Looming AirPods Max Update Reminds Accessibility Applies to hardware too
Apple on Monday made a surprise product announcement: the Cupertino-based company shared on its Newsroom website that, come iOS 18.4 next month, AirPods Max will gain support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio. In a corresponding move, the company today also announced the USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable. Apple notes the new $39 (!) accessory is capable of “[connecting] AirPods Max to 3.5 mm audio sources like the audio-out port on an airplane,” as well as connecting iOS and iPadOS devices to 3.5mm audio ports such as car stereos and other types of speakers.
With the forthcoming iOS 18.4 update, Apple boasts AirPods Max “will become the only headphones that enable musicians to both create and mix in Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking.” The company adds AirPods Max will also provide “the ultimate listening experience and even greater performance for music production.” At a technical level, iOS 18.4 will enable “24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio,” specifications which Apple says are key to “preserving the integrity of original recordings and allowing listeners to experience music the way the artist created it in the studio.” More than 100 million songs on Apple Music support high-fidelity, lossless audio, according to Apple.
Apple’s SVP of product marketing Greg Joswiak called it “the ultimate audio upgrade.”
As Jason Snell observes, the soon-to-come updates make for welcome news for AirPods Max users—although it’s somewhat perplexing why this stuff couldn’t have been announced months ago. Whatever Apple’s rationale for the delay, the reason I’m covering the ostensibly esoteric and unrelated bit of AirPods Max news is because it dawned on me while reading Apple’s announcement that I’ve never written about them in an accessibility context. I’ve mentioned having used them tangentially, but never have I expounded more fully on their accessibleness to me as a disabled person.
For starters, AirPods Max are heavy. John Gruber titled his 2020 review of the original perfectly when he said heavy is the head that wears AirPods Max. He was also spot-on when he wrote AirPods Max are “indisputably nice.” I got a blue pair of the Lightning version as a birthday gift a few years ago, and I wholly concur with my friend Gruber that AirPods Max are both heavy and super nice. I’ve mainly used them on my desk to listen to music and podcasts when my partner is home and I don’t want to disturb her. They’re also useful for putting on instrumental music for when I need to hunker down and be productive. (A current favorite for this is Linkin Park’s Papercuts greatest hits anthology.) Beyond that, however, I don’t travel with my AirPods Max; they’re simply too heavy and I’m not fond of the carrying case. By contrast, on Amazon’s Prime Day last summer, I snagged a pair of the Beats Studio Pro (in white) and was immediately impressed. To my ears, audio quality seems on par with AirPods Max. It’s hard to fathom, though, the same company that designed the AirPods Max “case” owns the brand that made a case for the Studio Pro that’s truly superior in every possible respect.
As a pair of headphones, AirPods Max are terrific. The sound is incredible.
I never bothered to swap my Lightning model for USB-C last fall because, aside from some new colors and a new connector, what I have on my desk right now is essentially the exact same thing. What’s more, from an accessibility standpoint, going from Lightning to USB-C is mostly a lateral move. For my lackluster hand-eye coordination—thanks to low vision and partial paralysis in my hands due to cerebral palsy—I’d merely be trading one inaccessible port for another. Although there is a cogent argument to be made that having one’s devices all using the same connector is more accessible from a cognitive perspective, where that falls off the rails is if you have multiple disabilities as I do. It would be more accessible to have my iPhone, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max use USB-C—certainly more convenient too. But those benefits extend only so far if, as a practical matter, I struggle to plug the cable into the port. This is an issue I’ve written about innumerable times before: to be crystal clear, I can plug things in… just not without a good degree of friction and a grand degree of expletives while I’m doing it. As I’ve often said, the win is not merely to put USB-C in all the things, as the tech media likes to espouse. That isn’t innovative. What would be true innovation is, in Apple’s case, the company using its engineering prowess to somehow fuse MagSafe with USB-C. That the port is supposed to be an open standard and universal is (mostly) immaterial for accessibility purposes. As someone who’s predominantly an Apple user, I’d rather take the company’s proprietary spin on USB-C technology if it means AirPods Max end up being more usable by me. The salient point is simply that—surprise, surprise!—not everyone has the ability to plug things in so mundanely. A magnetic USB-C port surely would go a long way in shaping an even better user experience for myself (and others).
As ever, it’s the seemingly little things that make the biggest difference for disabled people. It’s why robust reporting on disability and technology matters so very much.
