I finally get my white whale skill music upgrade in iOS 16 – but we are still waiting for the obvious AirPods upgrade that we all want
- Advertisement -
I feel strange. For years now – and I mean year – I have argued Apple Music to have a kind of car DJ function that can beat your songs in a playlist. This was my most recent excuse to harbor about it.
For the first time I heard of these kinds of functions in DJ apps long, long ago (I think the Djay of Algoriddim was the first I was aware of, but things are going on then foggy), and I heard about the potential for Machine-Learning algorithms (you know, the things that we now call universally ‘Ai’ om marketing reass.
At present, Apple became heavily in machine learning, and promised to use things on your locking screen and to manage your battery use. So I claimed that this would be a very cool function to have Apple Music – much better than a boring old crossfade between songs on your playlist.
Now, at the time, Apple did not even offer a crossfade … It added that only two years ago in iOS 17, and Last year we received a ‘Smart Crossfade’ in iOS 18. But in iOS 26 (Apple has been switched to naming per year, instead of the version), I finally have my breakthrough.
As one of the many new functions of Apple Music in iOS 26, Apple has announced ‘Automotix’, that is precisely What I always wanted. Apple says: “Automix uses intelligence to transfer from one number to the next, such as a DJ, using time racks and beating matching to seamlessly go from one song to the next.”
I have always put together my playlists to flow fairly nicely from one song to another, try to retain both variety and coherence. What I have always wanted is the phone to take that to the next level (because I am No DJ), and now it is as if a long smashed splinter has been removed. I finally get what I want; I don’t know how to feel.
Oh, wait, yes, I do: frustrated that AirPods still have no bluetooth connection of higher quality in one way or another.
Bluetooth
The only crust that I have chosen as consistently as the AI DJ Excuser me, automix-is the fact that AirPods only support AAC-quality Bluetooth-Audio, although it is the year of our Hi-Res Audio Lord 2025. Here I complain about it in 2022And that is only when I started talking about it for the first time On TechRadar.
Apple Music supports beautiful loss -free audio, but AirPods still support nothing but in essence the minimum of sound quality (okay, SBC is literally the minimum, but this is really a step higher).
In fact, that is not entirely true – the AirPods Pro 2 With USB-C, Audio can be used with a higher reservation for use with the Apple Vision ProSo that’s nice for those few thousand people. The New AirPods Max with USB-C also supports Wired Hi-Res AudioBut that also applies to something with a 3.5 mm connection, so I am talking about wireless here.
Fun fact: I bought my first Apple product in 2006, and it was a MacBook Pro that supported APTX! Of course I do not expect Apple APTX to support – that system is owned by Qualcomm, and I am not a maniak – but the world has continued in terms of which wireless audio codecs are available to us.
For example, take Bluetooth Le Audio and the LC3 codec that drives it. This is a new wireless music coder that is adaptive, so if you have a strong connection with your phone, it can really offer music streaming with high resolution if you are far away or there is a lot of interference, it can lower quality and yet retain consistent audio. And it can do this possible with the help of lower energy than older codecs, so that it can extend the battery life.
It is available as part of the spec for Bluetooth 5.2, which is supported by many models of the Best AirPodsas well as the Best iPhonesyears.
Apple has chosen not to support it, and it is currently taking me to distraction. It seems that there must be a good reason, although Apple did not reveal it. It seems that the company experimented with the use of the AirPods Max completely back in 2022But since then it has not gone anywhere.
Given how talented the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max are in music reproduction anyway, Apple may think that it is not necessary, but given that there is an open standard Apple, and the technology is already built into Apple’s products, perhaps we can be the jury members of that with an option to make a higher res bluetooth?
Anyway, with another WWDC Event disappeared without mention it, I expect that this will mean at least another year without this – unless Apple surprises us in the expected launch of AirPods Pro 3 Later this year.
I will currently use an Fiio BTR17 and Sennheiser HD600 for my Hi-Res sensation, and I have thanked a great time. It’s just not a very suitable solution.
Maybe you like it too …
- Advertisement -
