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Great, another splintering.. can't use the regular bluetooth chip that everyone else uses to make it universal.. No no.. we have to have our own nonsense again. This is getting old quickly.
Well if a custom bluetooth chip gets you far superior battery life and bandwidth...what exactly are you complaining about?

These boards constantly whine about Apple not innovating, yet when they potentially leap ahead of the slow moving standards bodies people continue to whine even if it's to their benefit. It's amazing really.
 
The horrible thing about the AirPods is that they'll probably have a soldered-on battery and be incredibly expensive. Aside from the bother of having yet another device to keep charged up, I'm not going to pony up big $$$ every two years for new headphones/earbuds.
This is one case where I would absolutely want a soldered on battery. I can't think of a sin for easily user survivable product in this category and that is because of size and water proofing requirements and limitations.

I hear what you are saying, because I do like to service as much as I can when I can, but this is one case where I feel like a user serviceable product makes a worse product overall.
 
Great, another splintering.. can't use the regular bluetooth chip that everyone else uses to make it universal.. No no.. we have to have our own nonsense again. This is getting old quickly.
What you think it won't be backwards compatible? Of course it will
 
What makes you think the headphones/earbuds would have to be replaced every two years?
I think that's just based on the general charge cycles of products we use. Apple recommends a battery be replaced st 80%. I tend to reach that at about two years in my devices.

Of course the battery could be replaced, theoretically. Or Apple could just charge a battery replacement fee and hand you a new (refurb) set.

I'm most worried about losing the damn things lol.
 
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Apple = Proprietary=CONTOL
They've capitalized on this for years and their bank account shows for it.
And I'm STILL drinking their Kool-aide:)
 
According to Kuo, Apple will sell its Apple-branded Bluetooth headphones alongside its Beats line of headphones, targeting the high-end market with the "AirPods" and the mid-range market with the Beats headphones. It is not clear if that means the AirPods will be priced higher than Beats headphones are at the current time or if Apple plans to lower prices on Beats going forward.While Apple will sell multiple models of Bluetooth headphones and expects strong growth potential in the market, Kuo does not believe the company will package Bluetooth headphones with the iPhone 7. Instead, Apple is likely to ship the iPhone 7 with Lightning-based EarPods that feature a Lightning connector instead of a 3.5mm headphone jack.​

Says it all, doesn't it?

I just don't see how Apple can compete in the high-end in terms of quality with the companies that focus solely on audio who make very very nice products.

But I can see them competing in the high-end in terms of price with companies like Bose etc.
 
Not at the expense of interoperability and ease of connecting. At a certain point we start to get diminishing returns, like going from 4K to hypothetical 6K in a home theater setup. Sure, it's "better", but probably not worth it.

We know, quite literally, nothing about the custom BT chip.
 
Yes, a universal standard that would be cheaper and easier for third party manufacturer's to utilize, and if past trends hold, will stick around for at least a decade if not longer given past trends. But who needs that nonsense, right?

10 + years with Micro USB? No thanks.

USB-C wasn't around when Lightning was created in 2012 and is STILL not on the some of the top Android phones *cough* Galaxy.

These ports will be gone soon anyway. The shift to wireless is inevitable.
 
The questions is whether this will be an additional proprietary radio or not. I don't see others not workig with this. I see exclusive peripherals though. Jury is out in howbthat effects me on the future, if at all.
As long as works with my car stereo, for me, that's good enough. That's almost the only time I use BT.
 
Know what? That it feel out, rolled down the gutter and down the manhole into the abyss?
So what you want is a "find my air pod" feature?

I was simply asking what was implied here. When an ID falls or of me ear I know it. If you meant a lunging indication, that makes more sense.
 
Well actually bragi just unveiled a new headphone yesterday, basically the dash stripped of internal storage, and touch gestures as well as the excersie/heart rate stuff. basically same design, but has 3 physical buttons now. still completely wireless, 6 hour battery life too all for $150.
They probably estimated what Apple's are going to cost and under priced their's to compete.
 
As long as works with my car stereo, for me, that's good enough. That's almost the only time I use BT.
Fair enough. I'm talking about the airports themselves and whether they are limited to use with newer devices. I'm leaning towards likely not but we won't know until tomorrow, perhaps slightly later.
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If they didn't work with existing Bluetooth transmitting devices, then they couldn't be called Bluetooth, right?
I really don't know. Depends on what licensing magic Apple acquired and will use. We don't even know they will be called that. Just that they'll use similar tech.
 
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Great, another splintering.. can't use the regular bluetooth chip that everyone else uses to make it universal.. No no.. we have to have our own nonsense again. This is getting old quickly.

Yeah, Apple should have never created iTunes and splintered the music industry... That would be such an inconvenience.... /s

It's not about universality, it's about creating a better experience. If Apple can make it better, why wouldn't they?
 
I thought the Beats headphones were pretty expensive - but I am not much of an audiophile. Can someone who knows please comment - what does a really nice pair of wired headphones cost - what is high end?
The price just keeps on going up. For a frame of reference the very popular Audeze LCD-4 retails for $3,995.00
 
I thought the Beats headphones were pretty expensive - but I am not much of an audiophile. Can someone who knows please comment - what does a really nice pair of wired headphones cost - what is high end?
I've asked several people for better alternatives to Beats headphones and I've been told Audio Technica M50x is a much better sound for less money. I personally haven't tried them though.

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Techni...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473182794&sr=8-1&keywords=mx50
 
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Well if a custom bluetooth chip gets you far superior battery life and bandwidth...what exactly are you complaining about?

These boards constantly whine about Apple not innovating, yet when they potentially leap ahead of the slow moving standards bodies people continue to whine even if it's to their benefit. It's amazing really.

This forum can be used as a case study.
 
I don't think Apple's version will be ready for tomorrow's event, that's why they have got a new range of Beats to announce, as a back up.
 
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