Based Developer Makes AirPods Open Source

Apple's AirPods have got to be one of the most popular consumer earbuds ever made.

And Beats by Dre might be a close second, which of course Apple has also owned since 2014. But if you go onto any public transit system or any community gem, really anywhere you'd expect to see a lot of people with earbuds in, you're probably going to find that most of them are either using Apple's AirPods or they're using a cheap knockoff.

That's right. The AirPods are so popular that they're also one of the most commonly counterfeited electronics in the world.

But there's some good reasons for all the fake bootleg AirPods out there.

Because the main problem with Apple's earbuds really isn't the price of the AirPods themselves.

They're still pretty expensive, of course. I mean, you'd expect that from an Apple product, but the price is actually on par with a lot of other high-end wireless earbuds that you would use for Android or, you know, crossplatform.

And when it comes to high quality sound, you're going to get what you pay for. So being cheap simply is not going to be an option for audio files or just people who want good sound.

But the main problem with Apple's AirPods is the same problem with everything Apple makes.

It's vendor lockin. AirPods simply do not work that well.

If you're on Android, Windows, Linux, or really anything that isn't running an Applemade operating system, the basic features are still available.

You can hear sound through the AirPods fine on non-Apple hardware, and I don't think the sound quality is really impacted that much, but a lot of the features that you would expect in modern headphones, like being able to adjust the volume level, noise cancelling, battery status, ear detection, being able to use your earbuds as hearing aids, and being able to use your earbuds with multiple devices simply isn't available to you. But a developer by the name of Cavish Dvar, apologies if I'm not pronouncing that right, has decided to create software that liberates AirPods from the gilded jail cell that is Apple's vendor lockin. And you know when you see a clippy profile picture on the Div's GitHub page that they're going to have some based repos. And look at that.

Libre Pods GPL 3.0 license 2.9 GitHub stars fresh commits.

Apple is absolutely in shambles.

Now, there's different levels of success with this project depending on what AirPod model you're using and what platform you're trying to use them on. So, according to this device compatibility chart, the second gen AirPod Pro models are fully supported.

The third gen just lacks the heart rate monitor, which might not sound like that big of a deal, but AirPods are actually one of the most convenient consumer heart rate monitors that you can get, assuming that you have an iPhone or some other Apple product to actually be able to use that feature effectively.

Uh, I've seen some studies that show the AirPods Pro 3 Fit having fairly similar results to chest straps for monitoring heart rates, which are supposed to be the peak of accuracy, which makes sense because I mean, it's closer to your heart, so should be able to read your heart rate better.

Uh, and in one test, the AirPods were actually more accurate than Apple watches, which can be a hassle to use for certain exercises.

I mean, say if you're doing a heavy bench press or an incline press, you might want to wrap your wrist for support.

Or if you're hitting a heavy bag, you might not be able to get boxing gloves on over your watch, etc., etc. And almost everyone wears earbuds when they're working out these days anyway, so it just makes sense to have the heart rate monitor built into them.

And all other models of the AirPods are far behind in support with only basic features like battery status and ear detection working right now. Now, as far as using AirPods on non-Apple platforms go, Libre Pods requires root access on an Android device.

So, unfortunately, that means there's limited support in a technical hurdle that most Android users probably aren't going to make.

But, this might get better in the future.

I mean, the developer of Libre Pods actually found a bug in the Android Bluetooth stack and reported it to Google.

So, if the fix for this gets merged into a future Android update, using AirPods on those devices should be much smoother.

Now, on Linux, you can run Libre Pods as a system tray app. All the dependencies and build instructions for Libre Pods are included in the readme, so pretty straightforward.

Now, apparently, the key, or at least one of the keys to making AirPods work on non-Apple hardware is Bluetooth device ID spoofing.

Simply making a device appear to have a manufacturer ID that belongs to Apple is enough to unlock multi-device connectivity and the hearing aid feature of AirPods, which might just be scummy enough to get regulatory bodies involved in forcing Apple to liberate the AirPods from within.

Because think about it like this.

If you have mild to moderate hearing loss, and especially if you have that and you're somebody who's younger, somebody who you might not expect to have a hearing aid on, you might really be looking into using something like AirPods if they're good enough, if they're hearing aid feature is good enough to get the job done versus a more bulky or potentially less fashionable device.

Because remember, a big reason for Apple's success is that their devices and accessories are fashionable, or at least considered fashionable by a lot of people. And that's why they're going to make a boatload of money, not just selling AirPods, but selling these iPhone pockets that cost upwards of $150 that somebody's grandma could have knitted them for Christmas or their birthday.

And grandma could make one of these for less than $20 and make it in the time it takes to watch two episodes of MASH.

But anyway, if you're hard of hearing and you use AirPods as like a low-key hearing aid right now, you're forced to either buy an iPhone or go through the rigma roll of rooting your Android phone, which is going to cause uh some other side effects like banking and payment apps to not work or at least a lot of banking and payment apps to not work.

So, if you care about that or any number of other inconveniences that rooting your phone causes, then you know that might just push you further into Apple's ecosystem.

And even without the angle of Apple clearly exploiting the hearing impaired, the fact that Apple is going out of their way to make AirPods not work as intended on non-Apple devices could be a violation of some of the EU's tech laws, which might actually compel Apple to change things.

Because we've seen time and time again that the EU's laws requiring devices that are sold there to be more repairable, for example, or use a universal charging port has actually pushed companies like Apple to make changes to their devices so that they're able to keep selling them there.

And non-EU countries get the benefit as well because it would actually be more expensive for manufacturers like Apple to make two different kinds of phones for those two different markets.

But there could be a couple of hurdles here.

For one, the restrictions seem to mostly be software related as far as the restrictions between how AirPods work with Apple devices versus non-Apple devices.

And so Apple could try to region lock the openness of AirPods to the EU if it's found that they're violating their laws by them being designed the way they are now.

And as far as how wireless works in the Apple ecosystem, the company could argue that the vendor lockin really is just a feature.

You see, the Bluetooth spec of AirPods and probably all Apple devices is very different than anything else.

Apple has been extending the open Bluetooth stack for quite some time, and they've actually implemented a lot of features before they even became Bluetooth standards.

So, there's definitely a copyright argument that Apple can and will make if anyone tries to force them to open source that implementation.

Obviously, it'd be great for us because if Android manufacturers were smart, they'd copy Apple's Bluetooth stack if it were made open- source since it seems to be overall better than everyone else's implementation.

But tell me in the comments below if you think that the AirPods will successfully be liberated either through the efforts of open source developers or through the efforts of governments and regulatory bodies or if you think Apple is just going to continue to increase vendor lock in and restrict all of these honestly really nice features that they create only for people that are willing to pay to live in their gilded cage. And if you enjoyed this video, please like and share it to hack the algorithm and check out my online store base.win win where you can buy my awesome merch like this little Damon t-shirt or accessories for your phone or laptop. 10% storewide discount when you pay with Monero XMR at checkout.

Have a great rest of your day.