The Airpods Are Coming

[twerppoet]

One if by land, two if by sea, um... and three if by air.

By any means, they are 'suposed to' arrive a week and a day earlier than the initial estimate; 4th of January instead of the 12th. Strange how having to wait a week less suddenly makes everything exciting again.

 

[jwt873]

I gave up waiting... Picked up a set of Bose Noishush 35's last week. They're much larger, but they won't fall out of my ears while I'm moving about Most of the earbuds I've tried have never quite fit right..

 

[twerppoet]

I gave up waiting... Picked up a set of Bose Noishush 35's last week. They're much larger, but they won't fall out of my ears while I'm moving about Most of the earbuds I've tried have never quite fit right..

For what it's worth, every reviewer that I've read, that actually has a pair of AirPods to play with, says they don't fall out of their ears. They are, however, fairly easy to drop.

I considered getting something else, but I really wanted something light and with the improved pairing you get with Apple's W3 chip. The only other headsets that matched were the BeatsX, and they aren't shipping yet. I also considerd the Beats Solo 3's; but they are too bulky. I wouldn't want to deal with them on the go.

Also, the Earpods are a fairly good fit for me. More comfortable than most in-ear headphones. The lack of a cord to drag them around in my ear is probalby going to improve on that fit (for me).

 

[twerppoet]

AirPods are currently in Boise ID; where I expect they will spend the New Year. Perhaps throwing a little party inside their packaging? I hope they don't arrive hung over.

 

[twerppoet]

AirPods arrived a day early. I've only been playing with them for a couple of hours, but like them muchly so far.

Like most of the blogs and reviews I've read, no problems with them staying in my ears; though they can get a bit out of kilter when worn under my winter cap (has ear flaps).

I had a few problems with the the Siri integration going wierd The headphones randomly stopped responding, dropped the audio and/or reverted to the iPhone's speakers when I tried to activate Siri.

I reset the iPhone and cleared then re-paired the AirPods. So far, no more issues.

If the Siri problems do not re-appear I'm going to be very happy with these things.

 

[twerppoet]

Saddly, the battery widget on the iPhone 7 does not show the AirPod's level when they are connected and playing.

Strangely, the iPad battery widget does show thier level when used with the AirPods.

Edit: Maybe the widget is limited to showing two level? The iPhone shows the watch in addition to the iPhone. The iPad only has itself.

Additional Note: For those of you not able to get your batter widget to show, it only shows in the Widget/Notification Center when there is a second Apple device paired and active (like the watch or AirPods).

 

[twerppoet]

A few notes after using the AirPods for a couple weeks.

I was wrong about not seeing the AirPod levels on the iPhone's battery widget. I just needed to tap the 'show more' button on the widget. Otherwise it only shows the first two items; iPhone and AppleWatch.

Siri control on the AirPods is flakier than I would like. Sometimes it works beautifly, and then sometimes I give up in frustration and pull out the phone or use the watch. I think there are three separate issues combining to make things unpredictable.

1) The tap responce time is laggy, and sometimes doesn't register at all, or only partially. I suspect that this part of the AirPods is pure bluetooth, which has always been flaky and unpredictable.

2) I tend to give my first commands as I'm walking away from the house. Siri needs internet to interpret commands, and the phone is often hung up between the wi-fi network and LTE. Swithching on LTE assist for wi-fi has helped some, not not completely.

3) Sometimes, even though the AirPods are active, Sir responds on the iPhone instead of in the AirPods. This has got to be some kind of bug.

That said, I've discovered a few interesting things.

You aren't limited to telling Siri to turn the volume up or down. You can also say things like; "set the volume to 50%", "turn the volume up 5%, or even "increase the volume by one dB (decible). Moslty this means it's possible to get the volume exactly where you want (providing Siri is in a cooperative mood).

Actually, the longer commands tend to work better than "volume up/ down"; probably because you are giving Siri more context to catch obviouls mistakes. Along the same vein, "Play the next song" works more often than "Next"

I suppose wording things a bit longer would help with possible missunderstandings as well.

The other day, as I was about to leave my favorite coffee stop, I tapped my earphones and told Siri to "play". The coffee server looked at me a bit funny and said "right, or "night" or something. Since the second beep hadn't happend Siri was still listening, and shorlty after I was listing to some music called "Night". I'm not sure if it was an artist or album.