WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 Did you know that Bluetooth audio has been mostly unchanged since 2003? 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:11.040 I mean, this was three years before Spotify launched and four years before we even got the first iPod. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:16.340 And while I'm sure you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a wireless speaker, you absolutely love. 00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:21.260 There are actually quite a few shortcomings in the Bluetooth spec most of us know and love. 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:28.480 But huge changes are just around the corner as Android 13 is including support for Bluetooth LE audio 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.960 with the LE standing for low energy. 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:35.000 Admittedly, the name isn't particularly exciting. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.640 Please clap. Low energy might make you think of a laptop CPU 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:43.240 that's advertised as being super power efficient, but also frustratingly slow. 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:47.640 But Bluetooth LE audio promises to be better in every way. 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.700 Let's start out with the biggest concern for most average users, battery life. 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:56.320 Although the companies that make wireless headphones and speakers try and make long battery life 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:01.000 a major selling point, the fact is that they're all using the same outdated 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.480 and inefficient Bluetooth classic protocol to receive audio signals. 00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:09.640 It's actually inefficient enough to have a significant impact on power consumption, 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:15.240 both on your headphones and your phone. But how does Bluetooth LE use less energy? 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:18.480 At the heart of the new protocol is the LC3 codec. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:21.800 And if you don't know what a codec is, it's just a piece of software 00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:26.880 that encodes or decodes audio signals so they can be sent out in a compressed form 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:31.200 to save on power and bandwidth. LC3 uses a new compression algorithm 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:34.800 that allows for higher quality audio at a lower bit rate, 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:39.080 meaning less data will be transmitted resulting in lower power consumption 00:01:39.080 --> 00:01:44.040 without compromising on sound. Sounds too good to be true, and it almost is. 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.400 But this doesn't mean Bluetooth LE is suddenly going to deliver audio 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.040 that matches a lossless experience with wired headphones. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:55.240 It should be a noticeable improvement over the current codec, SBC. 00:01:55.240 --> 00:02:00.560 Although there already are higher quality codecs available for Android, like your Crazy X, 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.440 they have their own issues. AAC, famously used by Apple devices, 00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:07.560 has quality and battery consumption problems on Android, 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:14.640 go figure, and LDAC and Aptix from Sony and Qualcomm respectively are, well, proprietary. 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:19.080 So if a headphone maker wants to support these, they have to pay extra for a license, 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:23.560 meaning not only are they harder to find, they're also more expensive for consumers. 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:26.920 By contrast, LC3 is a required part 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:32.120 of the Bluetooth low energy spec moving forward, so support for it should be much broader. 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:36.360 Even though having multiple speakers or headphones play the same thing from one source 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:41.760 is relatively easy to do with a wired setup, there hasn't really been a good, not proprietary way 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:46.360 to do this over Bluetooth so far. That's changing with Bluetooth LE audio, 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:51.320 thanks to a feature called AuraCast. This should support use cases as simple 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:54.720 as two people trying to listen to the same song on separate headphones, 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:58.760 to hundreds of people receiving announcements at an airport they might otherwise miss 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:01.880 because they're listening to Spotify. We might even see places like gyms 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:06.520 and sports bars adding AuraCast to allow people to listen to the TV of their choice, 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:10.360 which might otherwise be muted, as picking an AuraCast source on your phone 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.360 should be just as easy as selecting a Wi-Fi network. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:17.600 And if you're watching this video on a Bluetooth speaker, you might notice that the words you hear 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:21.720 are a little out of sync with my mouth. Bluetooth LE should also help address this 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:25.040 because it has lower latency, especially important if you'd like to use 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:29.600 Bluetooth audio for gaming. Combine all this with better performance over distance, 00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:33.560 more accurate stereo sound, thanks to each earbud getting its own audio stream, 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:38.160 and even support for spatial or surround sound without needing any special software. 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:41.360 And Bluetooth LE audio should, at the very least, 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:47.240 make wireless audio less of a pain. And it's supposed to be simpler than a tangle of wires. 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.840 How did this happen? And how did this video end so quickly? 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.760 Oh well, like it if you liked it. Dislike it if you dislike it. 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:00.640 Check out our other videos and comment below with video suggestions. 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