This is Technology Bytes, episode 94 for December 22nd, 2024.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So this week I’m talking about AirPods Pro 2.
I’ve covered this in the past, but this week I have a little bit of a story for you.
It really involves not just the technology, but also the support around the technology.
This past week I walk every day, and that’s when I use my AirPods the most.
I’ve talked before about using them as hearing aids, as that has been developed by Apple, and they really help.
I use them in meetings at work, I use them in meetings at church, and they really do help me to hear better.
So they are an important technology device in my life, and in the life of my family as well, because they want me to be able to hear things, and it’s frustrating when I can’t.
So this past week I went on my walk on a Sunday morning, and usually on Sunday I will put the AirPods on a charger, except that I also take them to church, so I guess I was a little bit confused, and as I was ending the morning routine, other things were going on, and I can’t remember all of them, but it kind of threw me off a little bit, and I put my AirPods in the front pocket of my sweatshirt, knowing that I was going to be walking upstairs, I could take them off, put them on the charger.
Not that it was necessary before I took them to church, I should have just left them on the table, but that’s not the way the story went.
And so when I got upstairs and I took off my workout clothes, I started a load of laundry, and put some other dirty clothes in the other basket that I have, and in that was the sweatshirt with the AirPods.
I think you can kind of figure out where this story is going.
So I did my first load of laundry, I ate some breakfast, I changed the laundry around, and then put the second load in, and then got ready to go to church.
I forgot my water bottle, I forgot my AirPods, I wasn’t even thinking about those things, and we got three quarters, 90% of the way to church, and I said, I turned to my wife and I said, my AirPods are in the washing machine.
And so, you know, she’s like, well, do we need to go home?
And I said, well, I don’t know, they’re wet now.
They’ve been in there for, you know, 15, 20 minutes, whatever it’s been.
So I guess I’ll just have to deal with it when I get home.
So I get home from church, and I think we actually went grocery shopping, which we generally do after church, and some other things.
So it was a little bit before I got home.
And so I’m going upstairs to do the laundry, and I’m pulling the clothes out of the washer to put them in the dryer.
I pull out my sweatshirt, and my AirPods are not in the pocket.
And I thought, oh, maybe there’s an off chance that they fell out and are somewhere else.
But that was not to be the case.
They did fall out, but they fell out while they were in the washer.
So they’re in the bottom of the washer, having gone through the cycle.
I didn’t put them in the dryer, but what I did do was open the case, cleaned the water out of that, dried them up as best I could, and then I put them on the charger.
So thinking that if they charge, that heat might dry some of that moisture out of the AirPods.
And then once they had charged for a couple of hours, I put them in my ears and played some music from my phone, and they worked.
They sounded pretty good, but every so often, it was almost like when a certain note was hit or a certain tone, even when I listened to podcasts, the AirPods would chirp.
Or if a song stayed at a certain pitch or something, then there was just a little hint of squeak in the AirPods, and I’m like, okay, so they’re working, but they’re not good.
I didn’t try the hearing aid function on them, but I used them for a number of days, probably three days.
I plugged them into charge again, thinking that might do something, but the noise didn’t stop.
And so now I’m sitting there on an expensive pair of AirPod Pro 2s, trying to figure out how much it’s going to cost me to replace them.
So I contacted Apple Support and told them the story.
I listened to a lot of podcasts, and they’ve always said the best thing through Apple Support is just tell the truth.
So I told them what happened.
I was hoping they would get exchanged.
I’d only had them for about a month, and they said, we can’t tell you exactly because we need someone to look at them, and so you need to set an appointment at the Apple Store.
So that’s what I did for that evening.
And after I came home, and my wife went with me after work, and we went down to the Apple Store, and so I told the attendant that helped me, the genius that helped me at the store, what I had done.
And so she’s hooked them up to a diagnostics program on her iPad.
And I should have asked what they tested, but whatever it was, she asked me if it was both AirPods that were squeaking, and I told her yes.
The right one was worse than the left one, but they were both problematic.
And so she did her test, looked at the results, and she goes, okay, we’re going to replace them, and because you have AppleCare, it’s only going to cost you $29.
And so now I’m already in a good mood.
Even though I have to replace them, I am spending money, but I am spending way less than what I spent for them originally.
And then the replacement process happened.
I just kind of assumed they would just hand me another set of AirPods off the shelf, and that was not the case at all.
They actually rebuilt, I think that’s the word that she used, so they brought out three boxes, and I’m like, why are there three boxes?
So she opened the first one and says, okay, this is your new case for your AirPods, and that’s going to replace the case that’s right here.
And so she kind of sets that in front of me.
And then she opens another box and says, okay, this is your right AirPod, so we’re going to put that right here in the case.
And then she opens the third box and says, this is your left AirPod, and so she puts that in the case, and she goes, okay, so now I’ve rebuilt you your replacement AirPods and told me to go home and charge them for a little while just to get them up to speed, also just in case they didn’t have the latest firmware to do that.
And so that’s what I did.
I came home, I charged them.
The AirPods obviously work good.
They’re brand new.
It was an interesting process to go through, not just a brand new pair, but to rebuild.
And I figured that’s the way they do it.
If one AirPod goes bad, they have a right one that they can replace it.
Or if a case goes bad, they have a case they can replace.
And so that’s really what they did, replace the three pieces that were wrong with my AirPod Pro 2.
So I haven’t yet used them as a hearing aid yet.
And the other question I asked the genius was, okay, I took the hearing test.
Is it going to work for my new pair of AirPod Pros?
And she goes, you’ll probably have to take it again.
And I’m like, well, I’m not sure because the hearing profile is saved on the phone.
And I feel like it should just pick it up.
I did some searching online.
I can’t find a good answer.
But when I do, I will cover that on this microcast.
But for now, I’m a happy camper, as they say.
New set of AirPods.
Didn’t cost me an arm and a leg.
Apple support was very good.
It took very little time for them to diagnose the problem and say, yep, we’ll replace these.
AppleCare came through.
And I bought AppleCare, which I don’t often do, but I knew I was going to be wearing these in my ear.
I was going to be working out.
I was going to be sweating.
I was outside.
So I just thought it was a wise thing to do.
And in the end, even though it was my fault what happened to them, it ended up being a wise decision.
And so, bad start, good ending.
And I am the proud owner of a replacement set of AirPod Pro 2.
Well, that’s all I have for today.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merigfamily.com.
And I want to thank you, as always, for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast.
I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
