<story><title>AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)</title><url>https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cafed00d</author><text>All of this has a super simple explanation: the shitty products always have org structures that treat software dev as shitty cost centers.&lt;p&gt;It took a long time to realize that the most compelling devices have good, well maintained software.&lt;p&gt;I don’t mean to say that software devs are geniuses or that these orgs have to hire the best of the best. No, they just need to create an org that prioritizes software dev.  Low attrition, increased visibility, the usual. You don’t need fancy new features. Just make sure the intern who wrote your v1 Bluetooth driver feels compelled enough to stay on to become a staff engineer running a team that still assures bugs get fixed. Simple.</text></item><item><author>hardwaregeek</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s wild how much money Apple has made from Bluetooth headphones that don&amp;#x27;t suck. That&amp;#x27;s literally it. They&amp;#x27;re portable, pair easily and (somewhat) work with multiple devices. I have top of the line Bose Bluetooth headphones that still, in 2022, have issues with multiple devices. I can&amp;#x27;t count how many times I&amp;#x27;ve started playing music on my iPhone only to realize that the headphones think my laptop is playing, so they just silently suppress my phone. And the only way to fix it is to go into the inane Bose app and disconnect the laptop. Why the hell can&amp;#x27;t you just tell the headphones to play from the phone and keep the laptop connected? It&amp;#x27;s so bad.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vlovich123</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s also possible that their Bluetooth stack for the AirPods is likely sharing a lot of code with their battle-tested iOS stack which puts even Android&amp;#x27;s to shame (I worked at both places and even Googler&amp;#x27;s acknowledged Android has some serious problems and Apple kicked there ass here).&lt;p&gt;A sibling noted the H1 chip and whatnot. I don&amp;#x27;t know how much the specific chip matters for that piece (certainly key for battery life &amp;amp; having both buds appear as a single device). After all, their Bluetooth stack was better than the competition even back when they were using off the shelf chips. Still, it&amp;#x27;s possible off the shelf chips for acting as the master are somehow simpler than the chips for acting as a slave (or maybe you notice it more).</text></comment>
<story><title>AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)</title><url>https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cafed00d</author><text>All of this has a super simple explanation: the shitty products always have org structures that treat software dev as shitty cost centers.&lt;p&gt;It took a long time to realize that the most compelling devices have good, well maintained software.&lt;p&gt;I don’t mean to say that software devs are geniuses or that these orgs have to hire the best of the best. No, they just need to create an org that prioritizes software dev.  Low attrition, increased visibility, the usual. You don’t need fancy new features. Just make sure the intern who wrote your v1 Bluetooth driver feels compelled enough to stay on to become a staff engineer running a team that still assures bugs get fixed. Simple.</text></item><item><author>hardwaregeek</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s wild how much money Apple has made from Bluetooth headphones that don&amp;#x27;t suck. That&amp;#x27;s literally it. They&amp;#x27;re portable, pair easily and (somewhat) work with multiple devices. I have top of the line Bose Bluetooth headphones that still, in 2022, have issues with multiple devices. I can&amp;#x27;t count how many times I&amp;#x27;ve started playing music on my iPhone only to realize that the headphones think my laptop is playing, so they just silently suppress my phone. And the only way to fix it is to go into the inane Bose app and disconnect the laptop. Why the hell can&amp;#x27;t you just tell the headphones to play from the phone and keep the laptop connected? It&amp;#x27;s so bad.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>s3r3nity</author><text>I think you&amp;#x27;re 85-90% right - but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t undersell the impact of Apple&amp;#x27;s proprietary W1 &amp;#x2F; H1 &amp;#x2F; H2 chips in their headphones either.</text></comment>