Posts tagged with "audio"

Quick Subtitles Shows Off the A19 Pro’s Remarkable Transcription Speed→

Matt Birchler makes a great utility for the iPhone and iPad called Quick Subtitles that generates transcripts from a wide variety of audio and video files, something I do a lot. Sometimes it’s for adding subtitles to a podcast’s YouTube video and other times, I just want to recall a bit of information from a long video without scrubbing through it. In either case, I want the process to be fast.

As Matt prepared Quick Subtitles for release, he tested it on a MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip, an iPhone 17 Pro with the new A19 Pro, an iPhone 16 Pro Max with the A18 Pro, and an iPhone 16e with the A18. The results were remarkable, with the iPhone 17 Pro nearly matching the performance of Matt’s M4 Pro MacBook Pro and 60% faster than the A18 Pro.

I got a preview of this sort of performance over the summer when I ran an episode of NPC: Next Portable Console through Yap, an open-source project my son Finn built to test Apple’s Speech framework, which Quick Subtitles also uses. The difference is that with the release of the speedy A19 Pro, the kind of performance I was seeing in June on a MacBook Pro is essentially now possible on an iPhone, meaning you don’t have to sacrifice speed to do this sort of task if all you have with you is an iPhone 17 Pro, which I love.

If you produce podcasts or video, or simply want transcripts that you can analyze with AI, check out Quick Subtitles. In addition to generating timestamped SRT files ready for YouTube and other video projects, the app can batch-transcribe files, and use a Google Gemini or OpenAI API key that you supply to analyze the transcripts it generates. Transcription happens on-device and your API keys don’t leave your device either, which makes it more private than transcription apps that rely on cloud servers.

Quick Subtitles is available on the App Store as a free download and comes with 10 free transcriptions. A one-time In-App Purchase of $19.99 unlocks unlimited transcription and batch processing. The In-App Purchase is currently stuck in app review, but should be available soon, when I’ll be grabbing it immediately.

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Twenty Thousand Hertz Explores Apple’s Accessibility History

Source: Twenty Thousand Hertz.

Source: Twenty Thousand Hertz.

The Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast’s latest episode celebrates the 40th anniversary of Apple’s accessibility efforts. Through a series of interviews with Apple’s Sarah Herrlinger, Ron Huang, Deidre Caldbeck, and Erick Treski, host Dallas Taylor explores the history of accessibility features in Apple products. It’s an excellent oral history that weaves historical insights and present-day technological advancements in a fascinating way.

Beyond the tech of it all, though, what really comes through is the importance of the accessibly work that goes into Apple’s hardware and the impact it has on so many lives:

[Dallas Taylor, Show Host:] For years now, I’ve been talking about how hearable technology was eventually gonna combine headphones, earplugs, hearing aids, virtual assistants, and more into one earbud-like device that we can theoretically leave in all day. This is the kind of technology that I’m most passionate about because it goes so far beyond just convenience or entertainment. It’s the stuff that literally changes people’s lives and helps people connect with each other through sound.

[Deidre Caldbeck, Apple’s senior director of product marketing for Apple Watch and Health] For me, when I started to work on Apple Watch and then soon after Health, to be able to hear some of these stories we’ve been sharing today, I just felt very fortunate that this was my actual job. This is my profession, that I get to work with these brilliant people that come up with these features that anyone can use and anyone has the potential of having their lives changed.

[Dallas Taylor, Show Host:] Now, designing for accessibility comes with a lot of challenges, but when you approach those challenges with empathy and creativity, the result is often a better product for everyone.

[Sara Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of global accessibility policy and initiatives:]: We’re all unique in the world, and accessibility features may be life hacks to one person and they may be necessities to another, but we’re always just trying to make sure that we have features that work for everyone.

You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Twenty Thousand Hertz website.

AirPods Max to Gain Lossless and Low Latency Audio Support Over USB-C Next Month

In a surprise announcement this morning, Apple announced that the AirPods Max with USB-C will be getting an update next month that adds support for lossless and ultra‑low latency audio over the cable. According to the press release:

With the included USB-C cable, users can enjoy the highest-quality audio across music, movies, and games, while music creators can experience significant enhancements to songwriting, beat making, production, and mixing.

The update will enable 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, which Apple says is supported by over 100 million songs on Apple Music. Using the headphones’ USB-C cable, musicians will enjoy ultra-low latency and lossless audio in their Logic Pro workflows. The USB-C cable will allow them to produce Personalized Spatial Audio, too.

Apple also explains that the reduced latency is “on par with the native built-in speakers on Mac, iPad, and iPhone,” enhancing videogame play and streaming.

In addition to the software update, Apple is releasing a $39 3.5mm to USB-C cable that can be purchased today. This is a nice update that, judging from the timing, will likely roll out alongside Apple’s next set of OS releases. Although I’d love to see Apple adapt its AirPlay technology to support low-latency, lossless audio, too, doing so via the USB-C cable that comes with the latest version of the headphones is a good start.