After what feels like six months, Apple has started to ship the awaited wireless earbuds, AirPods. After being unveiled back in September alongside the new iPhone 7 and also new Beats products, wireless was a major talking point in the event as the iPhone 7 doesn’t have a headphone jack.

Why were AirPods delayed?

When AirPods were unveiled, Apple originally said that they would go on sale in late October, however as we got closer to the end of that month – rumours appeared in the tech community and Apple informed us that they would be delayed due to “audio issues.”

Shipping now

AirPods are shipping now, after going on sale on December 13 – however expect to wait 4-6 weeks as stock is pushed back, so it won’t arrive by Christmas.

How do they work?

AirPods are like normal bluetooth headphones and do work with Android phones and other non Apple products, but the beauty of AirPods is the W1 chip – when used with the iPhone 7 it improves sound quality and connection reliability as well as instant pairing, as soon as you open the case a pop up appears on the screen – click it and your AirPods are instantly paired with your iPhone and thanks to iCloud, they are paired with iPad and Mac too.

How long do they last?

Apple say that only 15 minutes of charging can give you three hours of charging, but with a full battery they will go for five hours.

Apple AirPods are £159.