The Apple AirPods Max has two odd quirks. Its ugly Smart Case and the fact that it can never truly be turned off.

The closest you can get to low-power mode is to put the headphones in the Smart Case, but enterprising YouTuber Emergent Technology has found a way to replicate this effect using a common magnet.

Essentially, the low-power mode is triggered when the magnetic sensor in the AirPods Max gets close to a magnet attached inside the Smart Case. The headphones will think they are snug inside the case and switch to a low-power mode.

Obviously the easiest thing to do would be to turn the AirPods Max on and off like any other headphone, but Apple seems to want to keep them on all the time to reduce the time it takes to wirelessly connect to the source device, leaving them in the Smart Case. Saving battery power is not a perfect solution either. Frankly, it looks bad and doesn't protect the AirPods Max except for the earcups.

Would it be any more convenient to have to carry around a small set of magnets, knowing exactly how the "Smart" part of the Smart Case works, especially when the underlying system is relatively low-tech, leads to a better solution Potentially.

In any case, at least the AirPods Max are noise-canceling and offer up to 20 hours of playback, so they won't need to be charged as often anyway; we'll see if the AirPods can be the best wireless headphones of 2020 in a review coming soon. We'll be bringing you a review in the coming days.