Apple Investigating Issue With AirPods Randomly Disconnecting During Calls (macrumors.com) 128
According to MacRumors, Apple is investigating multiple reports from iPhone owners of AirPods randomly disconnecting and reconnecting during calls. While the issue doesn't appear to be widespread, it appears to be a big enough problem to attract Apple's attention. One of the main reasons why the AirPods were so late to the market was because Apple needed more time to ensure the earpieces had reliable connectivity. Specifically, they were delayed to ensure both earpieces receive audio at the same time. MacRumors reports: A MacRumors forum thread and a long thread on Apple's Support Communities website have been generated by AirPods users who are regularly experiencing Bluetooth connection dropouts during phone calls, despite the fact that the wireless earphones almost never lose their connection when used to listen to music or anything else. MacRumors forum member protobiont wrote: "I've had this happen on two phone calls today. I am talking and suddenly the audio switches to the phone, I hear the Airpod connect tones and the audio switches back. This will repeat itself a few times, which is quite distracting during a phone call." At present, the issue appears to be limited to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices, with several users reporting no such problems after upgrading to an iPhone 7. MacRumors was also unable to replicate the problem on Apple's latest handset. Initial reports suggested the dropout issue only occurs if users also have an Apple Watch paired to their iPhone, but MacRumors was able to replicate the problem with a Fitbit Blaze, suggesting a more general conflict when other Bluetooth devices are also connected. Unpairing and then repairing the AirPods does not appear to solve the problem, neither does rebooting nor resetting the iPhone. Until Apple offers a solution, users are advised to use only one AirPod for conducting calls, as the dropouts only seem to occur when both earpieces are in use.
Over the time the problem goes away (Score:1)
Most people will end up with a single airpod anyway.
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wire (Score:5, Insightful)
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that maybe too courageous for apple :)
on the other hand blue tooth headsets have always been glitchy for me and other users i support. multiple brands plantronics, jabbra... what ever its just something i have learned to live with as the convenience factor for shedding the cable. so i am not surprised. according to TFA all you need to do is upgrade to the newest iPhone :)
Re:wire (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: wire (Score:1)
It all comes to power output. Wires feed power to drivers using a source which is capable of supplying much higher current over longer period.
These airpods are a joke, the battery discharges lower currents and having an internal impedance it causes all sorts of distortion.
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It all comes to power output. Wires feed power to drivers using a source which is capable of supplying much higher current over longer period.
These airpods are a joke, the battery discharges lower currents and having an internal impedance it causes all sorts of distortion.
You need to just stop writing about things you think you know about.
You're just embarrassing yourself with that ignorant word-salad.
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But he's not wrong with his point. AirPods necessarily have tiny batteries, much smaller than the phone does. While their average current may be fine, they are going to "brown out" on peaks without something like a capacitor to back them up. This causes distortion very similar to that induced by a megaphone, which is highly undesirable for music unless your name is Tom Waits.
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While that may be true, wouldn't that only occur if you were listening to your music really loud?
I agree with the GP that music over bluetooth is nowhere near as good as it is over wire, but it's for a different reason: Bluetooth itself. Bluetooth wasn't designed for high quality music playback. Hell, it was barely designed for music at all. The stereo audio profile is basically a profile add-on, with audio is sent using a codec (SBC) that doesn't hold a candle to newer ones, in part because it needs to
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.(And since Apple went their own way with a custom bluetooth chip, it's anyone's guess whether they will support BT5 anytime soon.)
It is my guess that the W1 chip actually is designed to support BT5, and that Apple's "custom" BT protocol is based on the preliminary BT5 standard, and since Apple can upload new firmware into the W1 even after it is in-circuit, that now that the BT5 protocol is finally ratified, they will be updating the W1 chips to cover BT5 as well.
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I am really really hoping that that is the case. That would be the logical thing to do. But after having been burned many times in the past by conjectures and promises (I still remember how pissed I was when Dell reneged on their promise to support a later version of Windows Mobile), that I'm not willing to assume anything beyond what's already marked on the tin.
At any rate, we'll know soon enough. It's going to take few months for "official" BT5 products to hit the market anyway.
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"Really loud" is relative. Unless they are noise-canceling, the only answer to not being able to hear your music over noise is to turn it up. Thus headphones that sounded fine in the store, and still sound fine when you get them home, can completely fall apart when you decide to walk to the grocery store or take them to the gym. This is easy to hear, but harder to measure because of the background noise obscuring the distortion of the signal.
If you have a headset with a higher capacity battery, then (to a c
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But he's not wrong with his point. AirPods necessarily have tiny batteries, much smaller than the phone does. While their average current may be fine, they are going to "brown out" on peaks without something like a capacitor to back them up. This causes distortion very similar to that induced by a megaphone, which is highly undesirable for music unless your name is Tom Waits.
ALL BT headsets have "tiny batteries". So, what's your point?
How do you know that the AirPods don't have such a "smoothing" capacitor to handle "current-slugs"? At the voltages we're talking about, even a fairly high-value SMT capacitor is fairly small.
I am very familiar with current-starvation effects in audio circuits, which usually show up first as Intermodulation Distortion figures going through the roof. IM distortion is VERY apparent to humans; MUCH more so than Harmonic Distortion, which can get
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No, not all Bluetooth headsets have tiny batteries. I had the kind with the wraparound strip in the back, and the battery was generously sized because it was in that strip on the back. In noisy environments, which is where they mostly got used, the sound quality was decent. I wish I could tell you what they were but I lent them out and the borrower managed to lose them within 48 hours.
The main problem was that the strip was in back, and putting the phone in a front pocket meant constant disconnections. It w
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The problem here is that Apple is trying to solve a fashion problem with two separate earbuds, when a less fashionable but technically superior solution exists: tether one to the other, and hide more battery capacity there.
No, the problem is that you are advancing a strawman argument. NO ONE (but you, apparently) has complained about the AUDIO QUALITY (and particularly, DISTORTION) with the AirPods. So what's the deal?
Whether Apple solved the issue with a supercapacitor, a new battery technology, or voodoo spells is irrelevant. They seem to have solved it, or avoided it. Sorry that you've had shitty luck with other BT headsets, really I am; but don't project your life-experiences onto a product you've obviously never tried,
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I have seen complaints that the battery life is unsatisfactory, and there's a good chance a lot of those people are listening to them loud. Mind you this is not unique to AirPods. Even the headset I had, had an underwhelming battery life when cranked up full throttle. However, batteries have improved in the six years since I had those. At the same time, expectations have gone up. It's one thing to sell something that only lasts three hours at full throttle with a "three to six hours" claim, and another to s
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I have seen complaints that the battery life is unsatisfactory, and there's a good chance a lot of those people are listening to them loud. Mind you this is not unique to AirPods. Even the headset I had, had an underwhelming battery life when cranked up full throttle. However, batteries have improved in the six years since I had those. At the same time, expectations have gone up. It's one thing to sell something that only lasts three hours at full throttle with a "three to six hours" claim, and another to say "up to N", N being whatever number Marketing wants it to be.
At the same time, adding more surface area in the form of a connection between the two will solve the "losing one AirPod" problem, the synchronization problem (which they have dealt with but it still expends power on the phone side), possibly the reception problem, and allow for a battery that should outlast the charge in the phone. It would also solve, or at least greatly reduce, any distortion problems that might be caused by the power rail to the amplifier being unable to match the input curve of the signal.
Happy now?
Apple claims 5 hours on the AirPods. Pretty good considering the size of the unit. They are earbuds, Afterall. Then you can stick them in the case/charger (which holds enough charge itself to provide 24 hours of earbud charges) for a few minutes and get another few hours of run time. Most people have been happy with that arrangement, rather than some hinky MicroUSB charging abomination. And Apple has a reputation for not exaggerating battery life ratings. But of course someone will always be wanting more.
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I have a pair of headphones that I thought were pretty decent. Then I forgot an audio cable one day and went into bluetooth mode. Most of the nuance of the music disappeared. Gone were all the fine texture of the instruments. I honestly couldn't listen to it and switched to an audiobook. Maybe the new bluetooth is better but not currently economical compared to wires.
That's because Bluetooth doesn't use the tube-amplifier in your phone. Phoney.
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Bluetooth audio is fairly open in support for version and codecs. Maybe you should try a decent set of Bluetooth headphones and verify they connect with a sufficiently good codec before you discount a technology with offering any specifics.
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Or just buy modern quality equipment.
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Plus why would I put good money into headphones that will work with my phone only, but not my stereo equipment.
Why would you indeed. Every Bluetooth headset I've seen also comes with a cable, maybe with the exception of those shitty airpods.
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But how would they attach the sharks?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/3vuwdx/headphone_jack_constantly_losing_connection/?st=iybc8j2o&sh=ee0e1b14 [reddit.com]
Moneyquote:
i would try this as well. i heard a lot of people having problems with music stopping because of this
Clearly (Score:1, Funny)
The people aren't holding the AirPods correctly.
Given the price (Score:2)
... not only should these not have connection problems, they should transcribe all conversations to a file for you.
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... not only should these not have connection problems, they should transcribe all conversations to a file for you.
Many, many BT headsets, e.g. Samsung's, are much more expensive.
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Many, many BT headsets, e.g. Samsung's, are much more expensive.
thats not really it though is it? samsung has bt audio sets starting from 50 bucks and going to the 250 range, at which point you get pretty decent over the ear design already...
apple on the other hand sells what is essentially a worse version of samsungs cheapest offering at triple the price.
of course you would want them connected at least to each other..
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Many, many BT headsets, e.g. Samsung's, are much more expensive.
thats not really it though is it? samsung has bt audio sets starting from 50 bucks and going to the 250 range, at which point you get pretty decent over the ear design already...
apple on the other hand sells what is essentially a worse version of samsungs cheapest offering at triple the price.
of course you would want them connected at least to each other..
On what FACTS (as opossed to OPINION) do you base your "worse version..." Statement?
So far, other than this call-drop glitch with certain phones, the vast majority of owners of the AirPods seem to enjoy them quite well, and they have gotten good to great reviews.
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On what FACTS (as opossed to OPINION) do you base your "worse version..." Statement?
He did extensive listening tests in his echo chamber.
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On what FACTS (as opossed to OPINION) do you base your "worse version..." Statement?
He did extensive listening tests in his echo chamber.
Exactly.
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My Brainwavez were 1/3 the price, and work very well.
https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref... [amazon.com]
Did you compare the Airpods to like devices, or to much better headphones?
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The only one who should be fired for this is the chief clown Tim Cook.
He should be fired for the shitty sales of the iPhone 7 and MBP. as well. Shitty is a relative term here, FYI.
Apple's latest generation of shit has been a failure in the eyes of the media, the industry, the public, and the shareholders. The current batch of iThings only serve as a reminder that Jobs is dead and what Apple without Jobs was. (For the record, I think Apple with Jobs was shit through and through, but I won't deny that peop
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The only one who should be fired for this is the chief clown Tim Cook. He should be fired for the shitty sales of the iPhone 7 and MBP. as well. Shitty is a relative term here, FYI.
Apple's latest generation of shit has been a failure in the eyes of the media, the industry, the public, and the shareholders. The current batch of iThings only serve as a reminder that Jobs is dead and what Apple without Jobs was. (For the record, I think Apple with Jobs was shit through and through, but I won't deny that people bought ever-increasing quantities of whatever turd he held on a stage..)
That's why Apple stock just posted (yet another) all-time high about a week ago.
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Stock price is a meaningless measure. Wait until they post their earnings call, then we will see if they are doing well. Until then all you see is speculation and gambling based on possibilities and rumors.
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Momentum. But the bad decisions today indicate an Apple in decline.
Sure. The stock price is based on momentum.
So failure means a $600B market cap? (Score:2)
I think a lot of companies would love to fail that well.
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If the CEO of the company hadn't of accused the users of holding a poorly designed phone wrong, there would be nothing to make fun of. Unfortunately, Apple is notorious for blaming defects on the customer instead of the engineers/designers.
No one had exposed external antennas, and no one had the same issue as the iPhone. Their fix was to give away bumpers, and modify how the signal strength was shown. Both of these "fixes" are just covering up an engineering issue.
Apple user suggest upgrading... (Score:2)
There you go... social inducted device obsolescence.
your ears are misaligned (Score:2)
Obviously... (Score:5, Funny)
This is an IRQ conflict... they should move the headset to COM1 and the cellular modem to COM3.
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This is an IRQ conflict... they should move the headset to COM1 and the cellular modem to COM3.
It might also be that QEMM is causing a conflict.
Re:Obviously... (Score:4, Funny)
Those were the good old days... when setting the all the IRQ, IO port, DMA and address jumpers for the the expansion cards in a decked-out PC was like solving a soduku puzzle.
Re: Obviously... (Score:4, Insightful)
Mostly it was pretty easy, if you knew what you were doing. It didn't turn nasty until plug-and-play began emerging. It's very reassuring to strap hardware into a proper configuration with hardware jumpers.
Oh, how quickly they forget...
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Those were the good old days... when setting the all the IRQ, IO port, DMA and address jumpers for the the expansion cards in a decked-out PC was like solving a soduku puzzle.
Good times.....I used a plug-in card called the Discovery Card [google.com] to wrestle with IRQs. Best gadget ever back then...it had a bunch of LEDs that would light to help you determine what IRQ was in use for a given slot.
I've still got it in a drawer but there's nothing with ISA slots still around that you could plug it into.
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And then messing with HIMEM.SYS and DEVICEHIGH in your config.sys to fit all your drivers above the 640K line.
Re:Obviously... (Score:4, Informative)
You've got a low enough ID so this is probably part of your joke, but there's lots of others around here that won't follow:
COM1 and COM3 both shared IRQ4.
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You've got a low enough ID so this is probably part of your joke, but there's lots of others around here that won't follow:
COM1 and COM3 both shared IRQ4.
Stop it! I'm getting chills!!!
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COM1 and COM3 both shared IRQ4.
That triggered me into a hideous flashback. I must go lay down on my fainting couch now....
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Get of my lawn
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Man, I had forgotten those days. Thanks for the reminder, I think.
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While you got modded +5 Funny and rightly so, I have to wonder how many people actually get this joke? Very few people even know what com ports and modems are, anymore.
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The think it is the thing they connect to the cable line to get on the internet.
paying customers, beta testing (Score:3)
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Just like Microsoft did in the 90's and 00's (and possibly still does now), Apple now uses paying customers to do the last round of testing for them. After they purchase the iGadgets. The recent MBP/iPhone port removal shenanigans will sure keep me riding my hardware to their last breath.
It couldn't just be a minor, unforeseen compatibility issue between a non W1-equipped phone and the W1-equipped AirPods. No, if course not.
Keep in mind that the problem is apparently NEVER exhibited when the W1-equipped AirPods are used with the W1-equipped iPhone 7. So, perhaps it is the PHONE that is having the issue (hopefully fixable in software), rather than in the AirPods themselves.
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Looking at a teardown of an iPhone 7 [techinsights.com], we see the WiFi/Bluetooth chip is a Murata device, not a W1. The W1 is in the airpods, not the iPhone.
Hmmm. That's interesting. I thought the iP7's had the W1, too.
;-)
And what's a damn TRANSFORMER company doing making BT Chips?!?
Well, then, that's actually even better news. That means that the issue with the call-drop is much more likely to NOT be related to a W1 to non-W1 incompatibility, as I first worried it was.
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So, once again we see you taking extreme defense of Apple as your default position - and doing so without an ounce of knowledge of the facts. You can apologize to bmimatt for going off on him. His statement is pretty much 100% accurate; how do you roll out a product that is not compatible with a currently shipping product (being that you can still buy, brand new at the Apple store, iPhone 6s units)? It's called using your users for beta testers. You have four phones (iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus) and one pair of BT buds (airpods). It's not like it's millions of combinations...
And isn't the percentage of failure quite small? So, is it small enough so that it simply didn't happen during Apple's initial testing? Especially since by FAR the greatest number of complaints [apple.com] are definitely coming from those who have the COMBINATION of iP6 or 6s AND an Apple Watch. In fact, there are a number of complainants that claim that their call-drop issues STOP if they completely un-pair their Apple Watch with their iPhone. Suggesting that there may be a race-condition between the phone and the wa
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Yep, Apple doesn't sufficiently test an EXTREMELY limited number of combinations prior to releasing the product. Typically that is considered "beta testing by user". Which is what appears to be here. And you still haven't said anything back to bmimatt about your erroneous statements made on false data.
Ya know, I have finally come to the conclusion that it simply doesn't matter WHAT I say, you will continue to move the goalposts and minimize and distort my explanation to suit your Hater mindset.
Attempt at Communication Terminated.
Re:paying customers, beta testing (Score:4, Informative)
My guess would be that it drops on calls because the modem is active, pumping out a lot of RF energy. When signal is marginal the modem cranks up to the highest transmit power. It's on a different frequency to Bluetooth, but it still affects it, both from short range RF interference and noise on the power supply rails.
Probably requires both poor signal and some specific cellular bands in the 2GHz region near to Bluetooth's 2.4GHz. Some LTE stuff is around 2200MHz.
Of course this was bound to happen. Everyone knows that 2.4GHz is useless in some places due to the massive number of interfering devices. If you are in a Faraday cage like say a train or airplane with a bunch of other people who are also trying to use 2.4GHz because no-one's phone has a headphone socket any more and there is no cell signal so wifi is getting hammered... Well, it's not going to work very reliably, even if it does have an Apple logo on it.
commentsubject: (Score:3)
As usual from Apple, (Score:1)
You're using your ears wrong.
Had This Happen with iPhone 7Plus and Beats Solo 3 (Score:2)
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The underlying issue needs to be sacked by the board of directors, but Apple is too courageous for that.
wireless isn't a replacement (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple is so far up it's ass on this whole "it's all wireless in the future and the future is now" bullshit...
Bluetooth is great, but battery life and size are often fatally problematic to the notion of "just get bluetooth headphones" is some kind of universal solution rendering headphones with cords (btw the headphone jack is also a *universally compatible data port*) obsolete and somehow justifying Apple's design strategy and marketing on these products.
Let me address this now, people will definitely comment, "But I have used bluetooth headphones for years and the battery life and sound quality are sufficient"...that's great, but it's not evidence that proves this is a good design decision.
Bluetooth headphones are caught between wanting to be as small as possible, have longer battery life, and not teathering them for convenience somehow (b/c then might as well use a cord!). It's what happens when you let marketing drive design, an obtuse impass where no solution is right. Wireless headphones with 8 hours of battery life is not enough for many, many users. For many various reasons. It really is noteworthy that the smaller they get the more they would benefit from cords, which are the whole thing they attempt to avoid.
We are far, far away from wireless headphones being a de facto replacement for wired headphones such that we can just discard the headphone port.
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(btw the headphone jack is also a *universally compatible data port*)
This isn't true. It's far from universally compatible, with different implementations of squeezing things like remote control functionality into it, for instance.
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Accessories like a Square credit card reader are absolutely universally compatible.
The 4 pole headphone is universally compatible across all devices, unless device makers design their accessory specifically to be proprietary.
Remote functionality on smartphone headphones is definitely possible and several headphones have 3 function control buttons that work with apple or android.
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Right, so it's compatible until it isn't. The TRRS connector has many different implementations. Sometimes there's video in there. Sometimes the ground is in different places. Sometimes the microphone is in a different spot. There any many different ways of making a remote work. I've never seen a three button remote work with Android, but I've no reason to not believe you. However, the one I have doesn't work with the Android devices that I have.
The thing is that the 3.5mm headphone connector is basically a
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Indeed...as is everything. This statement is a tautology.
Just because this may be true doesn't really mean anything. It's a benefit that it is so versatile, first of all. The ports worked. Square Card readers work for Apple or Android. Most after market headphones work for both.
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The sensible thing would have been to release the earpods along side a phone with headphone socket, and then if people were happy with them a year or two later get rid of the socket. But no, they had to ram those damn things up the customer's arse, to ensure good sales of their overpriced and somewhat defective earbuds.
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The sensible thing would have been to release the earpods along side a phone with headphone socket, and then if people were happy with them a year or two later get rid of the socket. But no, they had to ram those damn things up the customer's arse, to ensure good sales of their overpriced and somewhat defective earbuds.
Sorry that your dick falls off if you have to use the adapter. Most people don't have that problem however, so it's not a fucking problem for them.
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Bluetooth is great
I disagree. I often have problems with bluetooth devices. One JBL speaker I have works fine unless I start moving my phone around, the the audio gets funky. I just got a hands free kit for my car, at first it seemed to work fine but then the next time I used it the audio would judder every 20 seconds or so. And on and on. I really like it when it works, but it just doesn't work so much of the time.
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this is true...in my usage bluetooth degrades quality and has other problems similar to what you mention
I mostly skipped over bluetooth's problems because I didn't want to get bogged down with people missing my main point and just retorting in defense of *their* chosen bluetooth solution, which is "just fine"
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see, the problem here is the inability to think beyond one use case
call it "sociopathic design"
it may meet *a particular user's needs* but that doesn't mean it's sufficient or balances out the negatives
leave the headphone port and guess what? people can use bluetooth just as without...
Chin up, Tim! (Score:2)
I'm sure that just a dash of your famous 'courage' will magically make Bluetooth every bit as reliable as a piece of wire! It might have been nice, though, if you had instead demonstrated the courage to NOT favour fashion over function. But I guess indulging your vanity, while making your customers pay more for less standard and less reliable gear, was the more courageous choice. You old lionheart, you!
This actually happens on my 6S Plus... (Score:2)
...with my bluetooth connection in my car, and also at various times when I connect my Beats Pill. So I'd guess this has to do with bluetooth connectivity in general, and not specifically the AirPods. Fuck me, right?
Use only one at a time? (Score:2)
Use only one airpod at a time? What, am I using it wrong? Or holding it in my ear wrong???
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It's amazing that we embrace wireless simple on the annoyance of wires? When in fact nothing is more reliable than a wired connection. I have had nothing but trouble with wireless connections
Well, my headphones never have been torn from my head because my wireless got caught in something. Nor do I have to untangle my wireless every time I want to use it - or carefully coil it up after use.