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Airpod Pro 2 They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as
by dougmwne 4y ago
Airpod Pro 2
They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's still yet to come.
- shafyy 4y ago"Probably the oddest thing in the Universe." [0] 0: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish
- mindwork 4y agoThere was no problem with my Airpods pro gen 1, but I bought new gen 2 version just because I wanted to support Apple for making such a great product. I never leave the house without them. Got it on sale for thanksgiving holidays
- fsflover 4y agoApart from a lot of convenience, Airpods have a serious problem, so I am not sure they are worth supporting: http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-airpods-repair-recycling-impossible-deemed-future-e-waste-ifixit-2465348 http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-airpods-repair-recycling-imposs....
- theshrike79 4y agoAll battery powered in-ear headphones have the same "problem". It's nearly impossible to make something that small _and_ get a 10/10 iFixit score. You can't put any sane screws in anything that small, stuff needs to be glued down.
- fsflover 4y agoThere are many alternatives with replaceable batteries. None have 10/10, but most are much better than 0/10.
- alenrozac 4y agoAgreed! Having had Airpods 2 (non-pro) since launch, I only now appreciate the ANC feature. My listening volume went from 80% to 30%, even 10% at home. Seriously, if you have headphones in every day mainly to mask environment noises, these are a must-have. Best buy in a looooong time.
- formerly_proven 4y agoAnd you got a great deal on them too at less than 200$!
- imnotreallynew 4y agoIsn’t there an ongoing investigation regarding an influx of tinnitus related to the ANC feature?
- snazz 4y agoI haven’t heard that, but I’m curious to learn more since I use ANC a lot and would like to protect my hearing! Do you think the noice cancellation causes the tinnitus, or do people suddenly realize the ringing when the silence makes it more noticeable?
- kemayo 4y agoNot that I could find any news about. Someone did sue Apple back in May about hearing damage caused by an amber alert, but I can't see any progress on that since then -- and "someone has sued" is pretty weak evidence of anything, in the US legal system. [1] https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-lawsuit-amber-alert-volume-hearing-damage-174319830.html https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-lawsuit-amber-ale...
- dougmwne 4y agoI'm not aware of any evidence of that, though for me I rarely notice my tinnitus unless I am in a quiet space. It is almost never quiet for most people in most cities, so I can understand someone noticing it for the first time while using ANC.
- jareklupinski 4y agoanecdotal, but I cannot use ANC while riding the NYC subway the amount of air pressure I can feel in my ears when a train is coming into the station is definitely much larger than just letting the silicone tip do the little noice attentuation it can the weird part is that it's not a sound I can hear, I normally have an ok range of hearing but this is just _pressure_
- FatActor 4y agoANC gives me a whopping headache from the pressure, even since the early Bose days.
- browningstreet 4y agoi have to use different sized tips and they push out over the course of time.. i like them and accept that it's my ears, but after the airpods pro i'll go with something with a hook or over the ear.
- dougmwne 4y agoThere are 3rd party tips you could try.
- germinalphrase 4y agoI’m a wrestler and really struggle with getting a secure fit. This isn’t specific to Airpods, but it does seem worse than other buds. I tried foam tips from Comply. They worked reasonably well, but their longevity was short and the small size means there isn’t much physical room for them to compress/expand for a good fit. Some attachment issues as well (though I’ve heard they had been sorted out). More Airpod Pro form factors would be welcome, but the functionality is pretty good.
- dougmwne 4y agoI suppose you mean that you have cauliflower ear? That seems like most IEMs would not work for you.
- germinalphrase 4y agoVery mildly, but yes. Not apparent to others at all. My experience is that most IEMs actually work quite well (Shure, Etymotic). The Airpod pro rubber seems more ‘slippery’ if that makes sense.
- wintermutestwin 4y agoI have small ear canals and tried every possible aftermarket ear piece for my airpods pro to no avail. Now I use bone conducting earphones. They don't sound nearly as good and they don't block outside noise (which is both a negative and a positive depending on the situation), but they work well for all kinds of activity.
- mattlondon 4y agoDon't the Google headphones do universal translation in their range of headphones? I am sure apple can replicate if it is any good.
- germinalphrase 4y agoDoes that mean translating, in real time, the speech of someone talking?
- mattlondon 4y agoYes https://www.lifewire.com/google-pixel-buds-translate-5185622 https://www.lifewire.com/google-pixel-buds-translate-5185622
- monkpit 4y ago> the other person in your conversation will speak into your phone Well that sort of ruins it…
- satvikpendem 4y agoI've used this service when I was in Asia. You don't need headphones, you can just use your phone via the Google Translate app. Place your phone down within speaking distance of both or all participants, then speak. It will translate and reply back and then allow the other person to speak, repeating the process. It worked extremely well even several years ago so I assume it's gotten better since then.
- nonanonymo 4y agoI was in Asia a few months ago and can confirm, it worked like a charm. I was able to have a long and enjoyable conversation with my cab driver during the full 40-minute ride. By the end, I almost forgot we were speaking to each other through translations. It's hard to say what mistakes it made, but there were never any moments of real misunderstanding. It was the first time I'd used it at length and I was pretty blown away.
- bmitc 4y agoDo they actually provide hearing protection? Hearing protection requires a pretty tight seal, which I wasn't aware of any headphones providing aside from in-ear monitors.
- dwardu 4y agoany noise cancelling makes the london underground noises bearable to travel.
- stu2b50 4y agoI mean hearing protection isn't a binary thing. I doubt they would pass hearing protection certifications for things that they're normally used for, like heavy construction or whatnot, but it'd be hard to imagine sticking something in your ear wouldn't offer hearing protection, not even considering the ANC.
- bmitc 4y agoWhile true, I think the marketing should address those. I have seen and heard of people using them as ear protection for heavy and loud equipment, like lawn mowers and motorcycles and stuff, and I’m not sure they apply there.
- Retric 4y agoYou don’t need nearly as much hearing protection for lawn mowers and motorcycles compared to someone operating a jackhammer or similarly loud equipment for hours a day.
- bmitc 4y agoI don't think that's entirely true. Motorcycle noise on highways can be in excess of 100 dB and is broad spectrum noise. Most highway motorcycle rides are in the tens of minutes to hours range, but the damage can occur in just the single digits to teens of minutes. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't really matter much that something is worse for your hearing than something that will permanently damage your hearing. Plus, people are interacting with lawn equipment, motorcycles, and other such things far more frequently than jackhammers.
- radlad 4y agoDoes anyone know how well these work with an Android phone?
- stu2b50 4y agoThey function as headphones. The main issue, for worse or sometimes for better, is that you need an iPhone to update the firmware. Apple's Quick pairing also won't work, but Android doesn't really have an equivalent anyway.
- dougmwne 4y agoYou lose enough of the features that I would not use them with Android regularly. Most importantly, the only high fidelity bluetooth codec they support is AAC, which most Android devices do not support, causing you to fall back to SBC. You will also not be able to adjust any of the settings.
- tootie 4y agoI can't comment on Air Pods since I don't use them, but there are other high quality ear buds with ANC that work on any device. I'm particular to Bose ANC 700 which are over-ear and more comfortable for me, but definitely don't fit snugly under a hood. Jabra elites are excellent and similar form factor to Air Pods.
- hbn 4y agoI finally bought a pair of 1st gen AirPods at the end of 2021, and while they have some issues (tap gestures stopped working and/or became very unreliable at some point, occasionally in-ear detection gets messed up) the convenience of them is hard to overstate. No untangling wires or having to be tethered to the device. At the gym I can throw my phone on the ground nearby and continue to get my music while I do exercises, and at home I can pop in a single earbud and have the stereo audio converted to mono in a single ear to listen to podcasts while playing a video game. And it wasn't until using that that I realized how much of an annoyance having my ears tethered to my pocket was, and having to constantly keep the mental overhead of not snagging the wire on my fingers or a doorhandle or something while using wired headphones. I do wish they'd come down in price more, and ideally in the future be more sweat-resistant and most importantly have replaceable batteries. I don't really love the idea that they're essentially a ~$200 every 2 years subscription at the moment, all while creating a craptonne of ewaste.
- nop_slide 4y agoGoing on 5 years with my OG airpods, still work fine.
- hbn 4y agoI'm hoping I can get a good few years out of mine. Just from research it seems people were averaging about 2 years, and some even less from sweat/earwax accumulating in ports and wrecking them. And I do use mine for working out, and I produce a lot of earwax, so I worry mine are gonna be on the shorter side of lifespans.
- theshrike79 4y agoJust use a toothpick or anything non-metallic and not too sharp to scrub out the earwax. I thought I was going deaf when I couldn't hear my airpods even when the volume was cranked up to max. They were just covered in a film of wax :D
- satvikpendem 4y ago> Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's still yet to come. Likely would come from Google's or Microsoft's (OpenAI) services rather than Apple's, given how terrible Siri is.
- y-c-o-m-b 4y agoFYI for those of you more concerned with hearing protection: I use a product called "Plugfones" which actually create a tight seal in your ear canal. I got the blue-tooth version and use it on my motorcycle rides to listen to music (on low volume) while filtering out the wind noise. They're about $70 for the blue-tooth "Liberate 2.0" model. I've owned it for over a year and it's worked out great. Durable and no issues with battery life so far.
- gnicholas 4y agoSecond this. I upgraded from the first-gen Pros after seeing many strong reviews about how much better the noise cancellation is. I can tell the noise cancelling is much better because previously I couldn't cook with our (very loud) exhaust fan on and listen to podcasts. Now it's no problem. For me, I view the purchase as an investment in my hearing health. Instead of having to turn up the volume to account for traffic background noise or the like, I can keep the volume low and use ANC. While $200 is a lot to drop on a piece of electronics with a limited (<3 year) useful life, the calculus changes dramatically when viewed through the lens of a medical assistive device. It's also nice that there are more volume/seek controls built into the stems, versus the v1.
- dougmwne 4y agoI just gave a pair to my mom who uses hearing aids. She was able to enter her audiogram in them and use them as both backup hearing aids when her regular ones are on the charger or in for repair and as headphones that match her hearing needs. So heck yeah they can be viewed as a medical assistive device.
- fortuna86 4y agoBe careful, my ear doctor said these things cause wax build up and create problems in the long term, not just hearing.
- gnicholas 4y agoInteresting. I would believe there is more ear wax when I use them a lot. Does that not reverse to ordinary levels when they are not used? What problems does this (or other non-hearing issues) create? I agree that we need to be mindful of rapid and dramatic changes to how we interface with the world, since our bodies may not react well in the long run.
- fortuna86 4y agoI think it's more a case of constant ear bud usage packing in the wax and concentrating it. It got so bad for me, even the water tool they have at my doctor's office didn't work to remove it.
- thehours 4y agoAlso surprisingly comfortable to wear while laying on a pillow, at least compared to anything I've tried so far. White noise + noise cancellation makes for pleasant naps.