I know, I know. Everyone is up in arms about Apple’s decision to eliminate the headphone jack from the new Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Now, let’s talk about this for a moment. Apple has made its name on changes like this. Let’s recap—Apple has revolutionized the way we look at technology and, for many of their innovations, they’ve (eventually) dragged the rest of the industry with them.
Take, for instance, that time they released the world’s first consumer PC designed for amateurs, instead of hobbyists and engineers. Many companies (and people) wrongly assumed Apple would fall flat. And then again, years later, Apple revolutionized the all-in-one PC with the iMac G3 in 1998.
Now here we are today, kicking and screaming over the removable of the headphone jack. But, really, are we surprised that Apple is making such a drastic change, perhaps once again revolutionizing the way we listen to our music?
And so I bring you the specs of the Apple AirPods, the first pair of truly wireless earbuds. And, might I add, they’re awesome.
They look almost exactly like the wired Apple EarPod, only without the wires. The bottoms of the headphones are silver and house embedded microphones. Built-in sensors detect whether or not they’re in your ears, so once you remove them the music automatically pauses. Place them back in your ears and the music resumes playing.
AirPods are equipped with accelerometers which detects when you’re speaking, and will actively filter out external noise and attempt to focus in on and transit the sound of your voice. The AirPods can support up to five hours of audio playback on one charge, and can be recharged in just 15 minutes flat.
You can stream music, ping Siri (double tap either AirPod to chat with her), or talk on the phone, sans wires. They’ll run you a whopping $159, but are pretty much on par with other wireless headphones (that actually work, that is). And did I mention how quickly and easily they pair with your new iPhone 7, as well as your other Apple devices? Piece of cake.