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Posts tagged "AirPods"

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Apple silently buffs the Vision Pro with the new iPhone 15 Pro and AirPods Pro 2
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The Apple Vision Pro may not have been in attendance during the recent iPhone 15 launch event hosted at Apple Park, but it got a shout-out and a couple of upgrades that you might have missed.

Unfortunately, these improvements aren’t coming to the headset directly, instead they're buffs exclusive for people who own multiple premium Apple products – specifically the new iPhone 15 Pro (or the iPhone 15 Pro Max) and the updated AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C port.

Starting with the iPhone 15, the Pro model’s cameras now have the ability to record Spatial Video. This immersive format allows you to use the Vision Pro to relive 3D recreations of memories you film and was first shown off in the Vision Pro reveal trailer at WWDC 2023.

While kinda cool – it feels like a step towards hologram recordings from sci-fi – the feature also felt rather dystopian when unveiled on the Vision Pro. Specifically, to be able to record Spatial Video of a special moment actually on the Vision Pro, you’d need to separate yourself from it; you’d cover your eyes with the VR headset to boot up the camera and start recording. It also wouldn’t let you relive any memories that happened while you didn’t have the $ 3,499 (around £2,800 / AU$ 5,300) headset on hand to record – and given the price of the Vision Pro it doesn’t strike us as something you want to carry with you everywhere.

Man using Apple Vision Pro to record a Spatial Video, his hand is on the headset holding down a button.

We don’t want to record Spatial Video memories like this… (Image credit: Apple)

The iPhone 15 Pro solves both of these issues. While recording spatial video on your iPhone you can still be present in the moment and experience it for real as it happens – not just through a recording – and you’ll almost always have your phone on you to be able to capture memories as they happen.

The feature won’t be live when the new iPhones launch, but Apple noted that Spatial Video recording would be coming in the near future (we expect it will arrive before or just as the Vision Pro releases).

More than USB-C charging changes

Another announcement from the iPhone 15 event is that Apple is launching an updated AirPods Pro 2 with a USB-C charging case – to match the USB-C charging port now used by the iPhone 15 models. Interestingly, this charging change isn’t the only upgrade coming in the refresh of Apple's noise-cancelling earbuds.

For a start, the revamped buds have a new IP54 dustproof and water-resistant label (the previous iteration just had an IPX4 rating, suggesting its dust resistance wasn’t tested). More importantly, just for Vision Pro users, these earbuds will support a “groundbreaking wireless audio protocol” that unlocks 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio for the Apple headset. This means you can enjoy your Apple Vision Pro experiences in private and with high-end audio (higher quality than you can get from your AirPods Pro connected to even the latest iPhones) by slipping in a pair of USB-C AirPods Pro 2.

AirPods Pro 2 in their case which is open in front of a white box with an Apple logo on it

(Image credit: unsplash)

Weirdly, this upgrade seems to be exclusive to the new AirPods. Older AirPods Pro 2 charged via a Lightning cable don’t seem to offer this high-end audio quality with the Vision Pro. So if you only recently bought a pair of AirPods Pro 2 you might want to return them and pick up the USB-C model instead when the new model releases on September 22, if the Vision Pro is something you're remotely interested in.

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This iPhone app helps perfect your posture while you use your AirPods
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If you feel like you slouch your head too much while sitting at your desk, playing video games, or standing at the bus stop, an app for your iPhone could help with that, as long as you're wearing your AirPods.

PosturePal uses a motion-tracking feature in iOS 15 that can tell the position of your head as you're wearing AirPods and alerts you if your posture is bad.

Available on the App Store for free, with a one-off purchase to unlock all its features for $ 1.99 / £1.99 / AU$ 2.49, the design is fun and easy to use. You're greeted with a character that reacts to whether you're tilting your head correctly or not, and once you're done, you're given a score.

TechRadar spoke with developer Jordi Bruinabout how Posture Pal came to be, and its future plans to help more users with their head posture.

A chat with the developer

PosturePal Permissions

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Developing an app can take anywhere between a week and six months. But for Bruin, it was quite a bit shorter.

“I got the first version up and running in 10 minutes back in October last year,” Bruin reveals. “The API was very clear and I found some good sample code on GitHub, which allowed me to test out if the idea would be feasible.”

With PosturePal available to iOS users with an iPhone and AirPods, we asked if there were any challenges that may still need solving. “Since I only have access to AirPods Max at the moment, I am unable to test all the different supported headphones,” Bruin explains. “The problem with the regular AirPods and AirPods Pro is that a lot of people wear them in the wrong way. For example, by tilting them forward more than they should. I know how I want to fix it, but it’s a hard problem to test when I have to borrow AirPods from friends.”

The app can benefit your back, neck and shoulders from using it just once a day, due to its gentle nudging to make sure your head is straight. We wondered if Bruin was also feeling the benefits of PosturePal. “For me, the main thing that has helped is keeping posture more at the top of my mind. I don’t use the app on every work session [yet], but I want to.” Bruin continues. “I’m trying to make it even easier for myself to track my posture by adding stuff like Shortcuts support to automatically start a session when you connect your AirPods.”

PosturePal Pro and Icons

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Trying out the app on the train, we would experience the pings and vibrations from PosturePal, telling us to keep our heads up straight. We asked Bruin if there were plans to offer a push notification instead.

“Notifications are planned for an update that’s coming out soon. But currently, I’m trying to understand why people would prefer a notification instead of a (more subtle) sound through the AirPods they are already wearing.” Bruin explains. “That being said, we will probably add a simple notification option that we can experiment with and get feedback on.”

Widgets have been popular since they arrived in iOS 14 and iPadOS 15, but they're currently missing from PosturePal, which feels like an easy win. We asked Bruin whether they were coming. “Yes, definitely. We wanted to keep this first release small and focused on the user experience but you can expect a full history view, progress over time, widgets, and more.”

PosturePal Themes

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Bruin does see the app like a game, which you can tell from the cute giraffe and colorful user interface, so could leaderboards or multiplayer options to compete with friends and family be on the cards? “I’ve looked into Game Center Leaderboards, but since I have never built anything with that I did not want to go too far into the rabbit hole for the initial launch,” Bruin reveals. “Since the app keeps track of something you could consider ‘Health’ data, I am hesitant to put too much focus on sharing for now, but it’s definitely something to think about.”

Finally, the rumored Apple AR/VR headset could be a great fit with PosturePal in combination with the AirPods, so we asked Bruin if he thought the app would benefit from this peripheral when it's released. “I'd expect any future headset to have similar APIs to track head/eye movement in a similar way, so that would definitely be interesting to integrate if it gets to that point.”

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

This iPhone app helps perfect your posture while you use your AirPods
  • No Comments

If you feel like you slouch your head too much while sitting at your desk, playing video games, or standing at the bus stop, an app for your iPhone could help with that, as long as you're wearing your AirPods.

PosturePal uses a motion-tracking feature in iOS 15 that can tell the position of your head as you're wearing AirPods and alerts you if your posture is bad.

Available on the App Store for free, with a one-off purchase to unlock all its features for $ 1.99 / £1.99 / AU$ 2.49, the design is fun and easy to use. You're greeted with a character that reacts to whether you're tilting your head correctly or not, and once you're done, you're given a score.

TechRadar spoke with developer Jordi Bruinabout how Posture Pal came to be, and its future plans to help more users with their head posture.

A chat with the developer

PosturePal Permissions

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Developing an app can take anywhere between a week and six months. But for Bruin, it was quite a bit shorter.

“I got the first version up and running in 10 minutes back in October last year,” Bruin reveals. “The API was very clear and I found some good sample code on GitHub, which allowed me to test out if the idea would be feasible.”

With PosturePal available to iOS users with an iPhone and AirPods, we asked if there were any challenges that may still need solving. “Since I only have access to AirPods Max at the moment, I am unable to test all the different supported headphones,” Bruin explains. “The problem with the regular AirPods and AirPods Pro is that a lot of people wear them in the wrong way. For example, by tilting them forward more than they should. I know how I want to fix it, but it’s a hard problem to test when I have to borrow AirPods from friends.”

The app can benefit your back, neck and shoulders from using it just once a day, due to its gentle nudging to make sure your head is straight. We wondered if Bruin was also feeling the benefits of PosturePal. “For me, the main thing that has helped is keeping posture more at the top of my mind. I don’t use the app on every work session [yet], but I want to.” Bruin continues. “I’m trying to make it even easier for myself to track my posture by adding stuff like Shortcuts support to automatically start a session when you connect your AirPods.”

PosturePal Pro and Icons

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Trying out the app on the train, we would experience the pings and vibrations from PosturePal, telling us to keep our heads up straight. We asked Bruin if there were plans to offer a push notification instead.

“Notifications are planned for an update that’s coming out soon. But currently, I’m trying to understand why people would prefer a notification instead of a (more subtle) sound through the AirPods they are already wearing.” Bruin explains. “That being said, we will probably add a simple notification option that we can experiment with and get feedback on.”

Widgets have been popular since they arrived in iOS 14 and iPadOS 15, but they're currently missing from PosturePal, which feels like an easy win. We asked Bruin whether they were coming. “Yes, definitely. We wanted to keep this first release small and focused on the user experience but you can expect a full history view, progress over time, widgets, and more.”

PosturePal Themes

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Bruin does see the app like a game, which you can tell from the cute giraffe and colorful user interface, so could leaderboards or multiplayer options to compete with friends and family be on the cards? “I’ve looked into Game Center Leaderboards, but since I have never built anything with that I did not want to go too far into the rabbit hole for the initial launch,” Bruin reveals. “Since the app keeps track of something you could consider ‘Health’ data, I am hesitant to put too much focus on sharing for now, but it’s definitely something to think about.”

Finally, the rumored Apple AR/VR headset could be a great fit with PosturePal in combination with the AirPods, so we asked Bruin if he thought the app would benefit from this peripheral when it's released. “I'd expect any future headset to have similar APIs to track head/eye movement in a similar way, so that would definitely be interesting to integrate if it gets to that point.”

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More