Thread: AirPods (2019)
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2019-08-14, 22:17

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
W1/H1 is just Apples use of NFC and similar technologies, other companies had already done that to improve the paring process. No innovation to be seen there.
Uh, W1 and H1 are a lot more than "just NFC." They're essentially tiny ultra-low-power SoCs, because getting the features Apple wanted with the battery life Apple wanted in the form factor Apple wanted wouldn't have been possible with traditional Bluetooth controllers. So, they made a new kind of chip, and stuck one in each AirPod.

I don't want to be a dick, but comments like this make me think that you maybe aren't...super familiar with the AirPods, and how they work?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Other companies had already made completely wireless headphones, with a few pairs coming out a full year (2015) before the AirPod, look up Bragi, and FreeWavz to name a few. No innovation, sorry.
I don't need to look up Bragi. I remember the Bragi Dash. Did you actually ever use it? It was a clusterfuck.

Virtually every reviewer noted that it had serious issues maintaining a Bluetooth connection, especially between the two earpieces. (The Bose SoundSport Free, released over a year after the AirPods at a higher price, had the same issue.) As The Verge put it, "Even the Dash's most basic features can cause frustration." And the FreeWavz? Those things were massive. Not something your average person would ever enjoy wearing all day.

Other companies don't somehow use up all the "innovation" in a space by delivering a half-baked implementation of an idea that has serious functional flaws or massive compromises, as if improving on that somehow no longer counts as "real" innovation or something. That's nonsense. If a different company makes that idea actually work, that's innovation, arguably more important innovation than just having the half-baked implementation that kinda sorta worked. As any engineer knows, it's the edge cases that cause 90% of the headaches. Making something work is hard.

And if they make that idea work easily, simply, effortlessly — if they make it less complex for the user than the design they're replacing, even though it's actually technically much more sophisticated — that's UX innovation, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
The only new thing I see with AirPods are the linked case charger. Did Apple put a bunch of good things together and make it a main stream product. Yes. Innovation, sorry, but no.
*headdesk* What do you think innovation is if not bringing a bunch of different ideas and technologies together to make a new kind of product? And yes, I said a new kind of product, because the Bragi Dash was not the same thing. You don't have to believe me, you can believe Bragi, who sold their headphone business and pivoted to software after being unable to ship a product that made sense in the post-AirPods world.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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