One really interesting effect of the AirPods - is that its changed the paradigm - where the default choice of headphones is Bluetooth.

I personally own a pair of Beats fit pros - which are great for running, Zoom calls. But I recently acquired a schiit vestri and I pair these with some old wired seinheisers (HD1). I cannot overstate the drastic difference in quality.

It is quite absurd (but categorically true) that the quality of audio that folks were generally listening to in 2005 was better than what we are doing today.

I wonder if it's still the case that, if I buy expensive Apple AirPods to use with my expensive Apple computer, I'm denied the ability to add them to Find My unless I also buy an expensive Apple phone. And I also wonder whether the AirPods case is going to make an alarm noise whenever I move it, to punish me for having the audacity to think it would be a good idea to buy expensive Apple earbuds to use with my expensive Apple computer, while not owning an iPhone.

This is so hilarious, apple selling volume up and down as it were some fantastical feature and not have been present in air pods pro since god nows when.

> Force sensor with volume swipe arrives on AirPods 5, a first for the open-ear form factor, adding the ability to quickly adjust volume by swiping up or down on the stem.

Pure apple marketing juice this one.

I recently upgraded from my Airpods Pro to the Huawei Freebuds Pro 5. Audio quality, battery life, noice cancelling, and especially microphone quality is so much better! And they work nicely with Android, Windows and MacOS. I would 100% recommend them to anyone over any other Earbuds, at 160€ they are also not amongst the more expensive models.

Interesting on the pricing. You now get some of the best AirPod features all in $129. In Apple's pricing that is cheap.

On the other hand in the past few years I have noticed a lot of people wearing Sony's Wireless headset and Earphones. Apple used to dominate this category when they first launch AirPods. I am wondering what happened they people discovered they could use other brand and Apple's brand loyalty don't quite work.

Extend the Stem!!

I have no idea why Apple has made AirPods harder to handle, impaired mic placement, and limited the battery capacity with shorter stems.

The longer stems offered more room for battery, got the mic closer to your mouth, and were so much easier to handle, manipulate etc.

Can't really fathom why they shortened the stem and made it harder for everyone, themselves and users alike.

I have extremely weird ear canals and no, I mean absolutely NO in-ear earbuds will stay in my ears for longer than 15 minutes, even with the christmas tree earplug-style tips on them. For that reason I am relegated to either my bulky but beloved Sennheiser WH1000XM4 headphones (or, even less practical: my wired planar magnetics) or... airpods 3. Somehow despite trying every brand of "not-in-ear-ear-bud" a-la Airpods/Earpods I have found absolutely nothing that has the frequency response of Apple's design. The fidelity is nothing to write home about but I'm not missing any of the music. Even well-regarded "flathead" earbuds, conversely, simply have no response whatsoever below 120hz.

$30 cheaper is a surprise for sure. Especially in this economy.

Saying the battery life is extended to 22 hours with the battery case is a bit absurd- you have to still take them out and charge them. I’m not sure why we can’t have wires that connect to the AirPods and charge while listening. The battery life will always be the biggest drawback of bt headphones.

> Powered by Apple Intelligence, Live Translation on AirPods 5 breaks down barriers by letting users communicate across languages.

Thing that only happens in the minds of SV marketing gurus.

I wish they would expand their live translation support more rapidly for other languages. Waiting patiently for Thai support

> For users who want even more, AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case add longer battery life and on-stem volume control for $149

This is a weird product feature versioning. Would people pay an extra $20 for these two features specifically? With the AirPods 4 the upsell SKU was ANC which made exponentially more sense.

I don't understand why Apple won't support Aura Cast already.

Why do they all sound robotic and sterile? :-/

Let's feel some excitement in your voices!

The only thing I really want is significantly improved battery life (that could last for an entire flight).

But in the end, it'll be the desire to eradicate the lightning port from my life that forces my hand on the upgrade

given the trend, the next airpods pro has to be remarkably different or only 30 usd over the wireless option for the base 5.

A lot of hate for Apple as usual. I love my AirPods. They just works, that's what I need.

The positioning of AirPods in the lineup doesn't really make sense to me. Noise canceling works way better with an in-ear fit anyway. Personally, I'd rather see ANC on the Beats Flex. That would create a clearer distinction from the AirPods Pro.

I think the reason they are bringing the normal AirPods close to the features of the AirPods Pro is the next version of AirPods Pro will have tiny forward cameras on the tips allowing visual along with audio AI.

[holding two items at a store] "Siri.. which one of these should I buy"

I wish they would support lossless audio. Like the Sony earbuds do with my Pixel.

This is dirt cheap for Apple. Am I missing something?

Super annoyed they did not announce a new AirPods Pro or Apple TV. My NVIDIA Shield is getting a bit old (not really an issue unless I want to stream raw 90GB Blu-ray).

A bit strange for Apple to let fairly popular products just go so long without a refresh. Just the vision component of the new AirPods could have been delayed, not really a critical feature anyway.

Apple Watch seems to be getting pretty good, might finally switch away from Garmin if the Apple one is as durable.

I hope they've made the metal contacts inside the case a bit sturdier, because I'm often getting one or both of my AirPods drained to 0% when I take them out of the case, due to contact issues (I assume).

have they ever improved the charging system so the charging leads dont get gunked up?

I have a pair of airpod pro 2 and i have to scrape the leads almost every day

would be amazing if they did it thru induction charging (tho i guess thats really slow)

Now's as good a time as ever to ask this question.

I have an iPhone logged in to my iCloud account.

My wife has her iPhone logged in to her own iCloud account.

Both of these iCloud accounts, plus a few more from my kids, make up our "Apple Family" thingy.

My wife bought AirPods. Paired them to her iPhone.

Why oh why every few weeks, when she gets the AirPods from their case, do they automatically connect to my iPhone and steal the audio from my (non-Apple) wireless earbuds I was using?

Do AirPods truly traverse devices based on the fact that separate devices/iCloud accounts are part of a family?

How do these compare to the AirPods 4 ANC, I wonder? Hopefully not too much better given that I bought a pair of those about a month ago... :-/

I wonder if they have an automation system which releases these perfectly in time with the video, or if they have some blog boy that has to post them at the right time.

Isn’t Apple expected to release AirPods with cameras in them? Or may be the rumor is they are working on it?

AirPods won't stay in my ears at all (and an ear test practitioner who modeled my ears validated my experience -- he said my ear canals will never hold buds), so it's Shokz forever, for me.

I think I'll stick with my pros. Definitely prefer the rubber tips for ear comfort over the plastic on the standard ones.

Not sure how the public has received them, but I cannot stand to wear the non-pro airpods for more than maybe 40 minutes. They used to give plastic earbuds away with the purchase of a device! I get it, bluetooth vs wired, extra features... but they are super uncomfortable to wear IMO.

The Pros, completely different story. Maybe a bit pricey but the ecosystem, battery life, comfort, ANC, all of that is great. The difference that little rubber piece makes is wild.

Side note - the "directional" audio (Sounds as if it's originating from your device rather than standard L/R audio), not sure if this is still a thing, but it was super weird the first time I tried it. I literally had to check that I was actually using the earbuds a few times, and refused to use it after. Maybe it was TOO good, super cool tech though.

5 hours of battery life... is a feature they're proud of?

I still want them to bring the “tap” operation of the first two generations back. It’s so convenient, for example when wearing them under a beanie in winter. The squeezing and swiping controls aren’t an adequate replacement.

No new Pros. They probably saw all the blowback about meta glasses and thought that maybe now's not the time for cameras on things.

I knew this was going to happen when I purchased my AirPod3s a couple of weeks ago. The only feature I really miss is the touch volume control.

The naming and numbering system for these are now getting annoying. AirPod 3 has the last pro model I guess?

I really hate silicone tip earbuds and the AirPods 4 with ANC were game changing. Having ANC without the silicone tips was just huge for me. It's obviously not as good as having the passive isolation of the silicone as well, but it's plenty good for airplanes and trains.

Are there non-Apple alternatives that also accomplish this?

I worry about the safety element of this. I'm not sure that having people walking around completely oblivious to their environments is a good thing.

In a multiple of ways: you become disconnected from nature and closed off to environments, and you also reduce safety because you don't know what is going on around you (high % of population live in cities).

Not a uniquely Apple problem though, I suppose.

> best-in-class open‑ear Active Noise Cancellation

Devialet Gemini earbuds are superior: https://www.devialet.com/en-us/true-wireless-earbuds/

Also, they’re French acoustic experts, so cooler and deeper knowledge.

Looks like it’s better than AirPod Pro, but cheaper. That’s surprising

Interesting they’re adding ANC, what’s the use case for the Pro now I wonder?

Sennheiser Momentum 5 has user replacable battery which is better for the environment

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Sennheiser_Momentum_5

I'm always going to be furious at Apple about ceasing large-housing (flat-head) earbuds. My ear canals just don't take in-ear airpods, and there's nothing to be done about it. I've tried everything. What does work is large-housing buds with earclick technology, so they sit against the canal with a decent seal. I used to be able to have mobile ear listening in a way that integrated with apple tech, but there's nothing like airpods that do that anymore. It's just in-ear or big bulky on-ear or over-ear stuff. It's infuriating.

I want a pair of earphones that are as comfortable as the AirPods Pro but have a very solid mic quality.

Whenever I have a call on my AirPods I feel terrible for whoever’s on the other end of my call because the quality is so bad, even when they’re connected to an iPhone. I originally thought I had hardware issues until I heard from others that all AirPods Pro are like this.

I dunno, can someone tell me what I’m missing here?

I have the 4s can’t get them to pair with any other device accept my phone. Oh it pairs but with no sound. No idea why

I found the auto translate thing very funny. Like this woman is some train station in Mexico and after getting an invitation in Spanish to some music event she doesn't even try to say "Gracias".

Like yeah, obviously anyone would understand "Thanks" but come on. Was this part of the discussion of some long meeting? Like if she said a word in Spanish it would imply the Air Pods translate your words?

I'm obviously nitpicking but I just found it oddly funny.

>The new AirPods 5 were built with the environment in mind

A masterstroke of corporate gaslighting for their disposable product.

Chinese Clones are great and cost $20

With ANC and volume control now available on the basic AirPods what’s the story for the AirPod Pros now? An obsolete product line?

Just to mention, saw some people saying Apple was working on AirPods with little cameras in them. Not this time, at least.

A worthy upgrade to a miracle product . Just a couple decades it was a sci-fi fantasy and we all can enjoy it . I get the bible in my ear all night at bed time and books while I work and walk around the property. Great to see the price cut .

They teased an AppleCare One Family plan and never explained it. wtf

Until they solve the ~250ms latency, which would require replacing bluetooth with a lower latency option, I'm not interested.

Been using the new Siri since June. ChatGPT voice is still superior!

Please Apple let me easily swap out Siri for chatGPT voice! Work together .. buy them or something. Their voice conversation tech is superior and can help save lives when driving!

So weird they keep saying "Open-ear" and not ear buds. I kept thinking open air headphones which are not the same category.

Another year of disappointment for me. Airpods gen 1 and 2 were the only buds I could find that fit in my funky ears perfectly. The new shapes just fall right out unless I'm constantly adjusting them. Apple may have found a more universal fit, but I'm not part of their universe.

wrong title, should be AirPods 4

As a huge Apple fan i hate to say this but $20 iems sound better

im still bitter they rejected my airprods pro warranty claim because it was a month after they stopped accepting warranty for a known failure mode where the internal mic unglued itself and ruined the ANC.

the apple tech confirmed it had the issue but it was too long outside of their coverage. Like... if it has a known manufacturing defect with a defined timeline, that means i basically rented the damn things.

their only remediation was like 10% off the latest airpods. which is just a massive slap in the face.

are these the airpods with the ai cameras? if so no thanks.

Article reads like an ad.

I can't get over how Apple is getting everyone to refer to them with proper pluralization, ie AirPods 5 vs AirPod 5's.

I rock a Redmi ANC earphones because.. they work and theyre like $20. Unlike these overengineered sound makers that breaks the moment you drop them.