Apple AirPods are designed to die: Here’s what you should know

No shit. And get this - The iPhone 7 did have enough space for a headphone jack.

I'm so angry that the 3.5 jack is gone... same with microsd slots....its such BS.
- There's still phones that have them, like Sony phones
- There was no reason to get rid of the headphone jack. Funny enough, the microSD cards are designed to fail. When you're using them in dash cams, cameras and drones they know they have to reach a certain bit rate and when they see that not happening they tell you that it's time to format and/or replace. But using them as a supplemental file system in the phone is dicey. The difference between underperforming and being a problem is a line in the sand that Android has a mastered. Google even tried a series of tactics to make them less dodgy. They tried to make it where you can't install apps out there. But even just putting media and other stuff out there when the operating system goes to check the storage driver can cause hiccups and lags and weird problems.
  If SD cards weren't almost all disposable trash we might be able to use them in our phones without creating any performance or support nightmares.

Repairable earbuds are now here, so that's pretty cool. https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds

It's not for me because I like wired but it's much better than apples.

Huh, no shipping to the US it seems. I guess I'll be waiting for a while then.
- They are planning to extend. I wouldn't hold my breath though until they give a solid date.
Ugh. Gross I hate the in ear canal things. Absolutely the worst.
My problème is that all the non apple ear phones wireless suck. Iike the plain basic airpods for the ear fit. Not because apple.
- How are Apple’s AirPods not “in ear canal things”?
- Ugh, i hate people that think only their view of the world is valid.
- Agree, the soft tip earbuds always fall out of my ears/don't have a good seal. I couldn't find ANY decent alternative to airpods, I've been using my airpod 3's for over a year for 8+ hours a day. If someone knows of a secret headphone manufacturer that makes wireless buds with good battery life and non-soft tips, I'm ALL EARS
- Downvotes shall list better headphones.
  I myself have not found a better solution.
  I like apple headphones and i settled on similar shaped non-apple brand at a fraction af the price, but it is lower in quality compared to apple. Microphone is crap and I stopped trying to use it. Headphones level is good at low level and high level sound reproduction, but it is not as accurate as apple.
  In the end the trade off is worth it to me for the price, but i will not claim at is better.
  So, bring on your alternative and price of it.

Apple should design them to last.

Well, they should, but they won't.

Right. This goes for every company, ever. No company is going to do what they should do if it's not profitable or beneficial to them in some way. It makes sense if you think about it, but that's also why regulation exists. So that they don't become too unhinged.

Apple has always been rabidly proprietary. Only in europe has any authority been able to force them to put their customers first

I’ve got the 3rd gen and it’s lasted at least 3 years now.

It’s really nice to see what this community has to offer on lemmy. I quit Reddit because I refuse to use the Reddit app. I really do like the comments more than Reddit, and I’m a wannabe techno savvy Linux pro but I’m still working on basic motivation. Therapy included.

I’ve got Linux on Debian cause I needed the stability to handle my instability, I’ve read through the Linux command line and fell in love with emacs, and all I do on my pc is write, now. And pay bills, but that’s just Firefox. “Just the internet,” lol. It’s hard to try to contain, so I write.

Hope I don’t get banned for irrelevance. No hate here. Just rambling through.

This is how to comment effectively on Lemmy.
If you post about an Apple product working reasonably, in order to counteract the confirmation bias downvotes, you are required to supply two paragraphs praising Linux.
- I laughed inappropriately loud at this comment.
- Hahaha true.
  I also like the Airpods Pro :) I even rebought them, when I lost them. Only apple item I ever owned. But the fit is awesome and they never hurt. I could wear them all day. And battery lifetime is probably as long as the one of a smartphone battery.
- I downvoted for mostly irrelevance but then read your comment and you're right. Upvotes for both of you.

In less than two years, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery found in your AirPods is due to die an untimely death.

Bullshit. I got four years out of each of my pairs and I used them several hours a day. Also replacing the battery when it does wear out is is something like 50 bucks. Sure, you can't do it yourself but Apple will give you a refurbished pair, and they will recycle your old battery.

And they provide free recycling for all their products — you're basically paying for it to be recycled when you buy AirPods and any that go into landfill that's entirely the customer's fault.

No wired headphones I've ever owned lasted even close to that long - the cable eventually fails with several hours per day of swinging around and being packed tightly into your pocket.

That said, I've switched to bone conduction headphones now, and will probably never own another pair of airpods unless they go down the same path.

I'm looking at waterproof bone conduction headphones to use in the hot tub, clearly you like yours, are they waterproof too?
- I find it funny that people seek special overpriced "bone conducting" earbuds when they already normally do that when sounds vibrate your fucking ear drums.
$50 bucks? I bought two batteries for $4 each from China and they came with sealant to recreate the waterproof seal.
This only works when you can open the earphones and the battery is not soldered (my hands are not so steady not to fuck anything up)

Samsung Galaxy Buds and Buds+ were good. I'm waiting to see someone take apart Buds FE to see if the battery is soldered
I myself got Sony linkbuds S, which also have an easy to replace battery
- There's no room for connectors in something that small.

Here is what you should know: never ever buy a shit product

10-4, i will continue to stay in my basement and not order things because I'm broke.

My aunt gave me a pair despite me being an Android person, I used them simply because they were free, and they died like a year later. I got some JBLs which are excellent thus far.

That’s because the components inside each little white stick are glued together. Apple could use screws and latches to hold together the components. That way, if something needed to be repaired or replaced, you could easily get inside the device in order to fix it. But Apple doesn’t do this.

So as usual, they purposefully do this. This reminds me of the time with the iPhone battery 'scandal' Apple Batterygate.

I really like their Airpods Pro (1st gen), have them for about 4 years now. However not without problems. I had to replace them 5 times because of crackling sounds, muffled sound and broke-bass sounds. This even happend after my 2 years warranty but luckily (and thankfully) the Apple employees are nice people at times. When it happened (twice) outside my warranty, they told me, if I showed them my receipt - They can and will give me a new pair of Airpods Pros.

They told me ''many do not know but there's a law that forces companies (even Apple) to give a 'decent product' to the customer''.

Not sure if I will get their Airpods Pro 2 (or 3) though after all the hassle.

EDIT: As I'm not sure if this law is also outside my country, here's the official government website with their explanation of it. It is in the Dutch language though: Rijksoverheid deugdelijk product

Each to their own, but I personally can't imagine having to replace a faulty product 5 times and still wanting to use it
Only an apple zombie would be loyal to a product that crappy 5 times? My $30 Sesh earbuds work like a champ after several years. Then I got the $100 pixel A buds for free with a new phone and have been using those for years with no problems. Since they were so cheap I use the Sesh buds in the shower to listen to music or podcasts and they still work fine. I abuse cheaper products and they last longer than luxury brand crap.
- I mean, if you don’t understand that I only paid once and that Apple replaced them freely even out of warranty. And that, that’s why I keep using the AirPods Pro (1st gen) for now.
  I don’t know what else to tell you. You can call me an “Apple zombie” if that satisfies yourself. But it doesn’t make sense.
  I’m not going to explain myself to a stranger that soft-insult and can’t even give an good argument as to why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
- Haha no shit. It's like 1000 worth of air pods.
  Customers like this deserve to be ripped off imo.

The batteries in my awesome 49 bucks LG HBS 800 are still alive and kicking like 10 hours per day after what, 5 years now? Too bad this particular one was discontinued, but at least I have 2.

I also had 300 dollar sony buds, half the Audio quality with batteries that lasted 6 months, now I have 5 minutes of shitty audio quality before they die, yay!

Fuck these design to fail products, they should be outlawed

Charging patterns can make a big difference FWIW
I don't think there's that much variance in lithium battery quality.
- The ollbly difference in charging patterns is that the LG headset already lasted 10 hours from the start where the Sony only lasted 5. I couldn't get a full day of work out of the Sony's

Tbf they can't exactly make something with batteries that is designed to last forever can they?

Unless of course, they make the batteries consumer replaceable. But that's not going to happen.

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds Repairable, replaceable earbuds exist. Apple has no excuse. And I say that as an Apple user.
- Yeah I'm aware of fairbuds. Apple aren't an outlier in this regard, nobody has any excuse. We need more companies to start offering replacement parts like Fairphone do!!
- Not available in US 😭
I replaced the batteries in my Samsung earbuds. It wasn't super easy but it was tool-less.

Surprised the title didn't say, "Apple slammed for ear pods that are designed to die".

Gluing components together so it's not easy/impossible to repair is different to 'designing to die'. In my opinion designed to die suggests the ear pods will die prematurely due to intentional design decisions. Gluing components together just means that when the ear pods die, then they cannot be brought back to life and you have to replace them.

For every article not containing the word slammed, there's a comment that mentions the lack of the word slammed. This way, we'll never get rid of it
- Lemming SLAMMED for commenting on lack of this one weird word in article title (editors hate him)

The headline could have been Apple make Apple product.

I have earphones that are 15-20 years old (UE Triple-fi 10s and Yuin PK2s, the first wave of Chi-fi products), 2-3 year (or even 5) lifespan for audio products is insane.

Over-ear studio headphones, yeah, I expect those to last for a long ass time. But in-ear? Battery or not, a lot of those just get beat to shit after years. Even if you’re buying some nice IEMs. Been this way for as long as I can remember.
- Put them in a case with a silica packet? What's wrong with your IEMs?

I got mine in 2019 and still going

Edit: mine are pro not reg

The battery lasts shorter than when you got them
- Regular 2019 still last more than six hours so that’s a thing
- No shit. So does every battery. But 5 years in they’re still going. Not the 2 the article says. But apple should design them to be swapped or longer for environment.

Mine are still working after 5 years. I probably average 1-2 hours a day on them though which may be less than normal.

I’ve got 4yrs on mine, I use them for meetings at work and regularly do 3hr meetings with them, probably averaging about 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week. They ran out for me the other day after a 3.5hr meeting, but luckily just one did, so I had it charge while I was using the other and made it through the 5hr outage call.
Not ideal, but the 4 other head sets (2 bt and two wired I got from the company) sounded terrible (either the microphone or the speaker or both) so they’re my go to pair.
I do wish you could swap the battery, but if I make It to 5 yrs it’d probably be fine considering how much I use them. I’d even be okay if they’d just make that a pro feature. At least give us the choice.
- You could just use the wired Apple ones. Does the microphone sound better than just using the phone as a microphone?
You're using them and not discharging fully which is ideal for the battery.

And water is transparent.

Pre-built PCs are designed to die as well, and so are phones in general (incl. everything without a removable battery actually), as well as electric vehicles, not only cars.

Same with Windows, Mac and any other closed source piece of software but thanks to piracy and hacking its not such a big problem...yet.

Tomorrow will be visible outside during the day, but not so much during the night.

My AirPods are still going strong after getting them in 2018. 🤷‍♂️ obviously doesn’t discount the stories for those who they didn’t work for. I also had to do a warranty exchange on them after a week from my original pair because they just randomly unpaired and wouldn’t pair to any device any more so that points to some QC issues for sure