Fansided

Apple AirPods already have their first, very ironic accessory

By Cheryl Wassenaar

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 07: An attendee wears an Apple AirPods during a launch event on September 7, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Apple Inc. unveiled the latest iterations of its smart phone, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the Apple Watch Series 2, as well as AirPods, the tech giant's first wireless headphones. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 07: An attendee wears an Apple AirPods during a launch event on September 7, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Apple Inc. unveiled the latest iterations of its smart phone, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the Apple Watch Series 2, as well as AirPods, the tech giant's first wireless headphones. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Apple AirPods have met their match.

Last week’s Apple Keynote speech had some great announcements: the iPhone 7’s release date, Super Mario Run, and lots of iPhone 7 camera talk. Then there were a pair of related announcements that left many scratching their heads.

First, as had been expected, Apple eschewed the traditional 3.5mm audio jack, using only its Lightning connector for charging and listening to music. (New iPhones come with a Lightning-to-audio-jack adapter that will become more precious than a free outlet in public.) As a result, Apple has also announced the AirPods, wireless earbuds that easily sync with iPhones.

Those AirPods also don’t have any sort of connector at all, and are thus truly wireless.

Until now.

As reported by CNET, tech company Spigen has already started selling the “AirPods Strap” on Amazon. AirPods don’t hit the market until late October. As a result, it looks like Spigen wants to capitalize on the still-lingering fears that AirPods will fall out of users’ ears. (Spigen lists October 17 as the release date for its strap.)

For what it’s worth, the strap costs $10 as of this writing. It attaches to both pods, which transforms them from looking like magical, unsecured buds to basically every other pair of wireless earbuds on the market. Before you think that you can also snag a pair of AirPods with the strap, pump your brakes. They still cost $159. The $10 for the strap bumps the price up to $169.

Reviews on Amazon’s product page point out how innovative the design is. You can actually feel the sarcasm coming directly at your face. One user commented that they’ll have to buy AirPods now instead of picking them up off the street.

Now to be fair, the AirPods are not just earbuds. They have some excellent battery life, can tell when you’re speaking or listening, and immediately sync across all of your devices. As for sound quality, Wired has already deemed them acceptable.

Next: Jet Black iPhone 7 still available, but delayed

But is acceptable sound quality really worth it when you probably need this strap just to keep your precious new Apple products in your ears?