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I was confused by this too. I've been wearing hearing aids all my life, and my latest pair (bought in 2014) was always able to connect to my iPhone via bluetoot

I was confused by this too. I've been wearing hearing aids all my life, and my latest pair (bought in 2014) was always able to connect to my iPhone via bluetooth. How is this new "Bluetooth LE Audio" different from what we have today? It would be nice if I could connect my hearing aids to my computer and listen to skype calls, music, youtube, etc. But so far I've only been able to connect to iOS and Android devices. Maybe this change will fix that?

deleted 7y ago
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mentat 7y ago
iPhone uses a non-standard setup, probably with special hardware support for using magnetic for actual audio. There was a Defcon talk about the magnetic part, will see if I can find it.
shakna 7y ago
> How is this new "Bluetooth LE Audio" different from what we have today? The new audio codec should be of a much higher quality, though it does match what some proprietary systems have already been doing. Not just "quality" improvements, but the tinny aftertones and so on should just about vanish in all circumstances. Normalisation will work better. It'll be easier to pick out voices in a crowd, etc. BLE should be much lower latency. Potentially anywhere between half and a third. Which should be a huge quality-of-life improvement for those using bluetooth hearing aids. BLE is _somewhat_ simpler, and has decent adoption throughout the software industry. So connecting to Windows, macOS, Linux should be possible. (The Linux story is complicated by the new audio codec - its nonfree and patent encumbered). If they've done their job right, you'll be able to connect your hearing aids like any other output device, with a quick and simple pair from whatever Bluetooth menu. However, BLE is also known for more frequent dropouts related to battery usage spikes. Not directly because of the spec. Because the people implementing it have done a worse job thus far. If that remains the case, then it is fairly useless as a hearing aid tool.

deleted 7y ago

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mentat 7y ago

iPhone uses a non-standard setup, probably with special hardware support for using magnetic for actual audio. There was a Defcon talk about the magnetic part, will see if I can find it.

shakna 7y ago

> How is this new "Bluetooth LE Audio" different from what we have today? The new audio codec should be of a much higher quality, though it does match what some proprietary systems have already been doing. Not just "quality" improvements, but the tinny aftertones and so on should just about vanish in all circumstances. Normalisation will work better. It'll be easier to pick out voices in a crowd, etc. BLE should be much lower latency. Potentially anywhere between half and a third. Which should be a huge quality-of-life improvement for those using bluetooth hearing aids. BLE is _somewhat_ simpler, and has decent adoption throughout the software industry. So connecting to Windows, macOS, Linux should be possible. (The Linux story is complicated by the new audio codec - its nonfree and patent encumbered). If they've done their job right, you'll be able to connect your hearing aids like any other output device, with a quick and simple pair from whatever Bluetooth menu. However, BLE is also known for more frequent dropouts related to battery usage spikes. Not directly because of the spec. Because the people implementing it have done a worse job thus far. If that remains the case, then it is fairly useless as a hearing aid tool.