Following the discharge of the first-ever Fast Safety Response replace, which introduced essential safety fixes to billions of gadgets working iOS/iPadOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1, Apple on Tuesday issued a firmware replace (5E135) to all AirPods fashions besides the unique earbuds from 2016. I’m prepared to guess that the majority AirPods aren’t even on the earlier firmware (5E133), not to mention this new one.
Though AirPods have been out since 2017, Apple nonetheless doesn’t have a correct option to replace its well-liked earbuds. Whereas each different machine has some form of a button that allows you to obtain and set up the replace, AirPods don’t. It’s important to a) know there’s an replace, b) plug them in inside vary of an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and c) watch for an indeterminate period of time.
Most individuals don’t know these steps and lots of most likely aren’t even conscious their AirPods have gotten an replace because the day they purchased them. I’m wondering how many individuals even know test which firmware their AirPods are on. (Go to the Settings app, faucet Bluetooth, then faucet the data button (“i”) subsequent to the title of your AirPods. Then on the subsequent display screen, scroll all the way down to the About part to seek out the firmware model.)
And it’s even worse should you don’t have an Apple machine. Customers on Home windows PCs or Android telephones can’t replace their AirPods even when they know they should. As a substitute, Apple tells them to move over to an Apple Retailer to get the most recent firmware, which they most likely wouldn’t even know was there within the first place. Granted, that’s most likely not a big pool of customers, however should you’re going to promote your product to individuals who don’t have an Apple machine, there ought to be a option to replace it with out making an appointment and driving to an Apple Retailer.
Updates to earbuds definitely aren’t as essential as these for an iPhone, Mac, or Watch, however they shouldn’t be a black gap both. AirPods updates aren’t all bug fixes and different enhancements—sometimes there are new options, reminiscent of Spatial Audio and Dialog Enhance, that must be added after buy. I’m wondering what number of AirPods Professional customers by no means even realized they acquired these new options as a result of Apple didn’t inform them.
With three fashions and a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of gadgets in use, Apple’s AirPods are not a distinct segment product—and so they’re definitely extra well-liked than the HomePod, which has a straightforward updating technique via the House app. Forward of iOS 17, Apple simply streamlined the method of putting in betas by tying them to Apple IDs and eliminating the arduous course of of putting in profiles. It’s about time Apple did the identical for AirPods updates.
