Fudge, an often accurate leaker, showed off two models of what they claim is both the black and white variants of the AirPods Studio, Apple’s upcoming over-ear headphones. These headphones would complete the AirPods lineup, with the consumer level AirPods, the AidPods Pro with noise cancellation, and the AirPods Studio headphones, with an over-ear fit and noise cancellation.
The photos are at awkward angles, but seem to show enough to get a general idea of what the over-ear headphones with Apple branding would look like, and that they come in two color varieties.
Black and White
Probably Sport variant of Apples headphones
Personally not impressed, looks too much like 2 Palm Pre's attached to 2 tuning forks :/ hard to unsee
Looks a lot like what @markgurman described in April, but with homepod mesh pic.twitter.com/dzAufRRl7m
— Stella – Fudge (@StellaFudge) September 16, 2020
Fudge uploaded shots of both headphones, expressing disappointment in the design. In fact, leading up to their tweet of the Apple headphones, they leaked various design similarities, like The Palm Pre, tuning forks, and mesh sneakers. Fudge described the headphones as looking like two Palm Pre phones connected via tuning forks with some HomePod mesh tying it all together, and I can’t un-see that now.
https://twitter.com/choco_bit/status/1306266803182727168?s=20
Fudge’s Record
Which ones you think look best?
— Stella – Fudge (@StellaFudge) September 16, 2020
Fudge actually has a decent track record. Their drawing of the iPhone 12 accurately showed Apple’s inclusion of widgets in iOS 14. However, it also showed a smaller notch. We’ve since learned that, while the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 may have a slightly smaller notch, they will not shrink it across the board.
Fudge seems to be a repair specialist or Apple employee. They’ve been working to start up an employee-only unofficial Apple Discord and often have released and unreleased Apple hardware in various states of disassembly. Also, like some of the smarter leakers, Fudge seems to not jump the gun on items, waiting until other details have been shared. This helps them maintain anonymity. Apple often has multiple products and designs in the pipeline, and doesn’t use or release all of them. They also modify small details about products so they can identify where leaks come from within departments. This makes holding off on releasing anything until you see it elsewhere a good survival technique for a leaker.
AirPods Studio
Apple could reveal the AirPods Studio as early as this October, with the iPhone 12. They’re going to be considered pro-level headphones, with Apple’s noise cancellation and Siri features, like the AirPods Pro. The headphones do appear to be the more comfortable over ear design, rather than the on-ear design of the Beats Solo. Apple, of course, owns Beats, and may copy the “Studio” moniker from the Beats Studio over-ear headphones. In fact, with noise cancellation coming to the Beats Studio, these could simply be Apple-branded versions of the same headphones.
Sources:
- Juli Clover, MacRumors
- Wesley Hilliard, AppleInsider