Tomorrow will likely be the biggest day of 2024 for Apple. While the company hasn’t officially revealed what the Glowtime event will contain, we expect to see four varieties of iPhone 16, three different wearables (Apple Watch 10, SE 3 and Ultra 3) and two flavors of AirPods 4.
While the last of these has been tipped since last month, the exact differences between the two pairs of wireless earbuds have been a little hard to pin down — until now. In his final piece ahead of the event, Bloomberg’s well-connected tech reporter Mark Gurman outlines the key differences we can expect between the two sets of fourth-generation AirPods.
Interestingly, design-wise, they’re both going to look more like AirPods Pro, according to Gurman. Whether that means a more rectangular case, shorter stems, replaceable tips or all three isn’t made clear, but both will come with USB-C charging thanks to that EU regulation that forced Apple to abandon Lightning across the board.
Both will also offer improved sound quality over the AirPods 3, which isn’t a big surprise given the last generation came out in 2021.
But that’s where the similarities end. The higher-end version of AirPods 4 will be the first non-Pro set of AirPods to feature active noise cancellation (ANC). Gurman writes that this is “noise cancellation to match the AirPods Pro," but it’s not clear whether he means in terms of quality or just a feature-for-feature match.
Secondly, the enhanced version of AirPods 4 will inherit another feature from AirPods Pro 2: a higher-end case with a speaker built in. As with the Pro model, this will make it easier to locate via the Apple Find My network (and presumably alert you to when it’s charging with the same friendly ‘ding’).
Finally, Gurman writes that the long-rumored attempt to push AirPods into hearing health is beginning to bear fruit — but may not be ready for showtime at tomorrow’s event. This is both the potential to use AirPods as hearing aids and to conduct hearing tests. “The company is preparing to announce the enhancements — codenamed Yodel — but they’ve suffered some delays and may not be available until later,” Gurman writes.
If you’ve been reading this eagerly awaiting news of AirPods Pro 3 or AirPods Max 2, you’re sadly out of luck, with Gurman pouring cold water on the idea of an update at tomorrow’s event. The former is in the works with “an upgraded design and improved noise cancellation”, but he doesn’t expect it to be part of tomorrow’s festivities, adding that it’s “due as early as next year.”
The changes to AirPods Max, meanwhile, sound more minor with only new colors and a switch to USB-C mentioned. Even this modest change isn’t expected soon, though: “there’s still plenty of current AirPods Max inventory on hand, suggesting that the update could be coming later.”
We’ll find out if Gurman is right soon enough. Apple’s Glowtime event kicks off tomorrow — Monday, September 9 — at 1 p.m. ET or 10 a.m. PT. We’ll have all the news as it happens, but if you want to see the presentation for yourself, here’s how to watch the Apple Glowtime event live.
