[HN Gopher] CT scans of AirPods evolution
___________________________________________________________________
CT scans of AirPods evolution
Author : vitruvius
Score : 1018 points
Date : 2021-12-06 21:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (scanofthemonth.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (scanofthemonth.com)
| jmpeax wrote:
| Terrible scrolljacking interface.
| jakeinspace wrote:
| This is easily the best use of "scrolljacking" I've ever seen.
| How, exactly, would you like to interact with the 3d CT scans?
| A video? An embedded 3d viewer to let you control the
| orientation?
| [deleted]
| varjag wrote:
| _but we wonder if voice pickup would have been better with the
| microphones pointed out of the bottom of the stems._
|
| Wonder no more, it would not. This arrangement (aka beamforming
| array) is common for improved noise reduction.
|
| _The downward-facing microphone has made its return [...] could
| the downward-facing mic deliver better audio quality?_
|
| The 3rd gen AirPods have no active noise canceling, hence one mic
| arrangement. So, nope.
| snazz wrote:
| Super cool scans and captions! I wonder if there were any
| substantial internal changes between the first and second
| generation AirPods (besides changing the chip). The article
| unfortunately does not include a scan of the 2nd generation.
| baybal2 wrote:
| My former coworker worked on airpods. Most of RnD for them was
| made in Apple's Shenzhen RnD centre which existence Apple for
| long time tried to hide.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > Most of RnD for them was made in Apple's Shenzhen RnD centre
| which existence Apple for long time tried to hide.
|
| I keep hearing online about this famous R&D center, where
| apparently they work on absolutely cutting edge stuff. Except
| Apple employees I know never mentioned it.
|
| Wonder why people would push that narrative that engineering is
| switching to China.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Nobody needs to push it, for a reason that's been the case
| for the last 20 years.
|
| I simply cannot find a single place in US doing many
| engineering services I can get in China.
|
| Amazon, Google, Square, Facebook, Microsoft, Roblox, Snapchat
| all other silicon valley cool kids have since setup
| themselves suspiciously close to Apple's offices in Kerry
| plaza. And most of them did so long after China-US relations
| went really sour After Trump. All equally so tried to keep
| their presence there very low key.
|
| > Except Apple employees I know never mentioned it.
|
| Maybe they don't work on the hardware side? US side of the
| company simply barely sees much of the "fieldwork" part.
| fnord77 wrote:
| the first airpods were released in Dec 2016, roughly the same
| time apple opened the Shenzhen r&d center, so I don't see how
| r&d for this product was done there.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Apple had it running since much earlier than 2016.
|
| The earliest I heard of Apple running something like a
| permanent engineering centre in the city was in 2013.
|
| I was saying them trying to hide its existence because for
| long Apple demanded its employees in China to even refrain
| from publishing the fact of their employment with them like
| on LinkedIn
|
| But the industry is too small, everybody knew about it for
| years. So 2016, was more like an official inauguration, when
| Apple admitted its existence, moved all their offices in the
| city to Kerry plaza, and put a nameplate on it.
| kapildev wrote:
| Anybody knows how they create such a website? I have seen such
| websites built for showcases of several tech products.
| malshe wrote:
| I don't know if this website used it but scrollama.js can do
| it. https://pudding.cool/process/introducing-scrollama/
| 93po wrote:
| I think this might be the first and only instance I've ever seen
| of a non-traditional scrolling experience actually being a
| benefit to a website
| mandeepj wrote:
| Apple's own website has used same design pattern on many pages.
| Similarly, Xiaomi also
| superkuh wrote:
| The bleeding edge $whatever functions required to create it
| meant that even a browser from a couple years ago only displays
| a white blankness. It is not a good design for a website.
| girvo wrote:
| And the implementation of it was brilliant. Didn't mess with
| the scrolling feel very much at all.
| [deleted]
| austinjp wrote:
| Completely agree. First and only, in my experience. Genuinely
| impressive on mobile.
| bmeski wrote:
| I agree. I was able to scroll back up easily to see specific
| parts without some acceleration taking over.
| veb wrote:
| This was SUPER interesting to see! I actually (for once) signed
| up for their next newsletter/scan. It asked me what they should
| scan next and I suggested cochlear implant processors. It'd be
| pretty cool to see!
|
| The tech on those processors are pretty insane - and remember,
| Apple did partner up with Cochlear for the Nucleus 7 I believe
| for wireless streaming from the processor to an iPhone.
| sQL_inject wrote:
| Some small but important details about the product architecture
| that's changed over time somewhat:
|
| - The antenna is sticking out of the ear, while the densest
| components are deeper in the ear, making them more stable. Now
| the battery is in the ear and PCB is out of the ear.
|
| - They've added large external mesh over the world-facing mic to
| reduce windnoise during phone calls. This creates a sort of
| turbulence that prevents acoustic howling. The air is channeled
| into a secondary chamber before reaching the mic.
|
| - The airpods had two Infrared Detectors to prevent being spoofed
| when resting on the table.
|
| - the cases moved from a resistive magnetic hinge to an over-
| center spring hinge, that's why the newer cases feel less
| satisfying and fidgety.
| patentatt wrote:
| > The airpods had two Infrared Detectors to prevent being
| spoofed when resting on the table.
|
| Can you elaborate on this?
| sQL_inject wrote:
| They use two so that if you rest the airpods on table in
| various positions, at least one IR sensor is pointing away
| from a surface. They turn on and off the device (pause, play)
| once both IR windows are covered by human skin (or detect a
| surface) which is the scenario in which they are fully in
| your ear. If they used only a single IR, the function
| wouldn't work if taken out of the ear and say laid face down
| on a book or table.
| Tildey wrote:
| As much as I like the fun factor of my magnetic 2nd gen case,
| it is inherently flawed. The magnets attract magnetic
| particles, and as the lid is repeatedly closed they're slowly
| beaten into the plastic and I've never been able to get those
| marks out. I imagine with a manget-free hinge this would be
| severely minimised, as everywhere outside of the magnets there
| is basically no staining.
| sQL_inject wrote:
| well the magnet you're referring to are closure magnets, not
| the hinge magnet. You can see them on iFixit's teardown as
| black rectangles. Those magnets attract gnarly metallic bits
| which, yes, permanently make marks on the surfaces of the
| interior. Airpods OG vs. Pro for comparison. Both have
| closure magnets, I think the primary reason to move away from
| them was space, based on the internals.
|
| https://guide-
| images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/f3k1ysoFjvJ5xoF5.lar...
| https://guide-
| images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/DSCA4bK5SAlTVGtn.lar...
| coatta wrote:
| Is there any information about the type of CT scanning equipment
| and methods they use?
| t-writescode wrote:
| I wonder if this explains / clarifies some of the difficulty in
| getting repair tech for the earbuds. They seem to change in major
| ways each time.
| walrus01 wrote:
| even if you could get repair parts they're assembled with
| strong glue (search youtube for airpod teardown), making it
| pretty much impossible to disassemble without destroying it.
| Tagbert wrote:
| Much of the repair problems has to do with how small they are
| and the components are tiny and must be assembled so carefully
| that humans with fingers are just not at the right scale.
| passivate wrote:
| But we've made tools to overcome human limitations, so that
| is not really the issue. Apple just doesn't want their
| products repaired - or at the very least it is not a priority
| for them. Its just not a good look when they pretend to be
| "green" while not contributing towards the elephant in the
| garbage bin - e-waste.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| > Apple was not the first company to develop wireless earbuds,
| but they've defined the category since introducing AirPods in
| 2016.
|
| Sigh.
| stillblue wrote:
| Sigh all you want. Truth doesn't change.
| post-it wrote:
| It's true. If unconnected wireless earbuds existed before
| AirPods, I certainly never saw any.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| According to this the first kickstarter for a pair of
| wireless earbuds with a charging case was in 2014
| https://www.androidcentral.com/history-true-wireless-earbuds
| desiarnezjr wrote:
| There were many. They just weren't particularly good UX wise.
| Some of them were great / good / fine soundwise, but the UX
| typically sucked.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| Most definitely they existed (even the quote admits to that),
| but unlike other areas, I do not see other manufacturers
| following Apple in either functionality or aesthetics
| (compare what happened with slate smartphones); and I most
| definitely do not even see Apple leading in any metric,
| specially not in 2016.
| severak_cz wrote:
| I think Apple brought wireless earbuds to masses.
| ProfessorLayton wrote:
| Not an audio expert, but I really wonder why they need a
| microphone for their adaptive EQ. I understand home
| speakers/theatre systems need to compensate for a room's shape
| and contents, but do human ear canals vary that much to need a
| mic?
|
| I think it's pretty neat how sophisticated this adaptive EQ
| system is, but tbh, I haven't noticed much difference between
| this mic system and the "dumb" adaptive EQ that companies like
| bose/ikea etc do (Basically turn up base at low volumes, down at
| high volume to not clip).
|
| Very cool stuff!
| reaperducer wrote:
| _do human ear canals vary that much to need a mic?_
|
| Based on the number of online complaints that AirPods slip out
| of people's ears, and the equal number of people saying they're
| rock solid, even while working out, I think the answer is
| "yes."
| ericbarrett wrote:
| I've tried all three gens of AirPods and none will stay in my
| right ear. Same is true of the old wired earbuds. Everybody's
| a little bit different--sometimes on the same human!
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| Strange that when making 110 million units per year they
| don't bother to cover tens of millions ears more with
| slightly different design.
|
| Same with incredibly small mouse and bunch of other sku's
| that could def be differentiated.
| shantara wrote:
| Apple does ship Pros with three different sizes of silicone
| tips in the box. Changing the standard (medium) to a large
| one made all the difference for me to finally be able to
| wear AirPods while running and working out. While
| discussing this feature with others, I was surprised to
| discover that many people who complain about the bad fit
| have no idea about it, or never bothered choosing the size
| that fits their ear canal the best. And that's not even
| getting into the third party tip replacements of various
| shapes and sizes.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Why make more SKUs to support? They don't want the business
| or the headaches. They squishy things mold to people's ears
| anyway. Imagine asking others to put on several types of
| headphones or needing a scanner and it getting it wrong.
| It's a stupid business decision for mass produced Bluetooth
| headphones.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| AirPods make more money than Tesla yet Tesla makes
| various sized cars.
|
| If it makes them 10B more per year sounds like a good
| business IMO.
|
| Pro's are exception, classic ones are the ones people
| complain about.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| They make different AirPods too. If it makes them more
| money, it could be worth it, but that's an assumption, if
| they gave the classic features as good as the pros would
| that make them more money? It could, but they might not
| want to cannibalize them.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| I worked on a product that used an in ear microphone to adjust
| the model used in noise cancellation on the fly. In a control
| theory sense, the system varies a lot so your poles can move
| around and need a different controller, even on the same head
| depending on fit. The product produced white noise to tune the
| model which greatly improved the noise cancellation accuracy.
|
| It's also not just the ear canals but the rest of your skull
| that effects how you hear. There are apps that use machine
| learning to fit a model/eq to the shape of your head from a
| photo. I would think that actually measuring in the ear would
| give a more accurate representation of this.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| > do human ear canals vary that much to need a mic?
|
| Surprisingly, they do! It doesn't need a lot of change to have
| a different ear canal resonance, changing the frequency curve
| somewhere between 5000-7000Hz. Oluv is currently tuning Earfun
| IEMs to different earl canal lengths which you can then try
| out, and he has written some articles [0] on exactly this
| topic, but unfortunately its paywalled:
| https://www.patreon.com/oluvsgadgets/
|
| [0] https://www.patreon.com/posts/trust-your-ear-58601998
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| Found something non-paywalled, its in German though, might
| need to Google translate it:
| http://blog.prof-x.de/2018/08/26/gehoerresonanzen/
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Low frequencies are heavily affected by both how well the canal
| is sealed, and the volume of air that is in the (partially)
| sealed area. The adaptive EQ does seem slightly over-
| engineered; given that people tend to be forgiving of a fairly
| large amount of bass emphasis, you can just tune for the worst-
| case. However people don't generally buy Apple products to get
| something _under_ engineered...
| snthd wrote:
| Might be more important for noise cancellation.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Ears do vary quite a bit. If you try in ears molded to your
| ears they can be mind blowing.
|
| In some cases a microphone will also help adapt to background
| noise.
| shard wrote:
| > do human ear canals vary that much to need a mic?
|
| Not an expert in human ear canals, but over the years I've
| learned that if I am looking into a field that I am not
| familiar with, it's always more complicated than I
| expected/imagined.
|
| > "dumb" adaptive EQ that companies like bose/ikea etc do
| (Basically turn up base at low volumes, down at high volume to
| not clip)
|
| Sounds like a compander for the lower frequencies. That's
| technically "adaptive" to the input audio, but not adaptive to
| the acoustics of the output environment. I expect that to for
| the second type of adaption, you'd need to measure it, which
| would necessitate some sort of input, such s a mic.
| skavi wrote:
| Bose definitely also uses a mic for their adaptive EQ. I
| wouldn't be surprised if Ikea did as well. IIRC they use Sonos
| tech.
| lpasselin wrote:
| Maybe slight variations of position in the ear can be
| compensated?
| nunez wrote:
| Everyone's ear canals are shaped differently, so yes, lots of
| variation.
| tcpekin wrote:
| Does anyone know who is behind this site? I couldn't find
| anything poking around, and for such a cool website to (in my
| mind) blow up so suddenly is very surprising, with very cool
| content as well. I'd be interested in following anyone who is
| doing this.
| errantspark wrote:
| This is such cool content but the way it's presented is so
| fucking frustrating to me. I wish the narrative wasn't so
| intrinsically tied to the actual data. I hate that I can't blow
| up and rotate the models side by side, the whole thing feels so
| shallow. Now to be clear in an absolute sense this is a good
| article, this is cool content and the scrolling as something
| other than scrolling works better than in most instances.
|
| My criticism is that the format does a disservice to the data,
| it's not the best way to present something this cool.
| vultour wrote:
| I think what's missing is a 3D viewer at the bottom where you
| could play around with the models yourself.
| micheljansen wrote:
| I wish they also did the second generation AirPods (also from
| 2019). Would love to see how they compare to the gen 1 and gen 3.
| asiachick wrote:
| My self, my best friend, and an apple employee I know, all bought
| the new Airpods 3rd gen and all returned them. Of course that's
| just my small circle but 3 for 3. I guess any friend that bought
| them and was happy with them probably didn't say anything. The 3
| of us that did have issues went back to 2nd gen.
|
| For me, I hate pinch to control, I love tap to control. Tapping
| takes 1 free finger. Pinching takes 2. Another friend said they
| wouldn't stay in her ears, kept falling out. The 3rd friend just
| said they didn't fit as well. Didn't go into details. Just
| returned them.
| roody15 wrote:
| But somehow they cannot figure out how to make a replaceable
| battery. hmm
| spicybright wrote:
| This is the weirdest product to complain about this for. For
| something so small, replaceable battery hardware would double
| the size of the thing from the battery connectors alone.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Yeah it just doesn't make sense to be upset at airpods here.
| The airpods are smaller than the AA batteries which are often
| just disposable after a single use.
| poopooracoocoo wrote:
| But I'm pretty sure Samsung Buds (perhaps the first gen?)
| use some sort of standard battery.
| guidedlight wrote:
| PodSwap seem to have worked it out.
|
| https://www.thepodswap.com/
| ncann wrote:
| I'm curious how they did it. Is there a video out there on
| how that's possible?
| gruez wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9aB5aPbMM
| spicybright wrote:
| How? This seems only for people with good batteries that want
| to upgrade. There's no new pods with good batteries being
| added if it's just swapping.
| gruez wrote:
| >How? This seems only for people with good batteries that
| want to upgrade
|
| No? The "Here's How it Works" section specifically implies
| they're replacing the batteries.
|
| >we'll send you a pair of genuine AirPod buds with restored
| battery life that have been cleaned and sanitized.
| dkonofalski wrote:
| There's no upgrade. You swap your Airpods for another set
| that has had the battery replaced.
| somethingabo wrote:
| You don't need a good battery to swap. The point of the
| service is to swap yours with poor battery life. They send
| you a refurb from a previous customer, replace the battery
| in yours, and then send that to a future customer.
| gruez wrote:
| They can, it's just that the trade-off isn't worth appeasing a
| few HN readers.
|
| >The reason earbud companies use non-replaceable rechargeable
| batteries is simple: It makes the earbuds smaller. Earbud
| buyers generally prefer more compact devices, but that means
| the earbuds have less room inside for all the necessary
| components. Designers need to cram a Bluetooth chip and
| processor, an antenna, a battery, drivers, controls, and
| microphones into something that's often the size of a thimble.
| Replaceable battery compartments require more earbud real
| estate, and in a competitive field where tiny is currently
| king, companies don't want to risk their earbuds being flops by
| making them bigger.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/your-wireless-earbud...
| baybal2 wrote:
| The reason is simpler than that. Battery will inevitably wear
| out, and it is a very deliberate planned obsolescence move.
| 93po wrote:
| I disagree - it's clearly what consumers want. There are a
| million phone options, including ones with replaceable
| batteries, and overwhelmingly people choose the smaller
| form factor with nonreplaceable batteries.
| wanderr wrote:
| I haven't seen a flagship phone with replaceable battery
| in forever. I absolutely want that and would pay more for
| it, but I won't compromise on performance and camera
| quality either. But Airpods I don't care about the
| battery being replaceable. Maybe because I expect to have
| to replace the pods before the battery is useless.
| filoleg wrote:
| I don't know about that. I still have my original AirPods,
| and they had no noticeable battery loss, and it's been over
| 3 years by now. They might have lost some battery if I
| tried to measure it empirically, but I have no way of
| knowing without measuring it explicitly, as I cannot really
| catch a battery loss of less than 5-10% with normal use
| over the course of 3+ years. But I use them all the time
| interchangeably with Airpods Pro, and both deliver on
| battery so far. Airpods Pro have already hit the 2-year
| mark for me as well, no issues either.
|
| I had to replace one of the OG airpods because I lost it
| (around 2 years ago), but replacing a single airpod was
| only like $50.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| I got the original Airpods and after less than two years
| the battery lasted like 15 minutes in one of the pods.
| They are a disposable product.
| Anther wrote:
| I have two pairs of originals. Both have trash batteries
| now. I bought the new Sony XM4s. Remarkable headphones.
| filoleg wrote:
| Are you claiming that this is a common experience? You
| sure you didn't dunk yours into water or something?
|
| Because out of all people I know irl who had airpods for
| 2+ years, no one has reported any noticeable battery
| loss, let alone something as extreme as "only lasts 15
| mins". I would be livid if mine lasted anywhere even
| close to that, but so far I am solidly in the advertised
| battery life range, even after 3 years of use.
|
| Also, just fyi, it seems like your unit might have been
| defective, in which case Apple offers free replacement
| (regardless of whether you have any additional warranties
| or not)[0]. If you have AppleCare+ and your battery lasts
| less than 80% of advertised range, it is also free
| replacement (even if it wasn't a defective unit). And
| just the regular replacement regardless of warranty or
| anything like that is $49.
|
| 0.
| https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service#battery
| newaccount74 wrote:
| > Also, just fyi, it seems like your unit might have been
| defective, in which case Apple offers free replacement
|
| Where did you hear that? That's not my experience at all.
| Apple denied that there was anything wrong with my iPhone
| 6S that suffered from sudden shutdowns for more than a
| year, before they introduced the iPhone 6S battery
| exchange program. That was a pretty frustrating
| experience.
|
| > And just the regular replacement regardless of warranty
| or anything like that is $49.
|
| In Europe it's 55EUR per Airpod, so the total cost would
| have been 110EUR (the second Airpod lasted a bit longer
| but still not enough to make it through a movie).
|
| 110EUR seemed like a steep price to pay for two new
| Airpods with an old charging case that will cost another
| 55EUR when its battery inevitably dies.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Interesting! After 2 years, I'm down to 1 hour of battery
| life in my second generation AirPods. Fortunately I use
| one at a time, so I just swap back and forth between them
| when one dies.
|
| My bigger issue is that my AirPods no longer give a
| warning when they're getting low on battery. The first
| time the sound chimes marks 3 seconds until it's about to
| die. I'm left scrambling to get my other one out as my
| phone reverts to handset audio (in my pocket).
| genewitch wrote:
| My android garbage phone pauses media if Bluetooth goes
| away. The only thing that won't is a literal LTE/4g call,
| that goes to handset.
| gruez wrote:
| I was baffled at that comment too. iOS should pause
| playback on headphone disconnection (wired or otherwise)
| as well. My only guess would be some sort of rogue app
| that doesn't respond to OS notifications, so it continues
| to play sound even after disconnection. In that case the
| OS would obligingly send the audio stream to the default
| device (ie. on device speakers). That said the default
| apps (eg. music or podcasts) should be fine.
| gnicholas wrote:
| This happens most often on calls, since battery life is
| much worse (60%?) when speaker and mic are being used.
| That's why I'm left scrambling to get the other earbud in
| -- someone is talking whether I can hear them or not.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Also, good enough is good enough. If the battery lasts about
| 2 years people want the next model anyway.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| I'm not sure I would have bought AirPods if I knew ahead of
| time that the battery would die in less than two years and
| replacing them costs as much as getting new Airpods.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| You weren't aware the batteries were not replaceable?
| genewitch wrote:
| That is not what they said. It's one thing to have non-
| replaceable batteries, it's another to have batteries
| that only last two years or less - generally the size (in
| milliamp hours) of the battery is what determines its
| life, so the battery is sized to coincide with the
| release of new models.
|
| If you're fine with that sort of planned obsolescence,
| cool.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| That's not what I said either. I said batteries that last
| as long as the user wants to use the device before they
| replace it are good enough. Not that they actually die by
| then.
|
| My AirPods are almost two years old, I use them every day
| and they are still going fine.
| boogies wrote:
| > It makes the earbuds smaller.
|
| How can we verify that's anything more than an urban legend?
| The same sort of rationalizations were made for the removal
| of the headphone jack, and they were proven false (the iPhone
| 7 had such a big empty space inside it that a YouTuber was
| able to fit Apple's external lightning adapter in, drill a
| circle in the outer aluminum, and have a functioning 3.5mm
| jack). These CT scans seem to show some empty space where the
| stem meets the bud, perhaps they could detach there.
| snthd wrote:
| Another reason for the trend (in phones too) is better water
| resistance.
| moooo99 wrote:
| I think it is fairly impressive that Apple managed turn
| 200EUR earbuds into disposable tech where users accept that
| they have to switch every two years or so. Before the arrival
| of the first generation AirPods, most people wearing AirPods
| today would probably have never even considered spending
| 200EUR on a pair of earbuds/headphones, let alone do that
| regularly.
|
| But I have to admit, my AirPods Pro are incredibly convenient
| bspammer wrote:
| They're easily on the list of things I would replace
| immediately if I lost them, without even a second thought.
| The price is nothing for the amount of use I get out of
| them.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I'm curious how the newest airpods compare to the pros when it
| comes to bass. I had first gen airpods, then I bought a set of
| pros, but the bass was so weak I thought they had to be broken.
| Turns out it's just an artifact of how they were designed. Some
| people are okay, but a _lot_ of people feel the same way I do. I
| ended up returning them and now I 'd like to know if the g3
| airpods are comparable to the pros, or comparable to the g1/g2
| airpods.
| hvgk wrote:
| I've tried all of them so far. The standard gen 2 AirPods are
| the best by far. The new 3rd gen ones won't stay in my ears.
| Pros are uncomfortable and lack bass. 2nd gen are perfect.
|
| I listen to everything from classical to metal to hard dance.
| fossuser wrote:
| They're pretty variable depending on your ear shape. For me
| the pros are the only option since the others fall out
| immediately (same for mkbhd).
| woutr_be wrote:
| For me it's the other way around, the original AirPods stay
| in my ear at all times. With the pros, I constantly need to
| adjust it, and they've fallen out of my ears multiple times
| whilst in the gym.
|
| I'm a bit reluctant to by the 3rd gen Airpods, since my two
| other pairs are still in perfect working condition.
| illegalsmile wrote:
| I recently picked up a pair of 3rd gen airpods after my
| first gen died. I also have air pod pros. I didn't even
| leave the parking lot before I returned the 3rd gen and
| replaced them with new 2nd gen airpods. The fit was
| horrible and unlike the APP that have the flexible and
| size-adjustable ear tip the 3rd gen offered nothing to
| change fitment. I don't even find that the APP fit as
| well as the 2nd gen airpods.
|
| If I were you and you find the originals to stay in your
| ear and the APP to not be great you definitely do not
| want 3rd gen airpods. I wish they would not have changed
| the form and fit of the airpods to be more like a "cheap"
| version of the pros.
| woutr_be wrote:
| Oh, I thought the 3rd gen had the same kind of fit as the
| 2nd gen? I do like the pros for when I'm working, the
| noise cancelling is really great. But I can't use them
| for exercise, since they just fall out so easily.
| fossuser wrote:
| This is surprising to me given the rubber tips - have you
| tried the other sizes?
| woutr_be wrote:
| I have, and the medium ones give me the best fit, but
| it's still not enough. The shape of the 2nd gen was just
| a better first for my ears.
| saila wrote:
| My wired Apple headphones were useless until I found "ear
| hooks." They work with AirPods too.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Ironically the Pros do not fit my ears even slightly, but
| the regular ones are mostly OK.
|
| Maybe I should splash out on some of those custom ones that
| are fit to your particular ears.
| trevyn wrote:
| If you like bass, the new Beats Fit Pros are fantastic. They're
| basically AirPod Pros with a different physical design and
| bass-heavy EQ. I find they keep a seal much better than the
| AirPod Pros as well.
| alexfringes wrote:
| I've used all gens and recently tried G3 for the first time. I
| instantly noticed that the bass was significantly better than
| the Pros. It's been a while since I've listened to G1/G2 but
| from memory I would easily place G3 above all of them in terms
| of bass. It wasn't enough to persuade me to get some because I
| love the noise cancellation on the Pros and would rather wait
| for their update. But I was tempted, in part due to the bass.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| They can kneecap them with forced firmware updates. I'm happy
| with the galaxy buds on iOS.
| https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/17/21069953/apple-airpods-pr...
| solarkraft wrote:
| Fellow Galaxy Buds (plus) user here, also with Apple devices.
| I generally like them. Battery life is stellar (compared to
| the others, it's just about satisfying for me). Pass-through
| mode is noisy and tinny (irritating). Connection reliability
| leaves a bunch to be desired (randomly disconnects every once
| in a while).
| kaladin-jasnah wrote:
| You'll also probably have a better listening experience
| with Galaxy Buds on iOS than Android on some Android
| devices. Apple's AAC encoder, used with AAC headphones like
| the Galaxy Buds (well, that's the best codec iOS supports
| for those headphones), have consistently proven themselves
| to outperform the competition. Linux's PipeWire, which uses
| the Fraunhofer AAC encoder is pretty good as well, but
| Apple's AAC is _the best_ , and you can hear it.
|
| Some Android devices use the Fraunhofer AAC encoder, but
| some don't. If they don't, you can definitely hear the
| difference--it sounds like a compressed mess.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Galaxy buds plus too! Love the 11hrs on single charge
| they're really good. I think random disconnects stopped
| when I disabled the touch controls and you can downgrade
| the firmware, I think the last 2 updates sucked, did they
| make it worst? https://github.com/ThePBone/GalaxyBudsClient
| The pass through mode might be bad because you have a
| blocked mic, mine is great.
| [deleted]
| skavi wrote:
| You need a seal to get significant bass from earbuds. the non
| pro airpods do not make a seal (by design).
| Talanes wrote:
| If they experienced better bass on the G1/G2 Airbuds, it's
| not a seal issue.
| skavi wrote:
| The G1/G2 emphasize the high-bass to make up for the
| complete lack of sub-bass. Maybe that's the tuning they are
| looking for?
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I primarily listen to rock. Airpods are great for that. I
| don't listen to much music that has significant sub bass.
| e40 wrote:
| I bought the gen3 and returned them for gen2. Two reasons, but
| the main one was comfort. I forget the gen2's are in my ears.
| The gen3's were painful.
|
| Second reason: gen3's require Monterey for macOS integration. A
| painful week-long exchange with Apple support brought this out.
| reaperducer wrote:
| Interestingly, some people had the opposite complaint about
| HomePods -- that they had too much bass. Apple now has an
| option in the Home app to reduce bass on HomePods.
|
| Not everyone had the complaint, and I think I know the reason
| for that: The configuration of the room. At my last place, my
| HomePods were way too bassy for my ears. At my new place,
| they're fine. Same gear. Different room geometry.
| jzwinck wrote:
| Are the speakers farther from the corner of the room in your
| new place? Proximity to the corners is an old trick for
| increasing bass output.
| reaperducer wrote:
| One is on a new table. The other is on the same table in
| the same position. Neither have ever been in a corner. (No
| outlets there.)
|
| Interesting about the corners, though.
| elzbardico wrote:
| This is still the strongest apple advantage: design, engineering
| and build quality.
|
| Recently I wanted to buy a second notebook so I could leave my
| MBPro at home in trips where I didn't want to work, but still had
| a machine that run linux and windows for some quick idea or even
| some light gaming.
|
| Decided for a Samsung Galaxy Book Pro. Expensive machine, but
| slightly cheaper than a MacBook Air. good i7 11gen processor,
| excellent battery life, very light but with surprisingly good
| thermals, 1tb SSD, but unfortunately no option to have it with
| more than 16GB RAM.
|
| Anyway, was very satisfied with it, and it was so light that I
| was even booting it with linux and doing some programming on it.
|
| But, one day I just opened the lid by the sides, heard a crack,
| and the gorgeous OLED screen had cracked.
|
| Of course I didnt abuse it, I just opened it, without excessive
| force or speed. But the screen is very fragile, the lid is paper
| thin, but not rigid enough, it seems, to avoid this problem.
|
| And of course, Samsung says it was my fault, and I will have to
| pay the fix.
|
| And yes, I know people have plenty of complaints about apple, but
| I never had encountered such an obvious problem with an Apple
| product. Have they not stress-tested this stuff?
| pushrax wrote:
| I've destroyed two MacBook Air screens, also because the lid
| isn't particularly rigid. The MacBook Pro is definitely more
| durable, no issues after 12 years of owning them. I'm now much
| more careful with my MBA.
| Lammy wrote:
| The virgin Macbook screen vs the chad grain of brown rice
| https://twitter.com/kaxamdays/status/1438403620391763971
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Aren't their recent laptops an overheating mess, not to mention
| needing dongles to plug anything in?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29197975
| alex_young wrote:
| That seems to be a reference to the previous iteration right?
| marcan_42 wrote:
| Their latest laptops barely if ever turn on their fans. Your
| link references the prior Intel generation.
| stouset wrote:
| I've run my M1 Max all night blasting every core doing
| heavily vectorized math computations and when I come back
| in the morning the small room it was in isn't even
| noticeably warmer than ambient temperature and the fans
| aren't even on.
| eertami wrote:
| Isn't the M1 Max pulling like 30-40W tops? I don't
| understand why that would ever be expected to create a
| noticeable temperature change. I doubt any laptop CPU
| would create a noticeable difference.
| jquery wrote:
| Yeah, low power draw is kind of the M1 Max's thing. My
| desktop PC crushes the M1 Max when doing workstation type
| tasks. But for content consumption and even light
| workloads it's very efficient.
| stouset wrote:
| That's kind of my point.
| jquery wrote:
| Meanwhile I can use my desktop as a personal heater if I
| max it out (Threadripper Pro 64 cores).
| pushrax wrote:
| Their recent laptops use Apple silicon and are anything but
| an overheating mess. There are plenty of things to complain
| about but heat has been solved.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Jony Ive's reign of terror is over. Butterfly keyboard is
| gone too.
|
| Charging DisplayPort Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s) USB 4 (up
| to 40Gb/s) USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s) Headphone
| sundvor wrote:
| The keyboard replacement was the biggest improvement to me
| in the latest MacBooks.
|
| I'm not an Apple person but I do like to keep tabs. Tried
| the butterfly keyboard and hated it so, so much - and
| that's not even touching on the function key row.
|
| (As a Streamdeck user it would have been awesome if they
| had kept the touch screen strip _and_ restored the missing
| row of keys. Missed opportunity there.)
| 72deluxe wrote:
| The touch strip turns off if you don't use the keys for a
| few seconds. So if you are programming and thinking
| during debugging, you might want to press a function key
| to step into/over/continue. But the touchbar has turned
| off, so you need to press another key on the keyboard to
| wake it up (fn perhaps) and then look down at the
| touchbar to find the F key because it is impossible to
| locate as there's no tactile sensation of which key
| you're pressing.
|
| And then repeat the process a thousand times per day.
| It's very wearying. And the keyboard is deafeningly loud.
| A typewriter would probably be quieter.
|
| I say this using a 2016 Macbook for work. Apple replaced
| the touchbar a few weeks outside the return window that
| was the result of the class-action lawsuit on the
| keyboard, which I am very grateful for. The keyboard had
| numerous keys not working properly (left shift most
| noticeably) and the touchbar had developed a fault where
| it would flash a white block next to the power button,
| constantly.
|
| Apple had to replace the keyboard, the battery, the
| touchbar and entire top level of the Macbook as part of
| the repair on the keyboard.
|
| I have a 2012 Macbook as my main machine and that is
| infinitely better - battery was less dead even though it
| had more recharges than the 2016; it has ports I can
| actually use; it has a SD card slot so I can get photos
| off my camera; the keyboard backlight is actually
| visible; the keyboard is actually nice to use etc. etc.
| The only drawback is the speakers on the 2012 aren't
| great compared to the bass-heavy 2016.
|
| But anyway all is solved on the new Macbooks but I need
| to sell a kidney to afford one...
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Just use an external keyboard
| notinty wrote:
| A few grand is nothing to scoff at, but if you use it for
| half as long as your older one then a reasonably kitted-
| out 14" would work out to ~$80/month.
|
| I didn't know that about the touchbar, that's pretty
| awful. It's also a shame they couldn't manage to
| integrate their fancy taptic engine stuff.
|
| Ports are back on the new machines tho--removing them
| seemed so braindead, but then again I'm not an industrial
| design machina so what do I know.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| >Jony Ive's reign of terror is over.
|
| You do know he is consulting for Apple.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Yeah and you notice the iPhone 12 and return of more
| ports?
| floatingatoll wrote:
| The last time I cracked an Apple display doing something like
| that was fifteen-ish years ago, when the plastic hinges were
| seizing and crimping the lower display panel. It's not the sort
| of thing that they have problems with anymore.
|
| They do, of course, have new problems, but it supports your
| point that they have been here and done that over a decade ago.
| oblio wrote:
| > This is still the strongest apple advantage: design,
| engineering and build quality.
|
| The thing is, Appple's hype wave is huge. I NEVER see this kind
| of blog post about Samsung or Huawei or Sony devices. Yet many
| of their devices are marvels of engineering, too.
|
| Look at the tone of this article:
|
| > The construction would make an origamist blush.
|
| Make we can get an experienced electronics comment on this kind
| of congratulatory comment: are Apple devices that special? (I
| doubt it) Or do they just have an awesome grassroots marketing
| environment or are great at astroturfing?
|
| I get the impression that part of this is also caused by Apple
| being American. The US is great at marketing and there is a
| degree of nationalism involved since there aren't that many
| American consumer electronics companies left. I remember going
| to some attractions in the US and thinking: this is hot garbage
| but for sure they're awesome at promoting it in movies and TV
| series and whatever.
| 72deluxe wrote:
| Yes, it seems bizarre that the dismissal of various other
| devices as Chinese (Huawei laptops?) doesn't impact Macbooks,
| which are also all made in China.
|
| The Huawei laptops look excellent Apple copies from what I
| can see.
| elzbardico wrote:
| No. In practice the samsung cutting edge stuff that looked
| like a marvel of engineering was just fluff with small
| irritating stuff that compounds over time. Samsung is
| obsessed with features, not with perfecting them.
| schleck8 wrote:
| Trust me, the Flexgate was just as bad and Apple tried to cheat
| their customers, including me.
|
| My MB Pro had both design flaws with its screen connection (750
| EUR for a faulty 5 EUR display cable, look it up) and key
| switches. And don't even get me started on my iPad Pro, that
| thing had to be replaced two times because the area around the
| home button isn't stabile enough. Now on the third one I am
| having pretty bad screen bleeding.
|
| On the contrary my workstation PC has not failed me once in two
| years. Never again I will buy an Apple product.
| nvarsj wrote:
| Samsung has never had great build quality in my experience -
| they seem to focus on looks above all else, with throwaway
| hardware that never gets software updates. I wonder why you
| went for a galaxy book pro? Why not buy a Thinkpad or Dell?
| They can have their own issues but the build quality should be
| much better.
| elzbardico wrote:
| I wanted a second machine, and the main criterias where 1)
| Run linux fine. 2) Intel Evo 3) As light and thin as
| possible.
|
| Yeah, I was stupid :-(
| sangnoir wrote:
| I guess you didn't purchase the iPhone 6, or perhaps you had
| very large pockets. A phone that bends semi-/permanently when
| placed in pockets was a ridiculous oversight.
| dereg wrote:
| Apple replaced the bent iPhones on the spot for free. That
| said, the iPhone 6 represented peak Jony Ive. I'm glad he's
| gone. Apple has walked back their obsession with thinness in
| favor of maximizing utility, all to the benefit of the user.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| No, they eventually admitted it was their fault, they
| didn't admit fault when the iPad came bent recently, or the
| MacBook Pro had failures. But with Steve Jobs alive it
| wasn't hard to get your handhelds like the iPhone or iPod
| replaced, now they blame you or make you wait forever.
|
| I agree about Jony, the iPhone 5 was peak Apple design, and
| it comes back with no headphone jack in the 12.
| dereg wrote:
| The generosity of Apple's support during Steve's era was
| unparalleled. It created a great deal of goodwill for the
| company within the iPhone/Mac community. Like you said,
| supports now is delayed, difficult, rigid, and merciless.
|
| Somewhere along the line, Apple forgot that its retail
| stores and support were products in and of themselves.
| ehnto wrote:
| They also grew exponentially and started serving
| everyone, not just technophiles. Support at such a large
| scale is an interesting problem. The apple store in my
| city always has lines out the door and the store is huge.
| They probably have to handle everything from broken
| devices to general troubleshooting, and for everyone from
| tech empathetic individuals to ludites, old people to
| young, and reasonable to agressive and entitled. All face
| to face in their stores.
| passivate wrote:
| Apple brought it on themselves with their anti-repair
| stance. Third party repair companies are literally
| begging them for parts so they can service Apple
| products. In other industries, there are a large number
| of quality technicians who can service consumer products
| without a problem.
| aksss wrote:
| For 25+ years I'm not sure I've _ever_ thought of the Mac
| market as primarily technophiles, so much as a crowd
| interested in the "pursuit aesthetic" and notably _not_
| interested in looking behind the technical curtain.
|
| The user group that _was_ technical was a relatively late
| demographic. But Macs were always (well, since my
| memories in 90 's) targeted towards this odd trifecta of
| the media production crowd (high-dollar professionals and
| aspiring high-dollar creators), academics, and
| grandparents (people with money who just wanted things to
| 'work'). Still seems that way to me, I guess. The closed
| nature of the hardware and the traditional lack of
| servicing to people who wanted to "break" things even on
| the software front was always a bit off-putting to
| technophiles until relatively recently (2013-2020ish?),
| but I might say there was a bit of a blind eye towards
| the faults in light of the awesome advantages. The fading
| appeal is likely just a more honest assessment of the
| platform/ecosystem in light of improving options (linux
| from the factory with working drivers, WSL). I mean,
| thank God for Apple driving quality in hardware and
| software. Maybe that's what you meant by technophiles -
| those with a love of what technology can be in its most
| refined and integrated sense, rather than the nerds who
| love to tear shit apart and improve it.
|
| Phones, on the other hand, are an everybody thing, but
| that broad appeal goes back even to the first iPhone at
| the turn of the century to my memory. Ever since Apple
| has had stores, I think the phone/ipad/accessory/gadget
| crowd has been an ever-present customer.
|
| Just my opinions, worth what you paid for 'em.
| ehnto wrote:
| We may indeed have a slightly different definition of
| technophile, to me it's early adopters and "gadget"
| people. One of the first recipiets of a Mac was Stephen
| Fry for example, but I imagine he has less interest in
| code or hardware, just enthusiastic about what the device
| can do for the user.
|
| The early adopters of smartphones were people excited by
| what it could offer, I remember being distinctly
| dissapointed at what seemed like a closing ecosystem,
| opaque hardware and an end of an era in general
| computing. Things have progressed since then and so has
| my outlook mind you.
|
| Even as a software developer I would not consider myself
| a technophile and certainly not an early adopter. More a
| begrudingly up to date luddite.
|
| > Just my opinions, worth what you paid for 'em.
|
| Considering the cost of my internet in Australia that may
| actually be non-zero! But they were worthwile opinions,
| so I'll accept that cost.
| kergonath wrote:
| > One of the first recipiets of a Mac was Stephen Fry for
| example, but I imagine he has less interest in code or
| hardware, just enthusiastic about what the device can do
| for the user.
|
| Douglas Adams was a fan as well [1]. He wrote sometimes
| in a Mac magazine whose name escapes me at the moment. He
| was an uber-technophile.
|
| https://lowendmac.com/2016/douglas-adams-author-and-mac-
| user...
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| They got into shrinking hardware and made great consumer
| gadgets that were not expandable with hardware but much
| better. The first iPhone had a headphone jack, it didn't
| need a weird one like the Sony Erickson, I don't think
| the palm had one. I had used a Mac in grade school with a
| mean teacher that died of cancer (they said thats why she
| was so mean, I don't buy it), it played crappy math
| games, and Oregon trail, it looked weird since I was used
| to windows and my friend got a Mac laptop for school that
| was nice I think it was a G3 or something. No more locked
| down than any laptop of that era.
|
| The iPod didn't have expandable storage, but nobody did
| and AA or AAA batteries sucked. The iPhone didn't have
| battery or storage upgrades but it was a full Unix
| computer in your pocket.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| They had those before too. They could have just sent them
| away with a refurb like they used to, in and out quickly
| instead of corralling them waiting for screen repairs.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Yeah it was so easy to walk in with a problem knowing
| Apple was gonna take care of it (except the MacBook
| problem but I didn't use a MacBook). You knew you didn't
| need an appointment, 20 mins in to get a nice person who
| looked at it, saw your problem and said ok well take care
| of it, here's another one.
|
| Incredible service at that time, something that Samsung
| and others didn't have. Now I get some asshole that says
| it's not an issue or it'll take 2hr to fix the screen,
| then they break it anyway and give me another phone that
| isn't unlocked and I have to go again or call the carrier
| because Apple fucked up.
| rvnx wrote:
| I had very very negative experience with Apple hardware
| issues and I agree so much about how bad is the service
| now.
|
| First time on a very brand new MacBook Pro (1 day old).
| The laptop screen was glitching for no reason. The
| service center took it for repair, and when they gave it
| back, they visibly damaged the computer in the process
| (with a screwdriver they damaged part of the case), and
| then denied causing the damages.
|
| At the end, they didn't even fix the issue (they changed
| motherboard, when it was obviously a screen or screen
| cable issue, not a motherboard one because the issue
| didn't appear on screenshots nor on external monitors).
|
| I had to take the losses, I hate this company so much for
| this, by principle.
|
| Second time, the MagSafe-style charger of my other
| MacBook computer took fire, Apple never acknowledged the
| issue, and neither offered replacement and pointed only
| to legal and stopped responding.
|
| This company really has shitty processes handling defects
| in their own products.
|
| I keep buying because the alternatives are very weak in
| comparison and outdated, but really, if you get a bad
| product from Apple you are fucked.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| You should have complained more, I never would get that
| service, and my friend has had his screen replaced and
| never had problems as long as he had applecare or was
| under warranty.
|
| >I keep buying because the alternatives are very weak in
| comparison and outdated, but really, if you get a bad
| product from Apple you are fucked.
|
| I think the M1 is great but I wouldn't use a normal x86
| from them.
| kaladin-jasnah wrote:
| Telling someone in effect "they're holding it wrong"
| after being severely scalded by a company and then
| recommending their products probably isn't going to get
| them to switch back.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| > I keep buying because the alternatives are very weak in
| comparison and outdated, but really, if you get a bad
| product from Apple you are fucked.
|
| I didn't try/need convince them to continue buying Apple,
| I wouldn't buy an x86 from them.
| skhr0680 wrote:
| I had a 2008 iMac HDD fail when it was barely out of
| warranty in either late 2009 or very early 2010 and was
| charged full price for the repair, then a "we'll recycle
| it for free" when my barely 1 year old iPod Touch decided
| to stop connecting via USB after updating it to iOS4.
|
| In 2013 the same Apple store replaced a 3rd party stick
| of RAM in my iMac for an Apple one for free when I sent
| it to fix the bad hinge on that year's model.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| That sucks, I had never gone in after warranty though,
| maybe once it was under a month and they gave me another
| one. Usually if you get a nice genius they'll help you
| out, I didn't try after the warranty and just repaired it
| myself. Knowing how bad they are now, I will never set
| foot in one again and I'd rather repair it myself after a
| year.
| elzbardico wrote:
| Yes, that's why I say that I understand that people have
| their complaints.
|
| I had an iphone 6, never had a problem with it, but, I never
| seated with it with my back pockets, as this would be
| exceedingly uncomfortable for me; also never knew anyone with
| a bend iphone 6 too, but I understand that this was not the
| experience for a lot of people.
|
| But as I told, I am talking about my experience with apple
| products. Maybe I am lucky with apple stuff.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| > And yes, I know people have plenty of complaints about apple,
| but I never had encountered such an obvious problem with an
| Apple product. Have they not stress-tested this stuff?
|
| I'm not going to argue that many of Apples products aren't well
| built but MBPs have had their share of problems too. Such as
|
| - The butterfly keys being extremely easy to break? (I have a
| few keys on mine that don't work properly any more)
|
| - Or USB-C right side of the MBP causing the thermals to
| increase so much that the CPU throttles? (this also affects me)
|
| - Or the ribbon cable that connects the screen getting worn
| down with repeated opening/closing that it breaks? (happened to
| a friend)
|
| In fact, I've had more issues with my current MBP than I have
| with any of my previous laptops and thus cannot wait to
| decommission in January.
|
| I do also have an iPhone and Apple Watch. My iPhones have
| always been flawless but my Apple Watch is around 18 months old
| and the speaker is already failing.
|
| The watch and iPhone experience has been fantastic (even with
| the failing speaker) but I really can't see me getting another
| MBP. Not just because of the hardware problems I've had but
| also because I just don't think macOS is particularly good
| these days either. The OS panics far too often (MBPs really
| don't like to be docked and on docked regularly), it handles
| ageing batteries the worst (to the extent that a failing
| battery will brick the device where as at least with Linux you
| can still run the machine off the mains), it takes forever to
| verify applications on launch (sure I can turn that off) and
| it's nowhere near as performant as it once was. Frankly it's
| left me craving a Linux workhorse again.
|
| I feel Apples love for IT professionals has diminished over the
| last decade and all the emphasis in build quality has gone
| towards their range of gadgets.
| jinto36 wrote:
| Indeed there are plenty of examples of suboptimal Apple
| designs.
|
| 2015 Retina MBP, the trackpad cable runs over the battery,
| and the heat from the battery means I have to replace the
| trackpad cable every 6-12 months.
|
| Earlier Intel aluminum iMacs would literally toast the LCD if
| you ran Windows on them, because the fans wouldn't ramp up
| enough, even if you had all the Bootcamp drivers properly
| installed. Sometimes this would happen in MacOS also. Needed
| to run 3rd party fan control programs, or you'd end up seeing
| brown areas on the screen around where the CPU and GPU
| heatsinks were.
|
| As far as enclosures go, yes Apple stuff is physically pretty
| sturdy.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Try cleaning the speaker with distilled water and the speaker
| cleaning feature that pumps the water out of the watch.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| Thanks, I will try that
| gimmeThaBeet wrote:
| is that this water lock thing for when you swim with it?
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210931
|
| May be brash of me, I would assume all water resistant
| watches have water lock, but the speaker thing sounds so
| apple-y.
| kalleboo wrote:
| > _I 'm not going to argue that many of Apples products
| aren't well built but MBPs have had their share of problems
| too_
|
| Yep Apples stuff definitely has a lot of build problems as
| well. You can also watch one of Louis Rossman's rants for
| perpetual internal design issues that cause machines to be
| more fragile than they need to be.
|
| Although the one thing speaking in favor of buying Apple
| despite this is that they sell so many of the same machines
| that when one of these major design issues pop up, it's
| likely to build up enough steam and bad publicity that they
| fix it/implement an extended warranty repair program, whereas
| there's never a critical mass of people buying and
| complaining about the "Samsung Galaxy Book Pro" for Samsung
| to respond.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| Maybe not with Samsung but I've found other manufacturers
| to be better. Asus, for example, were very quick to resolve
| a battery issue I had for a laptop that was out of
| warranty. They even offered me a gift for my inconvenience.
| Apple, on the other hand, are only willing to fix issues if
| you pay them a substantial amount. Often a figure that
| approaches the cost of a new device.
| kalleboo wrote:
| I've heard plenty of anecdotes of people getting Apple to
| fix their Mac hardware even outside of warranty. Mostly
| in the US where they seem to care more about customer
| support. It's all anecdotes though so I have no idea how
| common it is.
| eptcyka wrote:
| I'd wager they get their stuff fixed out of warranty due
| to a class action lawsuit, rather than good will. Apple
| never wanted to fix any of my broken iStuff, even if I
| wanted to pay for it.
|
| They (Apple support representatives) will lie to your
| face, telling you that to replace a headphone jack or a
| charge port, one has to replace the whole motherboard,
| totalling the device.
| jgalt wrote:
| They can do even worse. I tried to get my battery
| replaced on an iPhone 5s and sent it via UPS. They
| returned it with a broken power button and refused the
| battery change for that reason. Apple support did not
| help and the "geniuses" of the local Apple Store were
| condescendingly pushing the fault on me. That was just
| before leaving for 1 month of vacation overseas.
| zuj wrote:
| While my entire friends circle are apple fanboys I stayed away
| from it because of the cost. Once I had the resources tried
| MacBook air and now all the devices in my home are replaced by
| apple one by one. Except for Alexa, never got used to Siri.
| bodge5000 wrote:
| Out of interest, what would you say is better about a Mac
| specifically (both the hardware and software) compared to a
| standard windows or linux pc/laptop, aside from build quality
| (my thinkpads have never let me down)? I've been tempted by a
| mac for a few years but never close enough to pull the
| trigger
| zuj wrote:
| Frankly, it's not just one thing. It's the seamless
| experience. Your experience might be different but coming
| from bulky Lenovo laptop with windows on it to the sleek
| machine which you are able to just open the lid and get to
| work is mind blowing for me.
|
| On Mac, I don't remember the last time I shut down my
| machine or close the applications. All with out sacrificing
| the battery time. It's just there for me when ever I want
| to get back to work.
|
| If you are on the fence, give it a try.
| bodge5000 wrote:
| I think the main thing keeping me on the fence is
| probably games. I wouldn't call myself a massive gamer or
| anything, but I do like to play occasionally. Obviously
| with macsthats both a hardware and software issue.
|
| Other than that, last I checked everything else I use
| daily is compatible with the new M1 chips (though I need
| to double check Godot Mono) so it really is just that
| holding me back. Not sure if I'd go with a macbook or mac
| mini since it'll be in the same place 90% of the time,
| but I think they're probably comparable either way.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| Battery life and hibernate behaviour is unmatched on a
| Mac. Nothing else comes close. I've never rebooted less.
| BoxOfRain wrote:
| The trackpads are absolutely the best by a long way in my
| experience too, every other laptop's trackpad feels like
| cheap crap once you've tried a MacBook's one in my
| opinion. I even replaced my mouse with an external
| trackpad, I've not used a traditional mouse in a year.
| zuj wrote:
| How did that worked out ergonomically ? Does it work with
| other devices (still need to login into a windows machine
| to connect to linux work machine) ?
| BoxOfRain wrote:
| I'm 100% on macOS now after a job change, but yeah it
| does work with other devices. I know someone using one on
| a Linux desktop without issues although it did need a
| little tweaking apparently, can't speak for Windows but
| I've heard they work too!
|
| As for ergonomics it fits my workflow of having lots of
| virtual desktops and full screen apps open, panning
| between them with the trackpad. Especially when on a
| laptop the gesture-based approach feels a lot quicker
| than picking up a mouse. I'm becoming more and more of a
| terminal monkey these days so it's less relevant but I'd
| still recommend them to anyone.
| zuj wrote:
| Absolutely, you are always in the flow. With the new
| machines with the finger print sensors the experience is
| even smoother no need for typing the password as well.
| shakow wrote:
| For me, as a mainly Linux user : - build
| quality ; - general characteristics (screen
| quality, weight, size factor, build materials);
| - power/battery life balance (the M1s are amazing);
| - can be mostly handled like a Linux-ishy thing not too far
| away from my desktop computer thanks to Nix; -
| the gorgeous trackpad.
| codesnik wrote:
| I mean, there were some mishaps in apple line too. First
| macbook airs had faulty hinges. Mine broke, and I was using my
| mbair as a "mobile desktop", rarely opening it between home and
| office, because I was afraid it will broke off completely. I
| had to wait for replacement lid (which was free) for half a
| year.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| I chose the iPhone because of the "just works" nature but now
| they've made it impossible to get photos off using Windows
| (disconnects in copy, iTunes or DCIM, tried workarounds, due to
| heavily walled garden no other app can be used to get 500
| photos off). Lots of people online with same issue.
|
| If I can take photos and copy them off I might as well go back
| to androids.
| mceachen wrote:
| I feel your pain. Two different possible solutions:
|
| 1. Turn off automatic image conversion, and then retry
| copying over USB: it takes a while to convert HEIC to JPEG,
| and an eternity to convert HEIC to MP4. It's something like
| Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC > keep original
| format
|
| 2. Install a file transfer app on your phone and computer,
| like Resilio Sync or Photo Sync.
|
| My family's phones use Resilio Sync that sync with a NAS on
| the bookshelf and PhotoStructure (I'm the author).
| dbspin wrote:
| That sounds annoying, but honestly pretty much any cloud
| backup service will sort this for you iCloud's not great, but
| Google One, Dropbox etc all work fine on iPhone.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| _> If I can take photos and copy them off I might as well go
| back to androids._
|
| You're not supposed to connect your iPhone to a PC via cable
| like a caveman. You're supposed to buy a Mac and pay for an
| an iCloud subscription and then everything just works
| automagically via the cloud. /s
| wiliaonson wrote:
| I agree with what you have said, I have my fair share of Apple
| products, and they didn't disappoint me.
| sombremesa wrote:
| I recently pulled out my 2018 13" Macbook pro after quitting my
| job and not having touched this laptop in a while. The keyboard
| had a couple of issues with repeating keys...and I was out of
| the warranty period.
|
| Thankfully, Apple has a keyboard service program, and they
| fixed it for free -- in late 2021. No questions asked. With a
| one year warranty on their fix.
|
| This was just before thanksgiving and it took them just about 3
| days to fix from when I dropped it off to when I picked it up,
| even though it was shipped to a repair center.
|
| That being said, I might not buy a new one for a while because
| I like having bootcamp to play games and the M1 makes that
| impossible.
| [deleted]
| mmgutz wrote:
| I buy Windows laptops for the purpose of running Linux. Little
| things do happen like bezels coming loose, coil whine and fan
| noise.
|
| I have been happy with Apple for over a decade. My MBP 2018 was
| an exception. The rubber seal around the screen deteriorated.
| The touch bar has a dead area ($750 to fix, not fixing).
| Bulging batteries had to get replaced. That generation of MBP
| was GARBAGE based on my research trying to fix mine. Waiting to
| see if new M-based MBP have the quality pre previous
| generations of MBP had.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| My friend uses an M1 as a power user for about a year. Great
| battery life, almost never uses the fan, super fast, no
| battery issues, no Linux support with graphics acceleration
| yet and he cracked his screen and Apple care fixed it. I
| don't think the butterfly keyboard is around anymore.
|
| It's fabulous but so is my much worst Lenovo x250 with 16GB I
| got, and a new 1080p screen on recently, still very happy
| with it.
| kataklasm wrote:
| Same here! Running an X250 with 8GB of memory and an i3 for
| engineering in university. Of ciurse I'm not doing any
| simulations or computations with it but for everything else
| it's an absolute dream. One of the last ThinkPads to have
| the hot swappable battery system and it's highly
| repairable. 12" screen size is perfect for an on-the-go
| laptop in my opinion. I'm running Fedora with i3 on it to
| maximize the screen real estate I can get out of it and
| it's lovely. Even compiling programs and similar sctivities
| aren't a bother to be honest. Very happy, let's hope it
| stays with me for a few more years!
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| I regret getting the 12.5in screen, it's terrible for
| posture. The t460s is about the same weight with a 14in
| screen. I am sure it will perform fine, but the screen is
| really small and bad for posture I hope you're using the
| dock and not using it too often as a laptop. I love it as
| the epitome of the best half netbook/ultrabook with
| excellent performance with a few tradeoffs like 1 ram
| slot.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Those are 3 advantages
| treve wrote:
| Yet I know lots of people with defects in Apple products. I
| replaced multiple laptops. Is there real evidence of fewer
| defects?
| BoorishBears wrote:
| I have a Consumer Reports account and doing a quick search
| the only laptops with a 5/5 "Predicted Reliability" rating
| are from Apple, everything else is a 4/5 or less
|
| It looks like LG would be the likely 2nd place as well, since
| they're the only brand besides Apple consistently getting a
| 5/5 on "Owner Satisfaction"
| bgroins wrote:
| The Gram series has been phenomenal in my experience,
| especially considering the price.
| DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote:
| I had a LG Gram. Awesome. So light, had latest gen CPU
| when Apple didnt. All the ports that Apple didn't have.
| Linux worked too. The only reason i went back to Apple is
| the trackpad. If Linux sorts that out, back to LG Gram.
| elzbardico wrote:
| Yes, it is unavoidable. But have you tried dealing with apple
| support versus samsung support?
| snapcore wrote:
| No, they are the same as everything else, people constantly
| say they are superb on here, but looking up reliability
| surveys says otherwise:
|
| https://www.geckoandfly.com/6311/the-most-reliable-laptop-
| su...
| deep-root wrote:
| This link states in 2018 Apple (1st place on reliability
| with 665 pts) was 2-3x more reliable than Samsung (2nd
| place 270 pts). Then in 2019 Apple suddenly became half as
| reliable (now 130pts) as Samsung? Seems suspect at best.
|
| They seem to rank based on all service calls to their third
| party IT firm. Apple's top service calls were printer and
| email help (40% between them) and hardware was 0.53%.[1]
|
| [1] https://www.rescuecom.com/news-press-releases/apple-
| mac-2021...
| rajivm wrote:
| That reliability matches my anecdotal experience. I've
| had multiple failures of the 2019-2020 MacBook Pro 15" &
| 16" models. Gone through 4 machines, and these mostly sat
| on desks during the pandemic. One machine due to keyboard
| stickiness to the point of unusability (this of course is
| the most known issue). Two slow logic board failures
| (increasingly frequent kernel panics until the machine no
| longer worked); the second one I didn't wait until it
| fully failed. One display failure.
|
| I just switched to the new M1 Pro 16" which I'm hopeful
| has resilience that matches my earlier Macs that would
| last 4+ years -- it seems like Apple has reverted 5 years
| of design choices with this model (ports, MagSafe,
| weight, thickness, edges, keyboard -- of course with
| better battery/performance/screen).
| eptcyka wrote:
| A lot of the M1 macbooks had similar issues where displays
| would crack seemingly without any abuse. All in the name of
| thinness. I wouldn't suppose that it's the users or horrible
| design at fault, but rather an issue where some tolerances were
| not met, so some of the parts in production are less durable
| than what is needed to execute the design.
| NalNezumi wrote:
| I don't remember which iPhone it was, but didn't one launch
| with the problem that the entire phone could be "bent" by
| having it in the back pocket and sitting down? (or similarly
| putting some force)
|
| And their reactions to it was "its your own damn fault"?
| saagarjha wrote:
| iPhone 6 (Plus).
| kiwijamo wrote:
| Funnily enough the exact same thing happened to my work
| Macbook. Display just stopped working one day. Work sent it
| back to Apple to repair which took them a few weeks.
|
| I once owned a iBook (back in the PowerPC days) that had to go
| back to Apple on no less than four different occasions to fix
| faults. All repaired under AppleCare as I fortunately had the
| foresight to pay for it at the time of purchase.
|
| I've also owned other brands of laptops and I've not had any
| with the amount nor the severity of faults I've observed on
| Apple laptops.
|
| I write this on my own ex-lease Lenovo X1 Carbon which has
| survived a 1m drop with a corner hitting a hard surface.
| Thankfully the only issue is the occasional black/darkening of
| an area of pixels on the lower-right corner of the LCD. I can
| 100% guarantee if it was a Macbook it would have been the end
| of it, no question whatsoever (given I've seen Macbook die from
| much less impact).
| chrisweekly wrote:
| I still make good use of my 15" 2012 macbook pro retina.
| Bummed that macos 10.15 is the end of the road for OS
| upgrades, bc the hardware has held up amazingly well for
| almost a decade. Including weeks at a time at sea, countless
| motorcycle trips and flights...
| rev_d wrote:
| You should take a look into OpenCore Legacy Patcher
| 72deluxe wrote:
| I have a 2012 going strong too. Battery has been charged
| and recharged less than my work 2016 but is in much
| better health. Upgraded it to 16GB RAM and put a 1TB SSD
| in it. It has worked flawlessly (it's the i7).
|
| Do you know if there are any issues reported running a
| 2012 with OpenCore Legacy Patcher? Looks an interesting
| project I may make use of.
|
| Are there any actual reasons the 2012 hardware cannot run
| Big Sur?
| chrisweekly wrote:
| thanks for the tip!
| hultner wrote:
| Actually for further anecdata I've dropped several of my
| MacBook Pros (unibody) from a meter or more, one open from a
| ladder bumping pretty hard to a few of the bottom steps. And
| I've never gotten more then scratches and bumps in the
| casing. Additionally I've never had Apple Care and the times
| I've had problems Apple have always repaired it free of
| charge under warranty, including a full battery replacement
| on my Retina MacBook Pro when it was 3 years old and got the
| battery service warning.
|
| I've had the hinge of my old ThinkPad crack after about a
| year of normal use and been told it's my fault. I've also had
| multiple screens go bad on my old HP Entreprise laptop/mobile
| workstation. Both of these laptops were more expensive then
| all the MacBooks I owned prior to them.
| larkinrichards wrote:
| during a delivery once, i caught a curb, flipped upside down
| on a bicycle, landed laptop down, bent the frame of my 2014
| macbook pro, and the screen survived undamaged. still using
| the same laptop today, no issue. anecdotal evidence... is
| anecdotal.
| raffraffraff wrote:
| Hah, I did also the same thing, except I was cycling home
| in the rain. Just got to my house and clipped the curb.
| Landed on my back, and all I had in my flimsy backpack was
| my 2015 MBP. The base had a large dent in it - but when I
| opened the lid, it just prompted me for my password. Had
| that machine for years afterwards.
| jen729w wrote:
| I've caught a tram track (Melbourne) which caused me to go
| sideways. Only later did I notice that the corner of my
| MacBook Air ... probably c. 2010? ... was noticeably bent.
| Didn't affect anything at all.
| TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
| I did the exact same thing with the same MacBook Air in
| Adelaide trying to catch the last train home after work.
|
| That was about a decade ago thought.
|
| More recently I saw this:
|
| _The law firm Bursor and Fisher filed a class action
| lawsuit against Apple this week over unusually common
| screen cracks on M1 MacBooks, reports 9to5Mac. The firm
| is accusing Apple of knowingly selling laptops with
| fragile displays that tend to crack under normal use in
| some cases and then refusing to repair them without
| charge. Bursor and Fisher is now seeking compensation for
| all expenses associated with repairs._
|
| https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-m1-macbook-
| cracked-s...
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| More anecdotes. My previous Macbook (2014 model? maybe 2016?)
| had a screen delamination issue; didn't get to the visible
| area of the screen, but I stopped using it because I got a
| new one from work at that point.
|
| Current one had an issue with one speaker not working
| properly, that (and the whole top <_<) was replaced under
| extended warranty. More recently, the screen has borked,
| faulty ribbon connector I think, but that's another very
| expensive and fiddly fix, I probably won't bother since I
| work on an external screen all the time anyway.
| sundvor wrote:
| The engineering of the X1 Carbon is amazing. Durability is a
| design goal, it even has channels for directing liquid
| ingress away from the most vulnerable parts. Whilst not a
| guarantee against failures, it certainly doesn't hurt!
|
| My own OG X1 Carbon (i7/8/256) still works today, and,
| amazingly, receives firmware updates. It is 9 years old.
| texasbigdata wrote:
| Hah just cracked an X1 extreme gen1. And because it's
| "custom" (64gb ram), Lenovo is struggling to fix the
| screen. Guess there's an anecdote for anything :)
|
| P.S. MacBook pro still works ;)
| james_in_the_uk wrote:
| Lenovo have massive presence in the corporate market. My
| experience of their ThinkPad range is that they are built
| to withstand the type of abuse that comes from being used
| by people who have no emotional attachment to them
| whatsoever.
|
| My shop has started refurbing and recycling machines
| between staff, as a cost cutting measure. My last device
| came complete with someone else's Coca-Cola residue all
| over the internal case and fan vents. Clearly a Friday
| afternoon job at the refurb outfit. Liberally doused with
| IPA, dried off and reassembled by my own hands, and it's
| still running fine. Good design channeled the liquid away
| from anything valuable.
| tlavoie wrote:
| I'd be trying to keep my IPA out of the keyboard, La Fin
| du Monde is sometimes pretty fizzy.
|
| Ohhhh, you mean _that_ IPA. Way less tasty, probably more
| useful in this context.
| james_in_the_uk wrote:
| Ha! I wouldn't waste a good Jaipur or Neck Oil on a
| _work_ computer.
| dncornholio wrote:
| I remember my Macbook screen getting damaged from the keyboard.
| Was a 2013 model.
|
| Their charging block also give up after a few years. The
| harness of the cable have failed on most of my magsafes.
|
| I also remember my phonecalls kept disconnecting because I held
| my iPhone the wrong way so it blocked the reception.
|
| Saying Apple doesn't have design flaws is quite ignorant.
| rx_tx wrote:
| Amazing scans, the packaging of components internally is amazing.
|
| Interesting how they switched from prox-based in-ear detection to
| capacitive skin contact sensor in the latest airpods.
| qeternity wrote:
| I find it super interesting how they have gone back and forth
| on different approaches. I wonder how much user data they
| collect from the wild (not even sure how one would go about
| it).
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Telemetry logs can be sniffed, with a good firewall and as
| long as you're on your wifi with a wifi only device you can
| learn a lot. I jailbreak to use this:
| http://cydia.saurik.com/package/ca.btraas.appfirewall/
|
| Amazing how much analytics I block from every app.
| reaperducer wrote:
| If you drill down far enough in the settings, most Apple
| products are happy to show you the telemetry that's sent
| back to Cupertino. I've seen the HomePod data while poking
| around in the Home app.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| They don't tell you their own telemetry as far as I know.
| colejohnson66 wrote:
| No. They do. I can see crash logs for assetsd, awdd,
| com.apple.mobilemail, DifferentialPrivacy, and _much_
| more. Just open up Settings and search "analytics"
| varenc wrote:
| On iOS you can see Apple's telemetry in Settings ->
| Privacy -> Analytics -> Analytics Data. Or export with
| XCode.
|
| No idea if it's exhaustive. But I can see things like
| general day by day analytics and recent crash reports.
|
| It's a bit opaque and difficult to make sense of, but
| it's still impressive they make this telemetry available
| to you at all.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| That's very cool, thanks!
|
| I have most of it disabled this is what the firewall
| options are for OfferUp for example.
| https://ibb.co/SVbyybC Aside from analytics I can also
| block the ads from Bing in the app.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| I get those crash logs but I don't benefit from it as
| much as seeing a realtime task like telemetry attempts
| but this is also pretty useful. Thanks. It looks like
| this that data is piped into this jailbreak app.
| https://repo.packix.com/package/com.muirey03.cr4shed/
| 14 wrote:
| Awesome to see a jail breaker here on HN. It has been my
| experience that when you mention the benefits of
| jailbreaking the HN crowd really looks poorly at it and
| shuts it down.
| ValentineC wrote:
| Former jailbreaker here, but still holding strong on a
| jailbreakable iOS version (14.3).
|
| I stopped using a jailbroken phone mainly because it was
| getting more and more difficult to circumvent banking app
| security, and it seemed like every payment-related app
| wants to include some form of jailbreak detection these
| days.
| reasonabl_human wrote:
| This was my experience as well- holding out on old
| versions of iOS + inevitably breaking normal workflows
| like banking ended up becoming too much of a pain, went
| back to a stock setup.
|
| That and the random resprings which were likely the fault
| of jailbroken content I installed, but often it is too
| time consuming to debug exactly which tweak was causing
| the instability
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Use the mobile site, the watch if you can, or hide the
| jailbreak from the app with something like A-bypass.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| I love using iOS as a mobile Unix device and android as
| mobile Linux, I feel like it can do everything once you
| unlock the limited software and have more access to lower
| levels. They probably think it's all piracy or it's their
| telemetry I'm blocking, but you don't need to jailbreak
| to pirate, or to run a VPN and it's nice to have stuff
| like https://www.idownloadblog.com/2020/10/15/battsafe/
| to never have my battery trickle charge.
|
| Sometimes there's flaws/glitches in iOS or OS X and they
| kill battery life or rewrite databases, I was able to
| diagnose it, I installed top (yes CLI top) and figured it
| out. I have a full terminal just like my computer, it's
| awesome so much Linux CLI has been ported.
| [deleted]
| girvo wrote:
| Whats the current status of jailbreaking on iPhone 12s
| and iOS 15? I've been out of the game for a very long
| time, I assume even if I wanted to have a look at it I'm
| out of luck.
|
| What are the major benefits you yourself get from it? My
| major reasoning used to be emulators, but I have a hacked
| New 3DS which runs everything I want it to these days
| with better controls.
|
| Firewalls like the grandparent comment seems quite useful
| reasonabl_human wrote:
| The jailbreak subreddit has a solid sidebar with info on
| devices / iOS versions supported, and by what jailbreak
| method. Any current gen device is off the table at the
| moment, as is iOS 15.
|
| Also- recently ordered a Japanese New 3DS and am glad to
| hear you are enjoying it, looking forward to having a
| great emulation machine- maybe one day I'll get around to
| installing a modchip in my switch lite too
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| I set my battery to never charge more than 80%, I have a
| 50 entry clipboard, and I can downgrade App Store apps at
| will, I use Halide instead of Halide II since it's free
| and they don't normally let you download old apps unless
| you saved them to iTunes. You can get emulators without
| jailbreak on it by using delta here, and a clipboard is
| available here too. https://altstore.io/
| elliottinvent wrote:
| Wow, it's the first time I've seen this site and format but what
| a great way to explain electronics and design.
| smeyer wrote:
| >it's the first time I've seen this site
|
| I think this might only be its second month so don't be hard on
| yourself for first seeing it now.
| https://web.archive.org/web/*/scanofthemonth.com
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| I'm really surprised about the (thus-far) universal acclaim of
| the design. There's usually a lot of knee-jerk reaction against
| fancy browser effects like parallax and scroll-jacking in this
| crowd.
|
| I think this implementation is mostly excellent, but as a web
| craftsmen, it would have been a fun/entertaining challenge to
| make a good non-javascript implementation underneath.
| notatoad wrote:
| most of the reaction against scrolljacking is because when
| the content of the site is text, we have expectations about
| how it should behave and we know how we want to interact with
| it, so we get angry when we can't.
|
| when the content is 3D renders, most people have no strong
| expectations about how the controls should work and aren't
| going to have a negative reaction as long as the
| implementation works well.
| maille wrote:
| Sounds like a weird PR stunt. I'm really curious who is behind
| those CT scans, is it a CT manufacturer, a metrology lab or a 3d
| viz software company?
| fnord77 wrote:
| wow, this is amazing. I assume these are their first set of
| scans? I was trying to find scans of other products and the home
| page only has airpods
| arecurrence wrote:
| Last month they did LEGO. Interestingly, they seem to remove
| the scan but you can still see parts of it at
| https://web.archive.org/web/*/scanofthemonth.com
| p2t2p wrote:
| That's the missing piece for that Designed By Apple 300 dollar
| book.
| Faaak wrote:
| I didn't know CT scans could be that accurate. Impressive really
| when you see the size of the (moving) machine !
| habi wrote:
| There are also (desktoptop) microCT machines, which can work
| with much smaller samples and produce images with _much_ higher
| resolution. I have the pleasure to work with three such
| machines, and we routinely scan samples with a size smaller
| than a centimeter and with a voxel size well below 10 um.
|
| Here's a small (500 kb) movie of a staircase snail which I
| recently scanned:
| https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/73241/download/suppl/31/
| This specimen is only 2.6 mm small.
| 1f60c wrote:
| From a Google search[0], it looks like they've put two LEGO sets
| under the scanner before, but I can't find them. It would have
| been cool to see an archive...
|
| [0]: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ascanofthemonth.com
| el_isma wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/*/scanofthemonth.com
|
| You can read the text, and see some images, but the capture
| wasn't perfect. Such a shame, it looks very interesting. They
| should have an archive.
| adamrmcd wrote:
| I cannot fathom why they would they remove previous
| scans/links. Maybe to enable a paywall archive?
|
| It's super slick how they showcase the object as you scroll
| down, but flattening it into a single URL and only making one
| scan available per month restricts your audience appeal.
|
| I only first heard of this site when they did the lego minifigs
| last month. Did they publish any other scans prior to that?
| Starmina wrote:
| So you have actually a reason put your email in their
| newsletter input box because you wouldn't want to 'miss'
| anything you can't go back to.
| d110af5ccf wrote:
| Except the only thing it did was cause me to wonder if they
| were a new site. And then when I saw this my opinion of
| them dropped dramatically. It's a dark pattern and I don't
| want to support that.
| veb wrote:
| I mean, you're right - but honestly it's really fucking
| cool. I never sign up to newsletters but this made me do
| it because it's really fucking cool.
|
| Though - I'd be keen to pay $5/m for premium access to
| what they do, their previous scans. Charge people $10/m
| so they have voting rights on what to do next.
| Possibilities are endless!
|
| I have a couple of Patreons for people writing federated
| apps/code, and it's always nice to support them. Would do
| the same here because I get enormous value from it and
| _it 's really fucking cool_
| [deleted]
| nunez wrote:
| I think the AirPods Pro were a regression from the OG AirPods for
| four reasons:
|
| - Idle life took a huge dive from the originals. My OGs haven't
| been charged in something like six months, and the case is still
| at something like 20%. Meanwhile, the case holding the APPs would
| die in less than a week and the buds inside of them a week after
| that.
|
| My wife's APPs have been lost for a while because of this.
|
| - Noise cancellation performs worse than the original firmware.
| They have actually been outclassed by other offerings, such as
| the Sony WF1000XM4.
|
| - The buds themselves have a design flaw wherein earwax will
| accumulate in its inner grille severely enough to significantly
| compromise bass response. There's a thread in MacRumors that's
| something like 36 pages long acknowledging this. Apple quietly
| fixed this in version 2 of the APPs (with the MagSafe case).
|
| - The mic isn't as good. The original APs performed extremely
| well in wind and loud surroundings. I think the downward beam-
| forming mics were a big part of this. The mic on the APPs perform
| worse in these scenarios IMO.
|
| I'm glad that Apple went back to beam-forming mics.
|
| Regardless, I'm thankful for Apple for lighting up the true
| wireless headphone industry. The APs were a dream come true when
| they came out; nothing before it compared (and I had $600 custom
| IEMs that were waterproof and had a control scheme controlled by
| head nods). The APPs accelerated the creation of noise cancelling
| true wireless. I'm excited for the next iteration of these
| products.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Try the galaxy buds plus they're much better at everything for
| me. This firmware update probably kneecapped the pros too,
| either a patent issue or worries about people walking into
| traffic. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/17/21069953/apple-
| airpods-pr...
| ascottAtSlync wrote:
| Just a personal note on the galaxy buds plus, I have a pair
| and while the sounds quality is good when it works, I've had
| a lot of problems with desyncing between the two earbuds,
| audio breakup, and the touch sensors are sensitive to a fault
| where they're not really usable. The case is also pretty
| flimsy feeling. Overall, I'm not incredibly impressed by them
| but YMMV
| antihero wrote:
| How slick is the GB integratation with iOS devices in
| comparison to the AirPods. Been considering getting some AP3s
| because I keep forgetting my ATH-M50Xs as they are large.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Never had AirPods but comparing the Powerbeats I had, not
| much of a noticeable difference. Touch controls work, I
| hold to change volume, they fit and don't fall out, it's
| got 11hr batteries on a single charge. It turns off when
| you take them off, pipewire connects to them automatically
| on Linux.
| smoldesu wrote:
| +1 here. The base Galaxy Buds destroy the Airpods in sound
| quality any day of the week, and they're mega-comfortable
| too. I don't use mine anymore, but I loved it when I did.
| throwanem wrote:
| > The buds themselves have a design flaw wherein earwax will
| accumulate in its inner grille severely enough to significantly
| compromise bass response
|
| Not to be glib, but maybe clean your ears more often? You can
| also take the tips off (invert, then pull) and blow them out
| from the back with canned air to clear the outer grilles which
| are integral with the eartip. As fine as those outer grilles
| are, you'd really have to have wax packed in there for it to
| extrude through to the inner grille.
|
| I do this with mine, but only very occasionally, because my ear
| hygiene is such that wax very rarely even appears on the outer
| part of the tip, and almost never in the sound channel. I
| listen to a lot of podcasts and often run down one or the other
| bud by 60-80% in a single go, so it seems very reasonable to
| suggest that if serious wax problems were really that hard to
| avoid, I would run into them too.
|
| (Of course, if you're using third-party tips without integral
| grilles - well, I suppose now we know why the original
| engineers saw fit to include them, you know?)
| renewiltord wrote:
| AFAIK canonical ear advice today is to just not fuck with
| your ears. Just leaving them be will usually ensure not
| having to deal with impacted ear wax.
|
| It's not unhygienic to just let it be.
| oblio wrote:
| Yeah, I remember something like: "don't stick anything
| smaller than an elbow in your years".
| throwanem wrote:
| An AirPod is smaller than even a newborn's elbow. By the
| standard you cite, we should never use those! But if
| we're going to anyway, it behooves us to consider what
| problems that may cause, and figure out how to deal with
| them before they ramify.
| oblio wrote:
| It depends on how far you're pushing it. An AirPod
| probably doesn't go anywhere near the actual eardrum.
| throwanem wrote:
| Certainly not; the AirPod is designed to be impossible to
| push that far. But it _does_ , like anything that
| occludes the meatus, go far enough to stop wax draining.
|
| In general, all our holes are there for a reason, and
| blocking them up for long periods is rarely if ever well
| advised. But in this age we also suffer the siren song of
| podcasts, and it is therefore incumbent upon us to either
| deal with the problems we thus make ourselves, or go to
| urgent care and get our ears hosed out with warm saline.
| oblio wrote:
| I think some ORL specialists can "vacuum" your ears. From
| what I hear it's far less intrusive than other options.
| throwanem wrote:
| I'd be nervous about negative pressure and its effect on
| the eardrum, but I suppose a professional knows how to
| avoid any problem that could cause.
|
| That said, far preferable to avoid the need for
| professional intervention in the first place, I'd argue.
| (And have!)
| isatty wrote:
| I did some searching and also asked a doctor (though not an
| ENT) about it and the overall response was that you should
| not be be overzealous about cleaning out ear wax unless it's
| a medical condition.
| throwanem wrote:
| There's nothing wrong with a little Debrox once a month or
| so. The point is just to keep the wax from building up
| enough to get impacted, or close enough to affect balance
| and hearing.
|
| I had impacted earwax once, years and years ago. They fix
| that with Debrox followed by irrigation, which was while
| not painful still perhaps the most weirdly unpleasant
| sensation I've ever experienced, and also made my head spin
| a little. Since then I've taken some care to avoid a
| repeat, and I suppose a nice side effect is that earbuds
| hold up a lot better.
| oblio wrote:
| > The point is just to keep the wax from building up
| enough to get impacted, or close enough to affect balance
| and hearing.
|
| What if he isn't impacted in any way? What point is there
| in zealously cleaning something that's meant to be there?
|
| Just washing your ears in a regular fashion during a
| shower/bath, with your fingers (but not with long nails!)
| and warm water and soap is enough for most people.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > but not with long nails!
|
| Why would you clip your nails, they're meant to be there
| /s
|
| There are many things that the body does that aren't
| useful in any ways, if you have so much earwax that it
| gunks your audio equipment it probably is time to think
| about removing a bit more of it
| oblio wrote:
| > Why would you clip your nails, they're meant to be
| there /s
|
| Nope, they're not.
|
| If we'd still be living a hunter gatherer lifestyle our
| nails would naturally be filed down to a manageable
| length without much extra fuss.
| throwanem wrote:
| In that case we also wouldn't be posting on HN.
|
| More broadly it seems not terribly useful to concern
| ourselves with how we _would_ best live in some idealized
| alternate universe, instead of how we _do_ best live in
| this one, where among other things we stuff singing wads
| of plastic in our ears all day.
| throwanem wrote:
| "Impacted" here means your ear canals are partially or
| completely blocked by accumulated wax, which can cause
| infection and also impairs balance and hearing. It's
| really quite unpleasant, and requires minor medical
| intervention to safely resolve.
|
| Earwax is meant to be present, sure. It is also meant to
| drain on its own over time through the ear canal, in
| order to balance production and avoid buildup. Having
| something stuck in your ear canal a lot of the time
| complicates this, because now there's nowhere for the wax
| to go. If the thing that's stuck in your ear is an
| AirPod, the wax will accumulate there too, but eventually
| it will be full. Now you're at risk of impaction, and
| also your AirPod also doesn't work well or maybe at all
| any more, because its sound channel is blocked too.
|
| Sure, earwax is "meant" to be present, and isn't a
| problem absent excess. But humans also aren't "meant" to
| be deliberately occluding our ear canals for hours every
| day. There's "meant" to be a balance between production
| and natural removal via the ear canal, and occluding the
| ear canal throws that off. If we're going to be doing
| that, we're wise also to think about how to deal with the
| problem of earwax buildup that that can cause.
|
| But you don't have to take my word for it! Cedars-Sinai
| [0]:
|
| > Objects placed in your ear can also lead to impacted
| earwax, especially if done repeatedly...Hearing aids,
| swimming plugs, and swim molds can have [this] effect
| with repeated use.
|
| > You may also increase your risk if you keep putting
| objects in your ear, such as a hearing aid.
|
| > [You] might be able to prevent repeated episodes. Using
| a topical agent once a week may help.
|
| You're right that, for most people, regular hygiene
| should be enough. If your AirPods are getting so full of
| earwax that they don't work properly any more, I think
| it's fair to wonder whether the "most people" standard
| any longer applies.
|
| [0] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-
| and-con...
| Otek wrote:
| > Idle life took a huge dive from the originals. My OGs haven't
| been charged in something like six months, and the case is
| still at something like 20%. Meanwhile, the case holding the
| APPs would die in less than a week and the buds inside of them
| a week after that.
|
| That shouldn't happen. Try to unpair, restart and pair again
| your headphones
| emmanueloga_ wrote:
| I imagine it may be hard and they don't have incentives to "fix
| it", but I think the single most important disadvantage of
| airpods is the battery life... no matter how long it lasts,
| there's no way to replace it, so they became essentially
| discardable items. [1]?
|
| 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
| hk__2 wrote:
| This has nothing to do with some evil planned obsolescence,
| it's just that you can't make a device that small while
| retaining (easy) battery replacement capability.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/your-wireless-earbud...
| truculent wrote:
| Well they had a choice to make it less small and repairable.
| But ultimately, they chose small and disposable.
|
| It may not be planned obsolescence, but it's still a choice
| made with a certain level of disregard for consumers.
| adwn wrote:
| > _[...] but it 's still a choice made with a certain level
| of disregard for consumers._
|
| Yes, _OR_ , they did regard their customers' preference for
| smaller headphones.
| MaKey wrote:
| Turns out you can: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Ga
| laxy+Buds+Live+Tea...
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Those are huge, though. There's a trade-off.
| Arn_Thor wrote:
| I'd argue there's a difference between planned obsolescence and
| products that are of such a nature that it's just about
| impossible to pull them apart. (Now, whether that means the
| latter category of products is defensible is a different
| question)
| emmanueloga_ wrote:
| Everyone in here is showing admiration for apple engineering
| ability so as i said, probably a difficult problem, but not
| impossible.
|
| I found this product [1] that's probably not as high quality
| as airpods but looks like a nice proof of concept actually
| :-)
|
| 1: https://pqearbuds.com/
| raffraffraff wrote:
| I don't really care about AirPods, but that webpage fucking
| _rocked_. Rotating the scans as I scroll? Nice. I 'd look at
| scans of anything on that website.
| noisy_boy wrote:
| Agreed. I only wish that they had two images rotating side by
| side - one the transparent scan and one the opaque image so I
| had both the transparent and opaque views simultaneously for
| all rotation angles.
| jtdev wrote:
| I actually really don't like my AirPods... constantly dropping
| the Bluetooth connection during calls, poor battery life,
| expensive. I'm now back to using my corded earpods.
| megamix wrote:
| id like to see a ct scan of the brain using these devices
| Lammy wrote:
| Does anyone have a canonical URL to the previous month's scan of
| the LEGO mini-figure? I didn't see any navigation on the site
| unless there's a magic spot I missed or am inadvertently
| adblocking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29253441
|
| This month's entry comes off way too much like advertising for my
| taste, with the flowery language like "magic features" instead of
| just "features", or the seemingly-unnecessary sales statistics in
| lieu of a technical description of the Airpods Pro: "In 2020,
| Apple sold 110,000,000 AirPod products. Talk about mass
| manufacturing."
|
| Maybe it's just an unconscious tic when talking about Apple
| products. Even I have a hard time not saying "Boom" when showing
| off something cool :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw
| aembleton wrote:
| They don't seem to keep the old pages around. Here is the Lego
| one from the web archive
| https://web.archive.org/web/20211122210134/https://www.scano...
| hoten wrote:
| This is oddly infuriating. Such cool content, using the web
| medium in a novel way, yet they purposefully make it
| transient?
|
| Only way it makes sense is they plan to offer a paid service
| where you can view a catalog of work. But the site is low on
| meta information, so that's just a wild guess.
| notinty wrote:
| I like it, personally.
| dave_aiello wrote:
| That was my first thought when I saw the CT scans of the
| AirPods: where is the canonical URL for this, and where is the
| archive of previous analyses?
| KarlKemp wrote:
| I doubt that they are being paid by Apple. Would we mind
| expressions of enthusiasm for, say, works of art? If not,
| what's wrong with such statements for products as long as they
| are genuine?
|
| The sales figures speak to a specific aspect the writer(s) want
| to highlight: that it's a difference to produce something like
| this a dozen times or a few million times.
| vlunkr wrote:
| So do airpods actually sound better than the standard wired
| headphones? If they don't, this is a lot of fancy engineering for
| some pretty bad headphones. Maybe they just didn't fit my ears or
| something, but I've always hated them.
| tw600040 wrote:
| It does. But it's not about that. It's about being able to get
| rid of wires and associated mess.
| jrockway wrote:
| Are wires a mess? Looking at the Zoom calls I've been on,
| I've never heard "oh sorry I'm all tangled up in my wires",
| but have seen "my batteries are dead" or "my headphones won't
| pair with my computer", etc. (I say "seen" because you don't
| hear much from people debugging their "magic" wireless
| headphones.) This has added up to many person-hours of
| delays, while the wires just keep working.
| macintux wrote:
| I like being able to walk around, even exercise, during
| meetings.
|
| And the AirPods Pro provide better outbound audio when I'm
| speaking than my Sony Bluetooth headset.
| Tagbert wrote:
| If you go outside and try to do anything with wired
| headphones, the wires are a constant struggle. When my left
| AirPods Pro had to be replaced, I had to use some wired
| EarPods on my commute. The cable was always catching on
| something. I was so relieved to get the replacement and be
| able to get rid of the wires again.
| hbn wrote:
| > "my headphones won't pair with my computer"
|
| That's the other things Airpods solves (assuming you're on
| a Mac)
|
| The pairing process is so simple and seamless, it's the
| only bluetooth headphones I've ever used that isn't a huge
| pain to pair every time I want to use them (and especially
| the first setup). When I first got them, I popped open the
| lid of the case next to my phone, it popped up, I clicked
| the button to pair, and it's paired. And any device logged
| into your Apple ID is automatically paired to them too, so
| I just went over to my laptop and it was already connected.
| lawkwok wrote:
| There's a huge value in not having to untangle wires every time
| you use headphones even if there is a hit to sound quality.
|
| Also having the ability to use one earbud without having the
| weight of the cable tugging at your ear is underrated.
| desiarnezjr wrote:
| Yes! Never thought about that, but it is. Especially for
| calls!
| desiarnezjr wrote:
| They sound better to me than the standard issue Apple wired
| earphones, but not remarkably better. The Pros sound much
| better, but don't stay in my ears so I've repurchased the
| original design (v2).
|
| The game changer for me is how convenient the UX is. Whichever
| Apple device that you're near can connect, or automatically
| connects to the right device most of the time and it's pretty
| seamless. Any other wireless headphones I've used (including
| the recent Beats Studio buds) are frustrating in comparison.
|
| I definitely won't go into longer calls without them.
|
| I'm no audiophile (but I do have standards) but the real appeal
| is they mostly "just work".
| spenczar5 wrote:
| I like them for cases where wired headphones wouldn't work,
| like when I'm doing the dishes, listening to a podcast, but
| don't want it to be on speakers because it'll wake up the baby.
|
| In fact, on reflection, I almost only listen to podcasts on
| mine, so I don't really care about sound quality.
| wyager wrote:
| I can only comment on the pros. There's not a ton you can do to
| compete with something with much larger drivers and a good
| crossover circuit. They certainly sound acceptable, but the
| real upside is that they don't have wires and they have
| shockingly good sound cancellation. You can even use them as
| lightweight hearing protection - I'd estimate they give a good
| 15-20dB of noise reduction against small explosions, so they're
| sufficient for things like nail guns or .22 fire.
| nabla9 wrote:
| The sound quality is really good, but now worth the high price.
| It's all about the convince of not having wires.
|
| I have had Pro's for a year and I'm still not convinced that
| they are worth of the money. Cleaning ears & pods every day
| makes them usable but they still drop from the ears sometimes.
| iszomer wrote:
| So much packaged sophistication yet can't match high fidelity
| audio.
|
| I picked up a KZ-ZSN with a pair of dynamic and balanced
| armature drivers and haven't looked back in terms of sound
| quality. Imagine my surprise when I purchased another pair with
| 4BA + 1DD..
|
| Both were under $30.
|
| To each their own I guess.
| nvarsj wrote:
| No, they sound pretty crap to be honest if you're used to high
| quality over the ear headphones. But that's not really their
| purpose. They are ideal as portable earpieces - walking around
| town, on the train, folding your laundry, or any other use case
| where you can't sit down and plug in your headphones. The lack
| of a wire is very convenient.
|
| Although these days I just use wired earpods. Can't be arsed to
| replace my last airpods whose battery inevitably died.
| technobabbler wrote:
| I think the Pros sound amazing. I used to have the Sony WH-
| XM1000 v3 and v4 noise-canceling headphones, but sold both
| after using the Airpod Pros for a few days and never went back.
|
| The Airpod Pro sound quality is maybe 90% as good as the Sonys,
| but the form factor is INCREDIBLY convenient. No more sweating
| and constantly adjusting the earcups and headbands... just plop
| them in and they fit my ears perfectly and never fall out. The
| noise canceling works VERY well, as good as any other I've
| tried, whether at home, at work, or on a plane.
|
| I also love that they work so seamlessly with some Apple
| devices, like being able to wirelessly watch the same movie
| from my iPad to two sets of Airpods. Apple has their own
| proprietary wireless chipset and protocol, so the interconnect
| between Apple stuff and Airpods works a LOT better than using
| them with Android or Windows hardware (sadly). Bluetooth works
| but is far less reliable.
|
| That was the first Apple product I've ever purchased, and it
| has since become my favorite-ever piece of technology. I
| honestly adore them so much it makes me gush (and blush) when I
| talk about them... egads. The Sonys were always a love-hate
| relationship, with great sound quality but terrible comfort.
| The Airpods have both in equal measure.
| stillblue wrote:
| You experience matches mine almost 100%. I have a WH-XM1000
| v3 and AirPods Pro and I reach for my AirPods Pro more often
| than the Sony's. The noise cancellation imo is negligible if
| you're using it under normal circumstances. The only scenario
| where the Sony's outdid the AirPods Pro was on a flight.
|
| All said and done, I consider AirPods pro one of my best
| investments in life. Not only is the connectivity / switching
| between devices amazing, the sound quality is fantastic for
| earphones that size.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| > Sony WH-XM1000 v3
|
| They aren't even comparable. Sony's being over ear design
| cancels noise way better, but Pro's are much more practical
| for sleep and calls.
| okwubodu wrote:
| Just compared my Pros and XM4 back-to-back and the Pros
| seem to have better noise canceling but YMWV with getting a
| good enough seal.
|
| Transparency mode is where the AirPods take it without
| question.
| technobabbler wrote:
| I did in fact compare them and the difference was
| negligible to me. I am extremely happy with the Airpod Pros
| despite having had the Sonys for years before that. The
| Sonys had OK noise canceling but it was hard to get a
| consistent seal, especially as my ears got sweaty after
| short sessions. Never had an issue with the Airpods.
|
| I'm no audiophile, granted. Just a satisfied average Joe.
| The Airpods are way more convenient.
| drc500free wrote:
| The sound is fine, the active noise cancellation is phenomenal.
| Transparency mode is also nice at times when you need to be
| aware of your surroundings.
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