[The Exiled]

Kaj se tiče AirPods čuda tehnike...

For roughly 18 months, AirPods play music, or podcasts, or make phone calls. Then the lithium-ion batteries will stop holding much of a charge, and the AirPods will slowly become unusable. They can’t be repaired because they're glued together. They can’t be thrown out, or else the lithium-ion battery may start a fire in the garbage compactor. They can’t be easily recycled, because there’s no safe way to separate the lithium-ion battery from the plastic shell. Instead, the AirPods sit in your drawer forever. AirPods are "below-average" in terms of sound quality. AirPods offer a lot of value for the price point despite a rating of "below average" sound quality. In reality, AirPods have pretty poor noise isolation.

According to Apple, AirPods are part of a larger vision for a “wireless future.” The Apple website introduces AirPods by stating, "Wireless headphones. Finally untangled." AirPods were introduced in 2016 alongside the debut of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which eliminated the headphone jack. The earbuds are designed to seamlessly switch from iPhone to MacBook to Apple Watch, depending on which device you’re using. Thus, AirPods strategically glue together an ecosystem of luxury products. They are only so “convenient” because, by eliminating the headphone jack, Apple made the iPhone less user-friendly.

AirPods were destined to become e-waste from the moment they were manufactured. And AirPods become e-waste after just eighteen months, when the irreplaceable lithium ion battery dies.

What makes AirPods perform better with iPhones than other wireless headphones is its W1 wireless chip, which does three things:

• It helps the earbuds communicate with your phone, computer, and with each other.
  
  
• It enables fast device pairing, without needing to go into iOS system preferences.
  
  
• It makes AirPods compatible with Siri, and able to make phone calls.

But the underlying technology that makes AirPods possible is Bluetooth. AirPods have a regular Bluetooth antenna in the stalk below the earbud area. In and of itself, it’s straightforward wireless technology that’s been around for twenty years.