One way, pre-recorded beeper, more like it.
“technology is cyclical.”
Tbf this might be the most original thing apple has done.
There are tons of chinese brands that offer this type of headphones with display
I would agree, but yet again, this is something I’ve seen 4 other versions of before apple gets to it.
The items on display at the gas station counter don’t count.
Heh, yeah I’m talking about things I’ve seen on Amazon and stuff. Case with screen and data storage that can directly play to the headphones.
people are going to lose and break these and it will cost than so much
New air pods can’t be paired to them.
Awesome, can’t wait to hear my music softly from inside the box and be able to skip to the next song.
I have earbuds that don’t need to be charged and use a cable for easy connectivity and sound quality.
You know what’s easier than a cable? No cable.
I’ll give you sound quality, but the whole reason that wireless earbuds took off is the hassle of wires.
I finally went wireless a week ago. I realized their advantage when the cable on my headphones broke for a millionth time.
I don’t remember what did it for me, I switched a while ago. But, I do clearly remember one time when I had the kind of moulded earphones that go really deep in your ear, and I caught the cable on something, and they got yanked out of my ears. That was pretty painful.
And also no latency. Even expensive Bluetooth headphones and earbuds have crap latency. The systems that don’t are either proprietary and not widely supported (e.g. aptX) or expensive 'phones-and-dongle arrangements that must always travel in a pair and still don’t compete on latency with a pair of dollar store earbuds.
not widely supported (e.g. aptX)
I can find over 600 aptX capable headphones as well as over 850 phones, also any laptop I ever had supported it (Linux though, so probably not always “official” lol).
Low latency is a thing, you can get this as low as ~30-50ms either through aptX LL / Adaptive, whatever the manufacturer apps do or by manually meddling with the settings for SBC. Will get rather unstable though since you effectively get rid of the buffer. Really depends on your usecase what you prefer. Personally I love having ANC headphones that support bluetooth but also got a headphone jack in cases where I sit in trains, buses or planes for hours and want to play some games or listen to music with a DAC.
Almost always Bluetooth for me.
Might plug into the car to get higher quality audio. Will use a cable with a mic at home, but even then I might use AirPods for listening and only use the cable to speak into.
It stands to reason there can’t be that many audiophiles who could tell the difference between Bluetooth and aux while listening to their little Spotify playlists, but oh boy-
So many more people can tell when you’re speaking over spanking-new $200 AirPods versus the old dinky pair of stock EarPods from the bottom of the junk drawer. Cable reins supreme, no competition. (and with the best dictation software, simply whispering into the hardwired mic is sufficient for ~95(+)% accuracy)
If you’re listening to podcasts or music, latency doesn’t really matter.
Unless you’re using them for gaming or some other interactive medium, latency doesn’t really matter though. For music, latency is irrelevant and for video, your device will take care of syncing the audio and video playback so it’s a non issue. Audio quality is an entirely different matter of course.
Your video player “can” account for latency if you configure it correctly which I imagine the majority of people don’t do, and simply put up with it. Ditto with your music playback always lagging 1-2 seconds behind your control inputs. I have never used a media player on any platform that automatically figured out audio latency. Maybe the iDevices do if you pair them with Airpods, I don’t know; I don’t own anything Apple and I never will.
It also matters for music production, and makes life a lot more pleasant for audio/video editing. Plus, latency is just annoying in any setting.
Yes indeed, Apple’s had acceptable latency (e.g. for YouTube) since no later than 2017.
I’ve only thought about it when specifically wondering how they pulled it off (and I assumed the phone did something slightly fancy to add a delay on the visual side)
Glad you’ve never paid their tax in any case!
You know what’s easier than no cable? Not losing your ear buds
Haven’t been able to use ear buds outside of the house ever since they got rid of the jack
I’ve never lost one in at least a decade of using them. But, I don’t use the kind that just balance on the edge of your ear.
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Why are you so deep in your own bubble that you don’t believe that someone could simply prefer wireless? If that’s the case, you should get out more, meet more people, expand your horizons.
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You really think that’s a dunk? “Wireless” just means you plug it in when not in use. There’s nothing hard about plugging in a 3.5mm audio jack. I’ve never been sufficiently convinced to actually use wireless headphones. They seem like more of a hassle for a worse listing experience.
Wireless means you plug it in occasionally, maybe once a week.
If you don’t value the convenience of wireless headphones, that’s great for you. For a lot of people, the cable is a real pain in the ass. It gets tangled up when it’s off. It gets caught up on things when it’s on, etc.
Mm & also how about respecting the electronics and (maybe a little bit obsessive-compulsively) wrapping the entire cord up and zipping it into a case… every single time
(Skill or rather personal policy issue, ya, that one might be on me)
But don’t even have to put my head against the phone for a quick call when a single earbud is right in my pocket ready to be slipped out and stuck back in, blind ‘n’ fast
I guess if I listened to crappy music I wouldn’t care about the sound quality.
Ooh, BUUURN! BUUUUUUUUUURN!!!
Horrid quality and batteries are rarely replaceable. Pointless.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
For me personally, I got wireless earbuds because they removed all the damn phone jacks and I didn’t have a choice.
I feel like I’d forget to charge them. Or drop them in a public place and not want to put them in my ears because I’m a germaphobe. I know someone who dropped theirs in a toilet.
Yeah, it’s a risk. But, there’s also a risk of getting your wired earbuds cord caught on something. I’ve had that happen and it yanked the phone off the table and sent it crashing to the floor. I’ve also had the buds get yanked out of my ears multiple times.
If I lived somewhere where winters were mild, I might still use wired headphones. When you only have to worry about a t-shirt or something managing the cord isn’t too bad. But, when you have to manage a hat, scarf, coat, etc. there are just too many things to get in the way of the cord.
Then don’t get them lol
We’d love to, but manufacturers keep trying to force them down our throats. And when we express a different prererence or use case a bunch of trolls feel the need to pop out of the woodwork and tell us that no, we’re actually wrong and our use cases don’t actually exist.
How about you all don’t worry about what headphones other people are using?
I’m not? They’re listing all the reasons they don’t want them, so I’m saying the answer is easy. I personally prefer wire headphones, butI do have Bluetooth ones because they have their use case. I don’t understand why everyone’s so purist in the first place. They’re all tools, use what you need for the job
THATS WHAT I SAID IN THE PARENT POST LOLLLLLLLLLL11??!01
Just strange to me that you’re going on about it but not a big deal
The reason wireless earbuds took off is that phones with headphone jacks stopped getting made.
Consumers didn’t prefer wireless earbuds. They preferred thinner and more water-resistant phones.Lol, people downvoting you like they weren’t manipulated into spending 10x as much for a product that can’t be repaired, all in the name of profit.
The lost technology of the ancients is most glorious.
Both have their pros and cons. I miss my Westone 1 IEMs that I had back in college. My buddy’s dog chewed them up. They were comfortable and super light, had great sound quality, a cord that wasn’t obnoxious. Not having a cord is great though too especially when I’m working. Multipoint connection is great too. I can be listening to stuff on my phone with it in my pocket, no cable getting in the way, and when I get a call on Teams, my Pixel Buds just switch over to the computer.
My earbuds are connected to a bt receiver that functions as a (not great, but okay) dac via usb too. Pro is that I can use the receiver with all my headphones, con is that it looks like an iPod shuffle gen 3
That’s neat
Just an excuse to charge more for them. Cant think of any useful reason to have a screen on the case when you have your phone with you.
if apple managed to create a custom audio transfer standard that supports significantly longer buffering (minutes to hours perhaps) I could see this gimmick being useful, I doubt they would though
It’s an excuse to keep your product in the news/review cycle. You can’t just create a useful product and leave it at that. You have to constantly change shit so people are constantly talking about it. Why do you think iPhone keep switching between rounded and square edges? It’s not because one style is better then the other. It’s so reviewers have something to talk about. It’s why commercial OSes keep getting features no one asked for. It’s why car and truck bodies keep changing even though body lines have no effect on driveability.
Highlighting the importance of individualism even in communitarian beliefs.
You must have your taste so that you know what you need and want genuinely. Rather than new emotions being better. This is important to acknowledge as there will always be thoughts of neighbor has it better due to just differences.
You’d have a point, except in the case of Operating Systems, one of the reasons I bailed on Mac was the reduction in customization of the desktop. They kept removing the colors in favor of a safe for business grayscale.
In the case of trucks, I’d rather have the same grill be used for 20 years so I can cheaply get a replacement from the junkyard if I need one. I’m so frustrated by the commercial options, I’m building a light duty 80’s C10 for my daily. Easy to work on, easy to fix, parts are cheap.
Sounds like a positive move because of your individual choice as an end user. Now you’re not locked to the apple ecosystem.
oh, I was never locked in the apple ecosystem. I genuinely liked the OS for a very long time, but avoided owning music on iTunes, using their office suite or owning any iOS device. I was already using linux full time on an ebay Macbook Pro while my desktop was a hackintosh. Dropping support for 32bit apps was the final straw.
Um…just yesterday Ive seen JBL tour pro 3 (sth like that).
I just see another device to run Doom
You can on Apple’s lightning to HDMI adapter:
https://hackaday.com/2025/02/06/running-doom-on-an-apple-lightning-to-hdmi-adapter/
But will it be better than pregnancy test doom or the doom-like game entirely embedded in a QR code ?
I mean the latter is just minified JavaScript, compressed and base64 encoded. The hardware is the browser, which is cheating IMO
The former is also kinda cheating because Doom was actually running on an external controller just using the display on the pregnancy test to display the game.
They can’t fix their music app on the iphone. With every version this crap runs worse.
I mean, this wouldn’t be all that stupid imo. Add some Apple watch functionality like fitness detection and easy syncing between phone and iPod Nano Buds, this would be a solid addition to a runner’s arsenal leaving no need to carry your $1000 phone on a run. Suppose you could use your watch for that and leave the case at home though. But more options aren’t a bad thing, not everyone has or wants a watch.
leaving no need to carry your $1000 phone on a run.
my brother in christ it’s called an MP3 player.
Yeah, precisely. That’s what this would be, built into your headphone case. You never have one without the other.
right, then what if you could sync any bluetooth headphones to the case? mind blown
edit : or if it had a 3.5mm jack, so you could use wired headphones too? amazing. in fact, what if it also took AA batteries for emergencies?
You are right, but I also think you missed the point of the post. This is basically an iPod nano from 2005 with a few extra features.
Also a few less features given I’m guessing it can’t store its own music and needs to be paired with the phone.
Apple patents all sorts of weird shit. 99% of it never gets made. They just want the money from patent litigation and licensing.
There’s already an earphone with a display on the case like jbl, Tru wireless…Now if there was storage for music on them that would be nice.
It’s fake lol
The rendering is, but the patent isn’t.
Ya the fan art product shot is what I meant lol. Thanks for linking the actual patent (which I feel does have legs) was super annoyed OP linked that thing rather than the actual sketch 👊
Yeah, people always mock up these Apple patents. It’s practically guaranteed to happen when Apple files anything interesting or weird. Someone will model what they think the final product looks like.
can they even patent that? its already a thing that made it to production on at least one brand that sells in north america and another two or more in china
I think JBL did it and they’re a well established brand
It’s fake bro lol
To an extent it is. Apple is or has started the patent for this. The image is just rendered for a visual representation of what they are doing, and for us to see they are reinventing old tech.
Ya sorry that’s what I meant lol. Like that’s not a real product Apple made it’s some fanart nonesense. Someone else linked the proper patent on my other reply which does have legs because it’s essentially an iPod with a pairable headset. Which means you could just play tunes off the case like the Apple Watch. Since you kind of always need the case, it makes sense.
I’m guessing Cook is worried about cannibalism with the precious iPhone, and likely watch. The price point would also be an issue, I can’t see AirPod Pros jumping to $700!
No worries! I figured you did, but I wanted to add extra context for anyone as slow as me lmao!
It maaaaakkkeees sense, but i’ll never go back to ios anything lol! I gave it a try for a few years, even went SUPER deep into the ecosystem. Leaving was a pain, but im glad I did.
I was gonna say, pretty sure I’ve seen something like this on Amazon already, except from some weird Chinese company.
Chinese != Weird
can they even patent that?
What “that”? They can patent a specific technical solution that is unique to their product, not the idea per se.
Not counting it as an iPod Nano if that one tunnel Breakout like game isn’t on it.
<in heavy Australian dankpods accent> nano
There’s not gonna be any storage on it, though at that point there could be.
I think the purpose of it would be to control the device the headphones are connected to, rather than be the source of the media
so its basically an over-engineered version of this thing
But you see, that one has wires. We aren’t supposed to like wires.
But… My earpieces already have 2 touch zones and multiple press combinations.
Right, so it’s not really an iPod Nano.
I tried a pair of earbuds with the same idea from AliExpress. They had the regular controls, but also worked as e.g. a camera remote. Very cool if it had done anything it was supposed to do consistently, but unfortunately it was not well-implemented. If the AirPods Pro 3 (which I was already strongly considering) have a case with a screen that isn’t much larger than the Pro 2 case, I’ll probably buy that model.
Don’t the headphones already do that?
My guess would be that you could control things like playlist, shuffle, etc. Like a smartwatch interface but only for music.