Honey, I Shrunk the AirPods Max Touch Pads

Also speaking of Mark Gurman, here’s his and Debby Wu’s report for Bloomberg on Apple’s AirPods from 6 weeks ago:

Apple is still planning to announce high-end, noise-canceling
over-ear headphones. The device has faced several development
challenges over the past two years and has been delayed multiple
times. The headphones were due to go into production weeks ago,
but that was pushed back due to problems with the headband, a
person familiar with the matter said. That part was deemed too
tight in some testing.

The company initially wanted to include large touch pads on the
sides of the headphones, but reduced the size of those panels.

Reduced them down to nothing, apparently.