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Kuo: AirPods Pro 3 Coming Soon, But Bigger Upgrade Arriving Next Year

Happy_John said:
Better sound, better ANC. If APP3 delivers that, then they won’t be disappointing, and it will feel like a proper upgrade.

The other features and changes are mostly “nice, but. It that important to me”

Live translation, if effective, would be amazing, but surely that is fundamentally driven by your phone, so it should come to other AirPods?
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Better sound and ANC are nice-to-haves, and I will upgrade regardless for the battery life and because the ANC on my buds has weakened over time - but I wouldn't necessarily call those improvements alone an upgrade worth waiting 3 years for.

Personally couldn't care less about heart rate monitoring or any health features on my AirPods, either. I personally want a significant and noticeable design evolution over the 2s: changing the case AND buds; better sound (substantially better bass, for example); and noticeably better ANC (a slider would be good).

Or maybe inventing a way to make Lossless work wirelessly. You know, innovating...
 
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Improvement next year. That's a great prediction.

I bet people will check in 4 months to see if the prediction was correct. Just like those "mediums" predicting Keith Richards "will die this year" for the past 30 years.
 
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If true, then I’m gonna have to hit this news with a FFS.

I don’t want my accessory outdated within 12 months. I buy AirPods expecting at least two years break between releases.

Apple is all over the place these days.

Hope this rumour’s wrong.

lazyrighteye said:
The bigger upgrade is always “next year.”
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With iPhones that’s always been the ‘carrot’, but not with accessories like AirPods.

You hope Apple didn’t gouge their customers as what’s being suggested in this rumour.
 
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Joseph C said:
Better sound and ANC are nice-to-haves, and I will upgrade regardless for the battery life and because the ANC on my buds has weakened over time - but I wouldn't necessarily call those improvements alone an upgrade worth waiting 3 years for.

Personally couldn't care less about heart rate monitoring or any health features on my AirPods, either. I personally want a significant and noticeable design evolution over the 2s: changing the case AND buds; better sound (substantially better bass, for example); and noticeably better ANC (a slider would be good).

Or maybe inventing a way to make Lossless work wirelessly. You know, innovating...
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You won't get lossless audio over Bluetooth.

The best you will get is Apple managing their devices sending ALAC wirelessly to AirPods, but it's still not going to be "lossless audio" in how people generally understand "lossless audio".

There's going to be compression.
 
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Happy_John said:
You won't get lossless audio over Bluetooth.

The best you will get is Apple managing their devices sending ALAC wirelessly to AirPods, but it's still not going to be "lossless audio" in how people generally understand "lossless audio".

There's going to be compression.
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They’ve made it work with Vision Pro though haven’t they, so in theory future iPhone hardware could magically support its somehow using future technology?
 
This is just not how apple works. They will not be releasing 2 airpod pro products one year apart. They're very conscious of their product cycles and consumer sentiment around products being outdated too quickly. The phone and ipad and macbook are different because people know those things get a speed bump every year but accessories like Airpods, Homepods, airtags, etc - that stuff has a 3 year gestation almost always.
 
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NickTheo said:
This is just not how apple works. They will not be releasing 2 airpod pro products one year apart. They're very conscious of their product cycles and consumer sentiment around products being outdated too quickly. The phone and ipad and macbook are different because people know those things get a speed bump every year but accessories like Airpods, Homepods, airtags, etc - that stuff has a 3 year gestation almost always.
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The release cycle between AirPods Pro was exactly less than one year…

  • 2nd generation (Lightning):
    September 23, 2022;
  • 2nd generation (USB-C):
    September 22, 2023;
Shall I start unseating the goal posts?
 
Add me to the choir of a camera equipped version in 2026 absolutely ridiculous.

Enhancing spatial audio with head tracking (the bad part of spatial audio that people turn off) is ridiculous as a sole differentiator, they're definitely going to time these to go with a future Vision device for a better view of your hands for gesture control.

Unless a Vision headset is being released in 2026 which the rumors are saying isn't the case this won't happen.

As always feel free to @ me if I'm wrong about this when / if they release with this functionality.

Looking forward to AirPods Pro 3, probably the only thing I'm picking up from this release cycle. :)
 
Happy_John said:
Yeh.

Ku I’d saying two things:

1) AirPods Pro 3 will be announced next Tuesday, and they’ll be exactly what the majority of other rumors gave been saying.

It’s very unlikely he’s wrong, but that’s not that impressive to agree with the general consensus

2) AirPods Pro 4!!! In six months!!!

APP3 haven’t even been released yet. It doesn’t sound very sensible if Apple do this, I ever they, but Kuo saying this now is just kiteflying.
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Apple could be rushed to productize the IP stolen by a former Chinese employee that worked on the Apple Watch sensor team.
 
How does this make any sense. The Vision Pro and AirPod pros already knows when you turn your head, why do you need some Special new airpod for this? And now many people are gonna buy a new generation for that extremely niche redundant feature ?
 
As expected, it was forgotten that the USB-C AirPods Pro 2 actually had different features that the lightning ones didn’t have. It wasn’t regulatory and it wasn’t ‘not a new generation’. It literally was and remains the newest version these years later, and the only ones that work in tandem with Vision Pro losslessly.
 
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Ralfi said:
I don’t want my accessory outdated within 12 months.

You hope Apple didn’t gouge their customers as what’s being suggested in this rumour.
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This is tech. Personally I ideally do "want my accessory updated within 12 months."

I do not understand the attitude that many people have where they feel cheated as tech keeps improving. Just get over it. The M1 MBP became the [better] M2 MBP became the [better] M3 MBP became the [better] M4 MBP, etc. among many different successful products.

Just buy what suits you when it suits you and enjoy it, expecting a better version out next month. Personally I am still happy with the AirPods Pro 2 technology. The only reason I want new pods is for a hopefully better fit. If the coming new AirPods do not fit well for me I will probably end up with the over-the-ear Beats.
 
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BarrettF77 said:
The overly iterative nature of Apple’s upgrades is really getting old. Will easily skip what they release year. Very disappointed in what Cook is doing to Apple.
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Typically great, mature products most often get iterative upgrades. That should be "what Cook is doing to Apple."
 
Really though just like phones what else do you want them to do? I don't just mean Apple either. Look at any company - what else can anyone really do with phones, earbuds etc that would need to be so amazing to always upgrade? We're already at peak design/features on those and more

Look at normal watches - what more can they really do?
 
Joseph C said:
If this is true it will be like that terrible time they introduced iPad 3 in March 2012, only to release the iPad 4 that same year in November, completely discontinuing iPad 3 after just 7 months of availability.

They really did iPad 3 buyers dirty back then and it would be similar if a fourth generation AirPods Pro come out next year after the third this week, as rumoured in this article.
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I was so ****** with Apple over the iPad 3. To this day, it's left me feeling uneasy when buying any other "3rd" release.
Be that, my Apple Watch S3 and my M3 MBP. Thankfully, neither of those screwed me over, but still, the fear remains lol....
 
Not impossible to see an updated version in 12 months. But since these are early rumors, it is very possible that the next version might come only later. The IR cameras will be used only for gestures and don't see much need for it.
 
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