AirPods Pro 2
The AirPods Pro have aged (gracefully), releasing in the pre-pandemic days when everything seemed almost right with the world. Rumour has it that the new version will be announced as early as this week, alongside the iPhone 14 series. Obviously, several changes are on the way. The rumour might not be “just” a rumour, as Apple tracker and Bloomberg man Mark German has recently written about it in his Power On newsletter.
“The new AirPods Pro will update a model that first went on sale in October 2019. I reported last year that new AirPods Pro would arrive in 2022, and now I’m told that Wednesday will be their big unveiling,” he wrote in the newsletter.
The upgrades are expected to include the next generation of Apple’s H1 processor, higher quality sound using either Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) that ditches Bluetooth entirely, or by adding Bluetooth 5.2 support, which uses the LC3 codec to transmit audio more efficiently.
The CAD files of the rumoured AirPods are doing the rounds of Twitter and it shows a mysterious hole at the bottom of the case, which may well be a microphone. Why would a wireless earbuds case have a microphone? MacRumors suggests it could be for Apple’s Live Listen accessibility feature. Here, the microphone on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch sends the audio straight to somebody’s AirPods, and it would make some sense for this to be incorporated directly into the case itself, if it doesn’t cost too much to implement.
The AirPods Pro charging case may have IPX4-rated water and sweat resistance like the charging case for the third-generation AirPods. Currently, only the AirPods Pro earbuds have water resistance and not the case.
Apple Watch Pro
The ‘Pro’ moniker has done wonders for Apple as the company has managed to push quite a few pro features, unlike several rival brands that have overused the term. For the first time, Apple may attach the tag to its hugely popular Apple Watch series, thereby going head to head with Garmin, which is an athlete-focussed brand in the higher segment.
The rumour makes sense because Apple has been slightly behind in the athlete-driven segment. Targeting athletes, hikers and anyone partial to endurance sports, the new device is expected to be Apple’s biggest to date — the display may measure at almost two inches diagonally, which is larger than the 1.9-inch diagonal screen size of the Apple Watch Series 7.
With more screen real estate and a display resolution of 410x502 pixels, expect more fitness metrics to be available on the Apple Watch face at any given time. Also, the watch is expected to have a titanium finish, meaning better resistance and protection. A bigger watch should also translate into a larger battery.
What would be more interesting is the rumoured body temperature sensor, if it makes its way into the new Apple Watch series. The temperature sensor would initially be used for fertility planning but it is unlikely to show an actual measurement. The company apparently wanted to add temperature monitoring in the Series 7 but was unable to get it to work accurately enough. In August, the company was granted a patent for a “high-accuracy” temperature sensor that would be used in the Apple Watch.
All of this means, the Pro model of the Watch could be priced around $900, making it more expensive than the current Apple Watch models. As for the other Watches in the series, those will have some important upgrades but nothing big enough to steal the thunder of the Pro model.