Apple Working on Wireless Earbuds With Custom Bluetooth Chip for Longer Battery Life

[stanman64]

Now this, if true, changes everything. I would be on board with wireless EarPods/headphones if Apple made a breakthrough in wireless headphone longevity. It would have to be a pretty impressive breakthrough though. It sounds like something they are moe than capable of, and if (again) they pull it off, it would be a huge selling point for the new model and perhaps all models IMO.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

Anything is better than a 3.5 jack.
Get rid of those damn things already. The sooner we get away from wired old technology the sooner improvements will come.
The past belongs in the past.

Deal with it. 3.5 jack is the most reliable of all. The biggest problem with BT is you have to continuously recharge the headphones or devices that sync wirelessly. With a 3.5 jack, you plug it in and play it. No need to sync. No need to recharge but the phone itself when the battery goes low.

Even BT headsets for making calls required recharging as well.

And get real. Analog has always ruled. In fact, by saying the past belongs in the past is a hypocritical statement because you're still using steering wheels while driving. That IS analog.

 

[nope7308]

I hope iPhone sales bomb and Tim Cook is volun-told to step down as CEO.

Between WWDC 2016 and the recent Gwyneth Paltrow nonsense, this really is the best we can hope for.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

Shocker!

These will come bundled with the next iPhone, a great selling point for the new device, and a turning point for the headphones market.

Doubt it. Observe that the article states in 'present' tense that they're working on them. It means they haven't finished figuring out how to improve on the new BT headphones and it won't make it for the September launch.

It's either version 2 they're doing OR iPhone 7 actually has a headphone jack ( probably on one of the models ). It's more likely going to be sold separately than bundled.
[doublepost=1470400783][/doublepost]

So many people here upset by this.
There is only one real thing people can do if they are unhappy with Apples decision to drop the jack from the iPhone7, and thats move onto another platform or not update.
Im sure iPhone 5s,SE,and the 4 variations of 6 will still work after the iphone7 is released.
Vote with your feet people.

If Apple was smart, they should bundle an adapter for those who can use the 3.5 jack to lightning. It's the right thing to do. If they don't, they could lose some customers to Android or other competitors who have the 3.5 jack on their products. I still rely on my Sennheisers and HATIS headset ( for the hearing aid in telecoil mode ) for 3.5 jack use.

Otherwise, I may look into side-grading to an iPhone 6s or s Plus, or another competitor.
[doublepost=1470400851][/doublepost]

I hope iPhone sales bomb and Tim Cook is volun-told to step down as CEO.

Between WWDC 2016 and the recent Gwyneth Paltrow nonsense, this really is the best we can hope for.

If that happens, he has to leave Apple. He cannot step down to return to his old position because he promoted Williams to COO.
[doublepost=1470401640][/doublepost]

I wish, but I have a feeling they'll just include an adapter with traditional headphones and these wireless earbuds will be sold separately.

But, if they solved all the BT issues with pairing, sound quality and audio drop outs, I'm definitely picking up a pair on day one along with the new iPhone.

This is the probably the most likely scenario. They HAVE to include the adapter or risk incurring the wrath of 3.5 jack users, or worse loss of customers to the competitors.

 

[jmgregory1]

Apple's first foray into BT headphones, with their almost forgotten initial black BT headset, was leaps and bounds ahead of anyone. Sure, it's battery didn't last long, but the biggest complaint I and other I knew who owned it, was that it was too small and easy to lose. Otherwise, it was by far the best looking and built headset - and nothing has come close to it since then.

If anyone should be able to improve on BT headsets, Apple should.

 

[doelcm82]

But even though Apple does this move, CD is still being sold in many places around the world. It does NOT disappear even after so many years. Means what? Apple is NOT the game changer, and CD is not entirely obsolete like floppy disks and cassettes.
Sure, it is inconvenient but the impact is smaller than taking away headphone jack.
Nonetheless, Apple is not god.

Apple won't kill the 3.5mm headphone jack by removing it from the iPhone. They will likely help kill the idea that a mobile phone is not complete without one, but they won't kill the standard.

 

[macguru212]

Fantastic. I just hope they actually fit inside a human ear, unlike their ear buds which completely and totally suck dwarf butt.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Just something else to charge

...and lose
...and easily damage because they are small
...and still not sync well with video
...and have mysterious software pairing issues at the most inopportune times
...and not be able to work with so much other tech where 3.5mm just plugs in now
...and not be as easy to share with a friend as easily as a 3.5mm splitter
etc.

Nevertheless, I think Bluetooth is fine for those that believe it covers their needs well. I'm against somewhat forcing the choice between proprietary (probably never work with ANYTHING else) Lightning vs. Bluetooth on everyone that would like to stick with iDevices as their mobile devices. 3.5mm doesn't have to go to embrace either of the other 2 options. If either were obviously better, let the masses make the transition in pursuit of superior quality, experiences, etc.

My opinion: perfect Bluetooth wireless first and THEN consider evolving away from a thoroughly ubiquitous, no-big-licensing fees standard that works perfectly fine. This thinking of having to kill 3.5mm so that stuff like Bluetooth can progress is just ridiculous. If some of us can actually believe that, why not apply the same thinking to everything else in the iPhone? Why not kill the (older than 3.5mm) battery (technology), (older than 3.5mm) camera, body, screen, buttons, etc so that everything else in an iPhone can progress to some "the future" destination? I know, I know, Apple is not ejecting that other stuff (yet), so the only "progress catalyst" that needs to be spun right now is the progress away from what Apple IS ejecting.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

it's not "for Timmy" whatever that's supposed to mean. it's how all business and in fact all of our economy works -- you want something nicer with more features, you pay extra. Apple is a publicly traded, for-profit corporation. not your buddy.
[doublepost=1470397838][/doublepost]
so do earrings -- can you replace those one at a time?

I didn't think my comment would get someone's panties in a bunch, but sure.

As far as I know, I corrected a guy who thought Apple would be giving away something for free rather than make a deep profit, which as a company they're supposed which I don't know why you're kinda just repeating to me.

 

[wozmatic]

This would be great if they worked without glitches.

Also, the good thing about cords is they don't fall out and hit the ground, usually one ear will stay in and save the other one from hitting the ground.

With wireless, these guys are gonna get beat up pretty quickly.

 

[Mac 128]

This would be great if they worked without glitches.

Also, the good thing about cords is they don't fall out and hit the ground, usually one ear will stay in and save the other one from hitting the ground.

With wireless, these guys are gonna get beat up pretty quickly.

I agree, there's a few obstacles to overcome, and it's hard to imagine one size fits all. Did you see HER? I kept waiting for his earpiece to fall out of his ear, and it never did.

I'd definitely be interested in trying to make them work for me though. In most cases an ear clip might be a better solution here. I have a pair of Sport BT earbuds with the connecting band. I'd love to lose that band, but even they tend to work their way out of my ears when I'm active, so thank goodness for that band. The best pair of earbuds I ever had, included the over the ear clip. They stayed in place regardless of what I did, but the cords were worse.

 

[MacBH928]

I hate the wires which knot together in my pocket but...

I will probably hate losing the 2nd ear piece even more

 

[Tech198]

Wires all the way..

I guess if we're all used to charging our smart-watches at night, u'd feel right at home charging bluetooth earbuds in a special case..

Give me the old fashion any-day. over replaceable batteries.

 

[mdwsta4]

I still love my Apple in-ear headphones although I've long since replaced their silicon tips with some dual flange tips from an old pair of Etymotic headphones. Love the idea of Bragi, but their battery life kills it for me. If it were double I'd be all in with a pair. Well that and they need to fix the connection issues since I'd prefer to leave my phone in my pocket.

If apple can come up with something like their current in-ear headphones and Bragi Dash, that would be awesome!

 

[truthertech]

So many people here upset by this.
There is only one real thing people can do if they are unhappy with Apples decision to drop the jack from the iPhone7, and thats move onto another platform or not update.
Im sure iPhone 5s,SE,and the 4 variations of 6 will still work after the iphone7 is released.
Vote with your feet people.

Yes, people will vote with their feet/dollars, and by the end of the Christmas season, somewhere around 70 million people, and by the end of the fiscal year, somewhere around 200 million people, will have "voted" for the iPhone 7 by buying it. Amazing, but it turns out that a company that has sold a BILLION of them critters has some idea what the public wants in a smart phone.
[doublepost=1470409379][/doublepost]

Yes, I think shipping with wireless AirPods is MUCH more likely than lightning connected EarPods..

Despite all our reservations..

In fact, I wonder if Apple have done some research into how many iPhone users only ever use the white EarPods that ship with the phone, and never any other headphones?
If that figure is 90+%, then perhaps they just don't care about our little minority that care about sound quality!

There will be very many options, as there are today, for anyone who wants better quality than comes with the included ear buds. Most people are also ignoring the improved sound quality that will come from the second speaker. Many folks often listen without headphones of any kind, and they will enjoy the improved sound from the iPhone 7

 

[macduke]

One possible way I could think of to save BT battery life is to send the whole song at once, store it on a chip in the headphone like a buffer (a 64MB buffer for each ear should be plenty), and then stream from that in the headphone itself. So instead of transferring the whole song slowly over a long duration and keeping the radio signal active, you transfer it all in one quick burst and turn the BT radio into low power mode during the song. When it gets close to the end of the song it could grab the next song and store it in the buffer, or if it receives a signal to change tracks it should wake up out of low-power state and retrieve the song. I just don't know if BT is fast enough to do that. Guess it depends on the duration, bitrate, and if they're going with BT 5.0. But I really have no understanding of how BT audio is transmitted and received, so I'm just speculating. Maybe they already use something like this in all BT headphones. Anyone know?

 

[gregoryalee]

The audiophile community is fine, they stopped using the 3.5mm long time ago.

Sorry no they did not... EVERY set of high end headphones comes with at least one 3.5mm plug (default) along with 1/4" and possibly a balanced cable. The headphone amps have corresponding plugs.
[doublepost=1470411458][/doublepost]

Nonetheless, Apple is not god.

Oh but it is to the zealots.

 

[igrover]

This problem/holdup with Bluetooth performance affects the Apple Watch as well. The chip in the watch is powerful enough to handle all that it is required to do it is the poor bluetooth performance that results in the lag between the watch and the phone. Sure Apple can improve the watch OS somewhat to make things snappier however as long as the poor quality Bluetooth protocol is involved then performance overall will lag.

I suspect this is the reason Apple joined the Bluetooth steering committee a few years ago as they saw the potential for Bluetooth in multiple devices but were disappointed in Bluetooth performance. Similar to how they decided to manufacture their own ARM chips for iOS devices Apple will probably branch off their own customized versions of Bluetooth chips in the near future.

 

[freepomme]

An iPhone without a headphone jack...

I mean it at least has to have a headphone jack—can they give us that?

 

[marty1980]

Business Person 1: Hey! I got an idea! Let's create a problem that people will need new products to solve.

Business Person 2: Wow! What a wonderful idea. Let's take away the most universal port and replace it with accessories that will be required to be bought, but also at a higher cost, plus they'll be limited in use (ex:battery) so customers will need multiple of the same accessory, some adapters for old hardware, and new accessories to make up for the downsides of what we are replacing it with.

CEO: You guys are genius.

 

[gregoryalee]

Business Person 1: Hey! I got an idea! Let's create a problem that people will need new products to solve.

Business Person 2: Wow! What a wonderful idea. Let's take away the most universal port and replace it with accessories that will be required to be bought, but also at a higher cost, plus they'll be limited in use (ex:battery) so customers will need multiple of the same accessory, some adapters for old hardware, and new accessories to make up for the downsides of what we are replacing it with.

CEO: You guys are genius.

Judging from the fanboy responses in here, they will clean up indeed.

 

[rp2011]

Most/all recording engineers check mixes on an iPhone or similar. It's a standard to to do so.

A mix can sound great in a studio environment due to how a studio is setup (acoustic treatment/sound proofing/speaker tonality)....but none of that matters if it sounds like crap on a car stereo/boom box/iPhone/etc since that's where most of the population listen to there music. If it sounds good in the studio AND on an iPhone (for example) it will most likely sound good anywhere. Ask any sound engineer.

As an example

http://therecordingrevolution.com/2013/01/18/the-4-step-listening-check-for-your-mix/

What does that have to do with anything?

 

[duffman9000]

Business Person 1: Hey! I got an idea! Let's create a problem that people will need new products to solve.

Business Person 2: Wow! What a wonderful idea. Let's take away the most universal port and replace it with accessories that will be required to be bought, but also at a higher cost, plus they'll be limited in use (ex:battery) so customers will need multiple of the same accessory, some adapters for old hardware, and new accessories to make up for the downsides of what we are replacing it with.

CEO: You guys are genius.

I'm waiting for a comedic video where Tim and Co tell us how great BT earpods sound. They would never say "we needed more battery space because we can't go backwards by making the phone thicker to make room for a larger battery".

I'm taking bets that Tim, or the poor fool that has to explain this new "feature", will say that Apple's BT earpods sound better than the outgoing wired version.

 

[midwestfisherma]

I don't want "NO" battery near my brain! I'll stick to wired.

So you're saying that you want a battery near your brain?


I hope these things are more comfortable than the current earbuds.

 

[simon lefisch]

There is Bluetooth, adopters, lightning...

You are correct about this.

BT isn't that great. I have yet to find a pair that I like.

Lightening adapters are crap so far. I mean come on, who wants of these sticking out from their iPhone?

Or one of these....

That's just bull***t. That part can easily break when in your pocket. Yes a headphone plug already sticks out, but if you have one of those adapters it just adds extra length.

Now having both a 3.5mm AND Lightening (at least for one or two revisions of the iPhone) is a different story. At least there's an option so people can make the transition smoothly and allow that technology to become more of a standard.