Where Are Bose’s Wireless Noise-Canceling Earbuds?

Almost a year ago, Bose announced the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 ($399), and released them a few short weeks later. But its Bose Earbuds 500, smaller and upgraded versions of the company’s current wireless SoundSport Free, and the Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700, are still yet to be seen.

The flagship Earbuds 700 were always slated for a vague 2020 release window, and the year is far from over, but the Earbuds 500s were supposed to be out way back in 2019. Where are they?

According to the company’s website, the Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700 (above) are expected to have “truly astonishing noise cancelling” capabilities.

One complication is almost certainly the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thrown a wrench in the gears of almost all tech companies’ manufacturing plans, potentially delaying the new iPhone, and canceling industry events. But 2019 had come and gone before the pandemic spun up in earnest, and so while it is almost certainly a complicating factor, it’s can’t be all that is at play.

In March, Bose told CNET‘s David Carnoy that the earbuds are still coming, but offered no revised time frame, while the official Bose website lists 2020 as the time frame for both pairs. We’ve reached out to Bose for any updates or additional details.

It’s is not at all rare for tech products to face delays, but this wrinkle has put Bose in a particularly notable pickle: the industry leader in noise-canceling headphones still doesn’t have a pair of true wireless earbuds with noise-cancellation, in a market that was already notably reaching maturity by the close of 2019. Sony, Apple, Sennheiser and Master & Dynamic are just a few of Bose’s rivals to have their own wireless earbuds with active noise-cancellation. Heck, Amazon released its own pair of wireless earbuds that have Bose’s own technology, albeit somewhat watered-down “active noise-reduction” technology as opposed to noise-cancelation.

There is, of course, more to success than being first. There is plenty of profit to be found in focusing on refinement and releasing a highly-polished product that improves on the competition’s early attempts. But the longer the wait, the better that product has to be. And with every month that goes by, the bar for Bose is getting higher.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The Most Important Thing to Know Before You Get Your Next Workout Headphones

The are more wireless sport headphones than ever to choose from. And that’s great! There are the obvious things to look for in a pick, like a secure fit and good sound and more extreme features like Jabra’s earbuds that can coach you through runs or specific workouts or Jaybird’s athlete-sponsored buds with curated different workout playlists.

But one of the most features of any workout earbud, and one that is all too easy to overlook, is its IP (Ingress Protection) rating, which tells you how durable they are against things like water, salt and dust. Given that you’re going to be sweating in these earbuds, they need to have a good IP rating, otherwise, they’ll die real quick and you’ll be in the market for new wireless earbuds again.

All workout buds will bill themselves as sweat or water resistant, but the IP ratings will tell you exactly what kind of abuse your buds are rated to take. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that buzzwords don’t always tell the whole story.

Here’s a quick rundown. Every IP rating starts with “IP,” and the first number after it represents the dust resistance (rated on a 0-6 scale) and the second number represents the level of water resistance (rated on a 0-7 scale). The higher the number the more resistant to dust or water the headphones are. If there’s an “X” after “IP” it simply means that the headphones are not resistant to dust.

With earbuds or headphones, the most important number in the IP rating is the last one — the water-resistance rating. Yes, dust can be harmful to electronics but we all know water is the real killer. And considering that these are wireless sport earbuds, almost every time you’re putting them on, you know you’re putting them in clear and present danger.

The most important water-resistance rating is “4” — think of that the cutoff point. IPX4 means that the electronic is splashproof in all directions, while anything less than that means the earbuds are only splashproof from one side. For reference, the AirPods Pro are IPX4 rated. Normal AirPods don’t have an IP rating — so work out with them at your own risk.

But if you sweat buckets, or run in inclement weather, that might not be enough resistance for comfort. IPX5 and IPX6 are the next steps up. An IPX5 rating means that the wireless earbuds are resistant enough to withstand a sustained low-pressure water spray, while IPX6-rated earbuds can withstand a sustained high-pressure spray. The new Sony WF-SP800N (IP55) and Master & Dynamic MW07 Go (IPX6) are two examples of such-rated wireless earbuds.

IPX7 is the highest water-resistance that wireless earbuds can have. It means that they’re essentially waterproof, as the earbuds can be submerged in up to three feet (or one meter) in water for 30 minutes. For reference, the Jaybird Vista and the Jabra Elite Active 75t are some of the few IPX7-rated wireless earbuds that you can buy.

If you’re looking to dive even deeper into IP ratings, check out Jabra’s website.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

12 Chrome Extensions That Will Make You a Power User

Welcome to Superuser Skills, a column devoted to making sure you get the most out of the gear you already own.

Web browsers can do a lot right out of the box, but thanks to the huge third-party add-on libraries for both Chrome and Firefox, you can get them to do much more. These extensions help you get around the web faster, add extra security for your online travels, change the look of your browser and much more.

We’ve picked out 12 indispensable add-ons that no browser should be without. You’ll never go back to a plain browser setup again.

1. Pocket

There’s not always enough time in the day to get through everything of note you find on the web, which is where Pocket comes in. Use it to store articles and videos for reading and watching later, at your leisure. You can organize saved items using tags, strip away distracting ads and other page clutter, and even get at your article lists from your phone. |

2. Ghostery

Ghostery does a hugely effective job of restricting how advertisers can track your movements online—it blocks a lot of the commonly used scripts and plug-ins that marketers use to work out who you are, and the dashboard that it uses to show you what it’s doing is simple to read. As an added bonus, you’ll find your browsing is quicker too. |

3. The Great Suspender

If you use a browser, chances are you tend to have too many tabs open at once. The Great Suspender is one of the best and simplest extensions for doing something about it, and will suspend tabs that have been inactive for a while, freeing up system resources until you need the tab again. If you’re on Firefox, Auto Tab Discard is built along similar lines.

4. Foxy Gestures

Using mouse gestures for key browser commands—forwards, backwards, reload—can genuinely transform the way you get around the web, and for the better: you’ll spend more time reading articles and less time hunting for menu buttons and keyboard shortcuts, and everything is fully customizable. If you’re on Chrome, then give CrxMouse Gestures a try.

5. LastPass

Your browser probably already does a decent job of storing passwords and auto-filling forms, but a dedicated password manager like LastPass can offer more features and a more intuitive interface—LastPass is a breeze to use and navigate around, and able to securely store other sensitive information (like passport numbers) alongside passwords. |

6. HTTPS Everywhere

HTTPS is the more secure, private version of HTTP, and most sites now support it—though it isn’t always applied (if you follow a link that omits the “S” for example). HTTPS Everywhere works in the background of your browser to make sure that you’re always on the upgraded version of the sites you’re visiting, for extra piece of mind while browsing. |

7. Grammarly

If you do a lot of writing inside your browser then get Grammarly on your side: it’ll keep an eye on your grammar, as the name suggests, but also your spelling and the style and tone that you’re using. The extension works with most websites where text can be entered, and can help you make sure you’re getting your messages across as effectively as possible. |

8. Enhancer for YouTube

Don’t settle for the standard YouTube site any longer—use Enhancer For YouTube to upgrade your video streaming experience with extra playback controls, customizable ad removal, preferred playback quality settings, auto-pausing for background tabs, player pinning (so the current video stays on top of other windows), and more besides. |

9. LeechBlock

Spending more time on certain sites than you really should? LeechBlock keeps you honest and will restrict access to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or any URLs that you want to stay away from until the day’s work is done. You can take full control over which sites are blocked and at what times, see statistics on your browsing activity, and much more. |

10. Google Translate

Never be stumped by a foreign language in your browser again—the official Google Translate extension will translate words, phrases or entire webpages on demand with just a click or two, and you can even get pronunciation guidance as well if you need it. The official add-on isn’t available for Firefox, but To Google Translate is a good unofficial one.

11. Nimbus Screen Capture

If you need to take screenshots of pages during the course of your browsing, then turn to Nimbus Screen Capture—it offers a whole host of functionality (full screen grabs, partial grabs, simple editing tools, a variety of export options) in an interface that’s accessible and easy to get to grips with. You can record browser activity as a video as well, if you need to. |

12. Buffer

If you find something that you want to share on the web, then Buffer is one of the quickest and easiest ways to do just that—click the Buffer icon in your browser toolbar to share the current page on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more, without having to visit all those sites individually. Paid-for upgrades are available, but the free version will be fine for most. |

An Expert Explains Why the Sonos Arc Soundbar Is So Much Better Than the Playbar

Sonos was due to update the Playbar, which was released 2012 and over eight years old, and the successor is finally here. Arc is Sonos’s new high-end soundbar that takes the place of both the Playbar and the Playbase and boasts a number of big upgrades including an all-new industrial design with a 270-degree grill, built-in microphones support for Alexa and Google Assistant (just like Beam). Most important, it has all the necessary processing power, memory and drivers to enable its standout feature: support for Dolby Atmos. This is the soundbar that’s going to take Sonos’s home theater system to the next level.

At $799, the Sonos Arc is $100 more expensive than what the Playbar was going for. It’s available for pre-order today and everywhere starting June 10.

The big question is: how much better of a soundbar and a speaker is Arc than Playbar? I haven’t listened to Arc yet, but I was able to hope on the phone with Chris Davies, the senior director of audio engineering at Sonos, who was able to help break down the big differences.

The Arc is the first Sonos soundbar to support Dolby Atmos. It also works as a smart speaker, just like the Sonos Beam.

Arc has more bass.

First, Arc is able to output much more bass. “It was something we recognized in Playbar that for customers pushing the thing really loudly that the bass starts to be a little bit compromised,” said Davies. Bass output requires a certain amount of volume displacement, which Davis explains is just the surface area of the transducer multiplied by how far it moves. Basically, the more surface area of the transducer and the more it’s able to move, the more bass you’re able to get. Sonos squeezed learned from Beam (released in 2018), how to squeeze as much bass as possible out of a small soundbar. They then used those learnings on Arc, only this time they had a longer soundbar (more surface area) and more woofers to play with.

Arc is louder, and sounds better at loud volumes.

Second, Arc is going to sound significantly better than Playbar when you play it high volumes. Arc has a total of 11 drivers, eight woofers and three tweeters, compared to the Playbar’s nine, six woofers and three tweeters. (The Beam has four full-range drivers.) As mentioned, Arc is a longer soundbar than Playbar. This helps with bass, but it also allows the soundbar to pack more drivers closer together, giving it more control over high frequencies as well. The result is better high and low frequencies, and it’s going to sound really great the louder you play it.

Arc has a total of 11 drivers (8 woofers and 3 tweeters) compared to the Playbar’s nine (6 woofers and 3 tweeters)

Arc is a full-on 5.0 Atmos system.

Arc has five different speaker arrays (for left, center, right, left surround and right surround content), according to Davis, while the Playbar only has three arrays and lacks the surrounds. These dedicated surrounds, plus the round perforated industrial design, allow Arc to have side-firing capabilities and thus create a much larger soundstage — this is true even when streaming music from your smartphone. The upward-firing drivers allow Arc to create those virtual height channels and really create an immersive sound experience. The Playbar doesn’t support Atmos and thus can’t create a 3D immersive sound.

Arc is as easy to control as Beam.

Arc is very similar to Beam in the way you can control it. It has a built-in four-microphone array and you can set it up so that it responds to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands, this way you can adjust the TV volume without touching the remote or you treat it like a large Amazon Echo or Google Home speaker. It supports AirPlay 2, which is great news if you want to quickly stream music from your iPhone or iPad. And, like the Beam, it has a single connection port (eARC or ARC), so installation is a breeze.

|

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The Quiet Powerhouse of Phono Cartridges

Turntable manufacturers tend to make every part of the turntable themselves — the plinth, the motor, the tonearm and the platter. There is, however, often a notable exception for what is arguably a turntable’s most crucial component: the phono cartridge. While some companies, like Audio Technical and Cambridge Audio, do get into the cartridge business, many more including Pro-Ject, Fluance and U-Turn, have chosen to partner with Ortofon. Pro-Ject’s more popular turntable, the Debut Carbon (DC), comes with an Ortofon cartridge. So too does every turntable in Fluance’s Reference line.

So, what’s the deal? Why don’t more turntable manufactures make their own phono cartridges? And what makes Ortofon cartridges so special?

One of Ortofon’s biggest strengths is that it is in no way new to the game. Founded over 100 years ago in 1918 by two Danish audio engineers, Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen, the company developed one of the first synchronized sound film systems and helping to usher in an era of music and dialog. According to Louis Dorio, a product specialist at Ortofon, it was after World Word 2 when the company became primarily concerned with producing record manufacturing and playback equipment, like record cutting heads and cutting amplifiers used in the mastering process.

“Ortofon developed the first cutting head that could actually offer wide frequency response, the way we listen to music today,” said Dorio. “Of course, at the time, listeners couldn’t make use of these new HiFi records without a new cartridge, so the natural thing to do was develop cartridges that could satisfy the demands of the new recordings.”

The first Ortofon cartridge was a moving coil cartridge, the MC Mono-A cartridge, and it was developed by Holger Christian Arenstein in 1948. Since then, Ortofon has been a fixture in the hi-fi world, manufacturing everything tonearms to cables, but they’re still best known for the over 50 cartridge models they make.

The business has changed a lot for Ortofon in the past 15 years, and that’s because the vinyl industry has changed a lot in that time as well. Before 2010, audiophiles and DJs were the primary groups listening to vinyl, and in fairly small numbers, leaving Ortofon content to produce a variety of high-end cartridges in relatively modest quantity. Since then, there’s been a vinyl boom. More vinyl means more turntables, which in turn means more phono cartridges.

Part of Ortofon’s continued relevance, and the lack of competition from turntable producers themselves, has to do with the difficulty of achieving the scale of production the boom has required. Ortofon’s factory in Nakskov, Denmark is pretty uniquely suited to mass-producing excellent phono cartridges. And producing cartridges at any scale is far from easy. “Each individual component of the cartridge has a big influence on the sound,” explained Dorio. “Whether it be the diamond shape, cantilever material, the choice of coil wire material, how many coils, the magnet chosen and its intensity, and the type of rubber suspension that will be used. And that just scratches the surface really, as most of it gets into physics and how it can be applied to produce a good sounding final product.”

In 2007, Ortofon created its 2M series of moving-magnet (MM) cartridges, which is the company’s best-selling and most visible (they’re all bright colors) series of cartridges today, and they’re compatible with most entry-level phono preamps and entry-level integrated turntables. Ortofon also makes numerous moving-coil (MC) cartridges, which are better at preserving accuracy and sound quality, but also more expensive. That said, the company’s entry-level 2M series cartridges are still very good, which is why some of the biggest turntable manufactures have chosen to use them. “Even if you buy our least-expensive cartridge, it’s still free from distortion and it gets far more right than it gets wrong,” said Dorio. “One concept that we try to live by is the importance of ‘entry-level quality.’ We’ve always been focused on providing solid options for listeners who just want the best possible value from their money.”

The Ortofon 2M Blue is the company’s most popular upgrade from the omnipresent 2M Red Cartridge.

Should you find that you somehow disagree, the great thing about all phono cartridges is that they’re one of the most upgradable components in any hi-fi system. And higher-quality phono cartridge can have a big impact on your system’s overall sound quality; plus, it could help preserve the life of your records. If you have an entry-level turntable with an Ortofon 2M Red cartridge ($100) and you’re looking for something to upgrade to, get the Ortofon 2M Blue ($236). And if you made that decision, you wouldn’t be alone. According to Dorio, it’s the most popular upgrade, and one that’s well-made.

Protect Your AirPods With a Durable Leather Case

<!–<!– –>

–>

All the Free Trials from the Most Popular Streaming Services

We’re streaming more content than ever. A recent Nielsen report said that since the quartine started in early March, streaming on televisions is up 85 percent, leading to an estimated grand total of 400 billion minutes of streamed TV minutes. (Oddly, people are streaming less music now that we’re home.) This means that you’ve likely exhausted most of the movies and shows that your current service, be it Netflix or Apple TV+, is offering, and you’re wondering what else is out there.

We’ve rounded up the most popular streaming services (including movies, shows and music) and what free trials they are currently offering. That way you can try something out without having to hand over your hard-earned dough.

Movies and Shows

Netflix

The free trial: Netflix currently offers a 1-month free trial.

Normal costs: Netflix offers three different plans. The Basic Plan costs $9/month, allows one person to be signed on at a time, and it delivers up to an SD quality stream. The Standard plan costs $13/month, allows two people to be streaming at once, and delivers up to an HD quality stream. And the Premium plan costs $16/month, allows four people to be streaming at once, and delivers up to an Ultra HD quality stream.

YouTube Premium

The free trial: YouTube Premium offers a 3-month free trial for first time subscribers.

Normal costs: YouTube Premium costs $12/month after the free trial is offer. Subscribers get ad-free access to all YouTube and YouTube Music content.

Hulu

The free trial: Hulu offers a 1-month free trial of its standard service or a 7-day free trail of its Hulu and Live TV package.

Normal costs: Hulu offers four different plans. Hulu Basic costs $6/month and gets you access to most of Hulu’s content, but there will be ads. Hulu Premium costs $12/month and gets subscribers ad-free content to most of Hulu’s content. Then you can bundle the Basic and Premium plans with Hulu’s Live TV package for $55/month and $61/month, respectively. You can bundle a subscription with ESPN+ and Disney+ for $13/month, here.

Amazon Prime Video

The free trial: If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get a free premium subscription of Amazon Prime Video.

Normal costs: If you’re not an Amazon Prime member, a subscription to Amazon Prime Video costs $9/month. (Amazon Prime costs $13/month or $6.50/month for students.)

Disney+

The free trial: Disney+ offers a 7-day free trial when you first sign up.

Normal costs: Disney+ costs $7/ month or $70/year. You can bundle a subscription with ESPN+ and Hulu for $13/month, here.

Apple TV+

The free trial: You get a 1-year free trial of Apple TV+ when you buy an new Apple device. If you haven’t bought a new Apple device, you can get a 7-day free trial.

Normal costs: Apple TV+ costs only $5/month or $50/year, and that includes Family Sharing.

ESPN+

The free trial: ESPN+ does not offer a free trial anymore.

Normal costs: ESPN+ costs $5/month or $50/year. You can bundle a subscription with Hulu and Disney+ for $13/month, here.

Music

Spotify

The free trial: Spotify offers a 60-day free trial of Spotify Premium, its ad-free service. If you’ve been a Spotify Premium subscriber in the past, you are ineligible for the free trial.

Normal costs: Spotify Premium currently costs $10/month and $5/month for students.

Apple Music

The free trial: Apple Music offers a 3-month (90-day) free trial to first time subscribers, but you can actually get an extra month free if you buy through Best Buy.

Normal costs: Apple Music currently costs $10/month for individuals, $15/month for a family plan, or $5/month for college students.

Tidal

The free trial: Tidal typical offers a 60-day free trial to new subscribers of its HiFi and Premium plans, but right now you can get an even better deal: you can get the first four months of either plan for $1/month, tallying up to a grand total of $4. It’s technically not a free trial, but it’s a heck of an offer.

Normal costs: Tidal Premium normally costs $10/month and allows you to listen to over 60,000 tracks in standard sound quality. Tidal HiFi is the more premium subscription that normally costs $20/month and allows subscribers to listen to those same tracks in true lossless hi-fi sound quality.

Pandora

The free trial: Pandora offers a 30-day free trial of Pandora Plus and a 60-day free trial of Pandora Premium.

Normal costs: Pandora Plus costs $5/month and users can skip unlimited songs and download some songs for offline listening. Pandora Premium costs $10/month and allows subscribers to have everything the Plus plan offers, but they can download unlimited songs and they can also create and share playlists.

Amazon Music Unlimited

The free trial: New subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited get a 3-month free trial.

Normal costs: Amazon Music Unlimited costs $8/month for Prime members or $10/month for non-members.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.