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Sonos is planning to enter new markets over the next couple of years. The company, which currently makes smart speakers and soundbars, is gearing up to launch high-end, over-the-ear headphones, smaller in-ear wireless earbuds and a streaming box for TVs, according to a Bloomberg report. The new headphones would directly compete with Apple’s AirPods Max and AirPods, as well as devices from Sony and Bose, while the streaming box would compete with the Apple TV and devices from Roku and Amazon.

Sonos reportedly plans to charge more than $400 for the over-the-ear headphones — around the same as Sony's $400 highly-regarded WH-1000MX5, but cheaper than Apple' $549 AirPods Max. Its streaming box will reportedly cost between $150 and $200 — significantly higher than Apple, Amazon and Roku’s devices.

The company, best known for high-end smart speakers, has been trying to develop headphones since 2019. Its new products are an attempt to revive sales, which have slumped this year. On an earnings call earlier this month, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said that he expects brand new products to account for a “large portion” of the company’s revenue by the second half of 2024.

Sonos plans to release the over-the-ear headphones by April next year. Bloomberg reports that they will come in black and white color options, sync with other Sonos speakers, and also let people use their voice to navigate between songs. Sonos is also working on software to let people control all Sonos equipment in their house from their phones when they are away.

The streaming box will reportedly be released by the end of 2024 or early 2025. It will run an Android-based operating system and run streaming apps, similar to how existing streaming boxes work. Sonos is currently in talks with Netflix and companies offering live television to support its device.

In addition to headphones and a streaming box, Sonos is also working on updated versions of current home theater equipment, including a new subwoofer, a second-generation Roam speaker, a new version of its high-end Arc soundbar, and a more expensive Era 100 speaker with an ethernet port that Bloomberg says is aimed at businesses. The updated Arc might cost $,1200, a major price bump compared to the current model that retails for $900. It isn't clear how much the Era 100, the Roam and the subwoofer will cost. 

Teenage Engineering just revealed a, uh, toy car/doodad that costs $250. Yes, it’s $250 for a little piece of metal with wheels that you can roll around a desk for a bit before getting bored. The company tends to releases two kinds of products. There are the extremely expensive, yet pretty darn cool, audio devices and, well, everything else. Today’s surprise release falls squarely in the latter camp.

This might not be quite as egregious as the company’s $1,600 desk that you have to assemble yourself or those little wooden dolls that cost $2,000, but it’s still a doodad that should cost around $2.50, and not $250. Teenage Engineering says its Grip Car is made from aluminum and features smooth ball bearing rubber wheels. The use case scenarios here seem endless, with the company suggesting folks “move it in any direction” or put it on their shelf. Wait, those are the only two.

Teenage Engineering

The Grip Car is available in three colors, to those curious, so you’ll have your pick of red, black or aluminum. It was created by Danish designer Anders Hermansen, who has previously worked with companies like Bang & Olufsen to help make some of its in-wall speakers, among other products.

Incidentally, the official Teenage Engineering website has been acting peculiarly lately, with an abundance of symbols that seem to advertise some kind of announcement for tomorrow. The company confirmed to Engadget that the Grip Car isn’t part of this forthcoming announcement and to keep an eye out for a press release tomorrow afternoon. The announcement looks to be audio-related, due to the floating icons on the site, but it remains unknown if it’ll be hardware or software.

Meta announced that it is rolling out new tools that will give eligible researchers access to data from its social media apps Facebook and Instagram in an effort to “support public interest research.” The Meta Content Library and Content Library API tools, which were previously made available for beta testing, will share real-time information about the user-generated content including metrics like the number of times a Reel on Instagram is viewed or the amount of posts that are made on a Facebook page.

The Meta Content Library will exist on the web through a controlled-access "clean room" that prohibits the export of data. All analysis and review of the real-time content from Facebook and Instagram will be done through an API that has search capabilities. The company's data search tools will only be available for “eligible researchers and professionals” who will need to be pre-approved. Research groups or individuals seeking to gain access to Meta’s data will need to fill out an application through a form and provide a detailed explanation about the mission of the research project in question and who is involved. Final approval is subject to an independent review by the ICPSR. Once granted access to the API, Meta says there are no fees associated with access to the Content Library.

The new tools, while they may be forging a pathway for data access, are similar to — and in some ways more limited than — what Meta has previously provided to researchers hoping to understand how content circulates on its apps. There's also every reason to be skeptical. Meta’s Open Research and Transparency team, which similarly developed a researcher API and platform, was the subject of criticism when in 2021 it was caught allegedly sending incomplete and inaccurate data to researchers. That same group of researchers at N.Y.U.’s Center for Cybersecurity later had their API access completely revoked by the company.

The new Content Library and API probably won't do much to stave off public pressure after years of backlash over how it regulates misinformation and harmful content. Meta has also been under fire for how it moderates content related to the war in Gaza and for how it plans to prevent the proliferation fake content related to the upcoming US presidential election. To top things off, Meta is currently facing a lawsuit filed by 41 states over how it allegedly harms younger users. A highly gatekept API may not be the show of goodwill the company needs to convince regulators it has the public's best interest at heart.

Even though it seemed that former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would lead a new AI research division at Microsoft, he might still get his old job back. According to Bloomberg, the OpenAI board — which caused chaos at the company when it fired Altman on Friday — has reopened discussions with the former chief executive regarding his possible reinstatement.

The talks are said to involve board member (and Quora CEO) Adam D’Angelo as well as OpenAI investors, some of whom have been pushing for Altman's return. According to the report, board members "largely refused to engage" with Altman until Monday, so these latest talks are said to be a significant development.

Meanwhile, Kevin Scott, Microsoft's chief technology officer, said that his company will match the compensation OpenAI workers are currently receiving if they jump ship. Most of the company's workers have threatened to walk unless the OpenAI board resigns and reinstates Altman and former president Greg Brockman (who resigned in protest over the board booting out Altman). They warned the board on Monday that Microsoft is willing to hire them too, and Scott has confirmed that.

“To my partners at OpenAI: We have seen your petition and appreciate your desire potentially to join Sam Altman at Microsoft’s new AI Research Lab,” Scott wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Know that if needed, you have a role at Microsoft that matches your compensation and advances our collective mission.”

It's unclear whether Scott's offer is contingent on Altman officially joining Microsoft, as CNBC notes. In any case, OpenAI workers may not have too much trouble finding a new job if they resign, as many tech companies are battling to hire AI experts. For instance, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that any OpenAI researcher who has quit will receive matching salary and equity if they join his company.

Meanwhile, in interviews he gave after saying Altman and Brockman were joining his company on Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reiterated that he wants to keep working with OpenAI. However, he noted "that depends on the people of OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft. So I’m open to both options, but one thing I will not do is stop innovating." Nadella also said that “At this point, I think it’s very clear that something has to change around the governance" at the ChatGPT operator.

After Altman's sudden firing, he and Brockman spent the weekend in crunch talks with the OpenAI board in an effort to get their jobs back. Those initial talks proved unsuccessful, and the board has appointed former Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear as interim CEO. 

The OpenAI board has declined to share the exact reasoning for its decision to fire Altman, though it claimed that he had not been "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." After he took the reins, Shear said he'd bring in an independent investigator "to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report.”

LG Black Friday deals include a number of decent discounts on its 2023 OLED TVs, and a couple of noteworthy sales on 2022 models as well. You can currently save $300 on this 42-inch 2023 LG C3 OLED TV, which is down to a record low of $897, and $200 on this 65-inch B3 OLED set, which is on sale for $1,297. If you're willing to get a slightly older model, you can get this 2022 55-inch B2 OLED TV for nearly half off its starting price.

Its worth noting that OLED TV sales around this time of year are mostly a culmination of steadily dropping prices. TV manufacturers often lower the "regular" prices on their high-end TV sets throughout the year, starting shortly after the models debut. Some of these sale prices have been around since the start of the holiday shopping season, but that doesn't change the fact that many of them are record lows.

If you're unfamiliar, OLED TVs stand out for their deep blacks and rich colors when compared to standard sets. LG's 2023 C3 OLED models run on the upgraded a9 Gen 6 processor that brings AI upscaling, object-based picture sharpening and HDR tone mapping, among other things, to the TVs. LG updated its TV operating system to have a simplified UI that requires less scrolling, which should make it even easier to navigate. It also now supports "quick cards" that let you more easily jump into categorical content like music and sports, personal profiles and AI-based search keyword recommendations.

The B3 series is an entry-level alternative for anyone who doesn't want to spend quite as much on a new TV. This year's models run on an older a7 Gen 6 chip and do not support the level of brightness boosting you'll find in the C3 sets, but they do support 4K content at 120Hz refresh rates. If you're still not ready to drop so much money on an OLED set, LG Black Friday deals also include some discounts on the company's QNED sets.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Spotify has officially unveiled its new streaming payment policy for artists and labels, and the details are pretty much exactly what has been reported for weeks. In other words, smaller artists are getting something of a shaft here, as songs that don’t meet the minimum threshold of 1,000 streams per year will not be eligible for any payment whatsoever.

Spotify was already notorious for underpaying artists, but now many will get nothing at all, aside from the opportunity and privilege to exist on its servers. Spotify says this is to eliminate fraud, and indicates that the money that used to go to these smaller artists and alleged fraudsters will be redistributed to those above that 1,000 play per year threshold. 

Also, the company’s nixing many payments for so-called “noise” content, like recordings of rain falling on a rooftop and other items intended for relaxation and to provide white noise. The cuts won’t impact all noise recordings, just those under two minutes in length. Additionally, Spotify’s currently looking to adjust the royalty model for noise recordings, keeping the payouts lower than actual songs. However, the company hasn’t provided any concrete details.

Spotify’s crowing that these combined cuts will provide an additional $1 billion toward artists in the next five years, but hasn’t offered details as to how the funds would be redistributed, only saying that the streamer itself would “not make additional money under this model.”

It did note that 99.5 percent of all streams meet the above thresholds, but also stated that the remaining 0.5 percent account for just $40 million per year, which is much lower than the advertised $1 billion of new funds being pumped into the system for established artists, even if you account for $200 million over five years. Spotify also claims that songs with less than 1,000 annual streams generate an average of $3 per year, which isn’t a lot. If those numbers hold, this whole thing could be much ado about, well, $3. Still, there’s something of a precedent being set here.

Spotify says fraudulent content creators often try to “game the system” by posting a high volume of tracks, generating pennies for each that add up to real money over time. This is something the company refers to as artificial streaming, as there’s an AI component at play, so the 1,000 play threshold hopes to stop this activity dead in its tracks. Smaller artists are just collateral damage here.

As a matter of fact, artists with under 1,000 streams in the last 28 days cannot even participate in Spotify’s recently-launched marketing toolset that lets artists pay the streamer for placement on home feeds.

In a completely unrelated note, Spotify is shutting down in Uruguay after the country passed a bill that requires fair pay to artists, as reported by MixMag. The company made threats to shut down when the bill was first suggested back in July and now it has followed through. A spokesperson for Spotify actually wrote Uruguay's Minister of Education, Pablo Da Silveira, to say that the country’s bill would force it to “pay twice” the amount of royalties to artists. It went on to say that complying with Uruguay’s fair pay law would make its business model “unfeasible.”

Cities: Skylines II developer Colossal Order is delaying the city building simulation’s expansion roadmap. After numerous complaints about the PC game’s performance (and the delay of console versions until 2024), the team decided to pause rapid patches, digging instead into more time-consuming performance and bug fixes. CEO Mariina Hallikainen apologized for the delay in a blog post, explaining, “We must not rush new content out before the base [game] is ready for it.”

The development delay pushes most Cities: Skylines II expansion pass content back by a quarter. The Beach Properties asset pack has been postponed to Q1 2024 from Q4 2023. Two creator packs (Modern Architecture and Urban Promenades), initially scheduled for Q1 2024, will arrive in Q2 2024. Finally, the Deluxe Relax and Soft Rock radio stations are knocked back to Q1 and Q2 2024, respectively. Meanwhile, the Bridges & Ports expansion remains in the Q2 2024 slot.

Hallikainen’s blog post cited a need to address more time-consuming bug fixes and performance problems before rolling out new content. “We have made it through the quicker fixes and we’re now digging into the ones that require a bit more work,” she wrote. The CEO mentioned applying fixes for graphical details to improve GPU performance before moving on to CPU optimizations, including stutter fixes, while ensuring a fast and smooth experience. She said the development team is currently sifting through players’ bug reports, identifying 100 reproducible issues the team will look into and another 100 reports requiring more investigation.

Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Weeks before launch, Colossal Order raised the game’s minimum and recommended specs, warning, “We have not achieved the benchmark we targeted.” However, it and its publisher, Paradox Interactive, opted to continue with Cities: Skylines II’s planned release date. When it arrived in late October, fans, hoping for a stable experience expanding on the 2015 original, panned the product they got. They complained about shoddy performance, buggy core gameplay elements and an overall lack of optimization relative to the PC hardware it runs on — even, in some cases, on fairly high-end setups.

Despite fans’ disappointment with the stability of the hotly anticipated title, Colossal Order seems to have received the message. “Once the PC version is where we want it to be, we will be focusing on the console release and DLC content,” Hallikainen wrote.

Amazon’s Echo Buds just got a spate of new features via a software update, though most of these tools are only available for the recently-released 2023 lineup of earbuds. First up, you can now tap the earbuds to start a recommended playlist, so you don’t need to fumble with your phone to launch a playlist or even speak out loud to ask Alexa for help. It’s all in the tap.

You can launch playlists via one triple tap or a single long press, which is adjusted via the settings in the associated Alexa app. It looks like this feature works with all of the major streaming platforms, as Amazon says it accesses “your preferred audio provider” to find the playlist. Just look for “Tap Controls” in the Echo Buds device settings to get started. 

There’s also a new audio personalization tool that lets you tailor the sound to better integrate with your physical environment and the content you're consuming. For instance, you can tune the frequencies to accentuate the bass during a walk, to provide a fuller sound. The company lists other examples where this feature comes in handy, including watching movies on a laptop. This could actually be quite handy, as all sound sources are not created equal.

Again, head to the Echo Buds device settings via the Alexa app and look for the audio personalization options. You can even adjust each ear independently of one another, so your right ear can be louder or offer a different range of frequencies than the left ear. Amazon says the setup process here takes around four minutes. It’s also worth noting that this feature is available for both 2023’s model and 2021’s second-gen Echo Buds.

Just a couple of months after its debut, you can already score a great deal on the Apple Watch Series 9 thanks to an Amazon Black Friday discount. The smartwatch has dropped to $329, which is $80 or 18 percent off the regular price of $399. The previous low we saw for the Apple Watch Series 9 was $349 earlier this month.

This price applies to the 41mm model and you can take your pick from a variety of case colors and sport bands. Several 45mm variants are on sale too. That size of the Apple Watch Series 9 is down to $360, which is $69 off the standard price of $429.

At these prices, the Apple Watch Series 9 becomes a more enticing option as a gift for a special someone in your life, or even just yourself. We think this is the best smartwatch you can buy overall (though obviously you'll need to look at different options if you're an Android user).

In our review, we gave the Apple Watch Series 9 a score of 92. There are some major upgrades this year, thanks to the introduction of a more powerful S9 system-in-package (SiP) processor.

One of the key new features is called Double Tap, which builds on Apple's Assistive Touch accessibility tool. When Double Tap is enabled, you carry out a pinching action using the hand that's wearing the watch to carry out the main function in an app. It's a useful way to control certain aspects of your smartwatch without having to touch the screen. You can use Double Tap to, for instance, snooze an alarm, pause a song that's playing or reply to a message.

Using the gesture to reply to a message will bring up the Siri-powered voice typing option. So it's worth mentioning here that, thanks to the S9 SiP, the Apple Watch Series 9 can handle on-device Siri processing. That makes the voice assistant's performance a bit snappier, as Apple doesn't have to send your request to its servers for processing and back again. It also means that Siri can work offline.

Elsewhere, a second-gen ultra wideband chip powers a more precise Find My iPhone experience, as long as the phone you're looking for also has that chip. For instance, when you're looking for a misplaced iPhone 15 Pro, the Apple Watch Series 9 will show you how many feet away the device is, along with a directional indicator to guide you to it. Other upgrades in the latest Apple Watch include a brighter display. You'll also be able to check out the revised UI that Apple brought in with watchOS 10.

Meanwhile, the second-gen Apple Watch SE (which scored 89 in our review last year) has fallen to an all-time-best price too. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly way into the Apple Watch ecosystem, this could be the right option for you. Both sizes of the Apple Watch SE are $70 off, with 40mm versions coming in at $179 and 44mm variants starting at $209.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Dyson is taking $175 off the V15 Detect Absolute stick vacuum. The device won’t only clean your floors; it will show you how much dirt it’s sucking up, thanks to a built-in laser light and dust particle counter. The early Black Friday deal brings the powerful stick vac’s price down to $575 from its standard $750. A similar model, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute, is $250 off and down to $400 in another Black Friday vacuum deal as well.

Engadget tried the V15 Detect Absolute when it launched in 2021 and found it an elite cleaning machine for those willing to pay a premium. “It feels weird to consider a high-end vacuum as a luxury, or even a treat,” Mat Smith wrote. “But honestly, that’s how it felt when I was using it: reliable, powerful, and habit-forming.” He described the vacuum as a “total beast at extracting ingrained dust and dirt in carpets and rugs.”

In addition to its dirt-sucking prowess, the V15 Detect Absolute stands out with its laser-powered optic cleaner head. It illuminates dust particles you wouldn’t usually see, helping you better understand how dirty your floor is before tackling it. It also includes a piezo sensor, which sizes and counts dust particles, displaying them on the handle’s LCD. In addition to particle count, the screen shows your remaining runtime and maintenance alerts.

The stick vac has sensors that monitor brush bar resistance 360 times a second, adapting the device’s power usage across different floor types. It has an estimated hour of battery life and includes Auto, Eco and Boost cleaning modes to pace its energy use. Like all Dyson stick vacuums, you can convert it to a stubby handheld for getting those hard-to-reach spots.

The V12 Detect Slim Absolute has many of the same features as the V15, but in a lighter package. It has a 0.1 gallon bin, which is slightly smaller than the 0.2 gallon bin on the V15 Detect, and it’s suction isn’t quite as powerful as the V15. However, both models have the same 60-minute battery life and “detect” technology. They also both come with Fluffy Optic and Motorcar Cleaner heads that you can swap out, depending on the type of mess you have to clean up. If you have a smaller space or don’t have any pets to tidy up after, the Slim could be a good option for you.

If you’re looking for a cheaper model without the V15’s bells and whistles, Dyson also has a discount on the V8 Absolute. On sale for $300 compared to its usual price of $520, this vacuum has a less powerful motor than the V15 but is still plenty capable. It’s also lighter in hand and on the wallet. The stick vac ships with two cleaner heads (one specializing in carpets and another in hard floors) and lasts up to 40 minutes.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.