Apple AirPods: Delays seem to be caused by technical problems

When Apple announced the AirPods as a wireless alternative to cabled earphones back in September, they planned for an October shipping date. However, two months later, the AirPods are still nowhere to be seen. Apple boss Tim Cook recently apologized to an unhappy Apple fan announcing the availability of the AirPods over the next few weeks but did not give any explanation as to why the shipments where delayed.

Sources from within Apple, who are involved in the AirPods development recently told the Wall Street Journal two possible reasons why Apple may had to miss the holiday shopping season and leave iPhone 7 customers who rely on wireless or lightning connections due to the missing headphone jack on the  iPhone 7 quite unhappy. Apparently there are issues with the way the AirPods are designed to get audio signals from the source.

Contrary to other bluetooth headsets, both buds receive their own individual signal from the iOS or macOS device, which caused synchronization issues that had to be solved. Also, Apple had to find a solution for situations where one pod would run out of battery or get lost. In addition, testing revealed problems with the noise reduction algorithms of the microphone embedded in the AirPods. So far Apple has not committed to a definite shipping date and did not officially comment on the above explanations.

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