I 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 so

I 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.