Apple May Add Twin Bluetooth Audio Connections to the iPhone
There’s an opportunity that Apple is considering the addition of twin Bluetooth connections to the iPhone, based on a rumor posted by Mac Otakara, and noticed by MacRumors. If true, the iPhone will be a part of a small however rising variety of smartphones which have this function, together with the Huawei P20 collection, and the Samsung Galaxy telephones beginning with the s8. Twin Bluetooth audio connections are doable below the Bluetooth 5.zero specification and allow two Bluetooth headphones (for instance) to obtain the identical audio concurrently.
The largest good thing about this association entails sharing music with a buddy. Those that go for runs or who exercise in pairs may recognize with the ability to take heed to the identical music, particularly if it’s coming from a streaming audio service like Spotify. Utilizing one telephone, you may save on the cellular knowledge wanted to stream the audio. It will even be good for sharing a film on a single display, as anybody who has needed to endure an extended automobile trip with their children will attest. If Apple certainly provides this function to new iPhones, it might be made backward suitable with the iPhone eight, iPhone X, and iPhone XS as these fashions are all Bluetooth 5.zero enabled.
Whereas useful, twin audio isn’t a solution to each state of affairs the place a number of Bluetooth audio system is perhaps fascinating. Attributable to inherent latency in some Bluetooth codecs, particularly Apple’s most popular AAC codec, operating two Bluetooth audio system from an iPhone may lead to noticeable audio sync issues. This won’t bug you if the audio system have been in numerous rooms, however it might be annoying for those who tried to take heed to each.
This can be a good segue into the Bluetooth change we’d really choose to see from Apple. Its ongoing refusal to assist any Bluetooth codecs apart from the bottom SBC codec and AAC, means iOS customers stay locked out of a real hi-fidelity wi-fi audio expertise. Neither of those codecs can protect the high-quality audio obtainable from codecs corresponding to lossless FLAC, or Tidal’s MQA, forcing audiophiles to search for different options like exterior wired DACs — a cumbersome approach to take pleasure in audio on the go. Twin Bluetooth audio connections are good to have, however Apple must lastly improve its whole music ecosystem — from Apple Music to iTunes, to the iPhone, to the wi-fi headphones from Beats — to be hi-res suitable. On the music aspect, meaning making tracks obtainable in lossless 24-bit codecs, and on the aspect, it means supporting top quality, low-latency Bluetooth codecs like aptX and aptX HD.
With Apple’s WWDC across the nook, we’ll quickly have a a lot better thought of which audio adjustments are coming to iOS and MacOS.