0:01 It's not just the smartphones that are
0:02 getting more and more boring, but the
0:04 earbuds are also getting more and more
0:06 boring. I looked at the Apple AirPods
0:08 Pro 3 and they look the same. World's
0:10 best A and C. I don't know. So, I'm
0:12 actually pretty excited to reveal design
0:14 refresh for the ear free. Obviously, we
0:17 had ear, ear, and then we changed things
0:19 to just have it being called ear. Why
0:21 this is ear 3 and not ear 4? Like,
0:22 what's the story with what happened here?
0:22 here?
0:24 >> Yeah, I think we really held ourselves
0:26 back. So, in hindsight, that was a
0:27 mistake. And there's a portal alarm
0:29 here. We'll just make an assessment of
0:31 whether we need to leave the building.
0:32 What's going on everyone? Welcome to
0:34 another episode of Nothing TV. Today I'm
0:36 excited to be joined once again by Carl
0:38 and we're going to be sharing some new
0:39 product information with you today.
0:40 Carl, how's it going?
0:42 >> I'm good. How's it going? So, at the
0:44 time of recording yesterday, Apple just
0:46 wrapped up another one of their events.
0:47 Just wondered, obviously they announced
0:49 their next generation of AirPods Pro.
0:51 How's it feeling with such similar kind
0:53 of launch timelines for our kind of
0:54 flagship TWWS product?
0:56 >> Yeah, I feel good. I mean, I think this
0:58 time around, how should I put it? You
1:01 know, on one hand, it's good to be
1:03 consistent, and we have been pretty
1:06 consistent since 2021 when we released
1:08 our first pair of earbuds, the ear one.
1:11 And the consistency and the repetition
1:13 when it comes to the design language
1:17 really helps solidify an image for our
1:20 product, an icon for our product. But
1:21 it's also nice to switch it up now and
1:24 then. And I think we are finally
1:25 switching up the design of our earbuds.
1:27 >> Rather than talking about Apple, let's
1:28 get into a little bit about nothing.
1:32 People always seem to want the latest.
1:35 There's a fire alarm here.
1:37 Oh, I can't hear it at all. Oh, that's
1:39 good. Um, car, we'll just make an
1:41 assessment of whether we need to leave
1:45 the building. I think we might have to.
1:46 Okay. Should we stop >> eventually?
1:47 >> eventually?
1:49 >> You can hear the alarm through the earbuds.
1:51 earbuds.
1:52 Zero. And you're not even using super
1:54 mic, huh?
1:56 >> No. Very impressed.
1:57 >> Carl, I don't know if you're able to
1:58 share with us, but what's the market
2:01 response been to our first two flagship
2:02 products from this year in the Phone 3
2:03 and Headphone One?
2:06 >> It's been a great year so far. Um, knock
2:08 on wood that we continue the trajectory
2:09 towards the end of the year, but we're
2:11 doubling in size this year compared to
2:13 last year. So, I'm pretty happy about
2:14 the rate of progress.
2:16 >> All right. Well, sounding very positive.
2:18 Before we get into year 3, I wonder if
2:19 you could just kind of give us a recap
2:20 about how we think about the TWWS
2:22 category since, you know, we've made
2:23 quite a few of these at this point.
2:25 >> I mean, the true wireless category was
2:26 the first category of products that we
2:27 ever made. So, it's always been a part
2:30 of our DNA and every year we have been
2:32 improving our capabilities. I think now
2:34 we have one of the strongest acoustics
2:36 teams in the TWWS category and the sound
2:38 quality has, you know, kept improving
2:40 for generation after generation. I mean,
2:42 this is probably what we're best at like
2:43 this and smartphones. It's really
2:45 exciting to release our fourth
2:47 generation, the year three. It is the
2:50 best we we've ever made so far. And I
2:51 think apart from just having like the
2:53 expected features, I'm really happy
2:55 about the special thing that we did this
2:56 time around.
2:57 >> Totally. We'll be getting into that in a
2:59 second, but before we get there, I
3:00 wonder if you can just tell me about the
3:01 naming. I know we've seen a lot of
3:03 comments. Obviously, we had ear 2 and
3:05 then we changed things to just have it
3:06 being called ear. There's been a lot of
3:08 questions around why this is ear 3 and
3:10 not ear. Like what's the story with what
3:11 happened here? Yeah, I think we
3:13 addressed this in a different video,
3:15 right? But basically, because the true
3:18 wireless form factor
3:20 didn't need an upgrade as frequent as
3:22 with a smartphone like category, I felt
3:24 like maybe we don't need to, you know,
3:27 add to the numbers every single year and
3:28 it could be more like a car. You know,
3:31 the a car model um will be called the
3:33 same car model, but the only difference
3:35 would be the year it got refreshed. But
3:37 that led to a lot of confusion because
3:39 when people were searching online for
3:40 the product, they got all types of
3:42 responses because it didn't specify the
3:44 model number. So in hindsight, that was
3:46 a mistake and uh we're just flipping
3:48 back to how things used to be. It's more
3:50 clear. Yeah, let's just call it the
3:51 third generation and turn the page from
3:52 now on.
3:53 >> That sounds good to me. And I think for
3:55 most people's brains, bigger number
3:57 means newer and better, right? So
3:59 >> yeah, for sure. And I just wanted to
4:01 touch on the fact that I feel like the
4:03 reviews for Ear and Ear were so popular.
4:05 They were so positive almost at the time
4:07 I think they could almost be considered
4:08 future complete. So with products that
4:11 were already so successful and so loved,
4:13 you know, how do we approach what this
4:14 next generation should be? Like where
4:16 does the thinking really begin when you
4:17 have kind of ticked all the boxes with
4:19 the previous generation? For the year 3,
4:21 we really wanted to look at the
4:25 materials that we're using and also try
4:28 and innovate on this category because
4:29 it's not just the smartphones that are
4:30 getting more and more boring, but
4:32 wireless earbuds are also getting more
4:34 and more boring. like the features are
4:35 all the same. We just tried to push
4:37 along those two lines. For instance, on
4:40 the material side, all the nothing
4:42 earbuds so far have been plastic and we
4:43 were thinking like how do we really make
4:45 it more premium? Uh you're right, the
4:47 ear and ear are really good products
4:49 that are loved by consumers. A lot of
4:51 people buy them still to to this day. We
4:53 sell a lot every single day, but we're
4:54 never satisfied with where we are at
4:56 Nothing. We always want to make things
4:58 better. And for the E3, we were thinking
5:01 of, you know, how can we really elevate
5:03 the the feeling of the product through
5:05 material use and design.
5:07 >> And in some of the launch teasers on
5:08 social media, we've seen a few
5:10 references to Super Mic. Now, I wonder
5:12 if you can explain to us kind of what
5:14 this is and what sort of problem we're
5:14 trying to solve with it.
5:16 >> I mean, the issue with wireless earbuds
5:18 is that you have them in your ear and
5:21 it's quite a distance between your ear
5:23 and your mouth. like it doesn't get
5:25 enough signal to really be able to
5:27 perfectly filter out what you're trying
5:29 to say and what's in the in the
5:30 background. So, we didn't do anything
5:33 magical with the case on the Ear3, but
5:34 we simply put two high quality
5:36 microphones in the charging case and
5:38 used beam forming technology to help
5:40 filter out the ambient noise and help
5:41 you focus in on your voice when you have
5:43 the super mic on. I mean, we've already
5:45 made a lot of improvements on the mic on
5:46 the earbuds themselves, like when you
5:48 had your fire alarm, I couldn't hear it.
5:50 But in those really, really noisy
5:52 environments, like at close to 100 dB of
5:54 noise, say you're on the tube or you're
5:55 in a pub and you still have to speak to
5:57 some people, you can hold the talk
5:59 button on the side of the case and just
6:01 speak into the case and your voice will
6:02 be crystal clear.
6:04 >> So, the idea is that you basically just
6:05 hold the case to your mouth and then
6:07 benefit from improved mic quality.
6:08 >> Yeah. Why don't we swap to super mic
6:10 now? Tap and hold when you're speaking
6:13 into the mic. And whenever you're done
6:14 speaking, you release it. It's like a
6:16 walkie-talkie. Very easy to use.
6:18 >> Okay. Whose idea was it to test Super
6:20 Mic in a really quiet room? How about we
6:21 head outside onto the main streets of
6:23 London and try Super Mic in some more
6:24 challenging environments.
6:27 >> Here we are at the UK. And now over to
6:29 the Super
6:31 >> So you can appreciate how crystal clear
6:32 my voice is.
6:34 >> Here's another example of super mic
6:36 background noise.
6:38 As you can tell, it's focusing right in
6:39 on my voice. And you can't hear that
6:43 motorbike at all, hopefully. Oh, wow.
6:46 Here we are on the underground.
6:47 And here I am speaking through the super
6:49 mic, which I'm sure you can hear my
6:50 voice just fine.
6:52 >> Yeah, I really like using the double
6:53 press to kind of hold it, especially if
6:55 you're in a longer call like this. Super
6:56 convenient not to have to hold it down.
6:57 But yeah,
6:58 >> it's nice to have a really big bright
7:00 indicator so you know it's working.
7:01 >> All right, should we swap back to the
7:03 other mics now? All right. So, I guess
7:05 my question becomes like if we're so
7:06 excited about this mic in the case,
7:08 wouldn't people just use it all the time
7:10 rather than the mics on their earbuds?
7:12 >> Sure. The Super Mic will be really
7:14 useful in some conditions, but in
7:16 everyday use, we've also really improved
7:17 the microphones on the Ear3. It's
7:19 actually now super advanced. And for us,
7:22 these two modes, different modes are to
7:23 give people more choice in how they use
7:25 the product. Each earbud now has three
7:27 directional microphones and a bone
7:29 conduction voice pickup unit, meaning
7:31 that it basically senses the micro
7:32 vibrations in your jaw and ear canal and
7:35 is then able to distinguish what you're
7:36 actually saying and other noise like
7:38 wind and other environmental noise,
7:40 which means the your voice will become
7:42 even clearer than in the previous gen
7:44 nothing ear. This has all sounded really
7:45 exciting. Um, but I know there's also
7:46 been like a bunch of other improvements
7:48 to E3. So, I just wonder if you can tell
7:49 us about some of the other features or
7:51 elements that you're excited about.
7:53 >> Yeah, sound quality has really improved.
7:54 We've increased the size of the driver
7:57 for one. It's 1 millm larger than the
7:59 previous gen. It's now at 12 mm. The
8:01 bass response is better. We've improved
8:03 the treble and distortion has also been
8:05 reduced. So, we have improvements across
8:08 the board. And just like before, we have
8:10 high-res audio certifications, LDAC. So,
8:12 these sound really great, but you know,
8:14 with sound quality, we really need to
8:16 put it into the hands or rather put it
8:17 into the ears of our users and, you
8:19 know, get the firsthand feedback. And
8:20 with headphone 1 earlier this year, we
8:22 also had like quite a few new
8:23 interesting features added that you can
8:25 control through nothing X. So have any
8:27 of these new features made their way
8:28 over to Ear 3 as well?
8:30 >> Yeah, actually um one of the features
8:32 that have made its way to the Ear 3 from
8:34 the headphone 1 is adaptive ANC. It
8:36 basically keeps checking your
8:40 surrounding and uh will adapt the ANC
8:42 mode if it feels the need to. I think it
8:44 checks your surroundings something like
8:46 600 times a second. So, with the
8:48 headphone 1, we also included dynamic
8:50 spatial audio, and we brought a similar
8:53 feature to the Ear 3, um, static spatial
8:55 audio. So, it's the first time we bring
8:57 it to our wireless earbuds, and it
8:59 basically creates a 360° soundsscape.
9:02 So, there's some nice upgrades here.
9:03 >> Sorry, Carl, don't mean to cut you off,
9:05 but in this next section, I'm speaking
9:06 to one of our industrial designers about
9:09 E3. Frank, welcome to Nothing TV. Thank
9:09 you for your time.
9:10 >> Thanks for having me.
9:11 >> Why don't we kick things off with a
9:13 quick intro from yourself?
9:14 >> Sure. So, I'm Frank. I'm an industrial
9:16 designer on the Nothing Design team. I'm
9:19 one of the me members that brought Ear 3
9:19 to life.
9:21 >> Really excited to get into the kind of
9:23 ID story. We've covered all of the specs
9:24 and features of car earlier in the
9:26 video, but maybe you can start by
9:28 telling us a bit about what some of the
9:29 inspirations were for Ear 3 when you
9:31 kind of got started working on it.
9:34 >> My first project was the Ear A. So from
9:37 that, we sort of like had to learn what
9:39 the Air1 and ear was and what kind of
9:41 decisions they had to make. and we
9:42 started thinking about all the things
9:44 that we wanted to improve and make
9:47 better. So, a lot of the ideas sort of
9:49 like just quite naturally came and we're
9:52 always thinking about how to stay one
9:54 step ahead and bring new and exciting
9:56 stuff forward to the next generation product.
9:56 product.
9:58 >> Am I right in saying that when you
10:00 finish one generation of a product,
10:01 there's always kind of a little list of
10:02 things you maybe wish you could have
10:04 done in that particular generation that
10:07 then kind of moves on to the future.
10:08 >> Yeah, definitely. Like during the
10:10 projects there's like things that sort
10:13 of like come to you quite late when when
10:15 the product is already formed or things
10:17 that you wish you could have done and
10:18 some of the ideas sort of like
10:21 definitely went into the year 3.
10:22 >> Going to give any examples of some of
10:24 those ideas that didn't make it to ear
10:26 that then you were excited to kick off
10:27 with year 3. Definitely like the super
10:30 mic that was an idea that we sort of had
10:32 around I think maybe just after ear a
10:35 just when ear has finished and it sort
10:37 of like really came from real life
10:39 scenarios where you wanted to have
10:41 better voice quality when you're on
10:43 calls um if you wanted to have like a
10:45 private conversation in like a public
10:47 environment and that definitely felt
10:48 like it was something that was really
10:50 exciting to bring to a flagship product.
10:51 >> Totally. And the thing that kind of blew
10:54 my mind when I first saw Ear 3 was we've
10:55 got all this extra functionality in the
10:58 charge case, but the footprint is is it
10:59 smaller or is it the same as
11:02 >> it's exactly the same as ear 2 and ear?
11:04 >> So yeah, that that was like a great sort
11:07 of like collaboration between the ID as
11:09 well as the engineering team. I think
11:10 everyone had the same sort of like
11:12 shared goal. It's it's like an
11:14 improvement. If it became bigger, then
11:16 we felt like it sort of like was a step
11:18 backwards. That's sort of like why we
11:21 decided to change the exterior and
11:23 interior for well like redesign the case
11:25 completely to be able to pack the super
11:27 mic, the talk button, the antenna
11:30 island, rejig everything and fit
11:32 everything in with the same package.
11:33 >> Another idea I've been hearing a lot
11:35 about is the antenna in the earbuds.
11:37 What's the story there? Was this another
11:39 one of these ideas that you wish you'd
11:40 done in previous generations or is it
11:42 kind of a new idea for E3? Well, weirdly
11:44 that was an idea that we sort of like
11:46 drew up because we sort of like really
11:48 like seeing functional components
11:50 underneath the transparent components
11:53 and a lot of it came from learnings from
11:55 the phone. The way that our phone 1, 2,
11:58 and 3 works is that the antenna is
12:00 embedded with the metal mid-frame
12:04 >> and how ear A was is that the antenna
12:06 was actually this really thin piece of
12:08 material that gets stuck behind the
12:10 antenna bracket which is the thing that
12:11 the users can see,
12:13 >> right? So using that idea, we thought
12:15 about is it possible to do something
12:17 similar to phone and combine the two
12:18 components together and it was something
12:21 that it worked and it end up being a
12:23 component that you can see that's
12:25 functional instead of being underneath
12:27 something that's like an appearance or
12:28 cosmetic thing.
12:30 >> And another part about this particular
12:32 element of the device is the shape. >> Mhm.
12:32 >> Mhm.
12:34 >> I think with E3 we're seeing a lot more
12:35 kind of curved shapes. I think you
12:37 referred to them as racetracks before.
12:39 >> Yes. What's the kind of thinking behind
12:40 this? For me, it kind of seems like a
12:41 softening almost.
12:43 >> Yeah. I think it's from like
12:45 collectively using the products, we
12:47 always kind of think about whether it's
12:50 possible to improve it. And we refer
12:52 back to like the way that phone 2
12:54 evolved into phone 3 where everything
12:56 became like quite ordered and following
12:58 like a certain grid. So we try to do the
13:01 same thing from ear to to ear 3 where it
13:04 starts following like a more complete
13:07 geometric shape. And that front read of
13:08 like the two racetrack shapes, it's
13:10 something that we felt was quite iconic
13:12 and felt very pure. And that then
13:14 evolved into like changing the the
13:16 racetrack shape of the entire earbuds
13:18 itself. Everything became a little bit
13:20 softer, felt a little bit more grown up.
13:22 >> Yeah, definitely. And then on the use of
13:23 materials, obviously we've covered the Y
13:26 for the internal antenna, but we're
13:28 bringing metal to the charge case as well.
13:28 well. >> Yeah.
13:29 >> Yeah.
13:31 >> What was the kind of rationale for this?
13:32 because I think visually it's the
13:34 biggest kind of change we've seen in our
13:36 TWWS lineup versus previous generations. So
13:37 So
13:38 >> yeah, how did the team approach
13:40 implementing metal and what was the what
13:41 was the why?
13:43 >> So metal has always been the material
13:46 that we've used since even on ear and
13:49 ear 2 with the hinge and it's very
13:51 apparent in our sort of like phone phone
13:53 lineup. I think at the time we're doing
13:55 also headphone one as well as well as
13:57 other team members thinking about phone
14:00 3. It sort of like tied in very well
14:02 with the entire range of like creating
14:05 this cohesive language across the across
14:07 the products. And secondly, like metal's
14:09 always been like a material that really
14:11 fascinates us. The kind of like
14:14 precision that you get, the pristineess,
14:17 something that's feels sort of like cold
14:18 to the touch. It's similar to the way
14:19 that you sort of like the first thing
14:21 that you touch on the headphones is that
14:23 like cold to touch feeling which feels
14:24 really nice. And we wanted to bring that
14:26 into the earbuds case as well. and also
14:28 which is really nice.
14:29 >> Yeah, totally. But you've also been able
14:31 to kind of maintain what people know our
14:33 products for, which is the transparency.
14:35 So, there's obviously like a pretty nice
14:37 kind of 50/50 ratio from the side, but
14:40 >> how did you approach firstly how metal
14:40 to go?
14:42 >> Like cuz I'm assuming this could have
14:44 all been metal, including the lid, but
14:46 like what was the right balance and how
14:47 did you kind of have those
14:48 conversations? kind of like looking back
14:52 from ear 1, ear 2, and ear a when you
14:53 look at the product from like the top
14:55 view down, you can completely see
14:56 through the entire thing. And that's
14:59 what we wanted to keep. I think there's
15:02 a lot of other products out there that
15:03 has like half transparent and half
15:05 something else. It it just feels like
15:07 it's missing something. And I think what
15:09 it's missing is really just sort of like
15:11 that completely see-throughness, which
15:13 is what we try to like maintain with
15:14 these transparent wells, which is
15:16 something that we love on the ear too.
15:18 Yeah, I remember a lot of the ID team
15:19 members are super excited about where
15:22 the earbuds slot in because they kind of
15:24 augment the light shining through. So,
15:25 it's cool that we're able to keep hold
15:25 of that.
15:27 >> Yeah, the refraction when you that you
15:29 get is really cool.
15:30 >> And then onto the controls. So,
15:32 obviously now we've got a microphone, an
15:34 LED, we've got a talk button. We've also
15:35 got a lanyard loop. >> Yes.
15:36 >> Yes.
15:38 >> Lots of new ideas to implement. How do
15:40 you go about kind of celebrating them
15:42 enough and making them kind of easy to
15:44 operate versus like being distracting?
15:46 In the studio, there's hundreds of
15:47 different prototypes of like different
15:50 shapes of the microphone island,
15:51 different finishes of the talk button.
15:53 We've got like so many different
15:55 iterations of like how much it should
15:57 step. But I think a lot of the learnings
15:59 is like the whole team together from
16:01 doing phones and earbuds as well. Like
16:05 we've introduced the um polish button on
16:08 the phone 3A series and then that felt
16:11 like it was something that it could tie
16:13 the entire range together. So when we're
16:15 thinking about a product, it's not just
16:17 about one product. It's about also
16:19 coherency with the rest of the family.
16:21 It needs like trial and error. We we do
16:23 lots of different testing before knowing
16:26 that this feels and is right and that
16:28 sort of takes a entire team to do so.
16:30 The bottom of the stem is slightly more
16:32 rounded. I think I remember seeing that
16:34 the overall size of the buds has gotten
16:35 smaller. Were there any challenges
16:36 involved in this? because my
16:38 understanding is the battery life should
16:40 be as good as the last generation
16:42 despite being somewhat miniaturized. The
16:45 driver battery increased in comparison
16:47 to ear and we're able to add a bigger
16:49 battery into the earbuds into the opaque
16:53 section and make this the overall size
16:55 of it a bit smaller and that's because
16:58 we always wanted to keep improving on
17:00 the ergonomics of it. Yeah. But there
17:02 were definitely a lot of challenges when
17:03 we when we looked into this. of like
17:06 repositioning the components, thinning
17:08 out certain wall sections. The engineers
17:10 done a really good job on doing so.
17:11 Frank, this was super fun, interesting.
17:12 Thank you so much for coming on and
17:14 sharing a bit more on the design story.
17:15 Thanks for having me. So, there you have
17:17 it. Pricing and availability on screen
17:18 now. And for those of you who want to
17:20 learn even more about E3, head on over
17:24 to nothing.te. See you in the next one. [Music]
