[DigitalFreak]

Quote:Apple Big Shot

"EarPods are designed to direct sound into the ear."

Why is it I think all the big brass in Apple must think society is comprised of idiots?
 
 
Quote:jgray91

There's another port down by the stem it seems. I think some of the photos shows it.

EDIT: Here's a ton of pictures of it http://www.head-fi.org/t/627103/earpods-its-what-apple-calls-its-next-gen-earbuds-fancy-anyone#post_8692708

I can see 4 (!) additional ports.
Edited by jgray91 - Today at 2:32 pm

Makes me wonder how bad isolation will be on these. I must admit rather cool looking design though. I wonder if they will sound exactly the same as the old iBuds
 
 
Quote:

My goodness. No wonder it took three years to develop them. During that long, arduous process they truly hit upon something profound there.
 
Up until now, most earbuds have been directing sound into the armpit, thigh, or colon.

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I'm such a fool, all this time I've been sticking my IEM's up my nostrils instead of in my ears. Good thing I wasn't sticking them up my orifice and blasting my tunes I could have given myself brain damage. Dang, direct sound into the ears, Apple really knows what it's talking about.
 
 
Quote:mutabor

The biggest determinant of what you hear from any speaker is the movement of its diaphragm. The inward and outward motion is what creates sound. But earbud speaker diaphragms are typically made from a single material, which can limit sound output.
So Apple acousticians re-engineered an earbud speaker diaphragm with both rigid and flexible materials to minimize sound loss and maximize sound output. Adding to the superior audio quality are strategically placed acoustic vents. The most notable of these vents is the one located in the stem of each EarPod. It allows air inside the stem, which acts as an acoustic chamber, to flow out. So you hear deeper, richer bass tones. The overall audio quality of Apple EarPods is so impressive, they rival high-end headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more.

I finished watching the keynote an hour ago and although I remember the Apple big Shot explaining the vents I didn't remember him saying they would rival IEM's costing 100's of bones. Mind you by that time I was pretty bored and wasn't really paying that much attention when they bought out the earpods.
 
 
Quote:ardgedee

Yay, my Leckerton amp finally came back! With a whole mess o' op-amps! I feel like a very confused kid in a candy store!

I salute you sir, let the experimentation begin
 
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So, what's everyone think of the new Nano? I personally never expected them to do such an extreme makeover on it. Doesn't really blow me away per say but as a entry level player it does look rather nice I guess. I was a little disappointed in the new iPod Touch. Although they had some nice updates with Siri support and a better camera etc what I really wanted was either more storage (128 GB) or SD Card support. I was also hoping Apple would shock us and announce FLAC support in iTunes. Speaking of which the new iTunes on first glance looks a little weird. For me it's going to take some getting used to.

 

[jgray91]

I must be the only person here who doesn't remotely care about the new iPhone, or smart phones in general.

I don't either - I've tried working myself into the Apple hardware/ecosystem but it really wasn't for me.

I browsed through the apple website to see the new iPods.. and I all I can say is "What?"

What's so What about it? Not that I ever like the iPods before, but I'm just curious.

@DF, Apple doing SD card support or FLAC is kind of like when-pigs-fly scenario to me. Just not going to happen. But then again, I remember Steve Jobs said something like the 3.5 inch screen at that aspect ratio (honestly I don't know what its ratio are before; now it's 16:9) is the perfect size, and look what happens now after he passed away. All I'm implying is that since he's not around anymore, Apple might just do what we thought they wouldn't otherwise before.

Another thing, I need coffee. I sound like some deranged theorist or something.

EDIT: On first glance though, in the live blog, my first thought of seeing the new Nano is "OMG I MUST HAVE ThAT", with me yelling at the top of my voice... almost literally... Then I calmed down and facepalmed when I see that Apple named their loop-hook/lanyard hole. Can't they just not name anything something ridiculous...

Yes I know that's for the iPod Touch, but it's still too much for my "no **** allowed" mind.

 

[jgray91]

Hi everyone,

Beyer Product Management is joining this discussion - always pleased to help, if there is any question!

As far as Custom with Tesla drivers is concerned, let me put it this way: the Custom One Pro was our first Custom model. Looks liek it is not the last ...

Regards

Thomas

I'm sorry, but the one thing that came to mind is "THE ULTIMATE EAR-DESTROYING CUSTOMISABLE TREBLE EXPERIENCE". Yes! That's probably the greatest thing since sandwich!!

Though, I might seem like a hater of the Tesla driver just based on a 20min listening audition with the T1. Which is 101% true.

 

[tomscy2000]

So, I've been occupied with other stuff, and didn't realize that the thread had moved. 17 pages per day, huh?

 

[Coq de Combat]

Holy moly this thread goes fast, or maybe it's just the same but I just can't really remember. Oh well..
 
So, today I have to present my work of art to the company, and I feel somewhat ready to do that. On the other hand, I have this friggin cold and sore throat I can't get rid of. It's been a week now since I got ill. My wife has been ill from this same virus for two weeks now. On a more general note I hope it's nothing serious, but on a more specific note, I hope it'll allow me to go to the interview today. My brain is completely mushy (mushi-mushi?) now and I can barely think for myself. At this point it would be handy to have an assistant; someone to remind what to do and when to do it, someone who put clothes on me, someone who would then undress me and tell me to get back in bed because he/she would take care of all my chores today - including the interview.
 
 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20medical%20talk%2C%20not%20really%20meant%20to%20anyone%20in%20particular%2C%20just%20needed%20getting%20it%20out%20of%20me

On another more medical note, my anti-depressants seem to be working well now. I've changed to lamotrigine, and I have no side effects and I feel a lot more balanced now. Those of you who remembered my last one, it was a hell to try to live a normal life with it. I was so tired I was barely conscious when awake, and I slept 12-13 hours a night. Not even the alarm clocks would wake me up when I needed to go to the university or to do other obligatory things. Now with this new one I can have my life back, with no side effects and some anti-depressant effects. Too bad one of the more serious side effects is the Stevens Johnsons disease. That thing scares the headphones off of me.

 
The oldest kid was crying all the way down to kindy. I tried calming him down but as soon as I spoke to him, the worse it got. He wanted candy. I gave no candy. Hence the very serious, red alert:ish, situation. At kindy though, he calmed down and we hugged out. The kindy teachers reacted a bit weird though, as they just took him and said "It's okay, we'll take it from here.." as if we were still arguing and hadn't hugged it out already or that I'm a violent and dangerous father and my son was in danger. A bit strange, but perhaps they just thought I was in a hurry to some interview or something. I don't know, it just felt a little awkward.
 
As for iPhone 5, someone on the verge posted this:
 

 

[Tilpo]

Oh. Lucky man. I realized this summer how much I miss my mother's cooking.

Btw, what's the drinking age over there?

Drinking age is 16, but it will be increased to the rather high age of 18 next February.

 

[veyrongatti]

Quote:

 
I'm actually interested in these. 
 
Apple: "We spent 3 years designing new headphones. EarPods."
 
They may actually turn out to be the best ( or among the best) earbuds on the market.
 
From the presentation:
 
"EarPods are designed to direct sound into the ear."
 
Joshua Topolsky: Wait, what? Into the ear you say? Can't wait to try these — current Apple earbuds fall out of my giant ears.

Final Audio Forte II? 

 

[Magick Man]

I think a fox would make a very nice pet though. Looks like many have successfully domesticated them as pets. They are also beautiful animals.

A neighbor had one when I was a kid, it was like a dog/cat hybrid, very intelligent and playful, even litter box trained.

 

[Coq de Combat]

Regarding the earpods, I can't really understand why anyone would actually fancy earbuds over IEMs. More precisely, I can understand the people that just aren't able to push something into their ears, but that's not really the thing here. The majority of people are probably able to push things into their ears, and to be honest, I see more IEMs than I see earbuds nowadays. So, why is it that Apple (and Cowon for that matter, and many other phone/DAP-manufacturers) want to sell premium products that include (cheap) earbuds that people will change anyhow.
 
I'm thinking, marketing wise, that it would be better if those people who don't pull out their iPhones every 5 minutes on the subway, to visibly wear something Apple. It kind of makes sense, because a large part of the people probably wouldn't change good IEMs to other good IEMs, granted the Apple IEMs would be satisfactory. The reason I see a lot of people changing their Apple earbuds to something else, is because the earbuds are not satisfactory. If Apple would spend a little bit of cash to include good IEMs (I'm not talking about $300 IEMs here, but consumer class, i.e. Klipsch S4) with an Apple logo, they'd get the free marketing they want. If they did that, people who doesn't pull out their iPhone every 5 minutes, would still wear something Apple, thus they'd be marketing Apple to their co-travelers/-commuters.
 
I don't know. I just know that I haven't worn buds since the 90's, because the majority of them suck in several ways. I also know that most people I know don't wear Apple earbuds either because they think they suck. I also know that Apple doesn't get free marketing from their customers if their customers don't wear their products or buzz about them.
 
To me it makes sense to include better IEMs instead of buds, but apparently the Apple execs think otherwise.
 
Edit: grammar.

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

Why is it I think all the big brass in Apple must think society is comprised of idiots?
 
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So, what's everyone think of the new Nano? I personally never expected them to do such an extreme makeover on it. Doesn't really blow me away per say but as a entry level player it does look rather nice I guess. I was a little disappointed in the new iPod Touch. Although they had some nice updates with Siri support and a better camera etc what I really wanted was either more storage (128 GB) or SD Card support. I was also hoping Apple would shock us and announce FLAC support in iTunes. Speaking of which the new iTunes on first glance looks a little weird. For me it's going to take some getting used to.

 
I dunno. It's marketing and it's annoying, but it's verbiage as dispensable as what Denon cooks up for their headphones (as MuppetFace pointed out). I can believe the earbuds took three years to design -- for whatever reason -- but that doesn't mean they're any good. I don't really get the sense of anything announced yesterday being earthshaking and revolutionary, but those aren't meaningful terms, they're adjectives.
 
Apple's mutated the Nano a few times -- it started as a skinnier, slightly-shorter version of the classic iPod, then it got short and squat, then went through a couple variations of skinny, and then something more like a touchscreen Shuffle, and now it's back to another variation of skinny. I'm mostly disappointed Apple didn't announce iOS app support for it. SD cards would be great but those things won't happen and it's not worth hoping. 128GB of SSD storage would be awesome but that would make the Nano cost $300 or so, and Apple's trying to target a lower price point.
 
The Nano won't support FLAC unless everything in Apple's product ecology does, and that's not happening. I'm not sure what the traction is against it internally -- granted, Apple has ALAC, and now that it's an open format I'm a less paranoid about long-term access to my lossless files -- but FLAC support would still be nice. Only real reasons are not technical but logistic -- they don't consider the effort to add it to myriad products worth the cost (software upgrades on three OS variations and one firmware variation for current mobile products, plus iTunes for Mac and Windows), or that the concern is to maintain full format support backwards and forwards with everything in Apple's mobile ecology (not to be sniffed at; it's why they stuck with the 30 pin dock connector for nine years. And people are screaming anyway about Apple abandoning it).
 
On considering the new dock connector, I'm picturing three probable things going on...
1. The dock actually does have analog audio signal and somebody flubbed on stage.
2. The dock is fully digital but audio-out is now opened.
3. Yeah right -- it's just gotten harder and more expensive for third parties to make iDevice dock accessories.
 
Scenario 1 is unlikely -- with nine pins, I don't know how they'd manage audio and video IO in addition to the variety of digital data streams. I'm inclined towards scenario 3, but I'm not so sure. As good a game of hardball as Apple plays, institutionally they've tended to have a good sense of where they are in the world, and that the ubiquity of universal iDevice accessories, regardless of licensing, was a significant contributor to uptake of their own devices. They know what they want to enforce and what they want to turn a blind eye to (their "pro" software -- Final Cut Pro, Logic, iOffice -- are rigorously keyed; Apple unambiguously wants you to buy a license to use 'em, while their non-"pro" software -- OS X, iLife suite -- are payware but trivially easy to copy and reuse).
 
Scenario 2 is something I could live with, and would mean Apple is both having the cake and eating it -- any random box would be able to dumbly get audio digital-out, but without access to iDevice controls. Basically what you can do with an analog dock connector now, but digital. And which is exactly as much as you need to use something like the HP-P1 or CLAS anyway. Apple is putting their chips on AirPlay and cloud-based mobility, so they don't have to continue reserving full access to the physical port -- and for those who want to make console docks for automobiles or home systems, they'd still have to pay a license for the ability to control the iDevice. Still, you never know -- wouldn't be the first time Apple gets annoying by trying to hang onto the long tail of something.
 
Quote:

 
I laughed. It's how I felt when photos of the parts started hitting the rumor sites.
 
Quote:

To me it makes sense to include better IEMs instead of buds, but apparently the Apple execs think otherwise.

 
Apple sells own-branded IEMs, actually, but they're $80 or so in the States. I see a lot of people who are content to use whatever earpieces came with their phones, and I know a lot of people who can't abide having things inside the ear; earbuds are the nearest they'll allow. I don't really know what a good solution would be without projecting my own interests on the matter (personally, I'd rather Apple included IEMs as well, but I'd probably just complain about uncomfortable bundled IEMs rather than uncomfortable bundled earbuds, maybe).

 

[jgray91]

Didn't they push the previous Nano as some sort of hip, watch thing? And hinted as a smart companion thingy for the iPhone. Maybe they thought they couldn't make it worthwhile enough as a smart watch/companion to the iPhone to refresh it in the same form factor and just axed it for the new Nano as a poor man's iPod Touch. Which is weird, IMO.

 

[PhoenixClaw]

I felt that the new apple products were very uninspired unlike the previous ones. Also, I think they look a bit too similar to nokia lumias

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

Didn't they push the previous Nano as some sort of hip, watch thing? And hinted as a smart companion thingy for the iPhone. Maybe they thought they couldn't make it worthwhile enough as a smart watch/companion to the iPhone to refresh it in the same form factor and just axed it for the new Nano as a poor man's iPod Touch. Which is weird, IMO.

 
Using it as a watch was an afterthought. They'd added a clock function because, basically, all the iDevices with displays have some kind of clock functionality so it was going to show the time somehow. The second version of the square Nano included more watch faces because Apple noted the aftermarket was selling watchbands for it.
 
An acquaintance has a square nano he used as a watch for a while but said it didn't really work that well for the job, particularly when bluetooth was enabled. I forget the details. Sounds like Apple had a good idea in there but it didn't quite work.

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

I think they look a bit too similar to nokia lumias

 

 

[eke2k6]

Quote:

Why is it I think all the big brass in Apple must think society is comprised of idiots?
 
 

 
If you're around teenagers that blast the older ibuds all day, spreading their Bieber fandom to all who have the misfortune to be standing within 10 feet of them, you'd understand. 
 
Basically, they look like they'd function similarly to those tip-less FAD phones that really do "direct music into the ears" without a seal, and maybe not leak nearly as much as the older ones.
 
Of course, nobody's heard them yet, so this is all speculation.