Apple debuts its rather awkwardly looking wireless earphones, christened ‘AirPods’

Apple yesterday took center stage to unveil the much-awaited iPhone 7 lineup, and break million of hearts with the removal of the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Now you’re old phones(or specifically iPhones) are pure garbage. But embracing the whole ‘no headphone jack’ phenomenon has led Apple to innovative its audio earpods and have them take the wireless route.

The end result — ‘AirPods’ — a smart and advanced new wireless audio experience for your iPhone. These pair of earphones are just like your previous earpods, but wireless(go figure!). If you were watching the keynote presentation live, you’d know what a beautiful and useful reinvention these wireless AirPods are. It not only changes the whole music listening experience, but also how we make phone calls, play games or watch TV, while interacting with Siri at just a tap on the earbud.

AirPods are the first headphones to deliver a breakthrough wireless audio experience, and with the new Apple W1 chip they deliver innovative features including high quality sound, great battery life and automatic setup,

said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of Marketing during the keynote.

The AirPods eliminate any hassles and can be connected to any Apple device with just one tap. You just need to flip open the lid of the AirPod charging case(yeah, it has one) and an option to connect to them will show up on your device. Now click ‘Connect’ to instantly set up the earphones to work with your iPhone and Apple Watch simultaneously. You now don’t even need to connect to multiple devices, it does the same on its own.

This experience has been made possible due to a new Apple wireless chip called W1, which handles the audio and wireless connections. The W1 chip is paired with a set of dual optical sensors and accelerometers in each AirPod. These sensors work with the chip to detect when the AirPods are in your ear, so it can play music when you’re ready to listen. Also, removing the AirPods(even one) from your ears simply pauses the music.

You can now also bring up your personal assistant Siri with just a double tap to your AirPod, to select and control your music, change the volume, check your battery life or perform any other task. The accelerometers in each AirPod detects your jaw-motion while you’re speaking, enabling a pair of beam-forming microphones to focus on the sound of your voice. This will also acts as noise cancellation to filter out the external noise of your surroundings.

The new W1 chip has been designed to use ultra-low power and operate at about one-third of the power of traditional wireless chips. This coupled with the custome-designed charging case for the AirPods provides you with upto 24 hours of uninterrupted music playback. The AirPods alone will provide you with 5 hours of listening time on one charge.

While all this sounds wonderful and unbelievable, you can only experience the magic of AirPods on Apple devices running iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and WatchOS 3. The new AirPods, alongwith the charging case, will be available for sale by the end of October at $159. So, now you know that you won’t get the new wireless earpods free when you purchase your next iPhone.