'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
3 useful features coming to Apple AirPods this fall (but only for these models)
At WWDC 2024, Apple announced new software features for its flagship earbuds, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation), the MagSafe and USB-C versions included. The software updates are baked into iOS 18 and include features involving Siri and enhancements to voice isolation.
In addition to Apple giving Siri conversational context -- thanks to its generative AI upgrades -- Siri will soon better understand users wearing AirPods Pro. When iOS 18 is released this fall, users will be able to respond to Siri announcements via head nods.
Also: Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2024, including iOS 18, Siri, AI, and more
This feature is called Siri Interactions, and Apple says these gestures will be helpful in environments where users want privacy instead of saying a response to Siri out loud. When I wear my AirPods, I raise my voice so Siri can register my command; I'm curious to see how well this feature works.
Also, Apple announced improvements to AirPods Pro call quality with a feature called Voice Isolation. Powered by Apple Intelligence -- the company's brand of generative AI -- the feature can selectively and intelligently cancel unwanted noises and preserve or amplify wanted noises.
For example, during a call, AI can detect and dampen sounds such as wind or other background noise and keep them out of the microphones. On the other hand, AI can detect and amplify your voice so the person on the other end of the call can hear you clearly, even in crowded areas.
Siri Interactions and Voice Isolation are available only on the AirPods Pro 2 because these are Apple's only headphones with the advanced H2 chip. But other AirPods wearers aren't missing out on all the fun, as AirPods Pro, along with AirPods (3rd generation) and AirPods Max, are receiving an update to Personalized Spatial Audio.
Also: What is Apple Intelligence: How the iPhone's on-device and cloud-based AI will work
Mobile gaming apps are an integral part of Apple's App Store and the mobile app industry as a whole, as improvements to smartphone processors allow today's handsets to handle more intensive graphics and video than ever before.
To add a layer of immersion to the mobile gaming experience, Apple is bringing spatial audio with dynamic head tracking when iOS users play video games. Apple says gamers wearing AirPods can enjoy "the best wireless audio latency Apple has ever delivered for mobile gaming," but it's unclear how short the delay is.
These software features will be available when iOS 18 rolls out this fall. Unlike your other Apple devices, AirPods cannot be updated manually. However, AirPods updates are rolled into iOS updates, so once you update your iPhone, your AirPods should update as well.