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Apple May Have Dropped Built-In Noise Cancellation On the iPhone 13 (engadget.com) 30

Apple's "Noise Cancellation" accessibility feature may have been permanently removed from the iPhone 13 series," according to Engadget, citing a report last week from 9to5Mac. The feature was designed to improve call quality by "[reducing] ambient noise on phone calls when you are holding the receiver to your ear." From the report: "Phone Noise Cancellation is not available on iPhone 13 models, which is why you do not see this option in [the Accessibility] settings," Apple support told one of 9to5Mac's readers. When the reader asked for clarification, the support team confirmed that the feature is "not supported." Questions about noise cancellation came up on Reddit and Apple support pages shortly after the phone went on sale, with readers noticing that it was no longer available on the Accessibility page. The feature is still available with iOS 15 on past iPhone models, but is nowhere to be found on the iPhone 13.
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Apple May Have Dropped Built-In Noise Cancellation On the iPhone 13

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  • by st33ld13hl ( 1238388 ) on Monday January 17, 2022 @08:05PM (#62182691)
    I wonder if there is a patent issue that cropped up and Apple has decided it is not willing to pay. Like Google removing the ability to control volume on wifi speakers recently, it seems like most back-pedaling of features are due to Patents.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @05:05AM (#62183535) Homepage Journal

      Odd that it only affects the iPhone 13 though. If it was a patent you would think it would affect older models.

      More likely there is a hardware problem with the iPhone 13. The noise cancellation works like headphones, there is a microphone that samples ambient sound and the phone produces a similar waveform but 180 degrees out of phase to cancel it. Only works extremely locally, when the microphone is right next to your ear.

      There is probably some issue with the microphone they use to do the noise cancelling.

      • MacWorld suggests the answer [macworld.com] is because iPhone 13 works so much better with earbuds. Can you say walled garden?

        It seems that something with the iPhone 13 prevents Apple from offering the feature on its newest phones. Apple offers a similar feature called Voice Isolation, but that’s strictly for FaceTime calls. For regular calls, you’ll have to get AirPods Pro if you want noise cancellation.

  • If the noise cancellatio was an important feature, people would have been able to do practical test comparing iPhone 12Pro and iPhone 13Pro. The fact that there is all this speculation but no practical test, means that the feature didn't make any difference to begin with.

    • If the noise cancellatio was an important feature, people would have been able to do practical test comparing iPhone 12Pro and iPhone 13Pro. The fact that there is all this speculation but no practical test, means that the feature didn't make any difference to begin with.

      How would most people perform a test? Buy both models and run tests? And even if these people had enough money to do that, how would we hear about these results?

      It may actually be that no one cares about noise cancellation, but the practical comparison test isn't so practical.

      Personally I do care for good noise cancellation and don't care for bad noise cancellation. But my noise cancellation usually comes via my earbuds. Maybe Apple figured out that most people don't care about noise cancellation when u

      • Noise cancellation is pretty important for being understood, if the environment is noisy.
        The person being called is the one noticing the difference. The person with the iPhone 13 will only notice if the other person complains.
        I am pretty surprised that this feature is missing in the iPhone 13 though. I thought most phones have this nowadays, also much cheaper ones.
    • 1) It’s an accessibility feature, so it may not be important to the general population, but for those who need it, it may be very important.

      2) We don’t need tests to confirm it is missing. The toggle to enable it is missing from Settings.

      3) All of this may be a bit moot, because the Voice Isolation accessibility feature remains available and performs a very similar function.

  • I've learned from previous headlines here that "drop" means to "publish" or "make available". Here it seems to mean "got rid of", which is what I thought it meant all along. Which is it?

    • Words can have more than one meaning. Sometimes they can even mean two or more conflicting things. To pick a couple of non-tech uses of "drop"...

      The phrase "dead drop" has been around for a long time, and is usually associated with espionage of some sort. It means to make something available to a specific person or group in a clandestine manner. But then there's also the "mic drop", which means to let go of ("get rid of") a microphone at some height above the floor.

    • by ebob9 ( 726509 )

      I've learned from previous headlines here that "drop" means to "publish" or "make available". Here it seems to mean "got rid of", which is what I thought it meant all along. Which is it?

      "Dropped" can mean both depending on context.

      In your example, when a feature has "dropped", that is meaning to release as in the phrase "Dropped off a package for delivery." In this case, there is a new item available (package) for someone (recipient.) In essence, a new item/feature was received.

      This article uses the other example of "dropped" feature usage. This means that something has fallen off the feature set. Keeping with the package analogy - the package was "dropped off the back of the truck and los

      • The additive meaning ("dropped a new feature", or "dropped the needle",) is a new addition to English. For hundreds of years, the default meaning of "dropped" meant letting go of ("I dropped the plate and it broke on the floor,") or losing something, ("It dropped off the Top 40 Billboard Chart this week.")

        English is morphing every day, breaking its own rules from my childhood English classes regularly.

    • by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      Is English not your first language? This is common usage of the term.

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        Obviously not. That's why he's asked the question. English isn't an easy language to learn. Word like 'drop' with multiple contradictory meanings can be very confusing.

    • Re:"Dropped"? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Monday January 17, 2022 @11:33PM (#62183157) Homepage Journal

      Oh boy are you going to have fun with the distinction between being shit, and being the shit.

    • by quenda ( 644621 )

      Welcome to English.

      25 Words That Are Their Own Opposites [mentalfloss.com]

      https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The "make available" meaning is relatively new, and seems to come from video games where enemies drop items that are useful to the player when killed.

    • The term "drop" in reference to publishing came from the music industry. They'd talk about a band's CD being dropped, or having a Drop Party to celebrate. The "get rid of" meaning is older. My granny used to use the term in reference to break-ups, as in, "She dropped her boyfriend like a hot potato when the rich guy made a pass at her."

  • Apple restricted the feature availability: https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
  • sends you directly to https :// guce.advertising.com / collectIdentifiers ? sessionId=

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @03:23AM (#62183439)

    Tell me about impact. Does the lack of an option in an accessibility page make for objectively better or worse performance? Is this a removed option, or is it just baked into the default way iPhones process sound?

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