AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

https://github.com/kavishdevar/librepods

213•moonleay•3h ago

Comments

moonleay•3h ago

A cool project, when you want to use AirPods outside of Apples ecosystem. Sadly, you have to use a rooted android device with a small patch due to a bug in the Android Bluetooth implementation. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/371713238

cbsks•1h ago

That is such a typical bug report to a large company. A user who spent a lot of time debugging and finding the root cause of an issue, and a few faceless peons at the large company spending a few minutes on it, realizing it’s not a priority, and abandoning it.

fragmede•1h ago

And not a small bug either. This large an interoperability issue and it takes a nerd not in the employ of Google to fix their shit? This is why Apple's vertical integration makes it one of richest companies in the world. Google's only up there because of their success in that one business of theirs.

mhluongo•1h ago

Funny, I was under the impression that Apple's stuff is closed source, so no one outside their employ even could fix a similar issue?

fragmede•57m ago

What does Apple being Apple have to do with Google not paying somebody to work on getting Airpods, which presumably should conform to some Bluetooth spec, in order to get Airpods to work on Android?

catlikesshrimp•5m ago

>>...due to a bug in the Android Bluetooth implementation.

The issue can be resolved because an android bug can be debugged by a contributor. A similar issue can't even be analyzed from the apple side by anyone but an apple employee.

We are assuming there are bugs in iOS, but their closed sourceness can mislead people to believe there aren't. Then, yes, their vertical integration makes them rich, which in this case is bad for users, in the guise of being good.

butvacuum•6m ago

Apparently, android isn't fixing it either.

netsharc•47m ago

Ah, when "open source" means begging an advertisement company to bless your code changes...

charcircuit•6m ago

It was a hack. An actual code change would be submitted via the gerrit and not buganizer.

https://android-review.googlesource.com/q/status:open+-is:wi...

Andrex•8m ago

I'm convinced it's impossible to implement the BT spec without MANY of these kinds of bugs popping up.

Apple mercy-killed Adobe Flash, we should be asking they do the same to Bluetooth. I'm sick of living in a reality where no one thinks to make something better. It has to be possible.

SilverElfin•3m ago

Mercy killed? Flash was great. There were so many inventive games and animations in that era. Apple didn’t mercy kill anything - they just removed a threat to their walled garden ecosystem using their anticompetitive position, but dressed it up as a security issue.

baby_souffle•1m ago

> Flash was great.

It had a great number of CVEs, you mean?

_modern_ HTML and JS have eclipsed flash in all meaningful ways.

t1234s•1h ago

This excellent.. there needs to be a macos version as well. Using Mavericks I was unable to adjust any settings on my airpods pro 2

Wowfunhappy•36m ago

I can’t get my Airpods Pro 2 to connect to Mavericks at all for any length of time, this has been driving me nuts for years! They’ll connect for a few seconds then cut out, and I’ll have to re-pair to get any audio again.

Did you have to do anything special?

DerekL•1h ago

Title has a typo, should be “liberated”.

Edit: I noticed that the article's page title is also misspelled this way.

bradfitz•1h ago

I assume it's intentional, playing on "libre" (as in libre software, not just gratis software)

thaumasiotes•1h ago

As just the biggest problem with that idea, the typo doesn't exist on the page. It's in the HN title, and the page's HTML <title> tag.

flexagoon•1h ago

It does exist on the page. It's in the description of the repository below the repository name.

aboardRat4•1h ago

Aren't airpods just bluetooth headphones?

DrewADesign•1h ago

For just listening to music, yeah. They’ve got other features that aren’t supported elsewhere, though.

fragmede•1h ago

specifically, configuring noise cancelation or transparency mode, as well as multiple different profiles for microphone usage. plus buttons on the airpods themselves.

Still baffles me why the first gen airpod "button" wasn't the winner, but unfortunately Steve's no longer with us.

losthubble•1h ago

How much effort would it take to get this working on Windows?

wslh•1h ago

Excellent project, don't forget to upvote the Android bluetooth bug to give a signal: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/371713238?pli=1

teraflop•43m ago

Given that it's already the most upvoted open Android framework bug, and the Google employee it's assigned to hasn't touched it in almost a year, it seems unlikely that more upvotes will make any difference whatsoever.

wslh•27m ago

I agree, but chance favors the tickets that someone internally champions, and there are plenty of Googlers lurking here.

paxys•20m ago

In such cases it's always better to just open a new identical bug and hope it gets assigned to someone more interested/competent, and no one notices it's a dupe before that.

Scene_Cast2•1h ago

Super cool. Also, this is an example of why having an open OS is awesome.

WD-42•53m ago

Cool project, not cool that it needs to exist. Apple isn’t only content to leech off OSS software, they have to force the existence of more of it to workaround what they closed off.

blackqueeriroh•41m ago

Uhhhh, Apple donates a ton of code to OSS

WD-42•33m ago

When the license legally compels them to, and sometimes not even then.

toenail•48m ago

Huh? I've used all my airpods with my linux and android systems.. nothing was liberated.. just more features were added

hollow-moe•35m ago

Been using it with my airpods 3 anc on a pixel with custom rom (what a curious setup thinking about it). And it's good enough but kinda annoying the airpods don't seem to save my configs and connection isn't really stable. Not complaining since they're not even supposed to be supported tho, thanks for the free stuff ! I wonder if I'd be able to contribute better support with my very limited knowledge of bluetooth analysis...

Razengan•25m ago

Huh? I was always able to use AirPods with the Nintendo Switch, for example. Even share them with friends' phones. I didn't know they required "liberating" but good news I suppose.

I wish their displays could be liberated though

mannanj•6m ago

I think we will have learned we made big mistakes in wearing this non-ionizing emitting devices so close to our brains. I keep wondering when others will take it as seriously as I do. There's more to "measurable" ionizing levels to harm our bodies - we don't want to admit it due to the conveniences and massive profit to be made from wearables and portable devices.

wewewedxfgdf•2m ago

Tim Apple will not be happy about this.

jadar•1m ago

Super impressive. Looks like the author also reimplemented Apple’s new Liquid Glads UI in Jetpack Compose?

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