Trump Plays Dealmaker in Chief in TikTok Talks
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Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, February 11th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Apple's AirPods Pro 2 can be used as hearing aids. We'll tell you what users have been saying about them. Plus, what's next for TikTok? We'll get you caught up on the latest in the negotiations over the app's fate in the U.S., where things stand and what role President Trump is taking in the deal-making.

First up, Apple took a big step in its healthcare push last fall when it rolled out a software update that enabled a clinical-grade hearing test and hearing aid capability for its AirPods Pro 2. The feature could be a game-changer for millions of people who live with mild to moderate hearing loss.

WSJ's personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen spoke to people who have tested Apple's top-selling headphones as hearing aids over the past several months. She sat down with my colleague Pierre Bien-Aimé to talk about some of the pros and cons. Here's their conversation. Nicole, how do people feel about AirPods Pro 2 as hearing aids? I think the big question on a lot of these folks' minds was, are $249 hearing aids too good to be true?

Apple's AirPods Pro 2 cost about that much. And hearing aids can run from several thousand dollars to several hundred dollars. Typically on the lower end of that spectrum, you're buying an over-the-counter hearing aid and

Those actually see high rates of returns. And on the upper end, you could be paying $4,000 to $6,000 for hearing aids. You have to get an audiologist appointment. You have to get them professionally fit. And if your dog eats one or if you lose one, then that's not covered by health insurance and you're paying that out of pocket.

So certainly on the cost front then, Apple has an advantage? Definitely. So for a lot of the people that we talked to, they thought just trying these earbuds as hearing aids was a no-brainer. It's a low-cost entry. You take the hearing test from your phone. You don't have to visit an audiologist. And within minutes, you can turn on a hearing aid function that's clinical grade in these earbuds.

And the FDA opened up the market for over-the-counter hearing aids in 2022. Is that the market that Apple is walking into with this? Yes. The FDA approved the sale of over-the-counter earbuds that don't require the earbuds to be professionally fit or a prescription from an audiologist in 2022, as you mentioned.

And Apple, using these guidelines, released the software update last fall. The feature is intended for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. That applies to hundreds of millions of people around the world. But if you have severe hearing loss, then these hearing aids will not work for you.

And as we were saying, on the cost front, Apple's doing pretty well given that these cost a few hundred dollars as opposed to maybe several thousand. What are some other pros and cons that people have encountered? What was interesting is that most of the people that my colleague Julie Jargon and I spoke to had experienced age-related hearing loss.

They were a bit older, and they found that a lot of the trouble with using AirPods as hearing aids had nothing to do with the hearing assistant features themselves. The AirPods had a tendency to fall out. They do come with several tip sizes, but...

It's very inconvenient if you're talking to someone and an earbud drops and then you have to crawl underneath the table to find it. The settings to adjust the amplification and some of the tuning in the AirPods themselves are also hidden. There's a secret menu in settings that appears once your AirPods are in your ears and connected, but you can't access that settings menu otherwise. In handling the AirPods themselves,

was also troublesome for some. It's a very particular kind of open and close mechanism on the case, and it requires a lot of dexterity. And it's different for hearing aids, which have a longer battery life, so you don't have to put them in and out of their case as often. Apple claims its battery life for the AirPods Pro 2 is about six hours, and that's about half the battery life that most off-the-shelf headphones

Hearing aids offer 12 to 16 hours is pretty normal for professionally fit hearing aids.

but the cost differential there is large. But the best hearing aid is the one in your ear. So for a lot of people who need 24-7 hearing amplification, they either bought two pairs of AirPods or ended up using their professionally fit hearing aids. And for folks who just need a little bit of assistance in certain situations, the AirPods are suitable. ♪

That was WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen speaking with Pierre Bien-Aimé. Coming up, when it comes to TikTok, President Trump has taken on a new role, dealmaker-in-chief. We'll have more on that after the break.

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Real estate tycoon, reality TV star, now President Trump seems to have taken on a new role, investment banker, as he oversees TikTok's fate in the U.S. In public and behind the scenes, Trump has discussed possible deals to Americanize control of the China-based social media app he once tried to ban. He's also tapped Vice President J.D. Vance to oversee negotiations with the hope that Vance's background in venture capital and his Silicon Valley ties can facilitate a deal.

WSJ Deputy Media Editor Jessica Tonkle has been following the story and she joins us now. Jessica, start us off with where things stand with TikTok. Do U.S. users have access to it? So right now, if you have downloaded the app in the U.S., if you're a U.S. user, you can continue to use TikTok because TikTok

President Trump has issued a 75-day stay to figure out this whole situation. But if you're in the U.S., you cannot download the app. It's not available. Can you remind listeners why the government is looking to ban TikTok?

The U.S. government is concerned about the Chinese ownership of TikTok. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a big Chinese company. And specifically, the concern is about the Chinese access to all this user data, what they could do with it, that user data would get into the wrong hands, that there could be espionage, that it could be used to spread propaganda. So these are just some of the concerns that they have.

And what has TikTok said in response to those concerns? TikTok has said that it is not a concern and has basically dismissed all of these concerns and said this is not an issue.

One possible solution that President Trump has been looking into is for another tech company to bid for this platform. What exactly would this look like? It's really interesting and it's complicated. We don't know exactly what it would look like for a U.S. company to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok because it's hard to understand how you can take out that business from the rest of TikTok. So it's

It's vague, but President Trump has suggested many possible buyers that he thinks could own the U.S. operations. Trump has suggested that Oracle could be a buyer. He has suggested Elon Musk could be a buyer. Elon has since said he is not interested in buying TikTok. So it will be very interesting to see what happens. And we should note a TikTok spokesman said, quote, TikTok U.S. cannot be acquired for the simple reason that it would cease to exist.

Jessica, how has Trump's position on TikTok evolved during and since the election? So it has been really interesting to see the president take on, as we're calling it, this dealmaker in chief role with TikTok.

As we reported, according to sources familiar with the situation, before he was even elected, he had had a meeting talking to advisors about how well he had done on TikTok. He really believes that it helped him win the youth vote. And he said, as we reported, I want to save TikTok. So he's kind of taken it upon himself to be the investment banker to help gin up interest to buy the company.

And that was a pivot from his first presidential term when he also wanted to ban TikTok. Right. So it is a complete about face from where he was in 2020 when he said he wanted to ban TikTok. He was looking for solutions at that time. Microsoft was interested. Walmart was interested. So it is very different. But again, he has realized the power of the platform for his own popularity.

And last week, President Trump ordered the creation of a sovereign wealth fund. He suggested it could be used to acquire TikTok. What would this mean for TikTok's purchase? He has suggested this idea of creating a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. The issue is we have 75 days on TikTok right now. I mean, he could theoretically extend that. However, creating a sovereign wealth fund, you have to raise money for the sovereign wealth fund. It is going to take much longer than 75 days. So what's

We're not completely sure how that would work. And from your reporting, President Trump has taken on a bigger role than typical for a president in the sale of a private asset. Can you tell us a bit more about that and why that matters?

It's just super unusual to see a president take on this role. Usually TikTok would hire an investment banker to field bids and see who's interested. President Trump seems to have taken it upon himself, A, because he really does want to make sure that TikTok survives all of this.

And remember, his past career was in real estate and he is a business guy and he enjoys the art of dealmaking, the book that he himself wrote. So he's kind of like embracing what he knows and taking on that role.

The U.S. is in the midst of a trade war with China. Has TikTok come up in conversation between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping? We reported that they have spoken about it. We don't know the context. We do know that Chinese officials and members of the Trump administration have talked about TikTok. And our understanding is that there have been discussions on each side about this topic.

idea of whether this TikTok could be part of a bigger agreement between China and the U.S. And maybe that includes other issues like tariffs and trade agreements. All right. That was WSJ Deputy Media Editor Jessica Tonkle. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Jess Jupiter with supervising producer Catherine Milsop. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.