“When introducing AirPods in September, Apple put a lot of emphasis on the device’s easy setup process on iPhone. Less advertised has been the seamless connectivity that exists between AirPods and the rest of your Apple devices,” Bryan M. Wolfe writes for AppAdvice. “Once you’ve connected AirPods to one device, it’s available on other devices connected to your iCloud account., as long as you have macOS Sierra, iOS 10, or watchOS 3 installed. Just choose AirPods on those devices and then hit “Connect” under your Bluetooth settings.”
“You wouldn’t expect this type of simplicity to be a big deal, but it is,” Wolfe writes. “I’ve also been impressed with the AirPods’ ability to pause music (or video) as soon as I take one of the buds out of my ear. This feature comes in handy when I’m watching Netflix on my iPad. I no longer have to find the pause button on the screen, which is awesome. Again, this is an AirPods feature that Apple should advertise more.”
“AirPods have not been designed to blow you away by the sound quality,” Wolfe writes. “They contain a lot of bass and sound tinny, at best. And yet, they sound much better than I expected, especially during phone calls, when using Siri, and when listening to audiobooks and podcasts.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Another excellent review for Apple’s AirPods. Just wait until they add biometric sensors* to them in future models!
*temperature, heart rate, perspiration, etc.
SEE ALSO:
Canadian Reviewer reviews Apple AirPods: ‘Very cool’ – December 28, 2016
I really hate how much I love Apple’s AirPods – December 28, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook tours New York Stock Exchange, calls AirPods ‘a runaway success’ – December 28, 2016
How to find out when Apple Stores have AirPods in stock – December 28, 2016
AirPods kick off Apple’s battle for our ears – December 23, 2016
Yahoo’s Pogue reviews Apple AirPods: Far more elegant and slick than others – December 23, 2016
Wall Street Journal’s Best Wireless Earbuds: AirPods, ‘Apple’s best new product in years’ – December 22, 2016
Apple AirPods are very cool, but I am returning them – here’s why – December 22, 2016
Marathoner tests Apple AirPods on 10K run – December 19, 2016
Rolling Stone reviews Apple AirPods: ‘Surprisingly awesome’ – December 14, 2016
Apple AirPods could arrive in stores as early as November 17th – November 10, 2016
Apple’s AirPods remain on track to launch this year, sources say – November 2, 2016
Apple AirPods may be delayed into 2017 – November 1, 2016
Apple delays AirPod rollout – October 26, 2016
Survey: 12% of U.S. consumers say they’ll buy Apple AirPods; extra $3 billion in revenue – September 29, 2016
Bill Atkinson: Why Apple’s AirPods are the best place for Siri – September 28, 2016
Apple’s response to Amazon Echo: AirPods – September 20, 2016
Apple’s AirPods make Google Glass look even more ridiculous (if that’s even possible) – September 19, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook: AirPods won’t fall out of your ears (with video) – September 14, 2016
Why Silicon Valley is all wrong about Apple’s AirPods – September 17, 2016
What AirPods can tell us about Apple’s future – September 12, 2016
Hands-on with Apple’s new AirPods: Stayed in my ears, sounded awesome – September 10, 2016
Apple and a truly wireless future: AirPods are just the start – September 10, 2016
Whoever makes the first AirPods strap is going to get rich – September 8, 2016
Apple patents biometric sensor-packed health monitoring earphones with ‘head gesture’ control – February 18, 2014
I’ve been hearing a lot of FUD regarding these. These features are not talked about..because if they were..it would be hard to write a negative review. Instead, people refer to ifixit’s repairability score, lol
I had first chance to use these today for several hours of calls including WebEx presentations. They worked perfect…clear quality and swapped great back and forth between iPhone and MacBook.
I also used them on mountain bike ride thru very rough conditions. They stayed in entire time and never had an issue.
In both indoor and outdoor use cases you almost forget they’re in your ears. I assume they are nearly the same sight as wired version but not having wires makes them a real pleasure to wear and use.
My “negative” review is easy. They don’t fit. I would love to use them, but they fall out.
Typical to this site of fanboys, your post is voted down when you make a valid point! Seems like they ignore your facts and get mad you pointed it out.
Well I could not agree more. I tried these and they did not fit my very normal ears. They do not stay in. Otherwise I would have bought them. I have never used the included headphones that Apple includes with iPhones as they are the same shape.
So vote me down as my opinion surely does not fit your narrative of Apple never doing anything wrong, LOL
You might have ‘normal’ ears, but not likely ‘the general average’
Same goes for getting a golf, baseball, hockey, etc., gloves. Some people have to have them custom made.
Even computer mouses don’t fit every hand.
And professional musicians, audiophiles, or even the hearing impaired have access to custom solutions.
As for the voting issue, the fact that they don’t ‘fit’ should not be deemed negative and any comments as such should not be rated at all.
I did not down vote listcatcher, but I *did* down vote you because of your arrogant attitude and casual use of the “fanboy” slur. Anyone who uses that term immediately loses credibility on this site. You appear to have a very normal IQ, as well, not that there is anything wrong with mediocrity.
Apple can certainly “do wrong.” Apple can certainly improve. But I would assert that Apple is still doing pretty well and I get tired of all of the negativity and griping.
By the way, if you want the advantages of Apple’s W1 chip, then perhaps the Beats products will fits your very normal ears.
AirPods are so unobrtusive that you will forget they’re in. Phone calls just finally became as clear as land lines. Use one all day for calls and Siri stuff and you’ll be amazed!
“Phone calls just finally became as clear as land lines.”
Total hyperbole. No cellular service has ever claimed to be as clear as wired communications. They know better. You do not.
No…AirPods are the bog’s dollocks and so are you…for all the wrong reasons.
It’ all relative donkey boy…
That is simply not true. Traditional POTS (“Plain Old Telephone Service”) is an international standard which has very limited audio bandwidth, from 300 – 3000 Hz. Today’s smartphones (and mobile carriers) all support HD Voice (VoLTE), which increases that audio bandwidth to 50-15,000 Hz. The difference is quite obvious to anyone: the other person sounds like they are in the room with you.
And those top four octaves (from around 2.5kHz to 20kHz) are a significant contributor to the clarity and intelligibility of speech (or any other sound, for that matter). Even older people, who suffer from age-related hearing loss, can still hear well above 8kHz (in other words, they lost, for the most part, the last octave of the spectrum). They can easily hear the huge difference between the inferior analogue landline and far superior mobile HD Voice.
Agree. Got mine today and my brother, who always complains about the sound quality when I phone him on any of my other bluetooth headsets – and I have a few – didn’t even know until the end of our 30 minute call today. I asked him how everything sounded and told hm why. He couldn’t;t believe it was bluetooth.
I’m really impressed with these thus far, and yeah, they don’t seem to fall out on me so I’m happy about that.
Imperfect but surprisingly awesome.
Sounds like boobs.
Sometimes I stick my wife’s boobs in my ears. The sound quality ain’t that great, but I don’t care.
lol. Nice!
Why is it so hard to acknowledge that all people have different ears, and that they’ve done a good job of building pods that fit a large segment of the population, but that they just aren’t going to fit everyone. If you’re an audiophile, they’re not for you. They’re not “PRO” pods. Just better than most, not as good as many. Fortunately there are lots of competing devices to choose from!
Let’s move on to having Apple produce a list of which products they’re going to deep six in the business world so I can start looking for replacements.
What’s the deal with your name?
It’s supposed to be TheloniousMac and have an avatar we recognize. Are you squatting or the real TM with a messed up account. Be honest. – in all sincerity.
It’s called being egomaniacal.
Registered squatter.
The real person is too straight-laced for that comment.
You’ll wait and be surprised…
No Bluetooth headphones can be adequate enough for audiophiles. Bluetooth audio standards have inherent limitations (max. bitrate is around 300kbps, and they use their own codec, which may be inferior to AAC), so regardless of your source material, and the quality of the headphones themselves, the bottleneck and weak link, is the bandwidth and codec.
Considering the constraints of the current prevailing BT audio standards, these earbuds are among the best BT ones out there. For better sound, you’ll have to use wires.
I have had my AirPods for two weeks now and absolutely love them. Just saying.
First thought from the headline – “That’s what she said”
Flawed but surprisingly awesome.
These are the best – the only problem is that people come up and talk to you not realizing you are listening to music or talking on the phone. I also bought the Earhoox silicone tips for the AirPods and I really don’t need them but they do really lock the AirPods in your ears and actually enhance the bass because of that lock. Great product.
That’s your only problem?! — my problem is that people come up and talk to me not realising I have zero interest in dating sleazeballs.
For the third time, I am not trying to date you. I need these documents collated and on my desk by 5.
And take those things out of your ears. 😉
I just got a 6s Plus (Xmas present from the missus). Would anyone recommend a decent pair of earphones as I listen to a lot of music at 256 kbps AAC. Wired please as I’m still not sold on Bluetooth.
The following earbuds have been rated highly by enthusiasts, but you did not specify how much you want to pay or it in-line controls are important to you.
Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear
Shure SE425
RHA T10i
Focal Sphear
Jaybird X2
Sony XBA-H1
Etymotic hf5
Bowers & Wilkins C5 S2
Alpha & Delta AD01
Beyerdynamic iDX 160 iE
If you wanted headphones, instead, then I will defer to others on this forum. I have not used or researched headphones in a while.
Thoroughly enjoying the AirPods after two weeks. I wish the transition between Mac and iPhone listening was a little smoother though. You have to select the AirPods in control center or bluetooth settings when switching. On my Mac I often have to select them twice because the first time doesn’t work. I would prefer them to stay connected to both devices.
Sound tinny? Sign me up! :o)
KingMel,
Much obliged for the feedback. I think I might go for Beyerdynamic iDX 160iE. I’ve been using a pair of DX 160iE with my Nano or Touch and whilst they’re great ‘phones they do suffer from movement induced harmonics.
JBL Synchros S200i are a possibility but they can be uncomfortable to wear.
As for price, the above mentioned examples are pretty much in the range that I’m looking at.
Again, thanks for your reply i’ll check out your list to see what other users think.