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Apple Is Reportedly Making Its Own High-End Noise-Cancelling Headphones (bloomberg.com)
Apple is planning to push into the high-end audio market with the launch of noise-cancelling, over-ear headphones. The cans are expected to launch at the end of this year and will rival headsets from market leaders like Bose and even the company's own Beats by Dre brand. Bloomberg reports: Work on the Apple headset has been on-and-off over the past year. The company encountered similar problems with the HomePod during its development, including multiple redesigns, according to the people. It's possible Apple will redesign the headphones again before launch, or scrap the project altogether, they warned, asking not to be identified discussing private development work.
That will be nice. I know I will be getting one! Hopefully they will be white.
Where to buy headphones to cancel Apple marketing noise?
I wonder if they will only be usable to listen to music from other apple devices - or somehow enhanced when used that way.
Nullius in verba
for the low, low price of $549.99. And you know what? We're all gonna buy 'em anyway.
The cans are expected to launch at the end of this year and will rival headsets from market leaders like Bose and even the company's own Beats by Dre brand.
Other words they'll sound like crap, carry a high price tag, and people will buy them (especially high school age girls) as more of a status symbol.
They killed this product when they released the iPhone 7 without a headphone jack. There's a reason why people buy high-end headphones... they want to be able to plug them into whatever device plays music and get the best experience possible. They may win over a few Apple fans, but they won't succeed how they could have with these.
to block out creimer posts, ebooks, affiliate spam, and sockpockets?
They make good products and slap on about a 25% markup and people just eat it up. Their fans at least, and judging my their revenues they have a hell of a lot of fans.
People that say Apple products are overpriced are right. They are. But the people that love their stuff don't seem to think so. I bet these headphones retail for $500 a pair and they will fly off the shelves. I have given up trying to figure out why. Sometimes you just have to tip you hat and say well done.
I don't want some shitty cans that use rechargable batteries and Bluetooth. Next Apple will make it so you can only listen to Apple Store DRM purchases on their devices.
As long as it isn't just a reskinned closed back Beats
This doesn't make any sense.
With their beards and glasses and the yarn hats will all be sitting in coffee shops all with the same headphones.
And just buy something like this from a brand like Audio-Technica. It'll probably be half the price Apple charges and just as luxurious with great sound.
Will they have the standard 1/8" jack?
Sorry, but you don't do high-end audio over Bluetooth.
They might be expensive, but they won't be 'high-end'.
Taking out the headphone jack was just idiotic.
I can't wait to plug one into my headphone jack.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I thought that's why they bought out Beats by.... oh wait, high end...mea culpa.
It will only cancel noise created by other Apple devices.
Proprietary Connector/Charger: Check
Non-Replaceable Battery: Check
4X the price for 1/2 the performance: Check
White Only: Check
Apple Logo: Check
Requires Apple Software/Apple Account : Check
Buggy Software: Check
No other products check these boxes, so they must be inferior. Purchase 1 for every member of the family, quick!, while supplies last!
Will they be sapphire coated like the iPhone screens were meant to be? Anyone else remember some other great rumors, like the iPhone@Home VOIP phone? Is that why it says the product might be scrapped (because it might not even be under development)?
How about lets stop posting garbage from the Apple marketing department. If they're under development still, you also can't say what they are rivaling. Someone is either trying to pump up their Apple stocks before selling, or are getting kickbacks from Apple. Also, its not hard to rival the Beats headsets (there are a lot of reasons why DJ's rarely use them).
It would be nice if Slashdot started only posting CONFIRMED rumors.
Seriously. I had Bose and another brand I can't remember. Nothing worked or works on an airplane like a set of gunfire ear protection muffs combined with earbuds.
I've loosened mine up thru use and recently wore them for 6 hours on a flight back from the west coast while watching movies and shows on my devices. They don't use batteries. They are very effective against airplane noise.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Like it does on their standard iPhone earphones?
I guess Apple knows squat about high-end audio....
What is this nonsense about Apple Music DRM? That's gone for at leat ten years, and was only there because the recording industry insisted.
They include a gay inducing brain electromagnetic stimulation device.
A headphone is a device which is used to listen to audio in a way that other people in the room would not be disturbed by what you are listening.
Will probably use the "LE" (Low Energy) Bluetooth protocol (it's also under the Bluetooth umbrella name, but has nothing to do with classical Bluetooth, it'ss more some kind of ZigBee-like low power protocol that got phagocyted by Bluetooth).
Which is completely stupid in this context(*), but helps Apple add a bullet point on the marketing speech ("Low Power !") and helps them use a protocol (LEA) which isn't widely used by anyone else.
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(*): Audio is continuous streaming which is not something LE excels at.
LE is good for quick short burst message that only happen every now and then (like a health device giving a status : think heart beat monitors).
We already had this discussion back when Apple was spinning some marketing about having made LEA available to auditory aid equipment and thus being better than Android for people with hearing deffects.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Turn the volume to 11
Apple bought Beats simply on the huge margins that maker had been making selling mediocre quality but highly styled audio products. I don't see Apple really doing a quality audio product, but more some gimmicky product with a lot of bells and whistles and high price tag.
Did you have the Bose active noise-canceling headset? I have a 3M Peltor passive set of muffs for the range, but they don't completely eliminate the airplane noise like my QC25's do. Plus I can still hear safety announcements on the plane. The $300 price tag for them is $10 for the audio playback and $290 for the active noise cancellation. I've also found the noise cancellation to be rather good when working in a server room. Really saves me from hearing the white-noise of fans for the rest of the day.