Twelve South has included a cap for the AirFly Pro that has a small key ring on it. I love this little addition because I can add it to my keychain and always have my AirFly Pro with me wherever I go. You never know when you're going to want to connect to the audio in a car.

AirPods were clearly the inspiration for Twelve South’s designers. AirFly Pro has the rounded corners and edges of Apple’s earbuds. It’s all smooth and shiny white plastic, just like the AirPods case. The second new feature that AirFly Pro has is called Receive mode. Flip the switch on the side of the AirFly Pro dongle and it becomes the receiver of the Bluetooth transmission. Pair it with your iPhone, and then plug it into an aux-in port (like the one you might find in a car), and suddenly, your phone is wirelessly connected to your car (or a rental car, or a friend's car). I'm a big fan of Bluetooth receivers in my house. I own a lot of older speakers that don't support Bluetooth. As long as you have a 3.5mm aux-in port (not the headphone port, that's aux-out), this will make your home sound system Bluetooth enabled. Audio sharing with AirFly Pro is amazing. I went ahead and tried listening to audio on my Switch using one earbud from two different headphones at the same time and there wasn't even any lag between them. It was as though I was listening through a single pair. In my testing, the AirFly Pro is easy to use and reliable. It had no problems connecting to any of the Bluetooth devices I tried. That includes multiple pairs of headphones, and a speaker too.I tested this out with my S.O. and a multiplayer game on Nintendo Switch. Each of us wearing our own set of headphones could play a game on the Switch with the AirFly Pro. Because we don’t live in a world where every audio device offers Bluetooth, the AirFly Pro can make AirPods even better. In-seat entertainment systems on long flights are the most obvious place to plug one in, but there are many others, such as the Nintendo Switch. If you’d be happy with something simpler, the original AirFly connects to just one pair of headphones and is only a receiver — it can‘t transmit. The cable for the 3.5mm audio plug is just an inch long, but is there to mostly give you some flexibility when plugging in. Plug the AirFly Pro into the AUX port on your car radio, pair Twelve South’s accessory with your iPhone, and you can play music from your phone over the car’s speakers.

The one real limitation of the AirFly Pro is it’s fairly short range. If you’re planning on going more than 15 feet or so from the audio source, this isn’t the product for you. But that’s not a issue if you’re in a plane seat, or working out on a piece of gym equipment. Twelve South promises 18 hours of use on a single charge, so you can count on this accessory lasting through your flight to Japan. And it works while charging, if the battery goes dead while you still need to use it. Audio receiving It would be nice if there were audible tones to let you know what’s going on. As it is, you need to watch that LED. This accessory is short range, and you’ll have to be very careful to not accidentally leave it behind, but Twelve South created something very useful. Pricing AirFly Pro can even connect to two pairs of wireless headphones at the same time. You and a friend can listen to the same music while jogging. Or both watch a movie on a laptop with headphones. If you have a pair of Bluetooth speakers, you can even fill a room with (non-stereo) sound.

Twelve South AirFly Pro review

AirFly Pro, according to Twelve South, also sports a hefty 16-hour battery life. I have not had the opportunity to max out the battery life to test these claims, but I can tell you that I wore out my AirPods Pro twice while AirFly Pro kept ongoing. So, if you're on a plane and you and your traveling companion both have your favorite pair of wireless active noise-canceling headphones, but only one of you has an AirFly Pro, you can both still enjoy using your favorite headphones (though you both would have to watch the same movie).

This accessory is easy to carry around, measuring just 2.2 inches by 1.0 inches by 0.4 inches. It’s a featherweight 0.6 ounces (17 grams). There’s a removable cover for the plug that includes a loop so you can attach the AirFly Pro to your keys, but be careful using it: If the cover pops off, you’ve lost this accessory. Maybe keep it in a bag instead. Did I mention that AirFly Pro has a super long battery life? Twelve South claims 16 hours. I spoke with a representative at Twelve South and was told it was tested against some of the longest non-stop flights (around 17 hours), and made it through with flying colors. You'll be able to use a lot of different types of Bluetooth headphones that will run out of battery life before the AirFly Pro does.Setup is a snap. Just press and hold the power button on the front of this accessory. A blinking LED will tell you the AirFly Pro is ready to pair, so put your AirPods or other device into pairing mode also and the two will start communicating. I'm yet to try the AirFly on any further flights, but I'm confident some systems will pose irks and difficulties: a lot of older American Airlines (and other carriers) use a tri-connector, for example, for which you'll need an adaptor (or a lot of patience in getting the stereo 'band' to sit across the right section to achieve mono output to both ears). Plus, if you want to invest in an inexpensive 3.5 mm audio converter, you can connect this gizmo to any wired headphones. This means any headphones you encounter can be Bluetooth.