TIME Magazine has published its “Best Inventions of 2025” list, and Apple’s recently-released AirPods Pro 3 wireless earbuds have been included on the list of the 300 best inventions of the year. A second Apple product was featured in the “Special Mentions” list.
Since 2000, TIME Magazine editors have published an annual list highlighting the best inventions, products, and ideas from companies around the world. The 2025 list is the biggest ever, including 300 inventions in several fields, including AI, accessibility, health and wellness, consumer electronics, entertainment and gaming, design, and more.
Apple AirPods Pro 3
Apple’s recently-released AirPods Pro 3 wireless earbuds made the list of eighteen inventions included in the Consumer Electronics category.
TIME’s Chris Stokel-Walker discussed why Apple’s earbuds made the list:
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.
In addition to the AirPods 3, the Consumer Electronics category included several other products, including: the Belkin Stage PowerGrip, the Belkin Switch 2 Charging Case, the Antigravity A1 drone camera, the 70mai Dash Cam 4K Omni, and the Biwin Mini SSD, the Camp Snap screen-free digital camera, the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo, the Hisong AirStudio S1 wireless mic/recorder, and others.
Apple Watch Series 11
TIME also publishes a “Special Mentions” list. The products included on the list make “the world better, smarter, and more fun.” The Apple Watch Series 11 was listed in the Wearable Technology category.
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.
Select other products that made the Special Mentions Wearable Technology: the the Incora Earrings, the RayNeo X3 Pro, the Axil XCOR SE, the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro, and the Therabody ThermBackLED.
