Apple's first own-brand over-ear headphones, the AirPods Studio, are expected to be released by the end of the year However, despite the many rumors of the AirPods Studio, it is still quite unclear what makes them better than the in-house branded Beats headphones

But now a three-word tweet by famed leaker @L0vetodream has opened up a host of possible new features: a "u1 for studio"

Apple's U1 chip is an ultra-wideband low-energy short-range wireless technology introduced in the iPhone 11 that allows devices to locate and communicate with other U1-equipped devices At this point, iPhones with this chip are a bit lonely, but it is already expected that this technology will be included in AirTags (Apple's answer to Tile) and apparently also in AirPods Studio

At its simplest, the inclusion of the U1 chip in the AirPods Studio could mean that a lost headphone could be remotely controlled via iPhone It's a clever trick, but one that has already been done elsewhere: Tile is built into certain Skullcandy and Sennheiser headphones

But there is more: in another tweet from L0vetodream, the leaker revealed another use for U1 Written in Chinese, the translation suggests that the headphones "use U1 to determine distance and direction, similar to the spatial audio feature in iOS 14's AirPods"

One of these features predicted by the leaker is that the AirPods Studio will be able to automatically determine the orientation in which it is worn In other words, no matter which orientation it is worn, the hardware will automatically provide the correct left and right channels of audio

The tweet does not explicitly state that the AirPods Studio will include spatial audio, but given that the AirPods Pro has just been updated with this technology, that seems like a good bet The technology provides virtual surround sound, which, combined with the U1's spatial awareness capabilities, could open an interesting door for Apple to continue its interest in augmented reality (AR) It is already known that Apple has patented technology to use sound for navigation in Apple Glass, but could the U1 chip in the AirPod Studio be part of this?

Obviously, there is great speculation here, as the U1 chip has yet to get a chance to shine, primarily because it is only found in the iPhone and the just-released Apple Watch Series 6

But hopefully we won't have to wait too long The headphones have been spotted in the wild and are widely expected to be released this year We know that Apple will have an event for the iPhone 12 series, probably in early October