svanstrom

elijahg said:

There's no reason this can't be done with Bluetooth LE's time of flight, which is already used for Mac auto unlock. 

Improvements in how they are able to handle that in software might be why the AirPods Max is lacking a U1 chip; so longterm the U1 might just be used where direction is needed to be found from a single point.

But Apple hasn't really communicated well about where they are heading with what products/hardware.

Hopefully Apple will be able to give a much clearer picture once they're done releasing what we think is in the pipeline (especially AirTags, but also an ATV that can handle spacial audio).

mike54 said:

With all that fancy circuitry in there, I guess there is no room for just a simple on/off switch.

I'm hoping for a much cheaper version, that sounds decent, with the same level of ANC, H1 chip, but without the spacial computational audio stuff, no gyro's  and I don't even need a sensor in each ear cup to pause sound.

The actual individual parts has a fairly limited impact on the sticker price; and sometimes removing hardware features would actually increase the price, as the costs would go up significantly by separating hardware that's currently made into a single unit. Also, when it comes to sound equipment like this one all parts are working together; so removing a single "unnecessary" feature might make the product absolute rubbish, unless, once again, the whole thing is basically redone from scratch.

As a comparison you can look at the HomePod and the HomePod mini; which absolutely share a certain level of ancestry, but where the mini in no way simply is just a full HomePod with a few parts removed.

And from a business perspective a "much cheaper" (depending on any hyperbole in that usage, ofc) product simply doesn't fit with their current line of products. Unless we start to see a much clearer main/pro-divide (incl. in pricing) among the Apple sound products there's just no fit for a cheaper AP Max; and it makes even less sense in light of Apple still needing to devote full production to fulfilling the AP Max orders.

Even the current naming of their different AirPods would make it a bit awkward with a new cheaper OE option… like… we have the regular, the pro, the max, and… what?? AirPods light? (Which would make the "light" the second heaviest option.)

Unless Apple is willing to royally piss off all the AirPods Max buyers, by revamping the whole line within the first half of 2021, I don't see a cheaper OE option anytime soon.

(Personally I do think that considering the hints of where things are heading the internals of the AirPods Max might actually run at a risk of being a touch outdated for such a major launch of a, to the average buyer, expensive product; and I'm very curious to see what the lifecycle will be like for these, and how the hardware will fit in with their continuing work with AR. Like why the heck is there no UWB chip to help with exact positioning? Shouldn't they at least have slapped a U1 in there to future-proof them; or is there such a disconnect between the internal departments that AP Max users will find them obsolete, within the greater Apple ecosystem, after just a year? )

paxman said:

I am completely in favour of paying for content. In fact, if FB decided to stop collecting and selling data and instead decided to charge users1 USD per year, how much would they rake in. Plenty, I'm sure.

Average revenue per user is at Facebook $7.89 (up 9% year over year).

(All this is more or less public information due to the way corporations work, and need to present data to investors.)

If your business can’t survive asking for consent you really should question your ethics, and who you are as a person. 

Ignore that @junor account; it's just some amateurish attempt to fake some sort of grassroots movement about how preventing big business from harvesting people's data is somehow all about the small businesses.

Someone out there is making money out of fake posts to try to influence the discourse in public forums. We've seen that here ever since some of these bigger players started to try to go after Apple.