Bloomberg has recently published an article reporting some people close to Apple stated that the company is working on new AirPods with noise-cancellation and water resistance. Apple is trying to increase the range that AirPods can work away from an iPhone or iPad, one of the people said. They are not to be used for swimming: The water resistance is mainly to protect against rain and perspiration, the people said.

This could be a good strategy if what’s not been said in the article involved the AirPods with Siri integration. Hearables will have a big impact with voice, and it would be interesting to see how this plays out for them.

For an excellent discussion of what Apple’s master plan with Shortcuts and Siri we recommend the episode 12 of the Vector Podcast: Brian Roemmele on Siri Shortcuts. I think Brian vision of shortcuts as ontologies and intents is revealing and precocious. I completely agree that Apple needs more evangelists to carry their vision in a voice-first world. As Rene pointed out in the podcast: Companies are failing to see beyond of what they are to what they can become in voice-first.