The AirPods are Bluetooth, but I was under the impression that the improved pairing and battery life technology relied on the source also featuring the W1 chip. After looking into it, an article[^1] from 9to5mac implies otherwise. If that's the case, we can strike this complaint from the list.
1. https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/12/apple-w1-chip-how-it-works/
AirPods work over Bluetooth 4.0 so of course they work. The iCloud pairing is software, included in Sierra.