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fraggle

Latest infuriating tech trend

Twitter post by Josh Whiton:

A crazy experience —  I lost my earbuds in a remote town in Chile, so tried buying a new pair at the airport before flying out. But the new wired, iPhone, lightning-cable headphones didn't work. Strange.

So I went back and swapped them for another pair, from a different brand. But those headphones didn't work either. We tried a third brand, which also didn't work.

By now the gift shop people and their manager and all the people in line behind me are super annoyed, until one of the girls says in Spanish, "You need to have bluetooth on." Oh yes, everyone else nods in agreement. Wired headphones for iPhones definitely need bluetooth.

What? That makes no sense. The entire point of wired headphones is to not need bluetooth. 

So I turn Bluetooth on with the headphones plugged into the lightning port and sure enough my phone offers to "pair" my wired headphones. "See," they all say in Spanish, like I must be the dumbest person in the world.

With a little back and forth I realize that they don't even conceptually know what bluetooth is, while I have actually programmed for the bluetooth stack before. I was submitting low-level bugs to Ericsson back in the early 2000's! Yet somehow, I with my computer science degree, am wrong, and they, having no idea what bluetooth even is, are right.
My mind is boggled, I'm outnumbered, and my plane is boarding. I don't want wireless headphones. And especially not wired/wireless headphones or whatever the hell these things are. So I convince them, with my last ounce of sanity, to let me try one last thing, a full-proof solution:

I buy a normal wired, old-school pair of mini-stereo headphones and a lightning adapter. We plug it all in. It doesn't work. 

"Bluetooth on", they tell me.

NO! By all that is sacred my wired lightning adapter cannot require Bluetooth. "It does," they assure me.

So I turn my Bluetooth on and sure enough my phone offers to pair my new wired, lightning adapter with my phone.

Unbelievable.
I return it all, run to catch my plane, and spend half the flight wondering what planet I'm on. Until finally back home, I do some research and figure out what's going on:

A scourge of cheap "lightning" headphones and lightning accessories is flooding certain markets, unleashed by unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers who have discovered an unholy recipe:

True Apple lightning devices are more expensive to make. So instead of conforming to the Apple standard, these companies have made headphones that receive audio via bluetooth — avoiding the Apple specification — while powering the bluetooth chip via a wired cable, thereby avoiding any need for a battery.

They have even made lightning adapters using the same recipe: plug-in power a fake lightning dongle that uses bluetooth to transmit the audio signal literally 1.5 inches from the phone to the other end of the adapter.

In these remote markets, these manufacturers have no qualms with slapping a Lightning / iPhone logo on the box while never mentioning bluetooth, knowing that Apple will never do anything.
From a moral or even engineering perspective, this strikes me as a kind of evil. These companies have made the cheapest iPhone earbuds known to humankind, while still charging $12 or $15 per set, pocketing the profits, while preying on the technical ignorance of people in remote towns.

Perhaps worst of all, there are now thousands or even millions of people in the world who simply believe that wired iPhone headphones use bluetooth (whatever that is), leaving them with an utterly incoherent understanding of the technologies involved.

I wish 
Apple
 would devote an employee or two to cracking down on such a technological, psychological abomination as this. And I wish humanity would use its engineering prowess for good, and not opportunistic deception.
187 comments
JC 💾🚀🪐

@fraggle Wow, they actually made “wired bluetooth headphones" a thing.

drevil

@fraggle this feels the Amnesia The Dark Descent of the engineering world.

Charlotte 🦝 θΔ

@fraggle entirely self-inflicted tbh, by not making your device work with normal or unlicensed headphones, you invite these kind of solutions to exist

snahn ip

@fraggle blame apple for being a shit company, not the cheap companies trying to make cheaper workarounds. Right?

Sin Vega

@sn0n @fraggle seriously. to experience that and then think "gosh I hope apple uses their infinite billions to crush these people" feels like ... you were close, and then suddenly you were very not

Hisham

@sinvega @sn0n @fraggle the whole "technical ignorance of people in remote towns" also struck me as very off-base.

What ignorance? Those users know the cheap earphones need bluetooth. They also know that the real Apple earphones costs 10x more.

Gabriel N

@hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle I’m a Venezuelan in this edge-of-the-world country :pika:

The people here is tech savvy in a very different way that this engineer is: they mostly don’t care about what the underlying technology should do, they just care about solving a problem.

In UX we call that “Jobs to be done”. You are in the wrong here, my guy.

Alexander The 1st

@wtrmt @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle I was going to say - the accordance of the headphones is that they only worked with Bluetooth.

As someone who did manual and automated QA, the guy arguing the cable doesn't need to use Bluetooth sounds like a guy insisting everything works because the Unit Tests validated all the internal contracts, so it should work that way.

I have broken a *lot* of software tools in staging/QA environments by simply not limiting what I input to sensible inputs.

Alexander The 1st

@wtrmt @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle "Your Unit Tests work, right? Great, watch me toss this into your posting input on a browser loaded to your website: "';SELECT *;" That shouldn't break when I hit post, but here's the error, because *somewhere* in your Unit Tests' contract validated code, you're not sanitizing an input."

Alexander The 1st

@wtrmt @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle (I'm not that aggressive about it; I just write up a bug report with the resulting console log information, or the API response code, or in worst cases, the stack trace, for them to use to fix it. And I do keep those tests safe enough to avoid taking down the environment, since as a QA Tester, it's my job to prove the core of what can be done, not the scale.

But while that's an obvious example of a situation like that, there are many more.)

Nick Krichevsky

@wtrmt @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle Maybe I'm just grouchy (probably) but while it is true that this solves a problem, the alternate, "simple" solution (i.e. a copper cable) solves the problem more reliably. That said, I know my headphone preferences are less popular among the masses :)

Gabriel N

You are right: I would like to use the copper wire instead.

This is just a workaround for a licensing limitation: Apple is just milking money where it shouldn’t.

I like the fact that this Chinese workaround:

a) Makes clear by its design how the product works.
b) Is cheaper for the user.
c) It hides the complexity of what is doing

Lately, the chances of that occurring are few and far between.

@ollien @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle

You are right: I would like to use the copper wire instead.

This is just a workaround for a licensing limitation: Apple is just milking money where it shouldn’t.

I like the fact that this Chinese workaround:

a) Makes clear by its design how the product works.
b) Is cheaper for the user.
c) It hides the complexity of what is doing

RouseWorld

@wtrmt

I do find the quoted post kind of classist and gross. I talked to a local (ruralish southeast US) about this issue and he said those headphones have been around for a while and thought everyone understood them. I think some people (I include myself!) get into these tech bubbles where anything that falls outside of that bubbles seems backwards or wrong.

Gabriel N

@rouseworld in the end, this whole product category of cheap wired headphones is disposable.

These products are so flimsy that no one bats and eye about those issues, because the perceived value is so low.

I used to have great sounding, durable, small and cheap headphones by Panasonic. Apple killed them when it eliminated the headphone jack.

SlightlyCyberpunk

@fraggle Not sure if I'm infuriated or just kinda impressed tbh lol

Kind of amazing that setting up a whole wireless comms stack is apparently cheaper and easier than paying Apple's fees...modern tech is wild

varve

@admin @fraggle I'm impressed too! The trend of restricting peripherals is definitely infuriating. The person in the screenshots completely missed the mark in that complaint, largely due to aiming at the wrong target.

SlightlyCyberpunk

@varve @fraggle Eh, such devices should have a bluetooth logo and probably not a lightning logo (although I guess technically they are still using the lightning port?)...does sound like there may be some fraud going on there! So both sides kinda suck.

The other maddening thing though is when you complain about Apple's licensing crap and need to control the entire walled garden, the typical response is that they do that to maintain quality...but then the typical Apple customer complains about how expensive everything is and goes looking for the cheapest possible knockoff accessories anyway...they wouldn't produce this stuff if there wasn't a market for it.

@varve @fraggle Eh, such devices should have a bluetooth logo and probably not a lightning logo (although I guess technically they are still using the lightning port?)...does sound like there may be some fraud going on there! So both sides kinda suck.

The other maddening thing though is when you complain about Apple's licensing crap and need to control the entire walled garden, the typical response is that they do that to maintain quality...but then the typical Apple customer complains about how...

raganwald 🍓

@fraggle

Forget all this talk of "remote towns" for a moment. How many of these are for sale on Amazon right now?

The amazon word mark and logo, but with the curved arrow inverted to appear as a frown.
Hubert Figuière

@raganwald @fraggle Remote town?????

The OP (the one screenshoted) has a very bigoted take.

I bought one of these at the pharmacy around the corner in the second biggest city in the country: Canada. I didn't realise it was Bluetooth until I read that post. And the UI should already have betrayed that fact.

Glitzersachen.de

@hub @raganwald @fraggle

How would it betray that, if Bluetooth is turned off?

Asking for a friend. (I'd certainly have had the same problems)

Hubert Figuière

@glitzersachen @raganwald @fraggle I didn't say Bluetooth was off. I just said that instead of just working it asked me to "connect". See cosocial.ca/@hub/1125378646357

Robby Andrews

@raganwald @fraggle I've purchased more than one counterfeit Apple product on Amazon. They've somewhat cracked down but still allow third-party sellers to push their faux Apple wares.

Jimmy Havok

@Chewyrobbo @raganwald @fraggle Are you saying that cheap headphones are faux Apple? That Apple owns the concept of headphones?

Robby Andrews

@jhavok @raganwald @fraggle Huh? I'm not sure how you inferred that's what I was saying. I am saying that third party sellers are pushing Apple look-alike products that trick people into thinking they're buying genuine Apple.

varx/social

@fraggle Looks like the third image has the image description of the second image.

keithzg
@fraggle @cstross I really, *really* can't get on board with the original poster's conclusion though. This is entirely Apple's fault for having removed the standard analog audio port and left only a proprietary one requiring paying them to make a product for it; they set the incentives here entirely. And of course this also won't be a long-term problem because they've been thankfully forced by the EU to change that lone port to an actual standard one, so third-parties won't have to so resort.
Jonathan Hendry

@fraggle

Meh. Who cares. The earbuds wouldn't be any better if they weren't "bluetooth”. And this way the user doesn't have to worry about charging their headphones.

Win-win if you ask me. This was probably inevitable once Apple removed the headphone jack.

FRANK.MCCONNEL

@jonhendry @fraggle I'm imagining the "bluetooth" involved is old stuff with a really lossy audio codec that's good enough for a telco voice call but not good enough for rock'n'roll

DELETED

@jonhendry ...they would though. The audio lag on wireless headphones is insane.

ahoyboyhoy

@jonhendry @fraggle audio over USB is easily lossless and low latency (not familiar with Apple's proprietary spec if there is one). Cheap BT is absolute trash. Where you probably aren't wrong is the DAC quality might be an hugely limiting factor either way.

Jayne

@fraggle *internal screaming intensifies* :blobcat_thisisfine:

Dan McDonald

@fraggle @cstross

Thanks for screencapping this for non-Twitter sharing.

Maxime Labelle

@fraggle that's actually a very clever way to avoid paying the Apple license. Hilarious 😏.

⚡️Miriam | Hyenagirl64 🇵🇸

@fraggle @aks 🦾see, but the root problem here was when Apple stopped using 3.5mm audio jacks, thereby forcing manufacturers to make specialized headphones for their products instead of being able to make the same, much simpler to manufacture unpowered wired headphones for everyone.

These manufactures are avoiding having to dedicate engineers specifically to Apple by using Bluetooth because it’s an industry standard. And then they can charge a premium because Apple engineering their phones to avoid accessories that are compatible with competing products has created captive consumers.

@fraggle @aks 🦾see, but the root problem here was when Apple stopped using 3.5mm audio jacks, thereby forcing manufacturers to make specialized headphones for their products instead of being able to make the same, much simpler to manufacture unpowered wired headphones for everyone.

These manufactures are avoiding having to dedicate engineers specifically to Apple by using Bluetooth because it’s an industry standard. And then they can charge a premium because Apple engineering their phones to avoid...

Hubert Figuière

@fraggle yup. Just realised that the cheapo adapter I bought here to use my wired headphones are like that.

The BT device is named "lighting" (sic) and pretend to be "Beats" to connect.

Bela Lugosi's Dad

@fraggle I've been aware of this for a while, eBay is full of cheap lightning-3.5mm adaptors that mention requiring Bluetooth to be on. What's weird to me is the author of the post blames the manufacturers and wants Apple to crack down - when this fundamentally Apple's fault for removing a simple, standard audio interface that doesn't require expensive Apple-approved chips from their phone. You should just be able to plug any old headphones into a phone! That's how it used to work!

fraggle

@jimbob yes& the author also makes clear that the reason they do this is to circumvent restrictions apple has put in in the first place (presumably patents)

undead enby of the apocalypse

@fraggle @jimbob this entire thing has finally made me realize why they removed the headphone jack

✧✦✶✷Catherine✷✶✦✧

@jimbob @fraggle also the chips are artificially inflated in price

they could just Not require a digital signature in those. lightning digital audio is cheap and easy to make, even without the jack. they just apply a tax on it on purpose

Juli Jane

@fraggle So, you wish Apple to crack down on this... I have a different idea: Apple could just stop extorting manufacturers of accessories, then this would not happen either.

wakame

@julijane @fraggle

Of course a hardware vendor will take the cheapest route, because Capitalism™️.

Apple aren't the only ones who artificially limit access to their bus or network using special chips, specs, etc.

Sounds like "the problem is Lightning", tbh.

Ralph058 (S/he/it) AF4EZ

@julijane @fraggle Correct. Apple goes to great lengths to add proprietary software and hardware features.
Even the lightning port is just an inside out USB port.

adradial :medusa:

@fraggle white entitled guy goes outside his bubble and is surprised of people ingenuity, he proceeds to insult the locals: the story

Anthk

@adra @fraggle
White Northern Spaniard (and thus half-hispanic because
half of my culture isn't even Roman)
here: stupidity it's universal and I'm pretty sure
Latin Americans don't give a shit about the stereotyped
and dumb statement on races from the USA, as they
focus on people's behaviour over anything else.
Said this, Apple and DRM sucks.

Grace Vulpes Alopex :v_bi: :v_trans: :v_pat:

@fraggle@octodon.social

I was already in a murderous mood today, but now it's even fucking more murderous

Cyber Yuki

@fraggle The ONLY thing Apple need to do was adding a damn analog jack.

But no... they wanted things done THEIR way! 🙄

NSKE

@fraggle There's something about the tone that is written in that actually makes me glad they got ripped off.

Gabbo the wafrn guy :neocat_floof_devil_256: (not a vampire)

@fraggle FUCKING HELL I DID NOT READ THE TOP TEXT AND I EXPECTED THE GUY HAVING A COOL REALIZATION BUT NO HE IS BEING A CUNT TECHBRO FUCKING HELL

Jack William Bell

@fraggle

Am I the only one wondering why he didn't ALSO complain about Apple deleting the headphone port and requiring manufacturers to use an expensive, due to Apple's licensing requirements, and incompatible solution?

In my mind the problem lies with Apple. Not with the people figuring out workarounds for Apple breaking their existing wired headphone business.

Trouble

@fraggle It's not the port, it's the licensing fee. """While Apple doesn't issue a price sheet publicly it's been widely reported as $4 per lightning connector - and that in the past it's been as much as $10 per device. Feb 1, 2020""" @jackwilliambell

Trillion Byter

@fraggle It hurt my brain to read that article. Wired Bluetooth headphones?! Smdh

Log 🪵

@fraggle One can capture all the value from some of the consumers all the time, or all the consumers some of the time, but one can't capture all the value from all the consumers all the time.

A cool crab wearing shades

@fraggle a scam that only exists bc they stopped putting a standard 3.5mm audio jack on the stupid phone!!

fraggle

Yes, I understand, it's because Apple removed the headphone socket. Please stop telling me now.

Stinkie McPhee

@fraggle I mean, that doesn't explain why I bought myself a USB c headphone jack (with a charger pass-thru, sold as a USB sound card) for work, and that was also just a Bluetooth device.

Stefan Monnier

@fraggle Actually it's not just that, but also the licensing price they put on Lightning. I don't think the same absurd "audio over Bluetooth with power by wire" would make economic sense with USB.
IOW, Apple really went out of their way to create the conditions needed for this confusion

tk

@fraggle OK, so apple requires every peripheral device (charging cable, headprones, etc.) to have a special chip from apple. The reason is that no manufacturer is allowed to create a device without apple permission. So apple gets money from every device even other manufacturers sell.

geo_bot

@fraggle I don't think any of that would happen if some didn't charge $5 a unit to do it properly

Balise

@fraggle That is brilliant. Infuriating, but brilliant :D

shitpostalotl
@fraggle "True Apple lightning devices are more expensive to make." ??? why. also you messed up the alt text.
Michael T Babcock

@fraggle I just want them labelled properly. Apple cracking down on anyone for anything is the last of my desires. Also, USB-C fixes the entire premise of this problem. The problem is the Lightning port standard existing in the first place.

Robby Andrews

@fraggle While I haven't programmed the bluetooth stack, I consider myself technically aware of how bluetooth works. I would be as angry and baffled as you. I actually prefer wired headphones because I'm cheap and lose things like airbuds. I'm pretty sure i've gotten counterfeit lightning headphones from Amazon in the past (they didn't require bluetooth luckily). Amazon has improved on cracking down but it still has counterfeit products. It seems it's still common in shops outside the US.

piofthings

@fraggle i would think it is Apple to blame… why lock down with proprietary nonsense like lightening adapter!!! Why the nonsense of no stereo jack?

nex

@fraggle Haha I kind of do this on purpose:

My newest mouse can do USB, fast RF, and Bluetooth. Initially, when I thought I should charge it, I would unplug the 2.4 GHz receiver from the mouse cable so I could plug the mouse cable into the mouse, and it would switch automatically to USB.

However, given that radio performs identically to cabled, I found out it's much simpler to leave the receiver connected to the computer and plug a simple charging cable into the mouse.

nex

OTOH, I'd never try that with my keyboard, which can only do USB or Bluetooth. BT has become very good, but for an input device, it's not quite as good as cabled.

For head-/earphones, the difference is night and day. My fondleslabs have headphone jacks, but if I had to use an adapter (lightning, USB-C, whatever) to get that jack, it would be even more clear: I'm using the cable for a reason; Bluetooth will never ever suffice in that situation.

datum (n=1)

@fraggle with headphones for $12-15 the limit to audio quality is not going to be the bit depth of the audio, but the quality of the earbuds.

For 99% of people, why does it matter if the same power powers the driver, but the bits of the wave get to the amplifier by bluetooth or by lightning?

Why isn't it ok to sidestep apple's gatekeeping on plug-in earbuds?

punIssuer

@datum you can probably power wired headphones with the energy those two bluetooth audio stacks need
@fraggle

Michael Kohne

@fraggle That is UTTERYLY insane. Capitalism at it's finest.

OddOpinions5

@fraggle

you win

dunno what the contest is, or what the prize is, but you win

I bow down

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@fraggle As I read the first two images, I thought that the reason was exactly what the OP put in his third image … so much BS out there now.

Woozle Hypertwin

@fraggle Yet another way in which "what you don't know won't hurt you" is exactly untrue. What you don't know makes you easy to manipulate and cheat.

CM Skellington

@fraggle Alternate take:

They know perfectly well what Bluetooth is, and they also happen to know these wired headphones are the fakey Bluetooth kind, and said as much so you could get them to work properly.

Yes, the tech is dumb, but no need to belittle the sales folk who clearly knew what was up.

Patrick H. Lauke

@fraggle @cstross "True Apple lightning devices are more expensive to make."
"I wish Apple would devote an employee or two to cracking down on such a technological, psychological abomination as this."

so close to a more fundamental realisation...Apple should make it cheaper/easier to get certified

Li

@patrick_h_lauke @fraggle @cstross or not have bullshit certification that serves no real purpose ..

SimonCHulse

@fraggle my goodness, that’s totally batsh*t crazy.

Harshad Sharma

@fraggle what struck me as hilarious/ disappointing is that this very smart person thinks it is not okay if someone else solves a problem creatively and charges for it, but it is welcome when Apple does it and charges an order of magnitude more.

gellenburg :heart_pride: :verified_gay:

@fraggle@octodon.social And yet if Apple didn't have that stupid "Made for iPhone" crap just so they can milk a few more shekels from manufacturers there wouldn't be an issue.

In fact, Android users have never had to turn on Bluetooth to make any USB-C wired set of headphones "work" with their phones.

Don't blame the manufacturers, blame Apple for their bullshit practices.

defanor

@fraggle Not as a snark or a rant, but I think the practice of distributing texts as images is quite similar to the described one: using inappropriate technologies to circumvent artificially imposed restrictions of other technologies.

JJ :blobblackcat:

@fraggle seems like a very fun cost engineering effort. it looks like the true apple lightning devices being more expensive to make is a result of apple charging licensing fees? and presumably doing cryptography shenanigans or whatever it is companies do to make it harder to reverse engineer chips. i guess if apple-approved chips are $4, and ESP32s are $1, there's an obvious choice...

Ángela Stella Matutina

@fraggle

I'm buying a fucking AM/FM radio next time. And a dumbphone or whatever must we call them now BEFORE this shit spills to Android-land.

N3G4

@fraggle
Woudnt be the best way just to geht rid of the stupid restricctions of Apple at all?

Vincent 🌻

@fraggle Yes, it’s insane that they built it this way. Must be a way to force people to buy apple earbuds (though I don’t see how)

But I find the overarching issue that people who know the least are the most confident more infuriating.

*that* is what will be humanity’s downfall (even though I doubt it has ever been different - surely cavemen who never built a fire were instructing those who did)

Reiddragon :ablobcatattention:
@fraggle would've prob helped if Apple just used open fucking standards instead of making up their own shit so they can skim some money off the top with licensing money
punIssuer

@fraggle not sure how much he's offended because of his sense of technical purity vs. having his white male ego humiliated because his superior technical knowledge didn't match up with how the world works

Li

@fraggle what the- I thought it was apple being weird and checking for Bluetooth in software for some reason the real answer is even more wtf.

Anyway how the hell does they conclude apple needs to 'crack down' on it and not just that they need to stop arbitrarily restricting what headphones will work on it for no reason (money)

mia

@fraggle

corporation does a thing nobody likes
“the solution is more corporate authoritarianism!”
every time

Selbstbestimmungsgesetz
@fraggle bluetooth headphones is the only thing that they know, they didn't actually know how to fix the issue they just think the solution to everything is bluetooth and dont know how a wired connection works anymore
✧✦✶✷Catherine✷✶✦✧

@fraggle @zip damn! maybe if Apple didn't charge ten bucks for MFi licensing this would not happen

this happens because Apple acts like a cop and your solution is for it to be more of a cop? cmon.

Jason Petersen (he)

@whitequark yeah this ain’t it. Also pretty gross to whiteknight on behalf of these people because something doesn’t fit in his mental model

myrmepropagandist

@fraggle

I had a friend who once used wifi to connect a micro controller to an LED **on the same PCB** in one of his projects and I still make fun of him for it. (he didn't want to have a wire visible or run a path)

I wonder if there are other instances of wireless communication within perfectly wire-able devices in the wild.

Big Clive needs to be sent some of these monstrosities to take them apart!

Jake

@futurebird @fraggle my whole career right now is supporting the development of 2.4GHz wireless communication ICs including BT. Even I'm constantly wondering why people are putting Bluetooth in things that obviously don't need it (I'm looking at you medical devices).

NormanDunbar

@Affekt
I have WiFi on my tumble dryer. I have no idea why!
@futurebird @fraggle

Mans R

@Affekt @futurebird @fraggle I was looking at kitchen scales recently and came across one that for some reason had Bluetooth. What's worse, according to reviews, it wouldn't even work at all unless paired to something despite having a display. I did not buy that one.

fraggle

@futurebird hah, +1 for Big Clive, this is right up his street

Dekkia

@fraggle Instead of cracking down on that, I wish Apple would stop being such a bitch abouth 3rd Party accessories.

Randall Lee

@fraggle and I thought it was stupid that the robot at work has to stay in the automatic mode for me to operate it manually instead of having it in the manual mode.

MsMerope

@fraggle
didn't realize until way after I got my new phone that I can't plug in a head set or speakers... it's all wireless.

Gabriel N

He started the thread with something quite interesting that taught him about a way of designing tech products:

Tech obfuscation.

This is a well known way to swindle tech obsessed people to buy shiny and expensive things: the juicer that was only milking juice from a bag, the bunny AI crapware that was only a disguised Android App, etc.

@AT1ST @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle

Gabriel N

I never saw this method of developing a product as a way of designing around a licensing limitation while hiding complexity.

Kudos to the Chinese ingenuity, no to the dismissive xenophobia of the original author.

@AT1ST @hisham_hm @sinvega @sn0n @fraggle

Sin Vega

@wtrmt They definitely have a point in that the whole thing is ridiculous and shouldn't be necessary, and maybe there is indeed an exploitative markup... but that's the fault of apple in the first place and just typical modern commerce in the second.

And yeah the op went ahead and put the whole thing through a xenophobic and weirdly corporate bootlicky lens 🤷‍♀️

Gabriel N

@sinvega this whole licensing business — the business of making money limiting your product— in the end just waste the company resources that could be employed in making better and more interesting products.

Can I sing Karaoke in this new car?

Other markets are brimming with special needs and opportunities to design great products.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Christof Damian 💙💛

@fraggle
I would argue that Apple is the evil party here.
@kittylyst

Stefan Monnier

@fraggle I don't think Apple is interested in making its clients more technically savvy: they strive on technical ignorance (like most of the tech world, Free Software being one of the rare counter examples). That's deeply embedded in the principle that "it just works".

‮ 🐰 innuB :bunHop:

@fraggle 3rd pic has wrong alt text (it's the same as 2nd pic)

Isaac

@fraggle Can't get over how much of a douchebag the writer seems to be

Nawer

@fraggle gotta love Apple and every single trend of fuckery they promote by the dumbest hardware protection.
Had to backfire -even more- sooner or later.

Ryan Dormanesh

@fraggle I'm surprised he was able to open up all that stuff and try it while people waited in line. Then he ended up not buying anything 😅

janet_catcus

@fraggle that hurt my brain so much xD must have felt like in some cosmic horror story...

Pseudo Nym

@fraggle

Responses to this are fascinating. I'm getting...

The engineer is offended by "cost cutting work-around" because wired headphones "shouldn't" need BT.

Shades of racism and techno superiority over folks who don't understand tech details.

Some folks are mad at Apple for removing functional old-tech audio jacks that "just worked" in favor of capturing money via licensing leads to clever, but deceptive hacks.

Entitled dude bro,
Apple is greedy,
people are clever,
scammers gonna scam.

@fraggle

Responses to this are fascinating. I'm getting...

The engineer is offended by "cost cutting work-around" because wired headphones "shouldn't" need BT.

Shades of racism and techno superiority over folks who don't understand tech details.

Some folks are mad at Apple for removing functional old-tech audio jacks that "just worked" in favor of capturing money via licensing leads to clever, but deceptive hacks.

treelzebub

@fraggle y'know what's great? 1/4" audio ports.

undead enby of the apocalypse

@fraggle holy fucking shit I hate that idea I hate it so much

Blaise Pabón

@fraggle
A story as old as irony itself.
Somehow, I suspect Homer knew this was coming.

DELETED

@fraggle So I read this, and I thought to myself, “There’s no way that’s true.” I turned my Bluetooth off, plugged my budget Skull Candy wired headphones into the dongle, and plugged it into my iPhone.

It recognized the headphones immediately.

This story is hogwash. The writer either had a defective device, or they’re just a plain ol’ liar.

James Scholes

@fraggle Note that the alt text has one passage repeated twice, and hence is missing some content. Quote:

"
I return it all, run to catch my plane, and spend half the flight wondering what planet I'm on. Until finally back home, I do some research and figure out what's going on:

A scourge of cheap "lightning" headphones and lightning accessories is flooding certain markets, unleashed by unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers who have discovered an unholy recipe:

True Apple lightning devices are more expensive to make. So instead of conforming to the Apple standard, these companies have made headphones that receive audio via bluetooth — avoiding the Apple specification — while powering the bluetooth chip via a wired cable, thereby avoiding any need for a battery.

They have even made lightning adapters using the same recipe: plug-in power a fake lightning dongle that uses bluetooth to transmit the audio signal literally 1.5 inches from the phone to the other end of the adapter.

In these remote markets, these manufacturers have no qualms with slapping a Lightning / iPhone logo on the box while never mentioning bluetooth, knowing that Apple will never do anything.
" @cachondo

@fraggle Note that the alt text has one passage repeated twice, and hence is missing some content. Quote:

"
I return it all, run to catch my plane, and spend half the flight wondering what planet I'm on. Until finally back home, I do some research and figure out what's going on:

A scourge of cheap "lightning" headphones and lightning accessories is flooding certain markets, unleashed by unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers who have discovered an unholy recipe:

Kevin Lyda

@fraggle Engineers at small companies make a good workaround and make money - and aren't taxed by a megacorp. I see nothing wrong here. It's a cool hack - both in terms of tech and in terms of the system.

John Breen

@fraggle Fascinating devolution from secure wired mode to insecure wireless, to save somebody a license fee and import restrictions. (Can we ban Fentanyl as easily as counterfeit Apple devices please ?)
People did the same shit with HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort, and USB connectorization to avoid licensing/IP/royalties. It's stupid to allow this at physical interface level (lets talk power adapter standards and the giant waste-pit of useless AC adapters y'all have), and it was basically why AT&T was broken up (not) so people could connect a phone to the line even if it was not made by MaBell.

Everybody wants
A monopoly
Or at least a trendy SaaS
And recurring AR please.
They teach you that
In business school
And rhymes don't even have to rhyme.
Because AI AI AI

@fraggle Fascinating devolution from secure wired mode to insecure wireless, to save somebody a license fee and import restrictions. (Can we ban Fentanyl as easily as counterfeit Apple devices please ?)
People did the same shit with HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort, and USB connectorization to avoid licensing/IP/royalties. It's stupid to allow this at physical interface level (lets talk power adapter standards and the giant waste-pit of useless AC adapters y'all have), and it was basically why AT&T was broken...

ltning
@fraggle This happens here as well. In Norway. Shops like "Normal" and other places that sell everything under the sun will sell you this kind of "adapter" - but nowhere near as cheap as they should be since we're rich but clueless b*tches and can we can and will pay for it.
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@fraggle
really? I dont support Apple doing this. If the folks are happy; I do not care a damn.

Is it weird, incoherrent BS... YES
Is the proposed "solution" as incoherent; and encouraging surrendering of power that consumers already have to a consumer violating piece of S*** company crewed almost exclusively by morons... Also YES

Colin Cogle :verified:

@fraggle Wow, that's crazy and infuriating. It's also a little bit genius on the manufacturer's part. Hopefully the switch to USB-C will resolve this in time.

Adam ♿

@fraggle I have bought a number of very cheap adapters from AliExpress and never encountered this. I cannot believe that a bluetooth chip would be cheaper than the clone MFi chips. It would be interesting to buy a whole stack and tear them down.

Amy ☣

@fraggle@octodon.social The alt text on the third image is a copy of the alt text from the second image, just FYI. (I know this because the UI on Sharkey overlays the alt text over the image, blocking some of the text in your screen shots, making it impossible for me to read without being able to read the alt text or opening the image separately. Thanks, I hate it. Not your fault though.)

Phil Thane ✅

@fraggle
The more I read about Apple the more pleased I am that I've never been rich enough to buy any of their products.
@Maker_of_Things

Lisa

@fraggle that just pisses me off as somone who teaches other how to use the iphone

Pepper The Vixen🏳️‍⚧️🦯

@fraggle I think my brain just melted a little reading that. Good God. Also, thank you for adding alt text

THE FINALS Lore Simp

@fraggle I'm sincerely baffled to have just learned about this conundrum.

As someone from Chile, I'm especially lamented by the ignorance of those who stood like they were right. Even if the newest iPhones have USB-C, stuff like this is another reason why I won't ever buy Apple nonsense.

Your contributions to Bluetooth are more than appreciated!

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