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macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,199
19,854
Apple changed the chip series name in the new AirPods from W to H, which presumably stands for headphones. Why? I think because Apple will be using the W (wireless) naming for their in-house cellular modem chips for iPhone. So this pretty much confirms it, right?
 

JPack

macrumors G5
Mar 27, 2017
12,748
23,788
I think the H1 is a derivative of the W3 chip. Apple is expected to sell roughly 40 million units of AirPod this year. At that volume, anything to reduce costs will have a big effect.

Apple has plenty of letters to choose from for their baseband (B) or cellular (C) modem.
 

DeanL

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2014
1,297
1,237
London
I think it's because W will be on the emitter side (iPhone, Apple Watch), while the receiving device (like headphones) will have the H for headphones.
The W3 chip on Apple Watch is not only for bluetooth but Wi-Fi too so Apple could use W4 for cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,199
19,854
I think it's because W will be on the emitter side (iPhone, Apple Watch), while the receiving device (like headphones) will have the H for headphones.
The W3 chip on Apple Watch is not only for bluetooth but Wi-Fi too so Apple could use W4 for cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
But the AirPods send the Siri requests back to the parent device as well. It's all two way communication.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,199
19,854
And generally transmit audio. Nobody talks on the phone anymore?
Haha, ummm, no? Not really if I can help it. The few times I’ve tried it the person on the other end has complained about not being able to hear me well and said the audio was all distorted and low.
 

WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,949
3,827
Seattle
Haha, ummm, no? Not really if I can help it. The few times I’ve tried it the person on the other end has complained about not being able to hear me well and said the audio was all distorted and low.

I’d get your AirPods looked at then. They are by far the best microphones I’ve used in a BT headset - for phone communication. And I’m using the phone 6-8 hours a day, either regular calls or FaceTime / WhatsApp calls. Absolutely everyone I know has exactly the same experience in terms of mic quality.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,199
19,854
I’d get your AirPods looked at then. They are by far the best microphones I’ve used in a BT headset - for phone communication. And I’m using the phone 6-8 hours a day, either regular calls or FaceTime / WhatsApp calls. Absolutely everyone I know has exactly the same experience in terms of mic quality.
I have new ones coming next week, and my wife is going to use my old ones when exercising and not really for phone calls. She doesn’t use headphones much. But yeah, I’ve always wondered about that. Although thinking about it, most of the time I used them to take calls was near this Bermuda Triangle wireless signal black hole on the campus I work at, which is near the track I walk on during lunch. It’s super weird. Only in that spot will my AirPods crackle and drop out, and my iPhone loses both WiFi and LTE. It’s kinda creepy actually and I’ve heard of a place on campus several years ago that is high security and they were testing 5G so I wonder if that lab has anything to do with this or if it’s just some sort of interference zone. It’s outside in the open so it’s really weird.
 

DeanL

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2014
1,297
1,237
London
But the AirPods send the Siri requests back to the parent device as well. It's all two way communication.

That's not the point... They switched to H on the headphones because they only do headphone wireless communication (Bluetooth), whereas the W chips on Apple Watch is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (both made by Apple), and presumably when Apple makes their own cellular chips W will also include cellular.
 
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