Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are still chuck-and-buy-again specials Improvements in repairability might have been made elsewhere in Apple's product range, but the AirPods Pro 3 model continue to make repairs virtually impossible. iFixit's teardown of Apple's latest earbuds reveals a device that remains stubbornly unrepairable — a disappointing finding considering even the ultra-thin iPhone Air …
AirPods are not Macs. It's absolutely acceptable that they are not repairable; nobody with more than one braincell buys them with any expectation of repairability, and Apple will replace them anyway with AppleCare for £29. You likely couldn't repair them for cheaper than that, even if it was physically possible.
Apple will take them back for recycling, and pays for shipping.
I think they should pay people a few bucks to give people an incentive to recycle them. Well, enough that people don't simply throw them away, but not so much they become a target for thieves grabbing them out of people's ears and running I guess.
iFixIt: Apple’s Recycling Program Forced Recyclers to Shred Over 530,000 Repairable iPhones
"iFixIt: Apple’s Recycling Program Forced Recyclers to Shred Over 530,000 Repairable iPhones"
The lawsuit alleged that the recycler was violating their contract; employees were bulk-stealing phones, repairing and reselling them. Because repairs were being done off the books, it would not have been possible for Apple to verify that the phones were safe and high quality, meaning there was an inherent risk of a rash of dodgy batteries catching fire, substandard screens and any number of reputationally damaging consequences.
Whether you agree with this or not (personally I think if a phone can be properly repaired and resold then it should be) it doesn't negate the fact that the reseller violated their terms and Apple was likely at least legally correct in shredding both the contract and the devices involved.
"I think they should pay people a few bucks to give people an incentive to recycle them. "
Two things will happen.
1) One goes missing and the other goes into a drawer
2) Run time goes to shit and they wind up in a drawer
When rediscovered in the drawer, the recycling incentive will have been cancelled and they'll ( or the remaining one) will go into the bin with the coffee grounds, egg shells and the oil from the previous night's fry up.
Sounds not dissimilar to the very late model Intel Macbook Pro I recently obtained for a ridiculous knockdown price (the main reason I got it, company was flogging them for £50 or so).
Effectively no user-serviceable components inside unless you hack a special third party SSD into it and if the iFixit guide is to be believed, a battery split into multiple segments glued to the inside of the case in a way that makes it almost impossible to replace.
I like the look of those FairPods, though - if the batteries are easily obtainable, £129 is a pretty good deal. Think I can do without the apple gimmicks like a heart rate monitor.....
" Think I can do without the apple gimmicks like a heart rate monitor....."
Can you also do without decent size and sound quality?
I've gone through a bunch of different earbuds from Bose, Sony, and Jabra. They all have niggles and foibles (fuck Bose, Bose sucks), and I can't imagine that any of them are repairable. Ironically, the best from an overall usability perspective, have been the Jabra earbuds; the sound quality is inferior to the Sonys, but the Jabras actually stay in my ears for the most part, they're durable, and they actually have physical buttons instead of the idiotic touch interface that the high-end buds seem to implement.
Anyway, to the original point . . . apart from the Fairbuds, which are only available in Europe, are there fixable earbuds out there?
I use hearing aids and for what I need they are insanely expensive. There is no way the are actually "worth" that much in the technology but to get a half decent outcome as a musician there is no option.
Now I bought the first pair in 2018.: Rchargeable, Bluetooth and some handy funkwizardry that the £3k was just about bearable.
They had 4 years warranty. In 2023 I paid £198 for them to be refurbished. High you may think but not in relation to the initial purchase price.
I have just replaced them and the new one were a bit more expensive but based on the previous experience at a hardware and tech level it is great.
Upto 24 hours on the old ones, 36 house on the new, reducing if you stream etc.
I believe they can be dismantled for repairs but again you need the correct equipment and knowledge. From what I could tell the refurbished ones came back in the original outsides.
My in-ear monitors are wired and weren't cheap but they were fitted to my ears so they work amazingly well. If I want BT, I'd plug them into another black box rather than buy something built as one unit.
My BT headphones got a battery upgrade last year when the original cell didn't give much listen time anymore. I was thinking of adding a parallel cell on the other side, but I haven't been able to run it flat with the bigger battery I put in so I'm not risking going any further. The over-the-ear design is also good for blocking ambient sound even without the noise cancelling active. The only thing they lack is a button for "talk thru" so I have to kick them off to talk to somebody. If that button also paused my iPod, even better.
Divide the cost by the 12 or so months that battery will hold out and that's your monthly rent on them. The Apple ones will last longer than the knock-offs so going budget might not be worth the groats.
For my phone, I have the Samsung headset with the bit that goes around ones neck and short leads on the ear buds. The fidelity for music isn't that great, but the battery can be replaced and taking out the ear buds leaves them attached and grabable so there isn't the possibility of putting one in a pocket and sending it through the wash.
"..I have wired headphones."
I used to favor wired ear buds, but everything in the house that sticks out would grab the cord and yank them out. I finally got fed up and bought some full sized BT headphones. The downside is the iPod's BT directionality. The headphones will lose connection if the iPod is in my front pocket and if I have it back to front in a shirt pocket. Theoretically, I should be able to walk most of the house and be in range, but IRL, it's no more than 3 meters. Grr.
"but everything in the house that sticks out would grab the cord"
Protip: run the cord inside your tee, hoodie, dress, whatever. Added bonus, if you pop them out to talk to someone (because you're not a self absorbed twat*), then you can just let them dangle.
*Two places I go will not serve anyone on their phone or wearing headphones in / over their ears.
"Protip: run the cord inside your tee, hoodie, dress, whatever. "
Hoodie? I'm not a criminal! AND!, it's a kilt, not a skirt. Sheesh.
I'm too lazy to fish the wire through clothes and it's not easy to find earbuds with a lead that is just the right length. Usually it's too short and when long enough, there needs to be some extra so I can pull out the iPod to change tracks.
The Over-The-Ear BT headphones are favorite. YMMV.
To make something this small, this robust, this light and (I think) waterproof is hard, and a lot harder if it can be easily taken apart. Surely at some point the line is crossed where repairability isn't a priority.
Yes, it would be nice if we could recycle and recover the valuable or dangerous bits.
