Gizmo Guy: Ears to the ground on the latest headphones
No other electronics brand grabs headlines and moves markets quite like Apple, for which Gizmo Guy is grateful. Apple points gazillions of consumers toward new or "emerging" categories of products (such as streaming music). And it keeps rivals cranking out their own innovations with a produce-or-perish fury.
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No other electronics brand grabs headlines and moves markets quite like Apple, for which Gizmo Guy is grateful.
Apple points gazillions of consumers toward new or "emerging" categories of products (such as streaming music). And it keeps rivals cranking out their own innovations with a produce-or-perish fury.
Two hotties are top of mind today: one, Apple is pushing; the other is being shoved in their faces by Motorola.
No strings attached.
Liberating lives (and making lots of money) with wireless Bluetooth headphones is Apple's latest cause célèbre, part of its master plan in eliminating the traditional headphone jack on the just-out 7-series iPhones.
About 20 percent of the new phones' buyers will also invest $149 to $299 in the high-tech wireless headphones that Apple will market, starting late October, under its own name and sister brand Beats, analysts at L&F Capital Management estimate. They call this upsell strategy a "$5 billion opportunity."
Besides freeing us from wire-tangling and the hair smushing of conventional headphones, Apple's smallest, family-friendly AirPods will automatically connect to other Apple gear, too (such as tablets and the Watch) with Siri voice control. And unlike other earbuds termed "wireless," the $159 AirPods don't have a cable linking left and right earpieces. Apple's custom W1 chip juggles signals without drop-outs, it's claimed.
Still, I'm thinking a rising tide of interest in Bluetooth buds will also lift the boats of brands such as Bose, Jaybird, and BlueAnt, whose wireless earbuds are arguably better in some essential ways.
Comfort and (sonic) joy. Just like snowflakes, no two ears are exactly alike. That's why many makers of in-ear headphones (but not Apple) throw in custom "fit kits" with multiple sizes and types of pliant bud tips to snugly fill the ear canal opening. Otherwise, you won't get solid bass response.
Some makers also throw in two or three sizes of rubbery, inner-ear "wings," curved ear grabbers that keep buds firmly in place as you move about.
The molded together tip-and-hook options with the new Bose SoundSport Wireless buds ($149.95) are far fewer than the choices with the fresh Jaybird Freedom F5 (about $175 at Amazon) and waterproof BlueAnt Pump 2 HD Sportbuds ($89.95) I've also been testing. Still, Bose ear engineers got my number best - with "medium" ear pluggers that fit quickly, feel most secure, and dish out a dynamic, full-spectrum sound well-isolated from the world.
Apple AirPods, by comparison, are a "one size serves some" solution that does without bud cushions and securing wings. AirPods are encased in a slippery plastic shell akin to the wired EarPods packed free with iPhones - now with a Lightning jack connector. "Pods falling out of the ear during movement and activity and potentially being lost is less forgivable at the $159 cost level," warned IHS analyst Paul Erickson.
Battery life. Apple is claiming a "best in class" five-hour run time between battery charges with the AirPods, and that's true compared with other fully wireless buds such as the Samsung Gear IconX, Motorola VerveOnes, Onkyo W800BT, and the soon-coming Jabra Elite Sport, all of which last only one to three hours per charge.
But if you're willing to live with larger semi-wireless Bluetooth buds, the Bose SoundSport Wireless and wrapped-behind-the ears Pump 2s offer six hours and eight hours. And after clipping on a supplemental battery/charging pack, tiny Jaybird Freedoms fly for eight.
Motorola goes mod. While Apple is holding off on a major iPhone redesign until its 2017 10th-anniversary edition, the once-omnipotent Motorola (now owned by Lenovo) is jumping to the phone front with "Moto Mods."
The modular concept starts with a super-thin, $729-and-up Moto Z Force Droid smartphone - or its slightly thicker $408 cousin, the Moto Z Play Droid. Both have a multi-pin connector on the back side and magnets hiding inside, enabling super-fast, snap-on phone customizing with Moto Mod accessories.
For starters, you can alter the phone's look with your favorite patterned backing shell ($19.99). Or extend the battery life 22 hours with a snap-on Wireless Charging Power Pack ($89.99.) Music gets better after adding a JBL Sound Boost stereo speaker ($79.99).
Cooler still, the Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod attaches a true 10-power optical zoom camera to the back for $249.99 to $299.99. A Hasselblad point-and-shoot costs 10 times that!
My favorite Mod is Moto Insta-Share, a $299.99 Pico video projector with 50-lumen light output and nifty auto-parallax correction. This skinny cling-on lets you "throw" a duplicate image of whatever is showing on the phone's screen onto a nearby pale wall - at three feet back, a reasonably bright 36-inch image; at 70 inches removed, a dimmer 70-inch screen. Great for a PowerPoint presentation, sharing party shots, or kicking back with Netflix, wherever.
Your move, Apple.
215-854-5960@JTakiff