I can disagree with removing the jack and use Bluetooth headphones (which I do most of the time), those two things aren't mutually exclusive. No need for the condescending reply.
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AirPods Supplier Increasing Production Capacity Due to Strong Demand
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You want something better than the earbuds? Are you referring to the Airpods? Have you tested them? To many times I read these knee jerk reactions about s product that haven't been fully analyzed for review, but so quick to judge.
Have you seen Apple's ship dates lately for the Airpods? 6-7 weeks out. Yes....they are selling fairly I would say. Some retailers are even predicting March for available stock.
And it goes to say, not every product will be for you. But your Plantronics do not boast the capabilities of the Airpods with the W1 chip and portable charging.
When it comes to this debate about water resistance, you won't get that guy to budge. It is recklessly irresponsible to think otherwise.
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Everybody who doesn't have the latest Mac which is the majority of the planet would have bitched about it if they shipped with USB-C. They will undoubtedly ship with it in the next iteration.
This is a slippery-slope. Sensible and affordability are not interchangeable meanings and do not correlate to one another.
$170 for 2 wireless earpieces is not sensible. It's affordable, for many, but IMO astronomically overpriced and a sensible purchase for none.
Rah rah capitalism. I'd buy 'em for $50. That's a sensible cost to me, the consumer, and still a hefty profit for the brand. We need to stop this 9000% markup crap. ("We" being society as a whole. Profit margins have got to be dialed back. It is killing the world)
Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander: Lesson Number One, Seeker: Sometimes to gain ground you need to slow down.
Richard Cypher: That doesn't make sense.
Kahlan Amnell: Never expect sense from a wizard.
Try https://airpods.isinstock.com. I had a pair on order with a delivery date of January 30, and saw this link in a Bloomberg article. It's apparently a screen-scrape driven website that will, for $4.00, send you up to five email alerts any time an Apple store (or stores) you specify has the AirPods in stock, and you can immediately reserve from that stock and pick up the product at the Apple Store. I was able to get a pair for me and for my wife with the first email alert. (By the way, we both are thrilled with them. Your ears may differ, but we both thought the sound quality was excellent both in listening and, more suprisingly, when using the microphone. No battery issues and they stay put.)
Jeez. There's a dude here on this site that built a similar tool that's free. That's how I got my AirPods Friday, about an hour after I signed up.
https://www.machookup.com
People may be buying them to give them away, not to used them themselves. You will see Craigslist and eBay in January infested with those things for sell second hand or brand new.
There is a dongle for that though
I want to upgrade my laptop, but because no one is moving to the USB-C (even with Apple's isn't.. aka airpods, phones, watch) that I don't want to get a laptop with just USB-C. I'm so dead set against carrying dongles that even though I LOVE OSX, I have been at the microsoft store looking at the surface book. It's just poor product planning from Tim. In reality, their pro machines should have had different types of ports, they should have started shipping their peripherals with USB-C, and then two years or or so they drop USB. A slower adoption strategy.
To say it's courage to drop USB, and expect others to create peripheries for USB-C, but then your phones and other attachments do not use USB-C is called being a coward.
"hey everyone, jump to the new standard, but we wont" - Tim Cook - aka biggest coward of 2016. Second biggest coward award goes to John Ivys for being too scared to talk to a crowd in person.
It would be nice if apple brought something out every year just a few days before the holiday season and make this sort of money i would do it myself too nice to have a xmas expense free so to speak
Ok, so my case has now died from 100% charge in less than 48 hours since it was charged. Used the AirPods for about 20 mins in total. AirPods are now at 65% in the case - this is my third pair so I'm guessing it's a big issue or this is the way they are designed to work - require charging every 2 days whether you use them or not. If that's the case, mine are going back. Pardon the pun lol
There is a dongle for that though
I want to upgrade my laptop, but because no one is moving to the USB-C (even with Apple's isn't.. aka airpods, phones, watch) that I don't want to get a laptop with just USB-C. I'm so dead set against carrying dongles that even though I LOVE OSX, I have been at the microsoft store looking at the surface book. It's just poor product planning from Tim. In reality, their pro machines should have had different types of ports, they should have started shipping their peripherals with USB-C, and then two years or or so they drop USB. A slower adoption strategy.
To say it's courage to drop USB, and expect others to create peripheries for USB-C, but then your phones and other attachments do not use USB-C is called being a coward.
"hey everyone, jump to the new standard, but we wont" - Tim Cook - aka biggest coward of 2016. Second biggest coward award goes to John Ivys for being too scared to talk to a crowd in person.
You realize that in 6 months this won't matter, right?
There is a dongle for that though
I want to upgrade my laptop, but because no one is moving to the USB-C (even with Apple's isn't.. aka airpods, phones, watch) that I don't want to get a laptop with just USB-C. I'm so dead set against carrying dongles that even though I LOVE OSX, I have been at the microsoft store looking at the surface book. It's just poor product planning from Tim. In reality, their pro machines should have had different types of ports, they should have started shipping their peripherals with USB-C, and then two years or or so they drop USB. A slower adoption strategy.
To say it's courage to drop USB, and expect others to create peripheries for USB-C, but then your phones and other attachments do not use USB-C is called being a coward.
"hey everyone, jump to the new standard, but we wont" - Tim Cook - aka biggest coward of 2016. Second biggest coward award goes to John Ivys for being too scared to talk to a crowd in person.
You use the word "coward" so casually...
This is your chance to step up, show some real courage, and vote with your wallet sending a real message. Buy a Dell, Sanyo, Lenovo, whatever laptop and find happiness.
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What's with people saying these aren't overpriced. It's just an earphone using standard Bluetooth, a tech that's been out for over 10 years. Think about this. The iPhone has over ten times the tech, ridiculous amounts of patents, yet it's less than 4 times the price.
I agree - for me, $170 is way too much to pay for headphones, but many people are perfectly willing to pay this much. If they are selling well and continue to sell then Apple has little incentive to drop the price. Some other factors to keep in mind:
- These are completely wireless. Most 'wireless' bluetooth headsets have a headband or wire connecting the two sides
- Bluetooth is old; the W1 chip is a newly developed proprietary chip from Apple. As I have said before, new technology has development costs that come with a price.
- They have some other features such as the infrared sensor and accelerometer that others may have but I haven't seen.
That said, there are other similar products out there for $50. Quality is really the wildcard with all of this. $10 is routine for cheap headphones and high quality (wired) headphones routinely cost well in excess of $100. I don't know and haven't seen any comparison of similar products that compares quality and price.
yes it is sad... the in earphone market is one of the most lucrative in all electronics.
ultra low production cost, shipping cost and high sales prices.
I'd need to know more about cost of goods, materials and manufacturing costs and R&D costs to determine if these are 9,000% marked up.
Profit margins drive most of societies investment income, my retirement plans, etc... so I'm not so sure the right approach is to be short-sighted and favor convenient pricing now at the expense of independence in the future...
Once something becomes a commodity the price tends to drop precipitously... I can buy EarPods lookalikes for $1-$5 a pair at the dolllar store now. Great price but it's a commodity product, it makes sound but has no remnant of innovation left. What's the price of innnovation?
Please can you let me know of a similar product that sells for $50 -- I would be very interested in buying them!
Same, with the exact design of the AirPods... not those crappy rubbery earphones that every single other BT device seems to have. If somebody else has a basic design like the AirPods for much cheaper without the crappy earpieces that always fall out and cannot create a seal, and lacks a dumb looking cord then I will very happily be cancelling my AirPods order. I'd even take the basic "circle" design that Apple used and cheap knockoffs copied like crazy before the EarPods came out...
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^ Any without the disgusting rubbery ear parts? As far as I can tell ATM AirPods are completely unique, allowing Apple to price them at their will.
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