> You don't see any merit to beam-forming microphones for noise cancellation, seamless paring experience, Siri access, other-earphone awareness, or lack of tangled wires
I honestly cannot. They're impressive solutions to problems Apple have created for themselves.
Personally, I don't use the built-in microphones in headphones. If I'm speaking to someone, I either hold the phone to my ear, or use speaker phone.
Taking two seconds to plug my wired headphones into my device is a pretty "seamless pairing experience", and I can use them with whatever device I please, unlike the AirPods.
My wired headphones don't need to be "aware" of each other, because they are connected to each other.
I spend about ten seconds each day ensuring my headphone cable isn't tangled.
> You don't remember how iconic the white earbuds have been as a status symbol?
Where I'm from, white earbuds have only ever been: a) an invitation to thieves looking to steal the device they're connected to; b) a sign that someone doesn't care about audio quality.
> [...] that takes a total disconnection from headphones as a category of device, and I'm not willing to believe that's true.
On the contrary, I think the problem is that I would actually consider a headphone purchase, rather than blindly buying something like the AirPods.
The advanced noise cancelling, pairing, and synchronization tech are solutions to problems that don't exist (or are less pronounced, in the foremost case) with wired headphones.
Creating to solutions to nonexistent problems is a cornerstone of the electronics industry. Nobody ever needed an iPod. Apple didn't become the most valuable brand in history by selling people things they needed.
“It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
— Steve Jobs
How is noise related to wireless? I was not aware that wired headphones enjoyed any advantage there, and I can't see how they would.
The others are certainly wireless problems, but some people prefer wireless for a variety of reasons. Lots of manufacturers sell wireless headphones. To say that Apple created those problems makes no sense.
I never see people wearing headsets that place the microphone near the mouth outside of specialized settings, nor do I see people holding the microphone to their mouth. I suspect they generally want to keep their hands free.
I don't think the distance between the speaker and microphone matters. Canceling out the noise you're emitting isn't hard with modern signal processing.
I honestly cannot. They're impressive solutions to problems Apple have created for themselves.
Personally, I don't use the built-in microphones in headphones. If I'm speaking to someone, I either hold the phone to my ear, or use speaker phone.
Taking two seconds to plug my wired headphones into my device is a pretty "seamless pairing experience", and I can use them with whatever device I please, unlike the AirPods.
My wired headphones don't need to be "aware" of each other, because they are connected to each other.
I spend about ten seconds each day ensuring my headphone cable isn't tangled.
> You don't remember how iconic the white earbuds have been as a status symbol?
Where I'm from, white earbuds have only ever been: a) an invitation to thieves looking to steal the device they're connected to; b) a sign that someone doesn't care about audio quality.
> [...] that takes a total disconnection from headphones as a category of device, and I'm not willing to believe that's true.
On the contrary, I think the problem is that I would actually consider a headphone purchase, rather than blindly buying something like the AirPods.