AirPods Delay Attributed to Apple Ensuring Both Earpieces Receive Audio at Same Time [Updated]

[Will.O.Bie]

I'm eagerly anticipating their release but at the same time, if it's not up to quality standards, I'd rather they took their time to fix it now than release it for the holiday shopping rush and be all about the revenue and fail the first few weeks of use. You can't rush perfection, you just have to be patient.

 

[Ghost31]

Wouldn't you be saying the same thing if they shipped it and it wasn't working properly? For people like you, it seems like Apple will always fail.

I think what he's trying to say is that both of those choices you gave were bs. Apple should not have removed the headphone jack and announced a product release date FOR A PRODUCT THAT WASNT EVEN READY. What are we. Beta testers?

I'm glad apple is waiting to release them if they know there is a serious issue, but the doesn't take away from the fact that these shouldn't have been announced in the first place. Remember when apple products were announced when they were ready and shipped soon after? Member berries

 

[xraydoc]

Wow. You don't get it do you? The Beats X are NOT delayed. They won't ship until AirPods ship. Simple.

Perhaps. So why ship the PowerBeats 3 then? Same W1 chip. Same cord between the two buds. Take away the ear hooks and replace the micro-USB charging port with a Lightning port and you've got the same thing.

So I don't think that's the reason.

 

[andy.ringwood]

Maybe offer the product while not removing the headphone jack for the first generation for the early adopters?

What are you saying? Give these away for people who bought the iPhone 7 before the 30th of October? No. But I do think that people who bought the iPhone 7 before the 30th of October should be given a massive reduction on these (and yes, I know these weren't supposed to be shipped with the 7 but it'd make up for the delay).

 

[Dave245]

At least they are aware of the issue and working to fix it, people need to stop being so impatient. They would be the first people to complain on this forum, if Apple had released them with the issue. Doesn't matter what Apple does some people will always be saying the same old "Apple is doomed" crap.

 

[utsava]

So they were potentially delayed for technical related issues. So be it. I would rather have a product that works exceptionally versus be riddled with intermittent fault errors. And it won't change that these won't sell, because they will sell out/back order with in the hour.

The bigger issue isn't that they take their time to get it right, it's that Apple, a secretive, quality-focused company, announced a product in September for October, and now in December it's still not here. The ball got dropped somewhere, and it's just the latest example of what seems to be less attention to detail than what customers expect from Apple and their premium products.

 

[andy.ringwood]

At least they are aware of the issue and working to fix it, people need to stop being so impatient. They would be the first people to complain on this forum, if Apple had released them with the issue. Doesn't matter what Apple does some people will always be saying the same old "Apple is doomed" crap.

This. They can't win. I don't see why they bother sometimes.

 

[Jakexb]

how was this not among the first things addressed in its development?

I'm sure it was, but radio waves are not the same in every environment and likely there were issues that came out of testing the later prototypes in a wide range of conditions.

 

[Appleaker]

It's better than releasing them earlier and having a "your listening to it wrong" situation.

 

[TallManNY]

So is it time to just buy the Beats version and stop waiting for this?

 

[44267547]

The bigger issue isn't that they take their time to get it right, it's that Apple, a secretive, quality-focused company, announced a product in September for October, and now in December it's still not here. The ball got dropped somewhere, and it's just the latest example of what seems to be less attention to detail than what customers expect from Apple and their premium products.

I agree this launch was a fail. But moving forward, Apple can't change the past. They need to re-focus and deliver a product that excels and provides the customer with an experience that delivers convenience and quality.

 

[andy.ringwood]

A lot of people don't also understand that you can take one AirPod out and continue listening to music or use it as a headset. No other earphones do this (don't mention Bragi, they're a joke of a company). One remaining AirPod will switch to mono. Let them get this right and the AirPods will be a hell of a product.

 

[T-Will]

What's causing the delay of BeatsX then?

 

[EvilEvil]

how was this not among the first things addressed in its development?

Apple doesn't do any usability testing with actual users.

 

[kas23]

Wait, Apple had the courage to demand that we suffer the consequences while they're not even ready themselves?

 

[Thunderhawks]

I think what he's trying to say is that both of those choices you gave were bs. Apple should not have removed the headphone jack and announced a product release date FOR A PRODUCT THAT WASNT EVEN READY. What are we. Beta testers?

I'm glad apple is waiting to release them if they know there is a serious issue, but the doesn't take away from the fact that these shouldn't have been announced in the first place. Remember when apple products were announced when they were ready and shipped soon after? Member berries

Yes, if you buy a first gen of anything Apple you are a beta tester.

That includes Rev A of any product previously existing.

 

[Jakexb]

This makes no physical sense what so ever. These buds are, what a foot apart and bluetooth happens at the speed of ***** light. Receiving the signal at the same time is nonsense. If it is two independent signals and the problem is that the earbuds aren't receiving the right signals at the right time, its because the right signals aren't being broadcast at the right time.

And honestly, how is such a simple problem such a huge obstacle for Apple? For how long have we been broadcasting simultaneous stereo radio signals?

You're missing some key things about digital data. It has nothing to do with the speed of radio waves. If they were analogue radio receivers, yes, they could just receive the audio and play a single part of the stereo signal. They would also be enormous and you would not be able to use more than a handful in any one space.

Bluetooth is an active packet protocol. The data is broken up into chunks. The receiver confirms receipt of each chunk. If the transmitter doesn't hear a confirmation from the receiver, it re-sends the chunk. What happens when one earbud gets gets the chunk, while the other one doesn't? Now one side is "ahead" of the other side and they need a mechanism to resync.

Bluetooth audio also uses buffering depending on radio conditions. The audio doesn't play instantaneously. If you've got lots of interference, the data rate will be slower due to errors and whatnot, so the earbuds are going to require longer buffering. But, they're separate, so they negotiate the same amount of buffering so that they can play the audio in a synchronised way.

 

[rock6079]

Unless they appear in shops in the next week (which I doubt), they've totally missed the xmas shopping period. I'm hoping execs at Apple are incredibly annoyed and putting on the pressure.

Tim Cook allegedly wrote an email last week that they will being shipping "in a few weeks." If true, they should be in stores / shipping by at least the end of December. IT would be nice if they can get them out next week to still make some of the shopping period.

 

[yaxomoxay]

What are you saying? Give these away for people who bought the iPhone 7 before the 30th of October? No. But I do think that people who bought the iPhone 7 before the 30th of October should be given a massive reduction on these (and yes, I know these weren't supposed to be shipped with the 7 but it'd make up for the delay).

I am just saying, don't botch stuff until the replacement/alternative solution is ready to ship.
It's like botching the floppy drive just to have a six month delay on the Cd-rom......

 

[zaaach48]

I'm a hardware engineer. It seems like every single bluetooth project I work on gets delayed for various reasons (unreliable smartphone bluetooth drivers) where every single non-bluetooth project stays on schedule.

bluetooth has always been a mess...i wish we could just abandon it for something better

 

[Chupa Chupa]

It baffles me why TC repeatedly announces products that are not ready to ship w/i a month of announcement. First was the then all-new iMac 27", then the AW (did not ship "early 2015" but rather pre-ordered mid 2015 (2Q) and even then was severly contrained due to eventually admitted production issues. Now add the ear pods.

The "old" Apple typically did not announce product until it was boxed up an on the plane to warehouses. No jerking customers around.

As far as Airpods go -- others have mentioned here -- the Xmas season is missed. My niece asked for wireless buds so I ended up getting a pair of Jaybird X3s and Freedoms and she can see which she likes the best. I bought a pair of Freedoms myself when they went on sale for $105 Black Friday.

Now with BT5 official seems AirPods might be outdated before they ship given their cost. Maybe Apple can get it right next year and update with the W2 chip.

 

[EvSween]

How was this issue not caught earlier in development? Anyway, where is Beats X?

 

[audirs5]

I still dont get why the **** these thing are ONLY controlled via siri..... ZERO physical function. Want to lower your music? thats a 5 second process, at best. Change song? another 5 seconds..

how the **** is this ok?

 

[theluggage]

This makes no physical sense what so ever. These buds are, what a foot apart and bluetooth happens at the speed of ***** light.

If the audio were being transmitted in analog form, via FM or AM modulation, or even, maybe, old fangled 16 bit @ 44.1kHz raw digital you might have had a point.

Its not - its being transmitted in digital form, highly compressed (probably with variable bit-rate: i.e. x bits of data doesn't correspond to y seconds of sound) over a low-power connection that probably relies heavily on error detection and correction. There will be a significant (probably noticeable) decoding lag between the radio signal arriving and the uncompressed sound coming out of the earpiece - and the two earpods will still have to keep the two channels in sync with millisecond accuracy (or the phase differences will give you an unplanned 3D audio experience).

(Maybe there's a Bluetooth audio expert there who will correct my mistakes but, bottom line, what's going on in a bluetooth earpiece is a few orders of magnitude more complex than you're imagining).

The question is, did anybody ask the engineers about this before the Apple Design Team handed them a sketch of the AirPods and said "we're removing the audio jack to make the phone thinner, so make these!"

 

[zaaach48]

This makes no physical sense what so ever. These buds are, what a foot apart and bluetooth happens at the speed of ***** light. Receiving the signal at the same time is nonsense. If it is two independent signals and the problem is that the earbuds aren't receiving the right signals at the right time, its because the right signals aren't being broadcast at the right time.

And honestly, how is such a simple problem such a huge obstacle for Apple? For how long have we been broadcasting simultaneous stereo radio signals?

you'd be surprised how terrible a delay of just 20 milliseconds can sound...and as the article states, other bluetooth headsets just send the signal to one earpiece but the Airpods send to both earpieces (not sure why.) It's like trying to pair up two different Bose speakers and have audio play through both at the same time