Brendon Bigley on his Wavelengths blog: EarPods Rule

I’m not about to wax poetic about all of the ways using wired headphones in 2024 “changes everything” like a clickbaity YouTube video, but I will say that the proliferation of USB-C on pretty much every device is slowly returning the EarPods to their once-ubiquitous days of the 3.5mm jack. Yes I’m using them on my iPhone when I’m commuting, doing chores around the house, meditating, and what-have-you — but being able to plug them into my gaming devices, laptop, and tablet does in some ways feel like a return to form when it comes to ease of use.

Bluetooth earbuds are better for me in basically every situation, but wired earbuds remain undefeated on the “pairing” front. Yes, pairing AirPods with Apple devices is easy, but you know what’s easier? Plugging them in.

There’s also the multiple devices use that Brendon brings up, which is massively better on wired headphones. Apple has done massive work to make AirPods switch between your Apple devices (assuming they’re using the same iCloud account), and they basically don’t switch between non-Apple devices without inducing a major headache each time. Meanwhile, my EarPods work with my Mac, my PC, my PlayStation my Steam Deck, my work computer, and anything else with a headphone jack with zero headaches.

Again, I’m using Bluetooth buds for most things these days, but wired headphones still have them beat in a couple ways.