Your april fools joke is a bit late David

There is NO way that Apple would only upcharge the AirPods with the screen by only 30 dollars, that is an 80$ increase at the very least

Making them all black with the screen completely invisible when off would look so much better

6:40 Tim: "write that down, write that down"

When he said, "they can sell one with a notch in the screen" I lost it

when are we getting dave3d?

I've been using the JBL ones since they came out and at first I thought the screen was unnecessary. BUT I came around to enjoying it. There are a few scenarios that the screen enables: 1. You only get so many controls on the headphones themselves - ANC/Passthrough mode on the left, media on the right for example. But what about volume controls, ANC level, voide passthrough level, mic mute, etc.? I use these for phone and work Teams calls, and when I'm not physically at my phone/pc I can use the screen to mute/unmute myself or control how much I hear my own voice through the headphones based on my surroundings. Some of that could be solved by offering more configuration options for different scenarios, but then I'd have to remember all that and tap morse code against my head all the time. 2. Seeing how much % battery life is left in each headphone and the case without my phone nearby is super useful. Also, I use these all day, so they'll eventually run out of battery. If I'm on a call, I just plug one in for a quick charge, and when I see it's at 20% I'll swap, charge the other and I'm good for another few hours. 3. I'm a person who's not on their phone all day. Some days I look at it once a day and it's just _somewhere_ in my apartment. Having quick controls like ANC levels, volume level etc on the case itself is super useful. 4. I almost lost one of the earbuds one winter day on my bike when taking of my beanie, having the case in my pocket to quickly let it "ring" helped me find it in the snow much faster than it'd have taken me to take out my phone, open the app and use that feature there. 5. It's a decent smart watch substitute if you're not on your stupid phone all day: Receive select notifications, set a quick timer, use the "flashlight" feature, ...

the moment when you started unravelling the whole plan at 7:00 ish, was hilarious it was like revealing apples matrix of master plans

Companies could use e-ink display here(instead of an led or lcd ones). It would be a good utilization of the tech.

Having a screen on the new airpods also makes it obvious which airpods are new and which ones aren't and a lot of Apple consumers would want to be seen with the newest version for the status symbol of it, not necessarily for the functionality.

The killer app for an earbuds case with a screen is connection control -- selecting which device you want to hear. A screen on the case could make it trivial. The Bluetooth user experience has always been rocky and that especially goes for using the same headphones on multiple devices. There's also using separate devices on the same speakers simultaneously (e.g. choose on screen to hear notifications from a second device) and the idea of selecting/forcing (or disabling!) a specific Bluetooth audio codec.

So it's like an mp3.

If it had storage and could basically be an Ipod, but with built in earbuds, that would be pretty interesting. Battery life on something that small would be tough though. Needing your phone to use this makes it a null product..

to me, if they put in Storage of 64-128gb that you download (music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc) to it beforehand. this could be the next iteration of iPods. They have so much possibility to play around its crazy.

If they made an iPod successor in the form of an airpods case, and gave this internal memory and allowed it to work standalone from an iPhone, this could be a really interesting product.

Loved the AHA moment there! Absolutely makes sense and i agree 100%. The only use case i can see the need for a screen on a case is when using the headphones with other devices than a phone

"Do these people not have phones". I can't hold my laughter

Would be cool if it was like a modernized iPod Classic with built in AirPods. For like digital detox and uninterrupted music.

Dave’s always genuine on camera.. love that! Great job Dave

Only functionality that I can think of is the easy access to EQ, deleting paired Bluetooth devices, switching modes from ANC and transparency, and the Live Listen and background sounds

Soon, you can't be caught dead being the peasant without a screened case.

This seems really pointless.

Bro was having a main character moment

This feels like full-circle back to the iPod and I love it

On a more serious note, it would be useful for non iphone devices, so i can see accurate details for the battery charge on the case and each pod, and things like bluetooth pairing.

"In this CASE"

I love seeing your brain turn cogs in real time as you go along in the video. Such a content creator thing to do lol

I am new to your channel but, I am now an absolute fan! Content is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

These are for the post-phone era. When they're selling AR glasses that look like regular glasses, your headphones case will be the only screen you need to carry.

Just LOVE watching @Dave2D have an epiphany on camera… priceless!

it would look cooler in black so the screen blends in with the finish of the case. I reckon it would be interesting if you could get more functionality out of it, perhaps connecting it to another device to use as a small remote

We will get Dave 3D when holograms exist because for now 2D is how we consume his content via 2D video

I think your chain of thoughts on this is just spot on!! I totally agree! A new tree of upgrades to the product! Brilliant!

I've had a set of earbuds with a screen for a few months. It works really well for swapping ANC, playlist, and EQ. Battery life is still great.

Honestly this is genius. If it allows you to control your music app properly, change tracks, even search… then yes this is perfect. Really great idea. If it’s a half measure and you still have to pull your phone out then maybe not so great.

There is also the insane meme value of this thing. I can imagine hackers and tech enthusiasts programming doom into that screen

I think the biggest use case would be for multiple device use especially in the Apple Eco system. Keep all your media controls in one place with one interface regardless of the device it's connected to

seeing battery life on the outside of the case would be appealing. i wouldn't want a whole screen like this - i would be satisfied with a series of LED lights where 4 lights indicates ~80%, 5 lights indicates 100%, etc... - but i can understand them deciding that it'd be unclear for people whether the airpods have 80% charge or the case, and in that case rather than making 3 rows of LEDs maybe it'd be better to just take the plunge and put a whole screen on the device. i'm not terribly excited about it, but that's mostly because the usefulness of such a thing can only manifest based on what apple actually does with it, in the same way that the touchbar on the macbook pro was a lot of potential utterly squandered because apple didn't make anything of it. they just hoped that developers would show up, or something. if apple just turns the screen into a "now playing" display, i imagine a lot of people would like to keep their airpod pro case on their desk while they're working and either turn off their iPhone screens or turn the screens away from them while they're working. i certainly could see myself doing that. my relationship with my phone is characterized by it producing distractions that derail me. apple can implement all the focus modes and whatnot that they want, but a tiny little device that physically can't invite me in to lose an hour or two is always going to be better at managing my distractions and whatnot

I have JBL tour pro 2's, a very similar concept. I like the screen. Half the features I don't really like, and seeking time in songs isn't an option, but I love them.

"Oh I know what's happening... We're about to get fleeced!! 😂

This is the first time I'm seeing Dave having earlier access than Marquez, but hey, who knows, MKBHD might be using that for about a couple of months now.

LOL the Blizzard ghost edit

I'm guessing it could possibly be an updated version of an iPod. Imagine they put some storage in there and you could access music, apps and stuff like the watch but it becomes completely independent from your phone. It's possible.

Tbh I love to change my equaliser from song to song especially if it's custom, I do it with my sony headphones all the time and the app is extremely slow and it's annoying to open it again and again, go to the 'sound' tab, scroll down to eq, expand the eq so I can actually select the custom ones I've made. Also my phone is very large and I don't usually want to take it out for small settings I could do in a second.

What makes the JBL one is so great is that you don't need to downlad a seperate app or remember confusing tap and hold commands on the buds to change modes since it's all on the case. Maybe apple is trying to get the features easier to control for android users. Personally I use my airpods pro 2 with iphone and windows and it's a bit annoying to change the noise cancelation modes without 3rd party apps on windows like magicpods.

That is a very impressive mock-up. Kudos to the team that put it together.

I’m with you on this. I love me some headphones and have owned headphones from Apple, Jabra, Sony, Soundcore, Sennheiser, JBL, and even Jlabs. I still have a few of those pairs and use them but I rock second gen AirPod Pros as my daily drivers because they’re solid and I’m firmly in the Apple ecosystem. I have an iPhone and an Apple Watch and see no need for a touchscreen on my AirPods case. With that said, I’ll still buy them and show off the screen to my friends as a cool feature but I’ll rarely, if ever, personally use that touchscreen.

I don't really like dealing with wireless earbuds/headphones, but if I did I probably *would* appreciate the screen. It gives you a way to ignore your phone for awhile and not get sucked back in by notifications or muscle memory to check apps etc... A lot of people want more ways to "disconnect" and if the AirPods screen did not support notifications and stuff, it would help provide that. It gives you a simple interface to listen to audio, control transparency mode etc... and nothing else. It also can be more intuitive so you don't have to know control gestures. Seems like it'd be a more friendly interface. I can see there being clips/straps for it too for working out so you can set your phone down and use the case as your main interface while exercising, etc...

I’d love a battery level indicator “screen” on my Airpod’s case.

If it can operate as a music player without a phone, that would be rad.

It's great to have a screen. If you take your phone to change the music you can get distracted with so many things. It's easier and quicker to use the little screen that only does this fell things. It's a great idea.

love you DAVE💙

The screen makes sense to me. Imagine you pull out your headphones to put them on and select a playlist or podcast with the case that's alredy in your hand. Rather than pulling out the case putting in headphones putting away the case then pulling out phone unlocking it navigating to Spotify and then selecting a song. Doing it with the case makes a lot of sense assuming you are not alredy wearing the headphones.

This would a be a durability nightmare….. AirPods cases are the most dropped items on the planet 💀💀

Is this an out of season April fools joke?

I have 2 hands and need both to open the case and take the buds out.... where should I have my phone? start a podcast or playlist on the case is just very practical also changing the settings and update the firmware when used with android or windows...

I mean, if my phone is in my backpack or I’m using it as a screen, having the case as a controller seems like a useful feature… it’s like an Ipod shuffle upgraded to an ipod touch

It could be Apple. Apple know their users. A lot of them will buy the new device only because it looks different as the last generation.😂

The things that could enable having a screen to the airpods case is huge for non iPhone users, due to the lack of support for android compatibility, you have acces to lots of settings right on the case without having to buy an iPhone. And it could apply to other brands that make you install therir app just so you can get acces to more settings, by having it directly on the case itself you can save the need to install a app every time you want to change something that's not out of the box for you.

I'd love to see an earphone case with physical pause, skip and volume controls as long as they're well done. You'd get all the benefit of the control without all the downsides of a screen. It'd be nice just to have it in your pocket or on your desk and always have those controls available.

The original airpods were terrible on non iphone devices because they didn't have the necessary control software. These airpods with a screen can work with any device with no need to download a special app to get all the functions. That's pretty cool really.

I have the JBL Tour Pro 2 and I can say: I wasn't expecting that I need that kind of case in my headphones. It's very useful when I need to rapidly change some settings in my headphones that before I would need to take my phone and search for JBL app. It's hard to explain, but this thing is actually very useful in many scenarios. Also, the case can be used when connected to any device, be it an iPhone, Android or Windows, so you don't need to install any third party app (the JBL app isn't available for Windows, so you can manage everything within the case).

Are there any good USB type C earphones with ANC out there? I found Asus Cetra II, but it's really hard to find

I can get one good idea as to why it’s beneficial to have a screen on the case because I have the JBL‘s with the screen on the case… as a truck driver, it is more visually distracting to pull out a phone look at it and try to skip songs or play around with the settings when I’m listening to music, but with the case itself, I’ve sort of memorize through muscle memory on the process of skipping, putting the volume up and down although a phone, you can easily click a button and that’s easier or playing around with the equalizer. Some of those things have already become muscle memory for me with such a smaller device that I can just fiddle around with in my pocket versus having a larger screen to try to do the same thing and then miss clicking things which forces me to just take the phone out overall and look at it, which is a driving hazard so for me, this would actually make sense and it’s not an ideal situation for everyone

There are multiple knockoff units like these in Asia with that exact same touchscreen user interface. And also JBL has the Tour Pro 2 - which has the exact same touchscreen and case and look with a different earbud design.

2 words: college students

“Then the one with the notch!” Really got me for some reason! 😂

I agree with you and I would add that if the screen breaks you have to get it fixed at a cost. However I could protect my phone by not pulling it out to change a setting. It could be a remote screen for your notification. Going back to your point though it is away of making more money when you drop it, lose it or it just stops working. $299 for the case and $89 for the apple care.

The benefit of the screen is that you can configure the headphones without any 3rd party app or OS integration. You don't need a companion app that will become unsupported after a few years and you don't lose features if you are using the buds with non-apple device. That's honestly a huge game changer to me, like a paradigm shift. Maybe the headphones are not the best example of that, but I really like this approach for electronic accessories. Man, in appliances some brands are forfeiting this ability to configure on device, exchanging it for companion apps. I have a washing machine that has programs that are only available via an app, but that's for other reasons I assume. Forced gathering of the user data via the app and/or planned obsolesence. For apple it makes sense to make a statement that airpods are now fully vendor independent to make it seem like apple loves vendor interoperability. Perhaps to make some regulators happy...

Every electronic company: Lets do something new Adds a touch screen . Genius !

5:32 amazing reference. For anyone unaware, when Blizzard devs announced a mobile only Diablo game, they responded to criticism with: "do you not have phones?"

Also a H1 security chip, so when your aipods gets stolen, they cant be used again. Because they are locked behind faceID or touchID

Did you get by april 1st? lol

I wonder if Apple is attempting to create space for a product that could (in the future) resemble what the Rabbit R1 is supposed to be. Something that relies on the internet connectivity of a phone to facilitate phone tasks through voice commands and AI and is able to display text information on a small screen.

Makes sense if you want quickly accessing the controls of the AirPods like ANC, equaliser, finding the earbuds will be easy. Compared to using a Phone with an app/settings to make changes. Or when excessing/running if you do not have a apple watch, they can use the case to simply change tracks. Also, most importantly another screen to PUT ADS for the company.

Dave2d and ragging on Apple products, name a more iconic duo.

I think it's for the same reason that AirPods Pro got USB-C before the iPhones because Apple knows there are android users who loves AirPods and they made it easier to use them outside of their ecosystem. Having a screen gives more control to non iPhone users which is great.

I mean, as a person who uses my buds (soundpeats) with a laptop, its kind of annoying to manage with no settings whatsoever. But I think you hit the nail on the head with the actual reason Apple would do this.

5:33 well played bringing back that Diablo Mobile flashback

I can see a lot of people liking this. If you're out running or you're spending time with a hobby and you want to change your music but you don't want to look at your phone and be distracted by stuff happening on it instead of what you're actually doing having controls on your case gives you that ability.

Tim Cook is knocking on his door right now... "why you telling the world of our trade secrets???"... lol

Nothing is impossible 🗣️🔥

I have the JBL Tour Pro 2s, and I find the screen handy for that first moment of putting them in. Everything I need is already at my finger tips in a visual form rather than having to cycle through touch controls on the buds themselves. Being able to hit play, quickly swipe through the sound mode I want it in for the environment, and fine tune the volume before I put the case back in my pocket, has completely removed the need for my phone in that interaction. It's totally a first world privilege thing, but isn't all this new tech stuff? It really will come down to how much apple will pump their followers for the upgrade. The JBLs sound good, sit well and are designed nice while being a reasonable price. I doubt Apple will follow suit price wise even though they will probably only offer up near identical functionality as the JBL (even the mock up is copy/paste of JBLs interface). But you're right, it will be the next forced reason for a price increase on the next gen Airpod Pros...

If they let me easily swap audio sources this would be very valuable to me. When you're in the Apple system the auto switching stuff seems ok, but the second you use these on other devices (my desktop) it's a bit finnicky. That would be the big feature I would want from a screen.

Next year they will have Airpods pro max with 120Hz ProMotion™ Display for 350$

Dave4D when?

JBL released the Tour 2 Pro more than a year ago which also has a screen on the case with the same features this mockup has.

Use cases: 1. charging and battery status 2. scrub and skip through songs and playlists 3. switch songs and playlists without a phone (ex. no phones in a classroom, still can play music)

The battery life would take a huge hit tho!

5:53 Moment of enlightenment 😂

Usually I'm walking around the house listening on airpods while my phone is on a desk somewhere. A small remote would be kinda nice to have with me (in case you don't own an apple watch)

I could see this being more useful as controlling noise cancellation and many other features requires diving deep into settings menus. It would be much easier to have direct access to Airpod controls on it's own device.

a certain large group of people in the US will never use transparency mode if the abbreviation for it is that

You're pulling out the buds and use case to start the music, change equalizer etc. Without wonky tapping of the buds, pulling out the phone or using a watch. I think it's brilliant.

Calling it now: AirPods case with a built-in screen + Gemini = Apple's sneaky AI play.

They'll probably rebrand the regular airpod pro as regular airpod 4th gen and drop the price a little. As they've recouped the cost of the tooling required they make a better margin on it which is quite a common apple strategy(Ipad Pro-> Ipad Air). They'll then sell this for a slight increase maintaining the pricing ladder.

Theirs actually a Jbl earphones with a touch screen launched

if Apple actually pulls this off, there will be bloodshed. Also I swear DankPods already featured a nugget AirPods knockoff that has a screen.

5:33 I didn’t have enough sleep and seeing that face randomly pop up on the screen freaked me out. I thought I was tripping. 😂

I've been saying that if you stick a screen for functionality and a memory card to store media in there it would be amazing