The launch of Apple’s 4th Gen AirPods and 3rd Gen AirPods is approaching, and a major leak has revealed new details about the next version of the company’s hugely popular wireless headphones. These include new health features (covering both hearing and body temperature monitoring) and a switch from Lightning to USB-C.
Leak analyst Mark Gurman focused on the next generation of AirPods in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, and while some items have already been mentioned by Gurman and others, the article is a summary. helpful with some new tidbits and more detail in some places.
We already know, for example, that Apple is deeply interested in hearing health and how AirPods can help with that. Current AirPods Pro models have been shown to double as inexpensive hearing aids, and the Conversation Boost feature was introduced years ago.
More recently, Gurman himself said in a previous edition of Power On that hearing health will be the next area of AirPods innovation. But at the time, it was relatively vague, mentioning the “ability to obtain any auditory data”. The new report develops this point considerably. There will, Gurman predicts, be a “new hearing test feature that plays different tones and sounds to allow AirPods to determine how well a person can hear. The idea is to help users screen for hearing problems. in other words, in addition to serving as an effective hearing aid, the next AirPods will be able to flag potential hearing loss earlier so that it can be treated more effectively.
A separate health feature that Apple is looking to add to AirPods is body temperature measurement. Again, this is an area we already know is interesting for the company, whose most recent Apple Watches are designed to measure body temperature via the wrist for fertility tracking and general wellbeing, but the ear canal is a better and more accurate source. such data. So Apple is working on adding a temperature sensor to a future set of AirPods, Gurman says, though that might not be ready for the fourth generation.
What will be there in time for the next model is the widely anticipated switch from Lightning to USB-C on the case’s charging port. This makes sense since Apple is strongly expected to make the same transition on the iPhone from late 2023. However, while Gurman has previously said he expects the three AirPod models are moving to USB-C by the end of 2023, it now signals that the company may be willing to wait a bit longer for non-standard models; the AirPods Pro, he says, will stick to their current release cadence, meaning the next model, presumably based on a USB-C connection, likely won’t arrive until fall 2025. It’s unclear not if a new case will roll out before that like with the MagSafe case in 2021.
Finally, the idea that Apple is planning to reduce the price of its cheapest AirPods, echoed in the new report, has been circulating for years. They’ve generally been called the AirPods Lite and are expected to compete with headphones under $100.
The current (standard) AirPods launched in October 2021, and while Apple refreshes its headphones less frequently than its phones, tablets, and laptops, work is well underway on a sequel to this successful product. A look at Apple’s AirPods release history (September 2016, March 2019, then October 2021) suggests that the next standard edition of Apple’s wireless headphones should arrive in or around spring 2024.
You can keep up with all the latest news and rumors by bookmarking our new, regularly updated AirPods superguide.
