And, I’ll revise my own report, because my M3 MacBook Pro, still running Sonoma 14.7.5, because, well, I used to LIVE in Sonoma County, now shows an ear in my MenuBar just to the left of the headphones icon that designates my HAs. As best I can tell, the “ear” icon is supposed to make selections of sound parameters for MFi (“Made for iPhone”) hearing aids. The “Headphones” icon to its right allows me to select the sound output source, and that icon changes with the output device chosen; e.g., default, TVs, AirPods, HomePods, Apple TVs, as well as designate the output and input sources separately and adjust the volume. If I click on the “ear” icon, the two dropdown items are “Background Sounds” (I have NO idea why I’d want to activate one of those given that I can’t hear normally even without those additional synthesized sounds being pumped into my hearing aids.

Another thing I learned just now is that my Phonak-manufactured but Costco-marketed “Kirkland Signature 10” rechargeable hearing aids are NOT on Apple’s list of “Made for iPhone” hearing aids, although earlier KS-branded hearing aids ARE, whereas NO “Phonak” nor “Sonova” (parent company) devices are listed. So when I bring up the dialog by clicking on the “ear” icon, a dialog box opens and says it’s “searching” for appropriate devices once I make a choice from Settings: Accessibility Settings, but finds none. Makes me wonder why the ear shows up at all in the Menu Bar. Does that happen for the very rare Gen Z individual who’s not already cooked his cochleas?

But, since you wear HAs, I have another question for you. There’s been lots of buzz recently on hearing impairment websites about AI processing chips in newest models from several different manufacturers that supposedly improve speech discrimination. I’ve not sampled any of them, and I wonder if you or any any other list members have done so and can report on your own experiences.

--?
Jim Robertson