Apple’s AirPods 5 Impress, But Google’s New Laptops Leave Accessibility Unanswered

In this episode

AirPods 5 open-ear noise cancellation put to the test by blind users, plus Google’s new Googlebook Android laptops, the pricing, and the accessibility answers Google still has not given.

Steven Scott bought the AirPods 5 expecting to be unimpressed and came away sold. The headline is the noise cancellation: Apple claims a 50 percent improvement over AirPods 4, and in a room with a laptop and NVDA speaking, the background noise all but vanished. Steven and Shaun Preece work through the open-ear fit that sits in the ear rather than sealing it, the comfort over long listening sessions, and why the transparency mode is convincing enough that he forgot an earbud was missing. If you buy a set, spend the extra on the wireless charging case version for the volume controls on the stem.

The trade-off against the AirPods Pro 3 comes down to battery life, around five hours rather than eight, which matters when a call lands at the wrong moment. For books, podcasts and music in the Apple ecosystem, the value case is strong at the lower end of the price scale.

Then the laptop story. Google has launched Googlebook, a new category running Googlebook OS, built on Android with ChromeOS foundations and sold on Gemini. Five machines from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo start at 899 US dollars, all with 16GB RAM, OLED touch displays and metal bodies, split between Intel Core Ultra and Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Pre-orders are open, with US availability from October 4 and other markets a day later.

The accessibility picture is blank. Google has not said what the screen reader experience will be, whether TalkBack behaves like ChromeVox, or what happens to Braille display support. For any school considering swapping Chromebooks for these, that is not a small gap. Steven has written to Google, has had no reply, and an interview with Asus is lined up for next week. Send in your questions.

Chapters
0:00 – Apple, Siri and a purchase Steven had to make
2:01 – AirPods 5: which version to buy
4:38 – Open-ear fit, comfort and noise cancellation tested
10:28 – AirPods 5 vs AirPods Pro 3: battery, price and value
17:20 – Googlebook: Google’s Android laptops arrive
19:54 – Five models, five prices, one spec sheet
28:26 – Who is a Googlebook actually for?
30:44 – The accessibility unknowns: TalkBack, ChromeVox and Braille
33:17 – Web apps, the WhatsApp problem and Chromebooks as daily drivers
47:10 – Listener mail: open weights, buttered buns and duelling assistants

Relevant Links
AirPods 5: https://www.apple.com/airpods-5/
Googlebook announcement: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/googlebook/pre-order-googlebook/
NV Access (NVDA): https://www.nvaccess.org/about-nv-access/
Tampermonkey: https://www.tampermonkey.net
Zero Project Technology Forum: https://zeroproject.org/initiatives/the-zero-project-technology-forum
AMI Research Panel: https://www.ami.ca/panel