Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/10/28/apple-releases-airpods-pro-with-noise-cancellation/
With the AirPods Pro, Apple has made wireless earbuds more attractive to anyone who has trouble with the fit of the first- and second-generation AirPods and to those who would appreciate active noise cancellation in loud environments.
I have but one humble request … THEY STOP FALLING OUT OF MY EARS!!!
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The hope is that the ear tips and slightly different industrial design will work better for folks like you.
This is pretty exciting. I have the original AirPods and love them. For the price, the sound quality is pretty good. Noise cancellation and custom fit should add the features that many people have complained about, and at a sub-$300 price, that’s excellent for a good pair of noise canceling earphones. The Beats Studio3 noise canceling earphones cost $100 more.
Any idea what the charging time will be once you run them down? If I’m using them on a long flight, how much downtime will they need while they recharge from the case?
They won’t arrive anywhere until tomorrow, but historically, the AirPods charge very quickly. See
I’m curious about the noise cancelation settings. There appears to be three: NC, transparency mode, and off. What is the difference between off and TM? Does TM just let voices through, but block everything else? Or is TM just a ‘milder’ setting of NC?
Is the battery replacement, by either Apple techs or user? if not, definitely a fail for me. I thought Apple was getting on the sustainability train.
Apple didn’t say anything about it, but I’d be surprised. It’s really hard to make something this small and keep it easily repairable. The Washington Post had a good article on this recently.
John Gruber has posted his early impressions now:
Gruber delivers an excellent explanation of what transparency mode really does. Apparently, the AirPods Pro seal your ear so well, you’d otherwise hardly hear your surroundings (not just voices). So you can use transparency mode just to keep your buds in, regardless of what (or if) you’re playing.
Must be popular. I started to order then the day after the announcement and it showed a delivery date of 11/1. Waited a couple of days and now my delivery date is Dec 9. 
(Did you know that AirPods are reported to have 53% of the earbud market, which meant 14.3 M units in Q2 of 2019?)
I think that’s the effect of the early rave reviews. Wednesday evening, I read Gruber’s impressions and a few others. Before retiring for the night, on a lark, I checked the Apple Store website for available and saw that they were available for pickup on Thursday at both Apple Stores near me. So I ordered and picked them up yesterday (Thursday). I just checked while writing this message. The flagship store in San Francisco is showing availability today; all other local stores are showing November 26 with delivery November 18 at the earliest.
My first impression agrees with the others. I do find that I need to wiggle them a bit to get the ‘approved’ tight fit with the medium tips. I tried the small tips with worse result (and changing tips requires a stronger yank than I would like). But the sound on my standard demos is great. Furthermore, transparency mode still keeps the sound quality while letting in the world.
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The PowerBeats Pro have better sound, but are also $100 more.
For the price, AirPod Pro has excellent sound quality and may even be better than Bose famous headphones at blocking noise.
Jason Snell has published a review now too, and @rmogull said in our staff Slack that they’re great on planes (though the battery life isn’t long enough for a lengthy flight).