Asked by CNBC to share some thoughts in terms of AirPods, Apple's boss Tim Cook responded by calling his company's first Bluetooth earphones “a runaway success”. The CEO visited the floor of the New York Stock Exchange earlier this morning while on vacation.
“We're making them just as fast as we can,” Cook responded when asked about the lack of available stock. Cook also shared a few tidbits regarding Apple's holiday sales in a quick interview with CNBC.
An unknown portion of early AirPods adopters are faced with battery drain issues with the charging case, which was designed to extend AirPods' advertised five-hour run time to up to 24 hours while on the go.
According to a thread on Reddit, one customer's charging case went from a full 100 percent charge to just fifty percent after leaving his AirPods in the case overnight. “The other two days I used about five hours and the case was already down to thirty percent,” one poster wrote.
As first noted by AppleInsider, Apple yesterday began offering the in-store pickup option for its newly launched AirPods wireless earphones. Apple.com online store in the United States indicated at post time that first AirPods ordered with the in-store pickup option would be available on February 8.
If you choose to have AirPods shipped to your home, they're estimated to arrive in six weeks.
Having torn apart Apple's AirPods wireless earphones and their charging case, repair masters over at iFixit have now posted their initial observations. AirPods have so many components crammed into tight space that the they're virtually not repairable or recyclable. As for the charging case, an X-ray analysis of its logic board reveals a few “quality issues” that may have contributed to the delayed AirPods launch.
While Apple's online store this morning began accepting orders for $159 AirPods ahead of their Christmas delivery, another pair of earphones from Apple that use W1 chip just got delayed.
Announced at the iPhone 7 event in September and originally listed as arriving in late-2016, Beats X Wireless Earphones won't be available before February 2017, according to Apple's online store.
Following an unexpected delay over manufacturing issues, AirPods are now finally available to purchase from Apple's online store, with delivery before Christmas. Apple's first Bluetooth earphones, AirPods feature an in-house designed wireless chip, dubbed W1, which provides reliable wireless connection, extended battery life and a few smart features, such as one-tap Siri integration, seamless zero-configuration pairing via iCloud, the ability for AirPods to automatically turn on when you put them in your ear and more. When used with non-Apple devices, the $159 earphones act as any standard Bluetooth device.
An authorized Apple retailer claimed today that the upcoming W1-equipped BeatsX earphones may not release in another 2-3 months. But what about AirPods? Daring Fireball's John Gruber said loosely on the latest episode of The Talk Show that AirPods, the company's first Bluetooth earphones, may arrive in time for Christmas after all, albeit in very limited quantities. You're advised to take this speculative report with a grain of salt because the sources Gruber's learned this from are not very reliable, according to the man himself.
It's not just AirPods—according to an alleged email Apple sent to an authorized reseller, the new $149.95 BeatsX earphones rocking an in-house designed Apple W1 wireless chip may not start shipping for at least 2-3 months. As reported on by MacRumors, authorized reseller B&H Photo Video told a customer Apple's informed them that the new earphones will miss the company's self-proclaimed fall 2016 launch and are unlikely to start shipping before February or March 2017.
Apple’s mysterious AirPods delay continues to puzzle us. Marking a rare public misstep, the company's failed to make its first-ever Bluetooth earphones available in time for the critical holiday season because, as Apple said, it needed “a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers.”
A person familiar with the product's development told the Wall Street Journal on Friday that the problem with the AirPods stems from Apple's efforts to “chart a new path for wireless headphones” and, specifically, resolve what happens when you lose one of the earphones or its battery dies on you.