Kuo: AirPods With Wireless Charging Case Expected in Early 2019, All-New Model in Early 2020

[Phone Junky]

Try not to act like his usage is the norm

My battery life on mine remain no different from release day

Boy, you're pretty lucky. Here's mine after exactly 1 hour of listening to music. The left AirPod is the original from the end of December 2016. The right is a replacement from October 2017. To say the battery life doesn't degrade is pretty disingenuous considering the claim is up to 5 hours of music listening. As you can see, I can get almost 4 hours out of the right one and not even 2 out of the left one.

 

[darthbane2k]

Mine has degraded too. we will hear more stories of this from early adoptors

 

[NinjaHERO]

Improved sound quality? Better battery life? Color options?

New features, easy. But what design change can you make to it? New shape or size? Apple seems pretty committed to this shape. Sadly, you're probably right. They'll just offer different colors and call that a new design.

 

[inplainview]

Hi inplainview. Did you have the chance to try the B&O E8's? I'm curious about how they compare to the Sennheiser.
I own the E8's and previously the SE535. I purchased the bluetooth adapter for the former, but the quality was subpar, with lot of hiss, SBC codec only and a loud "low battery" voice warning. But I liked to be untethered so I made the jump.

Hi. The E8’s are very nice but I find the Sennheiser sound better, but that’s my opinion. I really love the Sennheiser’s. I sold my E8’s and never looked back. However, the E8’s simply kill the EarPods in sound quality. As I mentioned, the EarPods are for people that don’t know or care about good audiophile quality sound. The EarPods are a mass consumer product; is ok in itself. Get the Sennheiser, you’ll be happy you did.

 

[djeeyore25]

How long should the battery last in your opinion before it needs to be replaced? 5, 6 years? Don’t you realize you use and charge them multiple times a day, more than your watch and phone? Mine are a year old and I see no battery life difference.

I think the batteries should retain more than 25% of their battery capacity over two years, which is where mine are at now. I have a set of Sony wireless headphones that I've used almost every day for three years for workouts that still last over three hours per charge. Seeing how I only used my AirPods sparingly since I've had them (maybe charging the case once every 10 days or so), I wouldn't expect them to lose so much so fast. I've never had a tech product lose battery capacity like that.

My AirPods didn't lose much battery capacity until about a year and a half after I got them, but then they crashed. I could have a defective pair, though many other early adopters are reporting the same thing. Hopefully the batteries in the later batches are better.

 

[barmann]

Really wish they didn't leak sound as much as they do...

To be fair, most in-ear headphones leak like crazy .
Their usual range is about one full length of an NY subway car at full speed ...

And most of their owners deserve to be punched in the face , because they know it and still use them around people ...

 

[ksec]

How long should the battery last in your opinion before it needs to be replaced? 5, 6 years? Don’t you realize you use and charge them multiple times a day, more than your watch and phone? Mine are a year old and I see no battery life difference.

Maximum 2 years. Even though it was one of the best product Apple has recently released, a life time of 2 years isn't really Environmental friendly. And awfully expensive.

I do think the AirPods and Apple Watch is possibly the best product for Apple to test trial Solid Battery.

 

[XW61982]

Not going to buy unless they feature a more substantial and streamlined redesign.

View attachment 807954

Is it just me, or why is it that these things have to look so hideous?

By the way has anyone experienced these things falling off their ears? I don't want to go mountain biking and just lose $160!!

 

[dewski]

I am a little surprised that only 5% of iPhone users have them. Thought it might be higher but I guess considering all the older units that people just use as phones aren't really that into the device. I like my airpods but I still go for wired solutions when I am going to be sitting. They just don't reliably connect for me.

 

[scottmayer87]

AirPods are the best product apple's put out since the iPhone 5, in my opinion (I'm one of the few people who prefer a smaller iphone form factor). Yes the sound quality could be better, of course, but for what they are they are AMAZING. Perfect for a gym goer and runner who commutes on public transportation to work. Hoping for a new model sooner than later, and that Apple doesn't jack up the price just because. Although I'm not holding my breath on that last comment...
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Is it just me, or why is it that these things have to look so hideous?

By the way has anyone experienced these things falling off their ears? I don't want to go mountain biking and just lose $160!!

I've never had them fall out once, and I run a lot. They stay put.

 

[Wek]

I just want to be able to adjust the volume with a tab on the Airpod

 

[Analog Kid]

Yup, great. Meanwhile my headphones from a decade ago work fine

So does my two decade old landline phone... Not entirely sure what point you were trying to make, but if you’re suggesting that I’d be happier using your headphones than my AirPods then I assure you I wouldn’t.

I also have wired headphones available to me, and my Mac and iPad have headphone ports, yet I haven’t used anything but my AirPods for conference calls or movies for as long as I’ve had them. Except on planes, where I use larger wireless noise cancelling headphones.

For music, I might get better sound from a wire, but my AirPods are always in my pocket so, when the opportunity arises, good enough music is better than none.

 

[I7guy]

So does my two decade old landline phone... Not entirely sure what point you were trying to make, but if you’re suggesting that I’d be happier using your headphones than my AirPods then I assure you I wouldn’t.

I also have wired headphones available to me, and my Mac and iPad have headphone ports, yet I haven’t used anything but my AirPods for conference calls or movies for as long as I’ve had them. Except on planes, where I use larger wireless noise cancelling headphones.

For music, I might get better sound from a wire, but my AirPods are always in my pocket so, when the opportunity arises, good enough music is better than none.

Reminded me of hurricane sandy where didn't have power for two weeks. Only had POTS as house is in a dead zone. Without POTS we would have been cutoff from the world.

 

[skinned66]

I'm sure they'll be just as uncomfortable as the old ones and the EarPods before them.

 

[JNGold]

Boy, you're pretty lucky. Here's mine after exactly 1 hour of listening to music. The left AirPod is the original from the end of December 2016. The right is a replacement from October 2017. To say the battery life doesn't degrade is pretty disingenuous considering the claim is up to 5 hours of music listening. As you can see, I can get almost 4 hours out of the right one and not even 2 out of the left one.

View attachment 808110

I am in the same boat and the Airpods are now delegated to drawer duty. I purchased mine a month or two after release and I am lucky if I get a full one-way commute of 1hr. Forget about phone calls, lucky if I get 15 mins.

In lieu of the new airpods, I picked up a pair of “cheap” BT 5.0 buds, the Dudious Zeus for 50 bucks. They are really good and offer better sound isolation as they are in-ear, with full rap controls. They sound pretty good and BT 5.0 offers rock solid connections (even in the middle of MYC), and no noticeable BT lags when watching video.

I am sure I will be tempted to get the next gen Airpods, but like others on the thread, I hope they do either active noose cancellation or do something to improve the passive isolation by provide a better in-war seal. I consistently had to keep the iPhone at max volume just to get sound thet was at acceptable levels, especially when walking around NYC or commuting on trains.

 

[diego.caraballo]

Hi. The E8’s are very nice but I find the Sennheiser sound better, but that’s my opinion. I really love the Sennheiser’s. I sold my E8’s and never looked back. However, the E8’s simply kill the EarPods in sound quality. As I mentioned, the EarPods are for people that don’t know or care about good audiophile quality sound. The EarPods are a mass consumer product; is ok in itself. Get the Sennheiser, you’ll be happy you did.

Thank you very much for the recommendation.

 

[Analog Kid]

Reminded me of hurricane sandy where didn't have power for two weeks. Only had POTS as house is in a dead zone. Without POTS we would have been cutoff from the world.

Which is why I still have my two decade old landline. That's kind of my point-- the fact that the old tech still has value, and even some advantages, doesn't mean the new tech doesn't also.

Hard to know peoples intent because there's no tone of voice in a forum post, but it seemed to be a sarcastic response to my comment that AirPods were a great product. That seems like a narrow comparison between two different product categories.

 

[Wags]

This is a poor sighted assumption and would be a poor business practice by Apple. Do the AirPods really need to be updated annually? It’s an accessory to the iPhone. It’s a first Gen product, we have no idea what Apple has in store for the second Gen AirPods, which could be a reason why they might be taking longer to release, but I think it’s fairly evident the AirPods are a massive success, and a ‘release date’ will have not affect with the success of the AirPods either way.

Did Apple just release the MBA the best it could be? For the same cost?
Bad business practice? Should be, but that’s how they roll. Keep us on the hook for next year and the next big thing. Like, food always tastes better when your starving.

 

[2GoldFish]

Let’s wait to see the numbers. $89-$93B is impressive and the larger the numbers, the more meaningful even small % gains can be. It’s more like 6% growth if you consider they guided for $84-$87B and actually got $88B in fiscal Q12018. If we assume they beat their own guidance by the same % they beat last year, we are looking at $94.5B, which is 7.3% growth.

Let’s see the number the put up. If it’s only $89B, I’ll be slightly disappointed, although we are still talking $1B in revenue per day, lol.

The strategy is working. Hard to say a company making well over double the total profit of any other company is in need of a strategy change. They are innovating in areas like silicon, FaceID, Watch, and AirPods.

Innovation doesn’t mean a new product every year. It’s refinement, adding features, software, security, internals, and the whole Apple package.

If you believe that a significant reduction in year-over-year growth (from 12.6% to 3.1%) is 'impressive' and that the strategy is 'working', then that's good for you, because I can see you clearly aren't expecting much.

There is a huge distinction between 'Innovation' and 'refinement'.

Everything is relative.

 

[Ketsjap]

Blue, red, yellow, coral and black Airpods. They should've released those together with the iPhone XR. Same great colors.

They would have sold like hot cakes. For all their business instincts, they are also constantly leaving money on the table.

Would have loved a blue pair to complement my blue XR.

 

[VictorTango777]

Until the ear pods don't out from my ears, unfortunately this may never be an option for me. The ear bud needs to have an ability to sit smugly in the ear. No one size can fit all sizes and shapes of the ear canal.

Jony Ive had the AirPods molded to fit his own ears and said "screw everyone else". That is Ive's mission- impose his own personal preferences on everyone and everything.

 

[DiamonDecoden]

Boy, you're pretty lucky. Here's mine after exactly 1 hour of listening to music. The left AirPod is the original from the end of December 2016. The right is a replacement from October 2017. To say the battery life doesn't degrade is pretty disingenuous considering the claim is up to 5 hours of music listening. As you can see, I can get almost 4 hours out of the right one and not even 2 out of the left one.
View attachment 808110

did apple replace one for you? the left one on my airpods is so much lower volume than the Right side. I would like to replace the Left one.

 

[Phone Junky]

did apple replace one for you? the left one on my airpods is so much lower volume than the Right side. I would like to replace the Left one.

Yes, I had one that quit charging. Called CS and they sent me a new one under the 1 year warranty and I sent the defective one back to Apple.

 

[Baymowe335]

If you believe that a significant reduction in year-over-year growth (from 12.6% to 3.1%) is 'impressive' and that the strategy is 'working', then that's good for you, because I can see you clearly aren't expecting much.

There is a huge distinction between 'Innovation' and 'refinement'.

Everything is relative.

My thought is it will be more like 7% and you can't just look at a 90 day period. Apple's business is stronger than it was in FY2018.

 

[VictorTango777]

Just get an Apple Watch, or Use Siri lol

The thing with voice recognition is everyone acts like they are the only person in the room and never bothers to consider what happens when there are other people doing the same thing. Even in the various Star Trek series, they conveniently only show one person talking to the computer at a time. Why don't they ever show what happens when multiple people on the bridge are calling out "Computer..." and asking different things at the same time?

People who work in office environments should be familiar with that annoying coworker who feels the need to put all his phone conversations on speakerphone. What happens when everyone else in the room starts putting all their calls on speakerphone at the same time? Now let's add voice dictation to the mix so everyone in the room is dictating stuff to the computer and talking on speakerphone all at the same time.

It's also interesting when the people who make the most noise are the ones telling everyone else to "just put on headphones if you don't like the noise".