Updated: Smart earphones pushed back - but worth waiting for
Doppler Labs, the startup that raised big bucks to bring its Here Active Listening earbuds to life, is building Here One, an all-in-one wireless listening system. But it recently announced that the release has been pushed back from the original November date to February 2017.
Like its predecessor, the Here One is a pair of wireless earbuds that build on the smart listening and noise filtering technologies included in the Active Listening buds, but crucially, now adds music streaming making them all that more desirable.
As well as being available to pre-order for $299 in the US, as it has been since launch, it’s now up for pre-order in the EU (including the UK) as well as Canada, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Here One costs £249.99 in the UK, €299.99 in Europe and Iceland and $299.99 in Canada. Shipping for all orders is now set for mid-February 2017 and the One hearable will hit shops in March.
The Here One isn’t the only pair of smart earbuds that has run into delays in production – Apple’s AirPods (which don’t have as many features) are now (finally) available to order after some hiccups. Doppler Labs CEO Noah Kraft put the Here One delay down to getting Bluetooth and NFMI (Near Field Magnetic Induction) to work together fast enough so that the user doesn’t hear any lag. He also guessed that connectivity was the cause of the AirPod delay.
What’s new from Here
Doppler Labs is now adding multiple microphones and processors into a design that’s only grown by a single millimetre on the Here Active Listening, to improve on its unique ability to filter out unwanted noise, a feature that the startup said proved extremely popular with its first hearable.
Read this: Here Active Listening earbuds review
A new adaptive noise filtering system now lets you selectively cancel or amplify a particular sound using new proprietary adaptive filters, which can identify and target sounds, such as human speech, sirens and a jet engine.
Other new features include a new layered listening mode to stream audio and listen to your surroundings simultaneously. Think listening to commentary while you’re at a live sporting event or listening to music while you’re out riding a bike.
There’s also personalised listening preferences to create the best listening experience for your ears in any scenario without having to manually adjusting filters. You can now interact with the smart assistants like Siri, Google Now, Alexa and Cortana now that there are multiple microphones on board.
All of those new features can be controlled from the Here companion app where you’ll still find features like EQ, volume, sound effects and tune in presets featured with Here Active Listening.
The addition of music streaming is definitely a big deal here, and while we’re sure serious music nerds will love the new filtering tech on board, the Here One feels less like a niche hearable and one that will be competing with Bragi, Samsung and the rest in the coming year.
You can check out our interview with Noah Kraft to learn more about Here One and the future of building tech for the ear.