Report reiterates that Apple is working on Bragi Dash-like fully wireless EarPods

Bragi Dash image 002

There’s been a lot of debate lately among Apple watchers as to whether or not the next iPhone, which the rumor-mill thinks will ditch the 3.5mm audio jack and rely on Bluetooth and Lightning headsets, will ship with a wireless version of the EarPods headphones or one of Beats’ wireless headphones.

9to5Mac is now reiterating prior reports, saying Apple is indeed working on its own fully wireless EarPods that should resemble the Bragi Dash.

“That Apple would offer its own wireless EarPods to coincide with the launch of an iPhone with no headphone socket is again a logical expectation, and the fully-wireless approach pioneered by Bragi would seem an Apple-like approach,” reads the story.

Bragi Dash image 003

The Japanese blog Macotakara was first to report in January 2015 on Apple’s alleged plans to bundle the iPhone 7 with a wireless EarPods. Fast Company said the following day that an Apple supplier had been working on a noise-canceling technology to be used both in the iPhone 7 and the new earphones to help remove background noise in music playback and in phone calls.

9to5Mac followed up three days later with claims of a next-generation EarPods that would fit inside of a user’s ear and would include a handy charging case. That report framed the future EarPods as “a premium alternative” to a Lightning-enabled version of the EarPods that the site claimed was also in the works.

The in-house designed hardware, went 9to5Mac’s January 2016 story, would be similar in concept to the Motorola Hint headset and Bragi’s Dash in-ear headphones and include an integrated noise-cancelling microphone system.

In February 2016, Barclays issued an analyst note saying Apple had not obtained a license from its supplier Cirrus Logic that would enable it to use Cirrus’ active noise-canceling software. As a result, wrote Barclays, the next iPhone would ship with a Lightning-enabled wired edition of the EarPods.

Apple patent magnetically detachable earbuds for iPhone drawing 002

Curiously, Apple now owns a patent for magnetically detachable iPhone earbuds that could work in both wired and wireless mode.

The proposed device would use two cables, one to connect the headphones together in wireless mode (like the connecting cable found on the Beats Solo2 wireless headphones) and the other to connect the headphones to a host device in wired mode.

Photos above: Bragi Dash in-ear headphones

Source: 9to5Mac