The Morning After: Apple unveiled its $549 AirPods Max headphones

It blindsided most of us yesterday when it revealed its long-rumored AirPods Max -- the company's first over-ear headphones -- along with a concrete launch date for Fitness . The company's exercise subscription service will land December 14th, while the AirPods Max (available for pre-order today) will ship on December 15th -- as long as you're willing to stump up $549. It's a lot of money for the over-ear headphones, which feature active noise cancellation (ANC), hands-free access to Siri, adaptive EQ and spatial audio in addition to what Apple calls "incredible high-fidelity audio." The AirPods Pro (which are smaller buds, admittedly) retail for less than half ($249) in Apple's own stores and sneak under the $200-mark elsewhere. And if you want to use the AirPods Max as wired headphones, be prepared to pony up $35 for an adapter, which stings our wallets a little more -- a lot of wireless headphones at the $500 region include such things as a courtesy.