If you’re looking for new earbuds from Apple and are sick of waiting for the AirPods 3, we’ve got good news: all the evidence suggests that the company will soon launch its highly anticipated Beats Studio Buds.
The first images of the Beats Studio Buds appeared in beta versions of iOS 14.6 and tvOS 14.6 earlier this month. Since then we’ve seen references in databases belonging to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and leaked images from factories in China.
The clearest clue to an imminent launch, however, is the appearance on Wednesday of a set of the new headphones ‘in the wild’ – sort of. The basketball legend LeBron James posted photos to Instagram in which he is very obviously wearing unreleased Beats headphones, which correspond exactly to previous information we’ve received about the Beats Studio Buds.
Apple loves to get its products in the hands of celebrities; you could barely move for singers and sportspeople wearing the original Apple Watch Edition when that golden monstrosity/delightful luxury wearable (delete according to taste) was launched. And for James to be wearing the headphones so conspicuously in every photo of the set suggests a calculated marketing decision.
What is less common is for Apple to allow a public glimpse of a product that hasn’t been officially announced. Which suggests the launch is very imminent indeed.
The Beats Studio Buds are equipped with active noise cancellation and will be released in two variants with the model numbers A2512 and A2513. Their design is reminiscent of the AirPods Pro, but with the big difference that the shaft is missing. They will come in red, black and white colour finishes, MacRumors reports.
The new Beats earbuds will most likely be launched at Apple’s WWDC 2021 event on 7 June. For buying advice related to the current range, read our guide to the best Beats headphones.
This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation and additional reporting by David Price.