[HN Gopher] Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill
___________________________________________________________________
Podswap: Keep airpods alive and out of the landfill
Author : ilarum
Score : 177 points
Date : 2021-07-11 15:44 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thepodswap.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thepodswap.com)
| azuriten wrote:
| This is a great idea and I wish we had this in the UK. I was
| quoted PS65 to replace my failing, right AirPod and PS130 to
| replace both of them when RRP for new ones are PS160.
|
| I'd much rather replace the batteries of my existing ones then
| buy a new pair but with such a small price difference to get a
| pair it doesn't seem worth it.
| Etheryte wrote:
| As someone who gets a ridiculous amount of use out of their pods,
| I really hope this business pans out. I think the product is
| great, but batteries are consumable products. In fact, I would
| hope that one day it would be mandatory to offer battery
| replacements for all products you sell. (Do correct me if I'm
| wrong, I don't think Apple currently does this for pods?)
| denimnerd42 wrote:
| what's frustrating is that while batteries are consumable
| products they could last much longer if they stay between 80
| and 20% capacity without overheating. (this is similar to what
| tesla does) I wish there was a "battery care" settings on all
| electronics that would respect limits like this so that I could
| get thousands of cycles out of my devices instead of only
| <1000.
|
| Apple has added a feature which tries to do this intelligently
| to some extent but it's not the best at guessing what my needs
| are.
|
| The majority of the time I do not need max or even half of max
| battery life from my devices. airpods I only use for an hour or
| two at a time for example and my phone is usually close to a
| charger.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| That might be what's already happening behind the scenes
| though. They tell you you're at 10% but that's actually 30%
| for example
| stefan_ wrote:
| For cars, maybe, but my org has had a long line of HP
| laptops with swollen battery packs within a year of use. No
| doubt there are companies out there that would rather have
| the extra hour of runtime on some journalists review fact
| sheet than a battery that doesn't put their customers at
| risk.
| eitland wrote:
| I hope all those gets replaced under warranty?
|
| I hounded Dell for months and got them to replace I guess
| 2 or 3 dozens of Optiplex DL270 motherboards and it felt
| good: forcing them to take the cost for their shoddy
| work.
| stefan_ wrote:
| They do but in the meantime you got a laptop that only
| works off AC.
| HPsquared wrote:
| There's another side as well though - a failing battery
| will stop working unpredictably, which is also very bad
| for business/productivity.
| alisonkisk wrote:
| That's heat damage not discharge.
| denimnerd42 wrote:
| 10% vs 30% corresponds to whatever arbitrary voltage they
| select but I doubt they are selecting for battery
| durability over all else since marketing max run time is so
| important.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| Automotive engineer that doesn't work on EVs here...
| there is a lot that goes into the battery. Heating and
| cooling elements for instance. You're right, max runtime
| is the number one factor, but this can be gamed just like
| MPG ratings.
|
| I'm not sure many reviews are checking 0-60 times at 20%
| battery for example.
|
| My EV has a hilarious "miles remaining" number that
| INSTANTLY changes when the HVAC is on, doesn't matter if
| it's only slightly on or not, I instantly "lose" 8 or 9%.
| It's pretty loose. As to what I actually get? Doesn't
| really matter, never even compared to rating, mfgs know
| we use these cars for city travel.
|
| The small percentage of EVs you see on long haul highway,
| owners already know to carefully plan their trips.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| Good point, and it is/does for many products. EVs beyond
| Tesla all do this for instance.
|
| I do wish there was a little more of treating your users
| like adults though. If I have enough battery to make an
| urgent call, but it puts me under the 20% recommended, I
| want to make that call at the cost of long term battery
| life.
|
| My products treat users like adults, I wish it was a more
| common consideration.
| elliekelly wrote:
| It _does_ feel like the final 10% of battery lasts way
| longer than the drain from 20% to 10%.
| ddlutz wrote:
| estimating battery life is hard, it might be due to that.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Well the good thing about these kinds of buds is that your
| rarely discharge them heavily. Because you always put them
| back in the case. Mine never go below 50% (don't have airpods
| but cheapie EUR20 xiaomis that work surprisingly great).
|
| But it would be nice to have an option to avoid 100% yes.
| wonnage wrote:
| There are a lot of complaints about the buds not charging
| in the case, most likely due to not making full contact
| with the charging pins. The buds have no auto-sleep feature
| for some reason, so they'll stay connected until the
| battery runs out.
|
| Not only is this annoying, it also adds tons of unnecessary
| full discharge cycles.
|
| The new wireless charging cases are also bad - they seem to
| stay warm even when no longer charging, which probably
| degrades the batteries as well.
| tbrock wrote:
| Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that even gets close to
| 1000 cycles of great battery life.
| tedunangst wrote:
| Alas, a product that lasts five hours for 100 cycles gets
| much better reviews than a product that lasts four hours for
| 1000 cycles.
| alisonkisk wrote:
| Look at an airpod. Why should the battery be consumable but not
| the airpod? They have about the same amount of electronics. The
| average airpod user throws out more than an airpod's worth of
| plastic _per day_. I get _junk mail_ with electronic trash that
| is bigger than an airpod.
|
| Airpods are used with iPhones that have 20x the amount of
| electronics, so should last 20x as long.
|
| People's real concern is the _price_ which is higher than they
| guess because they think airpods are like regular headphones in
| longevity.
| reaperducer wrote:
| The web site states: "The first-ever battery replacement
| program."
|
| I'm not sure this is true. Apple had an AirPods battery
| replacement program before COVID-19. I had my wife's done. I
| wanted to get mine done this past January, but it didn't seem to
| be an option anymore. Maybe because of the pandemic and the
| global supply chain problems and such.
|
| "Only current" battery replacement program, maybe. But not first-
| ever.
| conradev wrote:
| My understanding is that Apple never replaced the batteries,
| they just swapped the AirPods with new ones
| reaperducer wrote:
| That's what this company does, too.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| But with refurbished ones, not new. And at a much better
| price.
| lights0123 wrote:
| No, they actually open them up and swap the battery and
| resell, i.e. refurbishing. Apple just throws them away.
| reaperducer wrote:
| According to the company's web site, they send you
| replacement AirPods before you send your old ones in. So
| no, they are not replacing your batteries and sending
| them back to you.
| internet2000 wrote:
| Are we sure Apple just throws them away?
| mikestew wrote:
| They could be referring to the fact Apple did not really
| replace your batteries, but instead just gave you a new set of
| AirPods.
|
| OTOH, I guess Apple's program _does_ replace the batteries,
| just not in the way I thought they would.
| specialist wrote:
| Just guessing:
|
| Podswap has stock of both new "blank" bud cases and batteries.
|
| Crack open buds using some kind of jig. Scoop out the
| electronics. Solder to new battery. Cram it all back together.
|
| That's how I'd do it.
|
| Bonus points for choice of colors. I'd love clear or forest green
| or deep purple.
|
| Watching a few air pod tear down videos, I find it weird the
| battery itself isn't part of the case. Like just use white
| instead of black. Have the barrel twist lock into place. Makes
| the battery replaceable. And that extra millimeter of diameter
| would probably be 50% more mAh.
|
| I know replaceable batteries is un-Apple. But that's what I'd do.
| tyingq wrote:
| >Podswap has stock of both new "blank" bud cases and batteries.
|
| They seem very picky about the condition of the case on what
| you send in, so I'm not sure they have a stock of new cases.
|
| See:
| https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0520/9856/4273/products/ai...
| specialist wrote:
| Oops. I misread that graphic. I thought it was examples of
| "before" air pods.
|
| My puppy gnawed on my pair, so I was excited to get them
| rehabilitated.
| throwaway81523 wrote:
| Their FAQ is pretty clear that they actually replace the
| batteries somehow. I'm glad someone figured out how to do that,
| but I agree with you that the airpod batteries (like the
| batteries in everything else) should have been replaceable in
| the first place.
| beckman466 wrote:
| > I agree with you that the airpod batteries (like the
| batteries in everything else) should have been replaceable in
| the first place.
|
| 100% agree, you can't unsee things like this:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleQVO1Vd1I
| ryana wrote:
| I've used podswap for my Gen 1 AirPods and it was fantastic. It
| took a couple cycles for everything to be back to normal (full
| charge, full volume) but they were up front that it takes a few
| recharges for everything to settle in.
|
| Absolutely no complaints.
| bruceb wrote:
| I am pro refurbishing/reusing and having less waste but its hard
| to care about tiny airpods being tossed.
|
| Maybe they test the message and it resonated better than "Airpods
| should last longer than your last relationship" or "1 trick that
| Apple hates"
|
| etc.
| samatman wrote:
| It's just the Discourse in action.
|
| For whatever reason, AirPods, of all things, have become a go-
| to example of environmental waste and throwaway culture.
|
| It's bizarre to me. I'm fairly confident that for minutes of
| pleasure / embodied energy, AirPods score higher than almost
| anything else I own, certainly among things with a battery and
| chip. They also last multiples of the time I would get out of
| wired earphones, which always die in a few months from work-
| hardening the copper wires until they break.
|
| My model is this: some people just hate Apple. It's an identity
| thing, phones are very personal and bring out tribal instincts
| (blue vs. green speech bubbles!), and AirPods are a _visible_
| signifier of "team Apple". So some people just, don't like 'em
| -\\_(tsu)_/-. The reasons are downstream of that.
|
| I also think that, since the only consumables are the battery
| and speaker membranes, it's great that someone wants to replace
| the batteries when they go bad. Membranes as well! Making
| consumer goods last longer is virtuous.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| > last multiples of the time I would get out of wired
| earphones, which always die in a few months from work-
| hardening the copper wires until they break
|
| Hmm...
|
| > It's just the Discourse in action... I'm fairly confident
| that for minutes of pleasure / embodied energy, AirPods score
| higher than almost anything else I own, certainly among
| things with a battery and chip
|
| It's interesting to reduce environmentalism to "joy per unit
| size * time." To its credit, if you do the accounting right,
| a lot of environmentally really bad things, like gasoline and
| meat, have very poor joy per (size time), while being a
| tourist in a conserved rainforest has very high joy per size
| time.
|
| But it's still flawed. Like Bitcoin has high joy per unit
| size and time, it turns cheaper electricity into more money
| you can spend on jetskis. No intellectually honest person
| claims that is environmentally friendly. You've chosen a
| framework that's idiosyncratically very friendly to
| electronics and things nerds are into, that I'm not sure
| would even make sense to people in almost any time prior to
| 1970. They by and large lived without the joys of electronics
| and did nothing to address the environmental disaster they're
| dying too soon to experience. Surely you see the same thing
| happening now, and right to repair is just one of many fronts
| of forward-thinking people trying to right those wrongs.
|
| I'm not advocating for "end to end emissions" as the
| framework either, because what you're saying people hate on
| Apple for is almost always true about Tesla. People
| complaining about electric cars having higher emissions are
| both wrong and saying that stuff in bad faith.
|
| But to go on social media and complain about the "Discourse"
| you are participating in is definitely intellectually
| dishonest. AirPods are shitty in their own unique way, and
| I'm not sure if any intellectual is seriously advocating, in
| their raw quoted form as opposed to a headline, that the way
| that they are shitty is exclusively your reductive
| perspective on "environmentally friendly."
| samatman wrote:
| You misread me, my case was joy * time / embodied energy.
|
| How else should we justify the use of energy except through
| such means? Subjectively I mean, I wouldn't suggest
| actually quantifying it.
|
| I don't burn energy in the winter because I like to spend
| money, I do it because there's an interior temperature
| below which I'm miserable. Once I've achieved that
| homeostasis, the only think left to me is to do it with _as
| little energy as possible_.
|
| > _AirPods are shitty in their own unique way_
|
| That's just like, your opinion, man.
|
| Speaking of intellectual dishonesty, I will never reply to
| you again.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| I own AirPods, I like them, but it sucks that they die
| when their battery dies, and they have to be thrown away
| for pretty much no good reason - just because that's how
| Apple designed it, and it could have many design
| priorities, and one of those priorities is to not throw
| nice shit away after two years.
|
| In the spirit of advancing curiosity, it was interesting
| to just see, is it possible to reduce environmentalism to
| something like "joy * time / embodied energy"? Bitcoin is
| mined because a bitcoin is worth more than the
| electricity used to mine it, so if your joy * time is
| "making money quickly" - which it is for a lot of people!
| - it seems really attractive to mine bitcoin but it isn't
| environmentally friendly.
| slg wrote:
| You can't just blame this on "the Discourse" or Apple haters.
| I have owned countless devices with batteries over my life.
| None has made me as acutely aware of its battery degrading as
| Airpods. Eventually I couldn't even make it through a full
| workout or work call on a single charge. They basically
| became worthless through nothing but normal usage. There was
| no visible physical damage. I treated them exactly how I was
| supposed to treat them according to Apple and still only got
| 2-3 years out of them. That is frustrating. It also is unlike
| many other Apple products as lots of people are perfectly
| satisfied with their 5+ year old Macbooks and iPhones.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| This seems way too conveniently dismissive of the
| environmental issue. Apple is the 800 lb gorilla that sets
| industry expectations. They have been gluing batteries and
| making repair difficult across their product line for a
| decade. This leads to higher consumer costs and manufactured
| goods filling landfills prematurely. As one of the most
| visible companies in the world making repair difficult, the
| criticism is well-deserved. The airpods are perhaps the
| height of unrepairable apple tech.
|
| Sure any valid criticism of Apple is going to invite a pile-
| on from the apple haters but it does not follow that the
| original criticism is invalid.
| dehrmann wrote:
| > This leads to higher consumer costs and manufactured
| goods filling landfills prematurely.
|
| Citation needed. Apple claims, and I'm fine with taking it
| with a grain of salt, that because batteries aren't
| replaceable like old Nokia phones, they can make the
| battery larger, possibly reducing consumer costs and how
| often batteries are changed. It's not just Apple, either.
| Consumers seem to not care.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| It seems obvious to me that this is true at least with
| laptops. And whatever costs are saved by a 5% larger
| battery must surely be offset by the higher costs of
| replacement when the battery ultimately dies?
|
| I don't know it's so clear to me that this is true that
| I've not felt the need to research it. By all means if
| you have sources to the contrary I'd be happy to read
| them.
|
| To me, we could save significant environmental waste if
| everything we manufactured was made to be repaired. I
| designed several pairs of 3D printed headphones [1] which
| are now the only headphones I wear, and the idea that I
| can replace any part if it breaks seems significant to
| me.
|
| [1] https://github.com/tlalexander/reboot-headphones
| [deleted]
| crazygringo wrote:
| Seriously, I never understand the "environmental waste"
| argument as applied to _AirPods_.
|
| The pair of buds weighs a _third_ of a _single_ disposable AA
| battery. There 's less plastic than in an average Chinese
| takeout container.
|
| If you want to complain that they're _expensive_ to replace
| then go ahead. But as soon as anyone brings up _the
| environment_ , give me a break. We're not talking about a 65"
| television that weight 55 pounds, c'mon. Each bud is _four
| grams_ of mass.
|
| If people threw out twenty pairs of AirPods a day, then sure
| let's worry about the environmental issue. But when they
| dispose of one pair every two to three years? I don't think so.
| ashayh wrote:
| Why do we need a separate business for this?
|
| Apple should be made to pay for it.
|
| If anyone finds an Airpod on the street or in trash/landfills,
| they should be able to take it to the nearest Apple store or mail
| it and get 20-40$ back for it.
|
| This should be the law for _all_ and any products, not just
| electronics. Large corporations have cleverly shifted the
| responsibility of recycling on the consumer, while they get to
| reap all the profits and benefits. This was recently well
| explained in a John Oliver segment:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu9GSOmt8E
| lttlrck wrote:
| I agree that manufacturers should bear responsibility for
| recycling unwanted/returned devices - but why should they be
| forced to pay a bounty for lost/stolen devices?
| qeternity wrote:
| You can't just claim that they've shifted responsibility
| without arguing your point. It's clear you have an axe to
| grind, but at the same time, where do we draw the line of
| individual responsibility?
|
| It's not like we haven't known for decades we were killing the
| planet...and yet here we all are. Why does the average Joe get
| off the hook here?
| fshbbdssbbgdd wrote:
| The average Joe has known for decades and the problem
| continues. Ergo, we can't rely on individual action to solve
| it. We need society-scale solutions. Corporate action is the
| only tool civilization has for this.
| KingMachiavelli wrote:
| Generic electronics recycling is very expensive. I had to
| recycle an old 55" rear projection TV and it cost $150. Good
| luck getting the average person to pay that instead of
| disposing of it (illegally).
|
| It would be more efficient and cheaper for companies to
| create a recycling process and include that in the purchase
| price.
| qeternity wrote:
| > It would be more efficient and cheaper for companies to
| create a recycling process and include that in the purchase
| price.
|
| A totally fair point (one that I also happen to agree with)
| but not in the spirit of OP's comment, which suggests some
| sort of moral trickery by the likes of Apple.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _Generic electronics recycling is very expensive. I had to
| recycle an old 55 " rear projection TV and it cost $150.
| Good luck getting the average person to pay that instead of
| disposing of it (illegally)._
|
| Blame your municipality.
|
| When I lived in the southwest, the city required the trash
| companies to pick up or recycle EVERYTHING for free. From
| old paint to batteries to giant tube TVs to washing
| machines. Everything, or they didn't get the trash hauling
| contract.
|
| This was to make it as easy as possible for people to
| dispose of things properly, rather than dump them in the
| desert.
|
| If your city doesn't make this happen, it's a failure of
| the city to negotiate the contract properly and allowing
| the trash companies to shift the expense onto the
| homeowners.
| KingMachiavelli wrote:
| That just moves the cost of recycling to the public. The
| public shouldn't have to bear the costs of the negative
| externality of other people's consumption. It is also
| essentially a regressive tax since the wealthy
| consume/dispose of more goods. Also most areas don't have
| a single exclusive trash service (monopoly).
|
| Furthermore, single stream recycling in America, on
| average, is a complete failure. The portion of stuff that
| is actually recycled is very low as much is contaminated
| with non-recyclable materials. I'd either expect such a
| trash/recycling service (as you describe) to be quite
| expensive or actually recycle very little of relative to
| what _could_ be recycled.
|
| If the manufacture's & end consumers of goods were forced
| to confront the cost of disposal at the time of purchase
| it would create a large incentive for companies to make
| products with less waste and products that are easier to
| recycle. The goal isn't to just to recycle everything
| that _currently_ can be recycled but to make everything
| _easy_ to recycle.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _That just moves the cost of recycling to the public_
|
| The public has an interest in a clean desert, since the
| desert surrounding the city was the primary source of
| recreation for the people living there.
|
| _It is also essentially a regressive tax since the
| wealthy consume /dispose of more goods_
|
| Trash fees were based on the assessed value of your home,
| so the wealthy paid more in trash fees than the poor.
|
| _Also most areas don 't have a single exclusive trash
| service (monopoly)._
|
| As noted in the original comment, there were multiple
| trash companies in this city. All had to adhere to the
| same rules.
|
| _single stream recycling in America, on average, is a
| complete failure_
|
| It wasn't single stream. There were four bins. One each
| for garbage, glass, metals, and plastics.
|
| _I 'd either expect such a trash/recycling service (as
| you describe) to be quite expensive or actually recycle
| very little of relative to what could be recycled._
|
| I rented my house, so I couldn't tell you if it was
| expensive, or not. But as I stated above, the price was
| based on the value of the home. I doubt anyone ever
| changed their mind about buying a house because the cost
| of trash disposal in City A was $10/month more than in
| City B.
|
| _If the manufacture 's & end consumers of goods were
| forced to confront the cost of disposal at the time of
| purchase it would create a large incentive for companies
| to make products with less waste and products that are
| easier to recycle._
|
| I agree. But that's not the reality today. We may get
| there 50 years from now, but people don't want to live
| surrounded by 50 years of garbage in order to fulfill a
| social theory.
|
| _The goal isn 't to just to recycle everything that
| currently can be recycled but to make everything easy to
| recycle._
|
| Which was exactly what this did: Make it easy for people
| to recycle everything that could be recycled.
| jrowen wrote:
| IMO, we draw the line based on effectiveness, not idealized
| morality. What's going to be easier: a never-ending campaign
| of trying to educate and motivate millions of different
| average Joes to properly recycle [some item], or simply
| legally preventing those items from being created by a few
| centralized sources (or requiring them to take responsibility
| in some other way)?
|
| Same thing with with 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis. A lot of
| people will say "well they shouldn't have taken those loans."
| Yes, true, but it would have been much easier if they were
| never allowed to be offered in the first place. Some people
| are against the "save the people from themselves" mentality,
| but it really seems to be a lot more effective and there's
| not a strong argument for allowing practices that are likely
| to result in average Joes taking deleterious actions.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > You can't just claim that they've shifted responsibility
| without arguing your point.
|
| The point itself is enough. Bottle and car battery deposit
| schemes show that the system works to significantly reduce
| littering. Most people take them to the recycling on their
| own and those who can't be bothered always get picked up by
| people.
|
| A 10-20EUR deposit on phones, a 5EUR deposit on small scale
| stuff like chargers and earphones and a 1EUR deposit on
| batteries would _definitely_ get electronics stuff back into
| circulation.
| seriousquestion wrote:
| I've heard, anecdotally, of people losing their airpods often. I
| haven't yet, but curious how common that problem is?
| hughrr wrote:
| Everyone I know has them. I haven't heard of any being lost.
| samatman wrote:
| I lost my first pair just recently, in four years of having
| them, after a redeye flight.
|
| Knock on wood it'll be the only time!
| agency wrote:
| I've gotten close. One thing I have noticed is when I drop the
| case on the floor it's not at all uncommon for it to open and
| for one or both of the buds to fly out. One time this happened
| to me while I was in the security line at the airport and I had
| to awkwardly back out of the line and look around but luckily I
| found the errant pod.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I 've heard, anecdotally, of people losing their airpods
| often. I haven't yet, but curious how common that problem is?_
|
| It must be a thing, since Apple lets you use your devices to
| find your missing AirPods, and they are even part of the FindMe
| network.
|
| I've sometimes wondered how many AirPods have been flushed down
| toilets around the world. Even if only .001% of AirPods meet
| their demise this way, considering the number of AirPods sold,
| it must be a pretty good number.
| rhinoceraptor wrote:
| I flushed the right ear of my Airpods pro. I bought a new
| pair the next day because I use them all day for video calls
| because they're so convenient.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| What did everyone in the video call hear in the right audio
| channel?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruCsYGL3QlY&ab_channel=Lesl
| i...
| easton wrote:
| The Find My network stuff isn't coming until the fall. Right
| now they only update their location when connected to your
| phone, which is basically useless.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| I'm mostly losing them in my bed since the Airpods are a solid,
| partner-compatible way to fall asleep to music.
|
| My biggest annoyance with the Airpods Pro is that no one sells
| custom molds. The right one fits with the small plug, but none
| of the three sizes that ship with the Airpods seem to be
| compatible with my left ear, it's extremely loose. In any case
| it's uncomfortable walking with them out on the streets or
| driving with my bike simply because I'm always afraid they will
| randomly fall off and get lost or destroyed.
| [deleted]
| smoldesu wrote:
| So you're paying $60 to get your earbuds replaced, but you can't
| use the service if they have any external/cosmetic damage.
| Something here doesn't add up, is this just because Airpods don't
| have replaceable batteries?
| flatiron wrote:
| Exactly. If the user could just do it you wouldn't need this
| service.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > can't use the service if they have any external/cosmetic
| damage
|
| My guess is that you're not getting your own airpods back, but
| someone else's. Quick turnaround that way and I think people
| want that for a product like this.
|
| Positioning in Miami isn't ideal for turnaround, somewhere more
| central or a courier hub (Memphis or Louisville) would make
| more sense.
|
| As repair-turnaround time is no longer an issue, and Airpods
| are small, they can fedex them to a low-cost country for
| repair. Miami has tons of connections to S. America, so maybe
| somewhere there.
|
| Just a Fedex SmallBox holds a couple hundred airpods (they're
| 0.75inches if they were a rectangle, and smallbox is 200sqin),
| so they can really take low-cost to an extreme. If China, well,
| the batteries were going to be shipped from there anyway and
| that's most of the bulk anyway, but cylinders do pack better.
|
| Here's a video of the whole process:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9aB5aPbMM
|
| Many of these steps are scalable - could pre-tin battery leads,
| find a better solvent than alcohol to soften adhesive, custom
| heat protection cap rather than kitchen foil, dip metal cap in
| ultrasonic solvent bath, etc.
|
| Maybe they have some domestic gigworkers in case they get
| really busy, but otherwise, save that dollar.
| ylyn wrote:
| > My guess is that you're not getting your own airpods back,
| but someone else's.
|
| I guess reading the linked site before commenting on it is no
| longer in fashion.
|
| They clearly state that they send you a new (or refurbished
| rather) pair before you send in your old pair.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Yes, your alternative is to buy new AirPods from Apple at $70
| each ($140 for a pair) when the battery life becomes a problem.
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