standards increase, production gets cheaper and form factors get smaller?
Here we can be pretty sure, because Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP, allowing stereo sound, has been widely available since mid-00’s (I got my first phone with it in 2005), BT chips cost pennies even then and mono earphones of that size were old news too, so none of that was anything special. And it’s not like Apple were the ones to make it affordable anyway.
I’ll credit Apple for putting it together in a meaningful way, but of course they had to do it the asshole Apple way. Honestly, Apple designers should be charged with crimes against humanity for their popularisation of built-in batteries and other disposability features, and all the idiot designers who followed that example, with them. If not on principle, then for all the ewaste.
That’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Of course it is. But to be clear, I’m not against all wireless. So I’m not comparing ‘true wireless’ with classic cabled earphones, but with wireless earphones that have a cable connecting them and controls/battery somewhere between them. I wish designers would concentrate on improving this style rather than producing millions of buds people keep losing or discarding and then re-buying.
(Ed: I mean even TW can exist if people want, but the Apple effect makes everyone think that’s the only way to make earphones.)
I don’t disagree with you at all which is why I still make it a point to only buy phones exclusively with 3.5mm jacks still included.