Zac Hall
Apple delivered a solid update to its best wireless earbuds last fall with
the launch of AirPods Pro 2.
Now Apple is turning it up to 11 with five all-new features coming to the
gen-two AirPods Pro - no hardware upgrade required.
Adaptive Audio
AirPods Pro 2 currently have three modes of noise control. Noise
Cancellation effectively mutes the world around you. Transparency pipes in
sounds around you while your ears are plugged. And off. off is what in-ear
headphones sounded like before AirPods Pro. Damp and muffled. You're
probably in Noise Cancellation or Transparency.
Enter Adaptive Audio. You may never need the other two modes again.
Adaptive mode "dynamically blends Transparency mode and Active Noise
Cancellation together based on the conditions of a user's environment to
deliver the best experience in the moment," says Apple.
And it works like a charm.
Adaptive Audio lets you enjoy the presence of Transparency while you're
doing dishes then seamlessly adjust to Noise Cancellation when you turn on
the vacuum cleaner. You won't even realize mode switching occurred because
audio playback just sounds consistent. The return of ambient sounds around
you will wow you when you notice what just happened.
Conversation Awareness
From the very first version in 2017, AirPods have always been great at
letting you stop the audio and tune in to the world. With Auto-Pause, you
just remove an AirPod from your ear and playback stops. Slick.
Conversation Awareness is a new take on a similar idea.
If you speak with Conversation Awareness turned on, AirPods Pro 2 will be
able to automatically lower your volume and enhance the voices of people
speaking in front of you. While this is happening, Conversation Awareness
will actively reduce background noise behind you.
In other words, it might finally be possible to have a conversation in a
bar. What? I'm not tuning you out, I'm doing this because I care! But
seriously, this will make jamming to music and saying hello to someone
passing by possible without ever touching your AirPods.
Mute or Unmute
Mute or Unmute may not sound as mind-blowing as Adaptive Audio and
Conversation Awareness, but it's just as convenient if you ever use your
AirPods Pro 2 on a phone call. Starting later this fall, you'll be able to
easily mute yourself during any call through your AirPods by pressing the
stem. Press again to unmute. No need to pull out your phone.
But wait, there's more. Personalized Volume is a new feature that will rely
on machine learning to let AirPods "understand environmental conditions and
listening preferences over time to automatically fine-tune the media
experience."
Automatic Switching is a feature for moving between Apple devices that
exists today. An update to the feature will see the "connection time between
a user's Apple devices is significantly faster and more reliable," according
to Apple.
So that's what we have to look forward to with AirPods Pro 2 later this
year. Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Mute or Unmute, Personalized
Volume, and Automatic Switching improvements will be available through a
free software update starting this fall.
9to5Mac.
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