Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Apple Introduces AirPods And Lighting EarPods (UPDATE)



During Apple’s media event today, Apple announced wireless AirPods headphones. The AirPods look like a pair of EarPods with no cables. Those long "probes" contain microphones that can pick  up voice tones. Inside each AirPod is a custom Apple W1 chip to provide up to 5 hours of battery life in each pod, allow use of one or both AirPods, and switch between any number of sound sources automatically after a simple pairing process. Just take the AirPods out of their charging case and the iPhone or Apple Watch shows a simple button to tap and you’re good to go. Also double-tapping either AirPod will bring up Siri. Apple also introduced EarPods with Lightning Connector ($29) (the image below on the right) seem to be upsetting the world since they signal that the day of the 3.5-mm audio jack is past. What Lightning connections to audio gear do is open the world to third-party Lightning earphones with noise cancellation. The EarPods will be included with every iPhone 7, along with an $9 Lightning to 3.5 mm headphone adapter (The price is VERY surprising to me for that adapter) (the image below on the left) for those who are loudly whining about the changes. The AirPods will be available in October for $159.






UPDATE 10/29/16 - Apple has announced that the AirPods have been delayed from it's "late October" release date to an unknown time.


UPDATE 11/3/16 - According to Digitimes, the Apple Airpods won’t begin shipping until January 2017.

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