<story><title>AirPods with Wireless Charging Case</title><url>https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MRXJ2AM/A/airpods-with-wireless-charging-case</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>exergy</author><text>To me, that blows big holes in the argument that Airpods are better than wired earphones. It&amp;#x27;s compromises up and down the chart with the sole benefit being wirelessness? Are people nowadays really that rich that they can dump 150 USD EVERY two to three years just to get rid of a wire?!&lt;p&gt;Also, I just can&amp;#x27;t fathom people&amp;#x27;s willingness to let &lt;i&gt;so much tech&lt;/i&gt; into their lives. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, airpods... all of which need to be constantly charged, and replaced once their batteries die, because they cannot be swapped out, meaning the rest of the apparatus lies impotent in a dumpster for a thousand years or more, never to biodegrade... it&amp;#x27;s depressing and wearisome to picture.</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>I really wish I could put myself into the shoes of people who think that &lt;i&gt;fifteen minutes&lt;/i&gt; of using only one earbud is a big deal, but I honestly just can&amp;#x27;t.</text></item><item><author>EpicEng</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s all well and good if using one were the same as using two. Of course, it isn&amp;#x27;t...</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>&amp;gt; and can&amp;#x27;t be charged while being used&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ll just address this point, because it is categorically incorrect and something &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; people misunderstood when they were first released.&lt;p&gt;There are two of them. You can use them independently from one another. When you hear the &amp;quot;low battery&amp;quot; tone, it&amp;#x27;s trivial to remove one and continue to use the other. By the time the tone plays again in the one you continued to use (signaling critically low battery), you just swap which earbud is in the case. The one that was in the case will be almost fully charged at this point.&lt;p&gt;The effect is that you can pretty much use them indefinitely without a full interruption. And using only one at a time is mostly unnoticeable.</text></item><item><author>brucemoose</author><text>I honestly can&amp;#x27;t say I understand the draw to drop significant money on a new set of headphones that need to be charged at least as often as a my phone, and can&amp;#x27;t be charged while being used.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve had the same set of high quality in-ear wired headphones for the last 5 years or longer and have zero issues with them (I just replace the foam every so often for about $5).  What is the improvement I am missing here?</text></item><item><author>pwthornton</author><text>If Apple does in fact release AirPower, and it works well, I&amp;#x27;ll probably upgrade to these. A better charging situation is one of the things that could improve the AirPods.&lt;p&gt;Just today my AirPods case wasn&amp;#x27;t charging because lint got into my lightning port. I didn&amp;#x27;t realize the case wasn&amp;#x27;t charging until I realized my AirPods were low on power despite me charging the case a lot the last few days. Inductive charging is a lot more durable in a lot of ways.&lt;p&gt;I take my AirPods everywhere with me. They fit perfectly into a pair of jeans. They are one of Apple&amp;#x27;s best products in years.&lt;p&gt;I find myself listening to way more audiobooks and podcasts because of this. If I have a minutes to burn, I can just pull them out and listen. Also, AirPods are great for phone calls. I use them for almost every phone call, and having them always on me has changed how I interact with computing devices. If the Apple Watch ever really gets full featured (with more robust cellular features in particular), I could see myself often just having a Watch and AirPods with me, while leaving my phone behind.&lt;p&gt;The other things I would like to see Apple do are: Official water resistance ratings to better work for athletics and in the rain; and the ability to have different tips on them to increase fit for more people and to provide the option of sealing out outside noise.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stouset</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s compromises up and down the chart&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;What&lt;/i&gt; compromises?&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re literally always on my person. At all times. Without even having to think about it, because they just come along with my phone and keys whenever they change pockets.&lt;p&gt;I can wear them all day and basically forget they&amp;#x27;re there, even when pausing audio to have conversations with people physically in front of me.&lt;p&gt;For phone calls, they&amp;#x27;re measurably more convenient since I can just leave my phone on my desk and continue whatever it was I was previously doing.&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;compromises&amp;quot; I have to make, on the other hand are completely insignificant. Sometimes I have to take one earbud out. Sometimes the case is low on battery so I plug it in at the nearest cable on my desk or nightstand. The audio quality is perfectly fine, I have never noticed a difference unless I was explicitly trying to look for one.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Are people nowadays really that rich that they can dump 150 USD EVERY two to three years just to get rid of a wire?!&lt;p&gt;Why do you seem to believe that these will only last two or three years? Mine are 2.5 years in and I can&amp;#x27;t say I&amp;#x27;ve noticed any kind of battery degradation. Surely they won&amp;#x27;t continue to last indefinitely, but every other wired headphone I&amp;#x27;ve used has had the wire fray sooner or later anyway.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Also, I just can&amp;#x27;t fathom people&amp;#x27;s willingness to let &lt;i&gt;so much tech&lt;/i&gt; into their lives.&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t reply to the other comment you made, but I find it telling that you&amp;#x27;ve decided that &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt; get to be the gatekeeper for what is &amp;quot;too much tech&amp;quot; and what&amp;#x27;s not. From that comment, &amp;quot;Every person deserves... a laptop... and a smartphone&amp;quot;. And headphones too, apparently. But &lt;i&gt;wireless&lt;/i&gt; headphones are where we as a society should draw the line?&lt;p&gt;Somehow I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;d be surprised to find you having this same conversation ten years ago deriding how rich people must be to afford  a $1,000 cell phone every few years, when flip phones are just as good and aren&amp;#x27;t full of compromises like software keyboards.</text></comment>
<story><title>AirPods with Wireless Charging Case</title><url>https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MRXJ2AM/A/airpods-with-wireless-charging-case</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>exergy</author><text>To me, that blows big holes in the argument that Airpods are better than wired earphones. It&amp;#x27;s compromises up and down the chart with the sole benefit being wirelessness? Are people nowadays really that rich that they can dump 150 USD EVERY two to three years just to get rid of a wire?!&lt;p&gt;Also, I just can&amp;#x27;t fathom people&amp;#x27;s willingness to let &lt;i&gt;so much tech&lt;/i&gt; into their lives. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, airpods... all of which need to be constantly charged, and replaced once their batteries die, because they cannot be swapped out, meaning the rest of the apparatus lies impotent in a dumpster for a thousand years or more, never to biodegrade... it&amp;#x27;s depressing and wearisome to picture.</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>I really wish I could put myself into the shoes of people who think that &lt;i&gt;fifteen minutes&lt;/i&gt; of using only one earbud is a big deal, but I honestly just can&amp;#x27;t.</text></item><item><author>EpicEng</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s all well and good if using one were the same as using two. Of course, it isn&amp;#x27;t...</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>&amp;gt; and can&amp;#x27;t be charged while being used&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ll just address this point, because it is categorically incorrect and something &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; people misunderstood when they were first released.&lt;p&gt;There are two of them. You can use them independently from one another. When you hear the &amp;quot;low battery&amp;quot; tone, it&amp;#x27;s trivial to remove one and continue to use the other. By the time the tone plays again in the one you continued to use (signaling critically low battery), you just swap which earbud is in the case. The one that was in the case will be almost fully charged at this point.&lt;p&gt;The effect is that you can pretty much use them indefinitely without a full interruption. And using only one at a time is mostly unnoticeable.</text></item><item><author>brucemoose</author><text>I honestly can&amp;#x27;t say I understand the draw to drop significant money on a new set of headphones that need to be charged at least as often as a my phone, and can&amp;#x27;t be charged while being used.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve had the same set of high quality in-ear wired headphones for the last 5 years or longer and have zero issues with them (I just replace the foam every so often for about $5).  What is the improvement I am missing here?</text></item><item><author>pwthornton</author><text>If Apple does in fact release AirPower, and it works well, I&amp;#x27;ll probably upgrade to these. A better charging situation is one of the things that could improve the AirPods.&lt;p&gt;Just today my AirPods case wasn&amp;#x27;t charging because lint got into my lightning port. I didn&amp;#x27;t realize the case wasn&amp;#x27;t charging until I realized my AirPods were low on power despite me charging the case a lot the last few days. Inductive charging is a lot more durable in a lot of ways.&lt;p&gt;I take my AirPods everywhere with me. They fit perfectly into a pair of jeans. They are one of Apple&amp;#x27;s best products in years.&lt;p&gt;I find myself listening to way more audiobooks and podcasts because of this. If I have a minutes to burn, I can just pull them out and listen. Also, AirPods are great for phone calls. I use them for almost every phone call, and having them always on me has changed how I interact with computing devices. If the Apple Watch ever really gets full featured (with more robust cellular features in particular), I could see myself often just having a Watch and AirPods with me, while leaving my phone behind.&lt;p&gt;The other things I would like to see Apple do are: Official water resistance ratings to better work for athletics and in the rain; and the ability to have different tips on them to increase fit for more people and to provide the option of sealing out outside noise.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>icanhackit</author><text>People collect cars, watches, shoes, expensive clothing. On the extreme end there&amp;#x27;s figurines, paintings, antiques -- at least the former items have utility, the latter are mere articles for signalling to others.&lt;p&gt;Does it really blow your mind that the ability to move freely without being tethered to a phone is a selling point? I can give an example where it really helps for me: I&amp;#x27;m a nudist.&lt;p&gt;But even when clothed I like walking around able to take a call or listen to music without snagging a cable on one of the many protrusions in this world like door handles, kitchen cupboard handles etc which can also lead to an expensive phone launching from my pocket onto the floor.&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;re worried about pollution, Airpods should be on the low end of the concerns list.</text></comment>