
AirPods - deathtrader666
http://www.apple.com/airpods/
======
dchuk
Three things I really hope they do:

1) Come out with a phone case that can hold the AirPods, and ideally charge
them (Maybe enhance the battery case they already have?). I don't want yet
another thing in my pocket, especially one I also have to remember to charge.
Let me charge my phone, which can then charge my airpods. Let me always have
my airpods on me by attaching them to my phone.

2) Make a "Find my Airpods" feature that plays a really loud ass beep out of
the headphones when they inevitably fall out of my
ears/hands/pocket/bag/everywhere

3) Enable more tap commands than just Siri. Siri sucks so much. And I don't
want to be on an airplane loudly repeating "Turn up the volume"

~~~
nickgrosvenor
You should work for apple because this is exactly right! How can a random guy
on HN get it but engineers and executives at the biggest and most resource
rich company in the world not get it.

Also, the airpods have some serious bluetooth headset douchbag factor going
on. Shoulda made them skin color tones to offset it a bit.

~~~
Kadin
Most of Apple's products have a status-display thing going for them, at least
when they initially hit the market.

When the iPod first came out, the white earbuds were a sign that you were
listening to an iPod and not to some cheap Walkman. (There was a period of
time when people were advised not to wear them in some places, because
advertising that you had a $500 gadget in your pocket was a good way to get
mugged.) That sort of thing isn't accidental.

These look to be the same way. They're not supposed to blend in, because at
least some of the people who buy them initially _want_ to be seen wearing
them. At some point in the future once that market is saturated, I suspect
Apple will come out with a more subtle version (probably in black, not flesh-
toned; it's been a long time since Apple has done earth/skin tones).

~~~
jkestner
I'm not exactly sold on the AirPods, but when I first saw them being worn in
the video, I smiled. They say " _the future_."

~~~
ascagnel_
The problem is that they look ridiculous. There are similar products (Bragi
Dash, a Samsung model, and one other competitor whose name escapes me) that
fit entirely in your ear instead of needing a bit poking down.

~~~
jkestner
Like many of the comments today, a matter of opinion. It does seem to be a
transitional form. So similar to the previous wired EarPods.

And who knows, for all the ragging on Apple for making form-over-function
decisions right now, that part sticking out improves performance. Gotta wait
to see what they're actually like to use.

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dvcc
Five hours battery life is a killer. I can't even get through a flight without
having to charge my headphones -- a no go for me.

~~~
dchuk
They take 15 minutes to recharge for another 3 hours of listening. Minor
inconvenience.

~~~
jdpedrie
Minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of life doesn't mean it can't be a
major inconvenience in the moment. And when I'm out, or indisposed to charge
my headphones, in that moment it's a major inconvenience. Especially for a
solution that went in search of a problem that didn't exist.

~~~
dchuk
I believe you're firmly in the camp of first world problems. As far as I can
tell they are the first wireless earphones to even address this problem with
not one (external battery) but two (rapid charging) solutions at once.

~~~
klagermkii
If you're spending $159 on wireless headphones for your iPhone, you're
probably already the poster child for the first world and are thus entitled to
complain about first world problems.

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jwr
I hate wires with a passion and love the concept of wireless headphones. But
these look like they are shaped just like the wired apple earpods, which fall
out of my ears with the slightest movement or breeze. So now I'll also
immediately lose them as they fall out on the street.

~~~
garenp
This is the problem I have as well. It doesn't matter how fancy they are if
they don't fit in your ears. For this reason, I can only wear ear clip
headphones, not ear buds.

~~~
jwr
You might want to try Sol Republic Relays. These are the only in-ear
headphones I found that stay in place.

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TD-Linux
One word missing from this product page is "Bluetooth".

Do these use a proprietary wireless protocol that is only compatible with the
iPhone?

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pearjuice
So they just deprecated hundreds of perfectly viable audio accessories which
have better sound quality than their proprietary premium product just so you
are dependent on yet another Apple product? Maximum vendor lock-in. And please
don't say "everyone can make a Bluetooth speaker". They will probably come up
with some artificial license which makes it "iPhone certified" so that even
there they can squeeze some cold cash.

It really bothers me how Apple is so obsessed with making ridiculous amounts
of money and the tricks they pull to make it work. And somehow, it works!

~~~
zyxley
> just so you are dependent on yet another Apple product

The hardware requirements of a headphone jack put some very real limitations
on phone design (waterproofing, interior space taken up by the digital ->
analog hardware, etc).

Whether that was the driving cause or not is in the air, but "getting people
to buy Lightning stuff" isn't the _only_ reason to do it.

~~~
untog
Certainly not waterproofing, given that waterproof Android phones have had
headphone jacks for a few years now.

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bsg75
I wonder what the loss rate of these will be?

As in, how many will fall out of ears to be lost, as they are not physically
tethered to the wearer?

~~~
zyxley
The closest thing out there right now would probably be the Bragi Dash, so
owners of that would be the people to straw poll to get an idea.

~~~
jdbernard
Except the Dash is very specifically engineered to remain in the ear. It's one
of their selling points. Apple made no mention of this and at first glance it
doesn't look like they had the same concern. For example, the Dash doesn't
have parts that extend out and down beyond the ear itself like the AirPods do.
Seems like a simple way to accidentally knock them out.

~~~
jkestner
Seems everyone could wait until they try these on, instead of the hot takes
that Apple probably didn't engineer their headphones to stay in the ears.

~~~
jdbernard
True, but I'm not spending $160 for the privilege of being the guinea pig.

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drcode
I've had these earbuds for a month now, not sure why they haven't gotten more
love so far: [http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-
iconx/](http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/)

They are pretty much perfect, if only their battery life wasn't so horrendous.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Perfect and Horrendous all in the same sentence.

Nice.

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davesque
My problem with wireless headphones has always been two things:

1) Quality of sound. I can often hear artifacts from low bit-rate encoding.

2) Latency. Don't expect to use them in combination with a game or musical
instrument attached to a computer.

Any word on if either of these problems have been solved?

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Jgrubb
As a parent and an owner of an Apple TV rendered useless by them losing the
remote, I'll pass.

~~~
dbbk
How can you lose the Apple TV remote, it's not going to walk out of your house
on its own?

~~~
Jgrubb
No but the kids could walk out of the house with it.

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sharpercoder
They solved hard problems in need of solutions. Kudos to the team designing
this!

My problems with earbuds is they fall out, some quicker then others. But they
will fall out, making me stress about it and as a result giving me a
substandard experience.

I hope improved future versions will give the ability to order personalized
earbuds based on a 3d-ear measurement.

Until that time, I'll keep using the Bose QuietComfort 25.

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koenigdavidmj
I don't even have these and I've already lost them.

~~~
nickgrosvenor
The most cliche joke ever already

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jstsch
I think these look amazing. I've always wanted a pair of tiny bluetooth
headphones + mic that don't suck. I am sure that Apple will live up to its
quality expectation... if they do, I won't be sad that the stereo-minijack is
gone.

~~~
drcode
I don't know... I'm not feeling the "white stuff drooping out of my ear" look.

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gumby
Although these have some nice ideas in them, I had the old disappointing Jobs-
era Apple bluetooth earbud so I am not going to rush out and try them. Also,
they don't seem to work with Apple TV which is a shame.

Also: right and left are distinguished by printing on the device. Why wouldn't
they put a flat part or a little bump so you could tell the two apart by feel
before trying to get them to stay in your ear?

~~~
nicky0
They are asymmetrical (the "porthole" points to the front) so you can easily
tell them apart by feel with a bit of practice.

~~~
gumby
That's true of the earbuds but I am forever getting them "wrong" too

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rcthompson
If Apple has somehow made Bluetooth non-awful, I'll be interested. But I'm not
holding my breath.

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nolepointer
I can only take so many wireless items. I absolutely hate charging things.

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whamlastxmas
Having them chargeable over the phone's lightning port (like the iPad stylus)
seems like such an obvious option. No silly carry case required. I wonder if
they looked into this.

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rince
Looking at the last slide "Automatic setup. Seamless switching."

What exactly is the W1? Can it work with an older MacBook, or would you need a
not-yet-announced MacBook?

~~~
TD-Linux
The footnote says that it requires an iCloud account.

Are these even Bluetooth? Maybe they always remain connected to your iPhone,
and the other devices stream to the iPhone first.

~~~
rince
Looks like these are indeed Bluetooth
[http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods](http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods)

Connections AirPods: Bluetooth

And then further down Compatibility: iPhone 5 and up

iPhone 5 has Bluetooth 4.0 So I'm guessing the pairing information is shared
via iCloud

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dogma1138
I hope Apple will sell an AirPod (either left or right) individually since
these are definitely going to be the socks of the technology world.

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skc
Perhaps a dumb question, but I assume these don't stop working in airplane
mode?

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vorotato
If you don't call these airbuds you are dead to me.

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koolba
Hell no.

I think this has done it folks. After almost 10 years of iOS devices it's time
to move on. Vote with your wallets and reject this garbage.

~~~
officialchicken
Either way, I think it's kinda odd how "Think Different" has evolved (and is a
footnote) after 100 million devices have shipped.

~~~
nicky0
Surely this is an excellent example of thinking different.

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grymoire1
So we have to watch a Flash video to learn more. Oh - the irony.......

~~~
dalke
I didn't see a Flash video, but perhaps I missed it? There's an MP4 at
[http://images.apple.com/media/us/airpods/2016/94916564_4bfa_...](http://images.apple.com/media/us/airpods/2016/94916564_4bfa_4362_8b6c_b5c8fc822e3d/films/feature/airpods-
feature-tft-cc-us-20160907_960x400.mp4) .

