As I was browsing my Twitter feed yesterday morning, a retweet of a 7-month-old tweet from Google Senior VP Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) by Dieter Bohn (@backlon) caught my attention. In this tweet, it seems Lockheimer may have been pointing out the exact features and tricks we may just see in the upcoming Pixel Buds 2 we’re expecting to see at Google’s hardware event in just over a week.
There are a few things to keep in mind, here. First, Lockheimer was tweeting from a personal account, so there’s no firm indication that this was a cheeky hint at an upcoming product he would have some direct involvement in. Second, this was months ago. Third, this was retweeted just over a week before Google’s upcoming hardware event not by a random person on the internet. No, this was shared by The Verge’s Executive Editor who has been the main man on the ground for them at the last couple Google Hardware events in the fall.
As a matter of fact, with the Pixelbook, Pixel Slate, and the Pixel 2 and 3, Dieter managed to have fully-produced videos out and ready for publishing directly after the event wrapped up. This means that he (and others, to be fair) were given early access to all the hardware unveiled at Google’s event. For the videos and articles to all be ready to roll out, it means he had access for many days to these devices, so it would stand to reason that his inauspicious retweet could be laced with a tad of insider info. Sure, it may not be, but I find this timing to be quite suspicious.
One final note: Hiroshi Lockheimer is a pretty big deal in Mountain View. He oversees Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Play, Comms, and Photos, so his knowledge and understanding of what is going on from a hardware standpoint is about as good as it gets at Google. Yes, his tweet could have been just a rant about what he’d like to see in some wireless earbuds, but now that we know there is a new set of Pixel Buds on the way, this tweet looks quite different. Take a look.
Wish list for the perfect pair of truly wireless buds:
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) February 24, 2019
✔️ Great sound quality, latest codecs
✔️ 10+ hours before needing a charge
✔️ A case that fits in tight pockets, USB-C
✔️ Sweat-proof for workouts
✔️ Intuitive, tactile buttons
✔️ Auto mutes when someone is talking to me
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I don’t know about you, but that tweet – retweeted by a person who clearly has early access to Google’s newest hardware just about a week before an event – just feels like writing on the wall. Again, this could all just be Twitter silliness, but I’m inclined to think we now have a nice feature list for what we can expect to see out of the second iteration of the Pixel Buds.
Great sound, great battery, water-proofing, slim case, and the latest codecs (think reduced lag, great sound quality, better operation across many devices) all make for a pretty compelling package to me. And his final ‘request’ on the list sounds like an awfully Google-y thing to want out of a headset, making me firmly believe we could really be looking at the feature set for the upcoming Pixel Buds 2. Priced right with those features, I could see them doing quite well as long as they don’t look like the ridiculous new earbuds from Microsoft. We’ll all know soon enough, won’t we?
