Yet another Hacker News

228 points awad 3 hours ago 189 comments

MisterMunchkin 2 hours ago | parent

I wonder if they have an automation system which releases these perfectly in time with the video, or if they have some blog boy that has to post them at the right time.

bob1029 2 hours ago | parent

They have multiple fake product "labs" with which to use as sets simply for filming these videos. I am sure one or two FTEs is plausible.

wmeredith 2 hours ago | parent

A manual operation wouldn't shock me at all. A friend used to work on Apple.com and as recently as 5 years ago the product pages were still hard coded. No CMS.

motoboi 2 hours ago | parent

This is so hilarious, apple selling volume up and down as it were some fantastical feature and not have been present in air pods pro since god nows when.

> Force sensor with volume swipe arrives on AirPods 5, a first for the open-ear form factor, adding the ability to quickly adjust volume by swiping up or down on the stem.

Pure apple marketing juice this one.

fellowniusmonk 2 hours ago | parent

My freebud 5's do that now.

dgellow 2 hours ago | parent

Pretty sure I had something like that on galaxy buds 6+ years ago

stonogo 1 hour ago | parent

Been a feature on Bose QC earbuds for a long time too

crossroadsguy 1 hour ago | parent

But is that an Apple? If not, then how is that good?

creaturemachine 2 hours ago | parent

The marketing kool-aid must flow. Many other earbuds have swipe volume, but because they aren't open-ear Apple gets to claim this amazing breakthrough.

MBCook 2 hours ago | parent

Translation: “We took a pro thing and put it on the non-pros. Money please.”

dijit 2 hours ago | parent

for those who were holding out from Gen1 or whatever, adding pro features at a non-pro price is definitely incentivising. I’m not sure why we’re pretending it’s not.

Would you rather have generation old Pros or brand new standard airpods which have the pro features you actually want.

MBCook 2 hours ago | parent

I think it’s nice and I think they covered it right in the video.

Do you want open ear (AirPods) or closed (AirPods Pro).

Some people can’t stand having something in their ear. The volume control is a nice feature to have and now it’s available on the cheaper ones. I’ve missed it on my 4s.

Yeah the marketing copy is marketing copy and Apple never references competitors. But if you like the non-pros it’s a nice upgrade.

coldtea 2 hours ago | parent

>Do you want open ear (AirPods) or closed (AirPods Pro). Some people can’t stand having something in their ear.*

Both versions put something in your ear.

There are wireless earbuds that stay outside next to the ear, that are actually the ones legitimately called "open ear", but the AirPods aren't that type.

MBCook 2 hours ago | parent

It’s confined to the assumption you already want AirPods.

Apple isn’t going to mention things they don’t sell.

accrual 1 hour ago | parent

> Do you want open ear (AirPods) or closed (AirPods Pro).

I'm holding out for the next Pro model as I genuinely benefit from closed headphones/earbuds. Open is nice in a controlled environment but I'd rather have that slight seal when I'm somewhere noisy.

My Pro 2s are genuinely very comfortable and still work great after 2+ years of moderate use, so haven't felt a need to upgrade to Pro 3 yet. I use aftermarket foam-like tips and find they seal great FWIW.

coldtea 2 hours ago | parent

>for those who were holding out from Gen1 or whatever, adding pro features at a non-pro price is definitely incentivising. I’m not sure why we’re pretending it’s not.

Because it's a non-feature even the cheapest $30 wireless earbuds have had since forever, often even better, like with physical buttons.

joemi 1 hour ago | parent

So what are you saying? Because there are cheaper earbuds made by someone else with this feature, Apple _shouldn't_ add it to their earbuds? I'm not sure why that would be the case.

daseiner1 2 hours ago | parent

apple has been quite good at treating their "economy" products with the same level of respect as their premium ones, as far as I've experienced. the Neo is significantly more powerful than the Pro I bought four years ago and $100 cheaper, pre-inflation accounting. A brand like Apple introducing a highly-capable "discount" product goes against all common sensibilities for a company whose branding is anchored on prestige. Plus the extended support window for older devices vs. their competitors in the smartphone space.

s3p 2 hours ago | parent

*Less money please.

robotresearcher 25 minutes ago | parent

See also:

Power steering

Jet engines

Anesthetics

Rubber tires

Flat screen TVs

How grubby of them to take a high end feature and make it more affordable.

Fervicus 2 hours ago | parent

Come on, it's their best AirPod yet!

accrual 1 hour ago | parent

I know it's silly but I enjoy listening for the "this is our X-est Y yet" during these events. It's incremental improvements I enjoy, but it's like a mini trope for me.

m3kw9 2 hours ago | parent

why not? lets not talk about it, people like this gonna say we are highlighting a new feature on a non-pro model

pkulak 2 hours ago | parent

Of all the marketing to complain about, this seems super tame. Wait until you see "gluten-free tortilla chips" at the supermarket. :D

KyleTheDev 2 hours ago | parent

As somebody w/ Celiac, you'd be surprised. Many a time I've been poisoned by normal gluten free things being tainted by poor manufacturing lines, or companies mixing in other product. Tortilla chips with gluten, Hashbrowns/Potatoes coated with wheat flour, so many things are made not-gluten-free for no reason.

giglamesh 1 hour ago | parent

There is always a reason and it usually has something to do with money. We really need to find a cure for Celiac 'cuz wheat is just too ingrained in our culture to be removed. (pun not intended, but also not removed so...)

newguytony 2 hours ago | parent

Some brands use wheat to make the chips more crunchy. Just like IHOP puts wheat in their scrambled eggs. McDonald's uses wheat in their french fries. They stick wheat everywhere.

rafram 25 minutes ago | parent

There are tortilla chips that do contain gluten, or are cross-contaminated with it. A gluten-free label means they guarantee <20ppm gluten in the product. That’s useful info!

bromuro 2 hours ago | parent

Actually in the event they presented it exactly like that.

lvillani 2 hours ago | parent

The Pros don't fit my ears even with the smallest ear tips. I definitely welcome bringing that feature to the regular model.

anonthrownaway 1 hour ago | parent

They make aftermarket tips that are a bit smaller. Still to big for my ears so I switched to the newer "cuff" style and am reasonably happy with them except when I want noise-cancelling.

xattt 2 hours ago | parent

> … apple selling volume up and down as it were some fantastical feature and not have been present in air pods pro since god nows when.

I’ve been having to throw away my earphones and getting new ones whenever I needed a new volume setting. Going up and down in the same device is truly a game changer.

jerlam 2 hours ago | parent

The swipe controls are terrible on my Pro 2s and make me miss physical buttons like on my ancient Jabra 65t. It's easier to reach into a pocket and push the volume buttons on my phone without unlocking or looking at it.

mszcz 2 hours ago | parent

Oh man, I loved the 65t! I remember Jabra making great true wireless headphones. They were small, sounded ok, had actual buttons but operating them didn't push the earbud against the brain.

Miss that a lot. Nowadays it's all touch and I hate it so much because for some reason I have a problem spatially locating them and always end up touching it the wrong way (and yes, I know... ;)

mahirsaid 27 minutes ago | parent

i still use their conference speaker for calling and music and is the primary sound for my computer. i like it and it has worked really well for the last 5 years.

seizethecheese 1 hour ago | parent

Wait, they added this feature that was only on pro models to the non pro ones, seems reasonable to mention?

al_borland 37 minutes ago | parent

If memory serves, it’s only on the ones with the wireless charging case. They get a few quality of life upgrades over the base AirPods, without stepping all the way up to the Pros.

tshaddox 1 hour ago | parent

Only if "pure marketing juice" means "plainly telling people about a straightforward feature they're adding to one of their products." Which like, okay, that is what marketing is, but are you suggesting they don't tell people?

belval 56 minutes ago | parent

I think it's the:

> a first for the open-ear form factor

That is being called out as comical.

mpalmer 41 minutes ago | parent

"For users who want even more"

cco 2 hours ago | parent

Extend the Stem!!

I have no idea why Apple has made AirPods harder to handle, impaired mic placement, and limited the battery capacity with shorter stems.

The longer stems offered more room for battery, got the mic closer to your mouth, and were so much easier to handle, manipulate etc.

Can't really fathom why they shortened the stem and made it harder for everyone, themselves and users alike.

cj 2 hours ago | parent

Aesthetics. Short stem looks sleeker.

Form vs. function

s3r3nity 2 hours ago | parent

Or, you know, design trade-offs like every other hardware ever made.

I don't want to feel like I'm wearing one of those customer support head mics. I'm ok with shorter stem, and never had a problem.

throwup238 2 hours ago | parent

> Or, you know, design trade-offs like every other hardware ever made.

Or different SKUs. Just saying.

Not that hard for the most profitable trillion dollar company on the planet.

stackghost 2 hours ago | parent

Apple are king of form over function. Have we already forgotten that hack Jony Ive and his fetish for removing usefulness in favor of a few mm of thinness? Or the stupid fucking Touch Bar keyboard?

I still have a touch bar MacBook and the keyboard is unusable now.

grvbck 1 hour ago | parent

The touch bar was not a bad invention. Apple just neglected it and never gave it the software support it deserved. With some proper development it could have been great.

bigyabai 1 hour ago | parent

The touch bar was a terrible invention. Apple had no shortage of money to fix the software side, they just recognized that it wasn't a "Pro" feature.

Consider the most basic usage of the touch bar, displaying function keys. The tactile feedback of a physical function row enables most people to touch-type the function keys from home row. For IDEs, NLE/DAW workflows, UNIX terminal setups and cross-platform software, the touch bar had nothing to offer but downsides. And even in apps that supported it, there was no unified mnemonic standard that enabled you to use the touch bar strip without looking away from the monitor and losing sight of your content. Apps that copied the content into the touch bar were even more hilariously cornered into bad UX, displaying a postage stamp-sized status for whatever you're working on.

The common defense of the touch bar says it needed hardware reworks and greenfield HID architectures to succeed. But I think Apple realized it was a totally flawed concept, and iterated on it internally to the point that they realized it was a sunken cost fallacy.

cco 2 hours ago | parent

Do they? I don't think so. Makes them look stubby and more like a hearing assistive device (not particularly fashionable).

They looked sleeker and more balanced with the longer stem and in the ear more like jewelry.

raverbashing 2 hours ago | parent

Honestly the stems always looked kinda dorky to me

loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent

It’s Apple so the answer is clear: shorter stems look nicer. Functionality be damned. You’re holding it wrong my dude. Nobody wants to look like they have q-tips in their ears.

euroderf 2 hours ago | parent

So fade the stem to dark grey already.

loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent

Dirty q tips? Eww :)

longbrass 2 hours ago | parent

The smaller the form factor, the closer they are to functional implants.

embedding-shape 2 hours ago | parent

Also each device has to be identifiably different by at least some small margin, so the people who care about measuring worth/value based on the latest devices and similar trash can reject people based on what they "wear", pushing up device sales.

afavour 2 hours ago | parent

Personally I prefer it. Less chance of accidentally knocking them out.

ksec 2 hours ago | parent

>Extend the Stem!!

Same thought as well. It doesn't have to be much bigger, but even 10% longer would be much more useful from mic placement and battery perspective.

jandrewrogers 1 hour ago | parent

I assume the long stem increases the likelihood it will be dislodged from the ear because it increases torque at the point of contact when moving. The first AirPods were much less secure in the ear than current ones. Reducing stem length may lower the risk of them falling out.

The long stem may have been a necessary but suboptimal engineering tradeoff to get the first version out the door. A lot of design tweaks have gone into making AirPods less likely to fall out.

flyinglizard 47 minutes ago | parent

Longer stem means bigger case. The case on the Pro is nice, the regular one not so much.

robotresearcher 20 minutes ago | parent

My pockets like the smaller case better.

naravara 32 minutes ago | parent

I really miss the BeatsX headphones where it’s 2 earbuds attached to each other with a flexible cable that drapes over the back of your neck. It was nice to be able to take my headphones out without needing to hold them and they just fall over my shoulders like a necklace. Also means not having to keep track of a third item since there’s no charging case. And the whole thing is soft and flexible so you can put it more easily in your pocket without it bulging like the AirPods in a case do.

I find the “true wireless” form factor finnicky and comically easy to lose and easy to drop. I don’t really see much utility in it either aside from the cool technology flex. If they’d put the modern audio quality and noise cancelling on the BeatsX (and the more neutral AirPods response curve) I’d be first in line.

bakies 2 hours ago | parent

So weird they keep saying "Open-ear" and not ear buds. I kept thinking open air headphones which are not the same category.

rootusrootus 2 hours ago | parent

What's a good naming convention? I draw a pretty big distinction between earbuds that seal and earbuds that just sit in front of my ear canal. I have AirPods Pro for when I really need isolation, and regular AirPods for when I need hours of comfortable wearing. "Open-ear earbuds" would make sense to me.

ianburrell 34 minutes ago | parent

Earphones are the ones that sit in the ear, and in-ear headphones or canalphones are ones that go in the ear canal. Earbuds originally meant earphones but now means both kinds.

Open-ear is more general cause there are ear-hook and clip-on models now.

robotresearcher 13 minutes ago | parent

“Open-back headphones”, I think.

paul7986 2 hours ago | parent

Been using the new Siri since June. ChatGPT voice is still superior!

Please Apple let me easily swap out Siri for chatGPT voice! Work together .. buy them or something. Their voice conversation tech is superior and can help save lives when driving!

MBCook 2 hours ago | parent

They’re currently embroiled in a technology theft lawsuit.

Don’t expect it any time soon.

paul7986 2 hours ago | parent

Yeah Im aware but it could lead to better integration and or an all out buy out.

If you have ever used chatGPT voice for directions you could forsee that super intelligent contextual directions are safer then looking at a screen. I.e. "That new mechanic is across the street from the McDonalds on Dorset," in a locale you are familiar with.

yawnxyz 2 hours ago | parent

have they ever improved the charging system so the charging leads dont get gunked up?

I have a pair of airpod pro 2 and i have to scrape the leads almost every day

would be amazing if they did it thru induction charging (tho i guess thats really slow)

groos 2 hours ago | parent

Is that you, Shrek?

vachina 2 hours ago | parent

Im on my third pair of Airpods pro (replacement courtesy of Apple) and all of them had the ANC partially fail the longer i use them. I wonder why Apple still release new versions of these whem they cant even get the basics right.

toxik 2 hours ago | parent

Yep, I wonder why the ANC socialt is so fragile. Turns me off from buying new ones.

nxc18 2 hours ago | parent

Have you tried replacing your eartips? I find that radically improves performance - I think they must either get clogged or brittle in a way that causes problems.

Cheap foam eartips from Amazon are even better than stock for my AirPods Pro but they need to be replaced more often.

Toutouxc 2 hours ago | parent

I’ve had them for 3,5 years now and off the top of my head I can’t remember where the “charging leads” are. So it’s safe to say that mine definitely don’t get gunked up.

diroussel 2 hours ago | parent

They already do have inductive charging. Both MagSafe, Qi. They even work on the watch charger.

That’s for all AirPod Pros, and definitely the AirPod 4 with ANC, not sure about other non pros.

dylan604 1 hour ago | parent

There's definitely versions that do not work with all wireless chargers like the watch charger. Whatever older pair I have do not work with the watch charger

vachina 2 hours ago | parent

I rock a Redmi ANC earphones because.. they work and theyre like $20. Unlike these overengineered sound makers that breaks the moment you drop them.

loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent

Dunno man, I bought a cheap set once and they were abysmal, I hated them so much I just destroyed them in a rage when they started malfunctioning yet again. I got AirPods and haven’t looked back, they just work all the time. Granted I’ve never dropped them :)

vachina 2 hours ago | parent

I guess i lucked out with Redmi (specifically a Redmi Bud 6 lite). They just wont fail.

rootusrootus 2 hours ago | parent

> Granted I’ve never dropped them :)

You would be fine then, too. My daughter makes a sport out of how often she can drop airpods and even put them through the wash. She's on the hook for buying her own pair next time but the old ones keep on working.

caconym_ 2 hours ago | parent

> overengineered sound makers that breaks the moment you drop them.

Which ones are those? I've owned a couple of generations of airpods and dropped them probably hundreds of times (both in the case and out of it) and it has never had any detectable effect on their appearance or functionality. I even had a pair go through the wash and they still mostly worked afterwards (only issue was that the ANC performance was worse and slightly weird).

vachina 2 hours ago | parent

Yes, on mine (the OG Pros) the ANC would consistently fail. On my second pair the battery refused to charge when i left them in the drawer for too long. Apple replaced them a total of 3 times for all these failures, but i simply stopped wearing them because theyre too unreliable.

caconym_ 2 hours ago | parent

To be fair, I don't expect anything electronic to survive going through the wash unless it has hardcore waterproofing (eg a dive computer). I was pleasantly surprised by the way my airpods kept working.

I don't remember whether my first airpods were the gen1 pros or the gen2 pros, but you may have been a victim of early teething issues. I don't really have anything negative to say about the ones I've owned.

chis 23 minutes ago | parent

The OG pros honestly sucked and had horrible reliability. The other models have treated me well

afavour 2 hours ago | parent

> Unlike these overengineered sound makers that breaks the moment you drop them.

You’d do your case favours by not exaggerating. My AirPods have proven perfectly rugged, I’ve dropped them plenty of times.

vachina 2 hours ago | parent

Not exaggerating. My daily drives are Apple products except for Airpods, and I will always single them out because (in my experience) they’re that bad.

bitexploder 2 hours ago | parent

I don't usually defend Apple products, but my AirPods Pro 2nd gen have been rock solid and taken insane abuse. I use them working on cars, runs, hiking, rain, shine, sauna. I drop them. They land in puddles. They smack concrete every couple of months. Sample size 1, but they are probably one of my favorite accessories and things I lug around with me. I use them a lot and if not love /really/ like them and nothing else has come close to the frictionless experience of them.

Although that may be in part due to vendor lock in and not sharing some of their connection handling API / tech.

amelius 2 hours ago | parent

Article reads like an ad.

loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent

It’s a press release. Press releases are ads.

Jtsummers 2 hours ago | parent

> Article reads like an ad.

You've mistaken a press release for an article. This is Apple's own site and announcement of Apple's own product. Of course it's an ad.

onlyrealcuzzo 2 hours ago | parent

It is an ad...

factorialboy 2 hours ago | parent

Why do they all sound robotic and sterile? :-/

Let's feel some excitement in your voices!

bluepeter 2 hours ago | parent

For real. I almost think they shouldn't practice, script it, or focus-group it. Just get up there and wing it. Would honestly sound better.

russh 2 hours ago | parent

I'm stating to think everyone hands are actually AI CGI.

at1as 2 hours ago | parent

The only thing I really want is significantly improved battery life (that could last for an entire flight).

But in the end, it'll be the desire to eradicate the lightning port from my life that forces my hand on the upgrade

idle_zealot 2 hours ago | parent

Another year of disappointment for me. Airpods gen 1 and 2 were the only buds I could find that fit in my funky ears perfectly. The new shapes just fall right out unless I'm constantly adjusting them. Apple may have found a more universal fit, but I'm not part of their universe.

andsoitis 2 hours ago | parent

> best-in-class open‑ear Active Noise Cancellation

Devialet Gemini earbuds are superior: https://www.devialet.com/en-us/true-wireless-earbuds/

Also, they’re French acoustic experts, so cooler and deeper knowledge.

martinky24 2 hours ago | parent

source? have you tried airpods 5?

PcChip 2 hours ago | parent

how can you say that without having tried both?

jbotz 2 hours ago | parent

Apples, oranges. Those Devialet look interesting, but aren't "open ear" (they're plugs) and cost twice as much. edit: almost four times as much.

criddell 1 hour ago | parent

Do they pair with Apple devices as easily? If I lose them, can I find them with Find My? Can I use them as hearing aids?

robotresearcher 15 minutes ago | parent

French ANC is similar to American but allows through a bit more accordion.

afavour 2 hours ago | parent

Interesting they’re adding ANC, what’s the use case for the Pro now I wonder?

minimaxir 2 hours ago | parent

The AirPods 4 has an ANC option which is weaker than the Pro; this new version just has it baseline and cheaper (and better).

kolanos 2 hours ago | parent

Until they solve the ~250ms latency, which would require replacing bluetooth with a lower latency option, I'm not interested.

rambojohnson 2 hours ago | parent

are these the airpods with the ai cameras? if so no thanks.

minimaxir 2 hours ago | parent

On Hacker News it's generally good form to read the article before making an informed comment.

minimaxir 2 hours ago | parent

> For users who want even more, AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case add longer battery life and on-stem volume control for $149

This is a weird product feature versioning. Would people pay an extra $20 for these two features specifically? With the AirPods 4 the upsell SKU was ANC which made exponentially more sense.

fckgw 2 hours ago | parent

The differentiating feature is the Wireless Charging case, which they've had a separate SKU for forever.

m3kw9 2 hours ago | parent

^ knocking it before anyone on earth tried it- minus apple

minimaxir 2 hours ago | parent

Both of these features have been on existing models (which I've used) for quite awhile and are not unknown quantities.

MDTHLN 2 hours ago | parent

I would pay for the stem volume controls alone.

I prefer the regular AirPods to in-ear. But I still keep an old pair of Pro's around purely because the stem is so convenient for changing volume when I'm walking the dog or out for a run and I'd rather not get my phone out my pocket.

K7PJP 1 hour ago | parent

I bought the AirPods 4 with ANC in large part due to the Wireless Charging Case.

naravara 29 minutes ago | parent

These things have usable lifespans of about 2-4 years before the batteries start to go (depending on how low a capacity you can tolerate). It’s more like you buy the one available at the time when your old ones wear out.

_whiteCaps_ 2 hours ago | parent

I can't get over how Apple is getting everyone to refer to them with proper pluralization, ie AirPods 5 vs AirPod 5's.

avree 2 hours ago | parent

The first version was "Apple AirPods", there's two of them so it makes sense.

dylan604 1 hour ago | parent

I would never have considered 5's. Are you implying the five is in possession of something?

_whiteCaps_ 44 minutes ago | parent

I'm saying that many people do it wrong in other cases, and stick an 's' on the end (or worse, also add an apostrophe). Like surgeon generals, attorney generals, court martials, etc. I'm impressed that people aren't doing it in the case of airpods.

macintux 1 hour ago | parent

My lone claim to fame, now harder to track down because Twitter decided my lack of activity was somehow suspicious and killed my account, was a brief exchange with Phil Schiller about pluralization of Apple devices.

> One need never pluralize Apple product names. Ex: Mr. Evans used two iPad Pro devices.

https://www.iphoneantidote.com/blog/dont-pluralize/

mrheosuper 2 hours ago | parent

$30 cheaper is a surprise for sure. Especially in this economy.

Flavius 2 hours ago | parent

Too much competition from China. They would have bumped the price if it wasn't for the cheap alternatives from every Chinese manufacturer.

aero-glide2 2 hours ago | parent

As a huge Apple fan i hate to say this but $20 iems sound better

atlgator 2 hours ago | parent

They teased an AppleCare One Family plan and never explained it. wtf

jjice 2 hours ago | parent

I really hate silicone tip earbuds and the AirPods 4 with ANC were game changing. Having ANC without the silicone tips was just huge for me. It's obviously not as good as having the passive isolation of the silicone as well, but it's plenty good for airplanes and trains.

Are there non-Apple alternatives that also accomplish this?

superxpro12 2 hours ago | parent

im still bitter they rejected my airprods pro warranty claim because it was a month after they stopped accepting warranty for a known failure mode where the internal mic unglued itself and ruined the ANC.

the apple tech confirmed it had the issue but it was too long outside of their coverage. Like... if it has a known manufacturing defect with a defined timeline, that means i basically rented the damn things.

their only remediation was like 10% off the latest airpods. which is just a massive slap in the face.

tonymet 2 hours ago | parent

A worthy upgrade to a miracle product . Just a couple decades it was a sci-fi fantasy and we all can enjoy it . I get the bible in my ear all night at bed time and books while I work and walk around the property. Great to see the price cut .

tonymet 1 hour ago | parent

Plus fewer distractions.

toasty228 2 hours ago | parent

> Powered by Apple Intelligence, Live Translation on AirPods 5 breaks down barriers by letting users communicate across languages.

Thing that only happens in the minds of SV marketing gurus.

acd 2 hours ago | parent

Sennheiser Momentum 5 has user replacable battery which is better for the environment

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Sennheiser_Momentum_5

asadm 2 hours ago | parent

why would I want a replaceable battery? My airpods have been working fine for 6 years now. Isn't THAT better for the environment?

acd 1 hour ago | parent

You want a replaceable battery because once the battery wears out if the repair is expensive people will throw the used air buds. Used airbuds creates electronic waste ewaste on landfills.

Not all electronic recycling ä works well some non working electronics are shipped to Africa . The "recycler" takes the profit in the pocket. People have put airtags to track where such electronics to goods end up.

matchbok3 1 hour ago | parent

There is no proof that user-replaceable batteries meaningfully reduces e-waste. A lot of tech is upgraded due to obsolete CPUs, etc, not batteries. Plus, batteries last a long time now.

Also, landfills work really well. Most recycling doesn't work and pollutes more.

culi 1 hour ago | parent

It is illegal to send e-waste to landfills in California and 22 other states

asadm 12 minutes ago | parent

by the time the battery wears out on this one, the speakers are also busted anyway (infact it already is true for mine). So battery replacement isn't an issue for me, the device will be worthless by the time I am done with it.

crossroadsguy 23 minutes ago | parent

True. Also heard one guy in gym was thinking of Apple releasing devices with things like replaceable batteries. He got a heart attack next day. It's very unhealthy what PC is suggesting and yes I agree with you.

TiredOfLife 1 hour ago | parent

Those are some weird looking in ear earphones

LeoPanthera 1 hour ago | parent

Why are you comparing in-ear earbuds to over-ear headphones?

matchbok3 1 hour ago | parent

What % of people replace a battery over the lifespan of an item? Does the increased complexity and size of the unit make up for the slightly longer lifespan? What makes it "better" for the environment, exactly when it all ends up in a landfill after 5 years anyway?

user19282 51 minutes ago | parent

The battery on the AirPods is 10 times smaller. So you would have to replace it 10 times to break even.

ksec 1 hour ago | parent

Interesting on the pricing. You now get some of the best AirPod features all in $129. In Apple's pricing that is cheap.

On the other hand in the past few years I have noticed a lot of people wearing Sony's Wireless headset and Earphones. Apple used to dominate this category when they first launch AirPods. I am wondering what happened they people discovered they could use other brand and Apple's brand loyalty don't quite work.

ghostly_s 1 hour ago | parent

Apple's product has never been near the top in ergonomics nor sound quality, there's no big mystery. The UX and the ANC were their differentiator but the competition has largely closed that gap.

layer8 1 hour ago | parent

I still want them to bring the “tap” operation of the first two generations back. It’s so convenient, for example when wearing them under a beanie in winter. The squeezing and swiping controls aren’t an adequate replacement.

mulderc 1 hour ago | parent

yeah I loved the tap controls. Would be nice to have both available. My guess is that for many people the "tap" wasn't as accurate as apple would like it to be as I had heard lots of complaints about that not working for people when I was available.

SepiaSapient 1 hour ago | parent

I found the auto translate thing very funny. Like this woman is some train station in Mexico and after getting an invitation in Spanish to some music event she doesn't even try to say "Gracias".

Like yeah, obviously anyone would understand "Thanks" but come on. Was this part of the discussion of some long meeting? Like if she said a word in Spanish it would imply the Air Pods translate your words?

I'm obviously nitpicking but I just found it oddly funny.

reaperducer 1 hour ago | parent

Like this woman is some train station in Mexico and after getting an invitation in Spanish to some music event she doesn't even try to say "Gracias".

It was Union Station in Los Angeles, one of the busiest and most iconic train stations in the country.

jauntywundrkind 1 hour ago | parent

Just to mention, saw some people saying Apple was working on AirPods with little cameras in them. Not this time, at least.

meindnoch 1 hour ago | parent

I hope they've made the metal contacts inside the case a bit sturdier, because I'm often getting one or both of my AirPods drained to 0% when I take them out of the case, due to contact issues (I assume).

mulderc 1 hour ago | parent

mostly likely you need to clean your case

meindnoch 1 hour ago | parent

Always do when this happens. I blow into it, and there's no visible dirt on the metal contacts either. Also, a friend of mine also reported the same for their AirPods Pro 2.

armadyl 1 hour ago | parent

Honestly the most frustrating thing about the pros tbh.

josteink 1 hour ago | parent

With ANC and volume control now available on the basic AirPods what’s the story for the AirPod Pros now? An obsolete product line?

jghn 24 minutes ago | parent

I suspect the story is that next year when the AirPods Pro 4s come out it'll be more clear.

AndrewStephens 1 hour ago | parent

I knew this was going to happen when I purchased my AirPod3s a couple of weeks ago. The only feature I really miss is the touch volume control.

sajithdilshan 1 hour ago | parent

Looks like it’s better than AirPod Pro, but cheaper. That’s surprising

t1234s 1 hour ago | parent

I think the reason they are bringing the normal AirPods close to the features of the AirPods Pro is the next version of AirPods Pro will have tiny forward cameras on the tips allowing visual along with audio AI.

[holding two items at a store] "Siri.. which one of these should I buy"

uhohherewegoaga 57 minutes ago | parent

god it feels inevitable but i hate wearable tech including innocuous cameras. first it was the sunglasses that ppl immediately jailbroke to remove the recording indicator. now the possibility of a person seemingly listening to music on the train potentially recording me?

im just so tired.

kingkongjaffa 6 minutes ago | parent

I hope, not I will never buy airpods with cameras.

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

How do these compare to the AirPods 4 ANC, I wonder? Hopefully not too much better given that I bought a pair of those about a month ago... :-/

luckycharms810 52 minutes ago | parent

One really interesting effect of the AirPods - is that its changed the paradigm - where the default choice of headphones is Bluetooth.

I personally own a pair of Beats fit pros - which are great for running, Zoom calls. But I recently acquired a schiit vestri and I pair these with some old wired seinheisers (HD1). I cannot overstate the drastic difference in quality.

It is quite absurd (but categorically true) that the quality of audio that folks were generally listening to in 2005 was better than what we are doing today.

nosioptar 40 minutes ago | parent

I got a pair of Bose qc-25 and a fiio q1 for about the price of a set of earbuds. (Bose were refurbs from bose's ebay store and fiio was closing out the q1 at the time.) That combo kicks the everloving shit out of any Bluetooth headphones I've tried.

cyberpunk 34 minutes ago | parent

Wait until you upgrade to a set of grados :}

al_borland 39 minutes ago | parent

I would venture to guess that the average user can’t tell. Most of the time, I’m just looking for some background noise, not a listening experience. The speaker on the iPhone is good enough for that.

I have a pair of wired Seinheisers, and they sound great, but 99% of the time, my priority is convenience, and anything that makes sound will do.

bpev 36 minutes ago | parent

You say that as if this wasn't completely to plan. The release of the first airpods and the first iPhone sans headphone jack were at the same time. It was brute-forced.

toasty228 33 minutes ago | parent

$19 iems sound better than airpods, the bar is that low, but normies don't care, most probably listen to spotify on auto and get 96kbps anyways. When the batteries invariably die after 2-3 years they'll send another $150 to Tim Apple while their old airpod finally become the e-waste they were destined to be

purpleflame1257 26 minutes ago | parent

Now John Apple.

nbf_1995 25 minutes ago | parent

Tim Apple stepped down. It's John Apple now

bethekidyouwant 31 minutes ago | parent

If you are using apple then its AAC from your phone directly to your headphones… so not seeing where the quality drop would come from.

jihadjihad 29 minutes ago | parent

We've been over this for a couple decades now. The average consumer simply cannot tell the difference between lossless and compressed codecs. Even back 20-25 years ago when people carried around CD players, vanishingly few people batted an eye when those went the way of the dodo and devices started getting loaded up with shitty 128 kbps MP3s. The difference in quality mattered far less than the convenience.

There are many, many people who are even technically minded who would be surprised that their expensive AirPods Max cannot reproduce lossless audio from Apple Music when used wirelessly.

WarmWash 14 minutes ago | parent

>The average consumer simply cannot tell the difference between lossless and compressed codecs.

The average audiophile can't either.

Don't believe me? Try it for yourself, bust out your most expensive DAC and headphones, but be careful, you can't unexperience this

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_abx

kazinator 9 minutes ago | parent

[delayed]

chis 25 minutes ago | parent

The connection type has nothing to do with it though. Modern bluetooth is basically transparent with 256kbps AAC, like you'd have to be an omega-expert listening in a silent room to identify it vs lossless. Certainly the difference you're noticing is just the headphone quality.

Honestly for me the Airpods 4 with ANC are one of the greatest feats of audio engineering ever. For such a tiny form factor they reproduce really great sound, big soundstage, AND they have good ANC without needing a closed earbud seal. They also have internal mics that listen to the response of your ear to adjust the sound profile, which you can hear happen in real time after bumping the earbuds. Obviously you can get better sound if you make different tradeoffs and wear over-ears, but they are absolutely cutting edge for what they are.

thefz 11 minutes ago | parent

Nah put on some quality headphones and the sound stage will blow your head off.

ssl-3 6 minutes ago | parent

Modern pocket supercomputers don't divulge anything useful about the kind of connection that is being used for Bluetooth audio so we don't know if it's using 256kbps AAC or something else instead, and it cuts out in some areas of [insert city], and when it comes back it sounds demonstrably worse.

It's an inscrutable mess.

Wires don't have these problems. Plug them in. Use them. Clean the contacts every now and then if/when they get crudded up.

drop_star 23 minutes ago | parent

Im used to listening to a staticy job site radio half way across the shop. I dont really care about the quality as long as its better than that. I feel most people are the same.

alexjplant 15 minutes ago | parent

> It is quite absurd (but categorically true) that the quality of audio that folks were generally listening to in 2005 was better than what we are doing today.

I seem to recall most people being perfectly content with 128kbps MP3s on iPod earbuds back in the day. Only audiophiles/nerds (of which there seem to be more now) were into actual headphones and amp setups and there's never been greater market choice in this regard.

stouset 14 minutes ago | parent

I'm reminded of a quote: "the best camera is the one you have on you." People ditched their digital cameras en masse when smartphones became popular. Not because the smartphone cameras were better, but because they were convenient.

The market has spoken. People drastically prefer the convenience of Bluetooth over the quality that comes along with having to constantly untangle wires or having audio cut in and out from failing wires.

On top of that, universal adoption of noise cancellation has resulted in dramatically better quality in practice than what people were using in 2005. Yes, wired headphones with noise cancellation is even better, but not to a point that people are willing to sacrifice the convenience of going wireless.

twright 7 minutes ago | parent

I think this is a great explanation. To add to it, I believe there is something durability too. My basic Jabra wireless earbuds from 2020 are just now getting faulty (just battery stuff). In a similar time period from 2010 and 2015 I went through at least 6 pairs of wired headphones or earbuds, the jacks would fail or the wires would just stop working.

erik 2 minutes ago | parent

> People ditched their digital cameras en masse when smartphones became popular. Not because the smartphone cameras were better, but because they were convenient.

The early 00's transition from CRT to LCD monitors was similar. The early desktop LCD panels were expensive, had worse refresh rates, worse contrast, and worse colour rendering. To this day, even very good modern displays struggle to match CRT motion rendering.

But LCDs are so much thinner and lighter, so that was enough to overcome the problems.

randomfrogs 8 minutes ago | parent

Different people want different things. Whenever I wore wired headphones, I was always catching the wire on things, and I found them really inconvenient - to the point where when I bought a new phone the headphones just went into my pile of unused headphones. AirPods were a complete change for me - I use them constantly. The sound quality difference is irrelevant - I just won't wear wired headphones - the hassle isn't worth it for me.

consumer451 3 minutes ago | parent

Man, I am the biggest curmudgeon in this regard. I wear my old wired headphones, wire under my shirt, to a BT-BA001 "low-latency BT transceiver" in my pants pocket.

g_host 47 minutes ago | parent

I don't understand why Apple won't support Aura Cast already.

pyaamb 30 minutes ago | parent

I would like that. I wonder if its something a software update can enable or not

crossroadsguy 26 minutes ago | parent

That might send wrong signals that Apple has started following standard/common specs.

yalogin 35 minutes ago | parent

Isn’t Apple expected to release AirPods with cameras in them? Or may be the rumor is they are working on it?

NichoPaolucci 14 minutes ago | parent

Not sure how the public has received them, but I cannot stand to wear the non-pro airpods for more than maybe 40 minutes. They used to give plastic earbuds away with the purchase of a device! I get it, bluetooth vs wired, extra features... but they are super uncomfortable to wear IMO.

The Pros, completely different story. Maybe a bit pricey but the ecosystem, battery life, comfort, ANC, all of that is great. The difference that little rubber piece makes is wild.

Side note - the "directional" audio (Sounds as if it's originating from your device rather than standard L/R audio), not sure if this is still a thing, but it was super weird the first time I tried it. I literally had to check that I was actually using the earbuds a few times, and refused to use it after. Maybe it was TOO good, super cool tech though.

thefz 9 minutes ago | parent

> I cannot stand to wear the non-pro airpods

> The Pros, completely different story

You think this is accidental?

iknowstuff 3 minutes ago | parent

Different strokes.

I'm the opposite, the rubber ones are annoying and give me headaches. Love the open ear feel.

thedangler 12 minutes ago | parent

I have the 4s can’t get them to pair with any other device accept my phone. Oh it pairs but with no sound. No idea why

KingMachiavelli 9 minutes ago | parent

Super annoyed they did not announce a new AirPods Pro or Apple TV. My NVIDIA Shield is getting a bit old (not really an issue unless I want to stream raw 90GB Blu-ray).

A bit strange for Apple to let fairly popular products just go so long without a refresh. Just the vision component of the new AirPods could have been delayed, not really a critical feature anyway.

Apple Watch seems to be getting pretty good, might finally switch away from Garmin if the Apple one is as durable.

AraceliHarker 2 minutes ago | parent

The positioning of AirPods in the lineup doesn't really make sense to me. Noise canceling works way better with an in-ear fit anyway. Personally, I'd rather see ANC on the Beats Flex. That would create a clearer distinction from the AirPods Pro.