The one thing most of us strive for in life is some measure of consistency. The sphere of life doesn’t matter. When we can achieve some modicum of consistency in an inconsistent and inconstant world it’s a plus. That’s certainly true with whatever tech we surround ourselves with. Sadly, sometimes comically, the inconsistency is the only constant thing in these days of rapid technology changes. I’m not a fan.
While this post is mostly about Apple sound issues relating to AirPods and HomePods, let me first point out a quote from this excellent post by Sean Heber called Where Are We Going?
So much of what I like(d) about computers is how or why they worked. The algorithms were clever. The “why” of many things could be reasoned about and understood if you knew the deeper principles upon which everything else was built. I had faith that the unknowable parts were still knowable even if I didn’t always have the will to dig that deeply myself. I trusted that anything I might need to know someday could be found and mastered if truly necessary.
As time has gone on, though, that faith has been tested and now, perhaps, it is truly broken.
I don’t think anyone knows how anything works anymore. Not really. The scale exceeds human comprehension.
Sums it up nicely in my opinion.
On to those AirPod and HomePod issues. I really enjoy my AirPods Pro 3. I use them all the time and have used every generation of AirPods since the first one. But how they connect and reconnect through my devices is has been an increasingly constant source of inconsistency and frustration.
I’ll go several weeks when everything works as magically as they are supposed to work, switching between devices effortlessly. Then all of a sudden that just stops. Connections will jump inexplicably from one device to another at the oddest times, or fail to connect with no rhyme or reason. Then, after some indeterminate period things will right themselves again.
Like Mr. Heber I don’t think anyone knows how any of this is supposed to work anymore. I highly suspect Apple doesn’t either.
My hunch doesn’t explain the reason for the inconsistent behavior, but I do believe it’s because we live in a perpetual beta season with changes constantly happening on our devices and behind the scenes that users are unaware of, can’t track down, and that any support source, including Apple’s, can keep up with.
I wrote this post for two reasons.
First, this morning I needed to set a timer. I was wearing my AirPods and Apple Watch and told Siri to do so. My AirPods told me the timer was set. The timer completed as intended. But the expired timer didn’t show on my Apple Watch, my iPhone, or my Mac. It was still chiming when my wife tracked it down on my iPad Pro at the other end of our apartment, which I hadn’t used since Saturday. Like I said, sometimes it’s comical.
Once I silenced the expired timer and was back at my desk I was scrolling through my feeds and noticed this review by Jennifer Pattison on The Verge of the HomePod mini 2. She mentions that the signature feature of being able to use HomePods as default speakers for a Mac was not working for her as designed.
Following that I stumbled on this MacRumors article by Tim Hardwick that some users are returning newly purchased HomePod mini 2s for the same problem Pattison experienced.
These are not new issues. HomePod users have reported AirPlay issues prior to all of the changes Apple is introducing this year. I have personally experienced these kind of connection issues with AirPods prior to any of this year’s rollouts. And that’s the problem. These changes are supposedly designed to make things work together seamlessly, but for some time now Apple’s sound routing issues with HomePods and AirPods inconsistently keep baring all of the seams in a system that’s great when it works, but keeps tripping over itself when it doesn’t.
I will say this. In my early days of using AirPods before things supposedly got better I experienced far fewer issues, though there were far fewer bells and whistles.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask to consistently hear bells or whistles where I asked them to be piped into my ears or the way they are advertised.
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