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This is peak tech journalism: uncritical wishful thinking. A strong claim, I know, but hear me out. 1) these are very small bluetooth headphones. 2) They onl

This is peak tech journalism: uncritical wishful thinking. A strong claim, I know, but hear me out. 1) these are very small bluetooth headphones. 2) They only work when attached to a smart phone 3) They are still headphones. Another thing to note is that they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones ($50+ with non tangle wires) Bluetooth headphones are great if you want to not have to fiddle with wires. But, they are capricious and run out of batteries. The pros have both noise isolation _and_ reduction. But, they are still let in a boat load of noise, especially speaking. For long term use, you have to sacrifice isolation for comfort. For the same price as airpod pros you can get custom moulded in ear monitors. 35db of noise reduction, and they don't hurt. The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. (in the same way people wore those shitty ipod ear buds.) As for a platform, what are they going to do to be useful? "intelligent noise"? but that requires situational awareness that doesn't exist on smartphones yet. They will be swept aside as soon as decent AR wearable pop onto the scene. Be that in 3 or 15 years.

toasterlovin 7y ago
> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. Or people just really like the convenience of well implemented wireless headphones.
- asdff 7y ago
  If people were buying solely for the convenience factor, they wouldn't be putting up with the $160 price tag to get a blutooth version of the headphones that came free with the phone. There are plenty of good and cheap headphones on the market if convenience was your only concern.
- meesles 7y ago
  Then buy the black ones for 1/5 of the price and the same exact feature set. Apple is not king of audio hardware, they are the king of turning decent quality, well-packaged and integrated hardware into commodities and fashion statements. And what convenience? They're just selling a bluetooth thing online, same as everyone else. I agree with GP about the tech journalism. I find it funny that the usual cast of journalists that write these articles have been doing so for years and stand to gain a lot from Apple's success, and are deeply embedded in Apple's press organizations.
  - M4v3R 7y ago
    Which wireless buds have the same exact experience as AirPods Pro? The seamless pairing with Apple devices is something only those buds have, and you really need to experience it to give it credit. My wife used many different headphones but absolutely fell in love with AirPods just because they are so easy and seamless to use.
    - pushpop 7y ago
      Any Bluetooth earphones will pair easy enough. Once you’ve paired reconnecting is automatic and you only need to pair the once for the entire lifetime of any particular Bluetooth device. I run a 3rd party Bluetooth earphones (not headphones) and honestly I find them nicer to use than AirPods because they’re comfier, stay in the ear better, have equivalent battery life and I prefer the sound “colour” too - though that’s in part because they fit better so the sound is better channeled down the ear canal. My point being that there are a lot of great earphones (and headphones) on the market. In fact it was already quite a saturated market even before Apple entered into it. So people shouldn’t be so quick to assume that Apple are the best in class nor even the only high end audio manufacturer worth looking at.
      - Matthias247 7y ago
        I think pairing is decent on Bluetooth audio devices. However connecting still leaves some things to be desired. Most speakers/headphones can only connect to a single source at a time. Even the top of the line and extremely well rated Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones will only connect (not pair) to a single bluetooth device at a time. If you want to switch audio from your laptop to your phone you got to manually disable the connection on one device, and connect again on the other. That is quite clunky if you have like 3 PCs (work/home) and a phone and would love to use your headphones with any of them. As far as I understand the Airpods might at least not require to manually disable the connection when switching to a different device. But I can't say for sure, since I don't own a set.
        pushpop 7y ago
- tidenly 7y ago
  I see Chinese people in Tokyo wearing them all the time. Even when not listening to music and just talking to friends. It really is like some kind of fashion accessory.
  - applecrazy 7y ago
    Anecdote: I'm a college student, and around half the people I see on campus (including me) wear these around while talking to their friends. It's kind of cool but also kind of a problem.
    - EugeneOZ 7y ago
      On the other side: my son is a high school student and they have a rule to remove the headphone(s) if they are talking, talking in headphones is a bad manners for them.
    - evgen 7y ago
      Also anecdote, but I wear mine frequently when commuting or listening to a bit of background music at work and because there is no cord or significant weight I will often forget that I have them in. I once wore them in to work from my commute and did not notice that they were in until I went to put on a hat when going out to lunch and brushed one out of an ear.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      > It's kind of cool but also kind of a problem. Why, assuming they’re not playing anything or have noise cancelling on?
      - applecrazy 7y ago
        My personal perception is that it implies you're not giving 100% to the conversation at hand, if that makes sense.
  - matwood 7y ago
    I have the AirPods Pro and find myself often using them with nothing playing just for the noise canceling. The noise canceling is not quite as good as some over ears I've used, but the combination of comfort and noise canceling from APPs makes them superior in my eyes. I often forget I have the APPs on. APP also has an interesting pass through mode where there is some noise canceling, but sounds like voices are highlighted.
baby 7y ago
Reading your comment, it sounds like you haven’t really used them to understand how practical they are. IIRC people were mocking the first generation of airpod because of their ridiculous look, and people adopted them in spite of their look. Now that they are more mainstream it’s easy to forget.
- KaiserPro 7y ago
  They are practical for some people. 1) first gen have no noise isolation/cancellation, which means I can't use them in noisy environments. 2) I have children. They will be eaten, played with and generally put places I am not party to. 3) pros have noise cancelling, which is ok but they don't work in places where peak noise is 75 db+ (ie loud train/car), The noise isolation is uncomfortable to get a good seal, though its less for some people. But again, you are missing the broad thrust, they are headphones, not a platform.
cranekam 7y ago
> Another thing to note is that they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones ($50+ with non tangle wires) No, this is your assessment of user experience. It’s opinion, not fact. Perhaps some $50 wired headphones sound better but different people value different things. For a long time I thought “pft what’s the big deal with AirPods, I’m fine snaking the headphone cable down my shirt when I go for a run”. Then I bought some on the recommendation of a friend. For me the user experience is far from substandard — it’s great. The charging case means they rarely run out of juice, the tap to stop/start and Siri is great for running, they sound good, I can walk around the kitchen while cooking with them paired to my laptop, I find them comfortable, etc. Fashion: I don’t care. What I’ll look like didn’t factor into the decision to buy them at all. As it happens I can easily afford them but didn’t buy for a long time because I don’t like to spend frivolously. In short: just because you think AirPods (or Apple?) sucks doesn’t mean others don’t find them valuable.
- arcticbull 7y ago
  > No, this is your assessment of user experience. It’s opinion, not fact. Perhaps some $50 wired headphones sound better but different people value different things. Ok, 3.5" headphones are objectively: cheaper, simpler mechanically, more reliable, easier to use, easier to connect to different devices, never run out of battery or require charging, you can't lose 1/3 of them, and oh, yeah, they tend to sound better at the same price point. They tend to sound much better at the same price point since all you need to focus on are coils and membranes, not bluetooth stacks and batteries and inductive charging coils. A set of Shure SE315s will blow AirPods Pro out of the water on sound quality and noise isolation. Yes, wireless headphones are wireless. That's all though. You can achieve all the rest with the jack, but you could achieve all of that wireless while the phone still had the jack. None of this makes AirPods Pro a platform. They're neat wireless headphones. Among the best wireless headphones probably. But that's still all they are. I've used AirPods Pro, and I've used me SE535s with an inline mic. It's gonna be SE535s by a country mile for me, even to the extent I have to go through the additional hoops of stupid dongles to hook them up. [1] [1] https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/earphones/se535 https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/earphones/se535
csomar 7y ago
> People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. They are 150-250 bucks a piece. If people are wearing them as status signal then we have real gone downhill a lot.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- gobins 7y ago
  200$ is still a lot of money for the majority of the population.
  - bluedino 7y ago
    Good thing the majority of the population is bad with money.
- parineum 7y ago
  It also implies there's a $1000 device in your pocket.
  - pfortuny 7y ago
    But that is not a status device. A $1000 watch (not computer) may be a status thing. A $1000 computer is not.
    - KaiserPro 7y ago
      You need to hang out with other people more often....
    - simonh 7y ago
      I won’t have any truck with the “Apple stuff is just about fashion, it’s the only reason people buy them”. BS, that just clearly not the case. But it also seems incontrovertible to me that Apple gear is a status symbol. Some people really do buy them for the fashion angle, including the phones. One being true doesn’t preclude the other.
sveme 7y ago
> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. In Germany, it seems to be mostly a status signal of young teenagers, who wear them constantly. Was probably the most requested gift in my daughter‘s class, where everyone is around 12. Don‘t see that many grown-ups walking around with them.
- applecrazy 7y ago
  Depends on geography. I see them quite a bit when out and about in the Bay (although the max wearer age I've seen is like 30).
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Young teenagers are also heavy consumers of audio content. Perhaps it’s more than just a status signal?
pfortuny 7y ago
Yes to all you said. But. My mother is over the moon with her airpods (not pro) and the iphone 5s I gave her a year ago: now she can watch tv, listen to music and sit where she fancies without worrying about anything else. Yes, she is short of hearing. This device despite having alternatives just solved her problem. The alternatives may be there. These things are just known, easy to use and useful.
- KaiserPro 7y ago
  Oh indeed, they are good wireless headphones and for some people they are utter magic (I mean they are uber small, its fantastic how small they are) but they are not a platform.
simonh 7y ago
> They will be swept aside as soon as decent AR wearable pop onto the scene. Be that in 3 or 15 years. You had me going right up to the punch line.
- KaiserPro 7y ago
  you have to forgive at least one breathlessly uncritical reference, otherwise it wouldn't be tech commentary....
chrisseaton 7y ago
This is just another mean and snide ‘I hate that people like a product that I don’t understand’ HN rant. The error you’re making is a very common one here - reducing the product to its base functionality description rather than looking at how well they have been implemented. You think they’re bettered by better specs on paper like custom moulding, but paper ideas don’t always achieve a better user experience in the end. I think AirPods are a revolutionary achievement in user experience. I haven’t used wired since. The form factor and the pairing are peerless.
EugeneOZ 7y ago
To write such criticism, you have to mention if you have your own experience of using this product. "AirPods is a Platform" in that article is a bullshit, here I agree - while there's no apps running on the device, it's not a platform. But their quality is not "substandard", far from it. And they have a lot of features, not just noice cancellation. There are reasons to love them and you didn't even try to find full description of their features before complaining.
- close04 7y ago
  A platform is about integration, not necessarily the ability to run "apps". Take Amazon's Echo for example: solidly a platform, does not run any apps per se.
  - EugeneOZ 7y ago
    well, or this, ok. AirPods don't have it yet.
sunshinerag 7y ago
I absolutely love the AirPods because, 1. Because I hate wires, absolutely detest working with them. 2. The listening experience of AirPods is great. The noise cancellation opt-in mode is sufficiently great. I sit in a bus, turn cancellation on and boom people are just moving their lips.. There is a little bit noise I can happily ignore. 3. They fit in my ears very well. I have tried a lot of variations of headphones over the decade and the AirPods fit more than good enough (surprisingly). 4. I love the case it comes with, easy to transport. 5. Charging levels are great for my need, 5-8 hours listening to podcasts, some music and playing games.
pletnes 7y ago
I’m standing at a bus stop right now, not bothering to fiddle with wires in the cold. So I’m not listening to podcasts when I normally would. I will get wireless headphones when my current set breaks down. I surely won’t notice bitrate difference on the bus anyway. So I don’t know about the platform thing, but wireless wins in the end, always. Because bitrate is just one detail that isn’t so important anyway. For similar reasons, I listen to a lot of music on my Sonos, even if it has poorer sound quality than my stereo. It’s just so convenient.
- llampx 7y ago
  That's unfair to wired headphones. You could be at a bus stop and not bother to get the Airpods case out of your bag or pocket, put them in and then fiddle with your phone to start playing a podcast.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    With wired headphones, the last step of fiddling with the phone is the same, except now you need to untangle some wires too.
richrichardsson 7y ago
> non tangle wires All wired earbuds can have "non tangle wires" with the correct method of storage: - Place the buds in your palm - Make the "rock" sign with the hand they're in, trapping the buds with your two middle fingers - Wrap the cord around the two outer fingers in a figure of 8 motion - Pinch in the middle to remove from your fingers and place everything in a pouch of some sort Now when you want to use your headphones again they will "magically" not be tangled! Of course this doesn't stop them getting tangled up in stuff whilst in use, and does require that you have a pouch for storage, but it is the best technique I ever learned for saving myself from the frustration of having to untangle a mess of wire when trying to use my headphones.
- scarface74 7y ago
  This sounds so much simpler than just getting a pair of AirPods....
willis936 7y ago
Airpods pro do not have passive sound isolation. They are an open back design. That’s one of my biggest issues with them as that removes their usefulness in loud environments and removes the chance of resonance based bass.
- turtlebits 7y ago
  OTOH, I absolutely hate IEMs. Talking in that echo chamber, hearing when you chew drives me insane.
anonu 7y ago
Don't be a tech philistine! Just look at the sales of these things and you'll note there's a phenomenon going on that makes all your points moot. The user experience is still amazing with the airpods, despite all their problems: battery life, sound quality. Etc... The airpods have hit on a balance of usability and tech that was much needed. Also, I love my airpods and I've only ever used an Android phone.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> For the same price as airpod pros you can get custom moulded in ear monitors. 35db of noise reduction, and they don't hurt. Whoa, that little? Any recommended places to look into this?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
asah 7y ago
Disagree. I thought so too, but then I tried another brand of Bluetooth ear buds (earfun: $50, waterproof and noise isolating but no transparency or noise cancellation): - leave your phone in one room, on the charger, keep listening/talking in another. - keep listening in the shower or tub. - keep listening outside, phone inside (or vice versa). - don't need clothes with pockets - put on a soft hat that covers your ears, and nobody knows you're listening (better security) - give one earbud to a friend and listen to the same thing. - silent disco applications 3-15 years is a long time, and wireless earbuds will evolve. For example, imagine that they support 10+ hours battery charge, or WiFi for longer range, or "sync" multiple sets of earbuds to create a true silent disco, and on and on. AR glasses may be complementary to wireless earbuds, not a replacement: this provides better battery life and features/roadmap for both devices. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R5MKX3K https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R5MKX3K
kccqzy 7y ago
I feel that your comment is basically in the same ballpark as "no wireless, less space than a nomad, lame." You're looking at things from a tech geek's perspective that doesn't match the market's perception of the product.
cujo 7y ago
> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. Small and wireless has been a desirable trait for a long time. I think you're underselling that a bit. > they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones A lot of people disagree with this. A lot of people prefer the portability of small wireless music over big cans with "better" sound.
eric_cc 7y ago
> Another thing to note is that they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones Completely disagree with this.
jmmcd 7y ago
Also quite a bad example of tech journalism in the really weird writing - repeating a couple of phrases multiple times verbatim, like it was written a bot or is SEO optimised or something.
pavelrub 7y ago
I really don't understand the signalling argument - it just seems obviously incorrect. Who are you signalling to? In places where airpods are frequent, pretty much everybody can afford them - certianly in the social circles of the people who wear them. It's a very poor status symbol, and I imagine that the people making those claims are just projecting their own insecurities on the rest of society.

toasterlovin 7y ago

> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. Or people just really like the convenience of well implemented wireless headphones.

asdff 7y ago
If people were buying solely for the convenience factor, they wouldn't be putting up with the $160 price tag to get a blutooth version of the headphones that came free with the phone. There are plenty of good and cheap headphones on the market if convenience was your only concern.
meesles 7y ago
Then buy the black ones for 1/5 of the price and the same exact feature set. Apple is not king of audio hardware, they are the king of turning decent quality, well-packaged and integrated hardware into commodities and fashion statements. And what convenience? They're just selling a bluetooth thing online, same as everyone else. I agree with GP about the tech journalism. I find it funny that the usual cast of journalists that write these articles have been doing so for years and stand to gain a lot from Apple's success, and are deeply embedded in Apple's press organizations.
- M4v3R 7y ago
  Which wireless buds have the same exact experience as AirPods Pro? The seamless pairing with Apple devices is something only those buds have, and you really need to experience it to give it credit. My wife used many different headphones but absolutely fell in love with AirPods just because they are so easy and seamless to use.
  - pushpop 7y ago
    Any Bluetooth earphones will pair easy enough. Once you’ve paired reconnecting is automatic and you only need to pair the once for the entire lifetime of any particular Bluetooth device. I run a 3rd party Bluetooth earphones (not headphones) and honestly I find them nicer to use than AirPods because they’re comfier, stay in the ear better, have equivalent battery life and I prefer the sound “colour” too - though that’s in part because they fit better so the sound is better channeled down the ear canal. My point being that there are a lot of great earphones (and headphones) on the market. In fact it was already quite a saturated market even before Apple entered into it. So people shouldn’t be so quick to assume that Apple are the best in class nor even the only high end audio manufacturer worth looking at.
    - Matthias247 7y ago
      I think pairing is decent on Bluetooth audio devices. However connecting still leaves some things to be desired. Most speakers/headphones can only connect to a single source at a time. Even the top of the line and extremely well rated Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones will only connect (not pair) to a single bluetooth device at a time. If you want to switch audio from your laptop to your phone you got to manually disable the connection on one device, and connect again on the other. That is quite clunky if you have like 3 PCs (work/home) and a phone and would love to use your headphones with any of them. As far as I understand the Airpods might at least not require to manually disable the connection when switching to a different device. But I can't say for sure, since I don't own a set.
      - pushpop 7y ago
tidenly 7y ago
I see Chinese people in Tokyo wearing them all the time. Even when not listening to music and just talking to friends. It really is like some kind of fashion accessory.
- applecrazy 7y ago
  Anecdote: I'm a college student, and around half the people I see on campus (including me) wear these around while talking to their friends. It's kind of cool but also kind of a problem.
  - EugeneOZ 7y ago
    On the other side: my son is a high school student and they have a rule to remove the headphone(s) if they are talking, talking in headphones is a bad manners for them.
  - evgen 7y ago
    Also anecdote, but I wear mine frequently when commuting or listening to a bit of background music at work and because there is no cord or significant weight I will often forget that I have them in. I once wore them in to work from my commute and did not notice that they were in until I went to put on a hat when going out to lunch and brushed one out of an ear.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    > It's kind of cool but also kind of a problem. Why, assuming they’re not playing anything or have noise cancelling on?
    - applecrazy 7y ago
      My personal perception is that it implies you're not giving 100% to the conversation at hand, if that makes sense.
- matwood 7y ago
  I have the AirPods Pro and find myself often using them with nothing playing just for the noise canceling. The noise canceling is not quite as good as some over ears I've used, but the combination of comfort and noise canceling from APPs makes them superior in my eyes. I often forget I have the APPs on. APP also has an interesting pass through mode where there is some noise canceling, but sounds like voices are highlighted.

baby 7y ago

Reading your comment, it sounds like you haven’t really used them to understand how practical they are. IIRC people were mocking the first generation of airpod because of their ridiculous look, and people adopted them in spite of their look. Now that they are more mainstream it’s easy to forget.

KaiserPro 7y ago
They are practical for some people. 1) first gen have no noise isolation/cancellation, which means I can't use them in noisy environments. 2) I have children. They will be eaten, played with and generally put places I am not party to. 3) pros have noise cancelling, which is ok but they don't work in places where peak noise is 75 db+ (ie loud train/car), The noise isolation is uncomfortable to get a good seal, though its less for some people. But again, you are missing the broad thrust, they are headphones, not a platform.

cranekam 7y ago

> Another thing to note is that they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones ($50+ with non tangle wires) No, this is your assessment of user experience. It’s opinion, not fact. Perhaps some $50 wired headphones sound better but different people value different things. For a long time I thought “pft what’s the big deal with AirPods, I’m fine snaking the headphone cable down my shirt when I go for a run”. Then I bought some on the recommendation of a friend. For me the user experience is far from substandard — it’s great. The charging case means they rarely run out of juice, the tap to stop/start and Siri is great for running, they sound good, I can walk around the kitchen while cooking with them paired to my laptop, I find them comfortable, etc. Fashion: I don’t care. What I’ll look like didn’t factor into the decision to buy them at all. As it happens I can easily afford them but didn’t buy for a long time because I don’t like to spend frivolously. In short: just because you think AirPods (or Apple?) sucks doesn’t mean others don’t find them valuable.

arcticbull 7y ago
> No, this is your assessment of user experience. It’s opinion, not fact. Perhaps some $50 wired headphones sound better but different people value different things. Ok, 3.5" headphones are objectively: cheaper, simpler mechanically, more reliable, easier to use, easier to connect to different devices, never run out of battery or require charging, you can't lose 1/3 of them, and oh, yeah, they tend to sound better at the same price point. They tend to sound much better at the same price point since all you need to focus on are coils and membranes, not bluetooth stacks and batteries and inductive charging coils. A set of Shure SE315s will blow AirPods Pro out of the water on sound quality and noise isolation. Yes, wireless headphones are wireless. That's all though. You can achieve all the rest with the jack, but you could achieve all of that wireless while the phone still had the jack. None of this makes AirPods Pro a platform. They're neat wireless headphones. Among the best wireless headphones probably. But that's still all they are. I've used AirPods Pro, and I've used me SE535s with an inline mic. It's gonna be SE535s by a country mile for me, even to the extent I have to go through the additional hoops of stupid dongles to hook them up. [1] [1] https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/earphones/se535 https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/earphones/se535

csomar 7y ago

> People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. They are 150-250 bucks a piece. If people are wearing them as status signal then we have real gone downhill a lot.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
gobins 7y ago
200$ is still a lot of money for the majority of the population.
- bluedino 7y ago
  Good thing the majority of the population is bad with money.
parineum 7y ago
It also implies there's a $1000 device in your pocket.
- pfortuny 7y ago
  But that is not a status device. A $1000 watch (not computer) may be a status thing. A $1000 computer is not.
  - KaiserPro 7y ago
    You need to hang out with other people more often....
  - simonh 7y ago
    I won’t have any truck with the “Apple stuff is just about fashion, it’s the only reason people buy them”. BS, that just clearly not the case. But it also seems incontrovertible to me that Apple gear is a status symbol. Some people really do buy them for the fashion angle, including the phones. One being true doesn’t preclude the other.

sveme 7y ago

> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. People are wearing them because they are a signal of how rich/successful they are. In Germany, it seems to be mostly a status signal of young teenagers, who wear them constantly. Was probably the most requested gift in my daughter‘s class, where everyone is around 12. Don‘t see that many grown-ups walking around with them.

applecrazy 7y ago
Depends on geography. I see them quite a bit when out and about in the Bay (although the max wearer age I've seen is like 30).
saagarjha 7y ago
Young teenagers are also heavy consumers of audio content. Perhaps it’s more than just a status signal?

pfortuny 7y ago

Yes to all you said. But. My mother is over the moon with her airpods (not pro) and the iphone 5s I gave her a year ago: now she can watch tv, listen to music and sit where she fancies without worrying about anything else. Yes, she is short of hearing. This device despite having alternatives just solved her problem. The alternatives may be there. These things are just known, easy to use and useful.

KaiserPro 7y ago
Oh indeed, they are good wireless headphones and for some people they are utter magic (I mean they are uber small, its fantastic how small they are) but they are not a platform.

simonh 7y ago

> They will be swept aside as soon as decent AR wearable pop onto the scene. Be that in 3 or 15 years. You had me going right up to the punch line.

KaiserPro 7y ago
you have to forgive at least one breathlessly uncritical reference, otherwise it wouldn't be tech commentary....

chrisseaton 7y ago

This is just another mean and snide ‘I hate that people like a product that I don’t understand’ HN rant. The error you’re making is a very common one here - reducing the product to its base functionality description rather than looking at how well they have been implemented. You think they’re bettered by better specs on paper like custom moulding, but paper ideas don’t always achieve a better user experience in the end. I think AirPods are a revolutionary achievement in user experience. I haven’t used wired since. The form factor and the pairing are peerless.

EugeneOZ 7y ago

To write such criticism, you have to mention if you have your own experience of using this product. "AirPods is a Platform" in that article is a bullshit, here I agree - while there's no apps running on the device, it's not a platform. But their quality is not "substandard", far from it. And they have a lot of features, not just noice cancellation. There are reasons to love them and you didn't even try to find full description of their features before complaining.

close04 7y ago
A platform is about integration, not necessarily the ability to run "apps". Take Amazon's Echo for example: solidly a platform, does not run any apps per se.
- EugeneOZ 7y ago
  well, or this, ok. AirPods don't have it yet.

sunshinerag 7y ago

I absolutely love the AirPods because, 1. Because I hate wires, absolutely detest working with them. 2. The listening experience of AirPods is great. The noise cancellation opt-in mode is sufficiently great. I sit in a bus, turn cancellation on and boom people are just moving their lips.. There is a little bit noise I can happily ignore. 3. They fit in my ears very well. I have tried a lot of variations of headphones over the decade and the AirPods fit more than good enough (surprisingly). 4. I love the case it comes with, easy to transport. 5. Charging levels are great for my need, 5-8 hours listening to podcasts, some music and playing games.

pletnes 7y ago

I’m standing at a bus stop right now, not bothering to fiddle with wires in the cold. So I’m not listening to podcasts when I normally would. I will get wireless headphones when my current set breaks down. I surely won’t notice bitrate difference on the bus anyway. So I don’t know about the platform thing, but wireless wins in the end, always. Because bitrate is just one detail that isn’t so important anyway. For similar reasons, I listen to a lot of music on my Sonos, even if it has poorer sound quality than my stereo. It’s just so convenient.

llampx 7y ago
That's unfair to wired headphones. You could be at a bus stop and not bother to get the Airpods case out of your bag or pocket, put them in and then fiddle with your phone to start playing a podcast.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  With wired headphones, the last step of fiddling with the phone is the same, except now you need to untangle some wires too.

richrichardsson 7y ago

> non tangle wires All wired earbuds can have "non tangle wires" with the correct method of storage: - Place the buds in your palm - Make the "rock" sign with the hand they're in, trapping the buds with your two middle fingers - Wrap the cord around the two outer fingers in a figure of 8 motion - Pinch in the middle to remove from your fingers and place everything in a pouch of some sort Now when you want to use your headphones again they will "magically" not be tangled! Of course this doesn't stop them getting tangled up in stuff whilst in use, and does require that you have a pouch for storage, but it is the best technique I ever learned for saving myself from the frustration of having to untangle a mess of wire when trying to use my headphones.

scarface74 7y ago
This sounds so much simpler than just getting a pair of AirPods....

willis936 7y ago

Airpods pro do not have passive sound isolation. They are an open back design. That’s one of my biggest issues with them as that removes their usefulness in loud environments and removes the chance of resonance based bass.

turtlebits 7y ago
OTOH, I absolutely hate IEMs. Talking in that echo chamber, hearing when you chew drives me insane.

anonu 7y ago

Don't be a tech philistine! Just look at the sales of these things and you'll note there's a phenomenon going on that makes all your points moot. The user experience is still amazing with the airpods, despite all their problems: battery life, sound quality. Etc... The airpods have hit on a balance of usability and tech that was much needed. Also, I love my airpods and I've only ever used an Android phone.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

> For the same price as airpod pros you can get custom moulded in ear monitors. 35db of noise reduction, and they don't hurt. Whoa, that little? Any recommended places to look into this?

deleted 7y ago
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asah 7y ago

Disagree. I thought so too, but then I tried another brand of Bluetooth ear buds (earfun: $50, waterproof and noise isolating but no transparency or noise cancellation): - leave your phone in one room, on the charger, keep listening/talking in another. - keep listening in the shower or tub. - keep listening outside, phone inside (or vice versa). - don't need clothes with pockets - put on a soft hat that covers your ears, and nobody knows you're listening (better security) - give one earbud to a friend and listen to the same thing. - silent disco applications 3-15 years is a long time, and wireless earbuds will evolve. For example, imagine that they support 10+ hours battery charge, or WiFi for longer range, or "sync" multiple sets of earbuds to create a true silent disco, and on and on. AR glasses may be complementary to wireless earbuds, not a replacement: this provides better battery life and features/roadmap for both devices. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R5MKX3K https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R5MKX3K

kccqzy 7y ago

I feel that your comment is basically in the same ballpark as "no wireless, less space than a nomad, lame." You're looking at things from a tech geek's perspective that doesn't match the market's perception of the product.

cujo 7y ago

> The real selling point of ear buds is the fashion part. Small and wireless has been a desirable trait for a long time. I think you're underselling that a bit. > they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones A lot of people disagree with this. A lot of people prefer the portability of small wireless music over big cans with "better" sound.

eric_cc 7y ago

> Another thing to note is that they are still a substandard user experience compared to 3.5mm jack and decent headphones Completely disagree with this.

jmmcd 7y ago

Also quite a bad example of tech journalism in the really weird writing - repeating a couple of phrases multiple times verbatim, like it was written a bot or is SEO optimised or something.

pavelrub 7y ago

I really don't understand the signalling argument - it just seems obviously incorrect. Who are you signalling to? In places where airpods are frequent, pretty much everybody can afford them - certianly in the social circles of the people who wear them. It's a very poor status symbol, and I imagine that the people making those claims are just projecting their own insecurities on the rest of society.