Audio-Technica's earbuds have run the true wireless gamut. The company has built separate models over the years that individually offer long battery life or ultra affordability, but it has yet to construct a complete package. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, the company is launching its latest entry, the AT-TWX7, which offers active noise cancellation (ANC) in an all-new AirPods-like stickbud design. Audio-Technica combines 5.8mm high-resolution drivers capable of 24-bit/96 kHz LDAC audio with a compact design and a number of conveniences for $199.

I'm going to start with calls. A lot of people use wireless earbuds for calls, either because they're on the go or want to keep their hands free while having a chat. Every earbud company promises crystal clear voice performance but few actually deliver. Audio-Technica offers two voice modes for calls, Natural and Noise Reduction, that aim to keep you sounding your best in any environment. What's more, there's a Call Test built into the company's companion app that lets you record up to 10 seconds of audio before you hop on the line. When I tried this, the Natural Mode provided above-average results while the Noise Reduction Mode did well to combat a roaring A/C unit, albeit with reduced voice quality. 

In terms of sound quality, those 5.8mm drivers offer the clear, warm audio I've coming to expect from the company. It's quite pleasant to listen to across genres, and the great clarity means you'll pick up on finer details — like string noise in Charles Wesley Goodwin's country tunes and the texture of the upright bass laying down the rhythm. There are four audio presets if you don't like the standard tuning and the company gives you the ability to make your own with manual adjustments to a five-band EQ. The ANC setup did well to block most of the noise from that raucous hotel A/C unit, but I could still hear it faintly at low volumes. 

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

There's a transparency or Hear-through mode you can activate with a long tap on the left earbud, a gesture that also cycles between ANC and off along with the ambient sound. Audio-Technica has managed a quite natural-sounding profile for Hear-through, although it's still not as good at what Apple manages on AirPods. You don't hear quite as much of your own voice as you do on Apple's gear. However, A-T provides and additional Talk-Through option that can be activated with a long tap on the right earbud. This is meant to lower or pause content while focusing on human voices. There are two settings for it, Natural and Strong, that differ in terms of primary function: reducing noise or enhancing environmental sound pickup. 

In addition to those long taps, tiny physical buttons on the ATH-TW7 offer access to volume and playback controls. The smaller overall design of the earbuds leads to a more comfortable fit, especially for longer periods of time. What's more, the company gives you two different types of ear tips with four sizes of each: soft for comfort and standard for a secure fit. Bluetooth multipoint pairing is available for easy switching between devices as well. And lastly, Audio-Technica promises up to six and a half hours of listening on the earbuds with another two full charges in the wireless case. 

The Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7 is available now in black, white and gray color options.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

NordVPN's latest limited-time sale knocks up to 67 percent off its subscription plans. The Ultimate plan, which includes malware protection and ad blockers on top of VPN access, typically costs $476 for a two-year period. This new year’s deal will bring down the cost of the Ultimate subscription to $6.40 per month, or $154 for the entire two years.

While this sale on NordVPN plans isn't as good as the 69 percent off we saw during the Black Friday season, it comes pretty close. NordVPN, which can support up to six devices at once, has 5,000 servers in 60 countries. It's worth noting that its standard price is a bit high when compared to competitors and their offerings. But, given this discount, now could be a good time to subscribe if you’ve been thinking about doing so.

If you don’t want to commit for that long, you can get a one-year subscription for the Ultimate package for 59 percent off, or $96 instead of the usual $238. There are also offers on the one- and two-year subscription plans for the mid-tier Plus and the lowest-tier Standard plans. The two-year deal for Plus and Standard plans are only 58 and 59 percent off, respectively, but they don't include as many perks as the Ultimate plan does, such as extra identity protection and included cloud storage.

A NordVPN Ultimate plan gives you access to the company’s password manager, NordPass. But if you’re primarily interested in better organizing and keeping track of your logins and credentials in the new year, NordPass is also having a similar flash sale. Both individual Premium and Family plans are cheaper right now at 50 and 53 percent off, respectively. For the Premium plan, instead of paying $72 for the first two years, it will only cost $36 in total, which comes out to $1.50 per month. The Family plan, which gives you six user accounts, is listed for $67 for the first two years instead of the usual $143. NordPass earned a spot in our best password managers guide thanks to how easy the service makes it for you to access your credentials across many different platforms and devices.

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Amazon is the first big company to add support for the Matter open casting standard, it announced at CES 2024. Matter Casting is an open protocol that lets you send videos and related content from an app to a hardware device, just like Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast. The feature just launched for the Prime Video app and will allow casting to various Amazon hardware devices.

For now, you can only cast to the Echo Show 15 smart display, but the company says it’ll soon offer support for Fire TVs, including Panasonic models with Fire TV built in. As for content streaming partners, it’s just Prime Video for now, but the company promises more options later this year, including Plex, Pluto, Sling TV, Starz and many more.

This works just like AirPlay. You open the Prime Video App, tap the cast button and look for an appropriate hardware device. However, Matter cast isn’t tied to a particular smartphone operating system and is available to every app and hardware maker, if they want to implement the feature.

This is part of the open-source Matter smart home protocol, which is backed by Amazon, Apple and Google. However, it’s unlikely Google and Apple will jump onboard this particular feature set, as each company has its own casting standard in place. Google took to CES this week to announce that Chromecast will be built into all new LG TVs, giving no mention of Matter cast.

Amazon would prefer that each of the big tech companies adopt an open casting platform instead of the current glut of competing models. “We believe in open standards,” Chris DeCenzo, a principal engineer at Amazon, told The Verge. “It simplifies things for developers.”

In the meantime, major players have begun adopting other aspects of the Matter smart home standard. Google’s smart home devices integrate with the protocol, and the same goes for Amazon devices like Echo speakers.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Microsoft has set a date for its next gaming showcase. Its second Developer_Direct event will include more details on Avowed, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II and strategy title Ara: History Untold. Most intriguingly though, MachineGames will at long last reveal details about its Indiana Jones game, three years after the project was announced.

The Wolfenstein studio will offer up over 10 minutes of game and developer insights. Along with the first gameplay trailer, we'll learn about the story and setting and find out just how you'll control the legendary archeologist.

On the Avowed front, Obsidian will take a deep dive into some gameplay from the action RPG, which should hit Xbox and PC this year. We'll see gameplay from Oxide Games' Civilization-esque Ara: History Untold too. Last but not least, Ninja Theory will offer a behind the scenes peek at Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Perhaps we'll finally get a release date for that title, which is slated to arrive this year.

The first edition of Developer_Direct took place last January. It was then that Microsoft both announced and suddenly released Hi-Fi Rush, one of the most highly rated games of 2023. Perhaps Microsoft will have a similar surprise up its sleeves this year.

One thing's for certain though: there won't be any updates on Activision Blizzard games. Xbox says its freshly acquired publisher will have news to share later this year.

The Developer_Direct will start at 3PM ET on January 18, and you'll be able to watch it on Xbox's and Bethesda's social channels. Afterwards, at 4PM ET, Elder Scrolls Online fans can tune in to a global reveal to find out what's coming to the MMORPG in its next major chapter.

Toronto Zoo disclosed a cyberattack on Monday, after first detecting it last week and working to mitigate the impact. The zoo reassured the public that the attack did not impact animal wellbeing and support staff, but it was still determining possible consequences for human visitors. 

Canada's largest zoo is investigating the attacker's motives and possible damage to its systems. It's unclear if any guest, member, donor or employee records were impacted. Toronto Zoo did, however, say it does not store any credit card information, so past visitors wouldn't have to worry about that. The zoo remains open for normal operations, and its website is still up and running. 

"Unfortunately, these incidents are becoming more and more common and we are grateful we took steps over the past few years to upgrade our technology infrastructure," Toronto Zoo said in a statement. It contacted the city, local police and third-party experts to help with its investigations.

But questions remain, like why would attackers target a zoo? Money usually motivates hackers, and the zoo does bring in a lot. Besides millions in donations for various projects and government grants, it also generates revenue from its 750,000 visitors each year. 

Zoos have been a target of attacks in the past, too. A cyberattack hit ZooTampa in July 2023 and the Louisville Zoo in 2022, allegedly targeting visitors' personal information. In 2015, two dozen zoos in the United States faced a coordinated attack against a vendor going after visitor credit and debit card information. 

Jabra announced on Tuesday during CES 2024 that it will roll out new features and enhancements for its Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active wireless earbuds, which launched in late 2023. The updates, which will roll out in two waves, include improvements to switching listening modes, call clarity and performance in windy conditions (among other tweaks).

The first wave of updates, due this month, will add an on-off toggle to quickly activate or deactivate Jabra’s Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), HearThrough (hearing your environment while listening to music) and Sidetone (the volume at which you hear your voice) features. Jabra’s January update will also let you customize the device name of your earbuds, something the company’s competitors in this space often include from day one. The January updates will add these features to both the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active.

Jabra

Meanwhile, Jabra says its March update wave will optimize call clarity for the Elite 10. The company says its latest ANC noise suppression tech is better at identifying and diminishing background voices when making calls on the earbuds. Finally, the audio company says enhanced wind detection algorithms on the Elite 8 Active will boost HearThrough (Jabra’s equivalent to Transparency mode on Apple’s AirPods) performance in windy conditions. Of course, audio companies often make over-the-top guarantees about call quality and wind detection effectiveness, so we’ll need to test them first-hand before vouching for Jabra’s marketing claims.

The two phases of upgrades will be available as updates to Jabra’s Sound+ app. The Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active are available now for $250 and $200, respectively.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

A Chinese state-backed institute has found a way to identify who sent any material to another person via Apple’s AirDrop, according to Beijing's government. The institution is said to have cracked the feature to find the email addresses and phone numbers of those who send AirDrop messages as part of an effort to stamp out "undesirable content," as Bloomberg reports.

Police have used the AirDrop crack to identify several suspects. However, Beijing's judicial bureau has not said whether there were any arrests as a result. The approach “improves the efficiency and accuracy of case-solving and prevents the spread of inappropriate remarks as well as potential bad influences,” according to the bureau.

Those with a Mac, iPhone or iPad can use AirDrop to easily send the likes of photos, videos, documents, contacts and passwords to another nearby Apple device. Protesters used AirDrop to share pro-democracy slogans during the demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019. As MacRumors notes, Apple touts AirDrop as being secure since it employs Transport Layer Security encryption. But the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice claims an institute has found a way around the encryption.

In 2022, Apple rolled out a new limit for AirDrop in China after protesters used the feature to share anti-government messages. The company restricted the length of time users can receive a file or message via AirDrop from non-contacts to 10-minute spells. Previously, users were able to let anyone AirDrop them material over an indefinite period of time. Apple later expanded this limitation to all iPhone users, purportedly in an effort to cut down on spam in busy locations.

Meta is introducing one of its most significant privacy updates yet related to teen user protection, the company announced today. They greatly expand on previous content control measures aiming to lock down teens' privacy settings, following recent lawsuits by US states and others.

The new measures will hide content related to self-harm, graphic violence, eating disorders and other harmful topics from teens on Instagram and Facebook. Related content will now be restricted from users under 16 in their Feeds and Stories, even if it's shared by an account they follow. When teens search for those topics, they'll instead by directed to "expert resources." The company said it consulted with experts in adolescent development to determine what type of content to block. 

In addition, Meta will be automatically placing existing teen users into the most restrictive control settings, expanding on a previous update that placed only new users into that category. Those users will be unable to opt out of those settings, called "Sensitive Content Control" on Instagram and "Reduce" on Facebook.

The social media giant is also introducing notifications with prompts that direct teens to update their privacy to "turn on recommended settings." That will automatically restrict who can repost their content and tag or mention them. It'll also stop non-followers from messaging teen users and hide offensive comments.

It's the latest in a series of privacy updates designed to protect teens using Meta products. In 2022, the company introduced measures to switch users under 16 to the most restrictive content settings and added a new feature to prevent "suspicious" adults from messaging teens on Facebook and Instagram. More recently, it limited ads targeting teens based on gender.  

Today's update more significantly limits what youths can access, though, following a series of recent lawsuits against the platform. Those include a complaint filed by 41 states accusing Meta of harming the mental health of its youngest users, another filed by Seattle schools over a youth "mental health crisis" and a recent ruling that social media companies will be forced to defend teen addiction lawsuits. 

Another recently unsealed complaint filed by 33 states alleges that Meta "coveted and pursued" users under the age of 13 and has been dishonest about how it handles underage users' accounts when they're discovered. 

I'm convinced that CES is a grilling show now, and Weber is the primary reason for that. In 2020, the company demoed its SmokeFire pellet grills and Smart Grilling Hub, both of which are powered by its Weber Connect platform. The Wi-Fi-enabled tech brought remote monitoring, step-by-step guidance and other conveniences to the company's product lineup. Weber has since expanded those smart features to some gas grills, and at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, it's adding two more models to the Connect roster. 

The Searwood is an all-new smart pellet grill that will replace the SmokeFire in North America. Besides doing low-and-slow smoking and high-heat searing like most pellet grills can, this model is also designed to be used with the lid open. This allows you to use griddle inserts for breakfast and smash burgers. The Searwood has a dedicated mode that you'll enable when you need to keep the lid up, and you can set the heat level (1-10) rather than setting an overall grill temp. According to the company, a 2 would be good for something like pancakes, while a 7 might work well for bacon and 10 could be used to put a finishing sear on a steak. 

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

The company redesigned the controller on Searwood, building it to constantly monitor and adjust to better maintain the target temperature during the cook. The display offers larger numbers for the grill temp, while also showing food probe temperatures and cook time on the same panel. The larger Searwood 600 XL also displays pellet levels so you know when you need to replenish the hopper. Searwood has a wide temperature range of 180 degrees Fahrenheit to 600 degrees, so it's still capable of slow-smoked brisket, high-heat seared proteins and everything in between. 

As part of the new design, Weber opted for a cast aluminum construction for the Searwood like it has used for its gas grills. That brings enhanced weatherproofing, but it also helps with more even distribution of heat. The company's Flavorizer bar is still inside and a reconfigured pellet hopper helps with fuel loading. Weber also brought over its Pull and Clean drip pan system to this pellet grill, making grease and ash removal easier. The company even says you won't need a shop vac to clean Searwood, a claim I look forward to testing. 

The Searwood 600 and Searwood 600 XL will be available for $899 and $1,199 this spring. Both of those are cheaper that the second-gen SmokeFire models the company currently offers. 

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

In addition to a brand new smart pellet grill for CES, Weber also added tons of connected smart features to its high-end Summit gas grills. Before now, if you wanted access to remote monitoring and the step-by-step guidance of built-in Weber Connect while cooking with gas, you had to buy a Genesis model. The company has greatly expanded its smart features for the Summit, via tech it calls SmartConnect. This setup allows you to use either your phone or the grill's large, full-color touchscreen display to set and change grill temp, select your cooking method (direct on indirect) and monitor quick start and preheating so you know when the grill is ready. You can also keep tabs on fuel levels, continuously view cooking progress, get alerts when food is ready and shut down the grill without touching it. 

Depending on which cooking method you select, the display will show you where you need to place your food to achieve the proper results. You do still have to approach the grill to turn it on, which is done with a single press after you set your desired temperature. All of the old burner knobs are gone as the new Summit automatically sets the level based on your temp and cooking method selections. There are up and down buttons for manually adjusting the burners though, as well as a dedicated button for igniting the top-mounted infrared broiler. But, you can also do that by swiping right on the touch display. The adjustable top grate also has the cooking area for the broiler outlined so you know where to place food for the best results.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Another aspect of the SmartConnect tech is the ability to control gas flow to individual burners. The setup constantly monitors and immediately reacts to temperature changes to maintain the desired level and prevent over or undercooking foods. There's an integrated electronic gas valve system that serves as the foundation for SmartConnect, continuously sensing flame presence across both the main burners and the broiler. It can also automatically trigger re-ignition as needed or shut the grill down when it isn't achieved. 

Weber redesigned its fuel-monitoring tech underneath the Summit too. Now there's a scale of sorts that more accurately measures gas levels. There's ample storage space underneath and a built-in rotisserie base along with a side burner for cooking sauces and sides. The Summit works with Weber Crafted accessories like a pizza stone to expand the capabilities of the grill even further. 

The 2024 Weber Summit grills will be available this spring in the US starting at $3,899. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Formlabs has rolled up to CES 2024 in Las Vegas with its customary bundle of announcements for its class-leading 3D printers. The company unveiled several new tools and materials at this year's show, but the most interesting has to be its Premium Teeth Resin, yet another foray into the dentistry world. It’s intended to be used to create 3D-printed dentures as well as for temporary restorations that sit on implants like All-On-X. The company says it’s already been registered with the FDA as a Class II biocompatible material, and has had its longevity validated.

This isn’t the first step the company has made into the dentistry space and already offers the tools to make dentures. It’s a natural venue for 3D-printing, and Formlabs, given the need for customization and its work in building a wide variety of materials for use. Premium Teeth Resin takes this a step further, with the company saying it can be color-matched to existing teeth so it won’t be as noticeable if you’re rocking a falsie. It's available to order now, although we'd advise against anyone attempting to do their own dentistry. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.