It just works... finally!

As a lifelong Apple user - yep my parents were designers and I've never owned a PC - I've always slightly tongue-in-cheekily said that Apple products just work. And, of course, they do work pretty well.

I think in my experience they've always worked better than the competitor devices I've used. I certainly find my experience with Windows not only less intuitive but more prone to errors, viruses, all this kind of thing. And so in that sense, 'they just work', is a sort of relevant descriptor for Apple devices. But actually, you know, having used Apple devices all day every day for two decades plus, there's plenty of ways in which they don't work, though I found them getting a lot better, particularly in the past few years.

For the first time though recently, I bought a product which I find does just work all of the time. I've been using AirPods for quite some time since the AirPods second generation came out and I bought, not the second generation, but the cheapest ones I could buy and they've been really nice and convenient headphones for that time. Small, compact, okay battery life, okay quality, reasonable connectivity, but unfortunately they recently were left in my pocket and went through the wash and came out the other side not working.

Rather than buy a new pair, I decided to fork out for AirPod Max's. I've tried them in the store and have been quite impressed at the noise cancelling and the spatial audio.

What I hadn't realised was just quite how seamless and flawless the experience of owning AirPods Max's really is. As a multi-device user, I'm constantly bouncing between a laptop, a phone, an iPad and more. And the most impressive thing about the AirPods Max's is how flawlessly it navigates that multi-device experience, perfectly switching between these devices based on what I'm doing. Never getting it wrong, never struggling to connect to a device. Certainly with the old, I guess more primitive Bluetooth implementations of AirPods, I quite frequently couldn't get them to connect or other technical issues would happen. But with these new AirPods, I'm constantly connected. It intelligently knows what I'm doing and which one should be prioritised. The volume never seems to spike as I switch devices. And this is just a bit of a game changer for using the Apple ecosystem as a whole.

The second way in which it just works is the battery life. I liked the old AirPods, but all too frequently I would put them in and hear that sound warning me that they were close to running out of battery. I didn't even realise this before buying them, but the AirPod Max comes equipped with a 20 hour battery life, which means that I have never put them on and found them dead. And increasingly I've found battery life being such a critical part of things just working. Something can't work if it's off, obviously.

And then all the kind of features that you want from modern headphones are there. Decent sound quality, great noise cancelling, good microphone in public spaces, meaning you can take calls on the go. The best comfort in over ears I've personally experienced, including quite expensive studio quality at over ears, meaning I can wear them for quite some time without any strain or discomfort.

And of course, as one expects from an Apple device, it's very pretty to look at.

Arguably, you know, it's headphones, how complicated can they be? If they can get any product right, it should be these. But it was genuinely the first time where I basically have no complaints. And they work so consistently. No sort of unexplained glitches and things that I can't figure out. And it just makes a wonderful experience as a user.