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Twelve South is back at it again with a gadget solution for a problem Apple created, wrapped in a shiny new $79.99 package that introduces a screen—and a healthy dose of modern tech irony.
If you have ever found yourself staring longingly at an airplane seatback screen while clutching your wireless earbuds like digital anchorites, Twelve South’s AirFly has long been your trusty travel companion. It plugs into the headphone jack, beams the inflight movie to your ears, and makes economy class slightly less miserable.
Now, the newly announced AirFly View brings a very welcome glow-up: a built-in display showing pairing status and battery percentage. No more guessing if you are tethered to your seatmate’s mysterious Bluetooth mouse or your own AirPods.
The Auracast Elephant in the Cabin
The headline feature of this new iteration is Bluetooth Auracast Broadcast Audio. It sounds futuristic, glorious, and wonderfully collaborative—the kind of tech that lets a single audio stream whisper sweet nothings to multiple sets of ears simultaneously.
There is just one tiny, frustrating catch. It won’t work with your AirPods.
Auracast relies on LE Audio hardware, a standard that Apple has curiously ghosted across its entire lineup. Despite shipping millions of iPhones, iPads, and AirPods, Apple has yet to enable the necessary hardware capabilities. So, while your shiny new AirFly View is fully equipped to broadcast audio to the masses, your trusty AirPods will just stand there blinking blankly, unable to join the party.
Apple, Python, and Other Stubborn Things
Look, I am typing this on a Mac, and I own several iPhones. Apple makes undeniably good hardware—much like I occasionally tolerate R when Python is glaringly unavailable, though I’d rather use neither if I can help it. But Apple’s stubborn reluctance to embrace open standards like LE Audio in a timely manner is baffling.
Buying the AirFly View right now for its marquee Auracast feature is a bit like buying a sports car when you live on a pedestrian-only island. It is a fantastic piece of engineering, but until Cupertino decides to flip the software switch and join the Auracast century, that standout feature is going to remain largely unusable for the primary demographic dropping eighty bucks on it.
At least you will finally know your battery percentage while you wait.
Source reference: techtimes
Disclaimer: This article was generated and formatted with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence.