Airpods are more robust that they look

Airpods, these wonderful little things are so comfortably inconspicuous in feel that it's often easy to forget I am wearing them (never mind for a moment the disconnect about music playing in my ears should make it obvious). When that happens it can get dangerous - for the Airpods. 

This morning I was washing up listening to music as usual. When I went to wash my face with a towel I forgot I had the Airpods on so sure enough the towel brushed the left-side pod and it tumbled into the sink-pan. The faucet was running so it got properly soaked. Dread filled me as I fish the thing out of the torrent, facing the likely possibility it was wrecked.

To replace a single Airpod costs $69 (nice) from Apple. 

I grabbed a can of compressed air (those are always convenient to have around the home) and proceeded to blast through the orifices and apertures on the soaked Airpod. Plenty of water came out, which was more evidence the thing was probably a goner. 

Not waiting for the thing to dry completely (stupid move in hindsight), I stuck the Airpods back into my ears to test it out. To my utter surprise the soaked piece still works, with no degradation whatsoever! These brittle looking things have turned out to be quite robust. Prior to today's folly I've also dropped the Airpods many times (from standing height to concrete, no less), and they've yet to fail or even look worse for the wear. 

Whether it be good luck or otherwise, kudos to Apple for making surprisingly durable product. 

I love it when B&H sends their massive catalog goodies. 

Apple Airpods are magical

The Apple Airpods are awesome. 

I finally bit the not inexpensive bullet and purchased a set of these wireless earphones. Not since the original iPad have another Apple product been engineered so profoundly complete and joyful to use. Steve Jobs would've been proud of Airpods.

They are, in essence, Earpods with the cords chopped off, therefore if Earpods weren't particularly comfortable for you, then Airpods are going to be more of the same. Thankfully the corded version have alway fitted me wonderfully, and with the Airpods on it's supremely comfortable; no amount of extreme head angles have yet to dislodge them. They simply disappear from thought once I put them on. 

I didn't think going wireless with regular earphones would make such a big difference, but it truly does. Walking around listening to music on the Airpods is the closest facsimile to having background music playing me while I go about daily business. Unlike the equally awesome Bose QC35 headphones, Airpods weight almost nothing and doesn't block outside sound, so my motive freedom is way less encumbered. I can walk around with Airpods all day, though sadly the meager five hour battery life puts a stop to that fantasy.

Connecting the Airpods to the iPhone is so painlessly easy It would be an insult to call it pairing. All I had to do was flip open the charging case and a graphic instantly popped up on the iPhone prompting a click to complete.

Thanks to whatever voodoo magic Apple has done with the W1 chipset in the Airpods, the bluetooth range is fantastic. The Airpods don't feature an on/off switch because the sleep/wake is instantaneous: as soon as I insert Airpods into my ears, sensors know to power on and resume connection. Conversely, taking them out automatically pauses whatever is playing and it will turn itself off after a period of inactivity. 

So now when I use other earphones and headphones I am baffled as to why they can't similarly act this intelligent. Making people do such a thing seems to be a forte of Apple: when Touch ID came out, inputting a passcode to unlock other devices were an utter pain.

Apple often get lambasted for calling its products 'magical', but if there ever is one device that deserves that moniker, it's the Airpods. It just might be my favorite consumer tech product I bought this year.