Optimus Prime and Grimlock were among the most popular Transformers characters from the original animated series, but Soundwave, who spoke like he’d swallowed a synthesizer, was undoubtedly every kid’s favorite. I still have the original toy, but as an adult, I want this custom Soundwave-shaped boombox even more.
The European Union passed its disastrous Copyright Directive this week, including amended versions of its onerous Articles 11 and 13 (the so-called “link tax” and “upload filter,” respectively). There’s still time to make sure it never passes into law by defeating a final ratification vote in January, though given the …
Sound quality on truly wireless earbuds can seem like a bit of an afterthought. After all, most people just want these things not to fall out of their ears. But Master & Dynamic’s new MW07 truly wireless earbuds do a few new interesting things. Not only do they feel good and look great. They sound like an expensive…
One of my first Gizmodo stories was about Logitech getting serious about design. It was published a few weeks after the company released the first UE Boom, which we would eventually decide was the best Bluetooth speaker you could buy. At the time, I wondered how that little beast would evolve in the years to come. Now…
If you listen to what Sony says, you could assume that the third generation of the Sony 1000X wireless headphones is all about better noise canceling. This wouldn’t be a wrong assumption. The company managed to make its famous noise-cancelling headphones cancel even more noise. But what caught my attention is how much…
We’re up for a big week in the news, folks. There’s a lot going to happen, from Apple’s big September 12th announcement event to the notably less fun Hurricane Florence, which is currently projected to barrel into the East Coast at a minimum Category 3 status or possibly even worse before the weekend. As the president…
The solution to few of life’s problems can be found at the bottom of a bottle, except, maybe, the poor sound quality from tiny wireless speakers. The creators of the portable Sodapop speaker promise that by simply attaching an empty soda bottle, you can increase its loudness and bass by almost 10 decibels.
While smart speakers aren’t exactly new, the battle for AI-powered audio supremacy is just heating up, and in the past year we’ve seen a number of high-end AI-speaker systems hit the market including the Sonos One, the Apple HomePod and the Google Home Max. However, even with all these new entries, there was still a…
Smart soundbars are an interesting idea. They’re like smart speakers, except they work with your TV, so you can use your voice like a remote control. Neat! In January, Polk wowed CES attendees with its new Command Bar. Put bluntly, this smart device is a big honking soundbar with an Amazon Echo Dot stuffed inside of…
Sleeping on the weekends is rough. My apartment is across the street from a bar that grows only louder and more crowded in the height of summer, so a good Saturday night snooze is usually out of the question. Raucous drinkers, the thump of the bass from the building, and the sound of my air conditioner create a…
August 2018 rolled in with a bang, literally, as explosions rocked Caracas, Venezuela on Saturday during a speech by President Nicolas Maduro—and government officials later said bomb-carrying drones were to blame. If the accounts of an attempted assassination using unmanned aerial vehicles is confirmed, the New York…
If you’ve ever sat down to watch your Roku-powered TV and thought, “Boy I wish I had some Roku-powered speakers to enhance this experience,” you are in luck. The set-top box maker just announced a new set of speakers that work exclusively with Roku TV televisions. It’s kind of a curious move for the company, but it…
If your smartphone of choice has forced you to upgrade to wireless headphones, you probably hate having to swap them out for a corded pair when you want to play your Nintendo Switch with a little privacy. The portable console doesn’t come with Bluetooth, but a tiny dongle called the Genki does, theoretically making it…
An instructor of mine once compared mixing a song to baking a cake. The various tracks are the ingredients, and once everything is mixed and baked, as with a cake, those ingredients can’t be deconstructed. Or can they? AI researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have created an app…
There are two ways of listening to music: you can shut everything out and focus purely on the tunes, or you can use music to enhance other activities in your life. Headphones and earbuds, especially those of the noise-canceling variety are quite good at the first; you just put some on, turn up the volume, and let…
The internet is always there, vast and accessible, from wherever you happen to be—until it isn’t. Maybe you’ve got a long flight ahead of you and need some reading material, maybe you just want to store something for safe-keeping. Whatever your reason here’s how you can download just about anything you come across on…
Work ceased for several minutes at Gizmodo Media this afternoon as everyone stopped to listen to a four-second sound file of someone either saying “laurel” or “yanny.” No one could agree. I heard “laurel.”
Released in 1979, the original Sony Walkman completely changed how people listened to music. Your tunes were free to go anywhere—and sound like complete garbage. The quality of music on cassette tapes can’t compete to today’s digital formats, but if people still like the sound of crackly records, surely there are …
Ahead of Avengers: Infinity War’s official release in just a few weeks, China’s Brando has revealed the penultimate collectible for fans of Thanos’ rise to power. Why buy a simple life-size replica of his infamous Infinity Gauntlet when you could buy this superior life-size replica made from actual copper, with…
Loving your new Google Home Mini? Hating its tinny sound and lack of auxiliary output options? Well Google appears to have heard your lo-fi cries of anguish, and responded by adding a way to control your third-party Bluetooth speakers using your Google Home device. Nice work! It only took a whole year.
