers cannot. The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem. Try Airpods on Windows. They aren't as simple to setup.
    - OkGoDoIt 8y ago
      While the pairing process with non-Apple devices is the slightly more cumbersome standard Bluetooth pairing process, they still switch between multiple devices much more easily than other wireless headphones I own. I just tell windows to connect to my AirPods and they connect. I tell my android phone to connect my AirPods and it connects to those instead. Often with other wireless headphones I have to fiddle with the pairing mode on the headphones to get it to allow me to connect it to a different device, even if it’s already been paired in the past. My $350 Bose wireless headphones (2018 model) can only remember pairing with two devices before it needs to be re-paired. So using it with my phone, iPad, and computer is a bit of a pain. There must be other headphone manufacturers that get this right, but the AirPods are my first experience with not being frustrated by Bluetooth headphones, and the first time I’ve found wireless headphones to be less hassle than wired headphones.

Reason077 8y ago

Part of the problem with the Mac is that Intel has been slow to make progress. Particularly when it comes to faster low-power chips, Moore's Law has been failing us for some time now. How long till Apple start putting their A-series chips in Macs?

illumin8 8y ago
I think it's coming very soon, perhaps in the next generation of Macbook Pros. The writing was on the wall when Apple released the new iPad Pros: https://bgr.com/2018/11/01/new-ipad-pros-speed-will-be-a-nightmare-for-qualcomm-and-intel/ https://bgr.com/2018/11/01/new-ipad-pros-speed-will-be-a-nig... I know these are synthetic benchmarks, but it's incredible to see the A12X outperform the iMac 27" Retina... These chips have the potential to blow the doors off of Intel's Core i7/i9 while having 2x the battery life.
matwood 8y ago
> How long till Apple start putting their A-series chips in Macs? What most people call a Mac? I'm betting 2020. If you expand your thought a bit, you could say they already have the A-series chips in a Mac with the new iPad Pros. It looks like before long Adobes creative suite will be on the iPad Pro. It has a keyboard, can hook up to external monitors, etc... And, while it still would not work for most people on HN, it is getting very close to a full computer replacement for many.
askafriend 8y ago
The new iPad Pro already benchmarks as high as some of their recent laptops (Yes, I know the thermals are different, etc but bear with me here) My bet is that over the years iPad Pro will expand to do more and more of the jobs that people traditionally use MacBooks (or laptops in general) to do. We'll eventually see a world where most people have iPads, not laptops - thereby relying on A-series chips, not Intel, to get their work done. iPad sales are already encroaching Mac sales, and Apple already acknowledges that for most people, the iPad is enough to be their primary computer or soon will be (you can see this in their communications and commercials). I know it might be difficult for a somewhat technical (and maybe a little bit older) community like HN to imagine, but this is one of my strong beliefs with regards to Apple's product lineup. I truly think the iPad Pro is the dark horse that no one will see coming (especially given that Apple themselves hadn't really focused on iPad deeply for the first couple years of its existence).

cowmoo728 8y ago

The word you probably intended to use is languish instead of vanquish.

chadash 8y ago

I think their biggest innovation is making devices where everything just works. Look no further than any two year old who has been exposed to an iPad to see that their interfaces are super-intuitive. Plus, unlike most manufactures, they control all the hardware plus the software, so they can make sure that the entire experience is seamless.

hyperbovine 8y ago
I do agree with this. When I was younger I would happily blow a whole weekend getting my window manager set just so or figuring out how to load load songs onto my Diamond Rio from RedHat. Now I’m middle aged and I’m willing to pay all sorts of $$ to have it just work in a sensible way. And work it does — nothing in android or windows land even comes close. It’s surprising how many comments I see here that are completely oblivious to this and insist on trashing apple for being “not free”. The market has spoken. Almost no one cares.
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  I have both android and ios devices. Android is far superior for file management. Ios is a joke in that regard. Folders weren't broken but somehow ios managed to break them. Now if I want to save a random file on my ipad I have to choose a directory related to some unrelated app!? Why can't I just create a directory like I do on every other device I own?
  - hellisothers 8y ago
    why are you trying to “manage files”? More control comes at the expense of ease of use (generally) it seems like, if you can’t give up one you won’t get the other
    - rorykoehler 8y ago
      Because I need to reference files quickly on the go and can't risk not being able to access them due to poor/no internet connectivity. I also want to be able to save files that ios doesn't provide a way to save (eg download YouTube) and have now found a third party app that lets me do that. Should be a core part of ios. ITunes is shit.

antpls 8y ago

It's soon 2019, I never used any wireless earbuds/plugs and I'm doing well.

jotjotzzz 8y ago

I'll wait until the AirPods has noise-cancelling. I can't wait until Apple enters into the NC game!

adt2bt 8y ago
They already are in it with Beats. [1] I imagine the engineering challenge of ANC with earpods is enormous. If they can shrink that down to AirPod size, that’d be one of the biggest technological marvels they’d accomplish. 1. https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MTQW2LL/A https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MTQW2LL/A
FabHK 8y ago
Yeah, I carry AirPods and good old Bose noise-cancelling in-ear earphones. The AirPods are convenient eg inside, but just too permeable to sound; when there is any noise around, I have to revert to the Boses.
threeseed 8y ago
I don't think this will ever happen. They were designed to be used whilst people are walking around doing everyday things. That includes being near traffic where cancelling all of the noise can kill you. Expect them to do noise cancelling in over ear form as part of Beats brand similar to 1000MX3 and QC35.

wsinks 8y ago

The battery life and charging is arguably the best thing, and they do sound great, but they also have a high pitched electronic frequency in them that I've gone through a replacement and still had. Pain in the ass. I love 'em, and I want them to be better :)

rauhl 8y ago

> I could not get this experience ever before and honestly, even after I have had it for a year. I don't know of a better competition to it. Real, wired headphones. Seriously, let’s address each of your points: > If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. Whenever I plug headphones into a jack, they pair, and I needn’t worry about battery levels, because there’s no battery. > They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) Headphones sound awesome, because there’re no wireless issues, and the DAC is a good, high-quality one in the phone. > Lasts reasonable amount of time on its battery and quickly charges while in case. Headphones have an infinite battery life. And they have a service life measured in years, about a decade or so. Every time I see someone using AirPods in public, I make sure to make good, solid eye contact — and then I smirk. They’re even better than Google Glass at identifying folks who pay more for less.

crooked-v 8y ago
Do you also react the same to people with any of the many, many wireless headphone brands out there, or do you reserve your wannabe-cool smugness only for Apple users?
- rauhl 8y ago
  Most wireless headphones don’t really call attention to themselves. AirPods are truly, terribly ugly, and do. Granted, taste is a subjective matter. If I’d ever noticed someone wearing the ridiculous Google Pixel Buds, I’d probably do the same thing. Life’s too short to waste on poor technology — and Bluetooth headphones are a poor replacement for headphones (and keyboards, and mice). I’m reminded a bit of those ludicrous TV infomercials: ‘Aren’t you tired of the hassle of tying your own shoes? Try new Velcro TieMasters™, and never tie a shoe again!’
jackconnor 8y ago
I hate it when corded headphones get caught in door handles and yank out of your ears, it's such an uncomfortable feeling. Also, i've never heard anyone admit to smirking before.

OkGoDoIt 8y ago

The AirPods are my favorite purchase I’ve made in the last several years and definitely the best new technology product I’ve seen in a long time. I use mine for hours every day and have for the last year and a half. Before I got my AirPods I had used and returned multiple other wireless earbuds and none of them hold a candle to the AirPods. And somehow the AirPods are half the price of any of those others. I’ve kept an eye on the industry and all the new things coming out and I still haven’t seen anything that has the size, battery life, functionality, range, and audio quality as AirPods at any price point. Even if you use them entirely with android/windows and don’t get any of the benefits of apple’s fancy pairing, the size, quality, and battery life are still light years ahead of any of the competition. (by quality I mean the audio doesn’t cut out except for on very rare occasions, and I can hear everything clearly whether I’m using the pair or just one. I’m not an audiophile so I’m not going to judge on that metric, but they sound great to me for music, audiobooks, podcasts, and phone calls)

zeveb 8y ago
> I still haven’t seen anything that has the size, battery life, functionality, range, and audio quality as AirPods at any price point Walmart has wired earbuds for under $5, which are quite small (they fit in your ears), have perpetual battery life (because they have no battery!), the same functionality (they play sound, in your ears), great range and great audio quality. And you won't have to replace them in two years. Isn't that great?
- stuartd 8y ago
  Wired earplugs on a phone are a usability nightmare as soon as you stand up. No thanks.
  - asdff 8y ago
    Huh? Are you 8 feet tall?
    - trafnar 8y ago

matthewmacleod 8y ago

There are lots of similar features which are just really nice from a UX perspective. The whole WiFi password sharing thing is basically perfect - and underlying a lot of these features are relatively complex technologies. I agree it doesn’t excuse the lack of attention to Mac hardware though. That’s something I find absolutely baffling; I don’t understand the reason why they’re not periodically releasing newer Macs instead of letting whole chunks of the product line rot. I get that consumer devices are more profitable, but I struggle to think that they wouldn’t still make a handsome sum of money. The product lineup is still kind of spotty and weird. That said, it’s possible that the recent releases and upcoming Mac Pro will mark a bit of a change of pace on this front.

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
TBH Cook seems rather miserly. There seems to be a "Bare minimum with the odd cool extra thrown in to give us a USP and maximum margins" approach, and not so much of the "How OMG wow can we make everything we do?" of the Jobs days. (Hit and miss as it was - more hits than misses, IMO.) It's a fine big pile of beans financially, but ambitions for the future UX and brand image - including support - seem to be shrinking rather than expanding.

shittyadmin 8y ago

Is there any decent data on those AirPods? I am considering them against the OnePlus Bullet Wireless if I'm forced to go this way with a new phone. Overall I'm not a big fan of the completely separated earbud style Apple went with and I'm not using them with any other Apple hardware. The OnePlus design seems better, the price is much cheaper and the charging time is much less, but if the quality isn't there then maybe the Apple ones are the way to go. I just wish they had decent objective quality numbers like I can find for even fairly cheap wired headphones via InnerFidelity. Anyone know if these are widely published for any of the wireless headphones?

screye 8y ago
Yes. Here it is : https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-wireless https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-wire... They have most truly wireless earphones, but the OP Bullets aren't on there yet.
- shittyadmin 8y ago
  That's pretty disappointing, looks like they lose a lot of the lows compared to even the $20 Xiaomi Piston 3 (wired) ones I'm used to or the slightly more expensive VSonic VSD1 series. This is my biggest worry with wireless - paying a lot more money for a lot less in the quality department. Thanks for the link though, seems like good data and I'll definitely check out some other options.
  - ashildr 8y ago
    AirPods have no latency issues since the latency is taken into account when playing back video. It seems the video is belt back by the expected latency of the Bluetooth connection.
    - shittyadmin 8y ago
      Thanks, that was the impression I got on my phone - it seemed to automatically compensate for the Bluetooth delay, maybe it's more of an issue when using it on a desktop which doesn't have that functionality.

naravara 8y ago

Unless we see some major innovations in battery or display technology, I don't even know what new territory we expect Apple to pioneer at right now in smartphones. The tech press cares a whole lot about having a steady stream of new and shiny things. But I think most people want to live in a world where their relationship to technology involves just buying the best one you can afford at the time and use it until it either stops working or is no longer adequate to your needs. Then you repeat. Banking on loyalty isn't a bad thing. It means people think your product is reliable and served them well the last time they made the purchase.

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
I don't expect Apple to pioneer anything in smartphones. I expect Apple to pioneer in health, home automation, anyone-can-play content distribution, robotics, non-ridiculous comfortable VR/AR, conversational AI, and customer support quality. These are all open product frontiers, and the next+++(+) iPad Pro is going to become increasingly irrelevant unless Apple develops a strong lead in at least some of them. You can see the movement being made in a few of these, but there's no evidence so far of any likely game changers in the pipeline - just slimmer and more minimal hardware, with a few OS tweaks.

biglenny 8y ago

Anyone who wears "AirPods" is a massive cookie cutter. I lose respect for people the instant I see those things in their ears

criddell 8y ago
Why? They're a good product.