Apple working on slew of AirPods Pro upgrades, including new hearing health and body-temperature features
Apple is working on a slew of upgrades for its AirPods Pro, including new hearing health and body-temperature features, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
In this week’s edition of his weekly Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple is preparing to give the earbuds a fresh boost, with the iPhone maker said to be working on a new hearing test feature, which would play different tones and sounds to allow the AirPods to determine how well a user can hear.
Gurman says “There’s also engineering work being done on adding sensors to the AirPods so they can determine body temperature via a wearer’s ear canal. That type of data is considered more accurate than wrist temperature, which is collected on the Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra models while users sleep. Apple relies on that information for fertility tracking but wants to expand its use to determine if a person has, say, a cold or other illness.”
While the health features are likely several months or even years away, there will be other changes sooner. Gurman says as part of the iPhone 15’s shift from Lightning to a USB-C port, Apple is planning to make the same switch on the AirPods Pro’s charging case, saying Apple also has plans to move to USB-C on future generations of its other audio products.