A redesigned pair of AirPods Pro with lossless audio support is apparently in the works, with the ability to track and locate a new charging case via Apple’s Find My app.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The next AirPods Pro could launch sometime in the fourth quarter of 2022
- AirPods Pro 2 are predicted to come with a sound-emitting charging case
- The upcoming earbuds should also support Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Will the next AirPods Pro support lossless audio
No AirPods currently support Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC), a type of audio compression that preserves all of the original data. All AirPods and some Beats models use Apple’s AAC Bluetooth codec, a lossy form of audio compression. As clearly spelled out in a support document on Apple’s website, “Bluetooth connections aren’t lossless.”
That could change with an upcoming revision to the noise-canceling AirPods Pro earbuds which could gain support for lossless audio, according to a new research note by reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, seen by AppleInsider, 9to5Mac and MacRumors.
Bluetooth lacks the bandwidth and the reliability required to support lossless audio compression. But as we said before, if Apple is thinking seriously about streaming lossless audio encoded with ALAC, then the company will probably need to develop a proprietary solution at some point to overcome the annoying limitations of Bluetooth.
In fact, there’s nothing the company’s AirPods team would like better than “more bandwidth,” says Apple’s vice president of Acoustics, Gary Geaves. In an interview with What Hi-Fi, the engineer vaguely hinted that Apple might be working on its own wireless audio streaming technology. Apple could even use Qualcomm’s existing aptX lossless audio format created for use in high-performance Bluetooth peripherals and high-resolution headphones. Read: Troubleshooting tips for fixing Bluetooth issues on iPhone
“Hey Siri, find my AirPods Pro 2 charging case?”
Kuo also said that AirPods Pro 2 could come in a noise-emitting charging case to help you find it should you lose it via the Find My app. The analyst didn’t provide any details for context. It can be speculated pretty safely that such a charging case would let you play a sound via the Find My app. Currently, only the earbuds emit a sound.
The next AirPods Pro, therefore, could let you track the location of the charging case and each earbud separately. Kuo previously called for a pair of AirPods with integrated health-tracking sensors that would power all-new health and fitness features.