But open-ear designs like the AirPods 4 are tricky because they don't fully seal your ears, leaving 'em somewhat exposed. However, Apple managed to pull it off, thanks to a mélange of upgraded microphones, the H2 processor, and cutting-edge computational audio.

There's no feeling quite like the anticipation of a new tech product that promises to do something pretty wildly different, and then having that anticipation paid off by the product actually delivering the goods.