Apple has been rumored to be working on new over-ear headphones for years, and we might have just gotten a vague idea of what they look like, thanks to an icon found in the first developer beta for iOS 14.3 by 9to5Mac. You can see the icon at the top of this post.
And here’s another look at the icon, apparently from a video in the Find My app in the beta found by MacRumors contributing writer Steve Moser.
New Pairing video in the Find My app in iOS 14.3 beta 1 with the codename Hawkeye hints at Apple Tags support and new Apple over ear headphones. pic.twitter.com/oVdCLQcaWc
— Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) November 12, 2020
The video shows a magnifying glass hovering over the icon of the headphones. Interestingly, the magnifying glass also passes over a backpack and a suitcase, which would be ideal places to store Apple’s rumored Tile-like trackers. And the fact that the video is reportedly found in the Find My app suggests it might be able to help you find both the headphones and the trackers.
The new icon of the headphones in iOS 14.3 isn’t our first preview of what they might look like. In March, 9to5Mac found two other icons of over-ear headphones in an early build of iOS 14, but those icons had a different design than the one found today and seemed to suggest that the headphones would come in black and white:
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The new icon’s inclusion in the iOS 14.3 beta suggests that the headphones could be released alongside that software update, but we don’t know when the update will come out. And because the software is in beta, Apple could remove information from it ahead of the update’s official release, so the new icon’s appearance isn’t a guarantee that the headphones will be available soon, if at all. But it’s not unprecedented for Apple headphones to be revealed through software updates — the design of the AirPods Pro appeared in an iOS 13.2 beta just weeks before their official announcement last year.
In April, Bloomberg reported that the new over-ear headphones could have interchangeable parts, including swappable ear pads and headbands that attach with magnets. Some of that modular functionality may have been scaled back, though, according to an October 26th Bloomberg report — the headphones may not have the swappable headband, but you might still be able to swap out the ear pads. The headphones were also apparently set to go into production “weeks ago,” but that timeline was delayed because of issues with the headband.
