Latest Tech News

Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more

Filtered by: audio Clear Filter

Soundcore Sleep A30: ANC Earbuds for Sleep That Can Save Your Marriage

I absolutely, positively, cannot sleep without ambient noise. I’m not sure when that neurotic prerequisite for sleep took root, but it’s here now, and I regard it as a fact of life. As you might imagine, that quirk is fine when I’m at home since I have plenty of noise machines at my disposal—an air conditioner, a smart speaker, and tons of earbuds—to fill the haunting silence that prevents me from sleep like unresolved vengeance prevents a ghost from passing on. But when I’m not at home, things

What Makes Cheap Earbuds a Real Value? Here's How I Find the Hidden Gems

A few months ago, Final Audio, a boutique Japanese brand, sent me its new, relatively low-priced ZE3000 SV noise-canceling earbuds to test. I was curious: Would this be a hidden gem among the dozens, even hundreds, of budget headphone options out there? Even as a full-time reviewer of these products, I can't keep up with all of them. So I did what I always do. I charged them up, then swapped out the default medium-size tips for the largest set of included ear tips and hoped I'd get a tight seal

Spotify brings shared audiobooks to Family and Duo plans, but there’s a catch

Audiobook access on Spotify has always been limited to the account owner, meaning that even for Premium Family or Duo subscriptions, only the person who set up the plan could actually use the included hours each month. That’s about to change, depending on where you live. Two add-ons for Individual, Duo, and Family plans Until now, Spotify’s audiobook access has been limited to the primary user and capped at 15 hours per month. But this week, Spotify announced that Premium subscribers in select

Spotify’s new 30-hour audiobook plans are too short to finish long books

Spotify has launched two new Audiobooks Plus add-on subscriptions that allow Premium users to double their audiobook listening limit to 30 hours. They’re available to individual Premium subscribers and users who manage Family and Duo plans. Other users on Premium accounts can now also request 15 hours of audiobook access from their plan manager. However, the new plans are still too short for those who prefer to listen to longer books. The 30-hour limit won’t get you through titles like George R

The best Sony TVs of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

Sony is known for their high-quality OLED TVs, which feature excellent picture and audio quality as well as high refresh rates for smoother motion while watching sports and fast-paced TV and movie scenes or console gaming. The latest Sony TVs also have exclusive VRR support for gaming on the PlayStation 5 to prevent screen tearing and stuttering that can ruin your immersion. While Sony TVs can get expensive, especially at larger screen sizes, there are more affordable options that still offer p

Spotify's Audiobooks+ add-on is now available to some Premium subscribers

It’s likely that you predominantly associate Spotify with music and podcasts, but if you’re a Premium member, you also get 15 hours of audiobook access per month. For some members, though, that clearly isn’t enough, as Spotify has introduced a new add-on subscription that doubles that listening time. Audiobooks+ was first trialled in Ireland and Canada, and is launching initially for Premium Individual and Plan members in a number of countries in Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand. On

Adobe's AI Videos Get Audio: Is It Better Than Google's Veo 3?

New Adobe Firefly video updates are here to bring your AI-generated videos to the next level and to potentially keep the company competitive in the crowded AI market. You'll be able to add sound effects to your Firefly AI videos, thanks to a beta release of a new AI tool rolling out now, the company announced Thursday. It's the second major tech company to release such capabilities, following Google's Veo 3 launch in May. There are also a couple of other changes coming to Firefly video, includi

Spotify expands audiobook access to family plan members for the first time

Spotify on Thursday announced an expansion of its premium audiobooks service, with two new plans that offer additional listening hours to subscribers, and allow other family members to access the service. The options are currently only available for Spotify Premium users in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, following initial tests in Ireland and Canada. U.S. users could already purchase 15 hours of

What Makes Cheap Earbuds a Real Value (or Not)? I Dug In to Find Out

A few months ago, Final Audio, a boutique Japanese brand, sent me its new, relatively low-priced ZE3000 SV noise-canceling earbuds to test. I was curious: Would this be a hidden gem among the dozens, even hundreds, of budget headphone options out there? Even as a full-time reviewer of these products, I can't keep up with all of them. So I did what I always do. I charged them up, then swapped out the default medium-size tips for the largest set of included ear tips and hoped I'd get a tight seal

I couldn't tell these glasses had built-in hearing aids - and you likely couldn't either

ZDNET's key takeaways The Nuance Audio hearing glasses are available in two styles and colors for $1,200 at participating retailers. They provide a stylish and discreet way to aid mild to moderate hearing loss. However, they provide six to eight hours of battery life and a three-hour charging period, which might frustrate power users. View now at Nuance Audio Since the US Food and Drug Administration approved a category of hearing aids that can be sold to consumers without a doctor's prescrip

Voxtral – Frontier open source speech understanding models

Voice: the original UI. Voice was humanity’s first interface—long before writing or typing, it let us share ideas, coordinate work, and build relationships. As digital systems become more capable, voice is returning as our most natural form of human-computer interaction. Yet today’s systems remain limited—unreliable, proprietary, and too brittle for real-world use. Closing this gap demands tools with exceptional transcription, deep understanding, multilingual fluency, and open, flexible deploy

Voxtral-Mini-3B-2507 – Open source speech understanding model

Voxtral Mini 1.0 (3B) - 2507 Voxtral Mini is an enhancement of Ministral 3B, incorporating state-of-the-art audio input capabilities while retaining best-in-class text performance. It excels at speech transcription, translation and audio understanding. Learn more about Voxtral in our blog post here. Key Features Voxtral builds upon Ministral-3B with powerful audio understanding capabilities. Dedicated transcription mode : Voxtral can operate in a pure speech transcription mode to maximize p

The most immersive gaming speaker system I've ever tested is $101 off

ZDNET's key takeaways The SteelSeries Arena 9 features a full-fledged 5.1 surround sound system, including subwoofers for added bass. It allows you to connect three devices simultaneously via Bluetooth, USB, and optical cable. While it offers robust EQ customization via the OLED dial and Sonar desktop app, the OLED dial doesn't give you as much control as the Sonar app for non-PC devices. $578.99 at Amazon $679.99 at Lenovo $679.99 at Best Buy more buying choices The SteelSeries Arena 9 syste

Corporate inadequacy has rendered my favorite rediscovered gadget useless

I went for a run this morning while holding my iPhone, which was connected to a cable that attached to my earbuds. I’ve exercised with wired headphones for years, but today, the cord, with its persistent jostling, was especially distracting. That’s because I was previously running with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, EPOS’s GTW 270. They came out in 2021 for $200, and I received them as a gift. They typically sat in a drawer until this spring, when I started running outside (rather than in a gym o

Mistralai/Voxtral-Mini-3B-2507 · Hugging Face

Voxtral Mini 1.0 (3B) - 2507 Voxtral Mini is an enhancement of Ministral 3B, incorporating state-of-the-art audio input capabilities while retaining best-in-class text performance. It excels at speech transcription, translation and audio understanding. Learn more about Voxtral in our blog post here. Key Features Voxtral builds upon Ministral-3B with powerful audio understanding capabilities. Dedicated transcription mode : Voxtral can operate in a pure speech transcription mode to maximize p

Fickle business strategy has turned my new favorite earbuds into e-waste

I went for a run this morning while holding my iPhone, which was connected to a cable that attached to my earbuds. I’ve exercised with wired headphones for years, but today, the cord, with its persistent jostling, was especially distracting. That’s because I was previously running with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, EPOS’s GTW 270. They came out in 2021 for $200, and I received them as a gift. They typically sat in a drawer until this spring, when I started running outside (rather than in a gym o

Lost Chapter of Automate the Boring Stuff: Audio, Video, and Webcams in Python

The third edition of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is now available for purchase or to read for free online. It has updated content and several new chapters, but one chapter that was left on the cutting room floor was "Working with Audio, Video, and Webcams". I present the 26-page rough draft chapter in this blog, where you can learn how to write Python code that records and plays multimedia content. Working with Audio, Video, and Webcams These days a smartphone is a portable film st

Samsung HW-QS700F soundbar review: Sophisticated design, automatic adjustments

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . It’s nice to see Samsung offer something new for 2025. For the last few years, the company has been updating existing designs for its annual refreshes , especially its most premium soundbar, the Q990 . I was pleasantly surprised to see something entirely new when the company debuted th

Get the Beats Studio Pro headphones at $180 off in this non-Prime deal

Adam Molina Beats fans and audio enthusiasts, there’s a significant opportunity to grab the Beats Studio Pro headphones at a great price. As part of the Prime Day event, you can purchase them for $169.99, down from their $349.99 retail price. This impressive 51% markdown matches their lowest price point this year. Beats Studio Pro for $169.99 (51% off) The Beats Studio Pro headphones offer a compelling set of features. With active noise cancelation, transparency mode, and personalized spatial

Im Never Splitting AirPods With My Wife Again Thanks to This iPhone Trick

When my wife and I travel, we usually download some shows to watch on our flight. But we always have to split a set of AirPods when we watch these shows so we each have one earbud. That means one of our ears is enjoying the show while the other is forced to endure the crying baby behind us on the plane, which can be distracting. But thanks to Apple's Audio Sharing feature, we can each enjoy a show together while using our own sets of AirPods. Audio Sharing was introduced with iOS 18 and iPadOS

Samsung’s Audio Eraser now lets you clean up audio in other apps

TL;DR One UI 8 now lets Galaxy owners access Audio Eraser outside of the Gallery app. The feature is accessible in Samsung Notes, Voice Recorder, and on recorded calls. Audio Eraser also works on any video played in the Samsung player, not just ones captured on your phone. The big day for Samsung’s foldables is here. While the spotlight is on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7, plenty of other news was also revealed during Galaxy Unpacked. Something that may have slipped under the radar is an int

Radium Music Editor

About Radium Radium is a music editor with a new type of interface. Compared to the piano roll interface, editing is quicker and more musical data fits on the screen . (Radium has a piano roll as well.) and . Compared to the tracker interface, note positions and effects can be edited graphically . Graphical editing provides more vertical space and gives a better visualization of musical data . (Everything can also be edited by text, like in a normal tracker, combining the best of two worlds.)

Radium – The Music Editor

About Radium Radium is a music editor with a new type of interface. Compared to the piano roll interface, editing is quicker and more musical data fits on the screen . (Radium has a piano roll as well.) and . Compared to the tracker interface, note positions and effects can be edited graphically . Graphical editing provides more vertical space and gives a better visualization of musical data . (Everything can also be edited by text, like in a normal tracker, combining the best of two worlds.)

The most immersive gaming speaker system I've ever tested is $230 off for Prime Day

ZDNET's key takeaways The SteelSeries Arena 9 features a full-fledged 5.1 surround sound system, including subwoofers for added bass. It allows you to connect three devices simultaneously via Bluetooth, USB, and optical cable. While it offers robust EQ customization via the OLED dial and Sonar desktop app, the OLED dial doesn't give you as much control as the Sonar app for non-PC devices. $548.99 at Amazon $679.99 at Lenovo $609.99 at Best Buy more buying choices The SteelSeries Arena 9 syste

Apple Said “No,” but Amazon Still Offers 40% Off AirPods 4 for Prime Day

With the iPhone the sole exclusion, nearly all Apple devices are seeing deep price slashes so this Prime Day is a golden opportunity for the brand’s fans. You’ll find at least 20 to 40% off across the board including the highly popular AirPods 4. These new-generation wireless earbuds are not in-ear like the AirPods Pro 2 (which are also on sale) but that’s exactly what many people love about them. They’re more affordable, too. Let’s talk numbers right away. The Apple AirPods 4 with active noise

AirPods 4 Now Priced Like Budget Earbuds, as Amazon Clears Out Stock Without Asking Apple

Apple has long set the benchmark for wireless earbuds whether you’re after active noise cancellation (with the AirPods Pro 2) or prefer a more streamlined experience without ANC. Right now, it’s the latter that’s stealing the spotlight during Amazon’s Prime Day event with the AirPods 4 dropping to an all-time low price of $99—down from their usual $129. Better still, this sale is not behind a Prime membership, so the savings are open to anyone. See at Amazon Coming in at $99, the AirPods 4 are

The best wireless earbuds for 2025

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . These are the wireless earbuds we've tested and reviewed that are the best for all needs and budgets. Finding the best wireless earbuds can make a huge difference in how you experience music, podcasts, calls and even daily commutes. Whether you're tuning out distractions on the train

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus Is 40% Off, Now at a New All-Time Low Price for Prime Members

Prime Day is a unique even, and it offers the biggest savings you’ll find on Amazon all year—beating even Black Friday. Just a few days ago, the buzz was all about Amazon dropping the price of its Fire TV Soundbar Plus to $174 which was already a record low. Now, as Prime Day kicks off, the price has dropped even further to $149, a level never seen before. This is a Prime Deal so it’s only available to Prime members. If you’re not a member yet, you can join the free 30-day trial and receive this

One UI 8 will take Samsung’s Audio Eraser to the next level (Updated: Video)

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung’s One UI 8 will upgrade the Audio Eraser feature, allowing real-time noise removal during video playback. The feature originally debuted with the Galaxy S25 series and reached older flagships via the One UI 7 update. The new version would likely debut on the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7. Update, July 4, 2025 (4:28 AM ET): Ice Universe has also posted the video on their Weibo channel, and we’re adding it here to show you how One UI 8’s upcom