New AirPods Pro ad highlights ANC, Transparency mode with city walk
Malcolm Owen
Apple's latest ad spot for the AirPods Pro centers around its Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency features, showing a person navigating through a busy city and using the audio accessories to shift into a quieter music-filled version of the same street.
The standout feature of the AirPods Pro is the inclusion of Active Noise Cancellation, which allows the user to effectively block out environmental noise, allowing them to enjoy their music or podcasts in peace. In an ad posted to YouTube on Wednesday, Apple is promoting that very element.
In the two-minute video titled "AirPods Pro - Snap," a woman is seen exiting a building and onto a busy street. Shortly after reaching the sidewalk, the video's subject puts the AirPods Pro into her ears and starts to listen to "The Difference," a song by Flume featuring Toro y Moi.
Shortly after walking with the music in the background, the person triggers full ANC on the AirPods Pro, and is transported to another version of the same street that is much quieter. Unlike the busy daytime scene, it is set at night with bright lights and a costume change for the AirPods Pro wearer, who also starts dancing as they move along the now-empty road.
As they reach a crossing, the AirPods Transparency mode is triggered, returning the person to the real world and reintroducing the environmental sounds. Once the dancer sees it is safe to cross, Transparency is disabled and they are returned to their own private world as they dance through the city.
Occasionally the subject turns on Transparency for brief moments before disabling it, such as to apologize to another person for bumping into them and to buy items at a store. The dancer finishes their journey by boarding a bus.
The ad spot ends by showing the words "Transparency mode" on a backdrop of the city, followed by "Active Noise Cancellation" in green on an image of the colorful nighttime view.
Current rumors has Apple preparing to launch a third model of AirPods, named "AirPods Pro Lite." While few details have circulated about the model, it is thought the version would be a cheaper variant of the Pro, but potentially with a reduced feature set.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
7 Comments
Not a fan of noise cancellation when I am out and about. Being aware of what is around you is important in more places than crossings and could compromise your safety in some settings.
My dog and I were attacked by a Pit Bull in January while out walking- from behind - and I was talking to my GF (at work) on my Beats Pro Wireless headphones which do not have noise cancellation. I would speculate that with noise cancellation things would have been very different- I was able to hear the approach and help keep the dog from a direct attack on mine. Unfortunately my GF heard most of the attack on the phone until the headsets popped out of my ears.
That dog jumped and climbed a chain link fence and that sound gave me the short space of time to react defensively.
The experience in the ad (minus the visual change and dancing) is pretty accurate. When you walk through a noisy city such as mine, you can really eliminate sound. I switch back and forth between modes depending on what level of awareness I judge is needed for the situation. The sound quality is consistent in both modes. Really amazing. I still use my regular AirPods in quiet situations, but if I was forced to choose between the two, I would pick the Pro, without hesitation.
Sick!!
I do wish Apple would bring back the original iPod silhouette ads for AirPods.
Ouch. That ad comes across as a 2-minute Black Mirror* episode. Except the Black Mirror episode would end with the person dead under the wheels of an ambulance (and would include a segment with the person explicitly blocking out the voice of a homeless person asking for help). The ad literally includes the woman being oblivious to the siren of an emergency vehicle and then bumping into someone because they aren't aware of their surroundings. They could repurpose this as a PSA about the dangers of ANC.
* For those who haven't seen the show, it's essentially a modern day Twilight Zone where virtually every episode uncovers the dark side of current and imagined 21st-century tech.
Spiderman has _another_ new costume? :wink: