Yep I'm in a similar boat. I bought the Bose Q30, but they were not the solution to replace the Airpods, BUT since this delay I have gone and bought the Bragi Dash, these ARE the solution I was looking for. I believe for my 'wants' the Airpods would have fitted better due to the better simpler swap between devices, but alas Apple failed to release in time
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AirPods Delay Attributed to Apple Ensuring Both Earpieces Receive Audio at Same Time [Updated]
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Yep I'm in a similar boat. I bought the Bose Q30, but they were not the solution to replace the Airpods, BUT since this delay I have gone and bought the Bragi Dash, these ARE the solution I was looking for. I believe for my 'wants' the Airpods would have fitted better due to the better simpler swap between devices, but alas Apple failed to release in time
Of course you are. And to say that the iPhone 7 is somehow crippled because the OPTIONAL AirPods accessory has been delayed is the pure absence of logic. That's not directed at you personally, because I don't think you've made that claim, but many have and it's ridiculous.
Not happening.
I look forward to the same people who whine and moan about Apple yet still post here everyday.
I guess then we need to revisit just how and why you came to become Apple fanboys in the first place.
Was it the Apple hardware? The thrill of being the rebel outlier in an already outsider culture of computer geeks? The excitement of rooting for the underdog crawling back from the brink of bankruptcy and giving the world an alternative to Wintel?
If that is so, maybe that’s precisely the issue. Back then, the feeling that Apple’s doom could just be around the corner engendered a fierce sense of protectiveness. When it seems like the whole world is against you and threatening the things you love, it’s only natural to fight back, and fought back you did. You were pouring your love into a product might could die out at any moment, and I respect you guys for that.
But sadly, that attitude simply would not mix well with Apple’s eventual success.
Fast forward to today, and there is literally nothing Microsoft or Google or Dell or even Samsung can do to threaten me as an Apple product user. Apple’s enemies today are the FBI and the White House. And adopting the same defensive attitude today would only make us seem more like a bully than a rebel, all the more when Apple is riding all high, safe and comfortable.
And I think that’s precisely the issue here. You guys won. Apple won. Apple is now the most profitable company in the world and doesn’t need our help defending it from enemies, real or imagined (though it still helps). Apple has ushered in a new era, and sadly, it seems that you people (the 1st / 2nd gen fanboys) have no place in it.
I agree that I have started skipping the last few keynotes as well. I do end up watching them, but I stopped staying up for them (they air at like 2 am here in Asia, so watching them means compromising on my sleep).
But if anything, it just goes to show how much of a master orator Steve Jobs was. They keynotes are missing that special something without him, but if you look beyond that, Apple has actually been shipping more with their annual software releases and product updates. Which to me is ultimately more important than an entertaining 2-hour keynote.
I think I know that feeling. It's like when you follow a singer because of her music, then she suddenly does a 180-degree turn and starts experimenting with music genres you don't really care about. Outwardly, you still support her and catch her music, but inside, you are like "go back to the same old songs I followed you over already".
Maybe that's precisely the problem. Apple has changed in keeping with the times and in line with an ever-changing environment. You haven't. You are stuck in the era when Apple was still releasing Macs and iPods and somehow expect Apple to just stick to doing that in perpetuity and nothing else.
Open your eyes. Apple may not be doing exactly what you would have liked them to do or what you expected them to do, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the wrong thing to do in today's context. Apple has their own plans and roadmap and it's bigger than the needs of any one customer.
Do actually ever read some of this stuff back? Utterly bizarre, you talk like Apple will be right at the forefront of technology forever.
Apple won mobile in as much as they make the most money out of it. Its worth bearing in mind that their market share is still relatively small and that it was device makers selling cheaper devices that helped the technology become pervasive on a global scale. The majority of the world aren't paying Apples prices.
Where they go next is anybodys guess. Lets be honest their AI is a bit lacking, they are going to do well to come out on top there. Things change quickly, Blackberry had more than a 160 million registered users as recently as 2014.
Telling other people to open their eyes is one of the most ironic things i've ever read. Honestly, save what you've just posted there, print it off or something and come back to it in ten years, five even.
Nothing lasts forever, but Apple isn't the smoking crater of fail many comments seem to be portraying Apple as.
And how does that contradict my earlier statement?
Apple has won insofar that it has managed to manoeuvre into a position of strength and stability. While the market share for its respective products are fairly small from a percentage value, they still represent very huge numbers in an absolute sense (last tally showed 600,000 active iPhone users). More than enough users to sustain its own thriving Apple ecosystem. Which in turn gives Apple massive influence and bargaining power, all the better to benefit us users. For example, developers tend to release apps and accessories for the Apple platform first. I remember when I was shopping for a laptop stand many years back and the only decent-looking one was the mStand by Rain, which was marketed at MacBooks.
In the smartwatch market, Pebble has been acquired by Fitbit, and Lenovo isn't releasing a 2nd-gen Android Wear watch. Seems we are headed towards the same 2-3 horse consolidation like the smartphone.
The tablet market has all but given up, leaving the iPad as the sole competitor.
Spotify has yet to turn a profit.
Is there a market Apple hasn't drained the profits out of?
Every company has its share of challenges. For instance, Google might have the best shot at succeeding at AI, but they are still hampered by the lack of an obvious business model. For all its scale, Youtube still doesn't seem all that profitable for Google, so for Google at least, their biggest challenge is in successfully monetising their products and services.
It's the direct opposite of Apple, which has no problem monetising their products and services. You are right in that Apple's AI efforts are still behind, but it's not as though other companies are clearly skating past the finish line either.
You won't see me whining when Apple does something I am not particularly passionate about (and there are many). That's for sure.
It doesn't contradict your earlier statement it just comes across as if mobile is going to be the be all and end all forever. It won't.
Talking about having enough numbers to sustain its ecosystem is misguided, as i've already pointed out Blackberry had a lot themselves as recently as three years ago. They are irrelevant now. Granted Apple has a bigger install base, but that is absolutely subject to change. Your numbers are wrong too. 600k active iPhone users? You might want to double check that.
Making the biggest profits in the industry is all well and good assuming you continue to move units. That is never guaranteed. Ask Blackberry.
Huge sweeping assumptions being made here. The last round of numbers showed that people were more in interested in cheaper Fitbit style wearables that they are the Apple Watch. Splitting the Apple watch of into a separate "smartwatch" category is purely an attempt to make it look more competitive than it is.
There is a reason Apple never releases any numbers.
Yep the iPad is the main player in the tablet market. Tablet market is dying almost as quickly as PCs are though.
Spotify has got an IPO lined up for next year I believe, I imagine that will raise a few sheckles.
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I think you misunderstood. It's not that BTv5 isn't backward-compatible but rather that BTv4.2 can't take advantage of the new features that are available in BTv5, especially in terms of signal range. We already know that the BT in iPhone 7 is v4.2 so it stands to reason that it can't take advantage of any new feature in BTv5, which is what you were suggesting ("Most likely the W1 is BT 5.0 at least in part, along with some things Apple proposed, but wasn't adopted"), even if W1 has them.
Apple already said they use Class 1 Bluetooth in the new Beats Solo 3. They most likely are using the same technology in the W1 chip, which probably functions as a modulator in response to signal strength as is affected by the user's surroundings.
You may be right that iPhone 7 has BTv5 and Apple just decided not to publicize it but this fact has nothing to do with how the W1 chip does better in maintaining connection than other wireless Bluetooth headphones/earphones since it's backward-compatible with iPhone 5 and newer, which do not have BTv5.
The whole point is had Apple waited till BTv5 becomes mainstream they could've implemented the technology inside W1 or the iPhone 7 and avoided the problem of asynchronous audio.
If iPhone 7 does have BTv5 or that the W1 chip uses BTv5 technology, we should expect a software update that allows them to take advantage of new BTv5 features in the next few months. I don't think it's the case give the evidence but we'll see who's right in due time.
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Do you use them exclusively indoors or outdoors as well?
I've been complaining about bluetooth since it's inception. It's just a **** connection. Why can't we use another type of signal that is actually reliable, like a WiFi equivalent? Haven't we figured that out yet? Still don't know why all the money was into BT from the start; it's always been pretty finicky.
Who's saying it was 'crippled'?
The AirPods were an important part of the iPhone 7 product strategy - a pair of rather innovative totally wireless earbuds with a combined charger/case and a distinctive Apple-esque design, the successor to the iconic white earbuds, just right to win people over to the idea of going wireless and reduce the impact of dropping the 3.5mm jack. Their promised availability will have played a role in convincing people to buy an iPhone 7 (and if not, Apple just poured a bunch of R&D cash down the toilet).
They weren't available in time for the iPhone 7 launch, they weren't available for the important Christmas shopping season, there's no clear word on when they will be available, and now everybody is wondering how bad the technical glitch that has delayed them is, and whether it will ever be satisfactorily fixed. To try and argue that this isn't a major failure for Apple - now there's an absence of logic.
yep same
got it in quick just incase there was short supply
I did the same
Never gone through the order screens so quickly 
I think you misunderstood. It's not that BTv5 isn't backward-compatible but rather that BTv4.2 can't take advantage of the new features that are available in BTv5, especially in terms of signal range. We already know that the BT in iPhone 7 is v4.2 so it stands to reason that it can't take advantage of any new feature in BTv5, which is what you were suggesting ("Most likely the W1 is BT 5.0 at least in part, along with some things Apple proposed, but wasn't adopted"), even if W1 has them.
Apple already said they use Class 1 Bluetooth in the new Beats Solo 3. They most likely are using the same technology in the W1 chip, which probably functions as a modulator in response to signal strength as is affected by the user's surroundings.
You may be right that iPhone 7 has BTv5 and Apple just decided not to publicize it but this fact has nothing to do with how the W1 chip does better in maintaining connection than other wireless Bluetooth headphones/earphones since it's backward-compatible with iPhone 5 and newer, which do not have BTv5.
The whole point is had Apple waited till BTv5 becomes mainstream they could've implemented the technology inside W1 or the iPhone 7 and avoided the problem of asynchronous audio.
If iPhone 7 does have BTv5 or that the W1 chip uses BTv5 technology, we should expect a software update that allows them to take advantage of new BTv5 features in the next few months. I don't think it's the case give the evidence but we'll see who's right in due time.
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Do you use them exclusively indoors or outdoors as well?
I couldn't care less whether my iPhone 7 supports BT 5, much less my 6s. What's important is that the W1 may be future proof, in that if you buy it now, it will be BT 5 compatible when the next iPhone supporting Bt 5 becomes available.
The iPhones have what they have when you buy them, there's no reasonable expectation that they will support future standards, as they are made with well known and documented parts. The W1 is unknown. However, the W1 already provides better functionality through improved power management, which is likely something BT5 will bring ... And that does work with BT4 devices. So it's not like there's no benefits to be had to using next gen tech with last gen devices.
Because they need a way to get page hits and "Apple ****ed up on the design" gets more hits than "factory had break down and Apple couldn't make enough units for what they wanted at release"
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I got the iphone 7 plus at launch and my lightning earpods work great. Haven't heard anyone i know complain about the earpods. About charging their phone while using them sure, but not the ear pods
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Or it didn't exist and someone is hunting page hits with a wild theory. Middle ground might be that it exists, but only in 3rd party apps that haven't adjusted their sound handling for the new system and apple wanted time to lean on everyone to make the proper adjustments
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What's hilarious is that many folks, including the media, have been gripping for years that Apple wasn't sharing its plans in advance. That Apple waited until right before launch to talk about products. That's how the whole rumor mill got its start.
And now folks are griping that Apple talked about something and then didn't launch it right away. Every other company talks about stuff for months, sets dates, misses dates, no one freaks out. Apple does it and its huge. Like end of the world, fire everyone and liquidate the company huge
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I might agree with you, if the Airpods were the only headphones iphone 7 users could use. But they were not.
Bluetooth is reliable, it is the smartphone drivers that suck. Whenever the android or ios stack is involved, expect glitches and delays.
I know it's unlikely, I was mostly kidding.
Apple does some things that deserve a negative response and some things that are positive. I would agree if there's someone who hates everything Apple does, it wouldn't make sense for them to post here every day.
Isn't that Google's strategy with Android?
But, an iPhone is a physical, tangible item. Even though art and creative work has a certain value to it, it may not be as much as most artists think.
Ok, I'm not going to try and figure out what you mean by "matched timing crystals" if it's not a reliance on the intrinsic frequency of the oscillator. I'd love to get the inside scoop on what the delay was though now that they're shipping.Nope, which is why I said that it would be hard to think of a manufacturing problem that would cause a synchronization issue. Others mght've been talking about something else.
Nowadays it seems that every problem... with other companies too... shows up after development testing is over, and products hit real life usage.
It's possible that develoment and testing was mostly done in ideal conditions with no interference that might delay packets, for example. Whatever, with luck, it'll be something easy to fix and all will be well soon.
To me, the bigger problem is that they just look silly
I think the problem is just what happens when you ship millions of something in a connected world. If Apple builds out the 10 million devices their rumored to, and they somehow manage to hit the mythical 6σ quality control target, there's still going to be hundreds or thousands of defects falling into the hands of people looking for YouTube ad revenue.