Announcements

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) reviewed more than 50 hearing aids to identify the best options for 2025, covering both over-the-counter and prescription devices. The review looked at sound quality, comfort, battery life, Bluetooth connectivity, trial periods, and customer support to help people make practical choices. NCOA’s top overall pick is Jabra Enhance , highlighted for strong sound…

Bluetooth Auracast is a new way to share audio that goes beyond the usual one-to-one Bluetooth connection. With Auracast, a single device like a phone, TV, or sound system can broadcast audio to many compatible receivers at once . That means everyone nearby with Auracast-enabled earbuds, headphones, or hearing aids can tune in without pairing each device separately. Auracast is already being used…

Hearing aids today come with a huge number of features and fancy marketing terms that can make choosing one overwhelming. A lot of those features don’t matter much for everyday use and can just add cost and confusion. What really matters most are a few core capabilities that every modern hearing aid should have: reliable digital sound processing , feedback cancellation to prevent whistling, noise…

The global hearing implants market was valued at about $2.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to roughly $4.5 billion by 2034 , with an annual growth rate around 6.2 percent . Growth is driven by more cases of hearing loss, better technology, and greater awareness of treatment options. Cochlear implants make up the largest share of the market, followed by bone-anchored and middle ear…

The Eisdell Moore Centre at the University of Auckland has been officially designated a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Ear and Hearing Care. This new status grants the center partnership with WHO in tackling hearing loss. The designation links the center to a global network focused on improving hearing health outcomes. The center's director, Professor Peter Thorne, says the…

The 2025 Oticon Focus on People Awards awarded three individuals for their hard work related to hearing loss, inclusion, and community support at a ceremony in Jupiter, Florida. The award recipients were Brenda Schmidt of Naperville, Illinois, who has worked with schools to support children with hearing loss and written a children’s book to help families navigate hearing care; Jayden Rosenfeld, a…

A baby from Palm Desert became the first pediatric patient in California and an early adopter of the newly approved "NEXA" cochlear implant designed for very young children. The surgery was performed after the device recently received authorization for pediatric use, allowing implantation at an earlier age than any previous models. The clinicians involved described the procedure as a beginning…

Smart glasses are being positioned as a developing consumer technology category, shaped by incremental improvements in AI, cameras, audio systems, and on device processing. Products such as Meta’s Ray Ban smart glasses provides hands free photo and video capture, voice calls, audio playback, and AI driven functions like translation and voice interaction. Other concepts in the market include sport…

YouTube has rolled out a new caption style called "Expressive Captions" for English language videos, aimed at conveying more context from audio without changing the underlying speech content. The captions reflect tone and intensity through formatting choices such as capitalization and include descriptions of non-speech sounds like laughter, applause, sighs, or background noise. According to…

A new article from Verge frames Auracast as one of the most promising Bluetooth advances in years that has not reached its "moment." Not because the technology is lacking, but because companies are failing to market it in a clear, unified way. The opinion piece by Higgins presents Auracast as a quietly powerful tool that could transform accessibility for people with hearing loss and simplify how…