The fear of soaring iPhone prices amid incoming tariffs is driving some customers to make purchases.

Bloomberg reports that Apple Store employees saw an uptick in foot traffic over the weekend amid growing concerns that iPhone prices could rise after new tariffs are imposed. iPhones, which account for the majority of Apple’s revenue, are manufactured in China, a country now facing tariffs of up to 54%.

One employee told Bloomberg the surge felt a bit like the holiday shopping season. Although many customers reportedly asked about potential price hikes, the company has not provided store employees with guidance on how to respond to those inquiries.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company’s valuation fell by more than half a trillion dollars late last week, marking its worst performance over that time span in more than two decades.

The concept of iPhone panic-buying comes as Apple’s share price continues to decline. Although it could boost short-term sales for the iPhone maker, the greater impact of tariffs won’t be felt until the following quarter.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has been stockpiling inventory to brace for the tariffs and is accelerating production shifts to India, where tax rates are lower. The Times of India reports that Apple transported five plane loads of iPhones from India and China to the US in the last week of March as part of this effort to maintain stable pricing.

Apple also manufactures some of its products in other countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Ireland.

We now know a price for the Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which acts as a user tutorial for the various new features of the Nintendo Switch 2. According to IGN, the game will cost $10. A representative for Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The console’s specs were mostly unveiled during a Nintendo Treehouse event on April 3. That event also featured the announcement of a new game called Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which acts as a user tutorial for the various new features of the Switch 2. It quickly became controversial, with fans posting online that they thought the game should be free and included with the new console.

Per Nintendo, the game will feature «tech demos, minigames, and quizzes» for players to complete. The primary subject matter is the various new features on the Switch 2, like using the controller as a mouse and the upgraded HD Rumble feature. The game shows off some of the design elements of the Joy-Con controllers. For example, the upgraded HD Rumble feature puts the vibration motors «close to where your hands are holding the controllers» to intensify the vibrations. The minigames award medals, which are then used to access new parts of the game until the player has completed everything.

Read more: The 17 Best Nintendo Switch Games Right Now

Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Product and Player Experience, Bill Trinen, told IGN that there’s enough content in the Welcome Tour to justify the $10 price.

«I think it’s going to be a great product,» he said. It’s really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does. And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, ‘Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you’re getting out of the product.’ «

Should a tutorial game cost money?

Fans have already been criticizing the gaming giant for the prices of its release titles. Mario Kart World is set to go on sale for $80 around the same time the Switch 2 is launched, making it one of the most expensive games Nintendo has ever released. 

The fact that the tutorial game doesn’t come included with the console — as was the case with Astro’s Playroom on the PlayStation 5 — displeased many Nintendo fans, who had something to say about it. 

«That’s definitely a…choice? Not sure I understand the idea of making it paid when it should be a built-in app in every system,» Reddit user Rudy69 said. 

«The audacity to make a game that helps you learn about the Nintendo Switch 2 and make it PAID,» argued X user CanadianZar. «No one is buying this game. Hell… Astro’s Playroom walks all over this and IT WAS FREE.»

Other people expressed interest in learning about the new controls but don’t want to shell out for the tutorial. Instead, their plan is to wait for gaming YouTubers to post Let’s Play videos about the game and watch it from there. 

Read more: I Played the Nintendo Switch 2: Is It Worth It?

Just because people complain doesn’t mean that the game won’t sell well. Per Guide Strats, Breath of the Wild had a huge number of complaints on social media. The game would go on to outsell its own console when it and the original Nintendo Switch launched together in March 2017.

The game is set to launch on June 5, the same day as the Nintendo Switch 2 console. Preorders for the console have been delayed due to the new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, but the launch date is unchanged.

With Apple typically updating one of its AirPods models every year and the AirPods Pro due for an upgrade, we’re seeing plenty of chatter that Apple will release its 3rd-generation AirPods Pro 3 sometime in 2025. Last year, we got the all-new AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Canceling. However, all of us anticipating the arrival of the AirPods Max 2 were disappointed when Apple only refreshed its premium over-ear headphones with USB-C charging and new colors. So, we can only wait and speculate. Here’s a look at the latest AirPods Pro 3 rumors and what improvements I’d like to see.

Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2025

Rumored AirPods Pro 3 release date

MacOS Rumors recently spotted a post on X from a tipster called Kosutami who said Apple was planning to launch the AirPods Pro 3 and AirTag 2 in May or June of this year. That seems unlikely, given that Apple has previously launched next-generation AirPods alongside new iPhones in the fall. One exception was the AirPods Max, which was announced on Dec. 8, 2020, or about six weeks after the iPhone 12 was released. 

While anything is possible, it seems more likely that the AirPods Pro 3 will arrive at the same time as the iPhone 17 in September. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who’s usually a more reliable Apple whisperer, has said the AirPods Pro 3 will have a new design and feature heart-rate monitoring like Apple’s new Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 — but they’re still months away from being launched. New 

New temperature and heart-rate sensors

With the Powerbeats Pro 2 getting the aforementioned heart-rate sensors, it now seems more likely that the AirPods Pro 3 will get them, too. I’m not sure how useful that feature is, especially if you already own an Apple Watch. However, Apple likely has grander plans for its buds’ heart-rate monitoring and is still fleshing everything out, using the Powerbeats Pro 2 as a bit of a guinea pig. 

Several tech outlets picked up on another Gurman report mentioning the possibility of temperature sensors and other physiological measurements coming to the AirPods. Both he and Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also reported that Apple was working on adding infrared cameras to future AirPods. Kuo’s report suggested that the IR cameras could be used for everything including in-air hand gesture detection, enhancing spatial audio or detecting environmental changes for software, including Apple Intelligence. Don’t expect to see any of that camera tech in the AirPods Pro 3, but maybe the AirPods Pro 4 will get it.

AirPods case with touch screen display

The rumored feature I find most intriguing is an interactive touch display in the AirPods Pro 3’s charging case that acts as a remote control. With Apple filing a patent for it back in 2022, the rumor has been kicking around for a while, and several AirPods knockoffs with touchscreens have shown up on Amazon in recent months. Also, last year JBL released three new Live 3 earbuds, including the Live Beam 3, as a follow-up to 2023’s Tour Pro 2 earbuds, which featured a color touchscreen in their case. All the new Live 3 models feature a 1.5-inch LED touch display in their charging cases, so the feature appears in competing earbuds.

I don’t know what the odds are that the AirPods Pro 3 will get a charging case with a touchscreen, but some changes to the charging case are likely, with some saying the case may shrink a bit. If nothing else, the physical Bluetooth pairing and reset button should get swapped out for a hidden touch-capacitive «button» like the one found in the AirPods 4’s case.

Given that Apple made two versions of the AirPods 4, I could see it making two versions of the AirPods Pro 3 — a more premium model with some extra features like a touchscreen in the charging case and a step-down version that cuts them out.

Improved AirPods Pro 3 performance with H3 chip

The AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 and Powerbeats Pro 2 are all powered by Apple’s H2 chip. Rumor has it that the AirPods Pro 3 could get the new H3 chip, presuming Apple sticks with its current earbuds/headphones chip nomenclature. Adding a more powerful, energy-efficient chip along with tweaks to the design of the buds’ acoustic architecture and microphones could lead to several performance improvements, including enhanced sound quality, upgraded active noise canceling and better voice-calling performance. We could also see slightly better battery life.

I don’t expect a huge jump in performance, but the AirPods Pro 3 could sound a little clearer with better bass definition than their predecessor. Their noise canceling may be more proficient and able to muffle a wider range of frequencies. Also, when it comes to voice calling, the buds will likely do an even better job of picking up your voice while reducing background noise.

The AirPods Pro 2 and Powerbeats Pro 2 are ultralow-latency and can even do lossless audio when paired with Apple’s pricey Vision Pro headset. From what I’ve been told, the reason the AirPods Pro 2 and Powerbeats Pro 2 are able to do true lossless audio with the Vision Pro headset is that the buds and headset sit only a few inches apart, making for an extremely short wireless connection that can reliably transmit lossless audio. There’s been talk of Apple coming up with a solution to bring lossless audio to next-gen AirPods when paired with your iPhone. I hope the AirPods Pro 3 has a lossless audio option when connected to the latest iPhones, iPads and Macs, but I’m not counting on it. 

Live translation feature for AirPods Pro 3 (and maybe AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4)

Lately I’ve encountered several no-name Chinese earbuds on Amazon with live translation features, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when Bloomberg recently reported that the AirPods Pro 3 may be adding live translation via Apple’s Translate app with the release of iOS 19 this fall. The iOS Translate app already has fairly robust translation capabilities, but the report talks about how Apple plans to simplify the translation experience with the feature built into its earbuds, as well improve the iOS Translation app. (For those who can’t access Bloomberg’s content behind its paywall, MacRumors has a synopsis of the report).

Since this is more of an iPhone/iOS 19 feature, with the translation of what you say played through your iPhone’s speakers for others to hear, live translation seems pretty likely to come to the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4, both of which are equipped with Apple’s H2 chip and have plenty of processing power. Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 might also get the live translation feature.          

My AirPods Pro 3 wishlist: Better sound quality and one key feature 

I don’t care too much about some of these rumored extra features, like heart-rate monitoring and temperature sensing. I’m more excited about any enhancements to the buds’ design and performance upgrades across the board. 

I’ve previously written about how I’d like to see all new AirPods get a case that turns into a Bluetooth transmitter to wirelessly stream the audio from inflight entertainment to the buds. A few true wireless earbuds, including the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 and Elite 10 Gen 2, Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 and Poly Voyager Free 60 Plus, have charging cases that act as Bluetooth transmitters. With the included cable, you simply connect the case to the 3.5mm port in your seat’s console or armrest and you’re good to go. I don’t expect the AirPods Pro 3 will get this feature, but I sure wish they would.

I’d also like to see Apple add a set of extra large eartips. I barely get a tight seal with the AirPods Pro 2’s current large tips and could really use an XL tip for my left ear, which is slightly different from my right (I have tested a variety of third-party foam tips). When Apple released the AirPods Pro 2, it added a fourth extra small ear tip for those with smaller ears. The challenge to adding a fifth XL tip is that the charging case would have to be able to accommodate a slightly larger ear tip. Since getting a tight seal is so important for optimizing sound quality and noise-canceling performance, it would behoove Apple to offer that fifth XL tip for those who require bigger eartips for that reason. 

Read more: The One Feature I Wish Apple Would Add to All New AirPods