Teen Makes His Own AirPods For $4 (vice.com) 123
samleecole writes: Apple's AirPods are a tragedy. Ecologically, socially, economically -- they're a capitalist disaster. The opposite of AirPods, then, is this extremely punk pair of DIY wireless earbuds that someone on Reddit hacked together using an old pair of wired Apple headphones and some hot glue. "I started this project roughly two months ago when my friend got a new pair of AirPods for his birthday and I thought to myself, 'that's quite a lot of money for something I can make at home,'" Sam Cashbook, who is 15, told Motherboard in a Reddit message.
Cashook started watching videos of people making their own AirPods, but mostly found people chopping the wires off of Apple headphones as a joke. He decided to take his own approach. He bought a hands-free bone conduction headset from eBay, and took apart the casing to reveal the electronics. Then, he desoldered the wires from the original speaker in the headset, and connected his old Apple earbud speaker to the headset's printed circuit board. Maybe a little uglier, but the headphones work well, he said. The set has buttons for power, pausing music, volume controls and skipping tracks, and the battery is rechargeable.
Cashook started watching videos of people making their own AirPods, but mostly found people chopping the wires off of Apple headphones as a joke. He decided to take his own approach. He bought a hands-free bone conduction headset from eBay, and took apart the casing to reveal the electronics. Then, he desoldered the wires from the original speaker in the headset, and connected his old Apple earbud speaker to the headset's printed circuit board. Maybe a little uglier, but the headphones work well, he said. The set has buttons for power, pausing music, volume controls and skipping tracks, and the battery is rechargeable.
Next step - DIY iPhone (Score:3, Funny)
Next he should buy a cheap android phone, paint front white, and back gold or silver, then add apple logo sticker on the back.
Maybe a little uglier, but works well.
Anything for news these days. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Welcome to Bizarro World, where home amateurs are also better than Apple at that.
Re: (Score:1)
You must not watch FOX News. Anyway, I thought it was curious and interesting, even if the final product was crappy looking.
Re: (Score:2)
they're a capitalist disaster
As I'm pretty certain those headphones a-fucking-political, the first sentence of the summary was a dead giveaway.
Re: (Score:3)
That's the stupidest goddamn thing I've ever seen or read.
Really? I thought Slashdot regularly craves the idea of small devices that are repairable and have replaceable batteries. Companies didn't step up, so someone built their own. This isn't even News for Nerds, it's "News directly requested by Slashdot".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So he created something that fit the description that otherwise didn't exist before.
In other news Apple didn't build the iPhone because they bought the solder and silicon from someone else and merely assembled it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
headset is such low tech these days (Score:1)
family friend was making high end speakers and was losing hundreds of thousands... They gave up and started making cheap headsets and now's raining cash... making tens of millions
Why did this story get green lit? Red Green? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why did this story get green lit?
Seriously, who is monitoring the firehose?
This kid did not make airpods. He broke a set of bluetooth headphones apart and soldered on a pair of chopped earbuds?
Worse, the whlo project was ugly and potentially unsafe.
There is nothing like having a naked Chineesium LIPO battery right next to your face.
I am not sure even Red Green would approve of this project?
Re: (Score:3)
I am not sure even Red Green would approve of this project?
Seriously, where's the duct tape???
On a side note I just found out that he's doing his last tour this year. http://www.sandersoncentre.ca/... [sandersoncentre.ca]
Re: (Score:2)
No, no, go and buy one of these hot glue guns, and give it a try. You'll understand afterwards; if you used duct tape, it would be way safer.
You see these people using hot glue, they probably don't even know how to use duct tape. Too complicated.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't know Red Green do you?
Re: (Score:2)
This is a website for nerds.
Re: (Score:2)
Then you know that one of his projects wouldn't be complete without using duct tape unless he's changed since I've seen him almost 20 years ago.
Re:Why did this story get green lit? Red Green? (Score:5, Insightful)
well it was a 15 year old kid who had the ingenuity and cleverness to try something like this. Maybe it fosters a love of EE and he does something with the experience?
Slashdot worthy? who knows, but not something to be overly dismissive of either.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Not slashdot worthy at all.
There's millions of kids and teens working on their own projects every day.
This one is being talked about because it's related to Apple and because AirPods are an environmental disaster.
Re: (Score:1)
Same way most of us feel about Tesla, automated driving, SpaceX, or AI. Expect to be downvoted.
Re: (Score:3)
Not slashdot worthy at all.
Except that he produced something craved by Slashdotters who wanted repairable earbuds with removable batteries. Not only is this Slashdot worthy, but if you fed the past 5 years of Slashdot comments into an AI and requested stories of relevance, this would come out right at the top immediately under "2019 finally year of Linux on Desktop".
There's millions of kids and teens working on their own projects every day.
Yeah but it's not this project is it.
This one is being talked about because it's related to Apple and because AirPods are an environmental disaster.
Exactly. That's why it's Slashdot worthy. It's directly related to things Slashdot has repeatedly talked about.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdot doesn't care about quality or Ferrari. It is quite clear from all the posters here over the past 5 years that the only deciding factor of any device is if it has a removable battery. Stop moving the goalposts.
Re: (Score:3)
Should have made a clock instead
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, maybe. Or he blows his ear off with a mishandled LIPO.
Just like, that kid who blew his fingers off with homemade fireworks might have grown up to be an engineer, if only he had run out of gunpowder sooner.
Re: (Score:1)
well it was a 15 year old kid who had the ingenuity and cleverness to try something like this.
He soldered an EarPod to the cannibalized guts of a bluetooth earpiece, then hot glued the shit out of it.
For someone who is 3 years shy of adulthood, that's not very impressive. Has he even heard of 3D printing? DIY projects don't have to look like arts & crafts with hot glue gone wrong.
Re: (Score:3)
Slashdot worthy? who knows, but not something to be overly dismissive of either.
Slashdot is full of people who crap over things because of course THEY would never do anything THAT. Of course the reason they never did anything THAT bad is because they've never actually done anything at all. It'd very easy to look down on things other people have done. It's much harder to actualy do something yourself and risk derision from people ebad and the only reason they haven't done anything better xactly like you.
I sa
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That's easy to claim from the cheap seats. There was nothing bad about what he did; The problem is that it is simply not worthy of praise unless your'e a precious snowflake.
Well you've been thoroughly triggered by someone you consider a "snowflake" getting more attention than you. It's a nice hack deserving of some attention.
Replacing a speaker is literally as simple as un-soldering the two wires from the existing speaker and soldering on the two airpod wires where the old ones were.
Yes and? You say that i
Re:Why did this story get green lit? Red Green? (Score:5, Insightful)
For functional purposes, they're airpods. Given that the cost was $4, they're not bad at all. As for the chinesium battery, what do you think is in the actual airpods? If they have a melt down, do you REALLY think the thin glued shell on the actual airpods would make much of a difference (other than providing extra molten goo to stick to his head and burn)?
At 15, he's way ahead of many adults who actually believe the sticker that says "no user serviceable parts inside".
Arguably, his franken-buds are superior to airpods. He can change the batteries when they wear out.
So why the shade? Are you nervous because you have Apple Stock, or ticked off that you actually forked over the big bux for Airpods?
Re: (Score:2)
DIY is never the branded thing. It is a matter of understanding how to use words. Often this is popular among nerds.
What I know... (Score:4, Funny)
As for the chinesium battery, what do you think is in the actual airpods?
Batteries and containment and charging circuitry that has been tested eight ways form Sunday so that you are more likely to get hit by a meteor than have some stray current from your own sweat send it up like a candle?
Arguably, his franken-buds are superior to airpods. He can change the batteries when they wear out.
Or when they burn his ear off. I'm sure they'll sound great in the remaining ear.
I am all for frakenprojects and hacking things apart/together again, but these are not practical or safe for real world use.
So why the shade?
The bigger question is why you want to burn the kids head so bad? Do you have stock in a skin graft company?
Re: (Score:2)
I am all for frakenprojects and hacking things apart/together again, but these are not practical or safe for real world use.
Jesus when did slashdot get so nanny statey?
They're not going to burn his ear off. The batteries are tiny, and they don't just explode with no warning especially when not being charged. Worst case is he'll have to take them out in a hurry and that's frankly pretty unlikely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For functional purposes, they're airpods.
no, they aren't. You can't even stick the bottom through your ear piercing.
Seriously though, what makes airpods special is that they aren't bulky, so these are conclusively not airpods, and slashdot is conclusively circling the bowl.
Unsafe?? Jeez, you pussies are deluded! (Score:1)
Hint 1: They are not safer, wrapped in a shell of thin plastic. Especially not thst super-thin(spiration) "because thin" Apple stuff.
Hint 2: What do you think is used in AirPods? *Not* Chinesium??
I wouldn't be surprised if they are better than the Apple original ones, given Apple's general build quality on the inside. (See: Louis Rossmann)
Hint 3: Nearly all devices we have are made with Chinesium batteries, and unless they are from some really small shitty low-quality company ... like ... I don't know ... *
Re: (Score:1)
Scientific and engineering types tend to do their best work in their 40s.
This kid is just getting warmed up. Shit, at his age, I'd had 11 years of coding experience (thanks, Dad), but I wasn't ready. He still needs to finish the rest of his cognitive development and gaining experience, but I bet you this kid will be 1000x more capable in his lifetime than the average sheeple.
If I were scouting talent, (and you're an idiot if you don't keep an eye out for good people), I'd file this guy away for future follo
Re: (Score:2)
Why did this story get green lit?
Because every idiot on Slashdot has been saying "repairable" and "removable batteries" is an important feature, and now that someone has stepped up you're asking why it is news? For once it seems like the BeauHD bot's AI is working properly and you're still not happy with the result. jeesh.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Reminds me of the Ahmed Mohamed story where his clock he 'invented' was thought to be a bomb. Turns out he just took a clock apart and put it back together in something, but was hailed as an engineering genius.
Not a capitalist disaster (Score:2)
Apple created the things, makes the things, sells the things. If one is a serious person, and not being flamebait, go after Apple, don't pretend to indemnify it via implication.
Why the animus towards AirPods? (Score:2, Insightful)
The 'bllarrrgghh blarrgghh capitalism blarrrggghh' crowd must have really nothing to prattle on about if they're directing so much ire towards freaking wireless headphones.
While we're just bullshitting about nothing in particular, I've never met an American socialist who has not
These people can barely run their own live
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why? Because they have come to symbolize the worst side of Apple. Irreparable, over-priced, under performing, short-lived, impossible to dispose of properly.
If we had a functional market, they would have already flopped and been withdrawn from the market. A proper Capitalist should find that no less objectionable than the most rabid Communist.
Re: (Score:2)
I said FUNCTIONAL because I meant FUNCTIONAL.
Given appropriate intellectual property laws, adequate competition, and information symmetry there'd be half a dozen very similar products on the market for half the price or less.
Re: (Score:2)
An example:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wireless+earbuds&crid=1O2LO9508K7L9&sprefix=wireless+%2Caps%2C248&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9
So what was your point exactly?
Re: (Score:2)
> Irreparable, over-priced, under performing, short-lived, impossible to dispose of properly.
I love the smell of hyperbole in the morning.
Uncounted tons of cheap phones enter the waste stream every year, but somehow its the 10-gram set of AirPods which is the ecological problem.
You can return anything Apple back to Apple, either in person or via mail, for proper recycling.
A.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never met an American socialist
That's because we only have 2 dozen in the whole country.
Re: (Score:1)
Negative articles about Apple get lots of views. That's enough reason apparently.
you mean these (Score:2)
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/AX-03-... [www.ebay.ca]
Why a hard-link? (Score:2, Informative)
Anyone that purchases a device with a hard-link between the headphones and the bluetooth device is just asking for trouble.
Losing the headphone jack on your phone (not my phone because I won't buy a phone without one) doesn't mean you have to lose the headphone jack or throw away the idea of headphones with plugs. Tight integration of a set of headphones with bluetooth is dumb.
https://www.aliexpress.com/ite... [aliexpress.com]
Pft... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
You laugh: https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Was Easy Way Too Boring? (Score:2)
I must be missing something here. The kid took a *working BT bone conduction headset*, then destroyed it so that he could glue on an Apple ear bud? Why didn't he just use the headset after having actually paid for it?
Re: (Score:2)
Why didn't he just use the headset after having actually paid for it?
Why is the kid a hacker who likes to mix shit up rather than a boring consumer who just buys things? Who knows?
Double waste (Score:4, Informative)
How is that more sustainable than the Apple earbuds?
Re: (Score:3)
unusable junk
Actually he now has a perfectly good pair of wireless earphones, repairable, and with a replaceable battery.
Re: (Score:2)
Repairable!
Re: (Score:2)
So he destroyed a pair of perfectly good wired earbuds and a perfectly good bluetooth
No not destroyed. Modified. They still work for him.
to create a pile of unusable
that's what every person should worry about; whether everything they do yields a saleable item at the end. Christ how boring are you?
The hacker ethos on slashdot seems to be nearly dead these days. I've bought plenty of stuff with the entire purpose of taking it apart (a.k.a. "destroying" in your silly parlance) in order to make something utt
Sound of the sea (Score:2)
Not an ad (Score:2)
Socially? (Score:5, Informative)
How are airpods a "social" disaster? Because wearing them prevents people from interacting with others around them? Sony opened that Pandoras box back in the 80s with the Walkman. You can't pin that one on Apple.
Airpods are super lightweight and tiny. In fact, you could pretty much call it amazing that a wireless, battery operated device could be so minuscule. The fact you can't repair them, and the battery doesn't last all day with continuous use, is the price to pay for such miniaturization.
I own a Yaesu VX-2R dual band amateur radio handheld transceiver. It is the smallest in the world. It has less than half the output power of a normal HT, has very short battery life, and the speaker audio is quiet. Those are the downsides of miniaturization, and it holds true for technology across the board.
Re: (Score:2)
The social disaster is the legion of angry, bitter people with a chip on their shoulder who get triggered every time they see someone with it.
Either they're bitter because they want it but can't afford it (which is usually just a question of spending priorities, not actual poverty). Or they've bought into some ideology or other and their anger is the cognitive dissonance between what they think they're supposed to believe and what they want.
No, he didn't. (Score:2)
I'm all for DIY and repairability, modifying gear, etc. However claiming that this cludge is in anyway comparable to what Apple created is like comparing bolting a lawn mower engine to a scooter and calling it a supercar. They may accomplish similar things, but they are not the same.
I made my own Macbook (Score:2)
I was tired of paying a premium for Apple's Macbooks with their non-replacable battery, so I duct taped a monitor, a UPS, and tower PC together to make my own Macbook.
Sure, it's much larger, heavier and uglier than a real Macbook, but it's essentially the same thing and the battery is replaceable.
15? There goes ... (Score:1)