AirPods vs. “cans”

Seems like only yesterday wearing a Blue Tooth earbud/mic made you the subject of derision. A techno-hipster intent on impressing everyone with his hands-free phone calls.

Fast-forward to the Apple AirPods, which also got you some snickers. A lot for snickers. But it turns out AirPods work pretty well and I started seeing them everywhere. The FedEx guy. The crew chief that oversaw our new roof. The guy that mows our yard (yeah, yeah).

The plague hits and Zoom becomes a generic term (“I was zooming all day”). And those TV “at home” interviews? Lots of AirPods. So many that when I see someone wear a big old set of cans I think, poor dweeb.

Like these two guys being interviewed by Bill Maher. I know, I know… superior audio quality!

Apple AirPods

When Apple introduced AirPods (September 2016) they got the usual ration of shit. Look funny; over-priced; uncomfortable; etc. This year Apple will sell 50 million of these. About $8 billion in revenue. In the last couple of years I’ve seen more and more of these sprouting from ears. People who never tried Bluetooth “headphones” are taking to AirPods. I spotted this gentleman in the supermarket. He said he leaves one in all the time. Forgets it’s there.

True Detective (Season One) on iPhone with AirPods

My Apple AirPods continue to open up new worlds of sound. I watched (and liked) the first season of the HBO series True Detective (Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson) on a TV. Last night I started watching the series again but this time on my iPhone with AirPods. As with Deadwood, it was a completely different experience. The music was far more powerful and evocative. The texture of the actors voices was richer. (You could almost hear the smoke when McConaughey exhaled) Not sure I can go back to listening to sound coming from across the room.

In praise of AirPods

Everyone’s familiar with stories of someone regaining their sight after years of blindness… or getting their hearing back after a lifetime of silence. That’s what came to mind as I started watching movies and series on my iPhone with AirPods (ver 2).

It’s like I’ve been listening with cotton stuffed in my ears. Hard to overstate how getting all of the sound changes the viewing experience.

Halfway through season one of Deadwood and I’m right there in the muddy street, engulfed in the sounds of the camp. Horses breathing, a distant hammering, the full range of Ian McShane’s mellifluous voice.

I’m ruined. I can’t go back to listening to what passes for sound coming from the TV across the room.

Small screens, large screens

I grew up with television, a child of the 50s and 60s. TV screens started off small and got progressively larger. The bigger the screen the better with quality secondary (don’t recall ever hearing the word “resolution” in those days. The family TV was a massive piece of furniture that we watched from across the room. Today, even a struggling family is likely to have a big-ass flatscreen TV. I’m watching less “TV” these days but that might be about to change.

I recently started watching The Wire (again) and got about halfway through the series before Riley showed up. Once she started settling in I went back to the series but on my iPhone this time. I’ve never watched a lot of video (hard for me to call it “TV”) on my phone just because… well, the bigger the screen the better, right? Turns out, not right.

When my phone is in my lap (or on a table), it’s about 18 inches from my eyes. In the photo above the phone is about a foot-and-a-half in front of my face and — as you can see — about the same relative size as the TV across the room. But with much higher resolution and — with AirPods — much better sound.

We have Apple TV and HBO and Netflix but my default streaming source is Amazon Prime which has an excellent app. I’m now finding I watch part of a movie or series… pause… and come back to it. Something I never did before. And my viewing now happens away from the TV room.

This is old news for most of you but something of a revelation for me. I’m find the viewing experience far superior — in many ways — on the phone. Tiny screen for the win.

AirPods 2

Walked into the living room a couple of days ago and discovered Riley chewing on something. One of my AirPods. Just crunched it a little but that was enough so I had my excuse to order the new AirPods 2 (not sure what they call this second generation). I’d read and heard the sound was even better. From a Reddit  user:

First of all, the new AirPods are loud. When comparing the new and old AirPods at the same volume, the new AirPods clearly sound louder. Along with an increase in power, there is an improvement in the overall sound space.

Try listening to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The old AirPods provide a familiar well-balanced sound, but with the new AirPods, you can feel in an instant the rich chorus work and expressive power of the music. Freddie Mercury’s vocals have a high resolution such that you can feel the breath that remains after he speaks. After listening to this, the sound of the old AirPods seems flat.

I listened to the song this morning and have to say it sounded damned good. And I can now summon Siri without tapping one of the pods. (Siri responds with “Uh huh?”)

AirPods and the Three Stages of Apple Criticism

“I really wish I was exaggerating, but these seven reasons are the main ways Apple critics attempt to explain why someone would choose to buy products critics believe are both overpriced and inferior to their competition. Because if you’ve already come to the conclusion that Apple products are overpriced and inferior, but hundreds of millions of people still buy them, the only conclusion must be that there is something seriously wrong with the people who buy them.” (Jonathan Kim)

Every week I see someone new come into the coffee shop with AirPods. Rare to see any other brand of Bluetooth headphones. Same with the Apple Watch. If you happen to spot something other than an Apple Watch, look around because there’s one of those two-wheeled scooters leaning against a wall close by.

AirPods: First hundred days

I am not an audiophile. I thought the AM radio (WLS) music coming out of the dash speaker on my Ford Falcon sounded pretty damn good. During the 70s I wore headphones four hours a day. I lived through the refrigerator sized speaker era. It all sounded good to me.

But the music never sounded as good as it does coming from the tiny Apple AirPods. Is that perceptual? Maybe. But all music is perceptual unless you have a spectrum analyzer implanted in your head.

I’ve never heard better, more natural, separation. I was listening to CSN&Y (on the highway) this morning and could hear acoustic guitars in my left ear (for lack of a more scientific description). Even that little raspy sounds made when the fingers are dragged along one of the base strings (?). I could shift my awareness to the base in my right ear. (Channel is a better word, isn’t it?) And the vocals were somewhere in the rear-center of my noggin.

It feels like I’m hearing these songs for the first time. I know, I know… this is old news to you pros with the big cans clamped to your head. And good for you.

I’m seeing more AirPods here in the coffee shop every week. If I’m familiar with the person I ask how they like them and why they decided to give them a try. Usually some variation of the story above.

There are probably a lot of good reason NOT to try AirPods. That they’re made by Apple is not one of them.

Augmented audio future?

These are the kinds of possibilities that moved me to buy AirPods.

“Maybe I’d hear updates about store hours or be able to identify places by looking in their direction. Or a museum audio tour could be triggered by your proximity to an exhibit. Maybe I’d get a smartly-tuned audio assistant that sounded like it was perched over my shoulder, perfectly blended to sound like it was in my world versus being delivered via headphones. Or, a universal translator. That’s exactly what the Waverly Labs’ Pilot is promising: the ability to hear a speaker of Spanish, French or Italian in English (or vice versa) in near real-time.”

Voice-to-text note using Siri via AirPods

I created a note on my iPhone using Siri and voice-to-text. (In a noisy coffee shop). Music is great on the AirPods but my primary reason for the purchase was to see if/how AirPods could change the way I interacted with the iPhone. Using Siri (far from perfect) to read messages and email; create and send messages and email; schedule reminders; etc. Without removing the phone from my pocket. [Video runs 20 sec]