Apple held its special event this week releasing new MacBook Pros with much faster M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. Dave and I talk about the new computers, as well as digging into the newly announced Apple Music Voice Plan. The way that Apple positioned the plan doesn’t make a lot of sense to either of us. Finally, we talk about the new AirPods, a really nice set of headphones that rivals and in some cases surpasses the AirPods Pro.
The Voice Plan ended up being the most contentious part of the episode. At $4.99 a month the tier removes lyrics, spatial audio, lossless, and the ability to browse the catalogue on your own. You can only request music through Siri, which means you need to know exactly what you want before you ask for it.
The pitch seems aimed at casual listeners who treat music as background noise. But even that audience has options. Spotify’s free tier is ad-supported and lets you browse. Amazon Music comes bundled with Prime. Apple is charging five dollars a month for fewer features than its competitors give away.
The deeper issue is one the whole digital-services landscape is working through: how stripped-down can an entry tier get before it stops converting anyone to the full product? Michigan online casinos have been reworking their free-play funnels since launch, and video-streaming platforms keep reshuffling ad-supported plans for the same reason. The lesson from both is that the cheapest tier needs at least one exclusive hook, and Apple’s Voice Plan doesn’t have one.
On the hardware side, the third-generation AirPods deserve more attention than the headline specs suggest. Spatial audio and the MagSafe case are nice upgrades, but the real story is fit. Apple reshaped the earbuds to sit more securely without silicone tips, which puts them in a useful middle ground between the original AirPods and the Pro.
For anyone who found the Pro tips uncomfortable, these might be the better daily driver. The sound quality punches above the price, and in a few scenarios the noise isolation holds up against the Pro model. The full breakdown is in the episode.
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