In short: AirPods firmware as public beta +++ Apple Intelligence in China – after a long delay | News

The public betas of macOS 27, iOS 27 and other systems have been available since the beginning of the week and mark the start of the next test phase of the fall releases. With a little delay, Apple has now made a future version of the AirPods firmware available for public beta testing. This is aimed at interested users with AirPods Pro 2/3, AirPods 4 or AirPods Max 2 with build number 9A5314b.

Said beta is required to use additional AirPods features from macOS 27 and iOS 27. New features include a control for “Adaptive Audio” to specify the intensity of the noise cancellation more precisely. The firmware also supports user-defined equalizers – and, as an important improvement, Siri AI. Anyone who has registered for the public beta will see the update as an option in the AirPods settings. If you activate “AirPods Beta Updates” there, the installation will take place automatically.

Apple Intelligence will soon launch in China – a difficult birth
While China has been one of Apple’s most important iPhone markets for many years, the launch of Apple Intelligence turned out to be quite a difficult birth. China regulates generative AI services extremely strictly – foreign models such as ChatGPT or Gemini, for example, are not regularly available there. Apple therefore had to involve local partners and adapt the functions to Chinese specifications for data processing, moderation and model control.

This now appears to have been successful to the satisfaction of the local authorities, as, according to Reuters, the official registration took place this week. There is currently no specific start date, but the starting signal is likely to take place within the next few weeks. According to Reuters, models from Alibaba and Baidu are used in China. Incidentally, Chinese users were able to access Apple Intelligence for a very short period of time – Apple accidentally activated the offer for a few hours in March.