Apple Says AirPods Are 'Incredibly Popular' as Availability Remains Limited

[WilliamG]

AirPods - the best and most buggy Apple product ever released.

Today mine were about unusable. Refusing to connect to my iPhone X etc. If they could consistently connect to my phone (wife has same issues with hers and her iPhone X), they'd be the best product Apple has released, because they are brilliant.

Given they are so annoyingly inconsistent when they connect, I have to to continue to hope for a software update for them.

Oh, and the battery life for phone calls has dropped for me over the year+ I've had them. I used to get about 1 hour 50 from each AirPod, - now it's about 1 hour 15.

 

[Seoras]

Airpods are fabulous. Particularly when used with an Apple Watch.

Oh yes.
Every time I head outside for some exercise I leave the iPhone on my desk and marvel at how far I've come from my walkman in the 80's to a watch on my wrist playing music wirelessly to buds in my ears.

I feel sorry for those who find them uncomfortable to wear as I often forget I'm wearing them after I've turned them off. They are sublime in every respect.

The best bit for me is the "freedom" of having no wires hanging around you. It allows you do manual labour chores without the worry of catching them up in what you are doing. It's so liberating.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Oh yes.
Every time I head outside for some exercise I leave the iPhone on my desk and marvel at how far I've come from my walkman in the 80's to a watch on my wrist playing music wirelessly to buds in my ears.

I feel sorry for those who find them uncomfortable to wear as I often forget I'm wearing them after I've turned them off. They are sublime in every respect.

The best bit for me is the "freedom" of having no wires hanging around you. It allows you do manual labour chores without the worry of catching them up in what you are doing. It's so liberating.

I actually don’t play music directly from my watch. I use the Now Playing app on the watch as a remote control, while my phone is elsewhere/nearby/charging, but the end result is the same - freedom. Volume up/down with the crown wheel is very nice

As for the audio quality, in my opinion AirPods deliver great sound for the purpose of which they’re intended - which is surely casual/fitness/outdoors/urban etc. The way some guys dribble on you’d think they walk down the high street with a pair of Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus strapped to their head

I don’t think I’d use them for video though, as I’m very sensitive to lip sync, and the Bluetooth connection does introduce some latency in my experience.

 

[truthertech]

I didn't say a word about TC, nor tagged this product "not a success."

You spun that they were not available at any Apple stores (which may or may not be true- I didn't check you on that claim), implying continued scarcity. But a simple search finds them readily available at all kinds of other Apple product retailers. My search offered multiple deliver-by-tomorrow options or even pickup tonight at some nearby retailers.

But since you came back and made up stuff I didn't say to make it sound like a hater, I've now checked your claim about Apple stores not having any and my nearest one offers pickup today. In fact, all 12 of my nearest Apple stores have them available for pickup today.

Furthermore, in post #52, you claim none of the Apple Stores in your state have any. iStockNow implies that there should be at least 1+ store in every state that has stock, including Hawaii, Alaska and even Puerto Rico: https://www.istocknow.com/live/#device.0=airpods&brands=18,27,26,11,15,2,16&lowzoom=0&position=37.661913730236, -92.02563329302598&zoom=4 In fact, I can't spot a state on that map that doesn't have at least 1 Apple store claiming to have stock. Granted iStockNow does not claim to be perfect, but their systems "see" a great deal of inventory available (I doubt they could be so wrong). Which state do you live in?

Man you’ve lost all perspective. Look, you’re spending hours trying to convince yourself and others that what TC said isn’t true when he said the AirPods were incredibly popular and Apple was having difficulty keeping up with demand for them. No one is buying what you’re selling.

 

[Donfor39]

Took me ages to purchase AirPods.
Finally after reading lots of 3rd party bluetooth headphone reviews.
I purchased my AirPods a few weeks ago.
What fun in the Gym.
Such nice light wireless free sounds.

 

[341328]

They look terrible in people’s ears. I’ll pass.

 

[pete2106]

I can honestly say that my AirPods are the best earphones I've ever owned. Worth every penny. The ease and convenience of them is unmatched and the battery life is perfect for me, I tend to listen in bursts of 30-60 minutes.

 

[votdfak]

Love my AirPods.

There is a small bump/crack on my left pod. Don't know how I got it.

 

[SuperCachetes]

And so ugly. Bright white couldn't stand out more. (unless that's what you're looking for).

We’re talking about a company that used to have an illuminated logo on the backs of their laptops. So yes, the “standing out” is intentionally placed marketing for Apple, but it also facilitates the “status symbol” aspect for those who care about such things. The truth is that the AirPods are a nicely thought-out and well-engineered piece of equipment.

I was just in NYC and I was shocked how difficult it was to find someone using headphones that weren't AirPods

Same in DC. It’s almost comical.

 

[Donfor39]

I can honestly say that my AirPods are the best earphones I've ever owned. Worth every penny. The ease and convenience of them is unmatched and the battery life is perfect for me, I tend to listen in bursts of 30-60 minutes.

My case light went amber a few days ago
Can I re charge the case?

 

[pete2106]

My case light went amber a few days ago
Can I re charge the case?

Just plug it into the wall with a lightning cable to charge the case.

 

[interessiert]

I confess: AirPods are nice to wear and to use in between
BUT they should be improved:
1. More time for telephone calls is needed (just 1,5 hours is not enough)
2. Also acoustic quality should be improved for telephone calls (EarPods are much better in that)
Seems that 1. and 2. are caused by bidirectional work
3. More resistive against sweat and humidity

Work can start !

 

[pete2106]

I confess: AirPods are nice to wear and to use in between
BUT they should be improved:
1. More time for telephone calls is needed (just 1,5 hours is not enough)
2. Also acoustic quality should be improved for telephone calls (EarPods are much better in that)
Seems that 1. and 2. are caused by bidirectional work
3. More resistive against sweat and humidity

Work can start !

To be fair. Phone calls are secondary functionality. If you're regularly spending more than an hour and a half on calls you'd probably be better using a pair of wired headphones. I wear mine at the gym all the time, I can't say I've noticed any adverse affect from sweat. What sort of problems are people seeing?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Man you’ve lost all perspective. Look, you’re spending hours trying to convince yourself and others that what TC said isn’t true when he said the AirPods were incredibly popular and Apple was having difficulty keeping up with demand for them. No one is buying what you’re selling.

Nothing you wrote here is true. I did not say one word about TC. I did not say one word about whether APs are a successful product or not. It's easy for anyone to step back and read what I wrote down, which was primarily a list of only some mainstream retailers where APs are in stock for anyone interested in getting them immediately. Here's is the exact post (#38)...

...but readily available by tomorrow if ordered on Amazon, various Walmart Vendors, local Target, local Best Buy, etc.

You posted an apparent lie about them not being available in any Apple store (all 12 of the Apple Stores near me had them in stock when I checked yesterday). You posted a probable lie that no Apple store in your state has them in stock (iStockNow shows Apple store inventory in apparently every state).

What I write down is either my own opinions or beliefs with truth best I know it. You apparently spin anything to support an Apple narrative without even checking your facts. It’s fine if people don’t buy what “I’m (not) selling”- that is those people’s choice. But between what I write and what you write, people don’t get any benefit by making up stuff another poster did not say OR outright knowingly or accidentally posting lies that they can easily check and see are untrue themselves in just a few seconds.

You posted no Apple store in your state has APs. Here's the quote in your own words...

Fact is that they are not immediately available from Apple and from many local stores—none in my state.

Which state is that? Apple makes it very easy to see if stores in a state has stock. That’s part of how iStockNow gets their info. Share your state and any people can easily check that "fact" to see if you wrote truth or lies for themselves. That might help them decide if they want to buy what YOU are selling.

Bonus: if you wrote that without checking, identifying an approx. location can probably help us point you to a nearby store where you can go get a pair of APs today... or order now and have them delivered tomorrow.

 

[MrGuder]

I just found out that airpods don't have a volume up and down I couldn't buy them as my 6000 song in iTunes are not all recorded at the same level, some of my CDs I've imported to iTunes suffer from the loudness wars. I've heard you can control vol using Siri but I'm sure that takes multiple tries with her.

 

[pete2106]

I just found out that airpods don't have a volume up and down I couldn't buy them as my 6000 song in iTunes are not all recorded at the same level, some of my CDs I've imported to iTunes suffer from the loudness wars. I've heard you can control vol using Siri but I'm sure that takes multiple tries with her.

That is the one issue I do have with them is that there's no way to adjust volume. iTunes does what it can to balance the volume levels but a lot of the older stuff is recorded at a lower volume so there's not a lot you can do. I suppose you can probably set one bud to activate Siri and ask her to adjust volume but it's a little clumsy.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I just found out that airpods don't have a volume up and down I couldn't buy them as my 6000 song in iTunes are not all recorded at the same level, some of my CDs I've imported to iTunes suffer from the loudness wars. I've heard you can control vol using Siri but I'm sure that takes multiple tries with her.

I don't know if it works with AirPods but there is a Mac or PC app called iVolume which will scan up to all the songs in an iTunes library and "normalize" the volume to address this kind of problem (without changing the quality of the files). It makes lower volume songs louder and louder songs a little quieter to make all of them seem to be about the same volume. To function properly, the playback device- AP in this case- has to utilize the "Sound Check" function in iTunes. Here's a pretty good description of sound check functionality in simple terms. This could be a potential solution for you, whether you buy APs or not.

iVolume works really quickly and can do its thing by song or by album (often the latter is desirable when you have an album of joined songs like Sgt. Pepper, where sudden shifts in relative volume might lessen the listening experience). You can highlight a batch of songs as you add new ones without having to rescan the whole library. In short, it's well done for what it is. However, again, the key is whether any playback device supports "sound check" when playing back as that is where the playback devices gets the information needed to dynamically adjust volume to deliver this benefit. Apple devices generally DO support sound check but I haven't personally seen anything to confirm that APs definitely support it. My guess: they probably do. It seems to be a feature that Apple remembers to support in their own stuff, and it would certainly be a great feature to support with this particular product.

The app author has a contact option on his site. This could be a good (new FAQ) to ask him directly: do APs support "sound check" so that iVolume adjustments will work with them too? Or maybe Apple could answer this question (if Apple supports sound check in APs, then iVolume adjustments will solve this problem).

 

[Donfor39]

Just plug it into the wall with a lightning cable to charge the case.

Thanks I’m not currently home
Thoght I got a charging cable with AirPods .... what did I do with that cable...
Since edited whilst I borrowed a used lightning cable I since found AirPods brand new cable.
used existing cable anyway -how cool is iPhone 8 which displays airpods@100%charge +airpods case@87% charge the amber case LED is the smartest led I've seen in years!

 

[miniyou64]

The audio quality is great. Too bad the connection quality is garbage.

 

[Starship67]

They look terrible in people’s ears. I’ll pass.

They look just like every Apple earphone since 2001 without wires. I guess you like the wires dangling down as a better look. People like you crack me up.

The audio quality is great. Too bad the connection quality is garbage.

You might want to have them checked out. I have 3 sets and the connection quality is very solid on all of them.

 

[MrGuder]

I don't know if it works with AirPods but there is a Mac or PC app called iVolume which will scan up to all the songs in an iTunes library and "normalize" the volume to address this kind of problem (without changing the quality of the files). It makes lower volume songs louder and louder songs a little quieter to make all of them seem to be about the same volume. To function properly, the playback device- AP in this case- has to utilize the "Sound Check" function in iTunes. Here's a pretty good description of sound check functionality in simple terms. This could be a potential solution for you, whether you buy APs or not.

iVolume works really quickly and can do its thing by song or by album (often the latter is desirable when you have an album of joined songs like Sgt. Pepper, where sudden shifts in relative volume might lessen the listening experience). You can highlight a batch of songs as you add new ones without having to rescan the whole library. In short, it's well done for what it is. However, again, the key is whether any playback device supports "sound check" when playing back as that is where the playback devices gets the information needed to dynamically adjust volume to deliver this benefit. Apple devices generally DO support sound check but I haven't personally seen anything to confirm that APs definitely support it. My guess: they probably do. It seems to be a feature that Apple remembers to support in their own stuff, and it would certainly be a great feature to support with this particular product.

The app author has a contact option on his site. This could be a good (new FAQ) to ask him directly: do APs support "sound check" so that iVolume adjustments will work with them too? Or maybe Apple could answer this question (if Apple supports sound check in APs, then iVolume adjustments will solve this problem).

Thanks for the advice and link but I'd never use a sound check or any software across my entire iTunes library that would adjust volume all at the same level. As an audiophile that would be the worse thing I could do to all my 80-100 vinyl records I've ripped into iTunes.

When I buy a set of wireless buds they must have a volume control or tap available on the bud. I think there's a Sony brand that had this feature and there black but there a bit pricey and kinda bulky looking for your ears. I need to do more research.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Sorry, I interpreted the first post as a desire to resolve the “loudness wars” when using a product like AP, not you dynamically adjusting volume up & down manually. If APs work with sound check, that advice would do that trick.

On the other hand, the “purist” want of NOT using such a feature when playing in other ways would be solved by simply NOT check(box)ing the sound check toggle with those other playback mediums. Again, the sound check feature doesn't alter the file themselves, just changes a number in the associated meta-data. It basically asks the system to pass the music to the playback speakers at varying volume levels so that all songs sound like they are playing at about the same volume. It's equivalent to having volume controls and quickly adjusting each song louder or quieter to do the same- you're just delegating that to a chip instead of leaning on your own efforts.

For example, if sound check works with APs, the uniform volume would save someone a lot of manual (adjusting) trouble. Besides, nobody is going to get audiophile playback quality via bluetooth buds- bluetooth just doesn't have the bandwidth for highest quality playback.

On the other hand, if you feed audio to audiophile gear at home, leaving the sound check option unchecked is going to let that equipment play back volume at whatever levels they were recorded. In short, the playback device just ignores the metadata volume setting and plays the file at whatever volume it was recorded. You can hear it at varying levels as recorded and dynamically adjust volume if desired OR toggle one box when you might not feel like being as active adjusting volume and let your technology do the song-to-song adjusting for you.

Personally, I love such a simple option to activate and deactivate this feature in a click. To get what you seem to want is probably pointing you to the wired buds with volume controls, which should both play at a higher quality and give you that ability to dynamically adjust volume if you want to do so.

 

[twinlight]

They are by far the most practical and easy to use accessory I have ever bought.

Used them since launch day and would not change them to something else!

Sound could be improved obviously and better battery time would be nice.

 

[TMRJIJ]

They always have them on the shelf in my campus bookstore. Didn't think there was any shortage.

Lucky you. My campus bookstore never got them. We have to order them online (school tax included). Every person I've seen with them here just went to the Apple Store or Amazon.

 

[69650]

So because Apple doesn’t show numbers of the AirPods, that must mean it’s a failure? Seems That is what you’re inferring.

Also, Please list other manufacturers who release sales for specific products they manufacture.

Tim Cook is the one who said it’s a huge hit without providing any evidence to prove that statement.