It’s been over 4 years since Apple walked out on stage and revealed the original AirPods
while simultaneously removing the headphone jack from their iPhone, causing a huge wave
of upset customers, but little did they know that Apple would single-handedly change the
headphone world forever.
And it got even better when Apple released their AirPods Pro back in 2019 which were
so good that they’re still an excellent value over two years later.
And in 2020, AirPods were so popular that just AirPods sales alone made more revenue
than the entire Nvidia and AMD companies combined!
But now, it seems that Apple has finally hit a technological wall with their new AirPods
3, which according to Apple’s Vice president of acoustics, Gary Geaves, are built entirely
with custom-made components in the name of having the best possible sound quality.
But the big issue is that no amount of custom hardware can surpass the limitations of the
software, with Gary saying that Apple has been using a number of tricks to get around
some of the limits of Bluetooth, which the AirPods rely on.
So when WhatHiFi interviewed Gary and asked him if Bluetooth was holding back the AirPods,
he said quote.. “It’s fair to say that we would like more bandwidth and.. I’ll
stop right there. We would like more bandwidth.”
So in my opinion, Gary was about to reveal a huge secret about their future plans for
the AirPods that had to do with gaining access to more bandwidth.. But unfortunately for
us.. He stopped himself.
And if you’re wondering why Apple would want more bandwidth, it’s because they want
to change the world of wireless audio forever.. Again. Let me explain..
Just a couple of days ago, Apple finally achieved their goal of making their entire Apple Music
catalog available in Lossless.
And if you don’t already know what that is, it’s basically a form of compression
that preserves all of the original data within the audio file, essentially what the artist
intended their song to sound like.
So there’s no doubt that Apple put in a LOT of work to update every single song in
their Apple Music catalog with Lossless support, but there’s one major issue.
The hundreds of millions of AirPods that Apple has sold over the years, unfortunately, do
not support Lossless audio because Bluetooth doesn’t support high-bandwidth audio, so
if you want to listen to Lossless audio right now on your iPhone, you have to use the built-in
speakers or the 3.5mm headphone jack adapter with some other form of wired headphones.
So because of that major oof, combined with the fact that Apple has put in so much work
into Lossless audio along with Gary Geaves thoughts on needing more bandwidth on the
AirPods, I made a prediction late last year that Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 would come with
Lossless audio support at the end of 2022.
And then a couple of days later, Ming-chi Kuo came out and said the same exact thing,
but then adding that the AirPods Pro 2 will come with a new design and a sound-emitting
case in the 4th quarter of 2022, which I also agree with.
And if you think Lossless isn’t a big deal, I made a video 7 months ago detailing how
Apple just killed Tidal with their Lossless Apple Music because Apple is offering high-res
audio at no additional cost for as low as $5 a month for Students compared to Tidal’s
HiFi plan which used to cost $20 a month.
And because of that pressure to compete, Tidal dropped the price to $10 a month and is now
offering an ad-supported free tier, and it got even worse in December when Tidal offered
3 months of HiFi streaming for just $1, which to me, sounds like they’re getting HiFi
desperate.
So with all of that said, it’s time to get into how Apple can pull off Lossless audio
on their future AirPods devices and more.
Well, there is the option of adopting Qualcomm’s new aptX Lossless format which apparently
works over Bluetooth, but I think it makes sense for Apple to not have to rely on another
company that’ll likely charge royalty fees, and to me, it makes the most sense to completely
ditch Bluetooth and move over to a totally new standard for the future.
And in my opinion, that standard is gonna be ultra wide-band technology, thanks to a
tweet from Scoble on Twitter pointing to Apple replacing Bluetooth with Ultra-Wideband.
And if that sounds familiar, it should, because Apple has already been working with Ultrawideband
technology, like for example, enabling people to use their iPhones as their car keys, or
allowing people to hand music off to their HomePod just by bringing their iPhone up close
to it.
And the reason this works is that every iPhone since the iPhone 11 has come with an Apple
U1 ultra wideband chip built-in, as well as both the Apple Watch Series 6 and Series 7.
And over 2 years ago, a lot of people were questioning why the iPhone 11 got the U1 chip
because for a long time, it really didn’t do anything.
But I personally believe that Apple was already planning on replacing Bluetooth with ultrawideband
in the near future, so they gave their iPhones the U1 chip years early so that when the AirPods
Pro 2 with Lossless audio finally come out, the feature would be available to more people
at launch, not just people with brand new iPhones, which is genius!
So with that said, let me explain how Ultrawideband tech works and give you some proof for why
Apple would want to use it in the future.
Ultrawideband is extremely similar to Bluetooth, in that it’s a radio technology that creates
a data connection between two devices while using low power consumption, but the difference
is that it can transfer data at a much higher speed.
For example, Bluetooth has a maximum transfer speed of around 2 Megabits per second, vastly
less than the 9.2 megabits per second required for Apple’s Hi-Res Lossless audio, compared
to Ultrawideband which can hit a maximum of 675 Megabits per second.
And the reason for that is because Ultrawideband can utilize huge 500MHz-wide radio channels,
compared to Bluetooth’s 2MHz channels.
And the beauty of Ultrawideband is that it also lowers latency, which is probably the
most annoying thing about using Bluetooth.
Not only that but it suffers from less interference because it uses different bands, and apparently,
it’s even more energy-efficient than Bluetooth, which is a huge win for Apple.
And according to this chart, it also has much better security than Bluetooth, using a 32-bit
CRC.
I also found some very interesting details about ultrawideband within a document from
Memsen Corpotion, where they said that using UWB allows them to offer instant file-sharing
to their clients, while also having very low battery power consumption compared to bluetooth.
And even better, they said that UWB has an effective range of up to 25 meters compared
to only 10 using bluetooth.
So with that said, it seems like Ultrawideband is better in every single way, so the big
question is, why is nobody really using it yet?
Well, the big reason is that there’s a lack of existing infrastructure as well as a lack
of adoption, since basically every computer in the world is built to work with Bluetooth,
and almost all devices use Bluetooth as well, so there hasn’t been a very good reason
for anyone to switch to a new standard.
But Apple is in a very good position because they’re one of the only companies that create
both their own devices like iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods, while at the same time
creating custom chips inside of them, and creating their own software as well.
And since they’ve been putting their U1 Ultrawideband chip into every iPhone since
the iPhone 11, all they would have to do is release new AirPods with the same U1 chip
or an updated U2 chip, and then simply release new software to use it, and bam, a perfectly
working Ultrawideband ecosystem.
And what I mean by the ecosystem is that Apple can use it for Lossless Apple music with AirPods.
They can use it for high-speed Airdrop transfers without requiring WiFi. They can use it for
precise location tracking of missing AirPods or other devices. They can use it to hand
off music to a HomePod. They can use it as a car key for the future Apple car. They can
use it to enable a true smart home where your front door unlocks as you approach it, and
your lights and devices automatically turn on as you walk into each room in your house.
And all of that is just the beginning of what Apple can do with ultrawideband tech.
So with all of that said, let me wrap up with the proof that Apple is gonna move forward
with Ultrawideband tech for the future of AirPods, starting with the AirPods Pro 2 later
this year.
First off, the Vice President of Acoustics at Apple said they want more bandwidth than
Bluetooth can offer, with the main incentive being that Apple can enable Lossless Audio
support, which Ming-chi Kuo already said is coming this year with the AirPods Pro 2.
And the only realistic option is gonna be Ultrawidebanch because WiFi uses too much
power, and UWB actually uses less power than Bluetooth, while also having lower latency,
further effective range and much higher bandwidth.
And seeing as Apple has been packing their most popular devices like their iPhones and
Apple Watches with their U1 chip, the infrastructure is already set in stone and ready for Apple
to make the switch by releasing AirPods with the U1 chip built-in.
So in reality, all of the puzzle pieces line up, and if Apple succeeds, which I think they
will, then they’ll surely change the wireless audio world forever since the rest of the
market will follow in Apple’s footsteps and adopt Ultrawideband as the new standard
to replace bluetooth.
So there you guys go, hopefully you learned something new, and if you’re excited to
listen to Lossless audio with your AirPods later this year, comment your thoughts down
below and click that circle above to subscribe for more videos like this one! Thanks for
watching and we’ll see you in the next video!