The rumor mill has been saying that Apple is working on a new pair of AirPods with noise cancelation to succeed the AirPods 2.
Now the word in town is, the company might release it soon.
AirPods Pro Rumors
The report comes from China Economic Daily. Apparently, it's going to be called "AirPods Pro" or something along those lines, and it's going to go official before October is up.
As noted, it's expected to build on the current model with a new noise-canceling feature, among other things. By the same token, it's said to be more expensive as well, and it could be priced at about $260. For comparison's sake, the most expensive option of the AirPods 2 is $199, and that includes a wireless charging case.
Other previous rumors have pointed to some degree of water resistance so that the truly wireless earbuds can be used for workouts and the like.
It's also worth mentioning that its name isn't all that surprising, since Apple has been liberal in using the "Pro" label for other products lately. For instance, there's the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max now. In other words, the moniker somewhat falls in line with the company's recent naming scheme.
Leaked Photos
The existence of an AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro is pretty much confirmed, thanks to 9to5Mac's discovery of several references to the audio device in iOS 13.1.2 beta. In addition, SlashLeaks also got a hold of a purported casing of the upcoming AirPods (as pictured above) back in September. Going by the images, it looks just like the glyph image found in the aforementioned beta.
Reports have been varied, though. Case in point, Bloomberg first said that it would launch sometime in 2019, and then it changed that date to sometime during 2020. Now the report from China Economic Daily says it's 2019 and before the end of October, no less. In short, it's hard to say just when to expect it exactly.