Hear, hear
Historically, the act of covering or blocking our ears was about turning inward and shutting out the world. But headphone and earbud technology has changed that. Embedded microphones, initially designed for noise cancellation, can help pass outside sound through to our ears. EQ settings can compensate for deficiencies in our hearing, while AI tools can assess what sounds we need to hear and make sure that we do. This kind of tech has been accumulating for years, but Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 now gathers much of it together, and with little of the stigma of a traditional hearing aid.
More than 1.5 billion people live with hearing loss – with some of us not aware of it
According to the WHO, more than 1.5 billion people live with hearing loss. Some of us aren’t aware of it, some of us choose to ignore it, but the vast majority of us haven’t had a hearing test since childhood. “The technologies in AirPods Pro gave us the building blocks to create something that could genuinely help,” says Dr Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple’s VP of health.
