Hearing Aids - Almost AirPods!

I have written a few times about Apple's commitment to hearing accessibility.  They have worked with the major hearing aid manufacturers to support Bluetooth streaming and other features of hearing aids.

One of the biggest insurance scams out there is audiologists.  I say scam because the cost of hearing aids is widely inflated to ding insurance companies.  When I first had my hearing checked I went to an audiologist and was quoted over $5000 for hearing aids.  I did my research and I discovered that Costco Hearing Centers offered free examinations and literally the same hearing aids for $1500.

The last time I wrote about hearing aids and Costco, a number of Kibbles readers went to Costco and bought hearing aids so I have become a bit of a celebrity there.  Nevertheless, the customer service and value is simply too astounding to overlook.  I went for my free annual check-up this week and got my test, go my hearing aids cleaned and because I will be far away from Costco for the winter, they gave me a complete supply of domes, sport loops, etc.  The service is simply amazing.

Hearing is obviously important and a life of loud rock music and motorcycles has certainly taken its toll on this old man.  I first noticed my hearing loss when watching TV and in particular, I was unable to understand the dialogue from British actors.  As it was explained to me - gradual hearing loss has more to do with brain function than actual hearing.   Your brain gradually loses its ability to interpret the sounds it hears as they become more difficult to hear.  Correcting your hearing can alleviate that brain miscue!  When I first got my hearing aids, I was simply amazed to hear the sounds that I was missing, in particular the sounds of nature, the brook by my house, the birds singing, etc.

Apple makes hearing aids even more useful by pairing them with your iPhone.  I receive phone calls via my hearing aids, I stream music and I can even place my iPhone near a sound source such as the TV or a speaker in a lecture hall and stream the sound to my hearing aids. I can adjust my hearing aids for outdoors, crowded restaurants (haven't been to any of those lately!) or movie theaters.

To pair Bluetooth compatible hearing aids to your iPhone you use the accessibility system preferences - Settings-->Accessibility-->Hearing-->Hearing Devices.  Your iPhone will search and connect to your hearing aids.  Then you have a number of options such as adjusting the volume of each hearing aid independently, opting to stream to the left or right or both ears, adjust presets such as "Party, Cinema, Live Music" and activate "Live Listen" which sends audio to your hearing device from the microphone on your iPhone.

There are a number of other hearing device controls available, too, such as ringtones, audio handoff,  and audio routing.

You can easily access the important settings by triple clicking the side button to control microphone level, presets and live listen and check your battery condition.

AirPods would give me Siri and a couple of other features but the latest hearing aids have remarkably good sound, stream music effortlessly and you don't have some huge white protuberance hanging out of your ear!

I do not normally recommend other stores but Costco Hearing is an exception - just stay away from the Apple display at their warehouses!