Apple trådløse hovedtelefoner

iPhone Bluetooth headset

The iPhone Bluetooth Headset was introduced in 2007 priced at $129 and later reduced to $99. It was discontinued in 2009. It was designed for phone calls only and could not be used for listening to music. The integration included showing an icon for the headset and its battery level. It was bundled with a “Travel Cable” that charged it and a 30-pin iPhone simultaneously, and a docking station called the iPhone Dual Dock that could charge it and an original iPhone was also available.

iPhone Bluetooth headset

AirPods

Main article: AirPods

Apple AirPods og etui

Apple AirPods og etui
AirPods were announced alongside the iPhone 7 and were released on December 16, 2016. They are wireless earbud-style headphones with microphones, dual accelerometers, IR sensors used to pause music if they are not in the user’s ears, and motion touch sensors that are used to activate controls. They are advertised as having a battery life of five hours, and come with a charging case that gives them a total of 24 hours of battery life. The original case is charged by Lightning, and in 2019 a second case was introduced with Qi charging. AirPods are compatible with iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, the 6th generation iPod Touch, and the 7th generation iPod Nano, but automatic pairing with an iCloud account requires macOS Sierra, iOS 10, og watchOS. They are also compatible with devices on other platforms that support Bluetooth, but it limits the AirPods’ functionality.

Den september 9, 2024, following the announcement of the fourth-generation AirPods, an all-new advanced hearing aid features for AirPods Pro 2 and the updated AirPods Max with USB-C port, all the devices of the AirPods product line have been transitioned from the proprietary Lightning port to the universal USB-C port, making both the second-generation AirPods, third-generation AirPods and the original AirPods Max with Lightning port discontinued.

AirPods Pro

Main article: AirPods Pro
AirPods Pro were released on October 30, 2019 as a premium option compared to AirPods. They feature the same H1 chip found on the second-generation AirPods, and boast a slimmer design, control by pressing the force sensor on the stems instead of double tapping on the ear pieces, active noise cancellation, adaptive EQ, IPX4 vandtæt, a new charging case with Qi standard, and include silicone tips.

Den september 23, 2022, the AirPods Pro 2 was released. They feature the H2 chip, added swiping control for adjusting the volume, major improvement on the active noise cancellation, an increased battery life, the U1 chip that supports Find My tracking, built-in speaker for locating and status updates, added compatibility with the Apple Watch charger (in addition to the Qi standard wireless charging and wired Lightning connector charging), lanyard loop added to the side of the charging case and added extra-small silicone tip size (in addition to large, medium and small silicon tip sizes).

Den september 22, 2023, alongside the launch of the iPhone 15 models and iPhone 15 Pro models, the updated AirPods Pro 2 features the improved IP54 dust resistance, added the support for lossless audio with the Apple Vision Pro, and a charging case with USB-C port instead of a Lightning port.

Den september 9, 2024, following the announcement of the fourth-generation AirPods and the updated AirPods Max with USB-C port, Apple announced the all-new advanced hearing health features for the AirPods Pro 2.

AirPods Max

Main article: AirPods Max
AirPods Max, released on December 15, 2020, are wireless Bluetooth over-ear headphones. They feature two H1 chips, active noise cancellation and transparency mode, a Digital Crown and on-head detection.

Den september 9, 2024, the updated AirPods Max have been transitioned from the proprietary Lightning port to the universal USB-C port.

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Kulturel påvirkning

På annonceringsdagen, AirPods blev sammenlignet med Apples tidligere eksisterende EarPods (2012-nuværende), med The Verge noteret “De ser ud… ligesom de gamle EarPods, med ledningerne afskåret.” I første omgang hånet af mange for deres ukendte design (herunder spørger CNN “Ville folk rent faktisk bære disse?” i 2016), deres popularitet voksede hurtigt gennem årene, og de blev kåret som de mest populære “høres” mærke af 2019.

Ved en Apple-indtjening ring ind 2019, CEO Tim Cook ringede til AirPods “intet mindre end et kulturelt fænomen”. AirPods var blevet en viral sensation med memes, der cirkulerede over internettet om dets udseende og dets forhold til fjernelse af hovedtelefonstikket i iPhones. Imidlertid, som tiden gik, AirPods blev kendt som et statussymbol.

Kritik

AirPods er blevet kritiseret for deres høje pris; imidlertid, ved lanceringen var de faktisk billigere end de fleste “ægte trådløs” øretelefoner på markedet (f.eks. Samsung Gear IconX og Bragi Dash) og forblive konkurrencedygtige priser med lignende produkter fra andre store mærker.

Da AirPods nemt kan bæres i lange perioder, AirPods har også haft en effekt på, hvordan folk interagerer med hinanden. At have høretelefoner i opfattes generelt som en “forstyr ikke” signal, og nogle AirPods-brugere bruger dette faktum til strategisk at undgå akavet småsnak. Men på den kollaborative arbejdsplads, konstant brug af AirPods er nogle gange blevet fortolket som et tegn på manglende respekt for kolleger, skabe konflikt på kontoret.

En anden fremtrædende kritik var et problem, der fik ladekassens batteri til at tømmes med en hurtig hastighed på trods af, at AirPods ikke blev brugt. Brugerne rapporterede op til 30% tomgangsafladning pr. dag. Som svar, Apple udgav en firmwareopdatering (version 3.5.1) til AirPods, som løste problemer med tilslutning og batteridræning. Studerende og universitetsprofessorer fra George Washington University har kommenteret, at AirPods har reduceret antallet af studerende’ daglige sociale interaktioner.

Ifølge Financial Times, AirPods er svære, hvis ikke umulige, at genbruge, og ikke designet til at kunne repareres.

Erstatning for høreapparater

I 2022, forskere ved Taipei Veterans General Hospital i Taiwan sammenlignede AirPods' ydeevne 2 og den originale AirPods Pro ved hjælp af Live Listen på en iPhone eller iPad for at sammenligne med medicinske høreapparater. Oticon Opn 1 var den avancerede sammenligning, med Bernafon MD1 som det mere overkommelige alternativ. Systemernes ydeevne hjalp i det mindste deltagerne med Pro (inklusive støjreducerende funktioner) være bedre og tilnærme høreapparaterne.

Konkurrence

Nogle forbrugere udtrykte det synspunkt, at der var bedre muligheder for trådløse høretelefoner baseret på kvalitet og pris. En af Apples største konkurrenter er Samsung, som markedsfører trådløse øretelefoner, der minder meget om AirPods. En anden lignende produktlinje er fra Apples Beats Electronics, som sælger produkter som Powerbeats Pro trådløse øretelefoner.