The Apple-verse has grown, and its most critical planet is shining brightest as we anticipate the next generation of enhancements to its primary earbuds. At WWDC 2024, Apple revealed another array of enhancements to the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and its MagSafe and USB-C successors. Siri has been upgraded (via artificial intelligence improvements to its ear awareness) and voice isolation facilities have added. The additions are within iOS 18.
In an update coming with iOS 18 this fall, Apple will add Generative AI upgrades to Siri on AirPods Pro, which allow for more humanlike conversations through head nods and other signals. Apple is calling the feature 'Siri Interactions'. This will provide a more discreet and less intrusive method of interaction than typical voice messages.
Apple's commitment to technological innovation is also shown in Voice Isolation for AirPods Pro, which uses Apple Intelligence to filter out ambient noise. Generative AI is used to reduce external noise and amplify your voice no matter what is going on around you. Whether it is the wind or people in the background, the new Voice Isolation will ensure everyone on the other side of the phone call can hear you, making it sound clearer than ever before.
To be clear, the AI brilliance of Siri Interactions and Voice Isolation that I'm talking about here is available only in the new AirPods Pro 2, thanks to the H2 chip that powers it; that's the technology (or magic) in the AirPods Pro 2 that allows the introduction of AI features in a level of interactivity that completely transforms the acoustic space.
However, Apple doesn't want to leave other AirPod users behind; indeed, the Personalized Spatial Audio update is also due to land on the AirPods Pro, 3rd generation and AirPods Max in the not-too-distant future. It adapts the audio to your ear anatomy for a truly immersive experience.
Mobile gaming thrives within Apple's luminescent walled garden, and smartphone tech is relentlessly driving innovation. Apple is introducing spatial audio with dynamic head tracking for mobile games, designed to 'enhance gaming audio to create a more immersive experience by placing sounds around you in multiple directions' with 'imperceptible latency'. It's a huge leap in wireless audio latency.
These features, which will be released with iOS 18 this fall, represent a huge leap forward for AirPods and mobile sound more broadly. Because AirPods updates follow iOS updates, yours will be getting the latest and greatest features on a regular basis, making sure you're the coolest kid on the block.
The Apple story is always about striving for perfection. From the early days, when it was still a small company, through its evolution as a tech giant, Apple has remained committed to improving user experience through design and technological breakthroughs. The implementation of new functionalities to AirPods Pro is another episode in a long and fruitful tale of Apple bringing joy to people's lives with innovation.
We might expect something similar for the next-generation version of iOS 18, when it ships this autumn, with a slew of updates designed to improve the 'AirPods Pro experience': better Siri controls, clearer microphones and more intuitive interactions – all part of a long arc of Apple's own design, bringing Silicon closer to Biology, and chipping away at the barriers to the ever-closer merging of people and AI.
If you stay in the personal audio space, you can't help but look up to Apple, and you still use as your baseline of quality whatever the company's last update was. But you also see the kind of innovation that Apple is touching every single generation of users and non-users with, and you look forward to being touched again by those new features. Right now, we're looking forward to the pleasure of the Apple update. Because it sounds like the future is going to be terrific.
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