Apple changed the game when it came to wireless earbuds when they released the AirPods. I was skeptical at first myself, but it only took a few hours of using them and I was hooked. With their big-time popularity, it only makes sense that a robust accessory ecosystem would grow up around them, and so it has.
I thought that my wife would love the new Powerbeats Pro wireless earbuds from Apple, but there is no way to be sure about these things. I’ve been wrong before in guessing my wife’s tastes. Even after almost 22 years of marriage, I still don’t have all the answers and I’m sure any husband can relate to that. She can be on the picky side about certain things and it just happens that things she puts on or in her ears are among them.
I would say MY Powerbeats Pro arrived, but they aren’t actually mine. I am taking a look at them so I can write a little about them, but they will belong to my wife very soon. Wednesday was her birthday, so these are her Combo bday/Mother’s Day gift. She was kind enough to let me test drive before she takes them so I won’t get in the way of her listening pleasure once I hand them over.
Many Apple fans are enjoying sitting back and watching Samsung squirm their way through a disastrous product launch…again. You can’t excuse the sloppiness of the Galaxy Fold and how rushed it was in the race to be first to market. An attempt to be innovative isn’t enough to cover up the hardware failures and suspect design.
All that said, while it is easy to make fun of “the enemy” when they fail, that really doesn’t accomplish anything productive. No more so than when fans of Samsung’s products throw stones at Apple for playing it safe or for iterating on or polishing up existing features. In truth, there is good and bad to both company’s approaches.
Apple’s AirPods may currently be the most popular wireless earbuds money can buy, but they aren’t for everyone. My wife is a perfect example, as they just don’t fit properly in her ears. Apple’s buds never have, so they’ve never been a good choice for her. As handy and versatile as AirPods are for someone like me, it doesn’t really matter if they don’t fit well.
After seven months without a pair, I guess I forgot just how much I enjoy using Apple’s AirPods. That enjoyment, in turn, feeds into how much I use them. The convenience factor and solid battery life make extended use pretty much inevitable, and that has definitely been the case over the last week.
I was out of town most of this week for a work conference, but I got back late last night to brand new Apple goodies. New AirPods, a new iPad Air and new iPad Mini had all arrived over the previous two days and were waiting for me when I got home.
Are you sick of waiting on an Apple solution to wireless charging? If so, you definitely aren’t alone. Now that we finally have a way to wirelessly charge our AirPods, the absence of the AirPower seems even crazier. However, if you are tired of waiting and want to save some money, you can get a 3-in-1 charging pad that will take care of your later-model iPhones, Apple Watch and now your new AirPods.
If you haven’t read one of the MANY times I have written about this over the last few months, I managed to lose my original AirPods last August. I used them to listen to music every night as I went to sleep so I could charge my iPhone overnight. They would inevitably fall out before morning, but I got in the habit of tracking them down as soon as I woke up.
Everyone thinks Apple is getting ready to release two new iPads, new AirPods and possibly a new iPod Touch and their long-delayed AirPower charging pad. Now we have a report backing that up. According to Digitimes, Apple suppliers are gearing up for mass production as we speak.
Apple usually gives us some hints as to what’s coming on their event invites, pointing the way to what’s right around the corner. Sometimes they are very subtle hints that spark interesting theories and discussion. This time around, not so much.