Are these a preview of next-gen AirPods?

Sennheiser’s new wireless earbuds likely sound great — the German brand has a good reputation — but the company’s buds are interesting for another reason: They’re a preview of the next generation of AirPod Pros.

Just unveiled at CES, the Momentum Sport earbuds are designed, as the name suggests, for fitness activities.

They include a built-in heart rate monitor plus a thermometer. They can output real-time biometric data to a range of fitness devices and apps, like bike computers, exercise machines, Peloton and Strava, as well as fitness watches from Polar, Garmin and, of course, Apple Watch.

Heart rate and temperature sensors have been rumored to be coming to AirPods, but never materialized — for reasons unknown.

Nonetheless, Apple must at least be considering adding these sensors, even if Apple Watch already has a heart rate monitor and a (somewhat limited) thermometer — used mostly for cycle tracking in women.

If Apple is looking to add an accurate thermometer to its arsenal of devices, the AirPods are a better candidate than the Apple Watch. It’s easier to get a reliable temperature reading from your ear than your wrist.

Let’s hope these types of sensors are on track for the next iteration of AirPods, rumored to be coming in 2025.

Also in today’s newsletter:

• Apple TV+ continues to deliver: A wide range of shows on the platform have once again been nominated for a clutch of awards.

• Remember the iPod Shuffle? The screenless device was greeted with derision when it was launched by Steve Jobs, who claimed that randomly “shuffling” your music was a better way to listen to music than purposefully selecting it. Critics scoffed. Jobs was into something though: the iPod Shuffle became a massive hit. At peak production, Apple was making 100,000 Shuffles a day.

• If you want a sneaky place to add an AirTag to your bike, these clever mounts are a good place to put them.

• Surprisingly, the Rabbit R1 AI device sold out on launch day — by a very big margin — in contrast to Humane’s AI Pin, which is looking like a bust. However, readers of this newsletter remain skeptical of both devices: See results of yesterday’s poll below.

• We hands-on review Otterbox’s new cactus-based ‘leather’ iPhone cases, and find they’re a great, eco-friendly alternative to cases made from animal hides.

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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Today’s poll

Results from yesterday’s poll: Does the Rabbit R1 seem better than Humane's Ai Pin?

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