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It's almost time for Apple to announce the iPhone 17 smartphone lineup, but I'm more excited about the possibility of an AirPods Pro 3 announcement. The AirPods Pro 2 are my daily driver earbuds, but there are some features I'd love to see improved in the next model.
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I've heard rumors about a complete redesign of the AirPods Pro's earbuds and charging case, potential live translation capabilities, and temperature sensing, all meant to make the earbuds more useful in your everyday life. But the improvements I have my eyes on are less flashy: stronger adaptive noise reduction, improved heart rate sensing, and better device tracking.
Here's why these seemingly minor improvements would make a world of difference to me.
1. Smarter adaptive noise reduction
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Apple introduced an adaptive noise reduction feature to the AirPods Pro 2 in 2023 with the release of iOS 17. Adaptive noise reduction uses AI-powered algorithms to listen for and process disruptive noises in your environment and deploy an effective amount of noise cancellation to eliminate them.
This feature uses AirPods Pro 2's advanced H2 processor to operate, and I'm hopeful that an upgraded H3 processor will make it smoother, smarter, and more intuitive. The same audio processing enables Conversation Mode, which pauses your music when the earbuds sense someone is speaking to you.
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