The AirPods 3 could coach you through your workouts

Will the new AirPods double up as a personal trainer?

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Applehas been awarded a number of new patents, one of which suggests that the next AirPods – the so-calledAirPods 3– could come with a nifty feature for fitness fans.

According toPatently Apple, the patent describesAirPodsthat use inbuilt sensors to “gather orientation information such as accelerometer measurements during user movements”.

Thetrue wireless earbudscould then communicate via Bluetooth with an iPhone, and “may form part of an AirPods system that supplies the user with coaching and feedback while evaluating user performance of a head movement routine or other exercise routine”.

This could be particularly useful for exercises like yoga, with the AirPods providing realtime feedback on a user’s head tilts, poses, and stretches.

Fitness buds

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors of fitness features coming to future AirPods.

In May, a report byDigiTimes(viaMacRumors) claimed thatApple is planning to fit ambient light sensors to future versions of the AirPods– sensors which could make them much more useful as health monitoring devices, akin to thebest fitness headphonesin the world.

While patents don’t always translate into actual products coming to market, we’re expecting to see a new AirPods model fairly soon – though whether the AirPods 3 will launch this year is still up for debate.

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There have been rumors of the AirPods 3 crashing into the market before 2020 is out, but recent comments from industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggest we may be waiting a while longer – speculating that the next-gen AirPods would start mass production in early 2021, with a newAirPods Promodel (the rumoredAirPods Pro Lite) arriving in 2022 too (viaAppleInsider).

In any case, we’d love to see more fitness-focussed features in either of these rumoredwireless earbuds– after all, theoriginal AirPodsdesign meant that they weren’t particularly suitable for working out.

Olivia was previously TechRadar’s Senior Editor - Home Entertainment, covering everything from headphones to TVs. Based in London, she’s a popular music graduate who worked in the music industry before finding her calling in journalism. She’s previously been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on the subject of multi-room audio, chaired panel discussions on diversity in music festival lineups, and her bylines include T3, Stereoboard, What to Watch, Top Ten Reviews, Creative Bloq, and Croco Magazine. Olivia now has a career in PR.

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