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Apple Reportedly Acquires Bluetooth Headphone Company Wi-Gear

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,481
30,716



092311-wi-gear_imuffs.jpg


9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple appears to have acquired Wi-Gear, a small San Francisco-based company that offered highly-touted Bluetooth headphones for the iPhone and iPod known as iMuffs.
Apple plans to build its own stereo Bluetooth headphones for future iOS devices and MacBooks with technology and expertise from Wi-Gear. As you'll recall, Apple didn't have a great amount of success with its own Bluetooth headset and instead of building in-house for their new product, decided to pick up the small Wi-Gear outfit.
Click to expand...
Wi-Gear offered its iMuffs headphones as a standalone product offering basic integrated music controls, as well as a dock connector adapter to provide full control via Bluetooth and compatibility for iPhones and iPods without built-in Bluetooth support.

In support of the acquisition claim, the report notes that the company's co-founder now lists his occupation as "iOS Bluetooth Engineer at Apple Inc." on his LinkedIn profile.


092311-wi-gear_closed.jpg




Article Link: Apple Reportedly Acquires Bluetooth Headphone Company Wi-Gear
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/09/apple-reportedly-acquires-bluetooth-headphone-company-wi-gear/
L

levitynyc

macrumors 65816
Aug 19, 2006
1,123
3,704
4 years ago, I wondered why headphones still needed wires, and i still do today.

Looks like we will finally be seeing good wireless headphones
 
CyberBob859

CyberBob859

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2007
584
442
Great. Maybe now we can get some decent integration with in-car bluetooth systems as well.
 
Serelus

Serelus

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2009
673
132
Vm9pZA
Lol'd at the dongle, Apple produces iPod nano's that size. Surely they are doing something wrong here.
 
N

nep61

macrumors 6502
May 17, 2007
318
2
rwilliams said:
I sure hope Apple does away with that dongle and the awful controls on the outside of those headphones. Yikes.
Click to expand...

Agreed... leave it to Apple to scale down the hardware... I'm sure you'll see a smaller version soon enough.
 
iDisk

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
Old news

To correct the Article. Apple has already started developing prototypes for this and the "iMuffs" should be ready Summer 2011 or Fall 2011.

The company was acquired 3 to 4 months ago.

Bruce
 
pvmacguy

pvmacguy

macrumors 65816
Sep 2, 2009
1,114
29
Jax
Lol at the name... Muffs.. :D

On a serious note, who actually likes designs of headphones like that? I think those went out of style un like 2000. And that dongle....
 
rwilliams

rwilliams

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2009
3,744
1,010
Raleigh, NC
pvmacguy said:
Lol at the name... Muffs.. :D

On a serious note, who actually likes designs of headphones like that? I think those went out of style un like 2000. And that dongle....
Click to expand...

I don't mind them. I have a pair of Motorola MotoROKR S305 headphones like that and they're comfortable and work great. I'm no audiophile so as long as they fit well and produce sound that I'm okay with, I'm happy.
 
M

mab920

macrumors newbie
Jan 19, 2010
11
0
that dongle is not needed for new iphone. It adds stereo bluetooth to old iphone, as well as ipods
 
shartypants

shartypants

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2010
922
60
good sign maybe

I keep hoping Apple will get into the car navigation/entertainment business, I'd love to have an iOS device as my car computer/navigation system built right into the car.
 
chim9999

chim9999

macrumors regular
Jun 28, 2007
144
0
i've avoided bluetooth. i really should get something for the car though.
 
B

baleensavage

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2005
622
0
On an island in Maine
Maybe we can finally get wireless syncing of iPods too? My camera can sync wirelessly, my phone can too, so why can't my iPod? The new iPod touches have bluetooth built-in, yet Apple still won't enable syncing wirelessly. Or for that matter, why not just use wi-fi for syncing like an Eye-Fi card? I just have to turn my camera on anywhere in my house and it automatically puts the photos directly in iPhoto.
 
A

afd

macrumors 65816
Apr 12, 2005
1,134
389
Scotland
I'm sure there is a joke there somewhere with iPad and iMuff, but I'm not going there. . .
 
M

M87

macrumors 65816
Jul 18, 2009
1,259
290
I can only see myself using my iPad with my iMuff about a week each month.
 
S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
I just got Rocketfish's bluetooth headset and couldn't be happier. Great headphones, great battery life and didn't know before I bought that it also had a microphone build in which works great. Bluetooth headsets were definitely (for me) a great "investment."
 
B

bergmef

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2005
797
87
North East, MD, USA
Seeing this made me wonder, how well does the iPhone work with a car stereo and integrated bluetooth. I still have to wait for a verizon version, but I love my radio with bluetooth built in (ipod cable too of course).
 
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