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‘We’ve got to make it happen’: How Apple designed AirPods 4 for effective ANC

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

“We had started trying to learn a bit about human physiology and what shapes would fit better in people's ears,” Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Engineering Kate Bergeron told me about those early days. “We said ‘we absolutely have something here, we need to go after this and we’ve got to make it happen.’” Acoustic and computational work that was required for an effective ANC algorithm was happening simultaneously with iterations on improving the fit and overall comfort for the AirPods 4. This combination of advanced tech enables Apple to continuously monitor fit in a user’s ear, updating the ANC algorithm in real time so that the noise blocking is still effective even as the AirPods move around.

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