TL;DR
- Apple has launched the AirPods Pro 3.
- The company’s new earbuds offer a couple of new features, like heart rate monitoring and live translation.
- The earbuds will go on sale on September 19 for $249.
If you’re an Apple fan, then you probably know it’s iPhone 17 launch day. However, iPhones aren’t the only tech the company launched today, as it also unveiled a new addition to its audio lineup — the AirPods Pro 3. What’s new with Apple’s latest TWS earbuds? Here’s what you need to know.
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There have been plenty of rumors about a few significant changes coming to the AirPods Pro 3. One of these rumored changes was heart rate monitoring. Another talked about feature was live translation. During its press conference, Apple confirmed that it has indeed added these features to the device.
In the case of heart rate monitoring, Apple says there’s a custom-built photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor sitting in the buds. This sensor shines an invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second. The amount of light absorbed allows it to measure your blood flow. Along with various other sensors like accelerometers and gyroscope, these buds can also track your caleries burned. This new feature goes hand-and-hand with Apple’s fitness app, which offers 50 different workout types.
Next up is live translation, which Apple says is launching in beta. Like Google’s Voice Translate feature, this feature will rely on computational audio and AI. However, the AI being used here is Apple Intelligence. When you begin talking with someone in a different language, the speech will be translated through the AirPods so you can understand what’s being said. If you’re talking with someone who doesn’t also have this feature, the user can use their iPhone to display the words they’re speaking in the other person’s preferred language.
Live translations will initially support English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. However, Apple will add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) by the end of the year.
Other improvements you should be aware of is the smaller design, which Apple says was done so that the earbuds fit better in the ear. There’s also now five different eartip sizes. The battery has improved too, with up to eight hours of playback with ANC on, and 10 hours in transparency mode.
The AirPods Pro 3 will be available on September 19. If you’re interested in picking them up, they’ll set up back $249.
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