DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN TURN YOUR HEADPHONES INTO “MICROSPIES”? – THE AIRPODS, THE WIRELESS EARPHONES FROM APPLE, HAVE DIFFERENT “SECRET” FUNCTIONALITIES THAT CAN SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE – FROM THE “CONVERSATION BOOST”, WHICH TURNS THEM INTO DEVICES TO HELP PEOPLE WITH HEARING DISABILITIES, TO CANCELING THE FUNCTION EXTERIOR. BUT THERE IS ALSO THE POSSIBILITY TO SHARE YOUR MUSIC WITH FRIENDS AND RELATIVES AND …
A pair of AirPods, a thousand opportunities to use them. Apple’s earphones, which many have bought together with an iPhone model, are among the most requested on the market (and among the most loved). But how many of you know how to use them best, knowing the tricks of the trade to make the most of them? Here is a mini guide that will take you through the day, or maybe even your holidays. These are 10 tricks that will make you pass as a real “pro” among friends and family. A specification before starting: obviously these earphones can also be used with Android devices, but the winning combination is with Apple products.
Quick pairing of AirPods
Anyone who has an iPhone or other Bitten Apple device can quickly pair the headphones without having to go through the Bluetooth pairing process. All this thanks to the Apple ID, which shares your unique information on AirPods with all devices connected to your Apple registration. How to do it: go to Settings and make sure Bluetooth is on.
Then, with both AirPods inserted into the case, place it next to the device and press and hold the pairing button on the case. After a moment or two, a pop-up window will appear on your phone or tablet. Just choose Connect from the window and follow the last parts of the setup wizard to complete the pairing process.
For 1st and 2nd generation AirPods, commands such as play / pause, track skip, and to call Siri are initiated by tapping the sides of one or both earbuds. For AirPods 3 and Pro models, the touch controls are moved from the body to the stems. And with the AirPods Max, the commands are managed by one, two or three presses of the digital crown (a protruding knob on the right earpiece), as well as a long press command to call Siri.
To customize the touch controls, just access the settings and select Bluetooth. Then, just tap the icon (i) again next to the name of your AirPods. From here, select Left or Right to choose what you want to customize, then choose which command you want the AirPods to perform based on the number of taps you make.
Unfortunately, the only thing you can customize with AirPods Max is the scroll direction to adjust the volume. Still from the Settings and choosing Bluetooth, you must then select the icon (i) next to the name of the AirPods Max, choose Digital Crown and decide whether you want to use clockwise or counterclockwise orientation.
Thanks to the “Find” function (available for most Apple products), you can find the AirPods in case of disappearance (if they are connected, if not, you can see their last known location), the AirPods Pro or Max, even if your iPhone’s Bluetooth isn’t close enough to your AirPods. To make sure this feature is enabled, you need to go to Settings on your iOS device and select Bluetooth. Tap the (i) icon next to the name of your AirPods, then go to the bottom of the next page where you will see the Find option. If it’s off, just turn it on (and hope you never need it).
Conversation Boost is a feature available only for AirPods Pro, which combines the computational audio and microphones of the Pro to transform the earbuds into a powerful set of hearing aids. Designed to help people with hearing disabilities to better understand what is being said by their interlocutor, to activate it just enter the Settings and select Accessibility. Scrolling down to Audio / Video and choosing Headphone Accommodations. After activating the headphone accommodations, select Transparency mode at the bottom of the page and set to “On”.
Noise cancellation
For AirPods Pro users, you can switch between noise cancellation and transparency by pressing and holding the left or right AirPod stems. For Max owners, the noise canceling controls are relegated to the noise control button on the right earphone. To make these changes, you always switch to Bluetooth, icon (i) next to the name of the AirPods, then just select the left or right earphone and press and hold to customize the types of noise cancellation. For the Max, there is a special button.
Turn your AirPods into real spy bugs
The feature is called Live Listening and allows you to turn your Apple device into a sort of bug for audio collection.