Technology

59578 readers

2807 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

927

Fairbuds are Fairphone’s proof that we really could make better tiny gadgets (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

206 comments fedilink hide all child comments

But of course we all know that the big manufacturers don't do this not because they can't but because they don't want to. Planned obsolescence is still very much the name of the game, despite all the bullshit they spout about sustainability.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My wife had some Logitech headphones that for some godforsaken reason were operating in some voice only ultra low bitrate by default. I mean, they weren't fantastic even after I fixed that, but the quality was unbelievably low, like somebody making a phone call from the moon, and how she'd put up with it for nearly a year I'd no idea. I only found out after I noticed her swapping between a wired set for general use and wireless for Discord.

[–] AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Some Bluetooth controllers can't handle the bandwidth required for sound input and output at the same time unless it's at very low quality, and if Windows suspects such a device is in use, it defaults to the low quality mode as users are more likely to be able to tolerate it than tolerate their headphones not working at all. It's overly cautious, though, and uses the low quality mode far more than it has to.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's one nice thing I found about Linux, it's pretty easy to change the codec. Just fiddle a bit until it sounds good without static or delays. This is especially important when using multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously since the Bluetooth chip can only handle so much data.

Maybe Windows has the option, IDK, poke around a bit and see what's available. I couldn't find the option on my work Mac, so I ended up just using wired headphones on my work computer.

[–] AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's super quick to swap it on Windows once you know the problem exists and know where to look. You just click the audio icon in the system tray and change the output device in the dropdown from the headset version of the device to the headphones one, and it enables all the higher-bandwidth modes. I'm not sure there's user-accessible control over which specific codec gets used, though.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

That's basically what you get on Linux, but there's a third option for a low energy codec.

On macOS, I wanted to use the "headset" mode to hopefully cut down just enough on bandwidth to get rid of choppy playback, but I didn't see an option for it. I have had quality change quite a bit based on the app I'm using (I guess it sometimes gets interpreted as a headset?), so I know it can do it, I just don't know how to control it.