LAS VEGAS — Hearing aids aren’t sexy, so a lot of journalists here at International CES breezed right by ReSound’s booth.
The Danish company has been in the hearing aid business for 75 years, and launched the first iPhone-connected hearing aid at CES last year. Now the company is a back with a full lineup of iPhone-compatible LiNX hearing aids. The devices address the whole range of hearing loss, from the mild to severe.
As I approach 50, I’m wondering if I need a pair myself, so I went to check them out. I was impressed. Connecting a hearing aid to an iPhone adds a lot of very useful functionality.
Approximately 30 million Americans suffer from some hearing loss. I’m one of them. I can barely hear a thing in noisy restaurants and bars. But I gotta admit, I’m not looking forward to the day I have to slap on a clunky hearing aid.
ReSound’s look different. They come in a range of 11 colors and the smallest ones are very small — no larger than a pinky toenail.
“We’re trying to make hearing aids cool,” said spokesman John Proctor. “Almost turn it into a fashion accessory.”
ReSound worked in collaboration with Apple to develop the first models of the hearing aids. Connected by Bluetooth LE, the iPhone app adds a lot of functionality. The company just released a version for Android.
ReSound’s free Smart app allows the wearer to adjust a lot of settings through their iPhone, rather than fiddling with the hearing aids themselves or the traditional puck worn around the neck. It can adjust bass, table and stereo separation.
There are presets for traffic, restaurants and bars, which reduce ambient noise. An outdoors preset cuts wind noise to nearly zero, said Proctor.
The app also makes clever use of GPS: It remembers presets for particular locations, like a favorite noisy restaurant or a local park.
The ReSound aids also function as Bluetooth headsets for taking calls and streaming music. They can be connected to a TV, and the iPhone can double as a remote microphone. If trying to talk to someone across a crowded dinner table, the other person talks into the wearer’s iPhone microphone. Or the iPhone can be put in the middle of the table to pick up everyone’s conversation.
Perhaps the best feature of the app is the ability to find the hearing aides if they get lost. “These are premium devices,” said Proctor. “They retail for between $2,000 and $3,000. You don’t want to lose them. Plus, you want to hear.”
The app remembers the last point of contact and guides the wearer to that location using GPS. When they get nearer, a Bluetooth connection is established, and the app tells if they are getting closer with a hot/cold indicator.
I like the sound of that.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
3 responses to “How the iPhone enhances ReSound’s hip new hearing aids”
I’ve been wearing the Linx since they were released last March and I’ve had hearing aids since 1999 (I’m 34). Using the phone and streaming music are exceptionally more enjoyable now. Unfortunately, iOS8 falls way short in supporting the features. The connections on an iPhone or iPad drop several times a minute which severely limits the functionality. iOS7 was much more stable. Hopefully Apple can iron out the kinks in a future update.
Just had the line updated, seems there is an update available. After the update had a real challenge pairing again, as the process seems to be different than the initial set up process, critical is full battery (replace both aids with new batteries) then try to pair together not separately as before set up.. from this hope that there will be less drops than before with the iPhone which is a challenge sometime, nonetheless the aids help with phone calls vs. not having the aids as bluetooth. See if your audiologist will provide the update for the Linx, it was the first time for the provider when I updated last week.
I love the comment about the lack of sexiness in covering hearing aids and the hearing aid industry. So true. It’s even reinforced by the fact that this article highlights the sleek design of these hearing aids– really, this design has been around for the past 8 or 10 years consistently. The chunky, clunky analog hearing aid is a thing of the past. Actually, my Audicus aid looks so similar to this– I got it online thru their site because they cut out the middle man or something? I don’t think they currently support iPhone compatibility, but I think that’s fine. Honestly, I’m pretty technologically inept when it comes to my iPhone– I’m glad to not have to use it to control my hearing aids, though I do see how some would love that functionality. Wonder what price these are going for? Mine was $650 for my one HA… unbeatable.