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Why a Bluetooth upgrade for AirPods excites me more than cameras or AI

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Why This Matters

The potential upgrade to LE Audio for AirPods could significantly enhance user experience by offering better battery life, lower latency, and improved audio quality, making wireless listening more seamless and efficient. This update underscores Apple's focus on refining audio technology, which benefits both consumers and the broader tech industry by setting new standards for wireless audio performance.

Key Takeaways

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ZDNET's key takeaways

If Apple enables LE Audio on its devices, it would bring several improvements.

They already have the necessary hardware to support LE Audio.

Even if Apple greenlights LE Audio, don't count on it supporting Auracast.

On the docket for this year's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), are a potentially more capable, conversational Siri and anticipation of this fall's iOS big update. Though hardware announcements are more robust in the fall, Apple analyst Mark Gurman asserted that Apple was working on a new AirPods model with integrated cameras to feed environmental images to Siri.

Also: If Samsung's Galaxy Buds 4 bore you, I hope you're ready for camera-equipped earbuds

Though integrated infrared cameras open a world of possibilities for increased earbud capabilities, there's one small AirPods upgrade I'm more interested in: LE Audio. Apple's current AirPods lineup, AirPods Max 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4, all have the basic hardware for LE Audio; all that's missing is for Apple to pull the lever and enable it via over-the-air firmware update.

LE Audio in AirPods would deliver improved battery life, lower latency, standardized latency and audio quality, and better performance for hearing aids.

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