when Apple behaves like Microsoft

My first hearing aid required an intermediate device, called an iCom, to communicate with other devices, such as my iPod or phone. It was a pain to deal with I eventually stopped using it.

I lost that hearing aid during what was termed “the storm of the decade” in February 2017 when I was taking Terry out to the car after a routine procedure at Kaiser Riverside. That drive home is perhaps material for another blog entry. The point here is that I needed a new hearing aid.

When I went to the hearing aid shop I specifically asked for a hearing aid that communicated directly with my iPhone, without an intermediate device. I got one, and it has worked beautifully, both with my iPhone 5s and with my new iPhone 8, which I got in August. I use it not only for phone calls but with my Audible and podcast apps.

All was well until I installed iOS 13. Now I knew from reports I had read that iOS 13 was buggy, and I held off installing it until iOS 13.1.2 was released. That was the fourth release of iOS 13. Nonetheless, there were still a lot of bugs in 13.1.2, and my iPhone no longer wanted to talk to my hearing aid. Well, it thought it was, but it wasn’t. I had to turn off my hearing aid, open my Audible app, start playing a book, and then turn my hearing aid back on in order to get the two to communicate properly. Most frustrating.

The iOS 13.1.3 release did not solve the problem. 13.2 seems to have fixed the issue, knock on wood.

This is a first world problem, I am fully aware. Still, it is frustrating. We expect these things from Microsoft, but now Apple is doing it to us as well. We should be able to expect better from our tech companies.