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DigiTimes reports this morning that Apple is set to launch third-generation AirPods with a noise cancelation function by the end of the year, a claim at odds with rumors that Apple's AirPods 3 have been pushed back to 2020.

airpodsincase-800x448.jpg
Apple is reportedly set to release its third-generation AirPods for sales by the end of 2019, with the new wireless earphones to incorporate a noise cancellation function. And Taiwan's Inventec reportedly will be the major assembler of AirPods 3, while China's Luxshare Precision will also grab part of the orders for the new device, according to industry sources.
Today's report claims that Apple will fend off competition from rival brands of true wireless earbuds by including a noise-canceling function in its third-generation AirPods, although doing so could throw up new design and assembly challenges.
The sources said that noise cancellation is not a new technology, but a technology hard to harness. On the one hand, semiconductor devices can hardly work without suffering electromagnetic disturbance, and on the other hand how the structural design of the noise forward feedback microphone can be done well to achieve harmonious operation with other devices is a great challenge for designers and assemblers.

In addition, earphones with noise-cancellation function will consume more power than those without, and it remains to be seen how Apple will do to reduce power consumption, the sources indicated.
Taiwan's Inventec is said to be uniquely positioned to meet the production challenges of AirPods 3, thanks to its extensive assembly experiences, giving the manufacturer a better chance of winning assembly orders from Apple than China's Luxshare Precision. As it stands, the assemblers command an equal share of orders for AirPods 2, which launched just last month.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also claimed that Apple's third-generation AirPods could include noise cancellation features, as well as a new design, and perhaps improved water resistance that will allow the AirPods to hold up to "splashes of water and rain." However, Gurman believes that AirPods 3 won't be coming until 2020, based on his understanding that Apple's second-generation AirPods were delayed by a year, which has pushed back the earbuds' launch cycle.

Apple released AirPods 2 in March with optional wireless charging and hands-free Siri functionality. For all the details on what's different between the first-gen and second-gen AirPods models, check out our dedicated comparison guide.

Article Link: Report Claims AirPods 3 With Noise Canceling Feature to Launch Later This Year
 
Last edited:

Wiesenlooser

macrumors 6502a
Jul 9, 2010
981
1,539
Don't noise cancelling headphones need to seal in one way or other? That sort of rules out AirPods without a design change before its begun.

No. What you are refering to is PASSIVE Noise cancellation. While it works better to combine active and passive noise cancellation, it is not necessary per se.
[doublepost=1556098027][/doublepost]
Please erase DIGITIMES as rumour source
Digitimes last time said airpower is in mass production

Who said it wasn't? Maybe they were starting production and then realized they couldn't get the potential flaws under control.
[doublepost=1556098106][/doublepost]
My guess is they postponed launch of AirPods 2 to try to finish up and release the AirPower, but when they realized that wasn't going to happen, they finally released them. I bet the AirPods 3 have been in development since early last year when the AirPods 2 were finished.

I would agree with that. I guess Airpods 2 is a last year product. There are many things pointing to that conclusion such as the conference video that features airpods with Hey Siri months before it was released.
 

Compile 'em all

macrumors 601
Apr 6, 2005
4,130
323
Please erase DIGITIMES as rumour source
Digitimes last time said airpower is in mass production

Judging by the fact that AirPower was already PRINTED on the back of the new AirPods packaging makes me believe it was indeed being mass produced and something serious was discovered that they had to cancel it. This explains also the timing of the cancellation.
 

fokmik

Suspended
Oct 28, 2016
4,909
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USA
No. What you are refering to is PASSIVE Noise cancellation. While it works better to combine active and passive noise cancellation, it is not necessary per se.
[doublepost=1556098027][/doublepost]

Who said it wasn't? Maybe they were starting production and then realized they couldn't get the potential flaws under control.
[doublepost=1556098106][/doublepost]

I would agree with that. I guess Airpods 2 is a last year product. There are many things pointing to that conclusion such as the conference video that features airpods with Hey Siri months before it was released.
Please make a diff in mass production, and just test production...And this isnt the only time digitimes is just a false source
[doublepost=1556098758][/doublepost]
Judging by the fact that AirPower was already PRINTED on the back of the new AirPods packaging makes me believe it was indeed being mass produced and something serious was discovered that they had to cancel it. This explains also the timing of the cancellation.
There is production for limited testing...and mass production
 

sofila

macrumors 65816
Jan 19, 2006
1,144
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Ramtop Mountains
Noise cancelling (on/off availability) separates good ear-phones from the best ones. Good news. A new design should be expected at this point
 

Swift

macrumors 68000
Feb 18, 2003
1,825
964
Los Angeles
Don't noise cancelling headphones need to seal in one way or other? That sort of rules out AirPods without a design change before its begun.

Active noise-canceling, no. It takes the difference signal from each ear and broadcasts negative polarities... well, something like that. It isolates the signal from the noise digitally, using signal processing.
 
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ph001bi

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2015
591
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London
Digitimes eh?
I am surprised that they haven’t announced that they’ll launched bundled with AirPower.




DigiTimes reports this morning that Apple is set to launch third-generation AirPods with a noise cancelation function by the end of the year, contradicting an earlier rumor that said Apple's AirPods 3 have been pushed back to 2020.

airpodsincase-800x448.jpg
Today's report claims that Apple will fend off competition from rival brands of true wireless earbuds by including a noise-canceling function in its third-generation AirPods, although doing so could throw up new design and assembly challenges.
Taiwan's Inventec is said to be uniquely positioned to meet the production challenges of AirPods 3, thanks to its extensive assembly experiences, giving the manufacturer a better chance of winning assembly orders from Apple than China's Luxshare Precision. As it stands, the assemblers command an equal share of orders for AirPods 2.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also claimed that Apple's third-generation AirPods could include noise cancellation features, as well as a new design, and perhaps improved water resistance that will allow the AirPods to hold up to "splashes of water and rain."

However, Gurman believes that AirPods 3 now won't be ready until next year, and that aligns better with the current consensus. Apple only launched AirPods 2 with optional wireless charging and hands-free Siri functionality in March 2019, making the introduction of another model this year seem unlikely, but not impossible.

Article Link: Report Claims AirPods 3 With Noise Canceling Feature to Launch Later This Year
 
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squizzler

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Feb 11, 2019
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My question is why do they need noise cancellation in the first place? Pods were never about noise cancellation. I personally prefer to hear what’s going on around me while walking down the street so I don’t get run over by someone. Too many idiots out there glued to their phones not paying attention, add noise cancelling headphones = zombie.
 

Heineken

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Jan 27, 2018
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My question is why do they need noise cancellation in the first place? Pods were never about noise cancellation. I personally prefer to hear what’s going on around me while walking down the street so I don’t get run over by someone. Too many idiots out there glued to their phones not paying attention, add noise cancelling headphones = zombie.
Noise cancelation is overrated. The only time I'd want it is if I'm on a plane or very loud metro, but to walk around the city with such headphones one must be a complete moron.
 
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ksec

macrumors 68020
Dec 23, 2015
2,204
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I just think the Apple Roadmap are all over the place, basically apart from iPhone which have to be shipping on time, everything else is out of sync. From AirPower, AirPod 2 which was obviously ready for a long time but waiting for AirPower. MacBook Air Retina which was obviously a stop gap solution to their MacBook lineup due to Intel 10nm misstep. MacBook Pro, iMac, iMac Pro and Mac Pro. iPad 4 coming few months just after iPad 3, the iPad Pro Display Size changes.

It would have been ok if this was Dell or HP. But Apple used to take a very long view into its evolution process. Now only iPhone is left with that tradition. Everything else is like patch work.

I don't doubt AirPod 3 could be ready this Fall, but it would be silly to release it just 6 months after AirPod 2. Had the AirPod 2 been just a Wireless casing upgrade it would have been ok, but it had an H1 Chip, and if any more improvement such as noise cancellation were to come, H2 would have been needed. Tim Cook tends to take a very conservative approach to ROI in Chip development cost.
 

sofila

macrumors 65816
Jan 19, 2006
1,144
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My question is why do they need noise cancellation in the first place? Pods were never about noise cancellation. I personally prefer to hear what’s going on around me while walking down the street so I don’t get run over by someone. Too many idiots out there glued to their phones not paying attention, add noise cancelling headphones = zombie.
You can choose to turn it on or off. Present Airpods miss audio quality, noise cancellation would be a further step towards an all in one good product, even for those that "sound good enough" is not enough.
 

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
I’m not buying this rumor at all. I don’t see Apple releasing the AirPods 2 in March and then another version later this year. It Doesn’t really make sense to do this, and it was only detract away from the version two of the AirPods. This would be very Un-Apple like. I believe the AirPods 3 are coming, but likely not for 2020 with more major revisions.
 

sshambles

macrumors 6502a
Oct 19, 2005
766
1,127
Australia
Wait, AirPods 3 are cancelled now?!?


For reelz tho, I can’t imagine this occurring (the noise cancelling part) without changing the design or upping the volume by a lot.
 
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