It was an odd fall keynote for Apple. As expected, revisions of the iPhone and Apple Watch took the spotlight, but there were relatively few surprises overall, many of the details having leaked ahe…
It’s odd they bumped the AirPods Pro to “2.5” and didn’t mention it at all. Would have been a natural follow on from the USB-C segment of the iPhone announcement.
I think lossless being exclusive to the Vision Pro along with the iPhone 15 being new and not supporting it puts them in an awkward position when announcing it. Just a theory. And I’m just assuming based on the note shown in the article that the Vision Pro will be the only lossless device for awhile.
I assume future Apple products post Vision pro will also get lossless. But why the iPhone 15 didn’t… who knows.
Qualcomm’s aptX is the only lossless Bluetooth codec out there. Apple will have to deal with their licensing to get lossless support across their devices and that means a boatload of cash has to transfer hands so Apple will likely be judicial in what devices support it.
They can’t. Not now anyway as clearly stated in the article they have licensed aptX. Patents and whatnot likely won’t let them push their own for a couple of years. I’m surprised Apple doesn’t develop their own alternative to BT. They always complain it’s the biggest bottleneck in getting high quality anything over the air.
“AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with MagSafe Charging Case (USB‑C) will enable Lossless Audio with ultra-low latency to deliver the perfect true wireless solution with Apple Vision Pro.2 The H2 chip in the latest AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro, combined with a groundbreaking wireless audio protocol, unlocks powerful 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio with a massive reduction in audio latency.”
“Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. today continued to demonstrate its vision and leadership in the wireless audio space with the introduction of Qualcomm® aptX™ Lossless audio technology to its already extensive audio portfolio. aptX Lossless is a new capability of the proven aptX Adaptive technology and a new feature of Snapdragon Sound™ Technology that is designed to deliver CD quality 16-bit 44.1kHz lossless audio quality over Bluetooth® wireless technology.”
Unless the contract they signed says otherwise, there’s nothing stopping you from swapping out bits and pieces even when you have a license for a collection of patents like for bluetooth components. Sony does it!
So what? Qualcomm owns the Qualcomm codec patent. Old news.
However, Bluetooth explicitly allows you to add support for custom codecs on both ends, so Apple can ignore the existence of the Qualcomm codec and use their own.
Sony is literally already doing that in both their smartphones and headphones with LDAC
It’s odd they bumped the AirPods Pro to “2.5” and didn’t mention it at all. Would have been a natural follow on from the USB-C segment of the iPhone announcement.
I think lossless being exclusive to the Vision Pro along with the iPhone 15 being new and not supporting it puts them in an awkward position when announcing it. Just a theory. And I’m just assuming based on the note shown in the article that the Vision Pro will be the only lossless device for awhile.
I assume future Apple products post Vision pro will also get lossless. But why the iPhone 15 didn’t… who knows.
Qualcomm’s aptX is the only lossless Bluetooth codec out there. Apple will have to deal with their licensing to get lossless support across their devices and that means a boatload of cash has to transfer hands so Apple will likely be judicial in what devices support it.
You think Apple isn’t using their own codec? I always assumed AirPods used their own stuff when using an Apple device with them.
They can’t. Not now anyway as clearly stated in the article they have licensed aptX. Patents and whatnot likely won’t let them push their own for a couple of years. I’m surprised Apple doesn’t develop their own alternative to BT. They always complain it’s the biggest bottleneck in getting high quality anything over the air.
I’m missing where it says something about it in the article.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-airpods-pro-gen-2-usb-c-wireless-lossless-audio/
DT cite that Apple has indeed licensed aptX from Qualcomm. Likely because they literally had no other choice.
It’s going to be a patent thing as most software is these days.
That makes sense. I had never run across it.
The link says no such thing, it only says nobody else is marketing another such algorithm, yet.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/09/apple-upgrades-airpods-pro-2nd-generation-with-usb-c-charging/
“AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with MagSafe Charging Case (USB‑C) will enable Lossless Audio with ultra-low latency to deliver the perfect true wireless solution with Apple Vision Pro.2 The H2 chip in the latest AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro, combined with a groundbreaking wireless audio protocol, unlocks powerful 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio with a massive reduction in audio latency.”
https://www.whathifi.com/advice/aptx-lossless-what-is-the-breakthrough-bluetooth-codec-how-can-you-get-it
“Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. today continued to demonstrate its vision and leadership in the wireless audio space with the introduction of Qualcomm® aptX™ Lossless audio technology to its already extensive audio portfolio. aptX Lossless is a new capability of the proven aptX Adaptive technology and a new feature of Snapdragon Sound™ Technology that is designed to deliver CD quality 16-bit 44.1kHz lossless audio quality over Bluetooth® wireless technology.”
The descriptions do not match
Unless the contract they signed says otherwise, there’s nothing stopping you from swapping out bits and pieces even when you have a license for a collection of patents like for bluetooth components. Sony does it!
It has nothing to do with hardware. It’s a codec. That Qualcomm owns.
So what? Qualcomm owns the Qualcomm codec patent. Old news.
However, Bluetooth explicitly allows you to add support for custom codecs on both ends, so Apple can ignore the existence of the Qualcomm codec and use their own.
Sony is literally already doing that in both their smartphones and headphones with LDAC
Apple has AAC
Not how patents work. Clearly if Apple didn’t need Qualcomm, they couldn’t have signed the deal.
Old news is news.