File photo: Apple AirPods are displayed during a media event in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 7, 2016. (REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach)
How many times have you wished you could eavesdrop on a conversation?
Yeah, I’ve lost count.
How many of those times have you also realized you lack both the nerve to pull it off, as well as the auditory reach to remain undetected?
Ditto.
Well, thanks to the year 2019, you can now eavesdrop on your partner, your best friend and your boss all from an safe and inconspicuous location.
All you need is an iPhone, the latest operating system and a pair of Apple AirPods.
I can’t promise you won’t end up single, prosecuted and unemployed, but I can promise you a great time.
Originally, the humble wireless earphone was designed to stop situations like the following from interrupting your day:
Thankfully, Apple officially cut the cord in 2016 and introduced us to the wireless AirPod.
Now, they’ve gone a step further with a feature originally designed to help hearing-impaired Apple customers.
Live Listen effectively gives you super hearing by allowing you to place your iPhone close to a person or speaker you’re having trouble hearing.
It’s easy to set up through your control center if you have the latest iOS 12.
Once you download the new operating system, and enable the Live Listen feature (which appears as an ear icon), you can then turn up the volume on your iPhone’s microphone to listen to things closely through your AirPods.
What we now know is that you can actually leave your phone in different rooms, more than 15m away, and still hear everything that’s going on.
That’s correct.
Here we were, thinking Apple was spying on us, when really they were just road testing their prototype so we could eventually spy on each other.
What a relief!
You can also use your Apple watch for the same eavesdropping purpose — in fact, it would appear much more innocent to “accidentally” leave a watch lying around the board room at work.
The trick has made major waves among Apple fans, with many celebrating and freaking out in equal parts.
Because as we all know: With great power, comes great responsibility.
Most people were agog at the knowledge and all the possibilities it would soon afford them.
Kurt predicted the youth will be the first to exploit the feature to its fullest.
Parents should probably be on the lookout for wandering smartphones and gasps from nearby rooms.
Nicole and Lou forecast the imminent end of millions of relationships across the world, as suspicious partners slip their iPhones beneath cushions.
Some people simply warned that the “end of days” was coming.
For those of us who don’t have the tools to become the next 007, I think we’ve just found our new year’s resolution.
This story originally appeared in news.com.au.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.