Intro Guys, the new AirPods are here—two new models, to be exact. The AirPods Pro 2 got a new
feature, which I think may be the most important upgrade ever to hit an earbud. And
the AirPods Max? Well, let's talk about that. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Caleb
Denison, coming to you from Apple Park, and it was a big day for Apple. New iPhone
launches—I can't wait to talk about some of the creator-friendly stuff those have—new Apple Watch
stuff, and, of course, the big reason I'm here: AirPods. So, let's break it down—what came out,
what's new, and, just as importantly, what is not. AirPods 4 The new AirPods 4—what's new with those? Well, it
could be hard to tell just from looking, because a lot of the new features are either very subtle
or they're buried deep inside. But there is a lot new here. Apple says it used 3D photogrammetry
and photography—I’m not sure what ‘grammetry’ is; I'm going to have to look that up—but they used
that to map ear shapes with over 50 million data points. The result, they say, is the most
comfortable AirPods that they've made to date. Of course, everybody's ears are different, and
how earbuds fit in them is a tricky thing to address. Apple did what it could to analyze
as many different ears as it could and come up with a shape and design that was going to be
the most comfortable it could be for the most amount of people. Once we get a chance to put
the AirPods Generation 3 against the new Gen 4, we might be able to spot some of the differences
on the surfaces of the earbud itself, but I gather it's going to be pretty minute—we
might not even be able to see it at all. The new AirPods Gen 4 also come in
a smaller case with USB-C charging, and users will also get the cool new feature where
you can nod or shake your head to answer phone calls without actually saying anything to
Siri at all. The new AirPods are powered by the H2 chip inside, which means they are
going to get computational audio help. Apple says that it has completely changed
the acoustic architecture for these earbuds to make them sound better than they
ever have in the past. I believe they said "richer bass and crystal-clear highs," which
is generally what you want with audio products, but we'll see how they actually sound once we've
gotten a chance to give them a thorough test. Speaking of, I did get like, I don't know,
30 seconds to put these things in my ears, and quite frankly, I wasn’t really able to
gather a lot of useful information about them. But I should be leaving this
place with some of those in hand, and I should have a full review for you very
soon. Oh, I should also mention that they now have a force sensor included, and battery
life has been improved—you get 30 hours total on average. That depends on how hard you
drive them—that’s with what’s built into the earbuds and also what's available in the
charging case. I did not get a breakdown of how long the buds themselves actually last. Again,
that'll be great to discover for the review. AirPods 4 with ANC The new AirPods product that
I find the most interesting, however, are the AirPods 4 with ANC. Now, yes,
obviously they do get active noise cancelling, and I don't expect it to be quite as powerful
as what you find in the AirPods Pro 2. However, that's just the beginning of all these
trickle-down features from the AirPods Pro that we're going to be seeing in this new
sort of mid-tier AirPod earbud. In addition to the ANC, you also get transparency mode, you
also get adaptive audio—which brings your music or your movie, whatever you're listening
to, it brings that level down so that you can be more aware of your surroundings—and
they also now pack conversation awareness. You also get a new USB-C charging case, which can
also do wireless charging, and Find My speaker is now built into this as well. When you zoom out
and take a look at what the new AirPods 4 with ANC offer, it looks a lot like the AirPods Pro,
just without the actual ear tip. For now, it's to wonder—well, why would I spend so much more for
the AirPods Pro than I would for this new mid-tier AirPods? And frankly, that's a really great
question. I think if you don't need the custom ear tip or if you're not comfortable with that kind of
thing, this is going to be your product. At least, that is until the new AirPods Pro 3 come out,
which is expected hopefully sometime next year. AirPods Pro 2 But that doesn't mean that the AirPods Pro
didn't get a big boost out of the Apple event today. One of the most important—and I think
exciting—developments for earbuds in general is what Apple is doing around hearing assistance.
Now, Apple says it has filed with the FDA to get the AirPods Pro 2 with this new feature
recognized as a hearing aid. It's intended to help people with mild to moderate hearing loss.
If you've got the AirPods Pro 2 and you've got an iOS device that handles iOS 18 or later—and
apparently it will work with some Macs as well, Macs with macOS Sequoia or later—you'll be able to
take a sort of hearing test where Apple provides a tone and tells you to tap the screen when you hear
it. It collects a ton of data about your hearing capabilities, and then makes it possible for you
to change the way your music and movies sound. But in addition to that, it can actually
assist you with your hearing with all the computational audio stuff that's on board these
AirPods—the ability to reduce noise and do voice isolation. This could be a legitimate help
to people who are suffering with some kind of hearing loss. Not only is it going to
help folks in their day-to-day hearing, but it's also going to make what they
listen to through the AirPods—music, movies, what have you—sound even better. Again,
because the sound signature of the audio that's being pumped out of these things has been
customized for your particular hearing needs. Now, I'm not suggesting that these are as good as
the very best hearing aids out there, but again, for somebody with mild to moderate hearing
loss that needs just a little bit of help, this is a great option. Because not
only will it help with your hearing, but it fits into your life in other ways as well. AirPods Max Update And then, finally, we have the AirPods Max.
Now, I'll be honest—I was hoping for a rather big update on the AirPods Max today, and that is
not what we got. What we found out is that the AirPods Max will now be available with USB-C
charging and a whole slate of new colors, as you can see here. We'll have the
names of all those colors listed below, as well as links to go and pre-order these if you
like. Now, I imagine some folks might be a little bit disappointed that the AirPods Max didn’t get a
bigger overhaul. Anecdotally speaking, I can tell you that I know a lot of folks who were hoping for
more—maybe a slightly more comfortable headband, maybe a slightly lower weight, a power button, a
proper case—none of those came to fruition. And, you know, we don't really understand what's
going on in the minds of the folks at Apple, but they did have to get these things
adapted to comply with European rules. That meant putting a USB-C charging
port in it, and while you're doing that, I suppose just tack on some new colors as well.
It’s a welcome addition, but it just makes me long for the new AirPods Max Generation 2 that
we were kind of hoping to see today, but didn’t. I imagine we might see a new
AirPods Max product around the same time that we see a new AirPods
Pro product. One can hope, anyway. Final thoughts The new AirPods 4 model comes in at $129.
You'll get the new AirPods 4 with ANC for $179, and the AirPods Max remain at $549. Now, as I
said before, I should be getting some AirPods 4, some AirPods 4 with ANC, and maybe a new
iPhone to test out all these new features with them. We'll have the full review for those
units coming very soon. I also have something to share with you about what I think the new
iPhones are doing in terms of visuals and audio, both for professionals and creators and the
average user—I think there's a lot going on there. So I'll be back with some more commentary from
this momentous event at Apple Park. For now, that's all I have for you. Thanks so
much for watching. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, ring that notification
bell. I’ll see you on the next one, and until then, here are two other
videos I think you might like.