Of all the annoyances in my life, the one I deal with most regularly has to be the untangling of headphone wires. Several times a day I reach into my pocket and pull out a wad of cords that look as if they have been intentionally tangled up by some sort of pocket gnome. It drives me insane.
Wireless earphones are nothing new, but the best ones usually don’t fit in your pocket: the number one requirement of earphones for me. So I stick with the kind that come with my iStuff. But if 9to5Mac’s sources are correct, those may be getting a major overhaul soon.
A couple months ago, Apple apparently very quietly acquired Wi-Gear, a San Francisco-based company, Seth Weintraub has learned. Their area of expertise? Bluetooth wireless headphones (specifically, the A2DP stereo variety) and Bluetooth 2.0 adapters for older iDevices.
Sure enough, the company is now closed for business, and at least one of their co-founders, Michael Kim, is now working at Apple as an iOS Bluetooth Engineer.
And while such an acquisition may have just been to add some Bluetooth talent, you have to assume that sooner or later Apple is going to want to wireless with their earbuds. And this purchase is the strongest sign yet that they’re heading in that direction.
As the maker of the world’s most popular MP3 players and one of the most popular smartphones, Apple’s white earbuds have become ubiquitous. And ubiquitously annoying. It’s time to cut the cords.
Update: And it looks like Weintraub was wrong, Apple did not buy Wi-Gear, they simply hired Kim and the company died.
