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Apple's high-end earbuds will be able to be used a full-on hearing aids. Apple Could Apple really be teeing up a change that could save my elderly mother more than $1,500? Thats the promise of the companys newly announced initiative to add true hearing aid functionality to the AirPods Pro and why, with all due respect to the iPhone 16 and its fancy Camera Control button, it was the most promising section of Mondays keynote, to my eyes. The news couldnt have come at a better time for me. My 80-year-old mother has finally admitted that her hearing is, shall we say, subpar. And she just asked me to book her an appointment at the Miracle Ear clinic down the street (Theyre having a fall sale!). But before I went down that road, I decided to do some research. The frustrating world of hearing aids I knew that there was a burgeoning market for hearing aids since the US government opened the field to over-the-counter competition in 2022. But a bit of googling confirmed that those models even those with familiar names, like Jabra, Sony and Sennheiser start at $300 and go north from there, sometimes topping $2,000. And while thats certainly a lot, the crazy thing is that its downright cheap compared to clinical hearing aids. Those often start at $1,000, and can go as high as $5,000 or more. Yes, really. Some medical insurance may defer costs, but Medicare doesnt. While retired military personnel can get hearing aids through the VA, I remember my fathers journey down that path meant that his hearing aids arrived many months after the initial hearing exam. Jabra Enhance's OTC hearing aid options top out at almost $2,000. Jabra Enhance And heres the clincher: Many elderly folks seem to loathe their hearing aids, and for good reason: Theyre generally tedious and unintuitive to use, sometimes with a single microscopic button to control volume. Want to turn them off? Pop open the battery cover, for starters. (And many hearing aids still use disposable microbatteries.) Case in point: My mother got one of these expensive pair of hearing aids years ago, but found the challenge of wearing and maintaining them wasnt worth the so-so audio improvement they offered. They still power on, but they dont seem to work effectively any more and being out of warranty, the cause of our current hearing aid search. The competition from the OTC market has helped in that regard, as the Jabras and Sennheisers of the world push the traditional hearing aid providers to become a bit more tech-savvy. Some eschew the behind-the-ear battery pack and go for earbud-style simplicity. Bluetooth connectivity for calls and apps for sound adjustments are finally more common, as older people become accustomed to using their phones and tablets. But why go for whats essentially an AirPods knockoff when you can get the real thing at a fraction of the price? (And amazingly, in an age where everything has gone the subscription route free of any sort of recurring monthly fees.) Waiting for the software update and managing expectations So, when will the hearing aid features become available? What seemed to be weeks away may now be much closer. FDA regulatory signoff (in the US) is already a done deal, arriving just a few days after the initial announcement. That leaves the requisite software upgrade. Youll need an AirPods Pro paired with a compatible device running iOS 18, or the equivalent 2024 OS updates for iPad or Mac. On the iPhone side, thats pretty much every model sold after the 2018 model year (iPhone XS/XR and later). While those initial software updates hit on September 16, its unclear if the hearing aid functionality will arrive then, or sometime later perhaps alongside the first Apple Intelligence coming in October. (Apples site simply says coming this fall.) In the meantime, Ive started the upsell to my mother. I showed her the relevant portion of Apples video presentation, and I had her try out my AirPods Pro, just to gauge fit and comfort. The initial response wasnt enthusiastic. While she liked that they didnt fall out of my ears like the AirPods 2, shes put off by the penetration of the eartips into her ear canal. Countless other headphone fans agree, and thats why the design of the new AirPods 4 is more open. But Apple hasnt suggested the hearing aid functionality is coming to those headphones anytime soon if ever. Unlike traditional hearing aids, AirPods Pro are anything but discreet. (This shot is from Apple's keynote video.) Apple And lets be honest: This isnt envisioned as a miracle cure. Apple specifically says this feature is intended for people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. I wouldnt be surprised if my mother has graduated to the need for pro-level hearing assistance at this point, over-the-counter or otherwise. So we may end up opting for one of those Jabra Enhance models, which offer a 100-day no-hassle return policy. But now we have the AirPods Pro as a testable alternative. Going forward, anyone in the market for hearing aids can start their journey with the AirPods Pro and its companion free audio test. If you like the results, youre done or you at least have a stopgap solution. And if not, you can compare and contrast them against pricier OTC or clinical options in terms of comfort, battery life, ease of use and of course the respective efficacy of their actual hearing assistance. The very fact that Apple is in the hearing aid conversation with a $200-ish option feels like a win. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/why-the-airpods-pros-new-hearing-aid-features-are-a-bigger-deal-than-you-think-111543985.html?src=rss
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A new, $26 solderless mod kit from 8BitDo can transform your old GameCube controller into a wireless Bluetooth device that works with Nintendo Switch and Android. Itll also work with the original GameCube, but for that, youll have to buy the $26 Retro Receiver too. The mod kit comes with Hall Effect joysticks, a trigger pack and a rechargeable 300mAh battery, which 8BitDo says should get you around 6 hours of play time. Pre-orders for the kit are now open, and itll ship September 25. Introducing the 8BitDo Mod Kit for Original NGC Controller. Easily modify your original wired NGC controller into a Bluetooth controller, bring wireless compatibility with Switch and Android. Including Hall Effect joysticks and the Trigger Pack.Pre-oder on eShop now: pic.twitter.com/oeEUq4WRlP 8BitDo (@8BitDo) September 14, 2024 There are numerous adapters on the market that will allow you to use an original wired GameCube controller with the Switch, including 8BitDos own GBros. adapter and an official one from Nintendo, but the mod kit cuts out the middleman to bring completely wireless Bluetooth connectivity. All youd need to do is open up the controller and swap the old PCB with the new one. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/8bitdos-latest-mod-kit-will-make-your-old-gamecube-controller-wireless-and-switch-compatible-214235096.html?src=rss
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New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention. The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir Anyone who lives with a difficult-to-diagnose chronic illness and has endured the demoralizing process of trying to get proper treatment can tell you it is, at times, a living nightmare. Advocating for yourself, fighting to be taken seriously; its something Ive dealt with most of my life as a person with autoimmune diseases. So when I read the description of Hildur Knútsdóttirs psychological horror novel, The Night Guest, it resonated with me immediately: Iunn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something's not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause. When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps. Until one night Iunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find shes walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . . What is happening when shes asleep? The Night Guest is a short, compelling read that puts an unsettling spin on an issue a lot of people can relate to. I pretty much inhaled it. Is Earth Exceptional? The Quest for Cosmic Life by Mario Livio and Jack Szostak The origin of life and the question of whether it exists elsewhere is a topic I find to be endlessly interesting (as evidenced by how regularly books about it land among these recommendations). In their new book Is Earth Exceptional? The Quest for Cosmic Life, astrophysicist Mario Livio and Nobel Prize winning biologist Jack Szostak examine what we know about the things that make life possible the building blocks of life and explore how they could have emerged on Earth and, hypothetically, elsewhere. At the heart of the mystery is the as yet unanswered question of whether or not life came to be as the result of a freak accident. As the authors write in their introduction, Even with the enormous scientific progress we have witnessed in the past few decades, we still dont know whether life is an extremely rare chemical accident, in which case we may be alone in our galaxy, or a chemical inevitability, which would potentially make us part of a huge galactic ensemble. Into the Unbeing by Zac Thompson, Hayden Sherman In 2034 as imagined by Into the Unbeing, Earth is well past the tipping point of climate change. The planet has been devastated by natural disasters and species have died off in the masses. Looking for anything that can help improve the worlds situation, a team of climate scientists with the Scientific Institute for Nascent Ecology and Worlds (SINEW) ventures out to explore what appears to be an entirely new environment that has popped up out of nowhere near their camp in the Australian outback. But theyre not prepared for what they find. Into the Unbeing is a new gripping science-fiction series that weaes in cosmic horror. The first issue came out at the beginning of the summer, and Part One just wrapped up this week with issue number four. If you were into Scavengers Reign or The Southern Reach Trilogy, youll probably enjoy Into the Unbeing. The art alone will suck you right in.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-the-night-guest-is-earth-exceptional-and-into-the-unbeing-194524310.html?src=rss
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