For me, life’s too short to get worked up over tiny changes to the AirPods Pro firmware. They’re earbuds, not essential productivity software where knowing what changed can be essential for work. While I always prefer detailed release notes, speaking as someone who reads a LOT of them from a wide range of developers, the vast majority aren’t in the slightest bit useful or interesting. And that’s with software where you can actually see what’s happening, not firmware embedded in a tiny pair of earbuds. I have no problem assuming these changes are ones that few, if any, will notice. And without having noticed anything, I don’t care when the update installs.
In fact, the update seems to fix problems that some people had with disconnects.
Whenever I see someone with Earpods or any other tooth device, I assume they are listening to what is being played. Therefore, if someone came into a meeting or sat opposite me, I would assume they were not interested in a conversation. Zoom or Video Calls are different, but then I doubt they would need anything more than sound isolation.
As hearing support improves, you may need to change your assumptions. I already use adaptive mode to reduce background noise and peak volume when I attend concerts.
I rarely use earpods to listen to output from my devices unless I’m in a noisy environment.
It’s funny how technology affects social conventions. I agree that until fairly recently, if I was near someone wearing headphones (either in- or over-ear), I would also assume they were audibly engaged. Not so much anymore. Another one: prior to the Apple Watch (primarily), if you were talking with someone and they looked at their watch, you would assume that was a social clue they needed to get going soon. But now, they may just be glancing at a notification because their wrist got tapped.
No. From what I’ve read this is the same test that they’ve been using for the Apple Hearing Study. I’ve done it several times. It’ll check the ambient sound level, but it doesn’t require complete silence.
I notice the new hearing aid capability is mentioned on the US site, but not on Apple’s UK site.
So I called Apple to ask if this update would be available to UK users, and they didn’t know. They said “maybe, probably, sometime, perhaps…”
I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t release it in the UK without claiming “medical grade” hearing capability, thus avoiding any need for permits.
Does anyone have any more definite information, or advice?
The Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are expected to receive marketing authorization from global health authorities soon, and will be available this fall in more than 100 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, and Japan.
They don’t specifically mention the UK, but it seems pretty clear that Apple means this to be available in as many countries as they can get approval.
From Norwegian Apple site:
“AirPods Pro 2
Verdens første komplette horselshelse-opplevelse.
Nye funksjoner for hørselshelsen blir tilgjengelige i høst i en gratis programvareoppdatering.”
Translates to this:
“AirPods Pro 2.
The world’s first complete hearing health experience. New features for hearing health will be available this autumn in a free software update.”
And on that note: Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on any of the many third-party AirPod Pro 2 tips and hooks? Mine will not stay in, (yes, I have big ears… ;-) and Apple says they don’t have any bigger tips.
The iOS 18.1 release includes the full initial implementation of the hearing aid feature for AirPods Pro 2. I’d like to offer my assessment that this release heralds a potentially game changing development for users of commercial hearing aids wherever it’s available. For me, the benefit depends more on management of the ecosystem than whether or not it’s robust. The questions I’m considering at the moment pertain to how many pairs of the APP2 can be managed for a single user on one iPhone so the charging necessity can be mitigated. The only important detriment to their exclusive use besides the fact that people are likely to assume that the wearer is trying to unhear them than to hear them is the lack of being able to create presets for “tuning” adjustments. I hope this will be addressed in a subsequent update.
Just set it up. It seems promising. No one home to talk to unfortunately, but I am hearing house noises that I only could hear w/ EarLens. But more comfortable than EarLens so far.
I believe you can do “presets,” but have lots of reading to do.
I updated all my Apple devices to the .1 versions today. I had already updated the AirpodPro 2 firmware over the weekend. So, I ran the hearing test. I closed all my windows to eliminate extraneous noise and started the test. After confirming that I had a good fit for the Airpods and that the external noise was low, I proceeded to the actual test. The test sounds a series of 3 beeps at various frequencies, first for the left ear and then for the right. When you hear beeps, you tap the iPhone. The test took about 5 minutes. In the end, it gave a reading for hearing loss for each ear and displayed a graph showing the loss at various frequencies.
I ran the test twice and got consistent results. Both tests showed my loss in the mid-30s and was graded mild. The graph showed a loss of about 20dB at 125 Hz, degrading to about 75dB at 8kHz. The right ear showed less loss than the left in lower frequencies, but both ears were similar at the high end.
I then turned on the hearing aid option of AirPods and listened through my room speakers to my usual afternoon background music (jazz from the Internet stream of radio station KCSM). The sound with the adjustment on was much richer than what I have been used to. However, I did notice an increased level of noise from a nearby freeway. By adjusting the ambient noise level from the default 0 to 50, I cut the noise to a very faint buzz. It makes sense that I was only bothered by the freeway noise after I implemented the hearing aid feature, as before that time, it was below my hearing threshold.
I recommend you run the test and try the suggested adjustments if you have an iPhone that can run the test and AirpodPro 2s.
On the pretext of testing Apple’s hearing kit tonight, the cook talked his way out of dinner and into a loud Mexican restaurant. In the entire course of dinner, I asked my wife to repeat herself once… <-you may have noticed, I don’t use these things much.
I was particularly impressed with the noise cancelation. As we left, I took the AirPods out. The sum of the room’s over all noise was many dB over what I had in my ears for the whole meal, meanwhile my wife’s voice was perfectly intelligible that entire time.
I’m also encouraged about the battery life. When I first set it up this morning, I wore them for four hours, including an hour phone call over Bluetooth to my phone. Unfortunately, the test ended when they fell out of my ears. But my iPhone reported the EarPods had 53% charge still.
I am very encouraged, but I need to get some third-party tips or clips to keep them in my ears.
FYI, other than implementing the hearing test, I left all the hearing settings at their defaults.
Have you used the “fitness test” very frequently? For me that’s the main difference between the APP2 sound and that of conventional hearing aids, but I also find it very intriguing. I’m not aware of any other hearing aid solution that takes on the task of producing the whole audio spectrum. It appears that that’s what requires the seal that the test attempts to ensure. I believe that other hearing aids always leave a vent from outside to the eardrum, small though it may be, and frequencies from around from A 220 Hz to C ~262 (middle C, aka C4, the 4th one from the left and of a piano) up to maybe 6 or 8K are mainly those being amplified. Most hearing aids probably don’t touch anything below 600 or even 1K. I think that the most common forms of hearing loss don’t severely affect the middle to low range. Anyway, I seem to be growing accustomed to the APP2 method faster than I first expected.
<-you may have noticed, I don’t use these things much.