Apple Increased AirPods Production Capacity, But Still Unable to Meet Demand

[convergent]

You must have weird ears my friend

I could say the same. But lets not insult each other and just talk about the design.

How is a hard plastic slippery surface going to create a better seal with the ear canal than a properly sized rubber seal that most reasonable earbuds have? Whether Apple's fall out or not, the fact remains that they are not sealed into place. And no two ear canals are the same, so the hard plastic has no ability to flex to fit. The electronics design might be the best the world has seen, but the way they are mating to the ear is poorly designed and its pure luck if you have an ear canal that happens to have a shape that will come close to sealing with it. This is why most high end earbuds come with several different sets of rubber seals to allow the buyer to get a more custom fit.

So essentially we are back to "you are holding it wrong" if it doesn't work... except in this case its "your ear is shaped wrong" so its not Apple's fault it doesn't work for me. Maybe Apple's plan is to sell prosthetic ears that are designed to fit their ear buds so Apple fans everywhere can really go all in.

 

[nburwell]

I'm glad I was able to snag a pair back in February, all thanks to iStockNow. I still can't believe the AirPods are hard to find in stock.

 

[BuddyTronic]

I could say the same. But lets not insult each other and just talk about the design.

How is a hard plastic slippery surface going to create a better seal with the ear canal than a properly sized rubber seal that most reasonable earbuds have? Whether Apple's fall out or not, the fact remains that they are not sealed into place. And no two ear canals are the same, so the hard plastic has no ability to flex to fit. The electronics design might be the best the world has seen, but the way they are mating to the ear is poorly designed and its pure luck if you have an ear canal that happens to have a shape that will come close to sealing with it. This is why most high end earbuds come with several different sets of rubber seals to allow the buyer to get a more custom fit.

So essentially we are back to "you are holding it wrong" if it doesn't work... except in this case its "your ear is shaped wrong" so its not Apple's fault it doesn't work for me. Maybe Apple's plan is to sell prosthetic ears that are designed to fit their ear buds so Apple fans everywhere can really go all in.

I wonder about this ear issue too.

For me - it's a perfect fit, very comfortable. I could play NFL football and they wouldn't fall out. I'm so glad they are not silicone.

But my friend tried them and showed me how they fall out pretty easily on his ears.

I wonder what the percentages are. Biggest company in the world has probably studied it and did their best is my assumption. I think there is a different problem with Apple Watch light sensors reading heart rate on people with darker skin. Hope they make these things work for everyone but who knows.

 

[convergent]

I wonder about this ear issue too.

For me - it's a perfect fit, very comfortable. I could play NFL football and they wouldn't fall out. I'm so glad they are not silicone.

But my friend tried them and showed me how they fall out pretty easily on his ears.

I wonder what the percentages are. Biggest company in the world has probably studied it and did their best is my assumption. I think there is a different problem with Apple Watch light sensors reading heart rate on people with darker skin. Hope they make these things work for everyone but who knows.

Most earbuds have something interchangeable on the bid to support different ear sizes. Apple always designs things more for artistic look than function. The Jony Ive influence.

 

[NT1440]

How is a hard plastic slippery surface going to create a better seal with the ear canal than a properly sized rubber seal that most reasonable earbuds have?

It's not, by design. EXPLICITLY explained during the introduction of the EarPods (the wired version released years ago).

My question is why people keep insisting metric X should be used, when Apple explicitly told the world at the start they don't believe metric X is what they were aiming for in the first place.

 

[Tricky22]

Wonder when the next version will come out....

 

[convergent]

It's not, by design. EXPLICITLY explained during the introduction of the EarPods (the wired version released years ago).

My question is why people keep insisting metric X should be used, when Apple explicitly told the world at the start they don't believe metric X is what they were aiming for in the first place.

I'm not sure what "metric x" is, but they are creating something to go in the human ear that is inflexible so clearly won't work in many ears since they are all different. But as I said, Apple (Jony Ive) is more interested in how it would look in a museum then how functional it is, so it's not surprising. Why do most people end up putting their gorgeous iPhones in a case... because Apple designed it to look great and not be functional in its intended environment.

Bottom line is if you love them great. Because of my experience with other Apple earbuds, I won't be wasting my time trying them. I'm not even sure my next smartphone will be Apple if the rumors of > $1,000 starting price is true.

 

[Eddie3345]

Walked into my local store today (Portland OR) for a question about my apple tv remote. Made a joke about them never having AirPods in stock the staff member clicked a few buttons on her sales handheld gizmo (actual apple term) and not 2 mins later had them in my hand ended up walking out with AirPods! Luck of the draw i guess. Cant wait to use them!

 

[dancj]

My personal experience:

1 - they connected beautifully to my iPhone first time, but I went through hell and about half an hour on the phone with Apple support to get them to connect with my iPad.

2 - they don't switch automatically between devices they way my old POS Anker ones did. No idea why. That's a real design flaw in my eyes. That said, it's very easy and quick to manually switch them.

3 - when playing Pokémon Go and listening to music, they regularly cut out for a fraction of a second. In fairness, that's usually when Pokémon Go is crashing (which it is wont to do). I suspect that issue will go away when I upgrade from my old iPhone 6.

4 - I'm no audiophile, but the sound is definitely better than the standard EarPods. They sound awesome to me.

5 - I love the little charger case and I always carry it in my pocket. For my purposes, the battery life is awesome.

6 - I hate noise cancelling so I'm glad they aren't.

7 - I love them dearly. More than I thought I would - despite the issues mentioned above.

 

[nicho]

2 - they don't switch automatically between devices they way my old POS Anker ones did. No idea why. That's a real design flaw in my eyes. That said, it's very easy and quick to manually switch them.

When you say manually switching, I'm assuming you mean going into settings -> bluetooth and connecting them there? That's odd, it's not my experience. I was just playing some music via my airpods from my mac as a test. Stopped it. Picked up my iphone, selected my airpods as the airplay destination from the control centre and boom it was connected. Not instantly (maybe a couple of seconds lag) but there's no faffing about to be had.

 

[himanshumodi]

But then your phone will smash onto the floor!

I have dropped it trying to untangle the phone from the wires. Somehow, it never occurs to me that I should remove the jack while untangling!

 

[dancj]

When you say manually switching, I'm assuming you mean going into settings -> bluetooth and connecting them there? That's odd, it's not my experience. I was just playing some music via my airpods from my mac as a test. Stopped it. Picked up my iphone, selected my airpods as the airplay destination from the control centre and boom it was connected. Not instantly (maybe a couple of seconds lag) but there's no faffing about to be had.

No. I mean that I have to go to the control centre to pick the output destination. With my old (crap) ones, I could play music on my iPhone through the earphones, then stop the music and play video on my iPad, and in both cases it would automatically go to the earphones without me having to select it. This is the functionality that Tim Cook described in the keynote as well, but for some unknown reason, they don't do it. I think I read somewhere that it does work this way if you're only switching between an iPhone and an Apple Watch - but I have no need for that.

 

[Eddie3345]

ok so let me see what you are talking about...

with air pods you want to be able to be on your phone with them on playing either music or video
then pause the phone
then grab an iPad and play a youtube clip on there and have the air pods connect to the iPad automatically ?
Does that sound right?

( my only issue is the air pods have to be the first on the list in blue tooth devices so it picks up the air pods first...? does that sound logical...?)

 

[Abazigal]

I could say the same. But lets not insult each other and just talk about the design.

How is a hard plastic slippery surface going to create a better seal with the ear canal than a properly sized rubber seal that most reasonable earbuds have? Whether Apple's fall out or not, the fact remains that they are not sealed into place. And no two ear canals are the same, so the hard plastic has no ability to flex to fit. The electronics design might be the best the world has seen, but the way they are mating to the ear is poorly designed and its pure luck if you have an ear canal that happens to have a shape that will come close to sealing with it. This is why most high end earbuds come with several different sets of rubber seals to allow the buyer to get a more custom fit.

So essentially we are back to "you are holding it wrong" if it doesn't work... except in this case its "your ear is shaped wrong" so its not Apple's fault it doesn't work for me. Maybe Apple's plan is to sell prosthetic ears that are designed to fit their ear buds so Apple fans everywhere can really go all in.

It doesn't, and that's precisely what I love about my AirPods. I hate those rubber seals that feel like I am stuffing a Q-tip into my ears. My AirPods are so comfortable that I can just leave them in my ears for hours on end (even if I am not listening to anything) and not feel any discomfort whatsoever. In the very least, I daresay that Apple has made the right call for me.

Could one not argue that it is precisely because these other headphone companies are unable or unwilling to make the call as to what size to manufacture their headphones in, that they bundle rubber tips of all shapes and sizes inside, thus throwing the burden of making their headphones fit squarely on the consumer?

 

[dancj]

ok so let me see what you are talking about...

with air pods you want to be able to be on your phone with them on playing either music or video
then pause the phone
then grab an iPad and play a youtube clip on there and have the air pods connect to the iPad automatically ?
Does that sound right?

( my only issue is the air pods have to be the first on the list in blue tooth devices so it picks up the air pods first...? does that sound logical...?)

That's right.

Not sure about the order. I've never had my devices connected to two different Bluetooth speakers/headphones at the same time for it to have to make a choice.

 

[hkoster1]

Mmm... I've been following availability of the AirPods since they became available, and got from this thread that it's down to four weeks now in the U.S. Maybe worse where I live in The Netherlands, it usually is with anything Apple sells.

Yet, just to be sure, I checked the NL online Apple Store... yup, shipping in 4 weeks, available at the various physical Apple Stores on 15 September. At least not any worse availability.

Then checked whether MediaMarkt (an electronics/white goods chain store) had any for sale... nope, sold out online, that figures.
Just for the heck of it I checked whether my local MediaMarkt store, just around the corner in my small provincial town, had any... YES, in stock! And 10 minutes later I had my AirPods (there were still 3 more left on the shelves).

The moral of this story: if you can't find them in the usual places, then look for them in an unusual place...

 

[Eddie3345]

That's right.

Not sure about the order. I've never had my devices connected to two different Bluetooth speakers/headphones at the same time for it to have to make a choice.

obviously you forgot all your old devices and only have the ones you want on now right?
i will try this tomorrow with my AirPods and see what happens and ill let you know

 

[dancj]

obviously you forgot all your old devices and only have the ones you want on now right?

No – but my iPods are only my third Bluetooth audio device (the other two being my crap Anker earphones and my car).

 

[Eddie3345]

No – but my iPods are only my third Bluetooth audio device (the other two being my crap Anker earphones and my car).

Did you try changing the order and see what happens yet? i know in a few of my devices my phone is listed first not my wife and it finds mind first then hers... i couldn't try the experiment this morning i had a zoo of animals so maybe tomorrow

 

[dancj]

I can't see any way to change the order, but the AirPods are listed first on both my iPhone and my iPad.

 

[Eddie3345]

if you forget all devices and then pair that one first. then add the other ones it usually stays on top. I tried it today and you're right it didn't work. i was on my phone with my music. played a youtube video on my MBP and nope ( yes my AirPods were paired with bluetooth to both devices) i dont think they can be paired to two devices at the same time. i am no apple specialist just a found user.

 

[unr1]

Far from it. You should have your ears checked.

And I will say this.. for user who's heavy on dialogue audio (Podcast, Radio, YouTube) this is one of the best earphone out there. The dialogue is crisp and the direction is clear. I listened to a YouTube where 5 guys just sitting talking about Game of Thrones and it's almost like I'm there in their room sitting in front of them listening to them.
It's as good as earphone this small can be.

No you

 

[convergent]

It doesn't, and that's precisely what I love about my AirPods. I hate those rubber seals that feel like I am stuffing a Q-tip into my ears. My AirPods are so comfortable that I can just leave them in my ears for hours on end (even if I am not listening to anything) and not feel any discomfort whatsoever. In the very least, I daresay that Apple has made the right call for me.

Could one not argue that it is precisely because these other headphone companies are unable or unwilling to make the call as to what size to manufacture their headphones in, that they bundle rubber tips of all shapes and sizes inside, thus throwing the burden of making their headphones fit squarely on the consumer?

OK, so I guess manufacturers of clothing, shoes, hats, etc. should all just make one size of everything because by making different sizes they are throwing the burden of picking the right size squarely on the consumer? Are you seriously thinking about what you said?

Apple will have a lot of people buy them because they are iconic looking and signify a badge of "Apple fan" to anyone that sees them wearing them. That's fine... I'm sure they will sell plenty. But there are a lot of people they won't work well for. If they didn't want to make rubber coverings they could have at least made them in different sizes. They do that for their watch, so its not unprecedented. I would still not want them because for this amount of money I want something that is noise canceling.

As for my choice of the Bose Quiet Comfort 20 wired noise canceling earbuds, I finally got to try them out on several 10+ hour flights over the past week. They are clearly not as quiet as the over ear variety, and the left one I had to re-position often to keep the noise from seeping through. I tried the larger covering on that one and by the end of the trip I had figured out better how to position it so that it would stay put better. It was awesome not having the bulk of the over ear version in my bag, and for sleeping it was certainly better because I could lay my head against a pillow flat. By the way, I would think that using Airpods while sleeping on a plane would be very risky since they could fall out and be gone. And one of the advantages of noise canceling is that you can keep your volume much lower (protecting your ears) vs. having to overcome the background noise to hear.

 

[Abazigal]

OK, so I guess manufacturers of clothing, shoes, hats, etc. should all just make one size of everything because by making different sizes they are throwing the burden of picking the right size squarely on the consumer? Are you seriously thinking about what you said?

Yes.

It’s a lot more complicated and logistically challenging to create headphones of differing sizes than it is to manufacture clothing of varying sizes. I can’t believe you are trying to conflate the two. Apple is already having enough problems making enough of them, much less make everything more confusing by throwing in multiple product sizes into the mix.

Apple products aren’t for everyone, but by and large, I have been fairly satisfied with what they have to offer me thus far.

Apple will have a lot of people buy them because they are iconic looking and signify a badge of "Apple fan" to anyone that sees them wearing them. That's fine... I'm sure they will sell plenty. But there are a lot of people they won't work well for. If they didn't want to make rubber coverings they could have at least made them in different sizes. They do that for their watch, so its not unprecedented. I would still not want them because for this amount of money I want something that is noise canceling.

And I really couldn’t care less about noise cancelling capabilities, so it’s no real loss to me. I use my AirPods every day and I appreciate their design a lot. It’s easy to put away the AirPods when I am done with them and keep them in my pocket. And like I said, they are extremely light and comfortable and I don’t think there is another product out there with the right mix of features that the AirPods have.

Again, I stress that not everyone will appreciate the mix of compromises that Apple has settled on, but I am one of those who do.

As for my choice of the Bose Quiet Comfort 20 wired noise canceling earbuds, I finally got to try them out on several 10+ hour flights over the past week. They are clearly not as quiet as the over ear variety, and the left one I had to re-position often to keep the noise from seeping through. I tried the larger covering on that one and by the end of the trip I had figured out better how to position it so that it would stay put better. It was awesome not having the bulk of the over ear version in my bag, and for sleeping it was certainly better because I could lay my head against a pillow flat. By the way, I would think that using Airpods while sleeping on a plane would be very risky since they could fall out and be gone. And one of the advantages of noise canceling is that you can keep your volume much lower (protecting your ears) vs. having to overcome the background noise to hear.

And I don’t fly, so the benefits of noise cancelling headphones and the drawbacks of AirPods in such a scenario don’t really apply to me.

Find me a product comparable to the AirPods, with noise cancelling to boot. Then we will talk. Is it even possible to fit noise cancelling tech into a product as cramped as the AirPods?