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

[Traverse]

I'm still super excited for this, but I'm getting kind of tired of waiting. I can't wait to get my hands on a pair.

 

[2IS]

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.

Apple's problem is, there are already products that work exceptionally well that are already being sold and bought.

 

[wallysb01]

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.

Hey, I'm biologist, I was speaking about the exact technical details. These are physical problems that do not seem particularly difficult to solve unless you constrain yourself in such a way that the easy solutions are no long possible.

 

[yourtoys7]

I honestly, for the first time really hesitant recommending apple products to people and reluctant on getting anything new. Things are just not the same .....

 

[BornAgainMac]

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

The first thing that was probably addressed is "What color should it be?" and "How can we make it cheap?".

 

[zaaach48]

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

Right? People act like it's the first time there has been a delay for an Apple product and like it indicates the company is doomed.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

It's disappointing they're delayed but I can wait. People are freaking out over this. I'll keep saying it until it gets into people's thick heads. If they released them in October and had issues, people would get grumpy. Apple made a mistake announcing these when they did but admitted they needed more time. Guess what? They're PEOPLE. People make mistakes. Get over it.

1. Agree they made a mistake
2. Agree people make mistakes

But...

1. This isn't the first time TC's Apple has made the mistake of announcing product and then missing a launch time frame
2. This is not an "innocent" mistake. This is an Apple product. It has all the data on the product from compatibility to production. So if it knows there are issues then it should not announce the product OR it should preface that it's unknown when they will ship if it wants to preview them to the public. Apple does not deserve a pass here. This is incompetence.

 

[sleepydinosaur]

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.

Funny you say that as the first thought I had was "Bluetooth I'm sure..."

 

[PowerGala]

I've never had this kind of problem with any of my wired headsets. They just work and never need charging. You might even call it magical.

To each their own, I guess.

 

[Roessnakhan]

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.

I would say they released Solo3 and PB3 because they're microUSB and in all likelihood you would be a iOS user if you bought AirPods and BeatsX because they both have lightning chargers.

 

[dwsolberg]

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.

Could not agree more. Bluetooth is horrible to work with, and everyone is very disappointed with the reliability.

 

[gregoryalee]

Hey, I'm biologist, I was speaking about the exact technical details. These are physical problems that do not seem particularly difficult to solve unless you constrain yourself in such a way that the easy solutions are no long possible.

Like, say removing the headphone jack?

 

[Mascots]

1. This isn't the first time TC's Apple has made the mistake of announcing product and then missing a launch time frame

This isn't the first time Apple made the mistake of announcing a product and then missing a product time frame, repeatedly. Or just never releasing a product to a market ever. Hardly a Tim thing at all.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I've never had this kind of problem with any of my wired headsets. They just work and never need charging. You might even call it magical.

To each their own, I guess.

They had to find a problem to a solution, an expensive solution.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I was really interested in these AirPods but I'll wait until the reviews come in and wait for a few months for any new issues. Having them explode or get too hot or something would be a deal breaker.

 

[sleepydinosaur]

1. Agree they made a mistake
2. Agree people make mistakes

But...

1. This isn't the first time TC's Apple has made the mistake of announcing product and then missing a launch time frame
2. This is not an "innocent" mistake. This is an Apple product. It has all the data on the product from compatibility to production. So if it knows there are issues then it should not announce the product OR it should preface that it's unknown when they will ship if it wants to preview them to the public. Apple does not deserve a pass here. This is incompetence.

Says the guy who doesn't and can't do any of this stuff on any technical level and has no product developed by himself.

 

[Harmonious Zen]

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.

"Putting on the pressure" unfortunately does nothing to bend the laws of physics.

 

[aaronhead14]

I wish that a "person familiar with the matter" would shed some light on a new Mac Pro.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

Sentence him to walk home with 2 Oral-B pieces hanging from his ears...

Funniest post of this thread! Just made me spill my coffee.

 

[A MacBook lover]

1. Agree they made a mistake
2. Agree people make mistakes

But...

1. This isn't the first time TC's Apple has made the mistake of announcing product and then missing a launch time frame
2. This is not an "innocent" mistake. This is an Apple product. It has all the data on the product from compatibility to production. So if it knows there are issues then it should not announce the product OR it should preface that it's unknown when they will ship if it wants to preview them to the public. Apple does not deserve a pass here. This is incompetence.

They get a pass for waiting and not releasing it, unlike some companies who don't wait, release, and stuff starts exploding.

 

[jujufreeze]

Yikes. What's going on at Apple? This degree of incompetence starts with leadership at the top. With the vast resources at their disposal, they can't ship the iphone 7 remotely on time, airpods have a fundamental flaw that delays them, SJ ran a much tighter ship.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Yikes. What's going on at Apple? This degree of incompetence starts with leadership at the top. With the vast resources at their disposal, they can't ship the iphone 7 remotely on time, the airpods have a fundamental flaw, SJ ran a much tighter ship.

Mandatory "they look at the future, it's the same as ditching the floppy, you're behind the times," etc. #courage comment.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

That is such a Keystone Cops headline...

I mean, solving the problem of having a time delay in one ear might be at the top of most wireless earphones design lists?

Schiller will say: Our AirPods are simply magical as they create the illusion of "sound stereoscopy" (3D sound! "can't innovate my ass"!)

 

[Apple Corps]

Here come the people complaining about Apple taking too long to test something before release...

No - it is complaining that Apple, with all of the vast resources it has, is failing to demonstrate a robust product development / engineering / testing competency - blown speakers / dying batteries / gpu glitches / AirPods issues. Missing the Christmas buying season because of an issue that should have been caught much earlier in the cycle is bad. One has to ask what Apple is doing with all of the engineering resources it has on hand.

It looks like Tim Cook is really turning Apple engineering into a black hole - so many resources go in and so little comes out.

 

[AppleZilla]

Bluetooth is garbage. Started out garbage, and will still be garbage with v5.

I was disappointed that Apple was using it at all in these.

That being said, I'm glad they are working things out before I get a pair.