Puh-Leeze

anantksundaram said:

I have a feeling I am missing something basic here: how does this prevent someone from abusing the system, i.e., claiming their AirPods + Charger have been lost, then asking for a new one of both which costs less than $159 (the replacement cost for both together is $69×2 = $138).

You are missing something... the other AirPod! Your math is for one AirPod and one charger. You get two Airpods and a charger (and a lightning cable) for $159.

To customize the AirPods after updating to iOS 11, open Settings on a connected iPhone or iPad, then choose Bluetooth. Find your AirPods in the list and tap the "i" button to the right while connected.

Correction: iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

I wonder what if you open the AirPod case to pair to your device and you're in an area where there are multiple supported devices. For instance: as you're walking out of the Apple Store after just purchasing the AirPods. It could happen any time you take the AirPods out of the case and some other supported device is in close proximity when you open the AirPod case. Lots of people are continuously clickity-clackity on their devices. Someone other than yourself could inadvertently or maliciously pair your AirPods to their device. For this reason it seems like the AirPods should be connected to an iCloud account and/or managed through iTunes. That way the owner of the AirPods could see a list of devices the AirPods are currently paired to and choose to remove pairing from a device if they want to. Or even turn off the pairing connection ability after you have paired/connected all the devices you wanted to, with the ability to turn pairing ability back on in case you ever want to pair a new device later on.

Tim Cook's apple?!? Can you say White iPhone 4?