After launch last December, Apple appears to finally be catching up with demand for AirPods, with Apple on Wednesday improving shipping estimates for the earbuds to within 3 to 5 business days of the date of ordering, an improvement from the previous estimate of 2 to 3 weeks.
The update to the shipping schedule comes a after Tim Cook admitted during Apple’s Q3 2017 earnings call that the company was struggling to meet the “strong level of demand” from customers. – “We have increased production capacity for AirPods and are working very hard to get them to customers as quickly as we can, but we are still not able to meet the strong level of demand,” Cook said.
Apple AirPods are ‘truly-wireless’ headphones, there are no connecting wires at all. Each earbud has its own battery and antenna and they communicate independently.
Each earbud has its own battery, lasting up to five hours of playtime. The AirPods charge in a (included) carrying case, for a total battery life of 24 hours usage. The AirPods know when they are placed into or taken out of an ear due to the inclusion of proximity sensors, allowing the music to be paused automatically when they are removed. AirPods feature Apple’s W1 technology. This allows for automatic, seamless, pairing to iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad devices. The pairing configuration is automatically synced over iCloud so Apple devices will be able to detect the AirPods. The AirPods will communicate over standard Bluetooth protocols for any other accessories.