They’ll be available to pre-order starting March 25 and include several updates: better noise cancellation and sound quality with the H2 chip, Bluetooth 5.3 (up from 5.0), camera remote with the digital crown, reduced wireless latencey for gaming, live translation, conversational awareness, personalized volume, loud sound reduction, personalized spatial audio, lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio via USB-C (note this came to the USB-C AirPods Max 1), though note, Apple is specifically marketing the AirPods Max 2 for Logic Pro mixing in Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking.

Two other interesting things Apple mentions here: 1. Custom High Dynamic Range Amplifier. This is likely how they’re getting better audio quality. 2. Studio-Quality Recording. While the number of mics hasn’t changed, the mic system seems to have been upgraded, which, combined with a new digital signal processing algorithm, is how they’re also likely getting better transparency (which was already best in class for headphones).

Even though The Verge’s headline here is somewhat confusing, Google is, in fact, still going to charge developers App Store fees globally, just slightly less than the current 30%. There will still be fees even if App Developers use their own billing system.