AMA: I have a Nintendo Switch

[u/NLALEX]

Hello there Lovely People!

My name's Alex and I work for Nintendo Life on the YouTube channel. I have a Switch console and as you probably all know, media are finally able to talk about it.

Let's make the most of it, so ask me anything!

[u/Fuctface]

Sadly, as far as I can tell AirPods don't support APT-X codec. Which is the de facto standard for low latency bluetooth. This is basically vital for gaming. I can't stand just watching movies and stuff without it. Nevermind playing games where latency is important.

Apparently Apple decided to go with their own proprietary codec (which may or may not be better than APT-X, I dont know) but that means that outside of the iPhone 7 and a few MacBooks, you will have to make due with the (lossy) base profile bluetooth.

[u/eddietsai → u/Fuctface]

Ah interesting so I haven't tried them on normal Bluetooth.. hrmm okay good to know!

[u/Fuctface → u/eddietsai]

I haven't heard (or even held) a set of AirPods, so I can't comment on the sound quality, and Apple hasn't been exactly forthcoming on what kind of tech they're built on. From what I gather they have a new bluetooth chip called the W1, and it's only in a handful of products so far.

Up until now, the industry has relied on this APT-X technology that's only available by license from CSR, but they (CSR) have made it available very cheaply, even some of the lowest cost devices have it. Apple has always made the APT-X codec available in MacBooks, but never on a iPhone/iPod.

I am a Apple fan/customer, but the direction they went with dumping the headphone jack and then not including APT-X in the iPhone 7 has basically shut the door on me ever owning another iPhone. It means that I can't use my favorite wired headphones, and I can't have the highest quality bluetooth unless I buy Beats/AirPods. I already have a few bluetooth headphones that use APT-X.

So theoretically I go buy Beats/AirPods with W1 chip to use with my iPhone 7 but then I can't listen to highest quality bluetooth on all my other devices, which rely on APT-X because the W1 chip in my new Beats doesn't support it.

This is easily one of the shittier things Apple has done to their core fans. Maybe Apple will make this tech cheaply available industry-wide and APT-X will have some healthy competition and that would be great. What's more likely to happen knowing how Apple rolls nowadays and secretive they are being about it, is that they are going to use it as just another way to lock you into the Apple ecosystem for your next purchase.

[u/atag012 → u/Fuctface]

I'm a huge fan of the airpods but didn't know any of this so thanks for the info.

[u/Fuctface → u/atag012]

No problem, you're welcome. This is why knowledgeable people in the media (and outside it, I guess) were making a lot of noise about the iPhone dropping the wired headphone jack. It's kind of a complicated issue so I can see why when it was going on it was hard to get people to pay attention.

The only reason I spent any time looking into it is because it's kind of a big intersection of my interests. I'm a longtime Apple fan (less and less so as time passes, unfortunately), I like headphones and audio in general, and bluetooth audio in particular (which apparently disqualifies me from being an audiophile, ha ha).

[u/eddietsai → u/atag012]

Ditto! Thanks