> For all the things the Airpods do right, they're still easy to miss

Anecdotal, unproven. It's YOUR fault if you easily forget about foreign objects in your ear, and does not negate "all the things the Airpods do right." In any case, Find My Phone will have support for tracking them in the next iOS update.

I've gone running with them, used them in crowded environments with hundreds of people jostling me, and I have yet to lose or even drop one.

The freedom from wires (and excellent microphones) are a HUGE convenience and far outweighs any minor subjective quibbles. Can you tell me how YOU would design something without any wires that's not easy to miss?

> sub par audio quality.

Subjective. Source?

They're good enough, no worse than the previous EarPods, and not bad at all.

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> I value more being able to connect all my devices without 5 different dongles hanging from my laptop than idolizing an ideal, non-existent world.

Hyperbole.

If you carried 5 different devices with your laptop, you would need to carry at most one USB/USB-C adapter and maybe a multiport USB hub.

I have an iPhone, iPad, a Bluetooth Mouse, a Bluetooth keyboard (for games) and a WiFi harddisk. I haven't needed to plug them into my 2016 MBP yet, nor do I carry all of them in my backpack, but I do have one small USB/USB-C adapter for when I need it. File transfers of even several GBs work flawlessly with AirDrop.

See [1]. Apple already did this long ago for the original USB standard, when the first iMac came with nothing but USB ports.

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> I remember people were doing this with a Pebble. It's still a gimmick.

It still doesn't change the fact that it's still convenient.

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>I literally have this on a cheap refurbished HP laptop from 2010 or so I've been using as a server.

It still doesn't change the fact that it's still convenient, and I would wager more secure than the tech in a 2010 HP laptop.

Moreover, it integrates very nicely with authorizing App Store and Apple Pay purchases, and giving permission for administrative actions. Did older laptops integrate fingerprint authentication deeply into Windows?

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> Like the mouse. And the screen. Not a separate screen I have to look down to be able to use because it has no proper tactile feedback unlike a proper key.

Does not diminish its advantages.

"No proper tactile feedback unlike a proper key" can be used to downplay the utility of all the phone and tablet touchscreens in the world, too.

A mouse does not provide visual feedback depending on what you're doing.

I'm looking straight at the screen right now on a 2016 MBP, and the Touch Bar is within my field of vision.

In any case, it's no worse than having to discover, learn and remember what each FN does in each app.

>An extremely minor thing that's not worth all the downsides. I can get a better version of that gimmick on my mouse just using the side button+scroll wheel.

Which "all downsides?"

To change brightness/volume, all I need is to swipe on the Touch Bar. Do you have any of your mouse buttons permanently set to controlling volume and/or brightness?

The Touch Bar is not replacing the mouse, trackpad or keyboard. You still have a mouse, trackpad and keyboard. Why are you comparing it with them? The Touch Bar replaces FN keys, and it's better than them.

> You don't need a separate screen to have context sensitive buttons. Also "in a scrolling list on the Touch Bar." That cannot be faster than a mouse or keyboard shortcut

Say I have contacts named after companies/organizations, and I use tens of different custom labels for each phone number/email for the different people working at them.

Which of these is faster/better?

• I keep 10+ different keyboard shortcuts, for each label, and remember which one maps to which label on which contact. (!)

• I take my fingers away from the keyboard to move the mouse pointer to open the dropdown list, scroll it and click on a label.

• I keep my hands on the keyboard and tap a label on the Touch Bar.

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>So indeed, Apple seems to be doing nothing but gimmicks and more proprietary lock-in. This is a good thing, somehow?

Subjective. "Gimmicks" can be used against any feature from any company.

All of these things highly increase user convenience within the ecosystem without any setup required beyond signing-on once with your Apple ID. This is bad design, somehow?

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Your dismissals are a classic example of the tall poppy syndrome; Were Apple a smaller company, you probably wouldn't be putting so much effort in downplaying their accomplishments.

The fact that others companies came out with [half-baked] versions of some features first, or anecdotes about misplacing equipment or subjective opinions of audio quality, does NOT diminish the fact that Apple DO do a lot of things right.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy-free_PC