Apple’s WWDC keynote has been and gone and while there was plenty to get excited about, for me personally, it was a bit of a damp squib when it came to audio announcements.
Jump over to my pre-event what to expect from WWDC 2023 guide and you’ll see there was plenty of buzz about potential upgrades to its AirPods hardware, as well as a wishlist of new audio quality improvements we wanted.
And to be clear, if we were a computing or gaming website I’d be much more positive and excited about the releases.
I’m not personally sure about Apple’s pitch to have the Vision Pro replace my TV - even if it can give you a “100ft viewing experience” - given my past experience reviewing Oculus and Vive headsets over the years. I’ll address why this is the case in a separate opinion piece.
It’s because the company was oh so quiet about any quality upgrades to its music and mainstream audio offerings. There were painfully few quality upgrades to be seen at the event. Hi-res audio on Apple TV? Nah. Lossless on the AirPods Pro Max? Not a whisper at the event.
Equally, while the AirPods got a cool new Adaptive Audio feature, which is basically a really clever ambient mode, what I really wanted was for it to showcase upgrades for its products' sound quality - like the ability for its top-of-the-line AirPods Pro Max over-ears to play proper lossless audio.
The fact Apple has not mentioned improving audio at all feels like a missed opportunity and one I really hope doesn’t repeat if it wants to retain its place as one of the leaders in the world of big-tech hi-fi.
