5 ms·

If you had to bet on Apple supporting APTX Lossless or inventing their own thing that won’t work with other peoples stuff, you already know what they’re going t

by Neil44 5y ago

If you had to bet on Apple supporting APTX Lossless or inventing their own thing that won’t work with other peoples stuff, you already know what they’re going to do.

lnxg33k1 5y ago
I'm not sure compatibility with other people stuff is something that apple would concern itself about, I think that might be true for anyone else, but apple supporting only apple ecosystem the best way it can, I think according to its history, is the preferred way, and I think next iteration might be like that, first they had to show what potential apple sound would be like, once people know its top of the top, they can restrict it to apple only, personally I've known a lot of apple users, and people with an iPhone or a mac, have also an iPhone, a Mac, and an iPad, and AirPods
- phkahler 5y ago
  Apple could sell some of their devices - like air pods - to people that are not already Apple customers. But that requires compatibility.
  - lnxg33k1 5y ago
    Have you bought airpods without iphone? You can't even see the battery level reliably without third party apps, which don't even consistently work? I'm an android user and had them for a couple of weeks, before returning them, they're already part of a closed ecosystem
andy_ppp 5y ago
Nobody uses AirPods with an Android phone do they? I mean why would you, I thought the whole point of the AirPods is the advanced Apple integration?
- niij 5y ago
  They work just fine on Android. The important (IMO) features of noise cancellation and detecting when in/out of ear work flawlessly.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    I also have family members who use them with windows for video calls, they work with just about any Bluetooth source afaik
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Linus Sebastian has been doing so for years now.
- kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
  I'm by no means an Apple fan, but AAC on Android is worse due to using SOC-builtin encoders a lot of the time (sometimes they use the Fraunhofer AAC encoder, which sounds better). Apple's AAC encoder is unparalleled and the difference is 100% tangible, so the listening experience will be better on iOS, followed by whatever uses the Fraunhofer encoder (PipeWire on Linux is pretty damn solid in AAC Bluetooth for this reason, but not as good).
- thrashh 5y ago
  No, they’re good ear buds on their own. The integration actually is minor. I use mine with my Windows devices too.
- vkbm 5y ago
  I'm using them, both with my Android phone and on my Win laptop. I experienced two issues tho. First one was that you can't see a charge percent by default, but I managed to fix it by installing an app from Play Store. Second one is that sometimes, when they connect to my phone, volume somehow glitches, so even if it's on the half the strength, you can barely hear them.
- robertlagrant 5y ago
  I use them with my Android phone. Seems to work well.
zucker42 5y ago
Is APTX Lossless an open standard? It doesn't look like it to me. I don't know why Apple would depend on a non-open standard that they don't have to.
- kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
  It isn't, but there are reverse-engineered encoders and decoders, at least, in the form of libopenaptx and libfreeaptx. This is what PipeWire on Linux uses to play aptX audio (specifically it uses libfreeaptx).
out_of_protocol 5y ago
Well, AptX is shit (non-lossless), the only okay codec in use is LDAC, and it's by brute force - 990kbps is awfully close to flac typical bitrate (you'll also get connectivity issues for obvious reasons). Also legal reasons - everyone wants $$$$ for their shit codec I don't know why the whole ecosystem is so fucked up, even AAC ~256kbps can pass double blind test against lossless source, assuming properly encoded and decoded - this assumption is not fulfilled in a slightest in Bluetooth land. P.S. I really want to see some good and open codec, like .opus, properly implemented - this will close major source of frustration for everyone involved and will drive whole industry forward
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  AptX adaptive is an adpcm codec, so there is no artifact except for a higher noise level. At 460kbps it's very very similar to LDAC at 990kbps. It's also unlike AAC a truly adaptive codec. If you really need it AptX also has a lossless mode iirc. The best codec would obviously be to just use Opus, yeah. But AptX adaptive pretty much solves Bluetooth audio.
  - out_of_protocol 5y ago
    No idea how it supposed to work in theory, in practice every device combo i tried works noticably worse with AptX (than LDAC, even non-990 one). Don't have any device capable of AptX lossless. Re: solve - as long as there are licensing issues, it can't solve BT Audio even if it was such great codec P.S. Random link from google with measurements of some actual device using AptX, AAC, LDAC https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-bc3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...
    - spookthesunset 5y ago
      How are you able to know which codec is being used over the Bluetooth link?
      - 5y ago

by Neil44 5y ago

If you had to bet on Apple supporting APTX Lossless or inventing their own thing that won’t work with other peoples stuff, you already know what they’re going to do.

lnxg33k1 5y ago

I'm not sure compatibility with other people stuff is something that apple would concern itself about, I think that might be true for anyone else, but apple supporting only apple ecosystem the best way it can, I think according to its history, is the preferred way, and I think next iteration might be like that, first they had to show what potential apple sound would be like, once people know its top of the top, they can restrict it to apple only, personally I've known a lot of apple users, and people with an iPhone or a mac, have also an iPhone, a Mac, and an iPad, and AirPods

phkahler 5y ago
Apple could sell some of their devices - like air pods - to people that are not already Apple customers. But that requires compatibility.
- lnxg33k1 5y ago
  Have you bought airpods without iphone? You can't even see the battery level reliably without third party apps, which don't even consistently work? I'm an android user and had them for a couple of weeks, before returning them, they're already part of a closed ecosystem

andy_ppp 5y ago

Nobody uses AirPods with an Android phone do they? I mean why would you, I thought the whole point of the AirPods is the advanced Apple integration?

niij 5y ago
They work just fine on Android. The important (IMO) features of noise cancellation and detecting when in/out of ear work flawlessly.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  I also have family members who use them with windows for video calls, they work with just about any Bluetooth source afaik
Hamuko 5y ago
Linus Sebastian has been doing so for years now.
kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
I'm by no means an Apple fan, but AAC on Android is worse due to using SOC-builtin encoders a lot of the time (sometimes they use the Fraunhofer AAC encoder, which sounds better). Apple's AAC encoder is unparalleled and the difference is 100% tangible, so the listening experience will be better on iOS, followed by whatever uses the Fraunhofer encoder (PipeWire on Linux is pretty damn solid in AAC Bluetooth for this reason, but not as good).
thrashh 5y ago
No, they’re good ear buds on their own. The integration actually is minor. I use mine with my Windows devices too.
vkbm 5y ago
I'm using them, both with my Android phone and on my Win laptop. I experienced two issues tho. First one was that you can't see a charge percent by default, but I managed to fix it by installing an app from Play Store. Second one is that sometimes, when they connect to my phone, volume somehow glitches, so even if it's on the half the strength, you can barely hear them.
robertlagrant 5y ago
I use them with my Android phone. Seems to work well.

zucker42 5y ago

Is APTX Lossless an open standard? It doesn't look like it to me. I don't know why Apple would depend on a non-open standard that they don't have to.

kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
It isn't, but there are reverse-engineered encoders and decoders, at least, in the form of libopenaptx and libfreeaptx. This is what PipeWire on Linux uses to play aptX audio (specifically it uses libfreeaptx).

out_of_protocol 5y ago

Well, AptX is shit (non-lossless), the only okay codec in use is LDAC, and it's by brute force - 990kbps is awfully close to flac typical bitrate (you'll also get connectivity issues for obvious reasons). Also legal reasons - everyone wants $$$$ for their shit codec I don't know why the whole ecosystem is so fucked up, even AAC ~256kbps can pass double blind test against lossless source, assuming properly encoded and decoded - this assumption is not fulfilled in a slightest in Bluetooth land. P.S. I really want to see some good and open codec, like .opus, properly implemented - this will close major source of frustration for everyone involved and will drive whole industry forward

sudosysgen 5y ago
AptX adaptive is an adpcm codec, so there is no artifact except for a higher noise level. At 460kbps it's very very similar to LDAC at 990kbps. It's also unlike AAC a truly adaptive codec. If you really need it AptX also has a lossless mode iirc. The best codec would obviously be to just use Opus, yeah. But AptX adaptive pretty much solves Bluetooth audio.
- out_of_protocol 5y ago
  No idea how it supposed to work in theory, in practice every device combo i tried works noticably worse with AptX (than LDAC, even non-990 one). Don't have any device capable of AptX lossless. Re: solve - as long as there are licensing issues, it can't solve BT Audio even if it was such great codec P.S. Random link from google with measurements of some actual device using AptX, AAC, LDAC https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-bc3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...
  - spookthesunset 5y ago
    How are you able to know which codec is being used over the Bluetooth link?
    - 5y ago