Testing MFi hearing aids

July 18, 2022

Our writer, Graham Bower, suffered severe hearing loss after being treated for cancer a few years ago.

Graham has to wear hearing aids, but as a dedicated iPhone user, he discovered that most of them don't play well with his phone.

One surprise it that AirPods paired with iPhone make for a decent pair of hearing aids in some circumstances.

Because the hearing aid industry is dominated by a monopoly-like collection of five big manufacturers, things haven't gotten much better or cheaper.

But Graham did manage to find a good-sounding pair that worked OK with his iPhone -- and it wasn't his AirPods.

-- Leander Kahney, EIC.

Imagine if Apple sold AirPods for $5,000, and they were so buggy they kept disconnecting from your iPhone. Sounds crazy, right? But that’s the reality faced by me and millions of other hearing aid users today. Apple offers a solution for hearing aids called Made for iPhone (MFi). This enables third-party hearing aids to work like regular AirPods. In hardware terms, there’s not much difference between them anyway these days. But while AirPods will set you back just $129, MFi hearing aids cost 30 times more, and they’re far less reliable. So, why did I just buy a pair? It’s complicated.

The iPhone 14 is reportedly already in the test production phase. That puts Apple’s next-gen smartphone on schedule to launch in September, as expected. But, in a separate report, an industry analyst warns that one version of the 2022 iPhone may be in short supply when it launches.

It looks like Humane’s upcoming iPhone-killer will be a laser-projection system after all, based on a cryptic teaser video. Humane is a San Francisco startup staffed with a glittering roster of ex-Apple talent, many of whom were instrumental in developing the original iPhone. The company hasn’t yet announced its first product, but patents hint Humane is working on a smart, screenless device that projects information onto the environment around the user.

When you spend a pretty penny on an iPhone 13 — OK, more like a thousand bucks, probably — you realize you better protect the dearly expensive gadget. Good thing SwitchEasy features all the accessories you need. You have your choice of cases, plus screen protectors and more. And best of all, for a week starting Thursday you can get 20% off all SwitchEasy iPhone 13 accessories in the Cult of Mac Store.

MacBook Pros powered by upgraded Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max chips could debut as early as this fall. The new chips would focus on delivering improved GPU performance. The upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro refresh is not expected to pack any other significant changes.

Amazon discounts the iPad mini 6 with cellular connectivity to its lowest-ever price of $549.99. The deal is also available on the tablet’s 256GB variant, albeit in specific colors.

In the very near future, Apple Arcade will lose 15 games, according to a new App Store section labeled “Leaving Arcade Soon.” If you subscribe to Apple Arcade or think you might — it’s $4.99 a month — consider downloading these games before they disappear.

Two new spots showcase how iPhone 13 shrugs off water and how tough the Ceramic Shield front glass is.

You might think you’d give your right arm for one of those stunning, 49-inch curved ultra-wide monitors to use with your Mac. But then again, you might end up begging for your appendage back, as well as your old display. Or at least something a little less colossal.

Tweet o' the day

One more thing ...

"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. It's not the tools that you have faith in -- tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not." -- Steve Jobs

Reply

or to participate.