7 thoughts on “AirPods: Your burning questions, answered”

1. just tried to pick a pair up but didn’t realize my store opened early for xmas and had a line, sold out. but i did get to try a pair on — snug. pairing was easy and instant. sound was good (for me).

2. Mine were delivered today. Supposedly it’s tap twice to activate Siri. But I’m finding it very hit and miss. I find I need to really tap the shit out of it, sometimes repeatedly. Also, when I’m listening to an audiobook and I want it to pause, saying “Pause” doesn’t work. “Resume playing audiobook” does resume playing. I’ve found Siri plays poorly with audiobooks in general. If you tell it to “play” the audiobook that was already in progress, sometimes that will restart the thing from the beginning which is maddening.

3. I’m surprised you were able to try them. Generally any earbuds can’t be tried in stores for sanitary reasons? How did Apple manage demos?

   Update: Based on your comment I took a trip to my local Apple Store hoping to try a pair. Unfortunately, they told me they were not going to have a demo unit and they sold out all 30 units first thing this morning. I may get the Bose QC35 or Beats Studio instead. I was thrilled with the battery live on the Solo3 (and the sound was actually pretty good) but sadly, they hurt my ears during prolonged wearing.

4. (I looked at the screen after I told Siri “stop playing the audiobook” and it actually replies “I paused it”. So wow, it recognized my command but the audiobook is definitely not pausing. I filed a radar. It’s stupid to have to take one of these earbuds out to make the book pause)

5. Update: Based on your comment I took a trip to my local Apple Store hoping to try a pair. Unfortunately, they told me they were not going to have a demo unit and they sold out all 30 units first thing this morning. I may get the Bose QC35 or Beats Studio instead. I was thrilled with the battery live on the Solo3 (and the sound was actually pretty good) but sadly, they hurt my ears during prolonged wearing.

6. what sort sanitary concerns are there? are their ear-born diseases? is it more transferable than handling a greasy touchscreen that someone else handled before you?

   i wiped them w/ my shirt before putting in my ear.

7. Yeah, basically sanitary concerns. The ear canal is a bed for bacteria so they wouldn’t want anyone to get infections. I was denied trials in Best Buy in the past and when I did the old T-Mobile Test Drive program they had you keep the headphones that came with the test phone.

   Apparently, last year Apple began in-ear headphone demos that included alcohol wipes and tips that you keep.
   https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/20/this-is-the-apple-stores-in-ear-headphone-try-on-demo-kit/

   Notably, the EarPods (at the time) were excluded as they don’t have swappable rubber tips. Luckily that you got to try them tho! I ended up going with Bose QC35s today instead for my everyday headphones.