In recent years, portable Bluetooth speakers have become essential gadgets for modern living. Going into the woods and want to listen to some Phish? Get a speaker. Want to listen to podcasts in the shower? Use a Bluetooth solution. But beyond being so useful, what’s exciting about Bluetooth speakers these days is the…
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 …
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…
First, the bad news: Sunday is the anniversary of the disastrous white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that culminated in a neo-Nazi car attack that killed local woman Heather Heyer and wounded scores of others, as well as resulted in the deaths of two police officers. The organizer of…
Listen, I get it. Your phone came with a pair of earbuds, and you’ve been using them every day, because they’re fine. Things could be so much better, my friend. Sometimes in life, it’s worth splurging on on a thing you use a lot. And upgrading from your tinny, terrible earbuds to proper headphones is one of those…
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…
A weird thing about reviewing gadgets for a living is that my neighbors notice. Sometimes they just call me out for getting a lot packages in the mail. Other times, they ask me for advice. One neighbor recently pointed out the $190 Jabra 65t Elite Active truly wireless buds I was wearing in the elevator. “What do you…
Bose’s newest gadget for you ear is designed to help you do one thing: sleep. And after trying Bose’s “sleepbuds,” available today for $250, I think the noise-masking earbuds might make restless nights a more seldom occasion. Also, it means you can stop sleeping with uncomfortable earbuds jammed into your skull.
Despite many tries, no company has nailed truly wireless earbuds. Apple’s AirPods come close, but the lack of sports-friendly features has always been a problem. That’s why I was so excited to see Sony release a set of truly wireless earbuds that are not only tight-fitting and water resistant, they also come with…
There are no practical applications yet for AR—your mom isn’t using it to navigate a grocery store—but AR has become wildly popular in the tech community. Slap AR on a pitch and get some VC funding. Or, slap AR on the side of a product and bask in the AR buzz from tech publications. Bose, a company known for nice…
I’m a longtime Bowers & Wilkins fan. The headphones are so good, I’ve always thought, they don’t even need noise-cancelling. Well, Bowers & Wilkins didn’t listen to my thoughts and recently released a set of noise-cancelling headphones. I was wrong. The Bowers & Wilkins PX are are the best wireless headphones the…
If you’d told me in 2007 that people would be walking around listening to music with wireless, popcorn-sized earbuds, I would’ve called you crazy. It is now 2017, and these futuristic little gadgets are a reality. But which ones are the best?
There was always something off about the Pixel Buds. Google released the smart, wireless headphones a full year after Apple released the AirPods. But the Pixel Buds aren’t exactly wireless, and they’re not exactly smart, either. In fact, after spending a few days with the product, I’m prepared to say it: the Pixel…
When I first heard the pitch for the Sony WF-1000X, I thought I was hearing it wrong. Sony made a new set of wireless earbuds that aren’t just completely wireless—they also employ active noise-cancelling tech. This is a first for the wireless earbud industry, and let me be the first to tell you: It’s kind of awesome.
It’s rare to see a company make an almost perfect product. It’s even rarer to see one improve an almost perfect product. And yet, here we are. Sony’s already incredible MDR-1000X wireless, adaptive noise-cancelling headphones got an upgrade earlier this year and dropped the price to $350. I’ve been testing the new…
Apple crushed a big problem when it released the AirPods. Companies had been trying—and failing—to build truly wireless earbuds for years. But then Apple showed up and was like, “Here they are!” Now, it’s Bose’s turn. The new SoundSport Free wireless earbuds are sleek, powerful, and dependable. The Bose buds can do …
In late August I spent to weeks traipsing through Europe—on very important work assignments in London, and taking in the local culture of Amsterdam. Being a gadget blogger, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to completely load up my European adventure with every conceivable gadget I could possibly need. I wanted to…
When Apple stopped including disk drives on its desktop computers, the world barely batted an eye. When DVD-ROMs were removed from the MacBook, few cared. But the loss of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 is a clear indicator that the apocalypse is upon us. But don’t freak out just yet, we’re going to help you deal.
Bose has a long history of making great-yet-pricey speakers. But its latest, the BoseBUILD Speaker Cube, is a first for the company—a build-your-own speaker, intended for kids. It’s designed to help teach the basic concepts of sound and speaker design. It’s a cool idea, with dead simple setup and instructions, but for…
Apart from being a great punk band name, “heavy sweat” is causing Bose’s new SoundSport Wireless headphones to malfunction. In fact, it’s so bad that Bose is offering full exchanges for an updated unit to those who think their headphones are freaking out.
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