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Second AirPods Pro Firmware Beta Adds Conversation Boost

they should ad a mic boost feature, instead. The real, annoying issue of the APP is the faulty mics that catch the external noise and lower the speaker's voice. Result: the people you're talking with hear muffled/poor voice quality during call.-
 
augustrushrox said:
The update process for AirPods has somehow always been just so randomly activated and incongruous with most other updateable Apple products. Even the Developer update process for AirPods is way more tedious than it needs to be. Apple really should just add a way to update AirPods from within the iOS Settings app.
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Psychicbob said:
Have hearing impairment and currently use AirPod Pros as hearing aids. Use left pod first, pop it back in the charger, then use right pod, to extend usage. Works well ready for me and the conversation boost will help even more.
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Wouldn’t a specialist hearing aid work better for you with this?
 
For me the developer settings crashes to the HomeScreen while trying to activate the AirPods Pro Beta Option.
 
4jasontv said:
The fact that they invested time and money to include these features suggests they do care about user needs. Not just user needs but niche user needs.
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No, it’s what they’d love for you to think. They are cooking up features to make you buy them, if the features become your need or desire through marketing or otherwise.
 
I'm interested in this. I have a pair of bluetooth earbuds with a feature called "Superhuman Hearing" or something like that. It's very low-tech and basically useless but I can see the utility in it if it worked better.

Anthony on LTT had a video on iOS 15 yesterday that showed the voice isolation on Facetime thing. Assuming this is similar-- WOW

 
Mousse said:
If it works with TV dialogues as well, then I'm interested. No more turn up the volume to hear what the actors are saying only to be deafen by the F/X sound. I got tired of having to volume up volume down, so I just turn the volume down to where the F/X isn't unbearable and read the captioning.
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I have a 5.1 soundbar on one of my TV's. It seems like many shows have the dialog on the front/center and most of the music on the rears speakers which I can turn lower with the soundbar remote.
 
Moonlight said:
The moment you remove your tinfoil hat, they beamform a firmware update that nerfs it.
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Yup, you're right. It's just my imagination that the automatic noise cancellation has been getting progressively worse on AirPods Pro's. In fact, I'm the only person who has ever complained about it.
 
macintoshmac said:
No, it’s what they’d love for you to think. They are cooking up features to make you buy them, if the features become your need or desire through marketing or otherwise.
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It doesn’t take time or money to add feature to a product you already sold?
 
Can anyone link me directly to that "More Downloads" page? I can't seem to find the option or the profile anywhere on my paid developer account...

Edit: Never mind. Found it.
 
Mousse said:
If it works with TV dialogues as well, then I'm interested. No more turn up the volume to hear what the actors are saying only to be deafen by the F/X sound. I got tired of having to volume up volume down, so I just turn the volume down to where the F/X isn't unbearable and read the captioning.
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That's the just how sound in modern TV is with or without headphones or earbuds. They are mixing modern TV shows like it was for theaters with bigger dynamic ranges. Dialog level is low so the FX can have more dramatic effect. I live in an apartment so I have to watch TV with my finger on the TV volume control. I wish new TV would have an compressor or limiter option to help squeeze down that dynamic range for those who want it.
 
4jasontv said:
It doesn’t take time or money to add feature to a product you already sold?
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I never said it does not. 🙂 I only said that the driving force behind doing this is not quite as noble as people often mistake it to be, in Apple's case. Those days are gone.

I am not too sure about the taking money and time to add features to the product already sold part. All products sold are sold with everything already factored in. Nothing is being handed out for free here. Everything is factored in, several times over.

I don't know why people think Apple bringing features to hardware via software next year or next to next year makes people think is gracious of Apple to do. It is how Apple operates, it is what people pay the insane upfront price for. For years of software support, for quality warranty support, for great build quality, etc.

Nothing is being handed out to us just like that.

Coming back, Apple is trying to balance out profitability with revenue generation to the maximum possible extent, what users want or need is secondary. Why am I saying this? They killed Airport line. They could have updated it like everything else. Airport is by far the easiest of routers to work with, and has excellent quality. I love mine. I would pick an Apple Airport again without batting an eyelid. They killed it, and why? Profitability because they thought the numbers aren't helping their bottomline. Same for displays.

When in the past they brought these peripherals to bolster their bottomline and to give users a great ecosystem. Today, they are about selling disposable hardware that people would replace every year or two, maybe three. Displays, Airports, these are what people would keep for a very long time, and that does not help their bottomline. Keeping them would be concerned with users first. That is not the case now, is it? That's all I am saying.
 
I was using my old on-th-ear headphones for Zoom music lessons and chats and all was good. Then I got a good set of over-the-ear closed back headphones and now I can't hear myself talk. So something like this conversation setting would help me hear myself as well as the Zoom session.
 
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macintoshmac said:
I never said it does not. 🙂 I only said that the driving force behind doing this is not quite as noble as people often mistake it to be, in Apple's case. Those days are gone.

I am not too sure about the taking money and time to add features to the product already sold part. All products sold are sold with everything already factored in. Nothing is being handed out for free here. Everything is factored in, several times over.

I don't know why people think Apple bringing features to hardware via software next year or next to next year makes people think is gracious of Apple to do. It is how Apple operates, it is what people pay the insane upfront price for. For years of software support, for quality warranty support, for great build quality, etc.

Nothing is being handed out to us just like that.

Coming back, Apple is trying to balance out profitability with revenue generation to the maximum possible extent, what users want or need is secondary. Why am I saying this? They killed Airport line. They could have updated it like everything else. Airport is by far the easiest of routers to work with, and has excellent quality. I love mine. I would pick an Apple Airport again without batting an eyelid. They killed it, and why? Profitability because they thought the numbers aren't helping their bottomline. Same for displays.

When in the past they brought these peripherals to bolster their bottomline and to give users a great ecosystem. Today, they are about selling disposable hardware that people would replace every year or two, maybe three. Displays, Airports, these are what people would keep for a very long time, and that does not help their bottomline. Keeping them would be concerned with users first. That is not the case now, is it? That's all I am saying.
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One shouldn't be working with a router. It should be plugged in and forgotten about.

That's why people prefer the free one, which can be replaced for free at any time, that comes from their ISP over the $300-$500 ones with bleeding-edge features that require hardware that isn't even available on Apple devices.

The 'it just works mantra' makes it sound like Apple should be in the market, but most routers 'just work'. It's only when you need to make changes to it that ease of use becomes a question - and at that point, it just works isn't a priority.

As for displays, I don't know. I upgrade my daily driver monitor every year, but I just called it a daily driver, so I am probably not the average consumer. Based on what I see most stores stock for displays I think price, size, and resolution are the most important features for most people. That mentality drives quality down. But, if Apple makes the best display on the market - even if it's priced for a very niche group - people will likely assume 'very best' also applies to the iMac and iPad as well.

Of course, Apple wants product churn. Every company wants us to replace our existing product with the new version.

And some products move too quickly to justify being in the market if you only want to update it every few years. Monitors, printers, scanners, routers, have to be frequently refreshed - and since they can't be subsidized with microtransactions and since Apple can't launch something 5 years ahead of the competition when they are dependent upon market standards it's not an attractive business.

TV's are the perfect example of this. Being in the TV market sounds awful. You have to make the best product to be taken seriously, and in 6 months someone is going to dethrone you. Meanwhile, you have to spend billions in R&D, which your competitors will likely copy, and then sell the product for near cost just to stay competitive. As soon as you launch a new product someone will target the same thing but cheaper. Great for customers, fine for dedicated businesses, but horrible when it's just an accecssory.
 
4jasontv said:
I don’t understand this thinking. They are iconic headphones not hearing aids. The fact that they invested time and money to include these features suggests they do care about user needs. Not just user needs but niche user needs.

Besides, these are more invisible than traditional hearing aids because most people would see them and think they are just headphones.

I’m not against other colors, but I can’t see Apple ever releasing another beige product. That said, they make vinyl wraps for AirPods that look good. I’m sure someone makes skin color wraps.
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Well I did mention "More subtle options would be way better" and "Apple mostly cares about its brand, not always user needs." I stand by that. Heck they make all sorts of phone, tablet, and now iMac colors. Ear buds in space grey or something else not stark white would be a nice option.
 
DeftwillP said:
Yup, you're right. It's just my imagination that the automatic noise cancellation has been getting progressively worse on AirPods Pro's. In fact, I'm the only person who has ever complained about it.
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Dude: you are getting older and your ears are also getting older. Therefore...
 
Same deal with beer caps - pre pop top can days. Still dealing with that. Ears though, different - wrecked my ears surfing cold Northern California breaks. I will be interested on how these new buds handle socializing situations.
 
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