Minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of life doesn't mean it can't be a major inconvenience in the moment. And when I'm out, or indisposed to charge my headphones, in that moment it's a major inconvenience. Especially for a solution that went in search of a problem that didn't exist.

Thankfully a pair of wired headphones is included free with every phone, just for you.

I believe you're firmly in the camp of first world problems. As far as I can tell they are the first wireless earphones to even address this problem with not one (external battery) but two (rapid charging) solutions at once.

If you're spending $159 on wireless headphones for your iPhone, you're probably already the poster child for the first world and are thus entitled to complain about first world problems.

Sure, but we're having this conversation on a forum for members of a rather upper middle class profession using a $1000 computer, talking about a $600 phone. We're all firmly in the camp of first world problems. Being extremely fortunate to have these problems doesn't delegitimize them. Nobody's saying it's on par with anything truly terrible in the world.

My 3.5mm jacked headphones are even less of an inconvenience in this regard.

Also, what happens when the battery dies (permanently) on these? Just have to buy another pair?

No, it's a V1 product issue, not a "minor inconvenience."

It's a shame, as if it were 10 or 12 hours, I'd have bought them seconds after the announcement.

Oh well. Here's hoping for 2017!

It's the first gen of a new product. They will only get better from here. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they iterate on it annually to go along with new iPhones.

Yeah I think Apple dropped the ball on this one. Hoping the EOZ One headphones I bought on Kickstarter last the full 9 hours they claim.

It's not unusual for me to fall asleep most of a long haul flight. In ear monitors that do a lot of noise cancelation/isolation really are a help in dealing with the noise of an airplane. So, for me, not needing to charge is pretty key.

That said, apple ear buds and my ears never really did get along.

Sometimes, I will use over ear

What I'm wondering is if you can charge just one earbud at a time while using the other.

For a lot of uses (for example: podcasts, casual movie watching on a long flight, getting driving directions on a road trip), it'd be entirely practical to use one earbud at a time and so have effectively 24+ hours battery life.

Right at the top: "Optical sensors and motion accelerometers work with the W1 chip to automatically control the audio and engage the microphone, giving you the ability to use one or both AirPods. "

That's a great idea. Would be neat to have one earbud in for inevitable siri api integrations too, so I can have my emails and texts and slack messages read to me.