Apple has a plan to snack on the competition

AirPods are one of Apple’s most successful products. They were launched in 2016 and today it’s difficult to go out and not see at least one person using them in one of their versions: AirPods 3, AirPods Pro second generation or AirPods Max.

Cupertino’s are always looking for ways to improve these devices. Finally, due to battery life issues, AirPods typically don’t last more than three years without the need for a change. It is precisely for this reason that Apple usually releases a new generation in the same period. Also shows us a new patent what the future might bring usand it sounds exciting.

Because not all environments are the same

Apple has filed US Patent 20230104111 A1, which explains that every user listens to music in a different place with their AirPods. Some do it in the car, others in the field, in a classroom, at home, or at the beach. So far, however, AirPods played the content equally, without considering this external factor.

This patent addresses just that. How AirPods Could Match Their Sound Not Just With What You’re Hearing if not where do you do it?. The patent goes even further, explaining that humans are capable of knowing what environment they are being heard in solely from sound patterns, which from Cupertino want us to be able to do the same with AirPods.

It seems that in a way this aims to naturalize listening to music with headphones. Just like playing a song on a HomePod in a living room doesn’t immediately hear it, I understand Apple wanting to play with it. If there were some option that would adapt these sound patterns to the room or environment the subject is in, it might even trick the subject into thinking that Listen to music without AirPods.

That sounds interesting. It might even be sold as “Transparency Plus” or another of those bombastic names that Cupertino likes. In any case, of course it’s a technology that’s talked about a lot and that we might get our hands on very soon, although as always it’s good to remember that Apple patents hundreds of ideas every day, and only a few become part of a product.

In Applesphere | “We’ll talk about it for years”: I’ve attended the previous ones and I’m convinced that this WWDC23 will be much more than iOS 17 or Apple Reality Pro