AirPods Pro finally ditches Apple's one-size-fits-all approach (The Daily Charge, 10/29/2019)

New ipod pros customizable eartips and better sound enough to justify that $250 price tag or you're sticking with your older ipods we break down Apple surprise announcement with it's new headsets stick around Welcome to the Daily Charge. Today is Tuesday, October 29th, I'm Roger Cheng. Scott Stein. And I'm Rich Yeva. And here are today's top stories. Apple on Monday dropped new AirPods and they aren't minor upgrades like the wireless charging case that we got ealier this year. The AirPods Pro, which are really terrible to pronounce, raise a completely new design. Noise Cancellation and customizable ear tips. These changes of course don't come cheap and the airpods pro run for $250 Scott why they dropping like actually a significantly different product at a nowhere? Look at noon press release. Right here like a month after the iPhone event. Why didn't they just bundle it with the iPhone event. That gets super weird product is more interesting. Then the Apple Watch Series five right 10.2 inch iPad. I don't know maybe there was an October event that never happened. Right? And made that is the result. But these clearly we're ready to go. Yes. And and I'm really sorry because people who had been bought air pods now there's a new version but they cost a lot. Me included you. That's true. So let's talk about that $250 Brett, you've already expressed opinions before the show. Yeah. What do you think? $250. It's a lot of money. I mean, I do I have air pods. I like them. I like them a lot, actually. So I would be tempted but it's a lot of money. Yeah. 250 is like another device. It feels like. Yeah. That's totally left the accessory landscape for me. I also want to talk about the fact that you know, for the first time, Apple. With air pods is acknowledging that like one size doesn't fit all for air pods that they're always just sort of these. It didn't matter what your ears shape was like these are the air pods and this is it and they finally added customizable tips which I think is the biggest clinical and Innovation here even though this is a feature that's been available on like basically every other wireless headset out there yeah but do you think that makes these more accessible people to the fact that they can't customize it so folks like bigger or smaller your canals can. Can partake in the air pod revolution? Yes, I think I know. This is where we are now. Yeah it is. [CROSSTALK] It's all about losing the tips then having to get new tips and then gunking up the tips or at least. [LAUGH] It'll be a whole new world of ear gunk. I think that's part of it. I think the noise cancellation but a lot of other earbuds including [UNKNOWN] buds have. Noise cancellation. So- Yeah. That's becoming more of a standard feature and [UNKNOWN] to really pay up for that here, and there so many bugs now in the landscape. But Apple has established itself- Yeah. With the iPads. So they are like that's our recognizable brand and people will got to this [UNKNOWN] here at the See how they sound here how these. Well we. Here are these. What we can add a link later on but Rick broder has a nice roundup of alternatives to the air pods pro that are less than a lot less than $250. So we could add that later on. I just wonder like now are my my old air pods can be like. You know am I like uncool and [UNKNOWN] I mean you generally are I think they can really spot the length of the tube. I feel like they're probably going to see it They are shorter right. The pro They're like hidden a little bit more A little bit more They're still popping out one thing that's different is that the way that these interact instead of tapping there's a squeeze. Yeah, yeah. [UNKNOWN] To do that. But what's annoying to me is there's no volume control right? There's no. Hello there wasn't a volume control, the first ones right? No, but there was volume control and a little remote that comes with the one in the box. So. Yeah. I just want to be able to. And there are other ones that do that. Yeah. I just wanna be able to control volume. Yes. You can do it on your watch, but you have to have a watch. So that's a little thing. I'm really interested in how the passthrough or the transparency, whatever it is they call it. Yeah. That versus the noise cancellation work. Does it basically just like mute the volume or? I'm curious about how that works. It's supposed to provide a mix that allows pass through but some noise cancellation as well. So it provides enough Right. So is that just like having those noise cancelling headphone and turning off the noise cancellation? It's like a little. I don't know. It seems like it would be a little bit different than that but kind of like that. Right But, hey today I ran out of battery again, ran out of charge on earbuds coming in, just because I forgot for a bunch of days. So I still would also really like a way to have these all charge each other whether it's reverse charging, or plugging it in easily through the iPhone or something. A small thing. Speaking of wearables, Google has struggled in the smartwatch arena and could be a competitor to bolster its efforts. A Reuters report has its parent Alphabet looking to acquire Fitbit, which makes smart watches using a platform that's compatible with both Android and iOS devices. That I mean, does this make sense? It certainly makes sense. Yeah. Google had a big hardware event a couple weeks ago and they had a phone. They had a smart speaker. They had a router. What was noticeably missing was a watch.>> Yes. Do you think that it's conceivable that they replace wireless with the operating system that Fitbit runs or? No, I'm really going to say no. But I do think that Fitbit provides a lot of things. First of all, a lot of data. Yeah. And so if you're looking to get a catch up on fitness data, it's also concerning this a lot of people saying, well, the Fitbit user what's now gonna happen to my data? Very good question. Both courses has even happened yet so I mean rises like a is a question before about any sort of the vent emerging but but also not just that Fitbit's research into FDA cleared territories they haven't had anything FDA cleared yet but they're supposed to be really close to something in the you know how I can with me have there also been trying to pursue. Sleeptech that's FTA cleared that they've been trying which Apple hasn't even gone inside that territory, but Google has been beginning. Google Fitbit has been pursuing that but you can see when Alphabet, Google will be interested in that for health tech. And then there is the pebble element, which is kind of intriguing. Because they've acquired, they had a ball of pebble and now If Google or alphabet acquires all of it, then you still a pebble in there somewhere. I don't know. What is that nest reverse nesting old wearable tech. Right, I kind of want the I still want the long battery life always on thing I think for but to be clear for Fitbit, it was really about acquiring the more of the app and developer ecosystem for those little apps. That's the part that's probably least interesting. To Google, because they have their own way of getting them. Apps would be my spitball guess. Well, speaking of Google, the search time posted weaker than expected third quarter results. This comes amid a slew of internal problems. We're keeping this all down for us. Yeah, well, so they posted earnings yesterday and they met on sales may posted lower than expected profits. Yeah. What does that mean? In the long run? Not not really much. I mean, like nobody, Google is not gonna go out of business right? I'm curious you were on the call you listen to them speak did they talk a little bit about hardware given that they just like you Like you said had they had big hardware then talked about these products. They, did they mentioned anything about how well or how poorly they're doing? Not really. I mean, they did say that, that the lower than expected profits for because of you know, spending, you know, spending big on in the cloud business and hardware. Okay. But, you know, I mean, the interesting thing about these, about this earnings report is that. They are facing a whole lot of other problems outside of this and so it's just one more thing that they have to worry about. So Daily Charge [INAUDIBLE]. I'm Scott Dunn I'm Rich Neville. Thanks for joining us. [MUSIC] Can't get enough? Check out the Daily Supercharge, our extended post show with special features, audience Q&A, and in depth reviews. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.