{"id":182732,"date":"2019-10-30T13:42:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T20:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=182732"},"modified":"2019-10-30T13:54:49","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T20:54:49","slug":"why-i-dont-like-the-new-airpods-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/30\/why-i-dont-like-the-new-airpods-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Don&#8217;t Like the new AirPods Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just tested the new AirPods Pro, and I really don&#8217;t like them. Why? Not because the technology isn&#8217;t good (the technology is great), but more of the philosophical, psychological, and practical implications of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let me explain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. I don&#8217;t want to die<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The noise cancelling is really good, and the in-ear isolation is also quite good. But the danger? If you&#8217;re always walking around the city with them, all external noise is masked. Which means you&#8217;re more likely to not notice cars (you&#8217;re in the zone), and more likely to get hit by a car and die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The technology is almost <em>too good.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. You notice less around you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re using the new AirPods pros, you notice less of the world around you, which means, less noticed photo opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am convinced: when you&#8217;re out shooting photos, you should NOT listen to music, podcasts, or have any headphones or earbuds on. Why? My theory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>When you have the eternal stimuli of audio bombarding your eardrums, your visual acuity is weakened, and therefore you are less likely to see good photo opportunities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. The noise cancellation makes my head and brain feel weird.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is just me&#8211; you might not get this, but when I use in-ear noise cancelling earbuds (this includes the BOSE in-ear noise cancelling ones), it puts a strange pressure in my earlobes and brain. I don&#8217;t like the feeling. But you should test them out to see if this is an issue with you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. When would the AirPods Pro be good for you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Assuming the noise-cancellation doesn&#8217;t make your brain or eardrums feel weird, they would be ideal for travel (long-haul flights), or when working at the coffee shop to focus. The fit is good, the noise cancellation works well, and the music quality is good too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion: This is just my opinion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hats off to Apple and the AirPods\/bluetooth team. Truth be told, the AirPods Pro is a HUGE technological marvel and design marvel. It is really a truly great product. But once again, I&#8217;m more worried about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Using them while walking or in public spaces, which make me less aware, perhaps more likely to get run over, and die.<\/li><li>Using them outdoors as a way of becoming disconnected with the external &#8217;embodied&#8217; world. I&#8217;m wondering&#8211; what are the philosophical downsides of being disconnected with the outside world? Perhaps more anti-social behavior. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course I don&#8217;t want to dictate your behavior. Just try them out, buy them, and if you don&#8217;t like them, just return them (14 day Apple return).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Not for ERIC KIM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m not going to use the AirPods Pro, I will stick to my in-ear monitor earbud headphones (paired with my old-school iPod nano). Furthermore as a reminder to myself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Never use headphones or listen to music or podcasts when walking<\/strong>. I don&#8217;t want to get run over and die (even if this chance is very low. Remember, my goal is to live to be <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/18\/how-can-you-stay-inspired-to-shoot-photos-until-youre-120-years-old\/\">120<\/a>-140 years old).<\/li><li>Perhaps we need LACK of external stimuli in order to think &#8220;more creative thoughts&#8221;.<\/li><li><strong>The upside of not listening to headphones at the gym<\/strong>: More focus, and less time wasted at the gym trying to discover the perfect song while working out.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More turbo thoughts to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ERIC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just tested the new AirPods Pro, and I really don&#8217;t like them. Why? Not because the technology isn&#8217;t good (the technology is great), but more of the philosophical, psychological, and practical implications of them. \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/eric-kim-selfie-diptych-1.jpg?fit=1818%2C1318&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182732"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182743,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182732\/revisions\/182743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}