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You're responding in a sub-thread where others have specifically called out the fact that you can't get battery status from AirPods on non-Apple platforms. This

You're responding in a sub-thread where others have specifically called out the fact that you can't get battery status from AirPods on non-Apple platforms. This is, to my knowledge, a feature that is supported natively by the Bluetooth stacks on every mainstream OS and requires no "apps" at all. For example, I can connect my Bluetooth mouse to my Linux machine and it happily reports the state of the battery. Care to offer a justification for why this is the case without resorting to "the multi-trillion-dollar behemoth can't be bothered to build an app"?

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
spacedcowboy 11mo ago
Yeah, there are two batteries, the one in the earbuds and the one in the container. There's no way in BLE to transmit both values - and choosing either one is lying to the user about something. It's not uncommon (at least for me) to have a low earbud battery level (because I've just binged Slow Horses) or a low container battery (because I've just charged the earbuds from the container for the third time and drained the container). There's a suggestion above that you should "just choose the lowest one because 99% of the time that's what you're interested in", except that's not true in the second case. I'm fairly sure that if you could report both, then Apple would report both using this hypothetical standard method, but since you can't, and there's no easy way to just "choose one" without misleading the user about something, they choose to do it properly, even though that means it's an Apple-only thing.
- angoragoats 11mo ago
  See my other replies in this thread — it’s totally possible to do with standard Bluetooth, yet Apple doesn’t do it. So your “fairly sure” assumption that Apple would make use of this feature if it existed seems to be wrong.
sroussey 11mo ago
The multi battery levels thing is native proprietary on every platform since there is no Bluetooth spec for more than one battery level and even that just uses uint8.
- angoragoats 11mo ago
  As I posted elsewhere in the thread, this is incorrect. The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries and individual battery reporting for each. [0] They even give the example in that doc of earbuds which are one “logical device” but two physically separate pieces, each with its own battery. As additional evidence, there are "AirPods-like" earbuds on the market such as the Sony WF-C700N, which have no problem reporting three battery levels over standard Bluetooth on e.g. Linux. [0] https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/BAS_v1.1/out/en/index-en.html https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specifica...
  - inferiorhuman 11mo ago
    The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries As of version 1.1 of the battery service which was finalized at the end of 2022. Given Bluetooth's track record, who knows what kind of interoperability landmines exist.
    - angoragoats 11mo ago
      Man, HN really likes to make excuses for Apple. No, implementing multiple instances of the Battery Service to report battery state for several batteries has been there since the 1.0 spec. [0] This spec was released in 2011, five years before the first AirPods were released. Doing what several commenters claimed was impossible has in fact been possible with native Bluetooth for a decade and a half. [0] https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?doc_id=245138 https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?d...
      - inferiorhuman 11mo ago
hluska 11mo ago
The Bluetooth spec only supports one battery status. AirPods have three batteries. Is 1 < 3 a satisfactory enough answer to you? On the subject of the multi-trillion-dollar behemoth, Apple is a private company. If you have the capital, you can acquire a controlling interest and then they’ll work on whatever you like. Until then, you’re out of luck.
- potatototoo99 11mo ago
  Always this sad argument that X is a private company and they can do what they like. Companies are not acts of God or nature. They are a private company operating on a society that allows it to exist because it is believed to be the for the public good. The public has very much the right to question it's practices, and if they are anti consumer, monopolistic, or a list of other things, to correct them. Shareholders be damned.
  - inferiorhuman 11mo ago
    So what's your argument then? Companies can't release a product unless each and every feature works with their competitors products? By that logic most of the software and hardware you use today simply would not exist. Like a lot of parts of the (especially earlier revisions of) Bluetooth spec the battery status took a slapdash approach to defining things. Look at anyone who's used Bluetooth on Windows to see what a nightmare interoperability still is. So Apple released ear buds that implement poorly defined parts of the spec but otherwise work with third party bluetooth devices, and that's bad? Yikes. Meanwhile, the Bluetooth SIG released an update at the end of 2022 that actually starts to require some sort of standardization. You know who's name was on that little update? Big bad awful anticompetitive Apple.
- angoragoats 11mo ago
  > The Bluetooth spec only supports one battery status. AirPods have three batteries. Is 1 < 3 a satisfactory enough answer to you? No, it's not. The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries and individual battery reporting for each. [0] They even give the example in that doc of earbuds which are one “logical device” but two physically separate pieces, each with its own battery. > On the subject of the multi-trillion-dollar behemoth, Apple is a private company. Apple is, by definition, a public company. > If you have the capital, you can acquire a controlling interest and then they’ll work on whatever you like. Until then, you’re out of luck. No. Anticompetitive behavior such as tying (what I would argue is happening here) can and should always be subject to examination, criticism, and possible litigation by the public. [0] https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/BAS_v1.1/out/en/index-en.html https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specifica...
butlike 11mo ago
Because what's the point in having 'fuck you' money if you never get to say 'fuck you?'

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

spacedcowboy 11mo ago

Yeah, there are two batteries, the one in the earbuds and the one in the container. There's no way in BLE to transmit both values - and choosing either one is lying to the user about something. It's not uncommon (at least for me) to have a low earbud battery level (because I've just binged Slow Horses) or a low container battery (because I've just charged the earbuds from the container for the third time and drained the container). There's a suggestion above that you should "just choose the lowest one because 99% of the time that's what you're interested in", except that's not true in the second case. I'm fairly sure that if you could report both, then Apple would report both using this hypothetical standard method, but since you can't, and there's no easy way to just "choose one" without misleading the user about something, they choose to do it properly, even though that means it's an Apple-only thing.

angoragoats 11mo ago
See my other replies in this thread — it’s totally possible to do with standard Bluetooth, yet Apple doesn’t do it. So your “fairly sure” assumption that Apple would make use of this feature if it existed seems to be wrong.

sroussey 11mo ago

The multi battery levels thing is native proprietary on every platform since there is no Bluetooth spec for more than one battery level and even that just uses uint8.

angoragoats 11mo ago
As I posted elsewhere in the thread, this is incorrect. The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries and individual battery reporting for each. [0] They even give the example in that doc of earbuds which are one “logical device” but two physically separate pieces, each with its own battery. As additional evidence, there are "AirPods-like" earbuds on the market such as the Sony WF-C700N, which have no problem reporting three battery levels over standard Bluetooth on e.g. Linux. [0] https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/BAS_v1.1/out/en/index-en.html https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specifica...
- inferiorhuman 11mo ago
  The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries As of version 1.1 of the battery service which was finalized at the end of 2022. Given Bluetooth's track record, who knows what kind of interoperability landmines exist.
  - angoragoats 11mo ago
    Man, HN really likes to make excuses for Apple. No, implementing multiple instances of the Battery Service to report battery state for several batteries has been there since the 1.0 spec. [0] This spec was released in 2011, five years before the first AirPods were released. Doing what several commenters claimed was impossible has in fact been possible with native Bluetooth for a decade and a half. [0] https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?doc_id=245138 https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?d...
    - inferiorhuman 11mo ago

hluska 11mo ago

The Bluetooth spec only supports one battery status. AirPods have three batteries. Is 1 < 3 a satisfactory enough answer to you? On the subject of the multi-trillion-dollar behemoth, Apple is a private company. If you have the capital, you can acquire a controlling interest and then they’ll work on whatever you like. Until then, you’re out of luck.

potatototoo99 11mo ago
Always this sad argument that X is a private company and they can do what they like. Companies are not acts of God or nature. They are a private company operating on a society that allows it to exist because it is believed to be the for the public good. The public has very much the right to question it's practices, and if they are anti consumer, monopolistic, or a list of other things, to correct them. Shareholders be damned.
- inferiorhuman 11mo ago
  So what's your argument then? Companies can't release a product unless each and every feature works with their competitors products? By that logic most of the software and hardware you use today simply would not exist. Like a lot of parts of the (especially earlier revisions of) Bluetooth spec the battery status took a slapdash approach to defining things. Look at anyone who's used Bluetooth on Windows to see what a nightmare interoperability still is. So Apple released ear buds that implement poorly defined parts of the spec but otherwise work with third party bluetooth devices, and that's bad? Yikes. Meanwhile, the Bluetooth SIG released an update at the end of 2022 that actually starts to require some sort of standardization. You know who's name was on that little update? Big bad awful anticompetitive Apple.
angoragoats 11mo ago
> The Bluetooth spec only supports one battery status. AirPods have three batteries. Is 1 < 3 a satisfactory enough answer to you? No, it's not. The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries and individual battery reporting for each. [0] They even give the example in that doc of earbuds which are one “logical device” but two physically separate pieces, each with its own battery. > On the subject of the multi-trillion-dollar behemoth, Apple is a private company. Apple is, by definition, a public company. > If you have the capital, you can acquire a controlling interest and then they’ll work on whatever you like. Until then, you’re out of luck. No. Anticompetitive behavior such as tying (what I would argue is happening here) can and should always be subject to examination, criticism, and possible litigation by the public. [0] https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specification/HTML/BAS_v1.1/out/en/index-en.html https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/Files/Specifica...

butlike 11mo ago

Because what's the point in having 'fuck you' money if you never get to say 'fuck you?'