They are not just headphones but are part of the user interface for many purposes. Apple crushes competition with AirPods. In 2018, it represented 60% of the world market for wireless headphones.
We have detailed in an article the important changes and the challenges that will generate Airpods in the uses of augmented reality for Apple with the list of the many innovations embedded in these headphones. During the Keynote, an Airpods software update was announced.
There are two topics covered by the AirPods software update that is included in iOS 14. The first was that all models of Airpods have automatic switching between Apple devices. With the W1 and H1 chips, the AirPods can be paired with an Apple device and information will be shared with other devices connectés with the same Apple ID, eliminating the need for repeated pairing. You listen to music on your phone in the AirPods, you decide to watch the video on the iPad, the headphones understand that you did it and that you changed the sound. The phone rang – the headset returned to the phone. This point was a painful point for the headphones especially for the battery, but the AirPods update will solve this with the software and the cloud.
The other update concerns only the AirPods Pro, and “spatial audio”. AirPods Pro will support 5.1, 7.1 surround and Dolby Atmos. It’s surround sound via psychoacoustic processing, which suggests that Apple could modify the microphones on the iPhone 12. Immersive surround works by applying directional audio filters and subtly adjusting the frequencies that each ear receives information gyroscope and an accelerometer to follow the movement of your head and thus re-map the sound field.
Apple has long been working on sound which is an essential part of smartphone for one of the strong uses of it, music. Apple in 2019 launched a feature called Audio Zoom. The phone uses multiple microphones to detect the source, for example, of a person’s voice and block all other sounds. The feature helps you focus on the subject you’re filming and reject unwanted background noise. This could be useful if you are filming in noisy environments.
The video shows how Zoom Audio works.
But the use of AirPods will have other impacts in the months that follow. Headphones will allow us to change the way we hear the world around us:
- Surround sound in video is potentially more exciting. And it’s a feature we will see in many other areas outside of the iPhone in the next 12 months.
- Translating conversations has been one of the great new features in iOS 14 revealed by Apple, and that includes a landscape mode that can translate conversations live, deploying the app to give each speaker half the screen .
- There is more improvement on the software side than on the hardware side for the ear! A holistic solution here is not only better hardware iteration, but above all, better software with better algorithms and better implementation. Augmented reality needs these types of headphones. The use will not only be visual in any case, it can rely on sound!
- Apple has said that an API will be available for developers of iOS 14 so that manufacturers can start working on Airpods and maximize the benefits of the usual audio capabilities.
- You can already share your audio with someone else using their headphones, if you do it with your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Soon this will apply to Apple TV 4K.
- Gaming is a growing source of income at Apple and sound is an asset in the battle!
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