If you’ve been keeping up with tech news or memes on social media, chances are that you know what AirPods are. In case you don’t here’s a brief overview. Apple released its first generation wireless earphones called the AirPods in 2016 along with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
With having removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from their devices, it was deemed a strategic move for Apple to come up with the AirPods. They featured a truly “wireless” design with just the earpieces that stuck to your ear, much like an old-school Bluetooth hands-free.
The AirPods had to be bought separately online or through Apple stores where they retailed for over $150. This, obviously, led to controversy as people called this typical Apple Marketing of creating a problem and selling a solution. The problem being the removal of the headphone jack. And the solution being the sale of wireless headsets separately at a high price.
However, things weren’t all that bad as the AirPods did come with some unique features and did sell well. The features included a fully customizable double tap feature, viewing the remaining charge of individual earbud in the battery widget and on the Apple Watch. Other than that, unlike any other Apple device that came before, the AirPods also had the ability to connect to any other Bluetooth device and not just iPhones.
The release of the second generation of AirPods is just around the corner. Although the released date isn’t confirmed yet, we do know is that it’s somewhere during the first half of 2019. While there is no clue as to how they will look, these have been some rumours regarding the new features.
They include summoning Siri through “Hey Siri” rather than tapping one of the earbuds like in the previous AirPods. Other than that they are also rumoured of having a noise-cancellation feature. Though many experts claim it won’t be the same as active noise-cancellation found in Bose and Sony products.
Lastly, rumours have it that AirPods 2 (Or whatever they’ll be called) will have health-tracking features. They may include heart-rate sensors, calorie tracking and even water-resistance. The calorie-tracking feature might also work without the need of having an Apple Watch. Same could be said for the heart-rate monitoring.
However, some speculations state that the waterproofing might just be limited to sweat-resistance. Which is not bad at all, considering the fact that the current AirPods don’t have either.