Beats Introduces Powerbeats Pro 2 Sports Earhook Buds with Heart Rate Monitoring

Beats announced Powerbeats Pro 2, its most advanced product ever, built for ultimate athletic performance and featuring Heart Rate Monitoring for workouts. The new Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are powered by the same Apple H2 chip as in the AirPods Pro, featuring Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency, Adaptive EQ, Voice Isolation, and Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. The earhook design is also lighter, allowing up to 45 hours of battery life with the Qi wireless charging case.

The news that Apple launched an updated version of its (regular) AirPods was somewhat muffled by the announcement of the hearing aid capabilities brought to AirPods Pro 2 with a simple software update. But the new AirPods 4 with ANC are a big deal for the industry which has been struggling to combine the benefits of the loose-fit (now also called open-ear) form-factor with the convenience of active noise cancellation when required. The key, as always for Apple, is in the elegant implementation of Adaptive Audio.

As anticipated, Bose announced its new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. As the brand that brought us noise cancelling headphones as a consumer product, this announcement is extremely important for the Massachusetts-company, as it claims to offer "the world’s best noise cancellation," thanks to its CustomTune sound calibration technology that allows personalized performance. The design is also refined and much more elegant than any previous Bose product in the category.

Apple shuffled the cards again with the introduction of the latest Beats Fit Pro advanced true wireless earbuds. The new product leverages all the technologies Apple developed for the AirPods Pro, including the H1 chip, and features an all-new flexible wingtip and a custom-developed acoustic platform, retailing for just $199.99. ANC, Transparency, Adaptive EQ, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and four different color schemes make these the new flagship.

As predicted, Apple announced the next generation of AirPods during a streamed event (October 18). The new model ($179) was improved in every front and promised to be available in just a few days, which was probably the biggest surprise. Apple also announced new colors for its HomePod Mini smart speakers, while it waits for the Matter home standard to be released. And announced a strange Voice Only Apple Music subscription plan, including countries that don’t speak English.

Everyone knew it was coming because the rumors about the new over-ear headphone design abounded for some time, but no one knew exactly what the focus for the new product would be, except that everyone was anticipating an "augmented" edition of the popular AirPods Pro in-ears. Now, we know it is a radically new approach to wireless headphones, leveraging all of Apple's technologies and experience in design and user interfaces. Most importantly, the AirPods Max headphones combine high-fidelity audio with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, and spatial audio.

In another product announcement that didn't go as planned, following a lot of rumors and leaks coming from China, Apple was forced to unveil its latest addition to the AirPods family. As widely anticipated, the AirPods Pro have a new improved design, combining a slightly similar shape to the original loose-fit design, but slightly twisted to support a silicon in-ear tip, in order to make Active Noise Cancellation effective. The all-new lightweight design is now available.