AirPods Preparing for Shipment: Dec 27th - Feb 1st + Firmware v3.5.1

[Vermifuge]

So I have finally seen some movement on my order placed on December 27th 2016. The fact that this happened in conjunction with the release of Firmware 3.5.1. Not to mention Apple's own historical actions... this move is highly suspect. This would suggest to me there has been some hardware revision to the now shipping AirPods. However minor, there has probably been some form of hardware change that warranted a software update to account for.

Thoughts? Anyone courageous enough to rip their AirPods Apart?

 

[WilliamG]

No need to open them up. It tells you the hardware revision in the firmware screen. Mine are 1.0.0, so we'll know if there are any changes. My money is on there aren't.

 

[HopefulHumanist]

What are you talking about? You're clearly seeing patterns where there aren't any. All of Apple's hardware receives periodic software updates; there is nothing that indicates they've updated the hardware in any meaningful way. They're constantly manufacturing more AirPods and updating the status of orders; it's just a coincidence that your order moved to preparing for shipment around the time of the firmware update.