Winners and Losers: AirPods become hearing aids as Nintendo dodges another Switch 2 announcement

It’s November, meaning we’ve officially entered the month of Black Friday and the deals are already flowing. 

Of course, discounted tech isn’t the only thing on our mind, as Apple announced a series of updates to its Mac line, OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 13 in China and Microsoft confirmed that its AI-based Recall feature was delayed – again. 

Scroll down to discover who we named our winner and loser this week. 

Winner: Apple 

It’s been a busy week for Apple. 

Between the highly-anticipated Apple Intelligence rollout, new Apple Silicon chips and major updates to the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Mini lines, you’d be forgiven for sleeping on one of the most genuinely useful feature updates to come to the AirPods: the AirPods Pro 2 can now double as hearing aids. 

As of a software update that rolled out this week, the AirPods Pro support a new Hearing Test feature, Hearing Protection measures and the ability to use the earbuds in place of hearing aids in a pinch. 

The Hearing Test is essentially a hearing examination you can do from home to ascertain whether you have hearing loss. Using the AirPod’s ANC and in-ear seal to set the proper conditions, the Hearing Test plays a series of tones, prompting you to tap your phone screen when you hear them.

After five minutes, Apple will provide you with a custom profile detailing your level of hearing loss, along with advice on how to enhance the audio for media and calls or set up the Hearing Aid feature – if either is needed. 

It’s exciting to see Apple make hearing tests more accessible and even better to learn about the Hearing Aid feature, which works to boost frequencies with real-time adjustments to keep up with the sounds around you. 

This isn’t necessarily a new technology as transparency modes (which is essentially what this is) have been available on headphones for a while now. However, the feature is the first ‘over-the-counter’ hearing aid software to receive approval from the FDA, marking a significant step forward in accessibility. 

Loser: Nintendo 

Our loser this week is Nintendo as the company continued to announce seemingly everything but the Nintendo Switch 2. 

It’s been seven years since Nintendo introduced the Nintendo Switch and three since the company last graced us with a minor update to the console in the form of the Switch OLED. This has left many fans raring to meet the Nintendo Switch 2. 

Unfortunately for them, however, Nintendo seems to have decided to announce anything and everything else first. Just this month, that has included a $99.99 Nintendo-branded alarm clock and an entire music streaming service. 

The Nintendo Music app was released for iOS and Android this week, giving fans the ability to access tracks and playlists from their favourite Nintendo soundtracks on the go. This includes popular franchises like Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Animal Crossing and Metroid, as well as more niche ones. You can even block game spoilers, craft your own playlists and receive recommendations based on the games you’ve been playing as of late. 

While this is a nice novelty, it’s not exactly where we’d like Nintendo to be focussing its attention right now. Unfortunately, the Switch 2 isn’t expected to launch until early 2025 at this point, so we may just have a bit longer to wait.