Doppler Labs launched the Here One truly wireless smart earbuds in Singapore today at a media launch at the We The People Kickstarter Store in Millenia Walk. 

It was a fitting location given its origins. We actually reviewed their first commercially available and Kickstarter-backed product back in Aug 2016. That was called the Here Active Listening System . It did not play music. Instead, they delivered an audio augmented reality experience. 

And today, Here One is their next generation product that still maintains the AR experience fusing it with listening to music. Let's check out what the Here One offers.

Type - Truly Wireless In-Ears
Price - USD 299 / SGD 459

What's The Big Deal?
The specs are quite comparable with its truly wireless peers. We're looking at buds of a 12g weight that can last for 2 hours playback. There's a charging case that offers 3 more rounds of charge for the buds. 

However, these are not a pair of run of the mill earphones. To do the Here One justice, we'll focus on what differentiates these buds from the rest.

1. Smart Noise Cancellation
Doppler Labs' buds incorporate what they term as Real-World Sound Control that allows the ability to dynamically increase / decrease specific sound types. For example, you can suppress the ambient sound of a plane's engine or if somehow you want to increase it, you sure can. This is controllable through their app. This is quite different from traditional active noise cancelation (ANC) where all ambient sounds are lowered.

2. Speech Enhancement
You can reduce background noise and amplify human speech. For example, you can enhance a nearby conversation.

3. Machine Learning
Interestingly, the machine learning engine behind the buds, called Smart Suggest, is able to use your location, past use and preferences to provide suggestions. If you're in a subway, the app will supposedly push a suggested sound profile for your approval. 

Sophia Velastegui, Chief Product Officer of Doppler Labs presenting the Here One features.

Who Is It For?
The most obvious usage is for folks who listen to music but at the same time can conveniently double the device as a hearing aid. 

Pricing And Availability
The Here One is priced at USD 299 / SGD 459. 

If you are in the US, they are currently available through their online store. 
If you are in Singapore, they are available from 5 May at selected retailers including truewireless.sg.  

Doppler Labs, LRT and We The People teams striking a pose.

The Apple AirPods need practically no introduction. These were the truly wireless earbuds that were introduced to much fanfare last September as loads of folks anticipated their entry into the Apple ecosystem. And since then, they finally hit the shops around Dec 2016 and there have been a load of reviews on these.

Now what makes it interesting is to see how these fare against the world! Ok, what we mean is how they compare with its truly wireless earbud peers. 

But first, let's review them. A trip to Holiday Villa Johor Bahru provided a good occasion to test the buds and a spot to take some shots! 

Read - Advent of Truly Wireless Earbuds

Type - Truly Wireless Earphones 
Price - USD 159 / EUR 179 / SGD 238

Pros (+): Supremely comfortable fit; Simple to use; Great battery life.
Cons (-): Non-existent noise isolation

In The Box
The Apple AirPods unsurprisingly come in one color combination - white. That's classic iPod gloss white if you want specifics. 

In typical Apple style, the box is incredibly sturdy and sized at a compact 99 x 99 x 34 mm, ideal for two things - cutting on shipping costs and hardy enough to pass drop tests (not that we tried :). 

The unboxing is like what you'd expect from an Apple product - impeccably neat and premium. The top lid pops upward to reveal a booklet with the distinctive line - Designed by Apple in California. 

Lifting this away will showcase the AirPods charging case nicely wrapped in a protective sleeve.

Popping out the packaging contents, we get:

• Apple AirPods
• Charging Case
• Charging Cable (USB to Lightning)
• User Guides

Design
The Apple AirPods come adorned in signature iPod gloss white and both earbuds weigh 8g, marginally lighter than the Samsung Gear IconX (12g) and Bragi The Headphone (12.5g). What differentiates these from other truly wireless buds is its long cylindrical side that that the other manufacturers clearly do not have. One practical benefit is the earbud weight is more evenly distributed, as the battery takes up the bulk of the space within. And of course, it makes it easier for the buds to be removed / inserted.

If you are familar with the default buds (EarPods) that come with your iPhone, you'll find that the overall AirPods aesthetic is much the same. General differences include the subtraction of the cable (obviously), dual optical sensors and a chrome edge at the bottom complete with a microphone. We'll talk more on their purpose in the Features section.

Charging Case:
The case measures a petite 44 x 21 x 54mm and doubles up as a charger when the buds are stored within. It's nicely styled and its magnetic clasp allows it to shut reassuringly.

Features
While the Apple AirPods look seemingly basic, they are anything but. Once you poke your nose into what they have to offer, you'll realize that there's a myriad of features awaiting especially if you're an iOS user. 

Playback / Voice Commands:
While there are no physical buttons on the AirPods, you can actually double tap the exterior of either earbud to enable a function depending on phone you are using.

• Siri devices - This activates Siri so you can give voice commands to control playback (eg. turn up the volume) or useful information (give directions / weather check). When calls come in, you can pick them and if you find Siri annoying, you can go to the settings to render a double tap as a play / pause function. 
• Other devices - There's a singular function - double tapping the exterior of the buds will play / pause music playback. This is arguably more useful than sending voice commands in a packed train with others staring at you quizzically.

Automatic Ear Detection:
The AirPods can detect when they are slotted into your ears thanks to dual optical sensors on each bud. You can even test out their effectiveness by double tapping the side of the bud when covering the sensors with your fingers vs removing your fingers. Even if you cover just one of the two optical sensors, the AirPods take it that the earbuds are not inside your ear.  

• iOS - On your iPhone, music will pause when you take both buds out of your ears. They will pause and resume playback if a single bud is removed. If you want music to continue even if you remove the buds, you can disable this in the AirPods Settings.
• Android - The play resume / pause function doesn't work when using an Android like what I tested with the Sony Xperia XA. However, there's no way to accidentally double tap the earbud when they are not in your ears.

Chilling with the AirPods at the Holiday Villa infinity pool

Pairing:
If you're used to the manual way of Bluetooth pairing, the AirPods offers a refreshingly simpler method of connecting to your music device (at least if you're in the Apple ecosystem).

• iOS 10.2 / watchOS3 / MacOS Sierra Devices - Apple's W1 chip may sound like a fancy marketing name but pairing is where you begin to discover its usefulness. All you need to do is open the AirPods charging case next to your device and there will be a setup prompt on your screen. It's that easy.   
• Other Devices - If you have another product like an Android phone, you'll need to manually pair via Bluetooth. Turn on your phone Bluetooth, pop open the charging case, select 'AirPods' and you're good to go.

Tip - If you have difficulties in pairing, insert the AirPods back into the case and hold the circular Setup button on the back of the case until the LED starts to flash white. You can then restart the pairing process. 

Status Light Notifications:
The status light LED is only found inside the charging case between the two buds. The charge status reflects the AirPods if one / both are inserted else it will show the Case status. Here's an idea what they indicate. 

• Green - Fully charged
• Amber - Not fully charged / Charging in progress if USB cable connected
• Amber (blinking) - You may need to setup AirPods again
• White (blinking) - Pairing mode

Sound Notifications
There are no voice notifications though there will be tones to indicate when the AirPods are successfully connected to your music device or when the charge in the buds is low.

Microphones:
There are two microphones on each earbud. If you notice the bottom of the AirPods, there is a chrome edge and within it is one of the microphones. The second is a small circular hole located on the outside of the earbud.

Apple does inject some hype about two beam-forming microphones. What does 'beam-forming' mean? You can actually read more on this over here. For the AirPods, the purpose of the beam-forming microphones is to extract voice input from ambient noise so the AirPods user is able to speak loud and clear to the recipient of a phone call. 

App Support:

• iOS - It would not be accurate to say that the AirPods have no app support. In fact, the support is integrated with iOS 10. If you pop the AirPods charging case open, a prompt will initiate from your iPhone and settings can be configured accordingly. The good thing is the AirPods firmware can be updated. Most recent is from 3.3.1 to 3.5.1 on Feb 1, 2017. Any significant change? Can't really tell from our end though feel free to buzz if you find something. 
• Android - There's no dedicated app for Android though to be fair, Apple never did mention such compatibility on the packaging.

Performance

Sound Quality:
The Apple AirPods sound quality is quite decent, that is if you do your listening in a relatively quiet environment. I was feeling nostalgic so I decided to give a listen to Kitaro. If that name does not ring a bell, Kitaro is a Japanese artist that specializes in epic instrumental music (some call it 'new age'). He made an equally epic performance compiled in the Live In America (1991) album and with that, I tried his magnum opus, Matsuri. The treble comes out not quite sparkling but nonetheless clearer than many in-ears while bass from the drums came out reasonably well. I reckon these aren't sealed in-ears which likely contribute to the drop in the impact of the low frequencies. 

Calls:
Making a few calls, I did a sound check in several locations of incremental ambient noise level. One was in at the Holiday Villa JB infinity pool with a few folks splashing around (low ambient sound) and another was in the heart of KSL Mall (high ambient sound). In those locations, I checked how well the recipient could hear me and the result was positive - they could hear me loud n clear, despite the noisy crowds in the second instance. 

Noise Isolation:
Like the EarPods, noise isolation is non existent. Environmental sounds aren't filtered at all and basically, you can safely listen to music while jogging. The flipside is when you're commuting, all the ambient sound from the trains will hit you so you'll have to increase the volume quite a bit to appreciate the sound.

Fit:
This was probably the most comfortable pair of truly wireless buds tested. When slotted in and when the music paused, there were moments where I actually forgot there was something in my ears.

Charging:
To charge the AirPods, all you have to do is slot them in the Charging Case and they are magnetically latched within. If you're wondering how it works, there are two contact points deep inside the two holes of the case that link with the chrome edge of the AirPods to initiate charging.

A full charge of the AirPods through the Lightning cable will provide 5 hours playback / 2 hours talk time while a quick charge of 15 minutes will get you 3 hours / over 1 hour talk time. The charging case states 398mAh of power so we're going to make a guess that that's the total power within the case only. If you use the full capacity of the case in tandem with the AirPods, Apple claims you can get up to 24 hours playback / 11 hours talk time. 

Update (6 June 2017):
I decided to completely drain both the buds + case just to check the charge times. Here are the results based on charging through a MacBook Air USB port. As you can see, the charging speed of the buds is really fast. 
Charging Case (100%) - 1h 25min
AirPods (80%) - 15min 
AirPods (100%) - 22min

Putting all these figures in perspective and considering just the buds at full charge, the playback on the AirPods last above the average. They come up short against Bragi The Headphone (6 hours) but easily edge the feature-filled Samsung Gear IconX (1.5 hours) and Erato Apollo 7 (3 hours). 


Overall
The Apple AirPods are a great pair of truly wireless earbuds to own. They are really comfortable to wear and sound drop offs that some truly wireless in-ears unfortunately have are not experienced in these buds. Now noise isolation may be non-existent and options are limited for Android users but if you are a user of Apple products, the AirPods is certainly a convenient, reliable and stylish option for consideration.




Apple AirPods and Truly wireless earbuds compared

In a subsequent part, we will look at a comparison between some of the best truly wireless earbuds in the market. We will look at some of them within the same price range such as the Apple AirPods, Samsung Gear IconX and Bragi The Headphone. 

Stay tuned!

Where To Buy
The Apple AirPods are available from the Apple Online Store and take a 6 week turnaround to deliver.

Credit to Apple for an evaluation unit.

Initiated as a Kickstarter project in 2015, California-based Erato Audio developed the Apollo 7 true wireless earbuds. Truly wireless earbuds are 2016's flavor of the year, even more so with iPhone 7's removal of the earphone jack. It's all the more timely that the Erato Apollo 7 (SGD 499 / USD 299) now hits the markets in Singapore with its most recent launch on 8 Oct. Oh, and it did scoop the 2015 Red Dot Honorable Mention Award on the way.

Unboxing
There are 4 colors available - Pink, Silver, Gray and Gold, of which we were provided the 4th variant.

Credit - Erato

Sliding out the outer layer reveals a solid white box. The side gives an idea what to expect in the packaging.

Pop the top lid open for the Apollo 7 earbuds and the charging case.

Lifting the bottom tab gives access the inner sanctum. Can't be too difficult to guess what lies beneath now, can it?

Spilling out the packaging contents reveals:

• Erato Apollo 7 true wireless earbuds
• Charging capsule
• Silicon tips (S /M /L)
• Comply Foam Isolation tips (T-600) (S /M /L)
• Stabilizers (aka fins) (S/ M /L)
• Charging cable
• Quick Start Guide
• User Manual

Design
The Apollo 7 buds are undeniably tiny. They each sport a single button and a circular contact point on the outer edge. Each Erato bud weighs an astonishing 4 grams, making these what they claim are the lightest truly wireless buds with an omnidirectional microphone. They compare favorably with the 3.5 gram Earin (without mic), the Samsung Gear IconX (6g) and Bragi Dash (7g).  

The charging case allows the buds to be stored and charged simultaneously, similar to the Earin and Bragi Dash. There are 2 LEDs on the left side to indicate the charging status of the case from the micro-USB and of the earbuds respectively.

Features
Interestingly the Erato Apollo 7 has no app support and this breaks the trend of all the truly wireless buds we've looked at so far. While we check out the features and performance, we'll also assess whether the buds can hold up purely by hardware and firmware capability.

Breaking down the features:

1. Playback controls
There is a single button on each earbud and each side actually operates a different function. Here's how it works:

• Hold - Power on
• Longer hold - Pairing initiates
• Single press - Play / Pause
• Double press (right bud) - Volume up
• Hold (right bud) - Next track
• Double press (left bud) - Volume down
• Hold (left bud) - Previous track

You notice I made a sub list under 'Single press'? Think that's a mistake? Well damn right it isn't! That's 'cos the functions in the sub list only work during music playback. With this, you really begin to appreciate how the buds work on their own without leveraging on an app. 


2. Waterproofing 
There is a nano-coating which supposedly provides a layer of waterproofing (not submerging we might add). Let's just say that throwing some water on the buds didn't affect its functional duties. 

3. Bluetooth (4.1)
Let's start with the basics - usage. I held the right earbud button to power on, did the same for the left bud and presto, both sides were connected. Holding the either button will initiate pairing with your music device. Out of the truly wireless earbuds tested, the Erato gives an added level of control due to the physical button. Other earbuds are only able to initiate pairing by parking / removing the buds from the charging case.

4. Notifications 
The sound / voice notifications are kept to a minimal, all the more surprising given there's no mobile app. However, voice prompts informing that power is on and pairing is in progress is welcome. With a button on each bud for actuating, there's no further sound prompts when playing or skipping tracks.

Performance
As usual, we'll do some tests on the sound quality, noise isolation and whether there are any sound drop offs. Stay tuned!

For starters, do read our article on the different types of Comply Foam and their effectiveness.

Update (Feb 2017)
The Apollo 7 uses micro-sized dynamic drivers. The result is that the sound quality has good bass emphasis while the higher frequencies were quite clear. This is excellent for R&B or EDM tracks. This sound profile can be tweaked since you have both silicon and Comply Foam tips. Comply tips tend to reduce the treble and increase the bass. Personally, I favoured using the Comply tips.


Noise isolation using the silicon tips is decent but if this is a priority to you, do use the Comply Foam instead. Sounds on the bus or train can be blocked significantly and you are able to listen to your music quite peacefully.

Overall
The Erato Apollo 7 is a rare breed of true wireless earphones that is able to function without app support. That said, it's clear that playback controls can be adjusted from the buds directly. Apart from the general aesthetic where the buds protrude from your ears, it's a good all round pair of true wireless buds.

Where To Buy
If you like what you have read, feel free to support me by buying from Amazon (USD 299) or Lazada SG (SGD 499).  

Credit to Erato and TC Acoustic for a review unit.

The current fad is undoubtedly Nintendo's Pokemon Go, a game that leverages the augmented reality experience by combining location information and the phone camera.

Now, imagine an augmented experience on audio. Doppler Labs' Here Active Listening System, that originated from Kickstarter, is one such product. These are full wireless earbuds with a twist - they don't play music (it's not their purpose)!

Only 10,000 pairs were produced in Doppler Labs' initial production run. They went for USD 249 each and we got our hands on one such unit for a spin. We give you some first impressions.

Who is it for? 
Folks who want a novel way to listen to their surroundings.

Unboxing
There are 2 colors - white and black of which ours was the latter. 

Now for the unboxing:

Just slide off the outer layer to access the inner box simply marked with the 'here' logo. 

Lift open the cover and we get the Here charging case along with some info on the underside of the box.

Once the inner layer is out, we have 2 compartments - left for the charging cable and right for the spare buds. 

We popped out the packaging contents to reveal:

• Hear Active Listening earbuds
• Silicon tips (S / M / L) 
• Charging capsule
• Charging cable
• User guide + sticker

Design
Now to the Hear earbuds - they weigh a relatively light 10g. Putting things in perspective with other full wireless buds, the Samsung Gear IconX weighs 12.8g while the Earin tips the scales at 7g, though each of their features differs very greatly.

The case is made of sturdy plastic and serves to store and charge the earbuds at the same time. There's a 4 LED power indicator inside while the side of the casing sports the micro-USB port for charging. When closed, a front LED shows whether charging is in progress (orange means ongoing / green when full). The buds last about 5-6 hours depending on usage and the additional power delivers up to 10 hours more.

Features
The centerpiece of the buds is definitely the app. Without the app, these buds simply don't work. The smartphone app works on iOS (v8.4+) and Android (v5.0+) and provides some preset filters .

Once installed and connected, there are 3 tabs to play around with:

1. dB adjustment
You can move from - 22dB (silence) to +6dB (noisiest) and there's a hi-dB Mode that adds a layer of noise to whichever decibel level you choose.

2. Live EQ 
Includes various filters like Bass Boost / Echo / Flange / Fuzz / Noise Mask / Reverb. To give an example, if Echo is selected, any sound you here will be echoed back. How about that.

3. Filter
This tab offers Tune In and Tune Out filters. To be honest, quite a few sounded very similar, if not identical, to each other.

Here goes: 
a. Tune In 
There are a whopping 15 filters: 60s Sizzle / 8-Track / Aphex / Carnegie Hall / Classical Music / Dirty South / Flat / Hallway / Human Speech / Psychedelic / Small Studio / Stadium / Stratosphere / Super Bass / Tiesto Mode. 
I couldn't help but get the feeling that there were quite a few overlaps in terms of sound. Psychedelic fluctuates from a zoom-in and zoom-out sound while Stratosphere actually sounds the same except the intensity is more pronounced.

b. Tune Out (Beta) 
Ok, these 9 filters are in 'Beta' mode and it shows - 
Airplane / Bus / Car / City / Crowd / Office (Loud) / Office (Normal) / Restaurant / Subway.
Bus replicates a noisy bus environment while Crowd comes across like very heavy rain. Office (Loud) adds a whole lot of static sound. Interestingly, Airplane, Office (Normal) and Restaurant sound almost exactly the same - complete silence.

Update (9 Aug 2016):
The buds tended to disconnect every now and then when using iPad (iOS v8) and Sony Xperia XA (Android v 6.0). Most times, reseting them by inserting a sharp object into a hole under the charging case will do the trick.

Overall
This is a very novel concept where the purpose of the buds is to deliver a different listening experience of your surroundings. It is not to listen to music :)

That said, the overall experience is quite unique. I for one, am not used to putting on a noise-controlling device that regulates (or distorts) ambient noise in such an interesting manner. As such, it's a likelihood that trying this out will give polarizing experiences, depending on what each individual expects to hear. 

Availability / The Future
Currently, the Here Active Listening System is not in production. If you want to get it in Singapore, you simply can't 'cos there were only 10,000 units produced thus far.

However, it will be released in a new form by Christmas 2016. It will be called Here One and this version will incorporate music playback (yes!). Pricing is to be determined.