Repairable earbuds are now here, so that’s pretty cool. https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds
It’s not for me because I like wired but it’s much better than apples.
Huh, no shipping to the US it seems. I guess I’ll be waiting for a while then.
They are planning to extend. I wouldn’t hold my breath though until they give a solid date.
Yup. They finally released the Fairphone after years, but it’s only the Fairphone 4, through a reseller, and only supports T-Mobile and its MVNOs.
So yeah, not sure if/when they’ll ship the buds to US customers.
Ugh. Gross I hate the in ear canal things. Absolutely the worst.
My problème is that all the non apple ear phones wireless suck. Iike the plain basic airpods for the ear fit. Not because apple.
How are Apple’s AirPods not “in ear canal things”?
I think they mean without a eartip. The airpod pro’s have them but all their other earbuds do not have eartips.
Personally I like the muse headphones. Absolutely fantastic range for the price and if you are actually looking for audio quality + repairable they are great. The build quality is also top notch and compare with the $500+ range headphones. I don’t like how apples sound tbh. For that price it should sound better.
For everything else I just get wired or target brand wireless. The target brand for less than 10$ has lasted over 4 years lol.
I had some ghetto ones from Home Depot that lasted a few years as well. Decent battery life, reasonably comfortable, and inexpensive.
I now use Shokz bone conduction headphones for wireless, especially on my bike. For everything else, my wired cans work well.
Downvotes shall list better headphones.
I myself have not found a better solution.
I like apple headphones and i settled on similar shaped non-apple brand at a fraction af the price, but it is lower in quality compared to apple. Microphone is crap and I stopped trying to use it. Headphones level is good at low level and high level sound reproduction, but it is not as accurate as apple.
In the end the trade off is worth it to me for the price, but i will not claim at is better.
So, bring on your alternative and price of it.
I’ve never bought any Apple stuff so I can’t compare but I find Bose products nowadays to be extremely good quality, if a bit pricey
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 (Pro)? I am not an “audiophile” at all so I cannot judge whether they are going to be satisfactory to all those people that imagine they can hear certain tiny frequency contributions (which they cannot, the “audiophile” community is just delusional), but they’ve served me well for the past two years.
(which they cannot, the “audiophile” community is just delusional)
I don’t consider myself an audiophile, but I’m still offended on their behalf.
Having said that, after futzing a bit with the eq I do love my Buds 2 Pro.
No shit. And get this - The iPhone 7 did have enough space for a headphone jack.
I’m so angry that the 3.5 jack is gone… same with microsd slots…its such BS.
There was no reason to get rid of the headphone jack. Funny enough, the microSD cards are designed to fail. When you’re using them in dash cams, cameras and drones they know they have to reach a certain bit rate and when they see that not happening they tell you that it’s time to format and/or replace. But using them as a supplemental file system in the phone is dicey. The difference between underperforming and being a problem is a line in the sand that Android has a mastered. Google even tried a series of tactics to make them less dodgy. They tried to make it where you can’t install apps out there. But even just putting media and other stuff out there when the operating system goes to check the storage driver can cause hiccups and lags and weird problems.
If SD cards weren’t almost all disposable trash we might be able to use them in our phones without creating any performance or support nightmares.
Good point with the micro SD. Although I have yet to see one fail personally, however that is a minuscule sample size.
The kinda depends on what SD card you buy. Don’t buy crap cards.
Also SD cards work well enough for the Switch and Steam Deck, and that’s objectively way more demanding than storing a few images on a phone.
The vast majority of SD cards are made in the same factory and just branded differently.
Switch and steam deck Don’t constantly try to enumerate/scan the entire file system. Putting game binaries is a one and done. Writing save files is a trickle every couple of minutes.
Android really does abuse the hell out of those cards.
It’s not like games just read once from the SD card and then remain in RAM
If what you said about android is true, then they should have fixed that instead.
I’ve got the 3rd gen and it’s lasted at least 3 years now.
It’s really nice to see what this community has to offer on lemmy. I quit Reddit because I refuse to use the Reddit app. I really do like the comments more than Reddit, and I’m a wannabe techno savvy Linux pro but I’m still working on basic motivation. Therapy included.
I’ve got Linux on Debian cause I needed the stability to handle my instability, I’ve read through the Linux command line and fell in love with emacs, and all I do on my pc is write, now. And pay bills, but that’s just Firefox. “Just the internet,” lol. It’s hard to try to contain, so I write.
Hope I don’t get banned for irrelevance. No hate here. Just rambling through.
This is how to comment effectively on Lemmy.
If you post about an Apple product working reasonably, in order to counteract the confirmation bias downvotes, you are required to supply two paragraphs praising Linux.
I laughed inappropriately loud at this comment.
I downvoted for mostly irrelevance but then read your comment and you’re right. Upvotes for both of you.
We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological irrelevance to our own. Your irrelevance will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
anything without standardized replaceable batteries is designed to fail without recourse eventually. batteries are consumables goddamit!
Surprised the title didn’t say, “Apple slammed for ear pods that are designed to die”.
Gluing components together so it’s not easy/impossible to repair is different to ‘designing to die’. In my opinion designed to die suggests the ear pods will die prematurely due to intentional design decisions. Gluing components together just means that when the ear pods die, then they cannot be brought back to life and you have to replace them.
Gluing components together so it’s not easy/impossible to repair is different to ‘designing to die’. In my opinion designed to die suggests the ear pods will die prematurely due to intentional design decisions. Gluing components together just means that when the ear pods die, then they cannot be brought back to life and you have to replace them.
But they’re designed with the knowledge that the small battery has a brief usability period. Which is like putting a time bomb in there knowing the people will probably buy more of their products. Putting something inside that can’t be removed and that has a short lifespan is designing a product to die. In other words, it’s designed to die with plenty of good parts left inside when the part that’s quickest to die can’t be replaced. They’re turning a bunch of long lifespan stuff into disposable. That’s an intentional design decision that makes the product die prematurely.
As they said in the article, they could easily make this a replaceable part. But they glue it in so that’s near impossible. Not to mention how long apple fought right to repair legislation. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Stuff like the Fairphone Buds seems like a good alternative.
Like other commenters here, I got something like three years out of my AirPods until they wouldn’t hold a charge.
Gen 1 AirPods = Trash batteries that become miserable after 2 years. Good luck making it through a 1 hour call if you use them a lot. These things beg for the landfill by year 3.
Gen 3 AirPods or AirPods Pro’s = surprisingly good battery longevity. Expect these to be solid after 2 years.
I have the og regular. They still work but the battery dies after 30 minutes.
I feel like they’re 7 years old.
Five year old second Gen AirBuds: working amazing
I honestly never noticed any battery degradation on my OG pros. Like I’m sure they degraded, but they always lasted long enough for me to not care.
That’s because the components inside each little white stick are glued together. Apple could use screws and latches to hold together the components. That way, if something needed to be repaired or replaced, you could easily get inside the device in order to fix it. But Apple doesn’t do this.
So as usual, they purposefully do this. This reminds me of the time with the iPhone battery ‘scandal’ Apple Batterygate.
I really like their Airpods Pro (1st gen), have them for about 4 years now. However not without problems. I had to replace them 5 times because of crackling sounds, muffled sound and broke-bass sounds. This even happend after my 2 years warranty but luckily (and thankfully) the Apple employees are nice people at times. When it happened (twice) outside my warranty, they told me, if I showed them my receipt - They can and will give me a new pair of Airpods Pros.
They told me ‘‘many do not know but there’s a law that forces companies (even Apple) to give a ‘decent product’ to the customer’’.
Not sure if I will get their Airpods Pro 2 (or 3) though after all the hassle.
EDIT: As I’m not sure if this law is also outside my country, here’s the official government website with their explanation of it. It is in the Dutch language though: Rijksoverheid deugdelijk product
Each to their own, but I personally can’t imagine having to replace a faulty product 5 times and still wanting to use it
That’s highly fucked up if you replaced them 5 times within 4 years.
My Jabra 85h Elite ANC probably isnt as good as thr Airpods ANC but only had to replace them once within 4 years of having them. First replacement was within warranty and I was given new headphones but also could keep the old ones.
Used them for as long as they could still run. Very satisfied with the service from Jabra. Just the ANC is lacking.Agreed! Though, I asked one of the employees that worked there and was told that the 1st gen AirPods Pro had a very known issue with all the three issues I had. Especially the crackling sound.
And apparently Apple refuses to fix the entire issue with the 1st gen and rather replace them continuously (I suppose?).
I’m only so glued to the AirPods Pro at the moment for the NC. I got Tinnitus, hear damage and with loud sound I will get Hyperacusis. The NC allows me to have very low sound on, avoid the noise from outside but still capable of hearing other sounds a bit.
Great service of Jabra though, I’m surprised they allowed you to keep the old ones.
Only an apple zombie would be loyal to a product that crappy 5 times? My $30 Sesh earbuds work like a champ after several years. Then I got the $100 pixel A buds for free with a new phone and have been using those for years with no problems. Since they were so cheap I use the Sesh buds in the shower to listen to music or podcasts and they still work fine. I abuse cheaper products and they last longer than luxury brand crap.
I mean, if you don’t understand that I only paid once and that Apple replaced them freely even out of warranty. And that, that’s why I keep using the AirPods Pro (1st gen) for now.
I don’t know what else to tell you. You can call me an “Apple zombie” if that satisfies yourself. But it doesn’t make sense.
I’m not going to explain myself to a stranger that soft-insult and can’t even give an good argument as to why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
How much of your time was wasted dealing with a faulty product? That’s beyond frustrating. When I spend apple money on something I expect it to work.
I understand you don’t like Apple. That’s fair. But you keep pressuring your opinion on others (me). You changed topics the moment, I told you, you didn’t understand my first comment.
Was it frustrating? Perhaps a little, I suppose. I don’t remember how much time, I spent. I don’t care either. The service was easy, quick and good. That’s what matters.
When I spend apple money on something I expect it to work.
Lets rephrase that shall we? “When I spent money on something, I expect it to work.”
Indeed. I expected it to work, it didn’t. Unfortunately several times but they replaced the product without any issue. So problems quickly solved.
Life isn’t going to always be in your favor. Have patience and find a solution.
EDIT:
why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
You also didn’t give me an actual good argument yet on this.
Haha no shit. It’s like 1000 worth of air pods.
Customers like this deserve to be ripped off imo.
In less than two years, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery found in your AirPods is due to die an untimely death.
Bullshit. I got four years out of each of my pairs and I used them several hours a day. Also replacing the battery when it does wear out is is something like 50 bucks. Sure, you can’t do it yourself but Apple will give you a refurbished pair, and they will recycle your old battery.
And they provide free recycling for all their products — you’re basically paying for it to be recycled when you buy AirPods and any that go into landfill that’s entirely the customer’s fault.
No wired headphones I’ve ever owned lasted even close to that long - the cable eventually fails with several hours per day of swinging around and being packed tightly into your pocket.
That said, I’ve switched to bone conduction headphones now, and will probably never own another pair of airpods unless they go down the same path.
This reads so much like Apple marketing talk. Just call any criticism bullshit and let the anectodes and fanboys circlejerk. Add “Apple also gives cuddly gifts to kids sometimes”, and you’re golden.
🤢
The recycling plug is a little silly, but they are correct about AirPods lasting longer than that article claims.
The first gen AirPods were absolutely ready for hospice after 2 years. But the new ones are much better. Anyone that’s used some Pro 2s or Gen 3s knows what I’m talking about.
This article’s claims are kind of outdated and they feel like they were written by someone who hasn’t used one of the models made during the last 5 years.
Lithium iOS is inherently unstable and that instability goes both ways. They designed it to only last 2 years, but there will be plenty that go beyond that, just as there will be plenty that die in , <2 years. The majority will die at about 2 years, as designed.
That being said,
bone conduction headphones
What’s that? I’m intrigued lmao
Edit: ion* lmao typo stays tho
bone conduction headphones
What’s that? I’m intrigued lmao
Sound is vibration. We typically think of it as vibration transmitted through air (to get to your auditory canal), but it doesn’t have to be. Sound vibration can be conducted through your bones (which your auditory canal is enclosed in) so you can hear without something being in your ears because the sound gets inside you through a different medium.
Do you have an electric toothbrush? Turn it on and bite down with your teeth on it. Notice how it gets MUCH louder? Thats the sound traveling through your jawbone (and skull) to get to your auditory canal.
I have a pair originally purchased for running but they’ve turned out to be useful in numerous situations where I wanted to listen to something without losing awareness of my surroundings.
I’m looking at waterproof bone conduction headphones to use in the hot tub, clearly you like yours, are they waterproof too?
$50 bucks? I bought two batteries for $4 each from China and they came with sealant to recreate the waterproof seal.
This only works when you can open the earphones and the battery is not soldered (my hands are not so steady not to fuck anything up)
Replacing a single earbud is $49, and the case is another $49, so replacing all three batteries is $147, which at least for the regular model is close to buying new AirPods. It’s pretty much a given that the repair costs more than the product is worth after a new model launches.
Apple also doesn’t swap the batteries, they replace the earbuds completely, “recycling” otherwise fully intact earphones. Not sure about the case.
You’re right that they probably last more than two years (that depends on a lot of factors though), and while features like adaptive charging hints that Apple doesn’t want them to die quite as quickly, they still aren’t designed to last and certainly aren’t designed to be repairable.
My Gen 2s are 2 years old and I use them all day for meetings with a short charge around lunch. I don’t really pay attention to the battery and I’m using them for calls for about 6-8 hours.
Then I usually sleep with one in my ear and fall asleep to a podcast. I usually get a battery warning beep sometime between 3 and 6 am, and I go to bed at 10pm.
All in all, I treat these things like shit, I they’re in use for half the day, I leave the case on a hot ass MagSafe puck at night, and they’re still in really good shape. I just used them from a flight from CA to NY with no problems.
Like many, my first Gen vanilla AirPods were struggling after 2 years, but Apple seems to have figured out how to prolong these little batteries.
Apple should design them to last.
Well, they should, but they won’t.
Right. This goes for every company, ever. No company is going to do what they should do if it’s not profitable or beneficial to them in some way. It makes sense if you think about it, but that’s also why regulation exists. So that they don’t become too unhinged.
My aunt gave me a pair despite me being an Android person, I used them simply because they were free, and they died like a year later. I got some JBLs which are excellent thus far.
I didn’t get two years out of mine.
Regardless, they shouldn’t be manufacturing these like they’re disposable.
IMHO, the first generation was pretty bad. Those things went to shit after 2 years. I couldn’t get through an hour call with them.
But the new Pros are pretty good. I’ve had a pair for 2 years, and I’m still on 3-4 hour calls with them, with ANC on.
I don’t know what black magic is happening, but these things are doing way better than my first ones.
I’m on five years with my gen2 pair, and they’re still doing great.
Question…
Why did you purchase them in the first place then?
Hype? Advertising? Apple ecosystem? Lack of foresight that the batteries aren’t replaceable?
Edit: Downvoters too upset to answer the question. They actually have adapters to use wired headphones on iPhones ya know.
I bought them for the meme and ended up loving them, and never want to go back to wired headphones on my phone.
After buying AirPods I only once used the 3.5mm jack/dongle either my phone.
Okay. I actually got a pair as a Christmas gift. Have you ever noticed them starting to dangerously overheat on a warm day, while your ears are sweating into them no less?
I’m not exactly a fan of having lithium batteries explode in my ear. I actually like my eardrums and my brain noodles.
Does anyone actually do research into this new modern stuff before figuring out if it’s even safe or not?
Dude I think your headphones are defective. I’ve never noticed my AirPods get anything more than vaguely warm.
I know the left one’s battery runs down about twice as fast as the right one, so yeah they’re probably not in ideal condition.
When using them indoors, they only get mildly warm, nothing to really worry about. But you gotta keep in mind, some folks like to go out jogging with them in their ears.
They’ll get that much hotter when outdoors on a hot summer day, and electronics really don’t like sweat…
But you gotta keep in mind, some folks like to go out jogging with them in their ears.
That’s exclusively what I do with mine.
AirPods Pro and AirPods (3rd generation) are sweat and water resistant
While not proof, they really don’t mind getting a little wet.
Trust that it works well and it does. However, first gen was not as good as after it.
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Good microphone quality. Not true for first gen after some time in my experience
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Reliable connection. True most of the time.
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Apple ecosystem, yes to a small degree. Ability to see battery level is nice.
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Fast recharge times
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Endless usage time if using one headphone at a time. It is my preference usage method.
Cons: high price. After several years I expect to find comparable competition. It exists, and i use it, but i lost: 1, 2, 3 from my list. And usability is crap: accidentally touching headphone turns it off.
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You dare question an Apple product purchase? you’ve angered the cult.
FYI You should know fanboys and their anecdotes beat studies critical to Apple every time.
Oh I know. I’ve repaired over 1000 Apple devices in my days of tech repair, and the only thing I personally gained from my experiences is that they’re overpriced eggshells that are literally designed to fail.
Planned obsolescence ☹️
Any product that is a portable electronic and does not have an easily replaceable battery is considered disposable, a commodity. Every single one.
Since the release of the first AirPods in 2016, countless other companies have replicated their wireless and rechargeable design.
Fuck Apple’s e-waste and all, but the trend to glue batteries inside Bluetooth headphones was well underway before AirPods came to the market.
I sent quite a few pairs of lanyard buds to the grave before AirPods came out. Batteries couldn’t be repaired they couldn’t work wired. BT only.
