There’s an important new reason you might put AirPods Pro 2 on your gift list this year. If you know someone who resists getting the hearing assistance they need, Apple’s wireless earbuds can change their life.
It’s not hype — AirPods Pro 2 really can help people with mild to moderate hearing loss thanks to a software update released this autumn.
Apple developed its groundbreaking Hearing Health experience for AirPods Pro 2 in its state-of-the-art Audio Lab in Cupertino. The innovative features, available in a free software update, turn AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids and offer advanced tools for testing and protecting the hearing of people who wear the earbuds.
As one Apple engineer put it, with the new Hearing Health features, AirPods Pro 2 become “truly the interface to the ear.”
A new AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid firmware update sets the soundstage for the new Apple Hearing Health features expected with Monday’s public release of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1. Apple began rolling out the update Thursday. The new features are Hearing Test, Hearing Aid and Hearing Protection.
Intended for both Lightning and USB-C versions of the earbuds, firmware version 7B19 updates from the previous version 7A305.
Apple gave reviewers early access to a soon-to-be-released software update that allows AirPods Pro 2 to go beyond providing entertainment to become hearing aids. They report that the wireless earbuds really do help people with mild to moderate hearing loss.
There’s also a huge cost advantage, but there are limitations that keep AirPods from being the right solution for everyone.
AirPods can work surprisingly well as hearing aids. Thanks to Transparency mode, AirPods Pro will boost the sound of your environment around you. They can give you freaky Spiderman super-hearing if you boost input volume to the max. And Conversation Boost on the latest AirPods Pro 2 can intelligently raise the volume of people talking to you (while lowering the volume of your music or podcasts).
My prescription hearing aids were out of action recently due to a battery problem, so for a few weeks, I used my AirPods Pro as hearing aids.
For the most part, they’ve been pretty good. They work best when set up properly, which is a bit of a chore, but here’s how to do it.
Apple’s next big thing might not be a car or an AR headset. Thanks to a rule change announced this week by the Food and Drug Administration, Cupertino could soon add hearing aids to its product lineup. The potential market is huge, and Apple stands uniquely positioned to disrupt the status quo.
The new rules allow companies like Apple to sell hearing aids over the counter and online, so buyers can set them up in the comfort of their own homes. Previously, if you wanted to buy hearing aids, your only option was to make an appointment for a hearing test and fitting at a specialist store.
This small change looks set to have a big impact. FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told CNN he expects the ruling “will unleash the power of American industry to improve the technology.” And there’s one company in particular that has all the know-how to do just that — Apple.
Imagine if Apple sold AirPods for $5,000, and they were so buggy they kept disconnecting from your iPhone. Sounds crazy, right? But that’s the reality faced by me and millions of other hearing aid users today.
Apple offers a solution for hearing aids called Made for iPhone (MFi). This enables third-party hearing aids to work like regular AirPods. In hardware terms, there’s not much difference between them anyway these days. But while AirPods will set you back just $129, MFi hearing aids cost 30 times more, and they’re far less reliable.
So, why did I just buy a pair? It’s complicated.
Noopl 2.0 works with AirPods Pro and your iPhone to help filter out crowd noise so you can hear conversations. It’s for people who aren‘t ready for hearing aids but would like help tuning into conversations in noisy environments.
I put the hearing enhancement accessory through real world testing. Here’s how it stood up.
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple packed some amazing tech into its weird-looking AirPods. But to Nuheara co-founder David Cannington, Apple’s white-hot wireless earphones are just “dumb wireless.”
Sure, AirPods let you listen to music, take phone calls and tap into Siri, but they represent a missed opportunity because they don’t solve a crucial problem faced by many people in the modern world: hearing what’s going on around them.
As you might have guessed, Cannington’s company tackled this problem with a new product that launched at CES this week. Nuheara’s IQbuds are smart, truly wireless earbuds that do more than just make calls and deliver high-fidelity audio to your ears. They make it possible to carry on conversations in noisy environments like restaurants, bars and even massive Las Vegas trade shows.
Will Apple’s wireless EarPods change the way we hear? Why should you upgrade to the latest iOS version? How can you create a musical masterpiece with just a guitar and your iPhone?
You’ll find answers to these and other burning questions in this week’s edition of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab the latest issue today and get the week’s best Apple news, all wrapped up in a shiny package that’s perfect for your iPad or iPhone.
Here are this week’s top stories.
Recent reports suggest Apple might ship wireless, noise-canceling EarPods with the iPhone 7. From a hardware perspective, these headphones would be very similar to hearing aids.
With the right feature set, these devices could change the way we hear digital audio and pave the way for transformative new audio experiences for everyone.
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.