Someone used Claude Code to reverse-engineer the Apple AirPods 3, and now head-tracking works on Linux

Source: Apple Published Nov 6, 2026, 3:36 AM EST Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary MousePods unlocks AirPods 3 gyro on Linux, letting sensors stream at ~200 Hz Fixes a Bluetooth packet-size issue that hid sensors, enabling high-rate data Try MousePods on GitHub to use AirPods 3 as a mouse or head-tracking for games Getting Linux to play nicely with Apple hardware has been notoriously difficult, but that doesn't mean the open-source community has given up. In fact, there's active development on getting Linux to work on MacBooks. The Apple AirPods have been less painful, as they work as standard Bluetooth headphones on Linux. However, the cool head-tracking tech didn't make it over. Now, someone has used Claude Code to figure out how it works, and you can get it working on Linux right now. It's seemingly the first of its kind Credit: Matteocean Over on the ClaudeAI subreddit, user Matteocean had a problem. They really wanted to use the gyro controls on their Apple AirPods 3 to control their mouse on Linux, but they couldn't find any way to achieve it. The headphones did work as a standard Bluetooth device on Linux, so they could at least hear things through them, but the advanced features weren't there. So, they opened up Claude Code and tried to unlock the gyro feature, without much success. They then sent out some agents to scan through other projects, and one of them found something in the iOS framework code: "airpods 3 use a different protocol than the pro models, and linux was hiding the sensors because of a bluetooth packet size setting. once that was fixed they started streaming at like 200hz. [Claude] wrote most of the code, i did the testing with the actual airpods and made the calls. pretty wild how fast it went honestly" This first-ever breakthrough for the Linux community has been uploaded to GitHub as a project titled MousePods. The intended use is for the headphones to act like a mouse, but people in the Reddit thread began speculating that you could use them as an alternative to TrackIR. That would unlock some cool potential for games such as flight sims, truck sims, and racing titles, letting you look around the cockpit without any fancy hardware. Still, that's in the future; for now, you can head over to the MousePods GitHub page and give it a spin for yourself.