Do you love Apple’s AirPods but wish they were lighter and tougher? The next iteration of the earbuds may be both smarter and stronger with water resistance, but when they might actually come out is currently anyone’s guess. Fortunately, French designer brand Hadoro Paris has you covered with its own redesigned take on the iconic earbuds that makes them both lighter and tougher.
In its quest to make the AirPods tough while keeping them lightweight, Hadoro turned to a material that car enthusiasts are well acquainted with: Carbon fiber. With an unusually high weight-to-strength ratio, it’s a no-brainer to use for an accessory that is meant to go everywhere with you.
Carbon fiber is five times stronger than steel and twice as stiff, but much lighter at the same time. Hadoro also points out that carbon fiber is Batman’s material of choice for his suit. You don’t necessarily need Bruce Wayne’s level of fortune to afford Hadoro’s redesigned AirPods, but due to both the cost of carbon fiber and the laborious process of producing these headphones, you can expect to pay quite a bit more than you would for the standard model.
Putting the redesigned AirPods together isn’t a quick or easy process. Hadoro’s engineers start by carefully disassembling the original AirPods case while keeping the components intact. At the same time, the new parts for the new case are carved from solid blocks of carbon fiber. The carbon fiber AirPods themselves are coated with a black soft-touch finish, while the case is engraved with Hadoro’s signature logo.
Hadoro Paris’s resigned AirPods are available via the company’s website and sell for 650 euros or roughly $750. If you would like to have yours further customized, personal engraving with up to four characters is available for 50 euros, bringing the price of the full price up to just over $800. The original AirPods component kit is packaged alongside the customized version and the carbon fiber case, just in case you need to … well, we’re not really sure why, but it’s better to have it than not.
If these would be your first set of AirPods and you want to know about any potential issues, take a look at our guide to common AirPods problems and how to fix them.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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