Roundup: AirPower Removed From AirPods Page, AirPods 3 Possibly 2020, iOS 12.2 Arrives Next Week, and More
Apple today unveiled second-generation AirPods with a new H1 chip that enables hands-free Siri and up to an extra hour of talk time, and there are a handful of details worth mentioning surrounding the announcement.
![appleairpower](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.macrumors.com/t/saaa1LTe7N4q13vVxNwZFI-lCvY=/400x0/article-new/2018/09/appleairpower-800x413.jpg?lossy)
Apple removed this AirPower image from its AirPods page today Five thoughts:
- The new AirPods require iOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2, or macOS 10.14.4 and later, which are all currently in beta testing. With the new AirPods arriving to customers early next week, this means the software updates should be publicly released on or around March 25 event day.
- Apple removed an image of its AirPower wireless charging mat from its AirPods page today. However, many sources believe the AirPower is coming soon. Apple announced new iPads on Monday, new iMacs on Tuesday, and new AirPods on Wednesday, so it is possible the AirPower could follow on Thursday or Friday, but no reliable rumors have indicated that will be the case.
- Apple has discontinued the original AirPods. The new lineup includes the second-generation AirPods paired with either a wired charging case for $159 or with a wireless charging case for $199. The wireless case is also sold separately for $79 and is compatible with the original AirPods.
- According to Mark Gurman, these AirPods were initially planned to go on sale last year. As he has previously reported, Gurman says Apple is working on a subsequent pair of AirPods with noise cancellation and water resistance that were originally planned for release later this year, but he now speculates that they could arrive in 2020.
- MacRumors received a tip earlier this month claiming that Apple would announce new iPads, iMacs, and iPods on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, and while most of this information proved to be accurate, new AirPods ended up arriving on Wednesday instead of a new iPod touch. Multiple sources still expect a new iPod touch, but announcement timing is unclear.
For more details about the new AirPods, read our earlier coverage of the announcement.
Popular Stories
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports. This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix's 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim,...
Last Friday, a major CrowdStrike outage impacted PCs running Microsoft Windows, causing worldwide issues affecting airlines, retailers, banks, hospitals, rail networks, and more. Computers were stuck in continuous recovery loops, rendering them unusable. The failure was caused by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software that auto-installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux...