The end goal is a more immersive type of computing, where the interface itself becomes invisible. Unlike visual interfaces, which demand your attention, audio provides an ideal interface for pervasive, background connectivity. Want to know what the weather is like in Rome, the contents of your inbox, or how long it will be until your next train arrives? Just wonder aloud, and Siri will whisper the answer discreetly into your ear. Just as smartphone apps took over from the web as the way most of us use the internet, hearables promise to take over from screens, bringing relevant information directly to our ears. Hand-in-hand with the hardware comes the voice-recognition software to control it: think Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, OK Google and most recently Alexa, the AI that lives in Amazon’s Echo device. And German company Bragi has the Dash, a wireless “smart earphone” that incorporates a music player, pedometer, pulse rate monitor, and much more. New York firm Doppler Labs offers the Here One, a pair of outsized earplugs that auto-tune your environment to play you a more aesthetically pleasing version. Read more: Next-generation hearing aids get some iPhone coolĪ handful of start-ups have released devices that aim to take hearables even further. The codec that Apple developed for these devices, which allowed audio streaming over low-energy Bluetooth for the first time, now appears in the AirPods. The software means I can take calls and listen to music directly via my hearing aids. I’ve been using similar technology since 2014, when Apple paired with Starkey Hearing Technologies to produce the world’s first set of smartphone-connected hearing aids, the Starkey Halo. But this is also the latest case of Apple using its flagship product to bring a tech trend to the masses – get ready for “hearables” doing battle for the ownership of your ears. Instead, listeners will use AirPods, a pair of wireless earbuds that connect to the phone over Bluetooth.ĭitching the headphone jack allows the iPhone 7 to shrink even slimmer, and losing a hole makes the phone more water resistant. At the launch of the iPhone 7 yesterday, Apple announced that it was ditching the white headphone wires that have been an icon of the brand since 2003.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |