Apple’s Airbuds are a liability

Not worth the wait

Apple’s overpriced Airbuds might have shipped before Christmas after all but they are proving to be a disaster for users and the environment.

Users have been complaining that the design of the earbuds – like two tiny dildos hanging from your ear, do not appear to sit well in the human ear, which was want most Apple fanboys were equipped with. As a result, they tend to fall out, which means either finding them, or shelling out a lot of dosh to get a replacement.

The Tame Apple Press has been doing its best. The reviewer at the Verge blamed his ears for the problem. I guess it is easier to blame your parents, or God for your ears than it is to blame your favourite technology company for letting you down. At no point, did Sean O’Kane think “hang on, other headphone designs manage to stay in my ears, but something about Apple doesn’t.” Given the amount of cash you pay for the things you would think that having the ability to stay in your ear would be a key design feature, before the Apple fanboy’s wade in below and say “but Apple makes huge profits, so what do you know?” that statement does not nullify the argument, it just proves you think it is OK to be a victim and are proud of the company doing it to you.

We think we got where O’Kane was coming from when he wrote: “I’ve tested a lot of wireless earbuds so far and my biggest takeaway is that they’re only as good as the case they come with.” Yeah right, if you have a $ 55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus headphones you often find their sound quality is totally dictated by the box they arrived in.

Meanwhile iFixit has said that if you buy a pair of Airpads you are lowering the standards of the world and helping to kill off polar bears.

That is because Apple made sure that it was practically impossible to recycle the AirPods. Apple decided, in its wisdom to glue the tiny lithium batteries to the casing of the headphones. This means that if you recycle them in the traditional way by meshing them you will get a fire at your recycling factory.

Apple insists that the $ 159 AirPods can be returned to the company for recycling but what happens to them next is unclear. It is too expensive for them to be broken down by hand so it is pretty obvious they are going to end up in a landfill somewhere, probably China, where they will contribute to the generally running down of the environment and ultimately the extinction of fluffy baby polar bears.