In other words, without getting too much into the weeds of things, active noise cancellation works by the device "monitoring" the outside noise and emitting an inverted soundwave, or what Treski calls "the anti phase," to neutralize or negate the external cacophony.

Apple's AirPods 4 are getting an AirPods Pro feature to help you out when the case goes missing. They're small. They're light. And they'll be easy to misplace. But the just-announced AirPods 4 will include a new feature familiar to owners of the AirPods Pro that will help you find your case when it gets lost.

The new iPhone 16 smartphones and Apple Watch Series 10 smartwatches are chock full of new and enhanced health, fitness and safety features. At the same time Apple is updating the AirPods Pro 2 so they can be used as over-the-counter hearing aids. A new feature, called Hearing Protection, will also be unlocked.

But open-ear designs like the AirPods 4 are tricky because they don't fully seal your ears, leaving 'em somewhat exposed. However, Apple managed to pull it off, thanks to a mélange of upgraded microphones, the H2 processor, and cutting-edge computational audio.

In a recent interview with Engadget, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron and AirPods marketing director Eric

The work that began with EarPods continues to pay off as Apple prepares to ship the noise-canceling AirPods 4.