Duh.
From Rolfe Winkler's "Apple Studying Potential of AirPods as Health Device" posted Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal:
Apple is studying ways to make AirPods into a health device, including for enhancing hearing, reading body temperature and monitoring posture, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the plans.
The plans further demonstrate Apple’s ambition to add health and wellness features to devices beyond the Apple Watch, where most of the company’s health functions exist today. Apple is also working on technology that aims to use iPhones to help diagnose depression and cognitive decline, the Journal reported last month.
It isn’t clear if Apple is developing specific new hearing-aid features for AirPods or wants to market the earbuds’ existing hearing-improvement features as hearing aids. AirPods Pro, Apple’s higher-end earbuds, already offer features to improve hearing, including “conversation boost,” launched last week, that increases the volume and clarity of people in front of the wearer.
The proposed AirPods features aren’t expected by next year and might never be rolled out to consumers or the timing could change, cautioned people familiar with the company’s plans.
My take: Ah, the old people-familiar-with-plans-that-might-never-be rolled-out story formula. I'd like to see those Apple documents the Journal reviewed. And I'd like to buy those Apple hearing aids.
I did that to get the first iPhone on launch day. Well it was raining gently and my wait was only 4 hours, but it was cold and felt like all day.