“Pixel Buds 2 hands-on: Google takes on the AirPods”

I just spent a few minutes with the new Google Pixel Buds hardware — the $179 truly wireless earbuds aren’t shipping until Spring 2020, and the units at Google’s fall hardware event aren’t actually turned on and working. So there’s no way to tell how they’ll actually sound, and how Google’s various software tricks work in practice.

So they’re non-working blobs of plastic, acting as a product announcement? They look nice, but I’m not sure what the point of this “announcement” is. Is it them hoping that people who are thinking of buying earbuds will hold off for ~6 months?