Hot swappable batteries kind of became not so important after battery banks and fast charging became a thing. Makes more sense to carry one battery bank that can charge anything than to have 2-3 phone batteries in your bag (which would be exposed to puncture too).

I still think the price of battery replacements is way too high from apple. It's $150 AUD here which feels far and beyond the cost of the part cost itself.

▲

doubled112 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I realize we're talking about Airpods, but hot swappable batteries don't make sense to me either anymore. I seem to have power almost everywhere.

My phone spends a surprising amount of time on a charger. Most of the day while I'm at home, it's on a charger. I used to keep one at the office on my desk. The car has a charger too, and CarPlay so you might as well plug it in.

I'm not sure if it's a coping mechanism for poor battery life or just convenience.

For long days outdoors, I've also got a booster pack in the car with USB ports and an inverter (120V) that gets some use.

▲

raw_anon_1111 13 hours ago | parent [-]

I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max and an older version of this battery I use and when I travel:

https://a.co/d/3g3F4eC

It can charge my MacBook Aur M2 once or my iPhone 16 Pro Max 3-4x. The iPhone itself can easily last flying and layovers all day.

	▲	doubled112 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		https://a.co/d/igikGeL I'm not sure how many times it would charge our phones. One day I think we did 4 different ones without issue. When you're standing around at a BMX track, the functionality here actually made a lot of sense. It's not travel friendly in the same sense. We have named ours "the cube". Phone dead? Grab the cube. Tires soft? Grab the cube. Left the lights on in the car? You got it, the cube.

▲

wpm 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because the "replacement" is "get two new AirPods". Even Apple can't take AirPods apart non-destructively. They are disposable.

So much for their carbon neutrality.

▲

VogonPoetry 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Everything humans do is carbon negative. Breathing, eating, driving, pooping (Westerners: toilet paper, All: waste management) and building. Getting every human to be carbon neutral would be an amazing thing!

From searched / online numbers, Apple has shipped 150 million AirPods since 2016. The AirPods 3 weigh 5.5g. The gross weight of a basic Tesla model 3 is 1760Kg. I picked a Tesla because it has plastic, metals, magnets, copper, lithium - similar materials.

In the ~10 years Apple has been making AirPods the materials used (by weight) is ~ 470 Tesla cars. So, per year (avg, not really good for this), resources consumed is about 47 Teslas (by weight).

Apple claims 40% of AirPods 3 are from recycled materials, so ~ 290 crashed / discarded Teslas could provide part of these materials - on average 29 per year.

I did the above because it perceptually relates to "real things". Teslas are NOT carbon neutral, very much carbon negative.

The reality / HORROR of waste is far, far worse. Any single plastic bag used to dispose of weekly waste likely weighs more than a pair of AirPods. Any can, made of steel or aluminum, could likely could make a lot of AirPods. The toy or product you bought that had a flap that you could lift up - there was likely a magnet under there. Any disposed single use battery might have zinc, if it was a CR2032 or "watch" battery, lithium (or silver).

Yes, AirPods might be disposable. Do they improve the qualify of life of the humans that purchase them? What is the real cost in perspective - with everything else taken into consideration? If the AirPods are used to listen to music or entertainment, then the positive mental health aspects are likely significant in a positive value direction.

▲

gmueckl 13 hours ago | parent [-]

A few random notes:

- Your model neglects the charging case with its own battery and microcontroller.

- A Trsla is more likely to be recycled properly than the same amount of earbuds. Itbis also more recycleable because ofnthe high amount of steel and other bulk materials in it.

- The ratio of semiconductor electronics to total weight is extremely different between the two products. And semiconductor manufacturing is extremely resource intensive. All we typically see is squeaky clean neon lit clean rooms, which belie the use of high amounts of aggressive and toxic chemicals that have to be produced somewhere and generate waste that is never talked about.

	▲	VogonPoetry 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Many of these are all excellent points. I did exclude the case. The car recycling v.s. electronics recycling question is interesting. I once had a very interesting conversation with an electronics recycler on a plane trip - phones could not be recycled like other electronics because of some of the metals content - in particular beryllium copper content (used in spring contacts). He described it as a lot of electronics is ground up and a chemical processes used to extract the valuable elements. With phones the grinding up was the toxic / dangerous prohibited part. I think the semiconductor numbers are more subtle though. It is sq. mm in the product and yield that are factors. A single power switching element in a Tesla will likely exceed the total silicon sq. mm usage in an AirPod. There is a lot of electronics in a Tesla. Some of the Tesla circuitry is more exotic, Silicon Carbide or GaN. I need to look into how much recovery / reprocessing silicon mfg is using for the reagents. The waste produced isn't as bad as it was in the Silicon Valley heyday where every original mfg site is now a superfund site with very large plumes of toxic waste in the subsoil.

▲

daedrdev 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Are you sure? They say they can replace a battery online

	▲	Gigachad 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I’m fairly sure that battery replacements for the AirPods and Apple Watch involve giving you a new one and sending yours to be recycled. And the service only exists to avoid controversy about non reparable products.
	▲	fsflover 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-airpods-repair-recycling-imposs...

▲

bubblemoth 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think I agree with this. Especially since everything charges over usb-c now.

Why would I buy a secondary battery for a single device when I could buy a backup battery that would charge my:

- Phone

- Watch

- Laptop (x2)

- Steam Deck

- Tire inflator

- Etc