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Apple just announced the AirPods Pro 3, the first major update to the product in three years. Apple is introducing a new heart rate sensor in the AirPods Pro 3, as well as improved active noise cancellation (ANC), and a live translation feature. You’ll be able to preorder the AirPods Pro 3 today for $249, and they’ll start shipping on September 19th.
Apple is upgrading the audio quality in AirPods Pro 3, with a widened sound stage and improved noise cancellation. Apple says the AirPods Pro 3 will deliver the “world’s best ANC,” thanks to foam-infused ear tips for greater noise isolation. Apple claims this will enable twice the ANC than the previous generation of AirPods Pro, and “deliver the world’s best ANC of any in-ear wireless headphones.”
The new AirPods Pro 3 ear tips. Image: Apple
Perhaps the biggest upgrade on the AirPods Pro 3 will be the new heart rate sensor. Apple is using its smallest heart rate sensor on the AirPods Pro 3, which is a custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that “shines invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second to measure light absorption in blood flow.”
The sensor works with the AirPods Pro accelerometers, gyroscope, GPS, and a new on-device AI model on an iPhone to track heart rate, calories burned, and activity. There’s also a new workout experience, Workout Buddy, in the iPhone fitness app that uses Apple Intelligence to track workout data and fitness history.
The AirPods Pro 3 heart rate sensor. Image: Apple
Apple is also bringing a new live translation feature to the AirPods Pro 3. ANC will lower the volume of the speaker and play audio back to you in your own language. “When enabled, Live Translation helps users understand another language and communicate with others by speaking naturally with AirPods,” explains Apple. “To interact with someone who doesn’t have this hands-free capability, there’s an option to use iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what the user is saying in the other person’s preferred language.”
Apple is also improving how AirPods Pro 3 fit in people’s ears. Apple says it has analyzed more than 10,000 3D ear scans and made each AirPod Pro smaller. The design is shaped to better fit inside the ear canal, and there are now five sizes of ear tips. Apple has even made the AirPods Pro 3 more durable, with IP57 sweat and water resistance.
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