Items tagged with headphones
When you think of Dell or its Alienware brand, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a PCs and not a peripheral. Be that as it may, Dell is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the peripheral market as part of a larger play, one in which it can sell gamers on a unified ecosystem through its Alienware division. You could, for example, buy an Alienware desktop and plug it into an Alienware monitor (even a giant 55-inch OLED display, if you have the bankroll), and then surround it with Alienware peripherals. Talk about an invasion! Whether you would want to is another question, and to help answer that, Dell sent us its AW988 Wireless Gaming Headset and AW959 Elite Gaming Mouse. We're already...
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As Christmas inches closer with the passing of each day, the less likely you are to find exactly what you need for all the folks on your shopping list. The good news is that procrastination sometimes pays off with big discounts on select items. Amazon has the Sony WH-CH700N noise canceling headphones on sale for half their regular price. Typically the WH-CH700N headphones sell for right at $200, and with the discount, they are $98. The headphones are offered in blue or black, and as of now, both will arrive in time for Christmas. The good news is that the headphones also have free shipping for Prime subscribers. For those unfamiliar with the WH-CH700N headphones, they are wireless...
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Now is the time to rock out with your wallet out to groovy bargains on everything under the sun, and especially anything in the electronics category. Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring out stellar deals, many of which we've already covered. But if you're looking to literally rock out, there are deals to be had on headphones and earphones. Beats by Dr. Dre Shown above is the Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones - LINE Friends Special Edition. It's an authentic Beats headset, only themed after LINE Friends, which are characters based on the stickers from the messaging app LINE. The characters are more popular in Hong Kong, but if you're looking for some flair, this headset fits the bill. It's...
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Apple’s AirPods wireless earphones are popular with lots of Apple fans, but the problem is that they are quite expensive. Xiaomi has unveiled a set of earbuds that look very similar to the Apple AirPods but are much cheaper. They are called the Xiaomi Mi AirDots Youth Edition, are completely wireless, and include a charging case. The AirDots weigh in at 4.2 grams making them extremely lightweight contributing to comfort when in the ears. The speakers inside the small earphones are 7.2mm units and promise to produce deep bass and high-quality audio. Xiaomi also designed the AirDots Youth Edition with an external touch zone on the outside of the earbuds for controlling a smartphone. That...
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Gaming headsets are a dime a dozen these days, particularly with the explosion of eSports drawing the attention of PC peripheral companies, new and old. Be that as it may, HP figured out a way to stand out from the crowd with its new Omen Mindframe, the first audio headset to employ an active cooling solution inside each of the earcups. Say goodbye to sweaty ears, if that is something you find yourself battling against amid the throes of the frag. Before we dive into the headset, let's quickly reflect on the Omen brand. Omen is essentially a rebirth of the VoodooPC acquisition HP made more than a decade ago. VoodooPC was a popular boutique builder of premium PCs, founded by Rahul Sood, and the...
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This is shaping up to be a busy month for Microsoft. The company has started pushing out its October 2018 Update for Windows 10, and just the other day, it held an event to announce a spattering of Surface products, including the Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2, and Surface Pro 6 with 8th generation Intel Core processors inside. That's not all, though. Microsoft is also releasing a set of Bluetooth headphones with Cortana integration. The new Surface Headphones appear to take aim at the premium headphone space, though we'll have to wait for Microsoft to announce pricing to know what it's going up against. What we do know, however, is that Microsoft is promising a "smarter way to listen" with...
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Apple is amplifying its war against the 3.5mm audio jack by no longer including an adapter with its older iPhone models. Now if you purchase an iPhone 7 or later and want to use your existing set of headphones with a 3.5mm jack, you'll need to purchase a Lighting-to-3.5mm dongle separately, priced at $9 if buying directly from Apple. In case you haven't followed the situation, here's a recap. Apple sparked a bit of controversy in 2016 when it released its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, both of which arrived to the scene without a 3.5mm audio jack. However, the company did include an adapter so that users could continue using their wired headphones, if they wanted do. A dongle is not ideal,...
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Many smartphone fans out there have a favorite set of headphones that they use on-the-go for listening to music. For most people, that favored set of headphones has a 3.5mm plug and needs to be plugged in for use. Apple, on the other hand, has been trying to steer iPhone users away from wired headphones for several years. That fact was never more obvious than when it did away with the integrated 3.5mm headphone port. While the integrated port might have disappeared, Apple has been offering Lightning to 3.5mm adapters in the box with its iPhones. A new research note that originated with a Barclays analyst has said that the 2018 iPhone will no longer come with the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter...
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Are you looking for a good set of headphones at a reasonable price? If that is the case, head over to Amazon and check out the Mpow 059 Bluetooth Headphones. They are fairly inexpensive at just $34.99, and if you use coupon code EMOQ8C77, it will knock the price down to $27.99, with free two-day shipping for Prime members of course. Typically you get what you pay for, and for the most part, spending less than $30 on audio gear is not going to get you very far. For what it is worth, however, the user reviews on this are overwhelmingly positive—the Mpow 059 is sitting on about a 4.5-star (out of 5) rating out of 15,476 customer reviews. The headphones sport "memory-protein" ear cushions designed...
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Apple is all about going wireless these days. That philosophy spilled into the audio space when Apple introduced its $159 AirPods, a set of Bluetooth earphones that Apple claims "will forever change the way you use headphones." Now the Cupertino company is apparently eyeing the audiophile space by developing high-end over-the-year headphones to rival other premium options on the market. People who are supposedly familiar with the product's development told Bloomberg that the new earphones could arrive by the end of the year, though that is not set in stone. While the sources did not get into specifics, they said Apple has faced some challenges in developing its new headphones, and that could...
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Apple has some very popular headphones on the market already with its Beats subsidiary being one of the hottest brands out there. Apple also has its own AirPods wireless earbuds, but a new rumor making the rounds suggests that the company might have its own branded over-ear headphones on the market as early as this year. The rumor has started with a note to investors penned by KGI analyst Ming-Cho Kuo, who is is known for very accurate Apple predictions. Kuo's note claims that Apple will be debuting a branded high-end over-the-ear headphone with an all-new design. The analyst doesn't give a specific time frame prediction but does say that he doesn't believe the headphones will launch before the...
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When it comes to headphones and earphones, one of the biggest brands in the world is Beats. It's been a long while, over three years, since the product sitting at the top of the Beats range has been updated. That flagship model is called Studio, and the update has finally arrived. Beats has new Studio 3 Wireless headphones that are available now from Apple directly and at other retail outlets. Anything with the Beats name on it carries a premium price, and the Studio 3 Wireless headphones are no exception selling for $349.95. The headphones feature the Apple W1 chip, a chip first seen in the Apple Airpods when they launched last year. Other than that W1 chip, the new Studio 3 Wireless headphones...
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Creative Labs was instrumental in evolving PC audio with notable products, like the Sound Blaster 16, AWE 32, AWE64, Live!, Audigy, X-Fi, and Extigy, and algorithms like EAX technology. Most of its competitors through the last three decades, like Yamaha, ESS, Turtle Beach, Auzentech and M-Audio, evolved their product line-ups or faded into obscurity. There were acquisitions of Aureal and Sensaura technologies that further boosted Creative's technology portfolio, too. Sound cards seem passé nowadays, as motherboard manufacturers hop up high-definition audio codecs with higher quality op-amps, capacitors, shielding and S/PDIF outputs, that make discrete sound cards a harder sell. But despite all...
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There are steps you can take to reclaim your privacy, such as putting a piece of black tape over your laptop's webcam, but unless you're willing to disconnect completely, total privacy might be a myth. Case in point, researchers at Israel's Ben Gurion University recently demonstrated how easy it is to hack a system so that the headphones record sound like a microphone. The proof-of-concept computer code at work is called "Speake(a)r" and what it does is repurpose the speakers inside headphones to record audio. It does this by capturing vibrations in the air and converting them into electromagnetic signals that can be clearly heard from across a room. It even works when the headphones are plugged...
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