As far as wireless earbuds are concerned, Apple has once again maintained its position as the sales leader. Their AirPods are by far the most common earbuds in the world. They are in fact so popular that, like Scotch for tape, Frigo for fridges and Klinex for tissues, Airpods are wireless earbuds. 

The phenomenon has spread to all generations. People are walking around with white plastic earbuds sticking out of their ears as if they were born with them already there. I see kids on the streets talking with each other, laughing and telling stories, and they all have Airpods on. 
I see teenage girls gossiping, complaining about their parents, with Apple’s plastic in their ear canals.
I see, wearing AirPods, middle-aged women jogging while talking about the fantastic weekend they had with their husbands. 
Everyone has them and uses them. And no one takes them off to talk to you.

Today, for 115€, I bought a set of Sennheiser HD 450BX headphones. Granted, I bought them from the duty-free store at the airport, so I got them for a little less money than usual. But, even so, go on Amazon and you’ll find that they are still cheaper than the Airpod Pros. But, besides the terrible name they have, the Sennheisers will get you better sound quality, better noise insulation, better active noise reduction, and better battery life, and because of the noise reduction you have to take them off when you talk to someone, so you also get good manners. 
I think the problem we have with Airpods is that most of the population caught a virus called Do-like-everyone-else-itus.

The same virus pushed most Australians to acquire a Mazda 3. It’s easier for me to tell you how many Aussies don’t drive one than to do the opposite. It is also easier for me to explain the popularity of this car with a fake virus I invented as a joke than to explain it rationally. See, the 2016 Mazda 3 doesn’t have much going for itself, so I don’t really understand why I see so many of them.

The interior is made out of three different medium-quality black plastics. The seating position is pretty good but that’s as far as it goes because the armrests aren’t positioned correctly. The right one is too far forwards and the left one, the centre console lid, is too far backwards, so my arms can’t rest. 

The window switches were a big pet peeve of mine during my time in the Mazda Tres. I know the name of the game is to save money, but the cost difference can’t possibly be significant between manufacturing a button that makes the windows go up or down with one click, instead of holding it until the windows are in the position needed. I just can’t believe that Mazda only gave the driver-side window an automatic button on the base model Mazda Trois. It’s such a cheap move… It takes basic electronic components that you could buy at your local store. But Mazda… with their millions of dollars dedicated to their Research and Development department has yet to get the three other windows to go down with one touch of a button. 

The steering is criminally numb and comically unprecise. The throttle is too light and isn’t progressive. The brake pedal is intuitive and progressively firmer towards the end of its travel, although it is as uncommunicative as its neighbour to the right. 
The powertrain moving this Mazda √9 is a four-cylinder linked to a 6-speed automatic transmission. It’s a good thing this transmission only has 6 gears because it has no idea which one it should be in. It downshifts at random moments, then upshifts right back to gear it was in before, all that because there was a little hill to drive up that could have easily been driven up without the last-minute upshifts-downshifts nonsense. Staying on the topic of bad transmission calibration: Mazda privileged gear-changing speed over smoothness, so it often shifts in a rough manner, and in 2016, that’s unforgivable.

The engine will turn on and off multiple times during a drive in the Mazda Tre, because it is equipped with a Start and Stop system called i-stop. It’s an incredibly annoying system that turns off the engine when you’re at a complete stop, and, before the air conditioning gets stale, turns right it back on. I do understand the concept, fuel economy and so on, but realistically, how much fuel has the start and stop system saved? 
Adding to the experience of the i-stop system, it’s incredibly counterintuitive to turn off. There isn’t a “system on” or “system off” light, it just beeps and nothing on the dashboard changes. The i-stop logo is still lit up, and sometimes it flashes. Whoever build this system has clearly never used a light switch: the most common, and intuitive, on/off system.
When the i-stop system is on, the light should be on, and when it’s turned off the light should indicate “i-stop off”.
Simple.
Thank me later, Mazda.

During my time at the wheel of the Mazda Worst-Place-On-The-Podium, I got to drive on some beautiful Australian roads. Sadly, not only is the Mazda on the worst place on the podium, but it seems like it was also a competition with only three participants… The chassis is nose heavy and under moderate spirited driving, it is prone to understeer. It also feels like a very heavy car, and it really isn’t that heavy as it is less than a hundred kilos lighter than a Golf. All this paired with the lack of communication the driving controls give, makes for a sub-par driving experience on twisty roads. 
In its defence, it is not a car designed to tear up mountain roads, but so is our Seat Ibiza, yet, the Ibiza is fun to drive if need be, not the Mazda.

In 2016, The Mazda 3 was the fourth most popular car down under, in Australia. And AirPods sales now make up 60% of the global wireless headphone market. Product popularity is a great motivation for us to spend money. The logic is that if everyone has said product, it can’t possibly be that bad. It clearly is a product that suits the needs of the person who has it, so why can’t it suit your own needs, too?
We all have a set of criteria we need to tick off when acquiring a set of headphones, or a car. The most popular option may well be the right option for you, but I suspect that more often than not, it simply isn’t a bad enough option for you to care. At the end of the day, AirPods do indeed play music, have active noise cancelling, and are wireless, unlike the much cheaper options made by Sony. And the Mazda 3 does indeed drive you from point A to point B while being fuel efficient and acceptably comfortable, unlike the VW t-rock. 
Any above-average commodity will not be bad enough for us to seek a better version of it. We’d rather stay comfortably numb and accept that fact. Accepting that implies the fact that we all have the same needs to fulfil. Which isn’t true. Popular goods simply tick off a sufficient amount of boxes.

The lesson here is: popularity does not equate to quality. It equates to adequacy.

In short, if you’re looking for wireless headphones, don’t buy AirPods, get the Sennheiser HD 450BX.
And if you’re looking for a compact 5-seater, don’t get a 2016 Mazda 3, get a Seat Ibiza.

Max,

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