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It's amazing to me how many folks seem to have no clue about what folks value in the apple ecosystem. Call folks fanboys (I use windows / linux all day for my

It's amazing to me how many folks seem to have no clue about what folks value in the apple ecosystem. Call folks fanboys (I use windows / linux all day for my job by choice). Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing. The problem is, folks have listened to folks like you so many times and gotten BURNED so many times. Oh, it "should" work you say. Total BS at least 20% of the time. I won't buy the max'es because I have no need for something that nice. But the $159 for the airpods? Slam dunk. You should go back and listen to the criticism of the airpods when they came out - overpriced, stupid, whatever. Then check out sales numbers. Do that again with the apple watch maybe? Started slow, but I'm curious what their top competitor is by $ revenue - they have just improved and improved. Do that again with the ipod? Do that again with ballmer and the iphone? Do that again with the actually pretty cheap M1?

violetgarden 6y ago
I did not understand the Apple fans until I started using Apple for work stuff. One Apple product alone isn’t anything to write home about, but once you start getting more products, the eco system is above and beyond. Did you highlight a text field on the Apple TV? Your phone vibrates with a full screen keyboard at the ready. Little things like that make it a really nice experience that I haven’t seen other vendors match.
- donor20 6y ago
  I just got an apple TV and I laughed when I saw that. Even better, your phone can act as the remote, your airpods can paid (I've heard) etc. Other than iphone I'm very late to apple's world, but as I get older, I just love that stuff works and I don't feel like I'm getting scammed every second.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    You can even pair two different sets of AirPods now. Awesome if you have babies.
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      ... what are you doing?
      - lotsofpulp 6y ago
        Watch shows or movies as a couple while putting baby to sleep or feeding. Also nice when you’re in kitchen and the noise of exhaust hood, microwave, faucet, pressure cooker, and whatnot are going on.
jobu 6y ago
Add to that an excellent microphone. Pre-COVID I used a pair of Plantronics noise cancelling headphones that covered all of your requirements pretty well. Unfortunately the microphone was shit, so I decided to get Airpod Pros for all the remote meetings. Even with the short battery life they have quickly become my default headphones. I'm not typically a fanboy of anything, but Apple does make some quality electronics.
- Fnoord 6y ago
  Given you cannot replace battery, this is not high quality according to my standards.
  - filoleg 6y ago
    >Given you cannot replace battery, this is not high quality according to my standards. Cool, just don't be surprised when the sales numbers and reviews end up not reflecting that sentiment. Mostly because I doubt that vast majority of people use that metric as a baseline measure of high quality.
    - donor20 6y ago
      Especially because airpod competitors with replaceable batteries will be singificantly heavier, significantly less waterproof and may be more costly for similar functionality. Non replaceable batteries, non upgradeable memory etc is all a tradeoff. Checkout the mac mini with M1 and soldered on memory, but memory performance seems amazing.
      - Fnoord 6y ago
        Well, look at it from this angle: I draw the line with replacable battery because it renders the device inherently useless for its purpose (mobile use case). All Apple in ear Airpods get destroyed if anyone replaces the battery. Even Apple cannot, and they claim to care about the environment. Beats got a bad name, so I just skip that. There's a reason they did not attach that brand name to their Airpods products. We just had BF and I saw great deals for Airpods. All of them. XM3, which has superb ANC, just had a successor (XM4) which has multiple device support. XM4 goes for 350. XM3 was 200 on BF. Now compare that with Airpods Max price tag and features. I bought XM4 as a successor to my Logitech G933. Logitech G933 has no ANC, not so good sound quality, it has a proprietary dongle (the dealbreaker for my use case due to USB-A and dongle requirement), it has microUSB, it has 3.5 mm, battery lasts 8 hours. Battery replacement can be bought directly from Logitech, easy to replace yourself, and costs 10 EUR. Compare to XM3/4 3.5 mm, Bluetooth, superb ANC, USB-C (in contrast to microUSB or lightning), and the battery is good... but I doubt it still is in 3 years.
aeturnum 6y ago
I think people do under-value the ecosystem that Apple has built with their devices. The kind of audio sharing you describe is really nice and is legitimately something Apple built (as far as I know). I think Apple often prices their devices on the high end, but that's fine. That said, I think your description of other bluetooth devices is overly pessimistic. I've had no problems finding bluetooth devices that do basic bluetooth things (connecting, xmitting audio, swapping devices) well. For that reason I basically never recommend Apple products as if they are the only ones to "get it right." Apple is a premium brand. Folks should consider them if they want a premium product, but it's silly to act as if their competition doesn't offer the same basic functionality for much better prices.
- donor20 6y ago
  Who do you trust (brand wise) to get it right. Does someone get it right? I'm sure, but my guess is if you did brand survey's, people would KNOW that apple gets it pretty right, and most players don't. That's partly because apple ignore HN. I need a modulare phone that I can ugprade the ram on. Apple is ignoring you, they seal their phones up with epoxy so they are pretty darn waterproof. But for normal users, this is a positive. They call out fake third party batteries. OH NO says HN. For normal users, a plus again. They offer BY FAR the longest and most reliable operating system support. First gen ipad pro's STILL have value! My old android tablet has been unsupported since the DAY I bought it. Or built in junkware and adware. If I buy a samsung TV can I be pretty sure it won't datamine my viewing habits? Even top competitors turn out to be basically scammers. Will you guarantee me that samsung won't jam ads onto my TV after I buy it? "Towards the end of 2019, owners have started to voice their dissatisfaction with larger, increasingly obtrusive, and unrelated ads showing up on their Samsung TVs. These include ads for canned beans or discount supermarkets" - this is on $2,500+ frame art TV's etc. It turns out, despite your claims, these other very large companies selling very expensive items are scamming folks to often, it only takes getting burned ONCE by this to just reduce your circle of trust dramatically. Is there a perfect bluetooth device out there? Sure. If I go through the amazon listings will I find that device? I doubt it. If I buy from apple will I get it? I think so. The price of these headphones is ridiculous, I don't defend that. If they are able to sell them at this price I'll be a bit surprised. But overall, they have built user trust up pretty high.
garmaine 6y ago
> Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. I don’t know, I have never once needed this capability. > Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing. Yes, for the 5 years I’ve had Bluetooth headphones this has never been an issue.
- ska 6y ago
  > Yes, for the 5 years I’ve had Bluetooth headphones this has never been an issue. No opinion on apple being better or not (mixed bag, in my limited experience) but this just isn't true in general I think. I've used at least a half dozen bluetooth headphones on at least a dozen different laptops/desktops/phones over the last decade... they have all had some issues with connections at various times.
dayjobpork 6y ago
If my kids are asleep we turn the TV volume down. Why would you wear headphones with your spouse, you can't have any conversation so it defeats the purpose of watching together
- donor20 6y ago
  If you want to talk put a headphone in the outer ear, and you can still talk softly to each other. Headphones are super immersive sounding. And if you have the pros, you set them to transparency mode. You can still talk, but kids won't hear the movie.
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  You should consider turning down your headphone volume if the idea of talking to someone with them on seems far-fetched. I used to be like that and my hearing shows it, and I've learned that just because I'm listening to something, it doesn't need to immerse my entire aural apparatus.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    Some headphones block outside noise, some don't. They're wrong but I wouldn't assume it's a volume issue either.
rubicon33 6y ago
Go ahead and call me a fanboy but... Apple really nails the "it just works". I'm a software engineer, and I'm happy to get my hands dirty with some code. But when it comes to my devices, I really don't want to waste my time trying to figure out why this or that device, doesn't pair with, or work well with, my other device. Apple just does this better than anyone else. I recently got an Apple watch and the setup process was sublime. Pairing with all my other devices, was effortless. Instantly my watch was "mine" with everything I need on it. The LTE setup was mostly painless too. There was a bug in the process that was on Verizon's end, but other than that, getting my phone paired to my number was a breeze. The pairing with my phone, and my mac, is what makes this whole ecosystem special. It just works, and it works pretty damn well. Yes, you can get most of this functionality on a windows or linux machine, with an android phone, airpod replicas, and an android based smart watch but the fluidity of the apple integration is unmatched. This is what (some) people are willing to pay more for.
- subpixel 6y ago
  I loved my AirPods. Then the batteries gave up the ghost, and I was left with small, expensive, probably toxic electronic garbage. It ruined the brand for me and I can't imagine buying another pair of AirPods.
  - nouveaux 6y ago
    While it sucks that your batteries are bad, Apple will recycle the toxic electronics.
  - throwaway9980 6y ago
    But at least it’s small? I mean, one dead laptop is the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of AirPods in terms of waste. Of all the things that could be disposable this seems like the least concerning. A Tesla contains orders of magnitudes more plastic, electronics, and batteries that will one day be junk and you will go through maybe 3 sets of AirPods before you trade in for a newer model EV?
    - 6y ago
dahfizz 6y ago
> Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. Yes. Samsung has supported this for years and it has recently upstreamed to all android devices. You can literally do this with any phone and any bluetooth devices, you don't need to fork up $500 for the priviledge. > Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). Yes. The Bose QC35 II for example can store multiple bluetooth connections on the device and switch between them. They cost half as much as the Apple cans and are all but guaranteed to sound better than the plastic cones Apple uses. > You should go back and listen to the criticism of the airpods when they came out - overpriced, stupid, whatever. Then check out sales numbers. I won't argue that. Apple certainly moves product - there's a significant portion of the population that would buy anything they put out.
- surfpel 6y ago
  > Bose QC35 II for example can store multiple bluetooth connections on the device and switch between them I have these and it’s annoying to switch them because they’re stored and switched via the app - if you’re switching between more than 2 devices. The Bose anc also don’t have particularly good audio either so I’m interested to see what the Apple offering sounds like. In general, there’s a bunch of little annoyances with the current anc devices available (audio quality, uncomfortable, ugly, etc) that I’d like to see Apple fix.
  - kranner 6y ago
    > I have these and it’s annoying to switch them because they’re stored and switched via the app - if you’re switching between more than 2 devices. Not true, you can cycle between previously connected devices by long holding the power switch in the on position. You can also add new connections and wipe all connections via that switch. I have them and never need to use the app. Read the manual.
    - lawkwok 6y ago
Tomte 6y ago
> Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device My Airpods don't. They are regularly confused whether they should connect to the iPad or the iPhone. Yes, both are nearby. But I'm only tapping and interacting on one of them at any given moment. Not always. Sometimes. More frustrating: The iPad just loves to use its internal loudspeakers. I'm sitting on the couch watching a YouTube video via Airpods. I'm clicking on another video, sound is coming from the loudspeaker. Not always. Sometimes. Third annoyance: I'm getting both Airpods out the capsule. Both are nearly fully charged. Only one is playing. I need to put the mute one back into the capsule, close it, open it and get the Airpod out again. Not always. Often.
ksk 6y ago
What is your point? MacDonalds make the best hamburgers because they sell so many of them? Windows is the best OS because billions of people use it? >Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. So in your mind, 'solving' a problem is buying not one, but TWO $500 headphones instead of $10 earbuds and a $5 Y connector? Oh wait, you also believe that the headphone jack is stupid. Yeah, sure, sell people a $1000 solution for a problem you created. Great job! >It's amazing to me how many folks seem to have no clue about what folks value in the apple ecosystem. I'm not a fan of Gucci products either. ;)
- jimmydorry 6y ago
  The headphone jack that all of the other mobile manufacturers are dropping too? Putting its removal at Apple's feet alone is a bit disingenious when it was the obvious direction for smartphones. Eventually one of the manufacturers was going to be "brave" and the rest would follow. Also, a long trailing cable from your TV / accessories across your living room to a y-connector to two more long trailing cables to two headsets is incredibly inelegant and for some houses, an impractical solution. Having wireless headphones that support a Bluetooth standard (because no two implementations are the same) that allows multiple speakers for a single source, is very nice.
mlinsey 6y ago
"Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing." Man, I wish my headphones did this. I constantly have to fiddle with my bluetooth settings, have audio come out of my mac or iPhone, sometimes in inappropriate places, even after I've tried to tell the OS to play from headphones. The worst is when switching between my Mac and iPhone, usually I have to unpair one, put my headphones into pairing mode, or at the very least turn bluetooth off on one device. My headphones are...Apple AirPods. They did this when they first launched, so I even got the pros. Now none of my pairs ever work. I really wish Apple would figure out how to make stuff just work. I think there's opportunity for someone to figure it out! No clue what happened to this company, but the AirPods are undoubtedly the most frustrating Apple product I've ever owned
- filoleg 6y ago
  Had 3 pairs of airpods over the years (2 original ones, 1 pro), all used heavily, haven't experienced this kind of an issue even once. And neither do I know anyone else who did. I don't know your situation, but I have a feeling you might have gotten a faulty unit, in which case a warranty request might be helpful. I switch my current ones between a macbook and my phone multiple times a day, all it takes is pressing a single button in my taskbar on macbook or control panel of my phone. I heard they even have an autoswitch feature now, where you can use your airpods with macbook, but when a call comes in or you play a video on your iphone, it switches automatically to that device, and then back. Haven't had a chance to test that feature myself tho, so YMMV.
- alwillis 6y ago
  You know there have been several firmware upgrades for the AirPods right?
philwelch 6y ago
Different people have different experiences and their opinions are based on those experiences. In my experiences Apple products don’t always “just work”, but since they’re designed with the overconfident belief that they do “just work”, the failure modes can be extremely cryptic and unrecoverable.
deleted 6y ago
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00deadbeef 6y ago
My "solved problem" Sony WH-1000XM3s can connect to my TV and have their volume controlled. My Apple AirPods Pro can't... Neither pair will switch between my iPhone and MacBook without triggering a manual pair from the Bluetooth menu. To get that working for the AirPods I have to update to Big Sur but apparently that has a good chance of bricking my MacBook so I can't.
freeflight 6y ago
> Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing. Is that really game changing? I recently got myself a pair of Huawei FreeLace Pro which do exactly that, even have a button shortcut to change between the two devices, works with my iPhone and iPad. They have ANC, an Awareness mode, a battery charge that last 28 hours, the audio sounds amazing enough to this non-audiophile, all of that for 89€.
bitwize 6y ago
My Bose QC 35 IIs reliably connect to two devices at the same time. I spark 'em up and hear the voice say "Connected to <phone 1>... and <phone 2>". When I play anything with either phone, I hear it through the headphones. It just works. (Yes, I save, and use, my old smartphones. I'm an Android developer so they're handy to keep around.)
jp0d 6y ago
Very true indeed. That's why I stopped bothering with Linux. I love Linux and I've used it on many laptops. But not a single one offered me trouble free computing. I can't blame Linux for that. It's amazing what the open source community has achieved. I hate Windows and I can't be productive on it. People who have used Apple's ecosystem know what the phrase "it just works" means. I probably wouldn't spend $899 (Australian dollars) on those headphones. But my wife recently bought a pair of Airpod pros and I've never had an experience like that with any other earphones! They just work. It feels like Apple just knows what we want! I still use a three year old iPhone 8 and it just works with latest OS updates. It hasn't slowed down a bit. Why do I need to buy a POS Android phone with 12 gb of ram when I'm happy. Apple's products actually have that zen feeling. It's hard to describe. And the longevity of their products make them really good value for money.
pham_nuwen 6y ago
I solve the pairing / unpairing problem with a Jabra Link 360 or 370 dongle. https://www.jabra.com/accessories/jabra-link-360#/ https://www.jabra.com/accessories/jabra-link-360#/ It looks to the PC like USB audio, but it talks to the headphones over Bluetooth. If I want to transition from the Windows 10 laptop to the Linux laptop, or desk-side PC, I just move the dongle. Signal is solid. Has an LED on it so you can see whether it's talking to a headset (blue), playing audio with mic umuted (green), or playing audio with mic muted (red). (Amazing feature for Zoom calls!) The retail price of it seems a bit high at $56, but you can find them used with Jabra Evolve 65 headsets on eBay for $45-$60 as a bundle. (The headset sound is pretty good, actually. Fragile if you don't pack it flat in a backpack, alas.) Sorry I sound like a commercial, but it really makes life easier. Seems like the frustration saved was worth the $$$.

violetgarden 6y ago

I did not understand the Apple fans until I started using Apple for work stuff. One Apple product alone isn’t anything to write home about, but once you start getting more products, the eco system is above and beyond. Did you highlight a text field on the Apple TV? Your phone vibrates with a full screen keyboard at the ready. Little things like that make it a really nice experience that I haven’t seen other vendors match.

donor20 6y ago
I just got an apple TV and I laughed when I saw that. Even better, your phone can act as the remote, your airpods can paid (I've heard) etc. Other than iphone I'm very late to apple's world, but as I get older, I just love that stuff works and I don't feel like I'm getting scammed every second.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  You can even pair two different sets of AirPods now. Awesome if you have babies.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    ... what are you doing?
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      Watch shows or movies as a couple while putting baby to sleep or feeding. Also nice when you’re in kitchen and the noise of exhaust hood, microwave, faucet, pressure cooker, and whatnot are going on.

jobu 6y ago

Add to that an excellent microphone. Pre-COVID I used a pair of Plantronics noise cancelling headphones that covered all of your requirements pretty well. Unfortunately the microphone was shit, so I decided to get Airpod Pros for all the remote meetings. Even with the short battery life they have quickly become my default headphones. I'm not typically a fanboy of anything, but Apple does make some quality electronics.

Fnoord 6y ago
Given you cannot replace battery, this is not high quality according to my standards.
- filoleg 6y ago
  >Given you cannot replace battery, this is not high quality according to my standards. Cool, just don't be surprised when the sales numbers and reviews end up not reflecting that sentiment. Mostly because I doubt that vast majority of people use that metric as a baseline measure of high quality.
  - donor20 6y ago
    Especially because airpod competitors with replaceable batteries will be singificantly heavier, significantly less waterproof and may be more costly for similar functionality. Non replaceable batteries, non upgradeable memory etc is all a tradeoff. Checkout the mac mini with M1 and soldered on memory, but memory performance seems amazing.
    - Fnoord 6y ago
      Well, look at it from this angle: I draw the line with replacable battery because it renders the device inherently useless for its purpose (mobile use case). All Apple in ear Airpods get destroyed if anyone replaces the battery. Even Apple cannot, and they claim to care about the environment. Beats got a bad name, so I just skip that. There's a reason they did not attach that brand name to their Airpods products. We just had BF and I saw great deals for Airpods. All of them. XM3, which has superb ANC, just had a successor (XM4) which has multiple device support. XM4 goes for 350. XM3 was 200 on BF. Now compare that with Airpods Max price tag and features. I bought XM4 as a successor to my Logitech G933. Logitech G933 has no ANC, not so good sound quality, it has a proprietary dongle (the dealbreaker for my use case due to USB-A and dongle requirement), it has microUSB, it has 3.5 mm, battery lasts 8 hours. Battery replacement can be bought directly from Logitech, easy to replace yourself, and costs 10 EUR. Compare to XM3/4 3.5 mm, Bluetooth, superb ANC, USB-C (in contrast to microUSB or lightning), and the battery is good... but I doubt it still is in 3 years.

aeturnum 6y ago

I think people do under-value the ecosystem that Apple has built with their devices. The kind of audio sharing you describe is really nice and is legitimately something Apple built (as far as I know). I think Apple often prices their devices on the high end, but that's fine. That said, I think your description of other bluetooth devices is overly pessimistic. I've had no problems finding bluetooth devices that do basic bluetooth things (connecting, xmitting audio, swapping devices) well. For that reason I basically never recommend Apple products as if they are the only ones to "get it right." Apple is a premium brand. Folks should consider them if they want a premium product, but it's silly to act as if their competition doesn't offer the same basic functionality for much better prices.

donor20 6y ago
Who do you trust (brand wise) to get it right. Does someone get it right? I'm sure, but my guess is if you did brand survey's, people would KNOW that apple gets it pretty right, and most players don't. That's partly because apple ignore HN. I need a modulare phone that I can ugprade the ram on. Apple is ignoring you, they seal their phones up with epoxy so they are pretty darn waterproof. But for normal users, this is a positive. They call out fake third party batteries. OH NO says HN. For normal users, a plus again. They offer BY FAR the longest and most reliable operating system support. First gen ipad pro's STILL have value! My old android tablet has been unsupported since the DAY I bought it. Or built in junkware and adware. If I buy a samsung TV can I be pretty sure it won't datamine my viewing habits? Even top competitors turn out to be basically scammers. Will you guarantee me that samsung won't jam ads onto my TV after I buy it? "Towards the end of 2019, owners have started to voice their dissatisfaction with larger, increasingly obtrusive, and unrelated ads showing up on their Samsung TVs. These include ads for canned beans or discount supermarkets" - this is on $2,500+ frame art TV's etc. It turns out, despite your claims, these other very large companies selling very expensive items are scamming folks to often, it only takes getting burned ONCE by this to just reduce your circle of trust dramatically. Is there a perfect bluetooth device out there? Sure. If I go through the amazon listings will I find that device? I doubt it. If I buy from apple will I get it? I think so. The price of these headphones is ridiculous, I don't defend that. If they are able to sell them at this price I'll be a bit surprised. But overall, they have built user trust up pretty high.

garmaine 6y ago

> Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. I don’t know, I have never once needed this capability. > Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing. Yes, for the 5 years I’ve had Bluetooth headphones this has never been an issue.

ska 6y ago
> Yes, for the 5 years I’ve had Bluetooth headphones this has never been an issue. No opinion on apple being better or not (mixed bag, in my limited experience) but this just isn't true in general I think. I've used at least a half dozen bluetooth headphones on at least a dozen different laptops/desktops/phones over the last decade... they have all had some issues with connections at various times.

dayjobpork 6y ago

If my kids are asleep we turn the TV volume down. Why would you wear headphones with your spouse, you can't have any conversation so it defeats the purpose of watching together

donor20 6y ago
If you want to talk put a headphone in the outer ear, and you can still talk softly to each other. Headphones are super immersive sounding. And if you have the pros, you set them to transparency mode. You can still talk, but kids won't hear the movie.
hombre_fatal 6y ago
You should consider turning down your headphone volume if the idea of talking to someone with them on seems far-fetched. I used to be like that and my hearing shows it, and I've learned that just because I'm listening to something, it doesn't need to immerse my entire aural apparatus.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  Some headphones block outside noise, some don't. They're wrong but I wouldn't assume it's a volume issue either.

rubicon33 6y ago

Go ahead and call me a fanboy but... Apple really nails the "it just works". I'm a software engineer, and I'm happy to get my hands dirty with some code. But when it comes to my devices, I really don't want to waste my time trying to figure out why this or that device, doesn't pair with, or work well with, my other device. Apple just does this better than anyone else. I recently got an Apple watch and the setup process was sublime. Pairing with all my other devices, was effortless. Instantly my watch was "mine" with everything I need on it. The LTE setup was mostly painless too. There was a bug in the process that was on Verizon's end, but other than that, getting my phone paired to my number was a breeze. The pairing with my phone, and my mac, is what makes this whole ecosystem special. It just works, and it works pretty damn well. Yes, you can get most of this functionality on a windows or linux machine, with an android phone, airpod replicas, and an android based smart watch but the fluidity of the apple integration is unmatched. This is what (some) people are willing to pay more for.

subpixel 6y ago
I loved my AirPods. Then the batteries gave up the ghost, and I was left with small, expensive, probably toxic electronic garbage. It ruined the brand for me and I can't imagine buying another pair of AirPods.
- nouveaux 6y ago
  While it sucks that your batteries are bad, Apple will recycle the toxic electronics.
- throwaway9980 6y ago
  But at least it’s small? I mean, one dead laptop is the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of AirPods in terms of waste. Of all the things that could be disposable this seems like the least concerning. A Tesla contains orders of magnitudes more plastic, electronics, and batteries that will one day be junk and you will go through maybe 3 sets of AirPods before you trade in for a newer model EV?
  - 6y ago

dahfizz 6y ago

> Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. Yes. Samsung has supported this for years and it has recently upstreamed to all android devices. You can literally do this with any phone and any bluetooth devices, you don't need to fork up $500 for the priviledge. > Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). Yes. The Bose QC35 II for example can store multiple bluetooth connections on the device and switch between them. They cost half as much as the Apple cans and are all but guaranteed to sound better than the plastic cones Apple uses. > You should go back and listen to the criticism of the airpods when they came out - overpriced, stupid, whatever. Then check out sales numbers. I won't argue that. Apple certainly moves product - there's a significant portion of the population that would buy anything they put out.

surfpel 6y ago
> Bose QC35 II for example can store multiple bluetooth connections on the device and switch between them I have these and it’s annoying to switch them because they’re stored and switched via the app - if you’re switching between more than 2 devices. The Bose anc also don’t have particularly good audio either so I’m interested to see what the Apple offering sounds like. In general, there’s a bunch of little annoyances with the current anc devices available (audio quality, uncomfortable, ugly, etc) that I’d like to see Apple fix.
- kranner 6y ago
  > I have these and it’s annoying to switch them because they’re stored and switched via the app - if you’re switching between more than 2 devices. Not true, you can cycle between previously connected devices by long holding the power switch in the on position. You can also add new connections and wipe all connections via that switch. I have them and never need to use the app. Read the manual.
  - lawkwok 6y ago

Tomte 6y ago

> Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device My Airpods don't. They are regularly confused whether they should connect to the iPad or the iPhone. Yes, both are nearby. But I'm only tapping and interacting on one of them at any given moment. Not always. Sometimes. More frustrating: The iPad just loves to use its internal loudspeakers. I'm sitting on the couch watching a YouTube video via Airpods. I'm clicking on another video, sound is coming from the loudspeaker. Not always. Sometimes. Third annoyance: I'm getting both Airpods out the capsule. Both are nearly fully charged. Only one is playing. I need to put the mute one back into the capsule, close it, open it and get the Airpod out again. Not always. Often.

ksk 6y ago

What is your point? MacDonalds make the best hamburgers because they sell so many of them? Windows is the best OS because billions of people use it? >Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream. So in your mind, 'solving' a problem is buying not one, but TWO $500 headphones instead of $10 earbuds and a $5 Y connector? Oh wait, you also believe that the headphone jack is stupid. Yeah, sure, sell people a $1000 solution for a problem you created. Great job! >It's amazing to me how many folks seem to have no clue about what folks value in the apple ecosystem. I'm not a fan of Gucci products either. ;)

jimmydorry 6y ago
The headphone jack that all of the other mobile manufacturers are dropping too? Putting its removal at Apple's feet alone is a bit disingenious when it was the obvious direction for smartphones. Eventually one of the manufacturers was going to be "brave" and the rest would follow. Also, a long trailing cable from your TV / accessories across your living room to a y-connector to two more long trailing cables to two headsets is incredibly inelegant and for some houses, an impractical solution. Having wireless headphones that support a Bluetooth standard (because no two implementations are the same) that allows multiple speakers for a single source, is very nice.

mlinsey 6y ago

"Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing." Man, I wish my headphones did this. I constantly have to fiddle with my bluetooth settings, have audio come out of my mac or iPhone, sometimes in inappropriate places, even after I've tried to tell the OS to play from headphones. The worst is when switching between my Mac and iPhone, usually I have to unpair one, put my headphones into pairing mode, or at the very least turn bluetooth off on one device. My headphones are...Apple AirPods. They did this when they first launched, so I even got the pros. Now none of my pairs ever work. I really wish Apple would figure out how to make stuff just work. I think there's opportunity for someone to figure it out! No clue what happened to this company, but the AirPods are undoubtedly the most frustrating Apple product I've ever owned

filoleg 6y ago
Had 3 pairs of airpods over the years (2 original ones, 1 pro), all used heavily, haven't experienced this kind of an issue even once. And neither do I know anyone else who did. I don't know your situation, but I have a feeling you might have gotten a faulty unit, in which case a warranty request might be helpful. I switch my current ones between a macbook and my phone multiple times a day, all it takes is pressing a single button in my taskbar on macbook or control panel of my phone. I heard they even have an autoswitch feature now, where you can use your airpods with macbook, but when a call comes in or you play a video on your iphone, it switches automatically to that device, and then back. Haven't had a chance to test that feature myself tho, so YMMV.
alwillis 6y ago
You know there have been several firmware upgrades for the AirPods right?

philwelch 6y ago

Different people have different experiences and their opinions are based on those experiences. In my experiences Apple products don’t always “just work”, but since they’re designed with the overconfident belief that they do “just work”, the failure modes can be extremely cryptic and unrecoverable.

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00deadbeef 6y ago

My "solved problem" Sony WH-1000XM3s can connect to my TV and have their volume controlled. My Apple AirPods Pro can't... Neither pair will switch between my iPhone and MacBook without triggering a manual pair from the Bluetooth menu. To get that working for the AirPods I have to update to Big Sur but apparently that has a good chance of bricking my MacBook so I can't.

freeflight 6y ago

> Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing. Is that really game changing? I recently got myself a pair of Huawei FreeLace Pro which do exactly that, even have a button shortcut to change between the two devices, works with my iPhone and iPad. They have ANC, an Awareness mode, a battery charge that last 28 hours, the audio sounds amazing enough to this non-audiophile, all of that for 89€.

bitwize 6y ago

My Bose QC 35 IIs reliably connect to two devices at the same time. I spark 'em up and hear the voice say "Connected to <phone 1>... and <phone 2>". When I play anything with either phone, I hear it through the headphones. It just works. (Yes, I save, and use, my old smartphones. I'm an Android developer so they're handy to keep around.)

jp0d 6y ago

Very true indeed. That's why I stopped bothering with Linux. I love Linux and I've used it on many laptops. But not a single one offered me trouble free computing. I can't blame Linux for that. It's amazing what the open source community has achieved. I hate Windows and I can't be productive on it. People who have used Apple's ecosystem know what the phrase "it just works" means. I probably wouldn't spend $899 (Australian dollars) on those headphones. But my wife recently bought a pair of Airpod pros and I've never had an experience like that with any other earphones! They just work. It feels like Apple just knows what we want! I still use a three year old iPhone 8 and it just works with latest OS updates. It hasn't slowed down a bit. Why do I need to buy a POS Android phone with 12 gb of ram when I'm happy. Apple's products actually have that zen feeling. It's hard to describe. And the longevity of their products make them really good value for money.

pham_nuwen 6y ago

I solve the pairing / unpairing problem with a Jabra Link 360 or 370 dongle. https://www.jabra.com/accessories/jabra-link-360#/ https://www.jabra.com/accessories/jabra-link-360#/ It looks to the PC like USB audio, but it talks to the headphones over Bluetooth. If I want to transition from the Windows 10 laptop to the Linux laptop, or desk-side PC, I just move the dongle. Signal is solid. Has an LED on it so you can see whether it's talking to a headset (blue), playing audio with mic umuted (green), or playing audio with mic muted (red). (Amazing feature for Zoom calls!) The retail price of it seems a bit high at $56, but you can find them used with Jabra Evolve 65 headsets on eBay for $45-$60 as a bundle. (The headset sound is pretty good, actually. Fragile if you don't pack it flat in a backpack, alas.) Sorry I sound like a commercial, but it really makes life easier. Seems like the frustration saved was worth the $$$.