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New Powerbeats Pro will get your heart thumping
Apple launches first earbuds with built-in heart-rate monitoring.
Leander Kahney
February 11, 2025
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I was all excited about the new Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds with built-in heart-rate monitoring — until we ran a poll about them a few days ago.
Last week I said I was looking forward to HRM-equipped earbuds because when I go cycling, I often forget my heart-rate-monitoring strap, but I never leave my AirPods behind. If my earbuds had HRM built in, it’d be no problemo.
But dimwit that I am, I forgot all about my Apple Watch!
As many readers of this newsletter pointed out in comments to the poll — why do we need another HRM when many of us already wear an Apple Watch?
It’s a good question — why do we need another HRM-equipped device? The answer, I guess, is that these earbuds are pitched at Android users and anyone who isn’t wearing an Apple Watch. (Plus, there are probably lots of people who don’t like wearing a watch.)
The new Powerbeats Pro earbuds do look pretty sweet, bringing what Apple says is the company’s most advanced active noise cancellation yet.
They also boast improvements in battery life, fit and weight. Plus, Apple shrunk the size of the (previously bulky) case.
Powerbeats Pro 2 might even boast increased accuracy when it comes to heart-rate monitoring. Apple calls the new earbuds “hyper accurate,” raising the possibility they are more accurate than Apple Watch — although I haven’t seen any comparisons between the accuracy of the earbuds versus the Apple Watch.
Check ’em out — and don’t miss the embedded video, which provides a great overview of all the new technology in what Apple calls “the most advanced product we’ve ever developed.”
Also in today’s newsletter:
The upcoming iOS 18.4 promises to be a biggie with a much-improved, smarter Siri. But when’s it coming out?
TSMC’s giant chip factory in Arizona is just getting up to speed, but President Trump may be about to throw a wrench into the works.
Google already renamed the Gulf of Mexico in Google Maps, but Apple has yet to follow suit. And there are technical reasons why any such change might be delayed.
Check out our hands-on review of a new and very compact travel charger that works in more than 200 countries.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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One more thing ...
Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. It's not the tools that you have faith in -- tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I'm still optimistic. I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long.
Today’s poll
Are you going to buy the new Powerbeats Pro 2? |
Results from yesterday’s poll: Do you want a folding iPhone?
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