Craig HockenberryHas Apple patented whatever’s in an AirPod that makes it drop into the least accessible spot possible?
Fazal Majid@chockenberry file under: "Services Revenue".
Holger Krupp
Chris Marquardt dot 🦇@chockenberry For me, dropping the case with both AirPods in it on a hard surface will reliably eject *both* AirPods under the piece of furniture with the lowest clearance and they will come to a stop all the way to the back. I can reproduce this.
@chrismarquardt I composed my toot while crawling under the exact middle of our bed.
Bob Peterson@chrismarquardt @chockenberry As a bonus, the pods’ waxy rime will helpfully collect dust under the furniture.
AC@chockenberry Whatever they’re doing for AirPod ejection, they could sell it to the Air Force for better ejector seats.
Josh Rivers@chockenberry I believe it’s one of the claims on the case patent along with: there is no way to drop the case which does not make the AirPods fly 6 feet in a random direction.
Mike Muegel@chockenberry I wish they would put an accelerometer in the case and when it detects that it is falling, lock the case until the fall has completed.
sidb@t9mike @chockenberry That’s great. Kind of like how laptop hard drives eventually learned to detect free fall and temporarily park their heads to avoid crashing them.
On AirPod cases, the lock could even just be a brief but powerful magnetic pulse against the already-present latch magnet to just make the seal temporarily stronger, which wouldn’t require finicky moving hardware or use a ton of battery.
@sidb @chockenberry every time I go looking for my stems after I drop, I think of my idea and think I should write Tim Apple. 😭
@chockenberry @t9mike I’m sure that’s right. But adding a new *opposing* electromagnet to temporarily boost the seal would surely be pretty cheap, and the rest is just software. I assume there’s already an accelerometer?
Alternately, some sort of little solenoid could latch it, but a magnet coil has the advantages of having no new moving parts or dust ingress, and also not being able to fail in a locked position.
Yesh@t9mike @chockenberry this set me down a trail, and now I’m thinking how to make a sealed non-Newtonian speed control for the lid.
James@chockenberry Yes. It’s called AirDrop
Peter N Lewis@chockenberry like the feature of those old D25 serial connectors (the ones with the screws) which I always thought should be repurposed for climbing gear cuz you could throw them onto a flat surface and they would still manage to snag on something.
Eric deRuiter@chockenberry I was once stepping onto a light rail in a huge snowstorm, taking off my hood as I entered which popped one out of my ear and down the crack between the platform and the train.