The improved AirPods Pro just got better with each port that it was on
Adaptive Audio: What Should You Wear to Improve the Experience of Interacting with Others in a Noisy World? An Apple Look at Some Recent Developments
Last week, as predicted, Apple announced that the second-generation AirPods Pro would start shipping with a USB-C charging case instead of one using the company’s Lightning port. Apple added dust resistance to its AirPods Pro, in addition to the water resistance, so it isn’t just about the case. The Vision Pro headset, which is due out next year, will support both uncompressed and lossless audio, not the model from last year.
The cube has full MagSafe support, meaning it can charge an Apple device at fifteen watt, as well as having a wireless charging spot for the Apple Watch and a pair of AirPods. The smallest three-in-one charge available is the Anker cube, which is more travel-friendly than larger pads. The 30 watt power pak is required to deliver all the juice to your three devices.
Aside from those three main new features, Apple says the latest AirPods firmware also “adds convenience and control on calls with press to mute and unmute for AirPods (third generation), AirPods Pro (first and second generation), and AirPods Max, as well as significant improvements to the Automatic Switching experience for all available AirPods across Apple devices with the latest software updates.”
It is the aim of adaptive audio to blend active noise cancellation and transparency, cancellation of loud distractions and help you stay present in your environment. The feature reduces the outside noise to a degree that it doesn’t take away from my music, but it rarely cancels my surroundings to the same degree as full noise cancellation mode. It is an even smarter version of the adaptive transparency that Apple introduced with last year’s AirPods Pro.
If you’re regularly wearing your AirPods Pro on busy city streets, you should give Adaptive Audio a try. I think this is something Apple will continue to refine and tweak as it collects feedback from customers about which sounds they do and don’t want their earbuds to let through.
Conversation Awareness is designed to make it easier to chat with people for brief interactions without having to remove your earbuds. Start speaking, and your music volume will instantly get dialed way down while transparency mode activates to help you clearly hear whatever’s being said back to you. The feature enhances the voices of those you’re talking to and reduces background noise. So far, I’ve been very impressed with Conversation Awareness. It is smart to avoid being woken by a cough or other noises. But if you’re like me and have a habit of quietly singing along with your music, that’ll quickly become a problem if you keep this setting on.
Personalized Volume is the new trick that I’ve experimented with the least so far; I’m someone who just prefers manual control over how loud my audio is instead of letting software make random adjustments based on my past preferences. I’ll try to give it a chance more over the next few weeks and see how good Apple is at knowing what I want — or if I find myself reaching for the volume for a manual override.
Automatic Switching has behaved erratically and proven unpredictable for me in the past — so much so that I normally disable the feature altogether on my devices. But some of my colleagues including deputy editor Dan Seifert have noticed that this update really does seem to improve things when switching from one Apple product to the next. You have to have installed Apple products on your device to be able to experience the more reliable automatic switch. The concept has always been great, but nothing’s more frustrating than earbuds that have a mind of their own and switch to the wrong device at the worst possible time.
