Privacy

An app can be very useful, I use my Bose app to update my headphones' firmware and to manage a few Bluetooth settings.

The app itself isn't the issue, the requested permissions are.

I am an IT guy and let's run through the permissions and see what makes sense...

1. What device are you using? - Fair, this helps Nothing to develop their headphones for the devices that uses them.
2. Device ID - purely used for marketing, can be skipped.
3. IP adress - more marketing shit, this cam be skipped.
4. Usage information, product interaction - Fair, this helps nothing to develop new headphones with feature people actually use.
5. Performance, diagnostic and crash data - Fair
6. Browsing history - Nope, the only way this could be fair is if they want data about webbased services you use, but that is not fair to get all your browsing history just to find this.
7. Location information - What? NO!
8. Information about interactions with our offerings - Meh, fair, tap an ad and get logged, sure.
9. Where available, products may use GPS, IP and other tech to determine your aproximate location - What part of "NO!" don't you understand.
10. Headphone indicator - yeah, fine.

What I truly hate about these is that they are basically an all/nothing deal, you have to press the button or mark the checkbox to set $EULA_AGREE = $true for the app to work, you can't just agree to parts of the EULA, you have to give them everything they ask for, preferably while looking lovingly into the camera of the phone so they can send the photo to their CEO.

The last part was obviously hyperbol, but thatbis how it feels from time to time...

Why buy the ZSN when you could buy the AE01, AS10, AS10 Pro, AS12, AS16, AS16 Pro, AS16 Pro X, AS24, AS24 Pro, ASF, AST, ASX, BTE, Carol, Castor, Castor Pro, x Crinacle CRN, D-Fi, Dawn, DQ6, DQS, E10, ED, EDA, ED4, ED9, EDC, EDC Pro, EDCX, EDS, EDX, EDX Lite, EDX Pro, EDX Pro X, EDX Ultra, EDXS, ESX, GP20, H10, x HBB DQ6S, Krila, Libra, Ling Long, Merga, PR1, PR1 Pro, x HBB PR2, PR3, PRX, S1, S1D, S2, SA08, SA08 Pro, Saga, SK10, SK10 Pro, SKS, Sonata, Symphony, T10, Vader, VX10, VXS, VXS Pro, XTRA, Z1, Z1 Pro, Z3, ZAR, ZAS, ZAT, ZAX, ZES, ZEX, ZEX Pro, ZNA, ZS10 Pro, ZS10 Pro 2, ZS10 Pro X, ZS12 Pro X, ZS3, ZS3E, ZS4, ZSN Pro, ZSN Pro 2, ZSN Pro X, ZST X, ZSX, ZSX Pro, ZVX, or ZVX Pro?

“Get these instead” “links to out of stock headphones”

jk I’ve heard those are good. I also highly endorse returning to wired headphones. I got one set of wireless earbuds (sony xm3) and while wireless is nice the battery longevity sure isn’t. Thankfully changing the battery is easy on these but it’s a proprietary battery that’s expensive and impossible to buy through legit channels. And good luck if you have airpods or whatever, it’s technically possible but a goddamn nightmare to change that battery

For full headphones I still use my hd600s from like 2003, the marbled ones they don’t make anymore, and yet my wireless headphones that cost almost the same price 20 years later would die after 20 minutes making them useless.

The hd600s aren’t great for like doing stuff outside or moving around but I do use them wirelessly with a Bluetooth dac. The battery in that has lasted a few years because it’s not extremely tiny to fit in an iem and when it does die (I assume) it’s just a basic lipo pack or maybe an 18650 (or similar) that’s much easier and cheaper to source

Wired headphones are the way to go for sure, assuming the wire and pads are easily replaceable (which is basically always the case unless they’re so cheap they’re considered disposable). I can’t ever imagine paying hundreds for headphones that rely on a battery again unless battery technology changes significantly

Love my ZSN Pro X buds, but unfortunately the adhesive holding em together isn't fantastic. I've had to hit it with solvents on multiple occasions because it'd leaked out melting adhesive.

Let me tell you, pulling your buds out only for them to be sticky is not a fun experience xD

100% KZ with Bluetooth...best cheap amazing headphones I've ever owned. They're my daily drivers

Are there any good BT adapters that you know of? And do they have ANC?

KZ ZSN looks cool, but I am mostly listening to audiobooks while on the job, and the cable with Bluetooth adapter will get in my way a lot. But I will keep them in mind for some other use.

This is true for any Android app requiring Bluetooth communication, not sure about iOS. An app might be able to figure where you are at based on the Bluetooth beacons (or any wireless) devices around. Hence treating it as a location permission as well.

This has been changed starting with Android 12 where they have specific Bluetooth permissions that filter out Bluetooth beacons. But it will probably take while before apps update using the new permission

https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/bluetooth/bt-permissions

I just checked. Yes, spez is investor of nothing. Another reason to avoid this company.

I wish I knew about this app sooner. I would pick something based off that. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

That's a good work around for a fundamental issue with the app, but how reliable is it? I wish there was a blanket method to disable internet connectivity for an app, rather than relying on a firewall (IIRC they're pretty leaky, and I struggle to maintain anything that's always-on) or custom DNS server.

I didn't think of that. The app seems to work fine without internet access. Thanks for the advice.