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Apple Releases New Beta Firmware for AirPods Pro 2
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But you can just open the case and bring it near your phone. You get a display of case and each bud. I do this regularly.
This is tangential but keeping app2 charged is not a challenge if you have MagSafe for phone and the AirPods at bedside. Just put both on a charger.
Agreed. I also have a "batteries" widget on my homescreen as an easy way for me to keep track of battery levels:
For those of you having trouble with ANC, are you all sure you’re not in Adaptive mode where ANC is less than half of what it is in pure ANC mode? I have two sets, a Lightning and USB-C version, and both of them have ANC so good they can practically eliminate the sound of leaf blowers right outside my window where the people using them are no more than 15 feet away from me. I’ve never heard ANC so good on any device. I can actually sleep through that awful noise with the APP 2’s in my ears.
I don’t see any point for Adaptive mode, which to me is very close to Transparency mode, which makes me think you’re all using Adaptive mode instead of Noise Cancellation mode. What I’m getting out of ANC seems radically different from what at least three of you are hearing.
Just fine! But then again, I never notice the so-called “nerfs” anyway.
For me, Adaptive Mode and Find My is the very reason I bought APP2. It operates like transparency mode if the outside noise level is below 70 dB, and will reduce the noise to at most around 70 dB if the outside noise is higher than that. As someone who can get easily disoriented by excessive noise, it is super helpful when attending party, church, going to public places with friends/family (a full on ANC mode will muffle their voice really bad), etc. For example, this mode instantly calms down loud echo from improperly installed sound system.
I love how every article has to have an "how do you upgrade? We have no clue" segment in it for these things.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Not about keeping it charged…as you say, that’s as easy as just charging it every day. It’s about longevity. Generally, charge cycles wear out batteries,so if you have a better sense of when it really needs to be charged for your needs, you can charge only when it needs it.
If say 15% was my magic number to get me through todays use, then I could not recharge until it’s down at about 15%, use it that day, then do a full charge that evening or night. No more charging until it gets back down to about 15% again.
That “just throw it on a charger” approach might be adding a charge cycle even when it is at 90% or 70% or 50%. Too many charge cycles and it’s time to rebuy the worn-out product. If it costs $20, no big deal. If it costs $160+, some may want to maximize useful life vs. just tossing another $160+ more often than necessary.
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The other day I had this for an entire day. Non top notifications, couldn't stop it, and I didn't have auto switching on as that feature doesn't seem to work well for me. Drove me batty, but stopped the next day.
Mine still have not updated, despite following the usual suggestions. It's so stupid that there isn't an Update button somewhere for this.
I gave up checking and trying to force updates for my AirPods ages ago. Never seemed to work for me...
So now I just use them as normal after seeing a story about a firmware update being made available. When I check them a week or so later, they're always up to date. So it does happen eventually
Something is very wrong with your AirPods because I'm on the latest firmware and ANC still works very well for me.
Same here. Connecting to my MacBook always instantly does the trick. Zippo last night and today.
ordered a pair as I'm getting tired of putting the max on for calls, and lost my other pair of AirPods, as you say for $20 (apple sells polishing cloth for $19) worth a shot, Curious do they support the Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos playback like the apple pair ?
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm not an Apple Music subscriber, so I haven't got to try it with Spatial/ATMOS music. I do have such video content and just tried it and it sounds great- as good as it sounds on my APP2s... but whether it is legit spatial/ATMOS or just "sounds great" through a tiny hole in a pad in my ears would make me assume the latter.
As you probably saw in the advertising on Amazon, it clearly says "stereo" so there is no special hardware for Spatial/ATMOS. Is there special hardware for APP2 or are those terms just being used as marketing... like how a soundbar will be promoted as Spatial/ATMOS but not have any speakers anywhere around you or overhead... so that's faux spatial/ATMOS instead of the real thing? There is abundant claims that APP2 ARE "spatial audio" capable but I don't think that means there are equivalent micro-speakers in them to create the physical illusions of speakers front center, front left, front right, surround left, surround right, rear left, rear right and then some overhead.
Instead most of the write-ups talk about what appears to be what I call faux spatial which is using playback trickery- just like ATMOS soundbars- to support an illusion of sounds coming from where physical speakers are not actually located. If so, obviously, that's more marketing spin than physical reality. Anyone comparing a Spatial/ATMOS soundbar vs. an actual spatial/ATMOS setup (with physical speakers spread around them) will definitely notice a difference: real ATMOS is > faux ATMOS.
All that shared though, I don't know. Without an AM Subscription, I don't get to compare Spatial Audio except in ATMOS video files I own and one DVD-AUDIO 5.1 track I turned into a surround sound audio file myself... and that content sounds very good in these... though it's certainly only stereo playback.
My overwhelming use for buds is for music listening and phone/video conferencing. So far- albeit barely over a week- these do those jobs exceptionally well. Whether that persists in a $20 product is the BIG, BIG TBD. If it keeps sounding this good and can last- say- a year, $20/year is better than $160+ every 2.5 years. So I'd just stick with these. And nothing except that curiously low price says that they will wear out faster than APP2s- I'm just assuming there must be "something" and there's not much left for the "catch" to show itself.
As you probably saw in the advertising on Amazon, it clearly says "stereo" so there is no special hardware for Spatial/ATMOS. Is there special hardware for APP2 or are those terms just being used as marketing... like how a soundbar will be promoted as Spatial/ATMOS but not have any speakers anywhere around you or overhead... so that's faux spatial/ATMOS instead of the real thing? There is abundant claims that APP2 ARE "spatial audio" capable but I don't think that means there are equivalent micro-speakers in them to create the physical illusions of speakers front center, front left, front right, surround left, surround right, rear left, rear right and then some overhead.
Instead most of the write-ups talk about what appears to be what I call faux spatial which is using playback trickery- just like ATMOS soundbars- to support an illusion of sounds coming from where physical speakers are not actually located. If so, obviously, that's more marketing spin than physical reality. Anyone comparing a Spatial/ATMOS soundbar vs. an actual spatial/ATMOS setup (with physical speakers spread around them) will definitely notice a difference: real ATMOS is > faux ATMOS.
All that shared though, I don't know. Without an AM Subscription, I don't get to compare Spatial Audio except in ATMOS video files I own and one DVD-AUDIO 5.1 track I turned into a surround sound audio file myself... and that content sounds very good in these... though it's certainly only stereo playback.
My overwhelming use for buds is for music listening and phone/video conferencing. So far- albeit barely over a week- these do those jobs exceptionally well. Whether that persists in a $20 product is the BIG, BIG TBD. If it keeps sounding this good and can last- say- a year, $20/year is better than $160+ every 2.5 years. So I'd just stick with these. And nothing except that curiously low price says that they will wear out faster than APP2s- I'm just assuming there must be "something" and there's not much left for the "catch" to show itself.
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Make sure you read the title of the story accurately. It’s a beta version and only can be installed for beta participants. It won’t be available for most people. I made this mistake, trying for a few hours to update my pair of APP2 to no avail. I went back to this comment section to see if anyone else was having trouble getting it to show up and then noticed the “BETA” in the title. IIRC, though I’ve never installed an AirPods beta, this has to be manually configured before it’ll update.
Neither headphones or soundbars deliver REAL 100% Atmos sound, just because as you added it requires hardware placed at very specific places, closest thing would be the very high end Samsung and Sennheiser models. Q990C and the Ambeos.
With the headphones is even worse because you truly have only 2 speakers replicating and artifially attempting to reproduce the sound that is supposed to be distributed across multiple pieces of hardware. So it's just an artificial sound but its enough for casual movie watching on a phone/tablet and if you haven't heard real atmos before you can actually get a decent performance, even if its just simulated.
I probably should not have said Atmos because as you say for the real thing you need something better than a tiny pair of earbuds. Was more curious if the processing apple music does with Spatial Audio tracks would be transmitted into these as such. Because if it does thats pretty good for $20 and I'm certain the similarly priced polishing cloth is not able to do that ; ) My main use case will be to throw them in for remote work calls, or when im out and someone wants to talk. the AirPods Max are a bit too much for that. Listening to music on ear pods is not something im interested in, over ear sennheiser or AirPods Max for that if I need to.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I guess it depends on where that processing is done and how buds and source communicate with each other. I will GUESS that the end result of that processing is stereo speakers in APP2s or these cheapies. I'm not sure there is some major difference at the point where they convert audio from digital to analog so our ears can hear something.
Conceptually, APP2s have some awareness of where they are and orientation to be communicated to source (like an iPhone or AppleTV) which then- I presume- will process the "my spatial" effects to perhaps put a bit more of sound that should now be more left in the left bud and cut that sound a bit in the right bud... UNTIL you rotate that head the other direction and then vice-versa adjustments.
The easy example of this was in the Vpro demos where 3 "influencers" were doing a group virtual chat. They noticed that for each of them, the relative position of the other people SOUNDED like they were "there." In other words, if they looked at the display and a guy was left of them and a gal was right, the guys voice came from the left and the gals from the right. On the other end, the other person may see the other 2 in a different "position" and thus for them the voices may be coming from other directions. That's a "my spatial" trick that tangibly demonstrates itself and MAY or may not need something in APP2s (or Vpro speaker tech) to also know relatively where each person is. If so, these cheapies almost certainly do NOT have that kind of tech, so that illusion would probably not work with these.
There will certainly be "little things" in these vs. APP2s. For example, APP2s seem superior at guessing with which device I want to use them. These "cheapies" seem to very solidly BOND with the last connected device and thus it is a manual bluetooth menu choice to switch them to a different device. I'm sitting in front a bluetooth enabled Mac right now maybe 60 feet from my iPad mini. When I open the case to use them, they will immediately connect to that Mini. I can switch them to the Mac with a menu selection but they seem very committed to their "last relationship" above all... unlike APP2s which will readily "jump mate to mate" at any given time. Since almost 100% of the time, I only use them with an iPad, this is also no big deal for me. But others who hop device to device may miss the "one less step" jumps with APP2s vs. these.
Again, my own needs are just about entirely music listening and phone/video conf. for which MONO buds would probably work pretty well. So I'm not too concerned myself with faux Spatial/faux ATMOS or it jumping mate to mate. Obviously, if that became more important to me, I might then rationalize $160+ vs. $20 on those kinds of fine details.
So best I can offer is that music, movies (in surround sound/ATMOS) and phone use all sounds very good. To my ears, it's as good as APP2s... which is shocking for the dramatic price difference. However, I completely believe it is just stereo... like HPs are only stereo at best, even if they too are spun as "Atmos" and "Spatial." I might even go as far to say since I know HPs are faux ATMOS/Spatial, I could argue that these are towards as Atmos/Spatial as HPs and thus probably APP2s too... all faux because the real thing requires real speakers spread all around the listener.
And again, I continue to assume a "gotcha" will be coming for these vs. APP2s based upon the gigantic price difference. Yes, I very well know the "Apple premium" but this would be well beyond that kind of upcharge if these turn out to have a reasonably long life like APP2s. Since my intent will be to hold out for the launch of APP4s which are rumored, I'll just be running a first-hand test during this period to see if I can crash into the "gotcha" or not. I assume it will soon show itself but will be happy to not spend another $160+ if it doesn't. Sometimes "good enough" actually is good enough.
Conceptually, APP2s have some awareness of where they are and orientation to be communicated to source (like an iPhone or AppleTV) which then- I presume- will process the "my spatial" effects to perhaps put a bit more of sound that should now be more left in the left bud and cut that sound a bit in the right bud... UNTIL you rotate that head the other direction and then vice-versa adjustments.
The easy example of this was in the Vpro demos where 3 "influencers" were doing a group virtual chat. They noticed that for each of them, the relative position of the other people SOUNDED like they were "there." In other words, if they looked at the display and a guy was left of them and a gal was right, the guys voice came from the left and the gals from the right. On the other end, the other person may see the other 2 in a different "position" and thus for them the voices may be coming from other directions. That's a "my spatial" trick that tangibly demonstrates itself and MAY or may not need something in APP2s (or Vpro speaker tech) to also know relatively where each person is. If so, these cheapies almost certainly do NOT have that kind of tech, so that illusion would probably not work with these.
There will certainly be "little things" in these vs. APP2s. For example, APP2s seem superior at guessing with which device I want to use them. These "cheapies" seem to very solidly BOND with the last connected device and thus it is a manual bluetooth menu choice to switch them to a different device. I'm sitting in front a bluetooth enabled Mac right now maybe 60 feet from my iPad mini. When I open the case to use them, they will immediately connect to that Mini. I can switch them to the Mac with a menu selection but they seem very committed to their "last relationship" above all... unlike APP2s which will readily "jump mate to mate" at any given time. Since almost 100% of the time, I only use them with an iPad, this is also no big deal for me. But others who hop device to device may miss the "one less step" jumps with APP2s vs. these.
Again, my own needs are just about entirely music listening and phone/video conf. for which MONO buds would probably work pretty well. So I'm not too concerned myself with faux Spatial/faux ATMOS or it jumping mate to mate. Obviously, if that became more important to me, I might then rationalize $160+ vs. $20 on those kinds of fine details.
So best I can offer is that music, movies (in surround sound/ATMOS) and phone use all sounds very good. To my ears, it's as good as APP2s... which is shocking for the dramatic price difference. However, I completely believe it is just stereo... like HPs are only stereo at best, even if they too are spun as "Atmos" and "Spatial." I might even go as far to say since I know HPs are faux ATMOS/Spatial, I could argue that these are towards as Atmos/Spatial as HPs and thus probably APP2s too... all faux because the real thing requires real speakers spread all around the listener.
And again, I continue to assume a "gotcha" will be coming for these vs. APP2s based upon the gigantic price difference. Yes, I very well know the "Apple premium" but this would be well beyond that kind of upcharge if these turn out to have a reasonably long life like APP2s. Since my intent will be to hold out for the launch of APP4s which are rumored, I'll just be running a first-hand test during this period to see if I can crash into the "gotcha" or not. I assume it will soon show itself but will be happy to not spend another $160+ if it doesn't. Sometimes "good enough" actually is good enough.
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For those of you not getting the update, this is a BETA firmware update. Unless you have developer mode enabled on your phone and have toggled on beta updates for the AirPods, you won't get this.
Weird, mine have gotten better. Certainly the new magic mode (adaptive audio) is really nice. And full one ANC has been tuned to an even better level.