Blog

The near-ubiquity of videoconferencing is a lasting effect of the pandemic. The ease of gathering a group virtually usually more than makes up for the downsides. Despite that, many people still appear in video calls with low-resolution, poorly lit video that makes the call less effective.

Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing/CoPilot, and Google’s Gemini are the vanguard of a significant advance in computing. Among much else, they can be compelling tools for finding just the right word, drafting simple legal documents, starting awkward emails, and coding in unfamiliar languages. Much has been written about how AI chatbots “hallucinate,” making up plausible details that are completely wrong.

If you listen to a FaceTime Audio call using AirPods and hear the other person’s voice moving annoyingly from side to side as you turn your head, the problem is likely head-tracked spatial audio. In general, spatial audio attempts to make sounds seem to come from all around you, and its dynamic head-tracking option adjusts the audio for each ear to simulate how the sound would change as your head moves.