In a surprise by-invitation-only keynote at the Varsity Theater, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Friday that the tech giant has partnered with BYU to release several exciting new products. The headliner is a BYU edition of AirPods Pro, a product that will supposedly be unlike any other.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Lord’s University to bring their students an amazing product,” Cook said. “And might I add, though I’ve never been here before today, Utah County is a stunning place and deserves to be dubbed a ‘mini-Silicon Valley.’ Great places deserve to be the home of our greatest products. Our team will surely consider moving our HomePod production to Orem.”
BYU AirPods Pro come with a long list of features that separate them from their standard AirPods cousin. The buds are noise-cancelling, which, according to Apple, allows students to “block out all the haters.”
Siri will also be getting some upgrades; if you say “Hey Siri: play,” she’ll start playing EFY albums on shuffle. If you begin playing a song through your AirPods that has even a mild profanity, Siri will stop your music and yell “REPENT!” three times. Siri has four new voice options; her settings can be changed to the voice of your mom, your bishop, Kevin J. Worthen, or Dallin H. Oaks.
“I’m excited to try the new AirPods for myself, although I was really holding out for a royal blue set, and Apple let me down once again when they announced they’ll only be available in white,” computer science major Daniel Schurtz said.
BYU AirPods Pro are available for preorder beginning today from the BYU Store website, and will be available exclusively at CougarTech on Friday. Students can receive a 1% discount if they pay with Cougar Cash. Other announcements from the keynote included a new “sign in with net ID” login option across all Apple products.
When taking questions following the event, Cook addressed one disappointing feature of the new AirPods. “At Apple, security and privacy are our top priorities. In order to connect with Bluetooth, when you open your case, you’ll have to confirm it’s you through a Duo push notification, just to make sure you’re the one actually using your own BYU AirPods Pro,” he admitted. Cook did say, however, that there is an option to keep you logged in for 30 minutes.
This is awesome! I love the crack at dyo push notifications, and you are only signed 8n for 30 mins 😂😂😂