Gaby

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SCRUBBING (Jog dial) - People are doing it wrong. All you need to do is pause whatever is playing and then gently touch and hold the perimeter of the wheel without moving for about half a second or so, and the scrubbing indicator will appear and you can begin rotating. It took me a minute or so to figure it out but it works consistently if you do it properly. Although I don’t find it any more useful really than scrubbing by sliding left and right. Hope this helps 

To really cut down on these infringement cases by PAE/NPE’s, I think the law should be changed so that a statute of limitation requires a company to file a notice of suspected infringement with the offending party within 12 months of the release of the infringing product or feature, and a maximum of 3 years total from shipping date with which to begin a lawsuit. These non practicing entities leave it as long as possible so that the products/features sell in vast quantities and or are adopted by multiple product lines - particularly where Apple et al. are involved. Anyone has a right to protect their IP, but suing for profit absolutely should not be permitted to be a commercial practice in and of itself.  You should also have to prove that you are currently or intend to develop a shipping product in order to be able to assert claims in court. I think that’s the only realistic way of getting this issue under control. 

Well mine arrived early this morning. I have to say that I’ve been awaiting them with a mix of giddy excitement and dread. Dread mainly because I was thinking that the price is largely unjustifiable for a product in this sort of category, but that if the sound and of course the ANC/features and build truly caught my attention that I’d likely keep them no matter what. For anyone interested in my thoughts on them....
I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile, and have owned and currently own several pairs of headphones and high end speakers. I recently bought the XM4 to compare with B&W’s PX7 so my first thought is that I’ll absolutely return those and quite possibly sell my PX7 if I keep them.  Up to now I can say undoubtedly these are superior in sound to the Sony, and are at the very least on par with the ANC. The XM4’s have some nifty tricks up their sleeves however which add to their allure - the adaptive ANC/transparency and EQ that can be customised based on ones current activity or movement, and if you don’t mind the potential privacy implications they can even change based on very specific locations and GPS coordinates. Now the AirPods max could theoretically be updated to provide some of that functionality depending on how well patented it is and if Apple can and indeed does wish to get around it. The AirPods possess a few tricks also which almost put them in a category all of their own in terms of integration with iOS - which most of you will be familiar with. On top of that I can say that the spatial audio implementation here is a cut above that on the AirPods Pro and quite engaging - likely helped by their being over ears coupled with the high quality custom transducers. They’re by no means light headphones, which whilst adding to the sense of luxury, is potentially problematic for some with smaller noggins, though they fit remarkably well and stay in place once seated correctly. Moreover they almost give the impression of floating on the crown of your head thanks to the mesh canopy. Once you find what suits they stay put quite nicely, and they have just the right amount of grip. Coming back to price, yes without a doubt for many they are eye-wateringly expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, and though they sound excellent, the law of diminishing returns surely applies here. But I do think there’s a market for them, and in my limited testing so far they definitely have something about them! For Apple’s first attempt at a proper set of over ear cans, I give them credit where it’s due! And in typical Apple fashion they are something to behold as well. For anyone into quality cans, they absolutely deserve an audition. I’ll keep testing and make my mind up in a couple of weeks but they certainly get a thumbs up so far.... even if I may have to live in a tent in order to keep them 😂 

The thing that is bugging me about this - and I accept the environmental argument in and of itself, and anything that we can all do to make a difference in reducing e-waste really helps, but even as an admitted Apple (cringes) “fanboy” I have to say that this has been an additional benefit for Apple, but primarily about the revenue in my opinion. At least that’s what the optics suggest.  And if not then it’s been poorly thought out and executed, however knowing Apple, I find it difficult to believe they would make a mistake this large but I digress... The point is the more that these types of details crop up the more It supports that they are being greedy. You can’t say that you’re not providing the new 20W chargers  (which are the new standard) because there are two billion was it? chargers already in circulation, and that this is good for the planet when those adapters are 90% + old 5W adapters that cannot charge even the new iPhones efficiently let alone support the new accessories. So either way people must buy even more adapters contributing yet more e-waste. I think it would have been prudent to offer credit for returning old gear or offering discounted/gratis 20W based on a similar principle. Ultimately reducing all the countless worthless old and unused plugs, and headphones.  It would also be wise to ensure that these new adapters and standards remain capable and consistent  for as long as possible so we don’t have this same issue again in a few years. In any event it’s safe to say this has been handled rather poorly. Personally I would have liked an option to swap out a lightning-usbC cable for a MagSafe. One can dream....

urahara said:

 Lightning connector - why???

I would argue that a person who would buy such headphones would more likely to have a MacBook Air/Pro and/or iPad with USB-C than not to have such devices (thus have the charger and cable for it). And the use case would be to use this headphones primarily at home or while traveling.  And more likely to use AirPods (Pro) just outside their house on the streets or for jogging.

I was waiting for Apple to release this headphones.
But because of the lightning connector and price difference I would go with Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700.