Today happens to be the 800th In the News post on iPhone J.D., and Apple TV is nonplussed. What I mean is that one of many announcements from Apple this week was that the service formally known as Apple TV+ will now simply be called Apple TV. Goodbye, plus sign. I agree with the comment on this change from Jason Snell of Six Colors: “When everyone calls your service one thing, it’s probably best to just go with it and simplify.” Moreover, it was already a little confusing to have a streaming service, a hardware box connected to a television, and an app for watching videos that basically had the same name, so I don’t think that dropping the plus sign will cause much additional confusion; when someone says “Apple TV,” you can figure out from the context what they are talking about. But that’s not all that Apple had to say this week, so here is the rest of the news of note:
As I noted yesterday, Apple announced the iPad Pro M5 this week. But if you would prefer to use that speedy new chip in a laptop computer instead of an iPad,
Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that Apple also released the first new version of the Apple Vision Pro since it was previewed in 2023 and went on sale on February 2, 2024. Apple hasn’t changed the name—they are still calling this second version the Apple Vision Pro—but it now includes an M5 processor (a notable upgrade from the M2 in the original Vision Pro) and other enhancements. It also includes a new Dual Knit Band that provides more support (because it includes not only the strap that goes around your head but also a strap that goes on top of your head) and should be better balanced (because it includes tungsten inserts to provide a counterweight to the weight of the main part of the Vision Pro). If you already own a Vision Pro and you just want the new strap, you can purchase that for $99 from Apple.
As William Gallagher of AppleInsider notes, Apple also announced this week that, starting November 11, 2025, you will be able to purchase a PlayStation VR2 Sense controller from the Apple Store that can be used to play games on an Apple Vision Pro.
If you want to draw items in space while wearing an Apple Vision Pro, Apple worked with Logitech to release the Logitech Muse. It is sort of like a thicker version of the Apple Pencil that works in 3D. It costs $130, and while I’m interested in hearing how it works, it doesn’t seem like something that I would use.
If you own the original Apple Vision Pro and want to trade in that model towards the purchase of a new one, Hartley Charlton of MacRumors reports that you cannot do so. However, I still wonder if Apple will allow that option at some point in the future, but just isn’t ready to do so right now.
Apple giveth, but Apple also taketh away. This week, Apple removed its Clips app from the App Store and, as noted by Eric Slivka of MacRumors, announced in a support document that the app will no longer be supported for those who have it installed. Apple released the Clips app in 2017. Although I haven’t used it frequently, I did use the app a few times to quickly create some fun movies, and I found that it worked well.
In 2018, the U.S. Mint began releasing American Innovation dollar coins. The first version of the coin commemorated the first patent, and every coin released since then celebrates a state or U.S. territory, along with an invention or inventor associated with that region. For example, in 2023, the U.S. Mint released the Louisiana coin, which celebrates the Higgins boat—a boat invented in New Orleans that played a crucial role during World War II, including on D-Day. I mention all of this because, as noted by Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac, this week the U.S. Mint announced that the California dollar coin will be released in 2026 and will honor Steve Jobs.
In an interview with Sahil Mohan Gupta of the Indian business publication BW Businessworld, Jon McCormack, who leads camera and photo software engineering at Apple, discussed the new front-facing camera on the newest iPhones. He says that Apple wanted to uncouple the orientation of your iPhone from the aspect ratio of your capture. He also notes an advantage that I had not thought of: “You’ll also notice everyone in the photo has better eye gaze because the camera preview is centred with the front camera rather than being off to the side.” Taking better selfies should be a popular new feature considering that Apple says that people around the world take 16,000 selfie photos every second. I’m fairly certain that a good portion of those are taken by my daughter.
Michael Simon of Macworld reports that Apple has doubled its top award from $1 million to $2 million for people who discover a security flaw with Apple’s operating systems and report that bug to Apple.
Alex Sherman of CNBC reports that Apple executive Eddy Cue said that Apple’s F1 movie is the highest-grossing sports film of all time. Apple also announced that the movie will come to Apple TV on December 12. I enjoyed the movie at an IMAX theater, and I look forward to watching it again on a virtual huge screen using my Vision Pro.
Jason Snell of Six Colors notes that there is heavy speculation that Apple is going to announce this weekend that it has purchased the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to F1 racing, and Snell discusses the different ways that Apple could do that.
Apple TV released a trailer for Season 2 of the show Palm Royale, which starts on November 12, and I love that Carol Burnett—at 92 years old—is still in the show.
And finally, here is a short, fun video from Apple that celebrates design. This was the beginning of Apple’s recent introduction of the new iPhones, but even though I saw it before, I enjoyed watching it again.
If you are a lawyer or other professional who wants a nice iPad that will be fantastic for getting your work done and will also be great for surfing the Internet, looking at pictures, and otherwise using that device when you are off the clock, the iPad Air is a fantastic option. It now includes many features that were previously only available with an iPad Pro, and it was just updated seven months ago to use the M3 processor. And at a starting price of only $599, you get a lot of bang for the buck. But if you consider yourself a power user, you can spend more to get the iPad Pro, which has a lot more features. On May 7, 2024, Apple introduced the iPad Pro M4. I’ve been using the iPad Pro M4 virtually every day since it came out, and I love that device for the reasons I noted in my review. Yesterday, Apple replaced the iPad Pro M4 with the iPad Pro M5, and the name tells you almost everything that you need to know about this device: Apple replaced the M4 processor with the faster M5 processor. If you are in the market for a high-end iPad, the iPad Pro M5 is now the iPad to get.
In today’s post, I’m going to discuss what has changed from the iPad Pro M4, what makes the iPad Pro such a good device to use, and who should instead save $400 and get an iPad Air (M3).
M5 > M4
A big reason that the M5 version of the iPad Pro is better than the M4 version is that it uses an M5 instead of an M4 processor. The M5 is a cousin of the A19 Pro chip that is used in the new iPhone 17 Pro, so it is a little bit faster than the M4 in most tasks. Apple says that the performance increase is most noticeable when your iPad uses the Neural Engine to do AI work: about 3.5x faster than the M4. It also features faster graphics performance (over 4x the peak GPU performance of the M4) and a faster CPU.
The iPad Pro M5 also has more memory if you get the least expensive models, the ones with 256GB or 512GB of storage: 12GB instead of the 8GB in the iPad Pro M4. That is also similar to what Apple did with the iPhone 17 Pro, where the memory is 12GB in the 2025 model versus 8GB in the 2024 model (the iPhone 16 Pro). I suspect that the additional memory is largely there because it makes on-device AI work so much better, but extra memory is more useful for any task, even if you are just keeping lots of browser tabs open in Safari. Note that if you opt for the 1TB or the 2TB models of the iPad Pro M5, you get 16GB of RAM, which fantastic, but it is the same as what you got with the 1TB and 2TB models of the iPad Pro M4.
Speaking of memory, the memory bandwidth is a little better: 153GB/second for the iPad Pro M5 versus 120GB/second for the iPad Pro M4. Thus, not only can you keep more tasks in memory thanks to the additional RAM, but things move in and out of memory 30% faster. Again, this helps with AI and multitasking.
Apple is also bringing its new C1X modem to the versions of the iPad Pro M5 models that feature a built-in modem. The only iPhone to feature an Apple-built modem is the iPhone Air; the other iPhone models use a Qualcomm modem, which is more powerful but more power-hungry. Apple says that the C1X modem uses 30% less energy than the modem used in the iPad Pro M4. It also features the same Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip that Apple used in the iPhone Air. Apple says that the N1 chip offers networking improvements, but since the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t use an N1, it seems that even Apple doesn’t believe that the N1 is always the best networking chip to use in a device. The N1 chip does mean that the iPad Pro M5 can work with the new Wi-Fi 7 standard; the iPad Pro M4 worked with Wi-Fi 6E.
All in all, these improvements are incremental, but they are still improvements. Having a faster processor, and having more and faster memory, means that the iPad Pro is even more “Pro” than ever before. I don’t think that anyone needs to upgrade from an iPad Pro M4, but if you are using an older version of the iPad Pro or a non-Pro iPad, you will have lots to appreciate.
M5 = M4
Aside from those improvements, this looks to be a great iPad for the same reasons that I love the iPad Pro M4 so much. First, it is the thinnest iPad and very light, which is very nice when I’m holding an iPad in my hands for a long time to read and annotate a document.
The screen is also amazing. The iPad Pro M4 and iPad Pro M5 both feature a Tandem OLED display, and it is the best display on any device—better than any computer, iPhone, TV, you name it, that I have ever seen. The display is crisp, the colors are vivid, the screen is bright, and it is a joy to use. Sure, when I am reading black-and-white briefs, having a better display is no big deal. But when I am looking at pictures or movies, it is wonderful.
I also appreciate that the iPad Pro now places the self-facing camera on the long edge, which works so much better for video calls because I virtually always keep my iPad in landscape orientation.
Finally, just like the iPad Pro M4, the iPad Pro M5 supports the Apple Pencil Pro, which is a nice improvement over the Apple Pencil. As I described in more detail in this post, it supports the squeeze gesture, it includes a gyroscope, it provides haptic feedback, and it includes Find My support if you lose the Pencil. This new iPad Pro also works with the latest and best version of Apple’s Magic Keyboard for iPad.
Etc.
A few other minor notes about the iPad Pro M5. If you prefer a nano-texture glass display to reduce glare, you have the option to spend $200 more for that display if you opt for the more expensive 1TB or 2TB models. With those two higher-end models, you also get a 10-core CPU instead of a 9-core CPU, which gives you a slight additional speed bump for certain tasks.
You can also charge the iPad Pro M5 a little faster if you use Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max or another compatible adapter. That’s something that Apple also added to this year’s iPhone 17 models. For the iPad Pro M5, it means that you can charge up to 50% in 35 minutes.
If you use an iPad with an external display, the iPad Pro M5 can support a display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The current version of the Apple Studio Display supports 60Hz. This feature on the new iPad Pro makes me wonder if a new and improved Apple Studio Display is going to be released in the coming months.
M5 vs. Air
If you are using an older iPad and you are ready to upgrade, should you get this new iPad Pro M5 or should you get the iPad Air (M3) that was released earlier this year?
Although the iPad Air (M3) starts at $599, that model has 128GB of storage space. If you are storing lots of documents and videos, that may not be enough. The $699 version of the iPad Air (M3) has 256GB of storage space, which is the better size for many professional users. If you spend the extra $300 on the iPad Pro M5, the main things that you get are (1) a much nicer and brighter OLED screen, (2) more memory, and memory that is faster, (3) Face ID instead of Touch ID, (4) four built-in speakers instead of two, and (5) the speed of an M5 processor instead of an M3. I consider that to be a much better iPad, well worth the extra $300 for anyone who uses an iPad extensively. However, if those additional features don’t sound particularly important to you, or if you are a more casual iPad user, consider saving $300. The iPad Air is still a fantastic iPad.
Conclusion
In addition to the new iPad Pro, Apple also announced a new MacBook Pro and a new Vision Pro yesterday, both of which also include the new M5 processor. I love that Apple now considers the iPad Pro to be such an important device for professional users that it has decided to include the latest and improved processor family in the iPad Pro from Day 1. I cannot say enough good things about the iPad Pro M4. It has been a key part of my life for over a year now. The iPad Pro M5 has everything that I love about the iPad Pro M4, plus more. This device looks fantastic.
We begin this week’s episode of the podcast talking about the badge awards that you can earn in the Fitness app. Next, we talk about the Slide Over feature that used to exist on the iPad and the indications that something similar may be coming soon. We also talk about new reviews of the iPhone 17 Pro, new reviews of the iPhone Air, the potentially life-saving siren feature of the Apple Watch Ultra, sleep scores, external batteries, courtside seats thanks to the Apple Vision Pro, and more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses the Control Center on the Apple Watch, and I discuss freeing your cursor from jail when you are using Universal Control.
Today is 10/10. In addition to being a date that is fun to say, it is also World Mental Health Day, according to the World Health Organization. Apple is celebrating by letting you earn a badge award for the Fitness app: the World Mental Health Day Challenge. You can earn this award by using any app that adds mindfulness or meditation minutes to Apple’s Health app—such as the Mindfulness app on the Apple Watch—for ten minutes. Get it? It’s 10 minutes on 10/10. So why not take some deep breaths, and earn yourself a fun award today. And now, the news of note from the past week:
If you are thinking about getting an iPhone 17 Pro and want more help deciding if it is right for you, or if you have already purchased one and want to learn more about what you have, Dan Moren of Six Colors wrote a helpful review. And in case you missed it, here is my review. I love this device.
If it is the iPhone Air that has your attention, not the iPhone 17 Pro, Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote this helpful review.
As much as I love using an Apple Watch Series 10, I know that there are a few nice features that you can only get with the Apple Watch Ultra. William Gallagher of AppleInsider explains how a SCUBA driver says that the siren feature of the Ultra saved his life, even though he was still underwater.
Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that with iOS 26, you can now see your full call history with a contact. When I tried this, it worked perfectly for some folks, but didn’t seem to be working yet for other contacts.
There is a sale on Amazon for a product from Anker that I haven’t tried yet, but it looks really useful, especially for travel. It is the Anker Prime 6-in-1 USB C Charging Station, normally $109.99, on sale for $79.99. It is a long extension cord, and at the end, there is a device with two AC outlets, two USB-C ports, and two USB-A ports, and the whole thing is very slim, so it seems perfect for travel. You can plug this thing into an outlet near the floor and then place the device on a desk to provide easy access to all of the power options that you need.
Speaking of Anker, it is one of the few companies from which I typically purchase Lithium-ion batteries because I’ve always had a sense that batteries from lesser-known companies are unreliable. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, based on a report from Lumafield discussed by Andrew Liszewski of The Verge, those cheaper batteries really can be dangerous.
iPadOS 26.1 is now in beta, and folks are reporting some interesting new features. For example, Jason Snell of Six Colors notes that Apple is bringing back Slide Over, which was the one feature of the pre-iPadOS 26 multitasking system that I know a lot of people missed.
Steve Troughton-Smith notes on Mastodon that it looks like iPadOS 26.1 may support putting your iPad in “clamshell mode” so that you can use it with an external monitor while the screen on the iPad itself is turned off. I know that only some people would find this useful, but for them, it would be really nice to have. I would love to see a related feature: mirror my iPad screen to an Apple Vision Pro but turn off the screen on the iPad itself; that way, I would get more privacy while working on confidential matters because someone passing by could not see my iPad’s screen (and of course, they wouldn’t see what I am seeing in the Vision Pro).
Speaking of the Vision Pro, Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that in 2026, you will be able to live-stream some Lakers games in Apple Immersive format to the Vision Pro, essentially giving you courtside seats. Watching live sporting events from impossibly good seats seems like a fantastic feature. When we get to the point where there is a lot of this content, I could see it convincing people to purchase an Apple Vision Pro or future versions of that platform.
I noted last week that Apple removed the ICEBlock app from the App Store because of pressure from the Trump administration. John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers an interesting analysis of Apple’s decision.
I loved the shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Rhea Seehorn was especially good in Better Call Saul. Thus, I’m excited about the new show Pluribus, which starts in a few weeks on Apple TV+. The show stars Seehorn and was created by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Apple released a trailer this week.
And finally, in 2019, Apple released a video to tell the story of a scrappy team of four office workers trying to sell their great idea. It starred Ambrose Burzak, Edward Mawere, Mia Schauffler, and Stephen Thomas Young. They were called The Underdogs, and the video showed off how the iPad and other Apple products can be used to get work done. Sequels came out in 2020 (the team used Apple technology to work from home during the pandemic), 2022 (the team returned to the office after the pandemic), 2023 (the team tracked down a stolen Mac), and 2024 (the team traveled to Thailand). This week, Apple released the sixth video featuring the Underdogs, and it is cute. The video is called The Underdogs: BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), and it was obviously inspired by the BSOD issue in 2024 that affected banks, airlines, and other companies around the world.
We begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast discussing Apple’s approach to AI and how its Foundation Model, built into iOS 16, presents a fantastic opportunity for app developers to enhance their apps. We also talk about the latest update to iOS 26, hidden features in iOS 26, the latest reviews of the iPhone Air and the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the impressive cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro, the latest changes to the Goodnotes app, and apparent leaks that may give us a sneak peak of new Apple products coming soon.
In our In the Vision segment, we discuss visionOS 26 and what would make the Vision Pro a better tool for getting work done.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss five more years of Peanuts on Apple TV+ and some of the upcoming shows on Apple TV+.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses watching Apple TV+ shows on United flights, and I discuss a fast and easy way to use the Tapback feature in Messages.
Apple does more to protect user privacy than any of its competitors in the technology space, so it is not surprising that Apple has been pursuing on-device AI so that everything happens on your device, keeping everything private. Apple’s new Foundation Model is part of iOS 26, and Apple recently discussed how third-party apps can incorporate it into their apps to provide fast, free, and private AI features. If you want to kick the tires on the Apple Foundation Model yourself, I encourage you to try out the free app from Adrien Grondin called Locally AI. This app allows you to interact with an AI on your iPhone—similar to the ChatGPT app—but it uses AI models that are on your device, not in the cloud, so everything is fast, private, and secure. The app lets you download the latest open-source AI models, such as Gemma (from Google) and Llama (from Meta), but I’m mentioning it today because it was recently updated to support the Apple Foundation Model that is included with iOS 26, so you don’t need to download a huge model from Google or Meta to use it. I was impressed to see how incredibly fast and powerful the Apple Foundation Model is, and it makes me hope that more developers will incorporate this in their apps. And now, the news of note from the past week:
AirPods Pro 3 have been getting all of the (well-deserved) attention, but Apple has another line of earbuds, the Beats line, and this week Apple released the Powerbeats Fit. As Juli Clover of MacRumors notes in her review, unlike AirPods that fit in your ear and Powerbeats Pro that fits around your ear to be more secure, the new Powerbeats Fit use a wingtip to stay put within your ear. They also feature active noise cancellation. They are $199.99 on Amazon.
Lux is a company that makes the excellent iPhone camera apps Halide and Kino. The folks at Lux wrote a review of the cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro, and they explain why they are so impressed.
Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that, based on documents published by the FCC and an unboxing video that showed up on YouTube, it looks like Apple will soon release new versions of the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro. The new models will use an M5 chip to be faster, but are expected to otherwise be essentially the same as the prior models. I suspect that we will see an official announcement from Apple this month.
I agree with just about everything that Jason Snell says about visionOS 26 in the review that he wrote on his Six Colors website. Everything continues to improve, and it seems obvious that Apple is improving this platform for the Vision Pro so that it will be ready for a next-generation device that will be closer to a pair of glasses.
The Goodnotes app for iPad has added a bunch of improvements and changed the subscription plans. Mahnoor Faisal of Make Use Of describes what is new.
Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider reports that Apple has removed the ICEBlock app, presumably because of pressure from the Department of Justice. The ICEBlock app lets users mark on a map where they see ICE activity so that others can avoid that area.
In an article for The Verge, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal interviews Ford CEO Jim Farley. The interview covers a range of interesting topics, but I’ll focus on CarPlay here. Farley said that while Ford doesn’t like the current version of CarPlay Ultra, and it appears that the reason is that the Apple software controls too much of the vehicle itself, but he has been talking to Tim Cook and still has an interest in letting people use CarPlay in Ford’s cars.
If you want to record video from multiple angles, you can use Final Cut Pro on the iPad to record video from the iPad’s camera plus up to four iPhones to simultaneously record from different angles so that your final video can switch between different shots. Jason Snell of Six Colors explains how it works.
Apple announced that Apple TV+ will continue to be the exclusive streaming home for Peanuts for another five years. I switched to the Peanuts screensaver on my Apple TV as soon as Apple released it in December 2024, and I haven’t changed it yet because that screensaver continues to be updated frequently with new, delightful content. I love it, and I’m ready for another five years of it.
I enjoyed the show Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+, and I was sad to see that Apple cancelled it after only two seasons, especially considering that Season 3 is already written. Hopefully, it will be made one day. In the meantime, a stage version of Schmigadoon! is coming to Broadway in a few months, as noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac.
And finally, John Voorhees of MacStories describes the new shows coming to Apple TV+. Today, Apple releases the movie The Lost Bus, and it sounds like it is good. Next week, I’m looking forward to The Last Frontier. Here is a short video from Apple with previews of the new shows coming to Apple TV+ this month:
I love being a lawyer, but it is one of those professions that tends to fill up whatever available time that you have. It always seems like there is even more that can be done to help my clients. But we all need balance, and one way to find time for the important things in life outside of work is to be more efficient when it comes to tasks that are time sucks. Dealing with a large email inbox is definitely one of those tasks, and this is where Sanebox can be a huge help.
Although I use SaneBox with multiple email accounts, let me focus on just one of them today: my Gmail account. This is my primary personal email account, so I receive numerous emails from people on topics that are unrelated to my work. I have also been using that account for decades when shopping, and that means that it gets tons of marketing emails. These are not spam, becuase many of them are vendors that I use, and if it is time for me to buy an item, I want to take advantage of that email with this month’s coupon. And I also subscribe to some newsletters that go to that account. Before I started using SaneBox, I would sometimes look at my Gmail inbox and see such an overwhelming number of new messages that I didn’t even know where to start.
But thanks to SaneBox, those days are now over for me. My Inbox typically has fewer than 10 emails when I check it, making it easy and quick to see if there is something important there, and then I can get back to my life. This huge increase in efficiency is amazing.
From time to time, I’ll glance at my @SaneNews folder. That is where SaneBox files emails that are likely to be less urgent, things like newsletters and other emails sent to a large audience. I want to see many of these emails, just not all of the time. Thanks to the @SaneNews folder, I can view those emails only when I am ready for them.
I also occasionally look at my @SaneLater folder. Those are likely to be marketing emails that I don’t mind receiving because I occasionally will have an interest in looking at them, but I just don’t want them clogging up my inbox. When I open that @SaneLater folder, I immediately click the box at the top left of Gmail to select all items. If there are one or two that I want to read right now or in the future, I unclick the boxes next to those. Then I click the delete button and delete the rest. I couldn’t easily do that if these emails were in a single inbox along with the key messages that I want and the newsletters that I want to save. But since they are all in @SaneLater, I can deal with them quickly, all at once.
SaneBox does an excellent job of sorting these emails for me. However, if it ever makes a decision that you disagree with—such as placing something in @SaneLater that should be in @SaneNews or even in my main inbox—I just move that email to the folder where it belongs. That teaches SaneBox how to handle future emails from the same sender.
If you want to try out SaneBox to see what a huge difference it can make in your life, click here to get a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. If you don’t like having a clean and tidy Inbox and decide to return to how you had it before, no sweat. But if you appreciate having a better way of working with email, using this link in this post will give you a generous $25 credit for when you pick a plan—and there are lots of different plans offered so that you can choose the one that gives you just what you want.
Thanks to SaneBox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. And a special thanks to SaneBox for giving me extra time in my life.
It turns out, there is a LOT to say about the new AirPods Pro 3, and Brett and I begin today’s episode of the In the News podcast going deep into all of the details. Next, we discuss what makes the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max especially nice models this year, why some people are instead fans of the iPhone Air, what Brett likes most about the Apple Watch Ultra 3, and some less obvious but useful features in iOS 26.
In our In the Vision segment, we discuss numerous new immersive videos coming to the Apple Vision Pro.
In our ‘In the Show’ segment, we discuss two shows that Apple is currently not allowing you to see (Tehran and The Savant), and one show that we are very excited to watch (Season 5 of Slow Horses).
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses Spatial photos on the iPhone, and I discuss pairing two AirPods to a single Apple TV so that two people can watch TV without making noise that could bother others.
Although I purchased a new iPhone and the AirPods Pro 3 this month, I did not purchase a new Apple Watch because my Apple Watch Series 10 (my review) is still doing everything that I want. For folks who are a fan of the biggest and most feature-packed Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra, the new third-generation model is getting great reviews. For example, Vanessa Hand Orellana of CNet calls it “a Land Rover for your wrist” and says that it “straddles that line between rugged and refined,” even though she also says that she prefers the thinner design of the Series 11 (which is the same, excellent design as the Series 10). What amazes me is that it wasn’t that long ago that the Apple Watch was an innovative but underpowered and slow device; today, it is so much better. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Before talking about tech, please remember that there are only a few days left to show your support for kids with cancer by making a donation, no matter how big or small, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a part of this year’s fundraising campaign. Your donation will make good things happen, so I won’t be the only one who greatly appreciates your generosity.
I’ve really enjoyed using the new AirPods Pro 3 for the reasons I noted in my review. And the reviews from others have been quite positive. Tammy Rogers of Tom’s Guide calls them “the best pair of AirPods that Apple has ever released, with massive and tangible upgrades to one of the best sets of buds from the last five years.”
Jürgen Kraus of Audio Reviews said that he has tested “hundreds” of in-ear headphones and that his audio quality tests the AirPods Pro 3"blow me away.”
Gareth Beavis of Digital Trends is an avid runner, and while he has long been a fan of AirPods, he wore the Jabra Elite Active 8 while running because of the more secure fit . But the AirPods Pro 3 fit so much better that he remarked: “These are the first set of Apple’s earphones ever that I feel confident using over a long run, and that’s, by far, the feature I wanted above all else.”
I’ve also really enjoyed using the iPhone 17 Pro Max this week (my review). Julian Chokkattu of Wired is also a fan, praising the heat management, battery life, and improved cameras.
In an article for Macworld, Mahmoud Itani shows off what the telephoto lens on the iPhone 17 Pro can do. “Not only does the optical zoom perform better than last year’s model, but the digital zoom has also eliminated noticeable pixelation—even when hitting the 40x limit.”
I enjoyed looking at the portion of iFixit’s teardown video and pictures that showed the Vapor Chamber of the iPhone 17 Pro. The technology itself is almost beautiful to see, and iFixit’s heat tests show that it works to prevent the processor from overheating, which caused the iPhone 16 Pro to throttle back the processor to compensate.
I’ve heard many people say that they opted for a “pro” model instead of the iPhone Air because they want the extra cameras. But for those who were okay with a single camera, the iPhone Air reviews have been quite positive. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac says that he “can’t imagine going back to a thicker, heavier iPhone” now that the thin iPhone Air “feels like the new normal.”
Riley Hill of Slate Pad says that the iPhone Air is the best model for him because it “does the things most people use their phones for in an attractive, futuristic form factor.” I think that a lot of people are going to agree with that.
One of the initial fears about the thin iPhone Air was that it might be too easy to bend. As Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac notes, there is nothing to be worried about.
In Settings -> Battery -> Charging, you have the option to set the charge limit at something less than 100% (as low as 80%), which in theory can extend the life of a battery. But Juli Clover of MacRumors tried it for a full year and concluded that it didn’t make a significant difference on her battery’s health and was more inconvenient.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac says that a reason to purchase Apple’s products for the home over those from competitors is to avoid obnoxious ads. For example, a recent software update to Samsung’s smart refrigerators shows you ads. In your kitchen. A big NO THANK YOU from me to that.
As noted by Jason Snell of Six Colors, Apple released a new immersive video for the Apple Vision Pro—Tour De Force from CANAL+ and MotoGP—and announced many more immersive videos coming out soon. These are videos produced by people outside of Apple, made possible thanks to the new URSA Cine camera from Blackmagic. I hope that the floodgate is finally opened and that we are about to see a big increase in the number of excellent immersive films. And by the way, that MotoGP video is excellent, on par with anything that Apple has released.
Today was supposed to be the day that Apple TV+ aired the first episode of the new limited series The Savant starring Jessica Chastain. In the show, Chastain’s character infiltrates online hate groups to prevent public attacks. But Apple changed its mind this week, presumably as a result of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. As noted by Denise Petski and Nellie Andreeva of Deadline, Chastain disagrees with Apple’s decision. Chastain makes a good point. If we wait until violence by extremists ends before a show like this can air, it may never air.
Season 5 of Slow Horses on Apple TV+ starts today. The first four seasons were fantastic. My sense of the early reviews for Season 5 is that this is not the best season, but the show remains good. Chris Bennion of The Independent says: “The performances remain superb, the script is as sharp as they come, and the comedy/action balance is handled beautifully.”
And finally, in this YouTube video, D. Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac and Niléane of MacStories provide a demonstration of how the new Live Translation feature works for an English/French conversation. As you can see, this first version of the technology is certainly not perfect, but it absolutely works to let you overcome the language barrier.
AirPods are one of Apple’s best products ever. They are useful, they work great, and the appeal is so universal that you see them everywhere. Almost six years ago, Apple announced AirPods Pro, adding noise cancellation and soft tips. Three years ago, Apple started selling AirPods Pro 2, which improved the sound, improved noise cancellation, improved battery life, and added Find My support for the case. A few days ago, Apple released the latest iteration: AirPods Pro 3 ($249 on Amazon). Once again, they improve upon all of the key features, including how they sound, noise cancellation, battery life, and more.
Design changes
On a quick look, you are unlikely to notice any design difference between the AirPods Pro 3 and the AirPods Pro 2. The case looks almost exactly the same. Only when side-by-side do you notice that the AirPods Pro 3 case is just slightly taller, and you cannot see the LED when it is turned off because it is hidden in the body of the case. In the next three pictures, the newer model is on the left.
When the LED light is on, it is much brighter on the new model:
The back of the case has another slight difference: the back of the AirPods Pro 2 case has a button, used for Bluetooth pairing. With the AirPods Pro 3 case, you double-tap on the front of the case near the LED, while the AirPods are in the case, to enter pairing mode.
If you look at the AirPods Pro itself, you also might miss the difference between the 2 and the 3. There is a difference in the shape, but it is slight. In this picture, the newer model is on the right:
You can, however, notice in the above picture that the tip is smaller on the AirPods Pro 3. More on that below.
Where you really see the difference between the second and third-generation AirPods Pro is when you remove the tip. For the AirPods Pro 2, the speaker grill is flush against the device. For the AirPods Pro 3, the speaker is on a stem, so the sound goes deeper into your ear canal.
These design changes may seem slight, but when combined with updated internals, they make a meaningful difference. Here is how.
Better sound
You wear AirPods to listen to sound, so of course, you want the best sound quality possible. I’ve always thought that the AirPods Pro 2 sounded great. But when you go back and forth between the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3, it is easy to tell that the sound quality has improved. I’m not sure if this is because of the new design (such as the longer stem with the spaker), new internals, or both.
For example, I’m a fan of the Bluegrass band AJ Lee & Blue Summit. They have a new EP coming out next month, and a few of the songs have been released early, such as the great song Glendale Train. As an acoustic song with strong individual performances, it is nice to hear crisp sound from each of the instruments. As good as that song sounds when I listen to it on my AirPods Pro 2, it sounds noticeably better on the AirPods Pro 3.
Apple has also improved the bass. When listening to a bass-heavy song, such as Boss Mode from Knife Party, you can feel and experience each bass drop more with the AirPods Pro 3.
Improved sound quality is, of course, a good thing. Having said that, I should mention that it was only when I went back and forth between the second and third generation models that I noticed the difference. They both sound really good; it’s just that one sounds slightly better. This is something to consider when you think about whether it is worth spending the money to upgrade.
Better noise cancellation
When the original AirPods Pro were released in 2019, the big new feature was active noise cancellation. Whether you were trying to avoid the white noise of airline travel or the sounds of downtown in a city, it was wonderful to have more focus on your music or a podcast. Three years later, Apple released the AirPods Pro 2, which Apple says had twice as much noise cancellation. This year, Apple says that AirPods Pro 3 have twice as much noise cancellation as AirPods Pro 2 (so 4x the noise cancellation of the original AirPods Pro).
I suspect that part of the improved noise cancellation comes from the longer speaker stem. Additionally, Apple is now using foam-infused ear tips for greater passive noise isolation. The foam is subtle, but it is there.
Just like the sound improvements, the noise cancellation improvements are most noticeable when you go back-and-forth between an older model and the AirPods Pro 3. I would not call it a dramatic improvement, but it is a noticeble improvement.
Better fit
As much as I have enjoyed the AirPods Pro and the AirPods Pro 2, I was never fully satisfied with the way that they fit my ears. As a result, for the last few years, I’ve gone back-and-forth between using the tips that came from Apple and third-party tips, such as the COMPLY Foam tips for the AirPods Pro ($19.99 on Amazon) in an attempt to find an improved fit.
The original AirPods Pro came with three different tip sizes: S, M, and L. The AirPods Pro 2 added a new size: XS. With the AirPods Pro 3, you get five different sizes. They come with M installed, and the other choices in the box are L, S, XS, and XXS.
But the big news this year is not just that you get five sizes instead of four or three. What matters is that AirPods Pro 3 go a little deeper into your ear. As a result, you may want to go down a size. If you had been using the M size on AirPods Pro or AirPods Pro 2, I think you might prefer the S size on AirPods Pro 3. Additionally, I suspect that the foam-infused ear tips are adding to the increase in comfort.
On a past episode of the In the News podcast, my co-host Brett Burney mentioned that because every ear is different, some people have luck using a different tip size in each ear. That never made a difference for me with the AirPods Pro 2, but with the AirPods Pro 3, I have found that my best fit is to use the M size in my left ear and the L size in my right ear. It seems odd to do it that way, but this fit is excellent for me. This is the best that any AirPods model has ever fit me. I no longer have any desire to use a third-party ear tip. I realize that everyone has a different ear shape, so your results may vary, but Apple says that this new design fits more people than ever.
More battery life
I don’t just use my AirPods Pro when I am listening to music or podcasts. I also use them at work. If I am using them while taking a remote deposition via Zoom, I may be using my AirPods Pro 2 for eight hours straight, or more. And they don’t last that long. Apple says that they last up to six hours using active noise cancellation, and I suspect I get less than that. But the AirPods Pro 3 last 33% longer, so up to eight hours using active noise cancellation. That will be a nice change for me.
Note that there is a tradeoff on the battery life front. The case itself recharges AirPods Pro. With the AirPods Pro 2, it could recharge about four times, so a total of about 30 hours. With the AirPods Pro 3, it can recharge about three times, so a total of 24 hours of total listening time. I guess there are more electronics inside of the case, so there is less space for the battery. I don’t expect this to have any impact on me because I charge my case every night using a MagSafe charging stand next to my bed, plus I have another wireless charger in my office. I don’t believe that I have ever had the case for my AirPods run out of battery power. But you should be aware of this change, especially if it makes a difference to you based on how you use AirPods.
Better Find My
Although I try to keep my AirPods in my pocket as much as possible, sometimes I place them on a table, on the couch, or somewhere else. Which means that I sometimes lose them. I love that AirPods Pro 2 added the ability to use the Find My app to locate the case with the AirPods inside. But sometimes, I need to walk around the house quite a bit before I find myself in a room where my iPhone can sense the location of the AirPods Pro 2.
This feature is substantially improved with the AirPods Pro 3 because the MagSafe Charging Case contains the second generation of the Ultra Wideband chip. AirPods Pro 2 use the U1 chip. AirPods Pro 2 use U2. Thus, the new model reduces the risk that I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. (Sorry about that. I couldn’t resist.)
For example, in one test, I put my AirPods Pro 2 and my AirPods Pro 3 (in the cases) on the sofa in my living room. When I was two rooms away, my iPhone had no idea where the AirPods Pro 2 might be, so it just suggested that I move to a different location. But in the exact same spot, my iPhone only took a few seconds to figure out where the AirPods Pro 3 were located, telling me how far away they were and what direction I needed to go to find them. Bravo!
Heart rate sensor
Earlier this year, Apple released the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 ($249 on Amazon), and it was the first earbud from Apple that could monitor your heart rate. AirPods Pro 3 have the same feature, but it seems to be executed in a better way. Ray Maker publishes the DC Rainmaker blog, where he has written about technology used by runners since 2007. He knows his stuff, and here is what he said about how this works in the AirPods Pro 3:
On the sides of the pods is a little black area, and under that are two infrared sensors that pulse light at 250 times per second. That’s notably different than the more standard green LEDs used in the PowerBeats 2 Pro (which didn’t work well). These infrared sensors look at the blood flow in your ears, and measure the movements of said blood. This data is then fed into a whole slate of algorithms, which attempt to figure out your heart rate, versus something like your thunking footsteps (which is typically what messes up HR sensors). In most cases, it’s the algorithms that are the magic for most companies.
How does it work? Maker ran numerous tests and concluded that it works quite well:
I’m blown away. Like, legit blown away. Not because Apple couldn’t do it, but because the PowerBeats 2 Pro were so bad (and only about 8 months ago), that I’d kinda written off Apple’s ability to get optical HR correct. Further, other companies recent attempts (e.g. Polar’s with Sennheiser), have also been pretty darn bad. All of which tracked with numerous other companies over the years trying, and failing, horrifically.
Apple has managed to do something that really nobody else has: Produce a pretty solid heart rate sensing device in your ears. It’s not absolutely perfect, but it’s really strong.
Many fitness apps, including Apple’s own Fitness app, monitor heart rate to evaluate the intensity of effort as you exercise. If you are working out with AirPods Pro 3, your heart rate can be monitored even if you are not wearing an Apple Watch.
But what if you are also wearing an Apple Watch? Conor Allison of Wareable interviewed Julz Arney, Apple’s Senior Director of Fitness Technologies and Fitness+, to ask this question. Her response: “When you have your AirPods in and you’re also tracking a workout with your Apple Watch, you have three streams of heart rate, so that we can arbitrate the best coverage for heart rate.” Thus, your iPhone can dynamically switch between your Apple Watch and your AirPods Pro 3 to try to get the most reliable reading.
I used my treadmill twice this past weekend, wearing both my Apple Watch Series 10 and the AirPods Pro 3. But I honestly have no idea if the heart rate readings were any more accurate because of these three streams of heart rate data. Hopefully, Apple is right that makes a difference.
On the other hand, if you like to workout while wearing AirPods and not wearing an Apple Watch, then this feature will be more important for you. And the data might also be interesting even if you are not explicitly working out. Eric Charles, Apple’s Senior Manager of Apple Watch Worldwide Product Marketing, told Conor Allison in that same interview: “We’ve really just opened the door for that customer—who may not have an Apple Watch—to learn a bit more about how something like listening to music on their daily walk can now all of a sudden be a workout.”
More dust, sweat, and water resistance
I’ve never encountered a problem with my AirPods not working because of sweat or rain, but I’ve heard reports of others occasionally having an issue with this. On the IP code scale (a measure of ingress protection), AirPods Pro 2 have a rating of IP54. The “4" indicates that they can withstand splashing of water. AirPods Pro 3 have a rating of IP57. The “7" indicates that they can withstand not only powerful water jets but even immersion in water up to a depth of 1 meter.
Does that mean that you could go swimming with AirPods Pro 3? Apple has a webpage devoted to AirPods sweat and water resistance. Apple explicitly says not to go swimming with the first-generation AirPods Pro or to submerge them. But they don’t say on that page to NOT go swimming with the AirPods Pro 3, and that page was last updated after AirPods Pro 3 were announced. On the other hand, Apple knows how to tell you that a product is waterproof and safe for swimming. They say that for the Apple Watch, but they don’t mention swimming with the AirPods Pro 3.
Moreover, there is a practical reason not to swim with AirPods Pro 3. They may not even work. Ray Maker tried it, and he found that as soon as AirPods Pro 3 touched the water, they lost the connection to his iPhone and he could no longer hear music.
Nevertheless, the fact that we are even talking about the possibility of going underwater thanks to the IP57 rating just goes to show you that this model is much more resistant to sweat and water. That’s a good thing.
Live translation
Before finishing this review, I want to mention the new live translation feature. This new feature of iOS 26 is not unique to the AirPods Pro 3. It also works with AirPods Pro 2 and the active noise cancellation model of AirPods 4.
To use this feature, open the Translate app on your iPhone and then tap the Live button. Your AirPods will then start to listen to another person speaking, and shortly after they say something in another language, you hear the same words in your native language through your AirPods. It currently works with English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Later this year, Apple says that it will add support for Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified), Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Italian.
My wife speaks Spanish (and I do not, although I do parlez a little bit of français), so I tried this feature while she was speaking Spanish to me. And it was pretty magical. Removing the language barrier is amazing.
If both parties to the conversation have AirPods and iPhones, this works both ways. If not, you can show the screen of your iPhone to the other person, and the Translate app will show on the screen the words you are saying with the translation underneath—a little awkward, but it does work.
I know that others like Google have had similar features in the past, but it is amazing to have this feature on the AirPods and iPhone. It makes me want to do some international travel right away.
Conclusion
If you are using the first-generation AirPods Pro or a non-pro AirPods model, I think that AirPods Pro 3 is an incredible upgrade. You will get a big improvement in sound and noise cancellation, plus a large number of new and useful features.
If you are currently using AirPods Pro 2, the improvements are there, but it is not a major step up. Essentially, you get the same features you already had, such as great sound, noise cancellation, and Find My (especially if you already use an Apple Watch to monitor your heart rate while you exercise), but each feature works a little better, and they fit in your ears a little better.
So if it is only a little better, why did I spend the $249 to upgrade from the AirPods Pro 2 to the AirPods Pro 3? I did so because I use my AirPods every single day, both for work during videoconferences and phone calls and outside of work for music, podcasts, watching videos, and more. My guess it that this will be the top-of-the line model of the AirPods Pro for the next two or three years. Even if this new model is only a little bit better than what I had been using, that’s a little bit better in many different ways, every single day, for the next 730 to 1,095 days. I think that is worth the money. I’ve already enjoyed using these for the last few days, and I love that I have many, many more days to come with the AirPods Pro 3.
