Category: Tutorials

Twitch appears to be toying with a program that automatically rates streamers based on a handful of factors — including age, suspension history and partnership status — in order to pair them with advertisers. It's called the Brand Safety Score, and it was discovered in Twitch's internal API by cybersecurity student Daylam Tayari, who posted images of the changelog on Twitter.

A Twitch spokesperson stopped short of confirming the existence of the Brand Safety Score to Engadget, but offered the following statement:

"We are exploring ways to improve the experience on Twitch for viewers and creators, including efforts to better match the appropriate ads to the right communities. User privacy is critical on Twitch, and, as we refine this process, we will not pursue plans that compromise that priority. Nothing has launched yet, no personal information was shared, and we will keep our community informed of any updates along the way."

According to Tayari, the Brand Safety Score rates streamers based on their age (whether they're over 18 or 21), suspension history, relationship with Twitch, partnership status, whether they use automod and at what level, whether a stream is set to mature, and the ESRB ratings of their games. There's also a section to add a manual rating from a Twitch employee.

As described, the Brand Safety Score sounds similar to ad-rating systems already employed by sites like YouTube and Twitter, or even ratings on ridesharing apps. It should help advertisers sort through the sea of streamers, and could affect Twitch's Bounty Board, where advertisers offer specific gigs to a handful of chosen partners and affiliates. 

Knowing which metrics Twitch is tracking can help streamers stay at the top of the pile, though there's no guarantee that the company will make any of its rating algorithms public — unless a curious researcher takes another dive.

It was only two months ago that Samsung held an Unpacked event to announce the Galaxy S21, but the company is already sending out invites for another event it plans to hold on March 17th at 10 AM ET.

What could we see at the event? Well, this time last year we got our first look at the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung didn’t talk foldables at its January Unpacked event, so we could see something on that front. Another possibility is that we could get our first glimpse at the company’s rumored Exynos-powered Windows 10 PC with AMD GPU. However, if recent leaks are any indication, Samsung’s mid-range devices like those in the Galaxy A series could finally get their time in the limelight. Given their increasing importance to the company’s bottomline, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

A team of researchers from IBM Japan, the University of Tokyo and Yamaha Motors have created a robot that uses canvas, paint and a brush to create paintings on its own. What sets this artificial intelligence apart from some of the other artistically-inclined ones we’ve seen in the past is that it doesn’t generate the paintings it creates at random. Instead, it’s programmed to work with concepts and has a set of “values” it turns to for guidance. It’s possible to shape the images it creates by providing it with additional instructions. Limit it to 30 or fewer brushstrokes and it will paint a more abstract piece. Conversely, with some 300 brushstrokes at its disposal, it will create something more realistic.

In its current iteration, the robot can work with both watercolors and acrylics and can mix paints with water. The team behind the project is currently working on a visual system that will allow the machine to see its paintings as it’s working on them. That same system could also open the door to human artists working with the robot. The AI Painting Project will be on display at SXSW 2021, which you can check out virtually starting on March 16th.

Sonos confirmed the rumors of a new device today by announcing the Roam portable speaker. It's meant to be a smaller, more affordable alternative to its existing portable speaker, the $399 Move. At $169, it certainly fills a big gap in Sonos' lineup, but it remains more expensive than competing devices.

The $169 Sonos Roam is available for pre-order starting today from the company's website. It will officially be available starting April 20, and pre-order customers can expect their speakers to ship around that time.

Pre-order the Roam at Sonos – $169

Unlike the relatively large Move, the Sonos Roam has a smaller, narrower design and weights just about one pound. It's IP67-rated, protecting it from dust and from being submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. Inside are two Class-H amplifiers, one mid-woofer and one tweeter, and the Roam supports adjustable EQ using the companion app. You'll be able to pair two Roam speakers together for stereo sound and connect the new speaker to existing Sonos devices you may have around your home.

But similarly to the Move, the Roam can play music via Bluetooth or WiFi and it supports a plethora of streaming apps including Spotify, Apple Music and others. You're also able to use Apple AirPlay 2 with it and control the device using either Amazon's Alexa or the Google Assistant. The Roam uses Sonos' Automatic Trueplay tuning to adapt sound to your environment, and it'll be able to use the company's new Sound Swap feature. This lets you press and hold the play/pause button to swap the music to the closest Sonos speaker to you, making it easier to move sound with you from room to room.

When it comes to power, the Roam charges via USB-C or via any Qi-compatible wireless charging pad. The speaker comes with a charging cable, but Sonos will also sell a separate, wireless dock for $49. The company promises up to 10 hours of playback on a single charge, or 10 days of life when in sleep mode.

Today, Sonos revealed its least expensive, most portable speaker yet, the Roam. It’s a follow-up of sorts to the Move, the company’s first portable speaker which debuted in 2019. That speaker may have Bluetooth and a battery, but its relatively large size and heavy weight meant it wasn’t exactly a grab-and-go device. The Roam, on the other hand, is made with portability first in mind, putting it in competition with speakers like the UE Boom 3 and the JBL Flip 5.

My first impression of the Roam is that it’s a portable speaker first that can also be used at home. The Move, on the other hand, is a larger speaker built for the home that you can also take with you. It’s a subtle but important difference in how the Roam was conceived. The $169 Roam is a full-fledged Sonos device, which means when you’re home and connected to WiFi, it works just like any other Sonos speaker. You can group it with other Sonos devices; stream audio from dozens of services; take two Roams and pair them in stereo; use Google Assistant or Alexa for voice control; and stream from Apple devices using AirPlay 2.

Sonos

But like the Move, the Roam also has Bluetooth on board, which means you can pair a device and stream music to it when you’re away from a WiFi network. Its built-in battery is rated for 10 hours of playback, and it automatically goes into a low-power sleep mode when it’s not in use. It should last about 10 days in sleep mode.

Obviously, being able to link the Roam into a system of Sonos products is a plus for people already in the Sonos ecosystem, but it also has a lot of clever features that further separate it from other portables. For example, the Roam can automatically switch between Bluetooth and WiFi. Once you’ve paired it with your phone, it’ll remember that pairing and be set to go when you take it out of the home. Likewise, when you return it’ll rejoin your WiFi network without prompting. This is an improvement over the Move, which required manual switching between Bluetooth and WiFi.

This speaks to the philosophy Sonos has for the Roam, which is making it simple to use both at and away from home. The Bluetooth-only speaker market is already pretty crowded,” Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, the company’s senior VP of hardware development,” said in an interview ahead of the company’s launch event. “For us, going into this specific market, we had to do more than just put Bluetooth and great sound into these products. We thought really hard about how to bring the Sonos experience from in the home to outside the home.”

That’s the inspiration behind things like the new “Sound Swap” feature. If you’re playing music on the Roam and want to bounce it to another Sonos speaker, pressing and holding the play button will search for the nearest speaker and send the music to it. The idea is to keep the music flowing from away from home into the home.

Sound Swap makes use of some intriguing technology. “Pressing and holding play/pause signals the other players to emit an ultra high frequency sound that only Roam can hear," Hadley Simmons, a product marketing manager at Sonos, explained to Engadget. “Roam can pick up those chirps with its microphones and detect the nearest speaker. It’s basically an easier way to move music throughout your home without having to go back to the Sonos app and sort through your different rooms.” In the same vein, if the Roam is playing music via Bluetooth, you can hold the play button and it’ll automatically stream that music to other Sonos speakers — effectively turning the Roam into a Bluetooth line-in to the rest of your system.

Sonos

The technology for Sound Swap came out of the Sonos advanced technology group, a team that came together in the last few years. “In the past, we’d try and innovate in the product development process, but that’s the worst place to try and do it when you have a specific schedule and deadlines in front of you,” Bouvat-Merlin said. “So I created a special, standalone group that works on things for two, three, four years down the road.”

All these features are meaningless if people don’t want to take the Roam with them, which means its physical design is probably more important here than with standard home speakers. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the Roam looks compact and easy to move. It weighs less than a pound, and Sonos described it as about the same size as a water bottle. The idea is for it to be small and light enough that you don’t need to think about taking it with you; it just becomes a habit. I haven’t used it yet, but I could definitely imagine it being the kind of thing I’d toss in a bag when I leave the house, whether for a quick trip or a cross-country flight (when that’s doable, anyway).

As usual, there are some smart Sonos flourishes here. The speaker can be used in vertical or horizontal orientation. It detects which way it’s positioned and adjusts the sound accordingly. It’s compatible with all Qi wireless chargers, or you can simply use the included USB-C cable. Sonos is making its own magnetic wireless charger, but unfortunately it’s a $50 extra rather than something included in the box.

Sonos

The Roam is also rated IP67 for dust and water resistance. In fact, it can be submerged in up to one meter of water for 30 minutes and still work. The Move has superior resistance to temperature fluctuations, but it can’t be dunked in water. Given other companies have speakers that can even float in a pool, the fact that the Roam can survive a trip underwater is crucial.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Roam needs to sound good — no small feat, given its diminutive size. I haven’t listened to it, but. Simmons said users should expect sound quality comparable to the larger Sonos One speaker, albeit without the same max volume. But the bass presence is said to be much larger than you’d expect out of a speaker that small. Of course, we’ll need to wait to hear it for ourselves, but given what companies like Amazon, Google and Apple have done with their own relatively small speakers, I’m hopefully Sonos has worked its magic on the tiny Roam.

As usual for Sonos, the Roam features a number of custom internal components, like the so-called “racetrack” mid-woofer. Since a traditional circular design wouldn’t work in the slim, tall Roam, Sonos went with this oval shape to maximize its size. It also has a dedicated tweeter and two class-H amplifiers. Fitting both a tweeter and mid-woofer into the Roam rather than using one all-purpose driver should make a significant difference in audio quality.

Sonos

Sonos also included the “Auto Trueplay” speaker-tuning technology it first built into the Move. This means the speaker will use its built-in microphone array to listen to its output and optimize the sound for wherever it’s placed. Trueplay has been available for Sonos speakers since 2015, but they require an iOS device to use to manually tune the device. Not so for the Move and the Roam, and the Roam takes things a step further this time. It’ll be able to tune itself even when you’re not on WiFi, using profiles built directly into the speaker hardware itself.

The Roam is entering a crowded market, but it’s priced competitively, even if it’s still more expensive than many Bluetooth-only devices. It does offer a load of features if you’re already a Sonos user — but its low price also makes it a gateway drug to the Sonos ecosystem if you’ve never tried their products. We’ll need to take a listen before we can judge if Sonos hit the mark, but from what we know so far it’s looking like a compelling option in the ultraportable speaker category. Pre-orders for the Roam are open now on the Sonos website, and the speaker will be available on April 20th.

If you’re a T-Mobile subscriber, you’ll soon be automatically enrolled in a program that will see your online and device usage data sold to advertisers. In a privacy policy update spotted by The Wall Street Journal, the carrier said it would start sharing that information with marketing agencies starting April 26th unless customers opt out. “We’ve heard many say they prefer more relevant ads so we’re defaulting to this setting,” a spokesperson for T-Mobile told the WSJ. The new policy will include everyone who came over to T-Mobile through the carrier’s 2020 merger with Sprint. That’s notable because Sprint previously allowed its customers to opt into sharing their data with advertisers.

T-Mobile’s decision to enroll as many of its customers as possible in a program that sells their data to advertisers runs counter to what we’ve seen from tech giants like Google and Apple recently. It was only earlier this month the former said it would stop selling ads that rely on a person’s browsing history, and not build any cross app tracking tools in the future. Apple, meanwhile, will soon require developers to explicitly obtain a person’s permission before they track them across websites and applications. It’s even a step beyond the data collection AT&T and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) currently run. While both carriers automatically enroll their subscribers in programs that pool them into shared interest groups, as an AT&T or Verizon customer, you don’t have to go out of your way to prevent your wireless provider from sharing more detailed information on you.

You can opt out of the advertising program by opening the T-Mobile app on your phone, tapping the “More” tab and then going into the “Advertising & Analytics” section. Switch the toggle next to the “Use my data to make ads more relevant to me” option to off.

Instagram is taking a step forward for accessibility with the rollout of automatic captions on Stories. Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared a video of the feature in action.

There's a new sticker called CC captions that you can add to your Story. When you do, the app will transcribe the audio. You'll have the option to change the font of your captions. However, Instagram didn't transcribe Navarra's story completely accurately, mistaking "finally" for "find."

This move is a big boost for accessibility, especially for hard of hearing users. It could come in useful for those who speak different languages too. There are third-party services that Instagram users can harness to add captions, but a built-in auto caption tool could translate the text. Engadget has contacted Instagram for more details on the feature, including rollout plans.

Several other platforms already support automatic captions, such as YouTube. Similar features are also on the way to Zoom and Twitter.

Update 03/09/21 10:00PM ET: According to Instagram, the feature is not widely available yet. In a statement sent to Engadget, a spokesperson said: "We're always exploring ways for people to better express themselves in Stories. This feature is not publicly testing at the moment."

Less than two years into its existence, Disney+ has 100 million subscribers. According to Deadline, Disney CEO Bob Chapek shared news of the milestone during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Today’s announcement caps off a period of rapid growth for the platform, with no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. It was only less than a year ago that Disney said the service had 57.5 million customers, and last month that it revealed that it had come just shy of the 100 million mark with 94.9 million customers.

Much of that growth has been thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s fair to say if not for shows like The Mandalorian and WandaVision people wouldn’t be turning to Disney+ to pass the time in the numbers that they have to date. With more Marvel and Star Wars content coming later this year, Disney is well-positioned to keep attracting subscribers to the platform. The service still has a long way to go before it becomes the 200 million subscriber juggernaut that is Netflix, but clearly it's a dominate force in the space.

Amazon is expanding US availability of its free, ad-supported IMDb TV streaming app. As of today, you can access the platform on LG Smart TVs, PlayStation 4, NVIDIA Shield and TiVo Stream 4K. If you own a TV from LG, the app is available on models made between 2018 and 2021, including those with OLED panels.

Today’s announcement follows IMDb TV’s recent expansion to Roku, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Sony Android TVs and Chromecast with Google TV devices. Since March 3rd, you’ve also been able to access IMDb TV content through an Amazon Fire TV live channel. Provided you’re willing to sit through commercials, you can watch movies like Arrival and The Lincoln Lawyer through the app. Amazon Studios originals like Top Class are also available.

Valheim went live on Steam exactly five weeks ago, and it’s been on fire ever since. Iron Gate’s Viking survival sim rocketed up the charts, hitting 5 million copies sold after just one month in Early Access and surpassing huge titles like Dota 2 in terms of concurrent active players.

Steam reviews for Valheim exude a palpable sense of awe and relief. Players regularly compare the feeling to the first time they played Minecraft, marveling at the game’s scope, depth and atmosphere, and questioning how a team of just five developers managed to pack such an engrossing experience into a 1GB download. Valheim sets players loose in an original realm of Viking purgatory, a vast, procedurally generated world filled with mythical Norse beasts, high seas, hunting and crafting. It’s dense yet forgiving; action-packed yet peaceful.

To date, Iron Gate has sold more than 5.7 million copies of Valheim. There are still only five people on the development team.

“We’re doing our best,” Iron Gate co-founder Henrik Tornqvist told Engadget. “It has become pretty hectic around here since launch.”

Iron Gate

Tornqvist and studio co-founder Richard Svensson are looking to hire a few more people, including a QA manager to handle the influx of bug reports from millions of new beta testers. Otherwise, it’s getting support from Coffee Stain Publishing — the folks responsible for Goat Simulator,a veritable granddaddy of viral video games.

Svensson began working on Valheim in 2017, as a side hustle. By day, he and Tornqvist were colleagues at Swedish studio Pieces Interactive, but by early 2018, Svensson had left to focus fully on Valheim.

“At the end of 2018 I also left to join forces with him,” Tornqvist said. “We founded the company Iron Gate in April 2019, and by then we pretty much knew where we wanted to take Valheim.”

Despite their faith in the core ideas behind Valheim, neither Svensson nor Tornqvist expected the game to explode in popularity the way it has. This is clear in an Iron Gate blog post published on January 1st, 2020, a full year before Valheim’s Early Access launch. In the entry, Svensson recaps the game’s development progress, officially welcomes Tornqvist to the team, and celebrates the birth of his son. It’s soaked in optimism from the first line (edited for clarity):

It’s Jan 1st, 2020, and I’m a bit hungover =). I will try to write a quick summary of this year’s happenings related to me and Valheim. It’s been an eventful year for sure. Crazy eventful to be honest. I have probably aged like 10 years this year. So here we go =). …We quickly registered a new limited liability company and in the last minute I came up with the name Iron Gate! I like the idea that our logo is a gateway to other worlds. What lies beyond the iron gate?

Truly, Svensson and Tornqvist had no idea.

“We did feel modestly confident in that we had a game that would see some success and provide the means for us to continue development through the Early Access-period, but nothing on the scale of the success we’ve actually had,” Tornqvist said. “It is a bit crazy actually, a once-in-a-lifetime hit, I think.”

Iron Gate

Tornqvist said he’s particularly enjoying all of the community-created content that’s spawned out of Valheim, including the memes, which he called “delicious.” Svensson and Tornqvist are hurrying to hire some more hands, and Iron Gate developers are focused on squashing bugs and continuing to support Valheim through Early Access, promising plenty of new content in 2021.

“Not to sound too corny, but we’re just very happy that so many people are enjoying the game really,” Tornqvist said. “So a big thank you to all the people who have taken the game to heart.”

Triller is beefing up its music credentials. Triller Network, the video app's parent company, has bought the battle series Verzuz, as Billboardfirst reported.

Verzuz pits two musicians (usually from the spheres of R&B and hip-hop) against each other. They compete in a live stream to see which of them has the better song catalog. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz created the series. They were the first duo to battle it out on Instagram Live last March. Verzuz battles also streamed on Apple Music.

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz have joined the Triller Verzuz management team to guide several strategies for the TikTok competitor, including music. They split some of their stake in Triller between the 43 musicians who have performed on Verzuz, who include Brandy, Monica, John Legend, DMX, Alicia Keys, Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight.

“By putting Verzuz in the Triller Network ecosystem and expanding the Verzuz brand to be side by side with the powerful Triller app, we will be able to continue to grow and evolve the music business as a whole, as we have been doing," Timbaland and Swizz Beatz said. Timbaland mentioned some plans the team has to build on the success of Verzuz, including a move into comedy. In January, a series centered around the Pro Bowl saw NFL stars pit their best highlights from the 2020 season against each other.

Russia and China plan to work together to build a research station on the Moon. In an announcement spotted by Ars Technica, the two countries said they will collaborate on an “International Lunar Science Station.” There aren’t many details on the project yet, but Roscosmos, Russia’s national space agency, suggests it could include facilities both in orbit around the Moon and on its surface. It will also be open to other nations to join.

China and Russia were the two countries that were notably missing from NASA’s Artemis Accords. Announced in October, the agreement seeks to create a template for peaceful, cooperative and transparent exploration of the Moon. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said the Lunar Gateway, a space station NASA plans to build in orbit around the Moon as part of Project Artemis, was too “US-centric.” That’s despite the fact NASA and Roscosmos have collaborated productively for decades on the International Space Station and the same agreement that made the ISS possible will govern the Lunar Gateway. Rogozin later left open the possibility for the two space agencies to work together again, but with Roscosmos now partnering with China, the chances of that happening look much less likely.

Bose is no stranger to sports earbuds. The company has made a number of them over the years, including multiplepairs of true wireless buds. However, for its most recent option, Bose is taking a different approach. The Sport Open Earbuds ($199.95) are indeed true wireless, but they don’t have the typical ear tip that goes inside your ear canal.

Instead, as the name suggests, they have an “open” design that sits outside of your ear. Not only does this increase comfort, but it also allows you to hear what’s going on around you at all times — a key safety feature for runners. Add a sporty over-the-ear hook design and water resistance and you’ve got earbuds prepped for the gym or trail. The only question is whether you’re willing to make some sacrifices for the sake of staying in tune with your surroundings.

Design

Like a lot of sports buds, both wired and wireless, the Bose Sport Open Earbuds have a hook that goes over the top of your ear and down behind it. This, of course, keeps them in place while you’re moving around on a run or in the gym. And that’s even more essential with these since there’s nothing going inside your ear that would otherwise keep them from falling out.

Billy Steele/Engadget

The hook design keeps things stationary, but they’re made of hard plastic. They don’t offer as much comfort as a soft-touch or flexible material would. Plus, they don’t bend to adjust to the contours of your ears. You’re stuck with the exact shape Bose’s designers selected, which isn’t uncomfortable per se, but it also isn’t as comfy as it could be.

Due to the Sport Open Earbuds design, the actual “earbud” component sits at the top of your ear rather than just outside of your canal. This allows for the “open” design that keeps your ears free to hear what’s going on around you while you listen to music or podcasts. Bose has created what it calls OpenAudio technology that beams “rich, full-range sound” into your ears while reducing what others nearby might pick up. It’s a similar concept to the Bose Frames, though these earbuds position the sound source much closer to your ear. So instead of using bone conduction, the Sport Open Earbuds employ specifically placed acoustic ports that channel music to its intended destination, powered by two 16mm drivers. It sounds good on paper, but in practice, my family could easily hear noise from these even at medium volumes.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live, also offers an “open” type design. But with those, Samsung puts the speaker directly over your ear canal. So while there’s no ear tip inside your ear, the buds are much closer, which helps with noise isolation and overall sound quality.

Bose

Lastly, Bose didn’t totally nix on-board controls for the Sport Open Earbuds. There are two tiny physical buttons — one on each side — that offer a few options. On the right, a single press will play/pause, a double press will skip to the next track and a triple press will return to the previous track. That same button is used to power on the earbuds and answer/end calls. The control on the left earbud activates your voice assistant of choice when you hold it down, and you can set it to announce the battery level with a single press. Thanks to a post-launch update, you can adjust volume with a tap on the outside of the earbuds. Use the right to increase volume and the left to turn it down. Bose also gives you the ability to disable volume control entirely inside of its app (it’s disabled by default).

It’s interesting that Bose employs both a physical button and touch gestures for the on-board controls on these earbuds. The tap is the less invasive action, so it would be great if the company could make some of button-pressing items touch enabled. At any rate, it’s clear Bose plans to improve the experience over time, since it’s already doing so shortly after launching the product.

Sound quality

Billy Steele/Engadget

Going into this review, I had flashbacks to testing the Galaxy Buds Live. Samsung’s design choices were pretty unique and those earbuds accomplished a lot of what it set out to do. However, the audio quality just wasn’t there. Plus, the company included active noise cancellation (ANC) on a product that didn’t seal off your ears, which kind of defeated the purpose. My first experience with a set of “open” design earbuds showed me having your ears always tuned into what’s going on around you meant big sacrifices in audio quality.

That’s the case again with the Bose Sport Open Earbuds. Bose has achieved a lot of what it intended: primarily, keeping your ears unobstructed when you’re exercising. There’s no denying this has massive implications for safety, especially for runners. But, I could overhear plenty at home while testing these. And, if your gym is anything like the one I went to pre-pandemic, it blasts a variety of pop music at an unreasonable volume. The main reason I wore headphones was to block that out, and these Bose earbuds won’t help you much there. You also have to be aware that these aren’t going to give you the audio quality you’ll likely be looking for in a set of $200 earbuds. That’s especially true when it comes to low-end.

While the Sport Open Earbuds have decent clarity, the lack of bassy thump sucks a lot of energy out of songs that are otherwise big and boomy. And if you’re like me, you rely on an ample amount of low-end to keep you motivated during a workout. With these earbuds, you get plenty of treble and some mid-range but that’s about it. This means they’re great for podcasts but just okay for most genres of music.

For example, the drum machines and percussion on Com Truise’s synth-heavy instrumentals retain detail, but the songs just don’t have the depth and droning bass lines that make them so atmospheric. The discrepancy is even more noticeable with hip-hop tracks like Lil Baby’s “Heatin Up.” The beat that’s the backbone of the track fades into the background.

The open design also has a benefit for calls: you can chat without feeling like you have to yell to hear yourself. Like podcasts, call audio comes through the earbuds crisp and clear. However, the person on the other side noted I sounded only slightly better than a speakerphone and background noise was an issue. They also said that they could hear themselves coming through — likely because the earbud mics were picking up sound from the open speakers.

Software features

Billy Steele/Engadget

A lot of headphone companies offer the ability to use audio presets, manually tweak the EQ or customize on-board controls with an app. That’s not an option Bose gives you with the Sport Open Earbuds. Instead, the app primarily handles software updates and monitors battery levels. There is one handy item in relation to charging: the app knows when the earbuds are on the base and displays progress.

Like most earbud and headphone apps, it also reminds you what the controls do, but that’s really it. It’s clear Bose wanted to keep things simple here, but that comes at the expense of literally any degree of customization.

Battery life

Bose claims up to eight hours of battery life on the Sport Open Earbuds. During my tests, I actually managed slightly better, stretching them about 30 minutes longer than the stated figure. This listening time is slightly above average for true wireless earbuds these days, but there’s a catch: these buds don’t come with a charging case. You don’t have a place to constantly top off the battery in your pocket when you’re taking a break from tunes. It also means there are separate accessories for charging and for storage.

Bose includes a magnetic charging base with a USB cable that connects to either your computer or a plug you likely already have. The Sport Open Earbuds fully charge in two hours, and 30 minutes will give you three hours of playback. Lights on the outside of the earbuds pulse white during charging and remain solid when done. The company also put a hard shell carrying case in the box. It’s not the fanciest thing, but it gets the job done. And a magnetic closure should keep them from falling out if the case gets jostled around in your bag.

The competition

Bose actually offers some solid competition for the Sport Open Earbuds within its own product lines. The Bose Sport Earbuds are a more traditional true wireless product, with ear tips and fit wings to keep things in place and block out noise. They lack the company’s powerful ANC and they’re quite big, but the sound quality is solid and they’re cheaper at $179.95.

As I mentioned, if you’re a fan of the “open” wear style, Bose also offers it with sunglasses. The Bose Frames Tempo are specially designed for exercise and sports, though the company does have options for “regular” use. The sport model offers eight hours of battery life and better water resistance, but they’re also one of the priciest options at $249.95 (some models are $50 cheaper). All of the audio sunglasses have swappable lenses, some are even prescription friendly, and they keep your ears tuned in to what’s going on around you.

For non-Bose alternatives, I’d actually suggest the Galaxy Buds Live from Samsung. Like the Sport Open Earbuds, these don’t have an ear tip and sit outside of your ear canal. However, they’re positioned just at the outside of the opening, rather than above it. This ensures better sound quality while still keeping things comfy and allowing ambient noise through. I’m not a big fan of them overall, but if a set of “open” earbuds are what you’re after, they’re worth a look. As of this writing, they’re $130 on Amazon (regularly $170).

Wrap-up

Billy Steele/Engadget

Bose has a long history of great-sounding headphones. The company may be mostly known for its noise-cancelling chops, but overall audio quality has also been respectable. With the Sport Open Earbuds, Bose decided allowing you to be hyper aware of everything around you was paramount. This means you gain the comfort of not having something crammed in your ears, but you have to accept sacrifices to sound quality.

I can appreciate these earbuds have a very specific purpose, and they could be a solid compliment to a set of over-ear noise-cancelling headphones that allow you to tune in and tune out the world. Of course, that’s the wrinkle: Do you want to invest in two sets of headphones or earbuds? There are plenty of all-around options that are well-suited for both casual listening and exercise. You’ll just have to decide if keeping your ears open is more important than great sound quality.

To celebrate the 10th birthday of Chrome OS, Google is announcing a revamp today and a new set of tools to make the platform much more useful. Of note, it's adding a new clipboard that remembers the last five things you copied, a Phone Hub to make accessing your Android device easier and support for Nearby Share.

Phone Hub is a little dashboard that lets you access your phone's controls and see its status for things like battery life and data connectivity. Not only can you use your Chromebook to ring your Android device when you've misplaced it, you can also enable tethering with one click as well as see recent Chrome tabs on your phone. You'll continue to be able to send and receive texts from the laptop (which you could already do before with the Messages app). 

Two new features make life a bit easier for those who have Android and Chrome OS devices. First, WiFi sync will let you automatically connect to trusted networks that you've used on your phone or other Chromebooks without having to re-enter passwords. And in the coming months, Nearby Share is coming to enable file sharing between your Chromebook and other Chrome OS or Android devices without an internet connection (over Bluetooth or local WiFi). 

Google

Google is also boosting the screen capture tool in Chrome OS, making it easier to access from the Quick Settings panel. You can now outline exactly what you want to copy on your display, and create screen recording videos, which will all be saved to your clipboard. Speaking of, the clipboard can now store up to five things you've copied, and you can access them from the new Tote feature. This is a holding zone for all the files you and Google think you'll need, in addition to the screen captures. You can pin files to Totes for easy access, which should come in handy for things your frequently send like checklists or reference sheets. 

As part of the redesign, Google is integrating media controls directly into the Quick Settings panel for easier access and refreshing the icons for built-in apps. Sharing files, images and links between apps and your browser is becoming slightly easier — now when you click Share on supported websites, you'll see a list of apps you can send your content to directly. When you want to translate, define or convert something on your screen, right-clicking it will bring up Quick Answers in a panel so you won't need to open another tab.

The company is also updating the Desks feature by adding support for up to eight virtual workspaces and bringing a new Overview mode to make switching between them easier. Now, when your laptop reboots, your windows in various Desks will restore so you can quickly get set back up in your workflow again. 

Google

Select-to-speak, the Chrome OS screen reader, is getting improved controls including options to pause, speed up and slow down the playback. Google is also making it easier to skip to different sections of text. 

Since many parents are buying their kids Chromebooks to make homework easier, Google is also making it simpler to set up Family Link, which allows students to use school accounts on their own devices. This way, parental controls can still apply while children get access to their school's apps. 

With Chromebooks being the most popular laptop in schools, it's good to see some useful updates coming to the platform. For those of us on Windows (or even those on macOS), some of these features will seem more like Google bringing its desktop software closer to what we're familiar with. Chrome OS may still not be the productivity ecosystem for people who need powerful apps for work, but with these updates it appears to be starting to catch up. 

Twitter isn't happy that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the company after it banned former President Trump. CBS Newsreports Twitter has sued Paxton in federal court, alleging the AG is violating the First Amendment by trying to punish the social network for exercising free speech rights over the content it hosts. Paxton was using the "full weight" of his position as retaliation over editorial choices he didn't like, Twitter's attorneys said.

Paxton himself had claimed Twitter's ban "chills free speech" and accused multiple tech giants of a "seemingly coordinated deplatforming" of Trump following the Capitol riot. He echoed frequent conservative beliefs that Twitter, Facebook, Google and others are breaking the spirit of the First Amendment with an alleged bias against right-wing views. These sites should be treated as public spaces and forced to carry any otherwise legal content, according to these beliefs.

Twitter may have a solid case, however. As a private company, Twitter is within its rights to determine what it does and doesn't publish. It might also point to a long history of refusing to ban Trump despite repeated violations of its policies, instead relying on labels or limitations on specific tweets. This wasn't a company that rushed to ban a dissenting view, in other words.

Paxton's office hadn't formally commented as we wrote this, but it wouldn't be surprising if he fought hard to protect the investigation. It could rally political supporters at a time when Paxton himself is facing scandals, such as accusations of bribery and abuse of office. A successful probe could also lead to punitive actions against Twitter, such as fines or an order to reinstate Trump's account.