Apple's AirPods 4 have finally killed off the AirPods (2nd Generation) – and I’m glad

Apple AirPods 2 on a table with one earbud out of the charging case.

So the AirPods 4 are finally official. Or, to be more precise, two new pairs of AirPods 4 are finally official. That’s right, at Apple’s recent iPhone 16 launch event, the tech giant chose to unveil two different flavours of its new wireless earbuds – one pair with noise-cancelling tech built-in and one without.

Now, the fact that Apple has launched a pair of open earbuds with ANC is obviously big news – I am particularly intrigued to hear how the noise-cancelling technology has been implemented. But, something else has happened in the aftermath of the cheaper, non-ANC pair being released.