iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods Named to Time Magazine's Best Gadgets of the Decade

[curtvaughan]

Before the AirPods, everyone was walking around with the white EarPods that came with the iPhones and iPods. iPhones still come with the same wired headphones, that work with the jack the phone has. But everyone is buying EarPods, not because they have no choice, but because they are amazing and people are willing to spend an extra $160 or more for them.

Two things: wired headphones going through a dongle-to-lightning interface likely have more latency and filtering issues than a direct jack connection would have, not to mention that the phones can no longer provide wired headphone access and charge at the same time. Secondly, even iPhones like the 6S+, the last headphone jack equipped iPhone, had relatively inferior DAC hardware compared to something like the LG V-series phones. Given the current iPhone configuration, you are probably correct that high cost bluetooth headphones are the best alternative available for superior sound coming from the iPhone. If the wired headphones produced by Apple had high quality DAC/Amplifier hardware, say similar to that configured with the AirPods, a similar high quality sound would result.

As for high quality earbuds/headphones, Apple is one of several available. CNET has some examples:

https://www.cnet.com/topics/headphones/best-headphones/stereo-bluetooth/

 

[I7guy]

Two things: wired headphones going through a dongle-to-lightning interface likely have more latency and filtering issues than a direct jack connection would have, not to mention that the phones can no longer provide wired headphone access and charge at the same time. Secondly, even iPhones like the 6S+, the last headphone jack equipped iPhone, had relatively inferior DAC hardware compared to something like the LG V-series phones. Given the current iPhone configuration, you are probably correct that high cost bluetooth headphones are the best alternative available for superior sound coming from the iPhone. If the wired headphones produced by Apple had high quality DAC/Amplifier hardware, say similar to that configured with the AirPods, a similar high quality sound would result.

As for high quality earbuds/headphones, Apple is one of several available. CNET has some examples:

https://www.cnet.com/topics/headphones/best-headphones/stereo-bluetooth/

There’s a difference between a theoretical filtering and latency issue and an actual filtering and latency issue. If one demands an audiophile experience the iPhone is not for you.

If one wants a good balance of convenience, features and good sound quality that’s what the AirPods offer.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Interesting perspectives we both have. When I say dying breed, I am basically looking at the overall stagnancy of the product. Besides power, which most people don’t need much of, there really hasn’t been many positive developments in the traditional pc as of late. Same positives and negatives as always. When it comes to the iPad, I see a number of positives over a traditional pc, such as overall cost, app management, variety of software, security/privacy, battery life, always on consistent performance, zero upkeep, extreme mobility, better for collaboration, and pencil support. iPad OS still has a ways to go, but definitely holds it‘a own. There isn’t anything I need a traditional computer for today. I manage a team of 60 people so I would agree that it all depends on the task (I don’t do much operational work) at hand, but I see the iPad or tablets being a much more important part of the future of computing than a traditional pc. The ability to use as is and quickly dock in and out of a mouse/keyboard set up on a desk seems like the best solution, not a laptop or a desktop.

You say "stagnancy", I say "maturity", the design of desktops and laptops have pretty much already been optimised years ago, there's nowhere and no need for them to go much further. The main reason iPads aren't fully mature yet is they are still running the hobbled iOS, and Tim probably bashes himself in the head every day trying to decide whether to turn them into a real computer with a real OS, or keep them hobbled and locked down to the app store.

Most of the things you claim to be better on iPad, well, I just can't see what you're even talking about. Better security? You mean, there's an annoying walled garden preventing you from doing a lot of normal things? I have zero problems with security on my MBP, but complete freedom. Variety of software? Are you kidding? There is no software on my iPhone that I want and can't have on my laptop, but there is plenty the other way around. If you're talking about pencil being a bonus, then have a look at MicroSoft's Surface Studio. And Apple haven't done it yet, but I imagine touch screens and pencil support will come to the laptops and desktops eventually, I'm not quite sure why they went down this annoying touch bar route. My friend has a MS laptop with a touch screen, and it's like an iPad but with full size keyboard, SSD, and RAM, and runs a real OS, I'm definitely slightly jealous of the touch screen, it was pretty cool to use. And so on....

Regardless, that's not the point. It's horses for courses. iPads suit your needs perfectly and completely. They are useless to me, but a laptop suits my needs perfectly and completely. At work, if my company supports work at home, they will give me a laptop with extra screen realestate at a desk. If they don't, then it will be a desktop for best price/performance/upgradeability/repairability. I can't foresee any of that changing anytime soon.

 

[EightyTwenty]

Then I’m not sure of the point you were trying to make.

That the iPad was a product of the Steve Jobs era.

 

[DNichter]

You say "stagnancy", I say "maturity", the design of desktops and laptops have pretty much already been optimised years ago, there's nowhere and no need for them to go much further. The main reason iPads aren't fully mature yet is they are still running the hobbled iOS, and Tim probably bashes himself in the head every day trying to decide whether to turn them into a real computer with a real OS, or keep them hobbled and locked down to the app store.

Most of the things you claim to be better on iPad, well, I just can't see what you're even talking about. Better security? You mean, there's an annoying walled garden preventing you from doing a lot of normal things? I have zero problems with security on my MBP, but complete freedom. Variety of software? Are you kidding? There is no software on my iPhone that I want and can't have on my laptop, but there is plenty the other way around. If you're talking about pencil being a bonus, then have a look at MicroSoft's Surface Studio. And Apple haven't done it yet, but I imagine touch screens and pencil support will come to the laptops and desktops eventually, I'm not quite sure why they went down this annoying touch bar route. My friend has a MS laptop with a touch screen, and it's like an iPad but with full size keyboard, SSD, and RAM, and runs a real OS, I'm definitely slightly jealous of the touch screen, it was pretty cool to use. And so on....

Regardless, that's not the point. It's horses for courses. iPads suit your needs perfectly and completely. They are useless to me, but a laptop suits my needs perfectly and completely. At work, if my company supports work at home, they will give me a laptop with extra screen realestate at a desk. If they don't, then it will be a desktop for best price/performance/upgradeability/repairability. I can't foresee any of that changing anytime soon.

That's fine, same thing, it just feels dated at this point. iPad OS still has room to grow, but obviously a ton of potential. Unfortunately, anytime I use macOS today, I become frustrated because it just feels so dated and buggy. Maybe that's just an Apple focus problem, but I think they are right to turn attention to the future.

Yes, the software is controlled, that is a big part of it. In regards to apps, there is just so much more available for the iPad. For most apps that live in the traditional PC world, there is a comparable app on iOS, aside from the extremely specialized ones.

The Surface Studio is a nice piece of hardware, but it's a huge desktop that doesn't provide any mobility or ability to take notes all over the office. Plus, it runs Windows - no advantage there. I have a Surface for a week long work trip once and it was not impressive at all, just another Windows laptop.

As I mentioned, it comes down to the individual. I don't handle operational work so I am fortunate enough to be able use just an iPad for all my needs.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I agree that macOS seems buggy these days, the quality control has gone downhill. I am still on High Sierra, which seems stable, and am in zero hurry to upgrade, especially to Catalina. That is not an argument for "laptop and desktop is dying out", it is an argument for Apple needs to get its act together with software quality control.

As a software developer, I use apps like Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, DataGrip, MySQLWorkbench, and so on. I can't say I've exactly checked, but I'm pretty sure the companies creating these tools haven't bothered to port them to iOS/iPadOS. I'm sure it's a similar story for a swath of professionals and the software tools they use. Even if they did port them, guys like me are never going to switch to an iPad because we use a keyboard constantly, and if you're constantly needing a keyboard for your iPad, then you may as well just get a laptop. We also want more screen realestate that the current largest iPad. I also constantly use the Unix terminal underlying macOS. I also sometimes need to run Windows on VMWare for testing or dev work, and this is just a no on iPad. And so on. I need so many things that are simply not possible on an iPad, or horribly cumbersome if they are possible.

I brought up MS Surface Studio simply because you talked about pencil like it was a iPad only thing, and I was simply pointing out that it's only not a thing on Apple laptops and desktops because Apple have chosen that, not because it can't be.

laptop and desktop form factors are far from dying out.