The Pros, completely different story. Maybe a bit pricey but the ecosystem, battery life, comfort, ANC, all of that is great. The difference that little rubber piece makes is wild.
Side note - the "directional" audio (Sounds as if it's originating from your device rather than standard L/R audio), not sure if this is still a thing, but it was super weird the first time I tried it. I literally had to check that I was actually using the earbuds a few times, and refused to use it after. Maybe it was TOO good, super cool tech though.
I'm the opposite, the rubber ones are annoying and give me headaches. Love the open ear feel.
> The Pros, completely different story
You think this is accidental?
Are there non-Apple alternatives that also accomplish this?
In a multiple of ways: you become disconnected from nature and closed off to environments, and you also reduce safety because you don't know what is going on around you (high % of population live in cities).
Not a uniquely Apple problem though, I suppose.
That said, the masses have had noise cancelling earbuds for years at this point and while there definitely are cases of people getting hurt or killed from being unaware of their surroundings, it’s not really been that big a deal.
Firearms have been the leading cause of death for people ages 1-19 since 2020.
That's also why there are different designs, e.g. in ear, over ear, open over ear, bone conduction, and technologies, e.g. noise cancelling, active noise cancelling, non voice filtering.
Typically there are visuals though, e.g. crossing lights for pedestrian, so the risk from the lack of hearing in a city is quite low IMHO.
FWIW in Belgium you can even legally ride a bike with earphones, which shows the risk is estimated to be very low.
I live in a city. Nature for me means the squealing breaks of cars and trucks + people trying to get my attention so I'll take their religious flyer. No thanks.
I've seen people with no earbuds be completely oblivious and almost walk into traffic...