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How to use custom equalizer settings for your AirPods

Learn how to adjust your AirPods’ equalizer when listening to music and watching videos on iPhone, iPad, or Mac for a personalized, fine-tuned audio experience.

Apple sells a lot of AirPods and engineers them to sound great for most users right out of the box. After all, people appreciate a great experience without tweaking anything.

But if you don’t like how your AirPods sound when listening to (specific) music, or watching movies and TV shows, you now have a simple equalizer to adjust the lows, mids, and highs.

Unlike app-specific equalizers, like those found in Apple Music or Spotify settings, the EQ adjustments you make for your AirPods apply to everything you listen to via your AirPods, irrespective of which app you’re using. In contrast, app EQ settings work only for that app and with all wired and wireless earphones.

Your custom AirPods EQ tuning syncs via iCloud to all your devices. As a result, you can set it on your iPhone and automatically enjoy the same experience on your iPad and Mac (I couldn’t find an AirPods Equalizer option anywhere on my Apple TV running tvOS 27).

Supported AirPods

You can use custom EQ on AirPods with the Apple H2 chip running the latest beta firmware version. The full device list is as follows:

AirPods Pro 2
AirPods Pro 3
AirPods 4
AirPods 4 with ANC
AirPods Max 2

If I remember correctly, I got the equalizer feature on my AirPods Pro 3 in beta firmware version 9A336b, but currently I’m on 9A347a.

Update your AirPods to the latest version of beta firmware by going to AirPods Settings > AirPods Beta Update and turning on AirPods Beta Updates. Then put both AirPods in their case, plug the case to charge, and leave it near your iPhone, iPad, or Mac for about half an hour or overnight for the new firmware to auto-install (there is no way to force-install AirPods updates manually).

Adjust equalizer for AirPods

1) Connect your AirPods to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and wear them. We’re using an iPhone running iOS 27 for these steps.

2) Play a song or video in Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Chrome, Safari, or another app of choice.

3) Open the Settings app and select your AirPods.

4) Tap Audio & Routing.

5) Select Equalizer.

6) Tap Custom instead of Recommended.

7) Now, drag the high point dots for Low, Mid, or High frequency bands up or down to increase or decrease the bass, mids, and treble, respectively. You’ll hear the difference as you adjust the range. Experiment to see which sounds best for you. Tap Reset to start over.

Here’s how it looks in macOS 27 Golden Gate System Settings:

If you ever need to revert to Apple-recommended EQ levels, repeat the steps above and select Recommended, or tap Reset to set all three bands to the middle.

More on AirPods:

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/08/24/airpods-equalizer/

Walmart finally adds Apple Pay in major contactless payment capitulation

After years of resisting Apple’s mobile payment system, Walmart is finally rolling out Apple Pay and other contactless options.

The world’s largest retailer announced Friday that it will begin accepting Tap to Pay — including Apple Pay — at select U.S. Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations starting August 24, 2026. The company plans to expand the feature to all its U.S. stores and clubs by the end of 2026, with fuel stations following by mid-2027. The new options will also work on Walmart’s websites and apps.

Customers and members will be able to pay by tapping eligible contactless cards, phones, or smartwatches. They can also add their Walmart, Sam’s Club, and OnePay cards to digital wallets for easier use. Walmart framed the move as part of a broader effort to give shoppers more choice and make checkout simpler and more convenient, alongside existing methods such as cash, traditional cards, Walmart Pay, and Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go.

In a nutshell: after a long holdout, Walmart is finally getting Apple Pay. The retailer had long preferred its own payment tools and other systems, making the embrace of contactless digital wallets a notable change in its checkout strategy.

As a general rule of thumb, we avoid Walmart due to olfactory sensitivity not limited just to Chinese plastics.

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Source link: https://macdailynews.com/2026/08/24/walmart-finally-adds-apple-pay-in-major-contactless-payment-capitulation/