Apple is finally giving AirPods owners a way to assuage their biggest fear: Losing one (or both) of their precious wireless earbuds.
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In the beta of iOS 10.3, Apple updated the Find My iPhone app to include AirPods locating. When you head into the app, you can tap on your pair of AirPods from among the iPhones, iPads, and Macs in your possession, and then the buds will play a sound so you can play a solo game of Marco Polo to find them.
The only caveat to this is that your AirPods A) need to be charged and B) need to be within Bluetooth range of another one of your iOS or Mac devices in order to be located. If the pods are dead or out of range, the app will just show you their last known location.
With this functionality coming to light, it now makes a lot more sense why Apple recently removed an app called Finder from the App Store. This third-party app gave AirPod owners the ability to guesstimate their AirPods’ location based on the Bluetooth signal strength they were emitting—a pretty ingenious hack. Apple typically bars apps that replicate existing iOS functionality (or upcoming iOS functions, in this case); it was removed earlier this month.
iOS 10.3 beta (available today for developers) includes a handful of other updates, as well. Siri can now answer questions about the sport of cricket, third-party payment apps can now integrate with her for handling bill payments, and she can now hail an Uber, Lyft, or other ride-sharing app. Apple also updated CarPlay so you can more quickly launch your last two apps, and it shows where EV charging stations are along your route in the Maps app. Finally, HomeKit now supports programmable light switches.
H/T CNET