In addition to our standalone articles covering the latest Apple news and rumors at MacRumors, this Quick Takes column provides a bite-sized recap of other headlines about Apple and its competitors on weekdays.
Monday, March 19
Highlights
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1. AirPods: the audiophile review: The Verge's Vlad Savov finally got around to testing a pair of AirPods, over a year after they launched, and now understands why so many people are fans of Apple's wireless earphones. Once dismissive of them, he now thinks AirPods are the best truly wireless earbuds he's heard.
I say the AirPods aren't technically amazing, but that's only when comparing against existing standards for sound quality. In the category of truly wireless earbuds, the AirPods are the best I've yet heard. Bragi's The Headphone and Dash Pro left me underwhelmed, with the latter being especially bloated and disfigured by an overabundance of bass.
Commentary: AirPods are easily one of Apple's best new products in the past few years. They're easy to set up, easy to use, easy to carry around, and more than likely sound "good enough" for the majority of customers.
2. The case for an ePad: Drawing inspiration from the education-only eMac, released in 2002, 512 Pixels' Stephen Hackett envisions what an education-only iPad or so-called "ePad" could be. His suggestions include a more rugged design, Apple Pencil and external keyboard support, and more competitive pricing.
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3. HQ Trivia had a weird night: The smartphone-based live trivia show offered a winner-takes-all $25,000 prize on Sunday night, but the would-be winner was ejected from the game for violating the rules, according to HQ. The company hasn't explained what the rule-breaking behavior was.
Then, on early Monday, HQ Trivia was briefly removed from the App Store. TechCrunch confirmed that the game was briefly unavailable due to an unrelated clerical error. More specifically, someone forgot to update HQ Trivia's expired credit card info in Apple's developer portal, according to the report.
HQ moderators kick players that violate HQ’s Terms of Service and Contest Rules. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Service here: https://t.co/septsPVgOm — HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) March 19, 2018
Commentary: It sounds like HQ Trivia caught a cheater on its hands, but we may never know for sure. The good news is that the amount now rolls over, meaning next Sunday's winner-takes-all prize will be $50,000, its largest jackpot ever. The game is scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Other Links
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- People are accidentally setting off Apple's Emergency SOS alert: While we don't recommend it, the auto-calling feature can be disabled in Settings > Emergency SOS. When turned off, users must swipe their finger across the Emergency SOS slider to call emergency services.
- Google Pay now supports transit, starting with the Las Vegas Monorail: Apple Pay also works with select transit systems, including Transport for London, Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City, TriMet in Portland, all forms of transit that accept Suica in Japan, and others.
For more Apple news and rumors coverage, visit our Front Page, Mac Blog, and iOS Blog. Also visit our forums to join in the discussion.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)But they sound like trash.
No, they don't.Just asking a question, If I like the sound of some headphones, but an audiophile says they sound terrible, who is correct?
Audiophiles will frequently scoff that no headphone could possibly meet their insurmountable standards — unless of course it’s their own custom 3 grand hand-crafted over-ear stereo experience with an external analogue pre-amp — and therefore anything released by anybody sounds like trash.However most people wouldn’t cart around all that equipment. A lot of audiophiles don’t have the pride to admit that for convenience and for the additional functionality, the sound of Airpods aren’t bad.
It’s like these insufferable pro photographers, gloating that an iPhone’s picture could never match up to their DLSR which boasts a lens the size of a fold-up bed. They can’t accept that you get the convenience and a damned lot of quality with a phone you carry in your pocket.
These people want to be better than everybody else and refuse to let themselves appreciate that people are able to enjoy music in their own way, or enjoy photography in their own way, without going through all the money and effort that they did.
AirPods seem overpriced till you check out the competition.
Disagree. Compared to the competition, the AirPods are actually price comparably lower. When you factor in the battery life where 15 minutes of charging is equivalent to three hours of usage, simplicity of features, there’s a reason AirPods are a success and its been apparent for quite some time.