What we know about Apple’s new H1 AirPod chip
While the new
AirPods look exactly like the previous models – little white spikes that
dangle out your ears -- they bring useful enhancements: 50 percent more
talk time, support for hands-free Siri, faster device syncs, better
sounding music playback, power management improvements – and just about
all of these improvements depend on Apple’s new H1 chip. programmable voice chip
The W1 processor used in the last generation of AirPods handling wireless connectivity. The H1 chip adds a range of other abilities focused on use in headphones.
That’s a big hint that the company plans to diversify its headset line-up, for example with the introduction of over ear headphones.
It’s also common sense, given the company also
manufacturers the popular Beats range of headphones – and may hint at
other products containing wireless audio playback in future.Apple’s
silicon development team is developing a rapidly growing range of
processors all across the company’s product ecosystem: The A-series
speedy mobile processors, the T2 chip inside Macs, the W-series chip,
the S-series storage processors, Face ID chips, neural engines, health
sensors, eSIM, graphics processors – even the incredible audio chip
inside HomePods was developed by Apple.
The company continues to
invest in processor development, particularly (though not exclusively)
around Augmented Reality and machine learning -- in each case it strives
to create advantages in processor development competitors cannot match.
n real terms, this means that when you pick up a call using AirPods you’ll connect to the call faster. It also means sync is faster when you switch between different Apple devices as audio source – such as when switching from an iPhone to an Apple Watch when jogging.
Apple says the new AirPods sync up to 2x faster when switching between active devices and provide 1.5x faster connection time for phone calls.
