Gurman: AirPods to Gain Hearing Health Features Over the Next Two Years

[jlstephan]

Tinnitus is a neurologic issue. You can't just noise blank it like external sound waves. If it is ever solved, it will be medically. Sleep better (thousands of web pages about how to do this), drink lots of water, cut down on (ideally eliminate) stimulants and depressants (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, meth, etc). Those are the only things proven to help. Then accept it and go on with life. It is the only proven way currently. Eventually your brain will just ignore it 99% of the time. There is one weird treatment out there, something about playing the exact frequency of your personal tinnitus, slightly louder, several hours a day, supposedly makes your brain shut it off internally when the external sound is turned off. I guess you could argue that is a medical treatment utilizing electronics... I don't know if it actually works.

Many thanks for the reply. There are some earing aids that supress the noise but I haven't test yet. Very expensive. Anyway I've been living with the noise for long time... Maybe one day they will find something to stop.

 

[svish]

Don't think any such thing is going to happen in the near future.

 

[JapanApple]

.....and apple will ask insurance companies to help pay for these hearing aids people ....... like the apple watch health safety. lol

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Always good to see improvements in health, it'll help other people even if it won't help you specifically.

 

[Hodar1]

I am a pretty strong proponent of Mimi hearing app. This app is free, and does two very important things, imho. I am not a medical professional, just a humble EE. It will create a hearing CUSTOMIZED profile for your phone, so that music, podcasts and phone calls adapt to the part of the audio spectrum you have difficulty hearing. I see this as a universal good.

Secondly, as your hearing appointment is a snapshot in time of what your hearing is, and your hearing will vary day to day, just as your eyesight will fluctuate; having more snapshots will provide you (and your Audiologist/ENT MD) more data to make the decision. The biggest hurdle I see with Apple, is the 4 hour battery life. My HA are expensive, use neural processing and are very good at processing conversations automatically without regard to background, and the battery lasts ~13-15 hours on a charge. But, they do not sound nearly as rich as the Apple AirPod.

Competition is good, if Apple can make a superior product for $200, then the $5,000 HA market is going to take a huge hit.

 

[mikebenton]

Another feature I would like to see from Apple - Reader detection. It would be nice if FaceID could detect whether I have my readers on or not. If not, make the text on the screen large. If I do, make the text normal size. Something as simple as this would make a huge difference for me. Using Control Center to go back and forth is a pain in the ass.

 

[Green Valkyrie]

Only this weekend I was reading new research that suggested hearing loss is one of the main causes of dementia. If that's true, ANC is basically an essential spend...

 

[coffeemilktea]

With any luck, this new feature will let me hear who asked for Gurman's opinion

 

[Coolestdude]

As a person who wears Phoneks (and formerly Resound Lynx), I'm all for trying these out.

 

[ackmondual]

Honest question, do these Mac prediction guys do this as a full-time job? Side hustle? Do they get paid for this sort of stuff? If so, how? Because I'd like to do what they do.

I'm guessing if you can take the criticisms, then, have at it!

 

[robfoll]

I was at a Music Festival this weekend (Port Fairy, Australia) where everything was markedly over-amplified. The Airpods Pro feature, Adaptive Transparency, made a huge difference, allowing me to listen remarkably well but with high noise levels reduced to 85dB. It still sounded great, and my tinnitus was not exacerbated; Kudos to the hearing team at Apple. Looking forward to more hearing assistance features like this. NOW if only the Apple Watch team would extend the same courtesy to sight-impaired watch users and address the tiny fonts used for many complications that make them unusable.

 

[gund1234]

If their earbuds lasted longer then 5 minutes, this might actually be useful.

if i am talking on them i get at least an hr. If i am just listening, at least few hours.
I do agree battery life can be improved.

 

[gund1234]

It would be interesting to see how this works out if Apple did go this route. I know Samsung's did something similar about five years ago with their Gear IconX buds. They had integrated health features such as heart rate monitor, pedometer, GPS and included onboard music storage so you could save a Spotify playlist and leave everything else at home when working out. Apparently not enough people used the earbuds by themselves to justify having the extra functionality. I personally almost never leave my phone at home during a run and if I do it's because I have my connected watch.

all these sensors would kill battery life.

 

[Choco Taco]

if i am talking on them i get at least an hr. If i am just listening, at least few hours.
I do agree battery life can be improved.

I use them every single day and get roughly 3-4 hours of constant use. Kind of disappointing. :/

 

[NARadyk]

I don’t know if I want to know how deaf I am.

 

[GonzoTGreat]

I stream audio (podcasts, music, teleconferences, audio from my Mac at work) to my hearing aids literally, all day. Once in a while I put in my AirPods and it SOUNDS way better… but the battery life & the external microphones don’t give me what I need. I’d LOVE to be able to replace the aids with AirPods, at least some of the time.

I have profound hearing loss, I'm completely deaf in my right ear and more than half deaf in my left (nearly completely deaf when I don't wear hearing aids). I've worn hearing aids all my life and currently use a BiCros hearing aid in my non-hearing ear, which transmits sound to the aid in my hearing ear. The AirPods are not powerful enough for my needs, but I'm glad they are an option for those that have mild-moderate hearing loss. Good hearing aids are expensive, lol

Well said. I have a pair of proper open dome HAs for my mild/moderate loss. I like having the open domes, but am (thus) left wanting in the speech-I’m-noise department. Conversation boost has been a good benefit. Also, programmed my audiogram into accessibility. Recorded music is better with the AP Pro-2; live better with hearing aids. Outdoor conversations better with HAs. Chatting in a bar better with AP Pro-2.

Swapping one with the other is a bit of a drag. As long as I don’t drop or lose anything, I’m fine.

Definitely need to keep the AP Pro-2 charging when not using. Hearing accommodations are death for the battery. I tried first gen but neither features or battery made the cut.