Lower-Cost AirPods and New AirPods Max Said to Launch Later This Year

I have such a love/hate relationship with my AirPods Max. I refuse to charge my AirPods Max in the stupid bra (which I have also misplaced and I categorically refuse to buy a replacement from Apple…it is somewhere) so the battery life (which was never good at launch and is even worse years later, and this pair was replaced under warranty in December 2022 right before the AppleCare+ expired) is not great and I get to have the fun of manually re-pairing them every few days. I also don’t love the comfort and the noise cancellation isn’t as good as my Sony's. The sound quality is quite good, especially for spatial audio, but I have better headphones for serious listening. All things considered, these are absolutely the worst $550 headphones I own, and I own a lot of headphones in this price range.

That said, I’m counting down the days for the next generation, because even if the only change is a USB-C port, these are an instant-buy. The auto-pairing is just too good across devices and as much as it pains me, if my current pair died tomorrow, I’d be ordering a replacement immediately.

I do hope that whatever Sonos comes out with and whatever Sony's successor headphones are will encourage Apple to do a little more than just adding a USB-C port, but I doubt it. In any event, I look at my pink AirPods Max with disdain and look forward to replacing them with a pair I hate almost as much.

What is old is new again:

I have such a love/hate relationship with my AirPods Max. I refuse to charge my AirPods Max in the stupid bra

I hate that stupid bra less than I thought I would, but I also don't understand why they insisted on it. I bought them because I loved how convenient using my gen 2 airpods is. But I really like over-ear cans and needed something with noise cancellation. But I can't just have it sitting on my desk, it has to be in that case. lol.

That said, the case. I don't really care about headphone cases because the headphones live on my desk. Quite the opposite: I don't want to have to use a case. I get that having a power button isn't very Apple, but this seems to have been the perfect situation to have a power button. Or at least make them go to sleep when you turn the earcaps sideways! although I don't care much for that one...

Or if they wanted to sell overpriced crap, they could've made them detect when they were placed laying down on their side and/or when someone sets them on a special "Made for Airpods Max" stand. (oo plus points if the stand charged the airpods wirelessly!)

While we're at it: They can't be serious about "being eco friendly" with that headband. The design doesn't allow you to easily swap the mesh out. Why?! Who thought this was a good idea?!

What is old is new again:

Wow.. Can't believe those were 99.99....

Lower cost AirPods..... would the sound chip be sold separately?

Too many SKU's for this and all Apple product these days! Remember when Steve came back and culled product lines,..its time! I've never seen so many product and product variations like we have now.

For goodness sakes Apple, Steve would be angry. Just have 1 low end, 1 high end,..remove ALL old product. It's crazy that Apple keeps this and all other product waste collecting dust on its store shelves. Cut the SKU's!

It's time for Jeff Williams to take the reigns, after Tim Cook wasted 10 Billion dollars on a non-existent prototype.