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