Items tagged with headphones
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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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Just as you won't find any copies of Windows 8.1 or Surface Pro 3 tablets being sold in any Apple Store locations -- Apple and Microsoft are rivals, after all -- the Cupertino outfit is no longer carrying Bose products, either. Like Microsoft, Bose is now a competitor to Apple following the company's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. Apple used to sell a selection of Bose-branded speakers and headphones, but all such inventory has now been pulled off of store shelves. The move isn't all that surprising, not just because the two are competitors now, but also because tensions are high...
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Apple just got sacked by Bose after the audio company blitzed the National Football League (NFL) to become the league's official headphone and headset brand. Bose and the NFL extended their sponsorship agreement back in March, and as part of the deal, players and coaches must remove headphones from any other manufacturer during televised interviews. That includes Beats by Dre, a popular brand among professional athletes such as Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, both of which have endorsed the Beats by Dre brand in the company's "Hear...
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Teaming up with rappers in the audio headset market is fast becoming the newest fad in the tech industry. To wit, Apple recently joined forces with Dr. Dre by purchasing Beats Music for $3 billion, and now Intel is collaborating with rapper 50 Cent and his SMS Audio company to jointly release a set of earphones with Intel's health monitoring technology baked in. Intel's engineering and design teams have been working with SMS Audio for the past seven months to build the SMS Audio BioSport In-Ear Headphones. The Santa Clara chip maker designed the layout and circuitry, took charge of the system integration,...
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Hello Razer, have we met before? You may ask yourself the same question after spying the peripheral maker's new Kraken Forged Edition headphones. Razer's been known to put out some solid gaming accessories, no doubt about that, but the Kraken Forged Edition aims higher than Razer has perhaps ever aimed. Not only is this a premium (and premium priced) headset, Razer's touting it as the "best headphones" you can buy, point blank. "These are the best headphones on the market for both music and gaming, period," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. "We’ve made some...
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The headphones that made headphones cool have a new look and some important new features that will keep the beat going even longer. The Beats Studio series isn’t available just yet, but it’s already getting attention for the sleek new design and rechargeable batteries that are expected to give listeners 20 hours of audio bliss. Beats Electronics was founded in 2008 by Luke Wood, Jimmy Lovine, and Dr. Dre and made its reputation with the stylish Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, which received good marks for delivering quality sound. The new Beats Studio series has dual-mode Adaptive...
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The headphone world is a lot like the tablet world: there's lots of watered-down, low-cost, low-quality options. And frankly, cutting through the noise is tough for companies. Apple and a small handful of others have done so in the tablet realm, but what about headphones? There's one name that's soaring above all others these days, and that's Beats Electronics. The famed audio brand has just introduced the new Beats Studio. These cans have been redesigned and tweaked in myriad ways. Each pair of Studio headphones is precisely tuned with new custom digital software called the Beats Acoustic Engine...
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