6 ms·

Elderly? I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. And that's the issue, these one-off pairings. I had a fri

by tjoff 8y ago

Elderly? I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. And that's the issue, these one-off pairings. I had a friend sync with my car bluetooth-stereo, it took a while and from the steering wheel I couldn't be of enough help. But it worked in the end, was quite frustrating though. Then later when I tried to use my phone again it had been lost from the receiver (eventhough it can support two concurrent connections and I've only ever paired with two devices). So now I had to go through the whole dance that it was only paired in one device. Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster. After a minute of fiddling with it I remembered I had an AUX cable. And then I could patiently fix it when I had time for it. Bluetooth is a nightmare for temporary connections. Removing the headphone-jack is akin to removing a fire-alarm system because "it isn't used anyway". Well, the times you need it it is indispensable and it doesn't cost anything.

alpaca128 8y ago
Exactly. Just recently I struggled with pairing a bluetooth speaker with my father's laptop. Another, exactly identical bluetooth speaker paired fine just the day before. The second one couldn't be paired for two days, and I have no idea why. The fact that this bluetooth speaker has three different bluetooth modes with three different ways to switch between them via a single button doesn't help, and even after years I couldn't figure out which mode is meant for what purpose. And the problem is that this happens regularly unless you never switch any device, which in reality doesn't happen, because nobody wants to buy nice headphones for every audio source. Bluetooth is a mess, and I'm glad I stayed with headphone jacks so far.
arsenico 8y ago
That is exactly why AirPods are an absolutely superior product.
- tjoff 8y ago
  For one very niche use-case. No wireless technology is a replacement for the headphone jack. It will probably be decades before we have anything decent (though I'm not hopeful).
  - yoz-y 8y ago
    It's not really niche. The GP's problem is solved because pairing effectively becomes "put these two things close together and open the box".
    - tjoff 8y ago
      If it only works on one device it is pretty niche and hardly a replacement for the headphone jack...
      - Konnstann 8y ago
        Not to mention that for that price I can buy a pair of extremely nice-sounding headphones, wireless or not.
      - Spivak 8y ago
        I mean it's certainly a replacement for the headphone jack on that device which is pretty much the stated goal.
        tjoff 8y ago
        What? It will only work with that device. It won't work in any car or any other circumstance. Also the pods themselves will not work with any non-apple device. That's an extremely narrow use-case. If that was the only thing people used the headphone jack it wouldn't have been the big travesty that it currently is (and will be for the foreseeable time).
        wulfmann 8y ago
        They have a pairing button like any other bluetooth device. They work in my car and on my windows laptop.
        tjoff 8y ago
        My bad, when they were new I was told it wouldn't work on regular devices. Still, it's just another bluetooth headset then.
- rhinoceraptor 8y ago
  There's still a dance you have to do when you want to change between devices. For example, I want to switch between listening to a podcast on my iPhone to watching a show on my iPad. You'd think that would be quick and easy but it still takes 10-20 seconds.
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    And it takes longer if the device or OS you want to switch to is not made by Apple.
  - rikkus 8y ago
    I switch between iPhone and MacBook sometimes. My flow is usually turning off Bluetooth on the iPhone then selecting the AirPods from the MacBook, or similar. It doesn’t feel like much of a pain but it does seem like there could be an easier way. If the Bluetooth icon/menu on each device could have a ‘move AirPods to iPhone/MacBook/iPad’ option, and maybe a ‘move from’ on other devices.
hoorayimhelping 8y ago
>Removing the headphone-jack is akin to removing a fire-alarm system Am I missing something? There's still a headphone port on phones, it's just not dedicated. People can still plug headphones in to their phones right? I'm asking because the tone of these comments makes it seem like new phones have removed the ability to listen to music without bluetooth.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- virmundi 8y ago
  The iPhone allows the ability to use old headphones if you use an adapter. So you have to remember to carry that with you. You then have to buy another adapter to charge the phone at the same time as using the headphones. Say you want to use YouTube, but not pay for Red, Unlimited, or whatever they call it now. You have to leave the screen on, which means eating the battery. Two dongles or you run the risk of running your phone down.
  - ModernMech 8y ago
    Can I just say how insane it is Youtube charges you for the privilege of turning off your screen? I remember the original iPad did this for free. How is this the world we made for ourselves?
    - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
      Welcome to the new mobile computing world. The only features you can have are those explicitly allowed by the software vendor.
    - JetSpiegel 8y ago
      Works on NewPipe...
- fidrelity 8y ago
  There are more and more phones produced without a headphone jack: https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/always-updated-list-phones-with-no-headphone-jack-built-0181441/ https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/always-updated-list...
rv-de 8y ago
> I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. I second that. I use my Bluetooth headphones on three devices. But I can only save two connections. So one device I always use via jack to avoid having to repair several times a day.
SilasX 8y ago
Also, I tried to use my bluetooth headphones with my Macbook air, even knowing the steps, and it said I had to upgrade the OS to use them (I think the OS was like a year old at the time, and the computer four years old -- El Capitan, I think?) Seriously? Both OSes knew the version of the bluetooth protocol they needed to use to communicate, and it still doesn't work? Never had that problem with a headphone jack.
ConceptJunkie 8y ago
I have 3 cars with Bluetooth and one of them (which sports a "Sync by Microsoft" label gives me no end of trouble with bluetooth. At one point I gave up and just started using a cord, because I could. I don't drive that car on a daily basis now (It's a Ford Fusion, which otherwise I like.), but when I do, I still have hassles.
stcredzero 8y ago
I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. And that's the issue, these one-off pairings. Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster. In 2008, Apple introduced iPhone and promised us a future where everything "just works," and where the user and UX are paramount. Taking stock of the last decade, we're basically back to The Inmates are Running the Asylum. http://a.co/d/59GsyEk http://a.co/d/59GsyEk I think it's cyclic. The rejected "IBM guy" in the short sleeved shirt portrayed in the Steve Jobs biopic was once the innovative young turk. Now, the typical mobile and web app developer are that "IBM guy," just with a different set of subcultural aesthetics and a different over elaborated UX language which has left ordinary users behind. It's very telling that about half the time, I start getting hidden contempt from developers when I give them feedback. They're never wrong. I'm obviously deficient and dim. Never mind that I'm a programmer, and I'm pretty darn good at predicting how fellow engineers think. About half the time, that's where the developer starts from. No questions. No curiosity. It's just like in the old days when the command line was the fancy new easier interface. It's the same as long after GUI interfaces hit a wider public and the public started grousing about computer help desks. (Directed to the 3rd party reader: Don't be that programmer. Seek not so much to be understood, as to understand.)
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  > Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster. And just to add onto this, the problem isn't that Bluetooth pairing takes three seconds, per se. The problem is that we already had an instantaneous, reliable, and universal solution. In it's place is an option that may be better in some ways (namely, wires are gone), but is worse in many others. And for what? A tiny sliver of extra volume within the phone?
sizzle 8y ago
If you think that's bad I'd like to introduce you to the hell of pairing garage remote receivers to your car's honelink enabled rearview mirror. Don't get me started on the cryptic pairing manual in the glove compartment.

by tjoff 8y ago

alpaca128 8y ago

Exactly. Just recently I struggled with pairing a bluetooth speaker with my father's laptop. Another, exactly identical bluetooth speaker paired fine just the day before. The second one couldn't be paired for two days, and I have no idea why. The fact that this bluetooth speaker has three different bluetooth modes with three different ways to switch between them via a single button doesn't help, and even after years I couldn't figure out which mode is meant for what purpose. And the problem is that this happens regularly unless you never switch any device, which in reality doesn't happen, because nobody wants to buy nice headphones for every audio source. Bluetooth is a mess, and I'm glad I stayed with headphone jacks so far.

arsenico 8y ago

That is exactly why AirPods are an absolutely superior product.

tjoff 8y ago
For one very niche use-case. No wireless technology is a replacement for the headphone jack. It will probably be decades before we have anything decent (though I'm not hopeful).
- yoz-y 8y ago
  It's not really niche. The GP's problem is solved because pairing effectively becomes "put these two things close together and open the box".
  - tjoff 8y ago
    If it only works on one device it is pretty niche and hardly a replacement for the headphone jack...
    - Konnstann 8y ago
      Not to mention that for that price I can buy a pair of extremely nice-sounding headphones, wireless or not.
    - Spivak 8y ago
      I mean it's certainly a replacement for the headphone jack on that device which is pretty much the stated goal.
      - tjoff 8y ago
        What? It will only work with that device. It won't work in any car or any other circumstance. Also the pods themselves will not work with any non-apple device. That's an extremely narrow use-case. If that was the only thing people used the headphone jack it wouldn't have been the big travesty that it currently is (and will be for the foreseeable time).
        wulfmann 8y ago
        They have a pairing button like any other bluetooth device. They work in my car and on my windows laptop.
        tjoff 8y ago
        My bad, when they were new I was told it wouldn't work on regular devices. Still, it's just another bluetooth headset then.
rhinoceraptor 8y ago
There's still a dance you have to do when you want to change between devices. For example, I want to switch between listening to a podcast on my iPhone to watching a show on my iPad. You'd think that would be quick and easy but it still takes 10-20 seconds.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  And it takes longer if the device or OS you want to switch to is not made by Apple.
- rikkus 8y ago
  I switch between iPhone and MacBook sometimes. My flow is usually turning off Bluetooth on the iPhone then selecting the AirPods from the MacBook, or similar. It doesn’t feel like much of a pain but it does seem like there could be an easier way. If the Bluetooth icon/menu on each device could have a ‘move AirPods to iPhone/MacBook/iPad’ option, and maybe a ‘move from’ on other devices.

hoorayimhelping 8y ago

>Removing the headphone-jack is akin to removing a fire-alarm system Am I missing something? There's still a headphone port on phones, it's just not dedicated. People can still plug headphones in to their phones right? I'm asking because the tone of these comments makes it seem like new phones have removed the ability to listen to music without bluetooth.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
virmundi 8y ago
The iPhone allows the ability to use old headphones if you use an adapter. So you have to remember to carry that with you. You then have to buy another adapter to charge the phone at the same time as using the headphones. Say you want to use YouTube, but not pay for Red, Unlimited, or whatever they call it now. You have to leave the screen on, which means eating the battery. Two dongles or you run the risk of running your phone down.
- ModernMech 8y ago
  Can I just say how insane it is Youtube charges you for the privilege of turning off your screen? I remember the original iPad did this for free. How is this the world we made for ourselves?
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    Welcome to the new mobile computing world. The only features you can have are those explicitly allowed by the software vendor.
  - JetSpiegel 8y ago
    Works on NewPipe...
fidrelity 8y ago
There are more and more phones produced without a headphone jack: https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/always-updated-list-phones-with-no-headphone-jack-built-0181441/ https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/always-updated-list...

rv-de 8y ago

> I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. I second that. I use my Bluetooth headphones on three devices. But I can only save two connections. So one device I always use via jack to avoid having to repair several times a day.

SilasX 8y ago

Also, I tried to use my bluetooth headphones with my Macbook air, even knowing the steps, and it said I had to upgrade the OS to use them (I think the OS was like a year old at the time, and the computer four years old -- El Capitan, I think?) Seriously? Both OSes knew the version of the bluetooth protocol they needed to use to communicate, and it still doesn't work? Never had that problem with a headphone jack.

ConceptJunkie 8y ago

I have 3 cars with Bluetooth and one of them (which sports a "Sync by Microsoft" label gives me no end of trouble with bluetooth. At one point I gave up and just started using a cord, because I could. I don't drive that car on a daily basis now (It's a Ford Fusion, which otherwise I like.), but when I do, I still have hassles.

stcredzero 8y ago

I can guarantee that no human being on earth can confidently setup bluetooth on all devices. And that's the issue, these one-off pairings. Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster. In 2008, Apple introduced iPhone and promised us a future where everything "just works," and where the user and UX are paramount. Taking stock of the last decade, we're basically back to The Inmates are Running the Asylum. http://a.co/d/59GsyEk http://a.co/d/59GsyEk I think it's cyclic. The rejected "IBM guy" in the short sleeved shirt portrayed in the Steve Jobs biopic was once the innovative young turk. Now, the typical mobile and web app developer are that "IBM guy," just with a different set of subcultural aesthetics and a different over elaborated UX language which has left ordinary users behind. It's very telling that about half the time, I start getting hidden contempt from developers when I give them feedback. They're never wrong. I'm obviously deficient and dim. Never mind that I'm a programmer, and I'm pretty darn good at predicting how fellow engineers think. About half the time, that's where the developer starts from. No questions. No curiosity. It's just like in the old days when the command line was the fancy new easier interface. It's the same as long after GUI interfaces hit a wider public and the public started grousing about computer help desks. (Directed to the 3rd party reader: Don't be that programmer. Seek not so much to be understood, as to understand.)

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
> Thing is, anything that literally takes more than 3 seconds is a disaster. And just to add onto this, the problem isn't that Bluetooth pairing takes three seconds, per se. The problem is that we already had an instantaneous, reliable, and universal solution. In it's place is an option that may be better in some ways (namely, wires are gone), but is worse in many others. And for what? A tiny sliver of extra volume within the phone?

sizzle 8y ago

If you think that's bad I'd like to introduce you to the hell of pairing garage remote receivers to your car's honelink enabled rearview mirror. Don't get me started on the cryptic pairing manual in the glove compartment.