Please, Apple, Don’t Axe My Favorite AirPods Max Feature

Give me a second to placed on some noise-canceling headphones so I can block out the most recent AirPods Max chatter, as a result of a brand new rumor going round suggests Apple may nix one of many system’s finest options.

Apple’s over-ear headphones are too costly to suggest to most individuals (go along with Bose or Sony, as an alternative), however they do include distinctive options not discovered on different units. One of these is the Digital Crown, a management dial impressed by the Apple Watch that’s used for adjusting quantity and playback controls. It rotates easily, provides you bodily suggestions for extra exact changes, and provides a contact of magnificence.

So it pains me to report that Patently Apple has uncovered a patent exhibiting how a touch-sensitive floor may very well be used to manage a pair of headphones that look suspiciously just like the AirPods Max. Apple has already been granted a patent for contact controls on material (most likely for upcoming HomePod fashions) and one other for gesture inputs on the outside of headphone earcups.

This newest submitting describes “processing gestures on a touch-sensitive surface” of what might solely be over-ear AirPods. The patent describes how it will work; it’s all moderately uninteresting, however the TL;DR is that sensors, processors, and reminiscence would be a part of forces to determine touches and execute gestures. Touch controls are discovered on most different Bluetooth headphones together with Apple’s personal AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro, so seeing them on the subsequent iteration of the AirPods Max wouldn’t be a lot of a shock.

That mentioned, this patent is a sign, not a agency affirmation, that Apple might take away the Digital Crown in favor of contact inputs. Our hope is that this may find yourself being one of many lots of of patents that get filed, increase a number of alarms, however by no means see the sunshine of day.

That’s as a result of the Digital Crown is likely one of the AirPods Max’s finest options, and a singular addition you gained’t discover on competing fashions. The dial sits on high of one of many earcups and could be rotated to alter quantity or pressed to play, pause, skip, return a monitor, and name up Siri. In comparability, contact controls, that are present in a lot of at this time’s headphones, usually work nice when you get used to them, however even essentially the most dependable implementations sometimes register false inputs and misinterpret swipes. And don’t trouble trying contact gestures in frigid climate.

One method Apple might justify dropping the Digital Crown is with a much-needed value drop (although the corporate ought to decrease the value regardless). At $549, the AirPods Max are a few of the most costly headphones available on the market, wanting these from luxurious manufacturers that make audiophile-grade gear. Apple’s obvious thesis that individuals will purchase its merchandise no matter value appears to have backfired; analyst Ming-Chi Kuo called the Max a “limited help” to Apple’s audio portfolio and predicted 2021 shipments of “about 1 million units.” That may seem to be successful, however on an Apple scale, it’s about 1% of all AirPod gross sales.

We may welcome contact controls if they bring about a couple of appreciable value drop, however in any other case, eradicating the Digital Crown would strip the AirPods Max of a very distinctive characteristic—one thing these cans desperately want extra of to justify their sky-high price.