TIME Magazine has included Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 among the 300 best inventions of the year, thanks to new features such as live translation and heart rate tracking. Here are a few highlights from this year’s list, including a second Apple product featured in the Special Mentions section.
Live translation in your ears
Since 2000, TIME Magazine’s editors have dedicated an entire issue each year to highlight a collection of the best inventions, products, and ideas from companies around the world.
This year, with its biggest list ever, TIME Magazine showcased 300 inventions in the fields of robotics, accessibility, AI, design, health and wellness, and beyond.
Among the select few featured in the Consumer Electronics category is Apple’s just-released AirPods Pro 3. Here’s what TIME Magazine editor Chris Stokel-Walker had to say about his selection:
Apple AirPods Pro 3
Live translation in your ears
At a certain price point, active noise cancellation earbuds perform pretty similarly. But Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, announced in September, are “a massive leap forward,” says John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. Beyond removing twice as much background noise as the previous generation of AirPods Pro, tracking wearers’ heart rate using a photoplethysmography pulse sensor, and serving as a hearing aid if needed, the headphones’ new Live Translation feature can interpret a conversation between French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, or English-speaking friends instantly using Apple Intelligence. Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are coming by year’s end.
The AirPods Pro 3 shared the Consumer Electronics category with the 70mai Dash Cam 4K Omni, the immersive Antigravity A1 drone camera, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip, the Belkin Switch 2 Charging Case, and the Biwin Mini SSD.
Special Mention: Apple Watch Series 11
Among the 100 products selected for its Special Mentions, TIME Magazine picked the Apple Watch Series 11 for the Wearable Technology category, alongside the Axil XCOR SE, the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro, the Incora Earrings, the RayNeo X3 Pro, and the Therabody ThermBackLED.
Here’s what the TIME staff had to say about the Apple Watch Series 11:
Apple Watch Series 11
A new feature that monitors blood pressure
Apple’s new Series 11 watch comes with a new FDA-cleared hypertension detection feature, which alerts users to signs of chronic high blood pressure. It uses data from the optical heart sensor to analyze how a user’s blood vessels respond to each heartbeat.
Other interesting picks
Beyond Apple’s products, TIME’s roundup also features a mix of high-profile and under-the-radar products and services that had an impact on its staff, and beyond, throughout 2025. Here are a few:
Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4
DeepSeek R1
Nothing Headphone (1)
Nintendo Switch 2
Dyson PencilVac
Google DeepMind Genie 3
ReMarkable Paper Pro
Waymo Driver
Meta Ray-Ban Display
You can check out the full list, alongside the Special Mentions here.
Do you use any of the products from this year’s list? Let us know in the comments.
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Logitech MX Master 4
AirPods Pro 3
Wireless CarPlay adapter
iPhone Air Ultraslim Magsafe Power Bank
Apple AirTag 4 Pack
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