Apple Made Something Amazing in 2016

I don't think anyone saw it coming.

Look at these littleguys! I don't think anyone saw it coming.

I was one of the lucky ones. When Apple finally announced the AirPods were shipping, I happened to be in front of my computer. I mashed the order button. A week later they were sitting on my doorstep.

The overall design of the battery case is too "Jony Ive" for my taste. Very spartan, no Apple logo in sight, and a little too symmetrical. But that's secondary.

The pairing process is truly magical. The sound is surprisingly crisp and balanced — it made me realize how awfully compressed the audio is in other Bluetooth earbuds.

But my favorite part of the AirPods is the improvement they offer for each annoyance of a typical Bluetooth device:

I'm no longer paranoid about battery life. When I'm not using them,     they're being charged. -

Plugging them in my ears automatically connects them. No need to     power them on, wait for them to sync, etc. -

The range is so good, I can keep my phone in the rear pocket of my     cycling jersey with no interruption. I can't say that about any     other Bluetooth earbuds I've tried. -

Phone call quality is top notch. I had a call with my accountant     while cruising at 20mph+ on my bike and he thought I was at my desk.

Just recently I stumbled across the coolest part:

You don't need to physically tap the AirPods to activate the play/pause/Siri function! The microphones are used to detect any abrupt "tapping" noise. In other words: you can be wearing a toque (Canadian word for "beanie"), slap your ear twice with a glove, and the AirPods will respond perfectly.

Does clunking the side of your head while you walk down the road look cool? I can't guarantee. But it works.

The AirPods have been finding themselves in my pocket more often than not. They've created little moments to listen to an audiobook or podcast that didn't exist before: walking the dog; commuting to work; taking a stroll around the block.

It's not that I couldn't do these activities before with traditional headphones; they simply caused too much inconvenience for me to bring them along. I'm finding myself naturally grabbing the AirPods case before heading out anywhere. That's a big change to my natural behavior and Apple pulled it off by brilliantly executing the user experience.

Who would have thought the best Apple product in years would be the thing we've taken for granted since the first iPod?