Technology

Apple’s new AirPods won’t have to be taken out of your ears as often, thanks to sophisticated AI

Published

2 years ago

September 18, 2023

admin

Kif Leswing/CNBC

Alongside new iPhones and Apple Watches, Apple is releasing a new version of its AirPods Pro this month.

The 2nd Generation AirPods Pro with USB-C — a mouthful of a model name — don’t have any radical hardware changes. Apple replaced the proprietary Lightning port with a USB-C charger to match the rest of its lineup.

But a slew of software features launching alongside the new AirPods significantly change how noise-canceling on the wireless buds works in practice, and will make it much easier for AirPods Pro users to leave their earbuds in all day while navigating cities or talking to co-workers.

Apple has given the new features various names — Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Personalized Volume — but taken together, and using the default settings on a review unit of the new $249 AirPods, the upshot is that the device uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to turn down music when in a conversation or allow necessary nearby sounds into the headphones.

Instead of taking out your AirPods or turning off noise-canceling entirely when you’re navigating a treacherous street or having a conversation with a co-worker, users can now leave in their AirPods and rely on Apple’s software to intelligently decide what the user needs to hear.

Overall, the improvements are subtle but nice. They’re not a reason to upgrade AirPods if you have an older pair that’s working perfectly, but they are worth reaching for if you are getting new wireless headphones and know you don’t like to be constantly taking them in and out.

However, from a technological perspective, the new AirPods are exciting. Apple is using cutting-edge technology and its own customized chips to filter the world of sound through Apple’s hardware, and to augment or mute individual sounds to make your daily experience better, all powered by AI. Apple’s headphones are going far beyond the simple on-or-off noise-canceling features on competing devices.

The concept is not that far away from the “spatial computing” Apple introduced with the Vision Pro VR headset, which uses machine learning to integrate the real and computer worlds. Apple calls the AirPods a “wearable,” and reports it in the same revenue category as its Apple Watch. With its new adaptive features, the AirPods are more wearable than ever, and continue to be one of the company’s most intriguing product lines in terms of a look at the future of computing, even if they don’t get the same attention as the iPhone.

How it worked

While the adaptive technology isn’t quite seamless yet, it is a nice improvement over the blunter, muffling noise-cancellation setting that used to be the default on AirPods Pro. And it’s not only limited to the latest hardware — anyone with “second generation” AirPods Pro introduced last September can download software updates for their headphones and iPhone to enable them.

The new Adaptive mode ultimately blends chaotic street noise with the artificial quiet of active noise cancellation. Apple frames Adaptive Audio as a safety feature, so users don’t miss honks or disturbances when walking around cities. It’s subtle. You definitely feel like you’re still in a cocoon of quiet, but you don’t feel as if the whole world is muffled around you.

There’s a little chime when users turn it on, either through the Settings app when the earbuds are connected or through a shortcut by long-pressing the iPhone’s volume button in the Control Center.

Screenshot/CNBC

In practice, Adaptive Audio wasn’t perfect, but it’s an improvement over active noise canceling, which can be very isolating, and Apple’s transparency mode, which often amplifies extraneous noise (like the AirPods case clicking against car keys in my pocket). If I were to walk around cities, which I try to avoid for safety reasons, I would use Apple’s Adaptive mode.

But Bay Area BART station announcements made over a central speaker were still muffled, especially when I was listening to music, and that’s the sort of information I would like to hear. I still needed to turn off the headphones or take them out if I wanted to understand what they were saying, such as which train was coming into the station.

When walking in a dog park separated from a highway by a sound wall, Adaptive Audio let in more highway noise than active-cancellation mode, which wasn’t optimal. Later, when another person in the park was arguing about something and making a scene, I didn’t catch it by hearing it in Adaptive mode — I saw the dispute first. While many people use noise-canceling headphones to zone out those kind of disturbances, from a safety perspective, that’s something urban dwellers should be aware of in their vicinity.

Another key scenario for noise-canceling headphones is in the workplace, where workers who are headed back to the office are increasingly using them to try to simulate home office-like privacy or signal to co-workers they can’t talk.

It’s here where the Conversation Awareness feature will shine, allowing office grinders to hold quick conversations without taking out their AirPods. The feature effectively turns down your music or audio when it senses you’re taking part in a conversation. Instead of fumbling in settings to turn noise-canceling off or turn off the music, or taking the earbuds out of your ears, the software does it for you, and even amplifies the conversation a little bit.

When it works, it’s great. I had a couple conversations with my wife with the AirPods in and Conversation Awareness on. We spoke as if I didn’t have $250 of technology in my ears, and when I went back to doing what I was doing before, the volume of my music automatically went back to normal levels.

But there’s one big catch to Conversation Awareness — it doesn’t engage when someone talks to you, it only starts when you open your mouth and say something. So I found myself missing the first thing that was said in several conversations, such as when a neighbor greeted me, or what the cashier said when I approached my favorite taco truck.

At the taco truck, I found myself regretting not taking out the AirPods. I did feel like I missed a little bit of context in the short exchange, and felt rude for keeping in my headphones. I heard and understood the key bits, such as the total price, but I did not feel it was the same real-time conversation as if I was just speaking without headphones.

Also, Conversation Awareness did not turn down my music five minutes later when the cashier called out my order for pickup. Ultimately, my order was wrong too, probably because I was distracted. But it’s easy to see how people will use the feature to order a cold brew without pausing their music.

There are other little quirks, too. I like to sing along to music when I’m alone. With Conversation Awareness on, the music gets turned down, leaving you to hear your own flat singing. Once, when I was working at my computer, I laughed, and the AirPods algorithm thought I was trying to speak. I also never realized how much I mutter to myself when I’m writing.

Personalized Volume uses machine learning to adjust the overall audio level, taking into account your historical preferences — for me, louder than is healthy — and the exterior noise. I only noticed it once, when it turned down the volume after I had jacked it up.

Taking all this into account, the new AirPods features might not be a reason to rush out and get the latest model, but they clearly show that Apple’s headphones are evolving to become something more sophisticated than small speakers.

Technology

Once a $40 billion fintech darling, Checkout.com is now valued at $12 billion

Published

4 hours ago

September 26, 2025

admin

Once a billion fintech darling, Checkout.com is now valued at billion

Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and founder of payment platform Checkout.com, speaking at the annual Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

Horacio Villalobos | Getty Images

LONDON — Fintech unicorn Checkout.com is giving staff a way of cashing in their shares: buying them out.

The London-headquartered payments platform said Friday that it plans to launch a share buyback initiative for employees to “provide them with a path to liquidity.”

The share buyback program is based on a new internal valuation of $12 billion, Checkout.com said. Although internal, the valuation marks a significant drop from its last fundraising round — Checkout.com was valued at $40 billion in a $1 billion funding round in 2022.

The company previously lowered its internal valuation to $11 billion in 2022, and then again to $9.35 billion in 2023. Checkout.com says it regularly monitors the value for its employees in its share incentive program.

The fintech competes with payment service providers such as Stripe, Adyen and PayPal. The company processes billions of dollars in transactions every year for the likes of eBay, IKEA and Sainsbury’s.

Such share sales have proven an increasingly popular way for startups to offer longtime employees and other investors liquidity, particularly as tech companies stay private for longer amid a multi-year decline in initial public offerings.

Checkout.com says it is now on track to exceed a target of 30% core net revenue growth this year and is forecasting $300 billion in annual e-commerce payment volume.

“We are relentlessly focused on growth and innovation, particularly with the impact of AI and the expected rise of agentic commerce,” said Guillaume Pousaz, the company’s CEO and founder, in a press release.

Several other private fintechs have opted to allow employees to sell shares in recent months.

In February, Stripe announced a tender offer allowing early investors and employees to sell shares at a valuation of $91.5 billion. Revolut, meanwhile, earlier this month offered staff the chance to sell shares on the secondary market at a $75 billion valuation.

WATCH: CNBC and Statista name the top UK fintechs of 2025

Technology

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center director Joseph Pelfrey resigns

Published

12 hours ago

September 25, 2025

admin

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center director Joseph Pelfrey resigns

A crane towers above the mobile launcher 2 adjacent the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, July 22, 2025.

Richard Tribou | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

The director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Joseph Pelfrey, announced his resignation from the role on Thursday, CNBC confirmed.

Pelfrey said in an email to employees at the space agency that as NASA focuses on its mission to return humans to the moon, it will be “important for agency leadership to move forward with a team they choose to execute the tasks at hand.”

The email also said Pelfrey would work with NASA leaders to “pursue new ways” to “serve our space program and our great nation.” Pelfrey wasn’t immediately available to comment.

NASA confirmed Pelfrey’s resignation and said in an email to CNBC that the agency is proceeding “with a public, open competition to find the next permanent director at one of the agency’s most important centers for human spaceflight.”

At Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, Pelfrey oversaw “7,000 onsite and near-site civil service and contractor employees,” and “an annual budget of approximately $5 billion,” according to a NASA web page describing his responsibilities. The space center now employs over 6,000 people, according to the center’s official government website.

Pelfrey had planned an all-hands conference with Marshall employees this week that was canceled, said agency staffers, who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive matters. They said Pelfrey’s resignation came as a surprise.

The White House’s 2026 budget request, which has not yet been enacted into law, includes funding for the space agency. However, NASA’s resources have declined amid Trump administration budget cuts.

About 4,000 NASA employees left through a deferred resignation program offered by the agency, and others were let go through cuts initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort that was led by Elon Musk during his days with the Trump administration.

The administration also defunded and compelled the closure of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which was housed in a building owned by Columbia University in New York.

WATCH: Why the U.S. and SpaceX need each other

Technology

Tesla’s continuing sales slump in Europe weighs on stock price

Published

13 hours ago

September 25, 2025

admin

Tesla's continuing sales slump in Europe weighs on stock price

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Tesla shares fell more than 4% on Thursday after data out of Europe showed a continuing sales slump for the automaker, despite strong demand for fully electric vehicles in the region.

Tesla EV registrations in Europe, a proxy for sales, fell by about 23% year-over-year in August, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) on Thursday.

There were 14,831 Tesla EV registrations in Europe last month, down from 19,136 in August 2024. In the first eight months of this year, Tesla EV registrations in Europe declined 32.6%, the ACEA said.

Meanwhile, total EV registrations throughout the region rose by around 26% through August compared to the same period in 2024. By contrast, registrations for petrol and diesel-powered vehicles declined by more than 20% over that stretch.

Still, RBC analysts wrote in a note on Thursday that they expect Tesla’s total deliveries for the third quarter could amount to 456,000, above a FactSet-compiled consensus of 448,000 deliveries and a Visible Alpha consensus of 440,000 deliveries.

The analysts expect a bump for Tesla as consumers rush to buy EVs in the U.S. before a $7,500 federal tax credit expires at the end of September.

Even with Thursday’s slide, Tesla’s stock has bounced back following a brutal start to the year. It’s now up 5% in 2025 after plunging 36% in the first quarter.

Musk’s political activism in the U.S. and beyond has hurt the Tesla brand and dampened its appeal to many prospective EV buyers.

Earlier this year, Musk endorsed Germany’s far-right AfD party, and this month he appeared by video at an anti-immigrant rally in the U.K. that turned violent. The rally was led by activist Tommy Robinson, a convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rebuked Musk for “dangerous” comments that he made at the rally, where 26 police officers were injured. Musk told attendees, “violence is coming to you” and “you either fight back or you die.”

To revitalize interest in the brand, Tesla has said an affordable new model is in the works, which could help it fend off increased competition from the likes of Volkswagen, BYD and other EV makers that have been picking up market share.

WATCH: CFRA downgrades Tesla