Qualcomm’s announcing the S7 and S7 Pro, the platforms that third-party manufacturers will include in earbuds, headphones, and speakers starting next year. [...] “It will help your device use the best of Bluetooth and the best of Wi-Fi to deliver groundbreaking new user experiences even for earbuds,” Bekis said. Those experiences include 192kHz lossless audio delivered over Wi-Fi — in a way that supposedly won’t decimate battery life for earbuds and the tiny batteries inside them. To do this, the S7 Pro leverages what Qualcomm calls its Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology. [...] you’ll be able to walk away from your phone and have your earbuds seamlessly hand off from that direct Bluetooth connection over to Wi-Fi so that your media keeps playing — even across different access points. This unrestrained operating distance will also apparently extend to phone calls. [...] “When the phone sees that both ends support XPAN, it will exchange your Wi-Fi credentials. [...] So from that point, your earbuds will know the credentials for using your network. Wherever you’ve got Wi-Fi in your home, you’ll be able to stay connected.”