Whether it's a total hoax, Photoshop joke or an earnest attempt at addressing a need, the AirPod Safety Strap is simply awesome for a number of reasons.
First off, it highlights, in no uncertain terms, what I've believed since Wednesday: Apple's new wireless AirPods are so ridiculously designed, they're an internet meme waiting to happen. And that's exactly what did happen after Apple's iPhone 7 event. The only problem is that the AirPods are real and Apple really wants you to pay $159 for these things.
Enter the AirPod Safety Strap, something we're going to call a concept accessories idea that provides an attachment allowing you to connect the two AirPod devices together, presumably making them harder to lose. It's described as "a connection strap for the new AirPods so they do not get lost," and comes with a pre-order page selling it for $19.95. (That would bring your total AirPods cost to almost $180!)
When this arrived in my inbox I immediately asked the person behind it if it was real or a joke.
"We definitely plan on selling these," Robert Bodley, one of the people behind the idea, told me on Saturday. "There is a gap in the market and we are taking it." Bodley says he hails from Cape Town and runs a Snapchat sticker service.
Translation: Wait, AirPod Safety Straps might actually happen?!
Amazing.
And while we don't know much about whether Bodley and his cohorts can actually pull it off, it doesn't really matter. Concept product or not, the AirPods' design (similar in form to the current EarPods) is such that this proposed accessory product might turn out to be quite useful.
Wait, are you among those with the unique (Jony Ive-level perfect) ear canals that allow EarPods to fit snugly and not fall out of your ears? Great. Sorry for wasting your time. For the rest of us — and we are legion — the EarPods' habit of slipping out of our ears makes the AirPods a non-starter, unless kicking out $159 every few months when you lose them is no big deal, Mr. and Ms. Moneybags.
And since the 50th anniversary of Star Trek just passed, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the AirPods are yet another attempt by Apple to take something from the science fiction franchise, namely Uhura's communication earpiece, and make it real. Great idea.
It worked with the iPhone, the iPad and (sort of) with Siri. But first you guys have to get regular EarPods right to tackle this one. But I see what you're doing here, please keep trying.
In the meantime, I think we can expect a few more accessories hacks designed for the AirPods to pop up until Apple eventually realizes that it just made Google Glass look a lot less silly and impractical.
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