Third-Gen AirPods Offer Only 5 Hours' Listening Time With Spatial Audio Enabled
Apple on Monday announced third-generation AirPods, featuring an updated design, improved sound quality, and an extra hour of battery life compared to the second-generation AirPods, which offer five hours of listening time. However, what Apple didn't make very explicit in its marketing is that to get six hours out of its latest earphones, spatial audio must be disabled.
As noted in Apple's fine print, if spatial audio is enabled, users can expect up to five hours of battery. That's the same amount of listening time offered by the second-generation AirPods, which don't support spatial audio, but still half an hour longer than the AirPods Pro. That said, AirPods Pro can also be pushed to five hours of listening time by turning off Active Noise Cancelation and Transparency mode.
The new AirPods, as rumored, feature a design similar to the AirPods Pro but without silicone eartips or Active Noise Cancelation. The new AirPods also include Adaptive EQ, which adjusts frequencies in real-time based on what a user is listening to deliver even improved sound quality.
According to Apple's specifications page for the new AirPods, the third-generation AirPods do not support the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the iPhone 5s, because they require iOS 13 to work. They also drop support for the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3 alongside the sixth-generation iPod touch.
The new third-generation AirPods are being offered alongside the second-generation AirPods, as well as the higher-end AirPods Pro. The new AirPods are available for pre-order now and will begin shipping next week.
(Thanks, Anton!)
Popular Stories
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost.
The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month.
In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing.
Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1.
Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update.
With iOS 18.4, Apple is adding the Priority Notifications...
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4.
For context, audio files are typically compressed to keep file sizes smaller. There are lossy compression standards like MP3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), which...
We're not getting new Siri Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.4 as expected, but the upcoming update does have quite a few new additions that will be worth upgrading for. We've rounded up the five best features to look forward to, and if you're not running the beta, you can expect to get access to these in early April.
Priority Notifications
If you have an iPhone or iPad that supports...
Apple will launch its long-rumored foldable iPhone next year with a ~$2,000 premium price tag attached, expects well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.
Gurman's comments on Apple's launch plans for its first foldable device appeared in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter. Earlier this month, the reporter said Apple's foldable iPhone could be arriving "as early as 2026,"...
Leaker Jon Prosser today shared a mockup of what he says the Messages app will look like in iOS 19, demoing an interface with rounded, translucent bubble-shaped navigation buttons at the top and softer, rounder corners for the keyboard and word suggestions.
Jon Prosser's Messages app mockup
The return button, a button for going back to the Messages list, and the FaceTime button have a deeper...
