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The next generation of AirPods
- whatever1 5y agoJust don’t use them for your zoom calls. Use the company issued headset. Your colleagues will thank you. AirPods microphones are atrocious.
- matsemann 5y agoWhat is spatial audio? That the sound sounds like it has an origin? If so, why is it useful/wanted?
- wsinks 5y agoImagine having a surround sound system. Now put on your headphones and you still have that surround sound system. That's why it's useful / wanted. Video gamers use spatial audio to know where that person shooting at them is. Audio listeners like the illusory effects of panning around their head. ASMR listeners like how it can sound exactly like someone is scratching their head because the sound has origin. Movie producers like it because they can fit more audio into a single scene because the brain can process more spatial audio than regular stereo audio. That said, stereo audio is still pretty good. Some audio is still just mono. Copied audio is usually mono. Spatial audio is one way for producers to set their creations off from cheap copies, almost as a non-intrusive form of DRM. These are my opinions, and happy to chat more about it. Audio is tight.
- falcolas 5y ago> Now put on your headphones and you still have that surround sound system. If your ears match the modeled ears within a certain degree of "normal". Otherwise, you get a confusing sounding mess. It's unfortunate, but it's (yet) another 80/20 problem.
- doublepg23 5y ago> ASMR Do you have any links of ASMRists using Spatial Audio?
- babypuncher 5y agoI can't get behind any $180 pair of earbuds that doesn't have some kind of form-fitting ear tips (silicone or otherwise). The AirPods Pro are a great product, but this update to the base model is really disappointing.
- thih9 5y agoPreferences vary; I don't like form fitting ear tips, I prefer old school earbuds, like air pods or ear pods. I didn't want to miss out on spatial audio, so I'm excited by this update.
- theshrike79 5y agoI've tried every single form-fitting ear tip type, model and brand barring custom-molded ones. I've tried cheap ones, I've tried expensive ones ($300-ish). Every. Single. One. falls right out of my ears if I do anything else than sit quietly without moving my head. Regular wireless AirPods? They stay in no matter what I do. Sweating like Jordan Peele in the meme? They stay in. Running? Stay in.
- philliphaydon 5y agoI just discovered last week that on the Apple TV I can connect 2 apple audio devices at the same time. Currently staying with the in laws, daughter is sleeping in the same room with us so we couldn’t watch TV. I connected my wife’s AirPods to the Apple TV to watch tv and noticed I could connect another one, so I borrowed my sister in laws AirPods and connected them and both work at the same time. So now we can watch TV together when daughter is asleep. It only works with apple audio devices, so looks like I’ll pick up some new AirPods for myself! Edit: contacted > connected
- karmakaze 5y agoAnd vice-versa: > AirPods require Apple devices running iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, watchOS 8.1, tvOS 15.1, or macOS Monterey, all available as free software updates next week.
- Lio 5y agoDoes it really only work with Apple headphones? That's terrible. I like Apple products but I hate the way they push to make things proprietary that could be open standard. I guess that makes services "sticky" for a lot of people but it pushes me away from the ecosystem,
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y agoApple should want their customers to choose their products because they’re better. Arbitrarily reducing compatibility is a sure fire way to make your customers resent you.
- Traubenfuchs 5y agoDo they have active noise cancelling? Also, 6 hours listening is a bad joke, that‘s not even a standard workday. With battery aging that‘s soon not even half a workday anymore.
- Phenomenit 5y agoThe pros have noise canceling. 6h non stop in your ears is to much if you ask me, take out em when your eating lunch and they'll be full again when you're done.
- ssully 5y agoOr if you are in the office, they are in their case during meetings or when someone is talking to you at your desk. That's at least what I did when I was still in the office, and I used first gen Airpods which had worse battery life.
- Phenomenit 5y agoYeah, I'm on my second year with my first gen and they're still great.
- superdude12 5y agoThey charge super fast. You can get 1 hour of playback from 5 minutes of charging. You can also charge one at a time if you really need them continuously.
- elif 5y agoAh now we're thinking with portals.. perhaps they can sell a set of 3 for this exact use? If you're playing games or something that takes heavy focus, you want to stay ahead of charging, not wait for something to die l.
- vadfa 5y agoThey are not built for your use case, that is all. I have a pair of airpods pro I use during commuting every day and they are one of my favourite gadgets.
- sergiotapia 5y agoHow do these compare with the Jabra 85t's? I'm in the market for new audio. I will use them for jogging, lifting and general calls while walking around.
- criddell 5y agoApple has a pretty generous return policy. Get them and return them if you don't like them.
- theshrike79 5y agoThe AirPod killer feature is integration across all Apple devices. If you have exact needs for audio quality, you can always find better ones. But if you want to get off your MacBook, walk over to your Apple TV and get your headphones connected to it with one click on the remote, then AirPods are your thing.
- josephg 5y agoYep, but it’s super janky. I can’t count the number of times I’ve put my AirPods on for a zoom call only to have my phone and my laptop fight about which device is connected. Sometimes I’ve ended up turning Bluetooth off on my phone and manually associating them with my laptop just to get them to work. It’s a great feature, but I really wish they took the time to make it reliable.
- handrous 5y agoI have Jabra bluetooth headphones (full-size, not earbuds) and have taken to turning off Bluetooth on my MacBook to get them to work on my Windows machine, which will connect but not play any audio through them otherwise. Some device pairs work fine, some work fine until the other device plays a sound and then can't recover, others (my Windows gaming box) just don't work if something else is connected at all.
- kfprt 5y ago>Apple and the Environment Hilarious section for an expensive product that has a non removable battery and is going to end up in a landfill after a year or two of use.
- m_ke 5y agoYeah my airpods died after like a year and a half of use. When my brand new M1 macbook air died after a month of use I took it to the apple store and the "genius" next to me told someone with dead airpods that it's normal and that they have to buy a replacement pod.
- kfprt 5y agoLandfill as a Service^TM. Apple is truly a very dirty company.
- skinnymuch 5y agoYeah I got AppleCare for AirPods because I was told they just replace it completely vs only replacing the battery. And I’ve heard the battery will not keep up high capacity if you use it daily a lot as I do
- zxcvgm 5y agoSeems like PodSwap have figured out how to replace the batteries without butchering them. (I’m not affiliated nor used them.) https://www.thepodswap.com/ https://www.thepodswap.com/
- kfprt 5y agoTaking what used to be free (replacing batteries in your remote/phone/device) and turning it into a service. Now that's innovation!
- acdha 5y agoA year or two seems implausibly low but I would also compare this with the competition. For example, I have some great AKG headphones (over-ear, wired) which cost more even before adjusting for inflation — the audio quality is absolutely stellar but all of the plastic started falling apart after a couple of years. I've replaced the covers over the ears but now the non-replaceable cable shroud and padding on the crossbar are disintegrating, too. They probably weigh 10 times more than a pair of AirPods so I'm not sure what the total landfill impact ends up like. I am 100% certain that we will need to have regulation requiring manufacturers to recycle dead products if we want to move the needle at all. I'd also be utterly shocked if AirPods were even 0.1% of the total landfill volume generated by the average buyer over that period — higher for certain trace metals but still, this seems like a newer spin on “I don't even own a TV”.
- WithinReason 5y agoA spatial audio implementation could range from mind blowing to meh. I want to hear one that can reach this level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdIidUIbAs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdIidUIbAs
- somedude895 5y agoWow, I did not know my headphones could do that! What's this announcement then if this is already possible?
- TheGRS 5y agoAt the end of the day it's still 2 speakers. I get doing spacial audio effects on a soundbar, but for headphones its all just how well you can translate the effect to 2 close speakers.
- doublepg23 5y agoFwiw you only have two ears.
- TylerE 5y agoHeadphones are really, truly different because you take the room out of the equation, and the listener is always exactly in the sweet spot.
- errantmind 5y agoBinaural recording and spatial audio are not the same thing. The linked track is a binaural recording.
- WithinReason 5y agoThis was a recording with a head-shaped microphone, for spatial audio you have to implement the HRTF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function
- aidenn0 5y ago
- etempleton 5y agoI wonder how these will fit my ears. The current design fits my ears perfectly whereas the pros or any other soft-tip earbuds work there way out of my ears.
- e40 5y agoThis is the $64,000 question. I would love to get the longer battery life, but the pros don't fit me and these look more pro-like.
- filoleg 5y agoSimilar boat. I know it is a 50/50 love/hate in terms of fit (understandably so, because not everyone has the same ear shape), but I personally loved original Airpods in terms of fit. They fit my ears perfectly, I could jump/run/etc., and they wouldn't move even a tiny bit. But with Airpod Pros, no matter which eartips I used, they would always not feel 100% correctly, and would move by a tiny tiny amount if I was actively moving, and over time I would need to readjust them in the ear once in a while. The new ones they've shown today look more like Airpods Pro, but with a fit closer to the original Airpods, which I would (admittedly selfishly) be really happy with.
- josephg 5y agoAs another data point, something about the original AirPods made my ears hurt. It was like sitting on a concrete bench - ok at first but before long they felt physically painful. I had to use them one ear at a time so the other ear could recover. Swapping to airpod pros fixed that for me - the silicon tips are way more comfy for my ear shape.
- mttjj 5y ago@dang can we get a less editorialized title (this one only highlights one of the new features)? And one that uses proper capitalization? Something like "AirPods (3rd generation)" would also match the other Apple-announcement posts that are currently on the front page.
- dang 5y agoOk, I've changed the title—submitted title was "Apple new airpods with Spatial Audio". I don't know that that was so bad, since it's the feature Apple is emphasizing, but it's not a big deal.
- mttjj 5y agoI was more concerned with the lazy capitalization but thank you for changing anyway :)
- ElijahLynn 5y agoJust one day before the new Pixel 6 launch...
- gumby 5y agoYes I’m sure Apple timed it that way on purpose :-)
- minimaxir 5y agoThe TL;DR on these is "AirPods Pro without ANC", but comparing the two models there are more slight differences such as skin detection and longer battery life. Given that, the $180 price point is odd because the Pros occasionally drop to that level on sale. The new AirPods (and now the old Pros) now have a "MagSafe Wireless Case" which is compatible with the MagSafe charger supposedly, although there isn't more info on that/if it's just Qi charging with no magnets.
- MBCook 5y agoThe gen 2 AirPods had a Qi compatible case, I would imagine they wouldn’t remove that feature.
- Closi 5y agoMagSafe wireless just means there is a ring of magnets around the Qi charging plate to make it easier and more reliable to align your device on the charger.
- dbbk 5y agoI wonder what the skin detection is for?
- baybal2 5y agoI wonder, how do they implement the head tracking? Radars? MEMS Gyroscopes?
- theshrike79 5y agoMagic! Also custom radio chips in both headphones that are able to measure latency to the source. Maybe some motion detection.
- pzo 5y agoAirpods pro have 3axis accelerometer and 3axis gyroscope in each receiver
- filereaper 5y agoApple Marketing sometimes can be incredulous: >"First with our contour design that delivers sound directly to your ears" What does that even mean?!? These are in-ear headphones, how else are they supposed to deliver sound? Feels silly to have such a comment to make a two point slide.
- MBCook 5y agoThey like to make the page a certain size, and when there are only a few improvements over the previous generation… they get creative.
- kwertyoowiyop 5y agoOur white plastic has the highest albedo ever!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y agoThe point is, they didn't get that creative this time.
- luxuryballs 5y agoThen the flavor of the cheeseburger was delivered, right in my mouth!
- theshadowknows 5y agothey _could_ project sound outward, using beam forming, such that the sound ricochets off of the walls and other surrounding objects and is directed onto the bones behind your ear. I'm not saying that would work, but it's an option!
- gumby 5y agoPretty sure that these are the only ones with their contour design, so I suppose this is truth in advertising.
- vwadhwani 5y agoI just want a pair of airpods that allow me to have a conversation outdoors. I'm always getting feedback that the ambient noise makes it difficult for people to hear me talk. I can't even do the dishes while on a call without people complaining.
- Meleagris 5y agoI wish I could upvote this 10x. I don't know what Apple does with their processing, but the quality of the Airpods microphone is very poor (the worst I've ever heard). Especially outside, but even indoors. I'm commenting to see if that's everyone's experience, or if we're outliers.
- 1123581321 5y agoI think many people have that issue. Voice isolation mode, new to iOS 15, helps.
- MrJagil 5y agoTry to pair them again! My girlfriend said the same thing, as if my voice was attenuated instead of the other way around. All it took was re-pairing them.
- hackstack 5y agoI believe iOS 15 includes a little-touted feature: "Voice Isolation" mode; I haven't tested it comprehensively, but other similar technology (e.g. RNNoise [1]) has very impressive results in the scenarios you allude to. [1] https://jmvalin.ca/demo/rnnoise/ https://jmvalin.ca/demo/rnnoise/
- javajosh 5y agoBy chance I bought a Sennheiser headset for Zoom calls, and the real killer feature is a high quality mic with firmware noise cancellation. At the time I was in a hurry and bought the most expensive Senn's I could find on Amazon, and lucked out. I've had two people at work ask me what I use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8ME6QA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8ME6QA
- criddell 5y agoSince these are rated for IPX4, does that mean you can clean them by washing with something that will dissolve ear wax? Could you clean them in your dishwasher? I have some of the original AirPods and I've never felt like I can get them thoroughly clean.
- Closi 5y agoNo, it means it can handle a small splash of water not a dishwasher cycle.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI have washed my AirPods pro twice when I forget they were in my pocket (outside the case), full washer and dryer cycles, and they still work.
- Closi 5y agoUnfortunately our experiences are different here! Mine went through a wash and although they still kind of worked ANC was ruined (it would buzz) and the audio quality was pretty terrible.
- gumby 5y agoApparently at the Apple store they have some kind of putty they stick the Airpods into to get the gunk out of the grilles.
- cloogshicer 5y agoWarning: I purchased AirPods 1st gen and after a firmware update, they just stopped working. They disconnect after a few minutes. It's been over a year and this hasn't been fixed. This seems to be a widespread issue (see links below) - but at the Apple store they just tell you to buy replacements for almost full price. I'm quite frustrated with this and thus won't purchase these again. I think they are designed to last a year or two max, which is just too expensive and environmentally unfriendly. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8499626 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8499626 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251067580 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251067580 https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/h7furn/left_airpod_constantly_disconnects https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/h7furn/left_airpod... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251532951 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251532951 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250494933 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250494933 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEyTDJJ6GPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEyTDJJ6GPc (see all the comments)
- clairity 5y agoi have this issue. it’s super frustrating, because a reconnect is required every 5-10 minutes.
- cloogshicer 5y agoFor me it's down to a few seconds, especially on phone calls. They're unusable.
- ksec 5y agoSame here. Even if they fixed it the battery is half dead. So I wont purchase any Wireless EarPhone again. I dont like the idea of disposable earphone.
- rabidonrails 5y agoWhy isn't there a way to mute? I'd love to be able to configure one of the buttons to mute me when clicked. Fingers crossed for the next gen I guess.
- azinman2 5y agoYou can just take them out or pause your music?
- steve_adams_86 5y agoI think they meant mute their mic. I could be wrong. It would be cool if you could mute yourself while on calls - it would be possible within the apple ecosystem at least. Pause during media, mute during calls. Something. Or maybe if it could be customizable, I'd like that. Different actions for different modes.
- azinman2 5y agoYou can mute on software in the phone app already. I suppose what's missing is if you need to frequently mute you wouldn't want to use the screen and would rather a physical button? I've certainly never run into that issue myself, or if I know I need to mute a lot, I just have my phone out and press the screen.
- rabidonrails 5y agoBut I believe a key aspect of the Airpods is that I don't constantly have to have my phone out. I can be walking around or riding a bike or shopping and still listening and speaking - when needed - to my conference call.
- crossroadsguy 5y agoExactly! Why would amyotrophic even have a use case where they’d want to mute these without taking these off. Doesn’t make sense. Or as you rightly said pause it from the phone. “You get it”!
- layer8 5y agoI wonder what exactly the restrictions will be when you don’t want to upgrade to i(Pad)OS 15. I guess I’ll find out next week.
- poulsbohemian 5y agoI'm not intending to be flippant here - I love my AirPods and other Apple gear - but this reads like they took the AirPod Pros and rebranded them as the next generation of AirPod. I'm not seeing what's actually new here. Can someone in the know throw me a bone if there's something I'm overlooking?
- jachee 5y agoI think for non-marketing technical folks, these are best described thus: “Here are the AirPods Pro internals translated to the regular AirPods form factor, without the noise-cancelling and modular-tips, for $50 less.”
- MBCook 5y agoAnd Find My built in in case you lose them.
- Tagbert 5y agoThe external form is much more like the original AirPods, not the AirPods Pro. They did reduce the length of the control tips. They switched the controls from tap on the body to squeeze on the control tips.
- mongol 5y agoI like my wired, ordinary earphones. They are low tech, cheap and reliable. When I pick them up from my pocket, I may have to spend a few moments to untangle then, but it is usually just a few seconds. After some months the wires start to go bad. Then I use a new pair. But such a pair costs very little. I don't know what I am missing, but I think I would be frustrated if expensive wireless earphones run out of battery when I need them, or lose their ability to hold charge, or I lose them. It is a worry I don't mind to live without. I am probably just a cheap grumpy old man....
- Unklejoe 5y agoI mainly just use them when I run on the treadmill. The wire gets a little annoying since I don't have a shirt on to tuck it into.
- truffdog 5y agoI managed to get a new phone with a headphone jack, but it's "wrong" somehow and the plugs just pop out.
- Causality1 5y agoSony MDR-J10 earphones were the most comfortable listening experience ever created, and I regularly forgot I was even wearing them. Shame they're no longer being made and no TWS earbuds have tried to imitate their design.
- enjoiful 5y agoHonestly until you try wireless, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to not have a wire.
- xcambar 5y agoHonestly until you have to suffer battery problems, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to have a wire. ;)
- 5y ago
- taurath 5y agoNo ear caps is instant no buy for me - I literally cannot keep the previous AirPods in my ear and if I do it causes aching, while I can use the pro’s without issue. Or is it just a refresh of the original AirPods?
- mportela 5y agoFor me, it's the exact opposite: my ears are too small, so ear caps give me bruises and make the earphones fall all the time. It fascinates me to see how people can have completely different experiences for a product as basic as an earphone.
- smaug7 5y agoThis is a refresh of the original AirPods. The Pros are the ones with the in ear caps.
- taurath 5y agoI kinda don’t get the branding then, why are the pro’s a completely different fit AND different sound quality, like wouldn’t you want a choice in ear fit to exist for both regular and pro?
- dbbk 5y agoThe in-ear fit works in conjunction with the ANC. The regular AirPods are for people who don't want noise to be cancelled, either passively or actively.
- solarmist 5y agoThis seems to be a refresh of the original. I had the same worry before I bought my AirPods, but I was very surprised that I don't have any problem with them staying put. I can even weight lift or row with them.
- listless 5y agoI can’t upvote this hard enough. The spongy tips ARE the killer feature of the pro. They are comfortable and they stay in my ears when I exercise!
- blunte 5y agoI’ve worn Shure ~280$ in ear wires earphones for years, and with the right temperature sensitive foam inserts they passively block more sound than my AirPods Pro do. And they provide better sound quality. Maybe these new AirPods have better sound and battery, but from a minimalist perspective they are still unnecessary. If you talk on the phone a lot, maybe I see the value. But the wired Apple headphones work fine for that, and they don’t randomly stop working while you’re on a call.
- themadturk 5y agoI have AirPod Pros, and like them a lot because the tips I've chosen fit just fine and the ANC is great. I also like regular Apple earbuds (and those that copy their design) because they are super-comfortable, though they don't cancel any sound. I don't have a need for these, as the spatial sound isn't anything I need and I have a half dozen standard Apple or Apple-inspired earbuds that work just fine.
- beezischillin 5y agoAs much as I liked my AirPods gen 1 and the features seem tempting, my personal experience with battery longevity on Apple headphones are not great. I’ve so far had the BeatsX, Beats Studio3 and AirPods. Almost all of them completely died within a year of purchase. The AirPods still work but using them is pointless since the battery life dropped to less than an hour so I just haven’t bothered. Mind you, this is not because I’m such a heavy user, I listen to music once or twice a week at most through headphones so it doesn’t seem like this should have happened. It’s kind of a shame because I really like the AirPods Pros for example, but if I don’t have a guarantee that I can get them repaired when this eventually happens then I feel like my money is better spent elsewhere.
- gumby 5y agoI am quite astonished as I have the opposite experience. My Airpods only go flat during long phone calls of more than two hours and I had them for at least a year before the Covid lockdown. You have a larger n than I do, but still I am surprised that they would wipe out after a year.
- elektrons 5y agoSame for me. My AirPods gen 1 are still going strong. I use them about 4-5 hours every day monday-Friday.
- bussierem 5y agoI'll add one to that n: I have a pair of airpods I got with my new job. Within a year they lasted less than 2h and never even at the start lasted longer than 3h. When playing D&D with friends I had to use one at a time and rotate them out to last the whole session. Are they small? Yes. I don't expect INCREDIBLE battery out of them. But my wife has a pair of Bose equivalent and they last like 6h a day on a single charge and continue to do so 3 years later. They are slightly larger which accounts for longer initial charge but the degredation on my airpods was stunningly bad. I ended up having to replace them this year (1.5y later) for a new set because they were no longer capable of supporting my work meeting schedule.
- 5y ago
- mleonhard 5y agoThey kept the case design that requires two hands to operate and prevents installing a tether clip. I have both AirPods Pro and Bose SoundSport. The AirPods Pro have good noise-cancelling. But the SoundSport clip to my shirt and so are always available. I can use one hand to put the right-side in my ear and press one button to turn them on and answer. I can also remove both earbuds and drop them. The tether keeps them in place on my shirt. I use the SoundSport almost exclusively and rarely touch my AirPods Pro.
- waspight 5y agoIt is really frustrating to put the airpods in with one hand, when you have already answered and holding the phone with the other. Happens all the time.
- vegai_ 5y agoCool that they look like Pros now, i.e. not like you put Braun toothbrush heads in your ear. What I desperately need is a way to place an Airtag in the charger. Yes, I lost a pair of Airpod Pros some months ago. No idea where they are, perhaps somebody stole them or perhaps I just lost them in the house.
- sangnoir 5y agoThe last time this happened to me, I waited until it was night time and very quiet and started to play music through them at max volume.
- drcongo 5y agoI lost mine in a recent house move and they don't show up anywhere in the Find My app. I had to buy a pair of £10 knock offs just so I can listen to podcasts while walking the dog, however these have the added bonus of not falling out my ear at every possible opportunity.
- CharlesW 5y ago> What I desperately need is a way to place an Airtag in the charger. There are at least a couple AirPods charger cases with integrated AirTag slots. It would've been nice if this functionality was integrated into the charger.
- weystrom 5y agoIn the press release Apple talks about AAC-ELD codec being included on these earbuds, promising high-def low-latency audio. I wonder if that's true. My biggest gripe with the industry ever since the death of 3.5mm jack has been voice/video call audio quality on BT HSP profile. It's probably just a marketing blurb, but whoever manages to fix BT voice audio will be my personal hero.
- ksec 5y agoWell Apple has been using AAC-ELD in FaceTime for a few years already. I wonder if this is ELD v2.