What are hearables? They are wireless earbuds and headphones that provide always-available voice assistant access. Think AirPods, Pixel Buds, Echo Buds, Galaxy buds. At home, you have an always-listening smart speaker but on the go having that just in your phone is a bit limiting. Connecting the voice assistant from a smartphone to your ears creates a more efficient and private interaction.    Today we talk about the technology underlying hearables and why we aren’t getting 12-hour, all-day battery life. We also discuss applications, consumer adoption, and how the big players intend to compete. 2020 is going to see a lot more hearables action driven by new apps and new products such as AirPods Pro and Amazon Echo Buds.    Dave Kemp works for Oaktree products, the leading U.S. distributor of hearing aids and an expert in the hearables space ranging from prescription solutions to consumer products such as AirPods. He is also a contributor to Voicebot.ai on hearables topics and has his own regular podcast and blog called Future Ear.    Also, with us is Andy Bellavia. He has a long tenure in the sound and hearing market with past work for consumer hearables innovator Bragi, hearing aid tech company Nuheara and currently as a BD lead for Knowles Corp. — a company that has components in the new Amazon Echo Buds.