Bang & Olufsen is no stranger to the true wireless game. The company has a number of wire-free models under its belt at this point, but there has been on glaring omission over the years: active noise cancellation (ANC). Today, B&O remedied the issue with its new Beoplay EQ earbuds. The pricey audio accessory not only offers the ability to reduce ambient ruckus, but earbuds also feature solid battery life, wireless charging and more. The only potential deal breaker is the price: $399 (£349/€399). 

Similar to flagship earbuds from the likes of Sony and others, Bang & Olufsen's "Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation" setup on the Beoplay EQ is powered by a dedicated ANC chip. This means the Bluetooth chip isn't pulling double duty. That component combines with a set of four microphones to continuously monitor your surroundings and automatically adjust ANC levels as needed. That's the "adaptive" bit. Two additional microphones are equipped with "retune noise reduction technology" that B&O says results in "crystal clear" calls. Mileage varies greatly on claims of voice quality when it comes to true wireless earbuds, so that description is definitely something that will need proper testing. When it comes to sound, the company's app offers a feature called Beosonic that allows you to fine-tune things as you see it. 

Bang & Olufsen

In terms of battery life, Bang & Olufsen says you can expect 6.5 hours on the earbuds themselves with two additional charges in the case. That case supports wireless charging and in true B&O fashion, it's made out of aluminum. The company included a quick-charge feature that gives you two hours of listening time in 20 minutes. To help you find the best fit, there are four sizes of silicone tips and one pair of Comply foam tips in the box. Lastly, the Beoplay EQ is IP54 certified, so they should withstand dust and water splashes just fine. That's enough to keep the earbuds working through your sweaty workouts. 

The Beoplay EQ will be available in most of the world August 19th in black and gold color options. The earbuds actually go on sale today in China and Japan, but only in black. Gold will be available in those countries next month.  

In its latest earnings release, Samsung confirmed that it will release new foldable smartphones soon and attempt to make the category "mainstream." It also showed that it doesn't need mobile to make money, as it boosted earnings by 20 percent to 63.67 trillion won ($55.56 billion) and saw an operating profit of 12.57 trillion won ($11 billion). That's despite the fact that its mobile division saw revenue fall over the previous quarter due to component shortages and COVID-related factory issues. 

As you might expect given the current shortage, Samsung's chip business dominated its earnings this quarter, accounting for more than a third of total revenue and over half its profits. That was helped by price increases in categories like memory and display panels. The company's consumer electronics division also saw growth thanks to premium TV sales and appliances. 

While the mobile division fell off due to weaker seasonal demand, a component shortage and COVID-related closures at its Vietnam factories, the company did make some interesting comments about the business. It said it would "solidify its leadership in the premium [mobile] statement by mainstreaming the foldable category" — meaning we might see cheaper foldable phones in the near future. 

Samsung revealed that it's working on new under-screen camera technology, as well. It also confirmed that it would introduce new foldable products soon, likely referring to its August 11th event in which its expected to announce follow-ups to the Z Flip and Z Fold 2. 

Joe Rogan's podcast has become one of the most listened-to shows on Spotify since the platform added it to its lineup last year. It's also become one of the most controversial due to Rogan's choice of guests and his own views. Spotify doesn't have any plans to do anything about it, though, because the company's CEO doesn't believe the platform should have any say on podcasters' content. When Axios asked Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in an interview whether the company should have editorial responsibility over podcasts like Rogan's, Ek responded that Rogan is just one of its many content creators.

Axios pointed out that Rogan may be just one of them, but he's also one of the most well-paid. Ek responded, however, that rappers earns tens of millions of dollars from the platform, but Spotify doesn't dictate what they can put in their songs either. Rogan signed a $100 million deal with the audio streaming service in May 2020 to make The Joe Rogan Experience available to Spotify listeners. Before the year ended, the podcast became a Spotify exclusive.

According to a Wall Street Journal report from last year, Spotify employees expressed concerns over the materials in his podcast that they felt was anti-transgender. Rogan has guested several polarizing figures on the show since its debut on the platform. They include Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and InfoWars owner Alex Jones who spread coronavirus misinformation on the podcast. More recently, Rogan said he doesn't think people should get the COVID-19 vaccine, though he did backtrack and told listeners not to take his advice seriously. 

In Spotify's most recent earnings report, it said Rogan's podcast performed "above expectations." Clearly, whatever he's doing is getting people to tune in, so the company probably doesn't see any reason to step in.

Facebook will require that its workers get immunized against the coronavirus before they can return to its Menlo Park headquarters and other offices across the US. "As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated," Lori Goler, Facebook vice president of people, said on Wednesday. "We continue to work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone's health and safety."  

Much like Google, which announced a similar policy earlier in the day, the company said it would have a process in place for workers that can't get inoculated for medical and "other" reasons. It also says how it implements the requirement in different areas around the world will depend on local conditions and regulations.

In June, Facebook announced it was on track to reopen most of its US offices at 50 percent capacity by early September. Earlier in the year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said employees could apply for permanent remote work positions. In the same post, he noted that within the next five to 10 years, up to half of the company's workforce could be made up of remote workers.

Facebook users are spending a lot more time watching video, and short-form video like Instagram Reels is growing fast. Speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “video now accounts for almost half of all time spent on Facebook.” And on Instagram, TikTok competitor Reels is the “largest contributor to engagement growth.”

Though he stopped short of sharing more specific stats, the new details suggest Instagram’s Reels may be gaining more traction as the company vies for creator talent. Zuckerberg also noted that the company’s focus on creators and shopping would also help it reach its longer term goal of becoming a “metaverse company.”

Facebook revealed earlier this week that it was tapping an Instagram exec to start a new team focused on creating a metaverse. “You can kind of think about this as an embodied internet that you're inside of rather than just looking at,” Zuckerberg said. “You're basically gonna be able to do everything that you can on the internet today, as well as some things that don't make sense on the internet today like dancing.”

Zuckerberg’s comments come as the company reported some of its strongest growth in years, with revenue of more than $29 billion, an increase of 56 percent from last year. The company also reported more than 3.5 billion “monthly active people,” though user growth in the US once again remained flat.

Despite the strong numbers this quarter, the company warned that the rest of 2021 could look very different. Facebook expects revenue and growth to “decelerate significantly” in the second half of the year, said CFO Dave Wehner. He also noted that Apple’s iOS 14.5 update, which allows users to opt out of the social network’s ad tracking, would have a “greater impact” next quarter.

Developing...

A new robot known as the Dominator has set a Guinness World Record for placing 100,000 dominos in just over 24 hours. Created by YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober, the Dominator is the result of more than five years of work. Rober had help from two freshmen from Stanford University and a Bay Area software engineer in creating the googly-eyed robot. The group programmed more than 14,000 lines of code, and outfitted it with components like omnidirectional wheels and 3D-printed funnels to create what Rober says is a “friendly robot that’s super good at only one thing: setting up a butt-ton of dominos really, really fast.”

Up against professional domino artist Lily Hevesh, the Dominator used its ability to lay down 300 tiles all at once to work about 10 times faster than a human. It took the robot about two hours to put down over 9,000 dominos.

While the Dominator is the face of the project, a lot of its efficiency comes from a separate sorting mechanism that consists of a Kuka robotic arm and almost three miles of Hot Wheels tracks. A series of conveyor belts ferry the dominions by color before the Kuka arm deposits them in the appropriate chute. When the Dominator visits the station for a refill, the lower platform slides away, instantly loading its 3D-printed funnels with all the dominos it needs to lay down 300 at once. In this way, downtime is kept at a minimum.

To put its final achievement in context, it would take a team of seven skilled domino builders about a full week to make the Super Mario Bros.-like mural the Dominator needed a little more than a day to complete.

The National Basketball Association is teaming up with iHeartMedia for a significant new push into the podcast market. In all, the two organizations plan to co-produce more than 20 shows together as part of a new multi-year partnership, with the first one to debut sometime this fall. 

In addition to content devoted to the latest news from the league, analysis and player commentary, it sounds like iHeart and the NBA want to replicate the success of projects like The Last Dance. They say they’ll use material from the NBA archives to retell stories of “some of the greatest moments in sports history.” What exactly they have planned on that front, we don’t know yet, though iHeart and the NBA promised to share more information soon.

“The partnership provides the NBA and its teams access to iHeartMedia’s massive reach across multiple audio platforms including podcasts, streaming and broadcast radio, as well as the opportunity to develop a new slate of groundbreaking shows each year,” iHeart said.

Podcasts, in particular ones related to sports, have become big business in recent months. At the end of April, DraftKings spent $50 million to secure distribution rights to The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.

A company that makes an implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) has been given the go-ahead by the Food and Drug Administration to run a clinical trial with human patients. Synchron plans to start an early feasibility study of its Stentrode implant later this year at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York with six subjects. The company said it will assess the device's "safety and efficacy in patients with severe paralysis."

Synchron received the FDA's green light ahead of competitors like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Before such companies can sell BCIs commercially in the US, they need to prove that the devices work and are safe. The FDA will provide guidance for trials of BCI devices for patients with paralysis or amputation during a webinar on Thursday.

Another clinical trial of Stentrode is underway in Australia. Four patients have received the implant, which is being used "for data transfer from motor cortex to control digital devices," Synchron said. According to data published in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, two of the patients were able to control their computer with their thoughts. They completed work-related tasks, sent text messages and emails and did online banking and shopping.

It takes around two hours to implant a Stentrode device with a minimally invasive procedure, according to Synchron. The device is implanted through a blood vessel at the bottom of the neck and maneuvered into the brain. Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley told Bloomberg the device could be available to buy within three to five years.

Google will require its employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus before they’re allowed to return to the company’s offices. “Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an internal email the company shared on Wednesday. “Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead.”

Google will implement the policy in the US in the “coming weeks,” with other regions to follow in the months to come. The requirement won’t apply in an area until vaccines are widely accessible there, and the company says there will be an exception process in place for employees who can’t get immunized for medical or “other protected reasons.” Google hasn’t said what percentage of its employees are already vaccinated, but Pichai notes in the letter it’s been “encouraging to see very high vaccination rates for our Google community in areas where vaccines are widely available.”

In the same email, Pichai also announced Google is pushing back its return-to-office date. The company now hopes to have employees on a hybrid workweek by October 18th instead of September as previously planned. The announcement follows a similar decision from Apple in light of increasing COVID-19 caseloads in the US and many other parts of the world due to the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. “This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai said. “We’ll continue watching the data carefully and let you know at least 30 days in advance before transitioning into our full return to office plans.”

The antitrust lawsuit brought by 48 attorneys general against Facebook isn't dead yet. A federal judge dismissed the suit last month, but the AGs have filed a notice of plan to appeal.

“We filed this notice of appeal because we disagree with the court’s decision and must hold Facebook accountable for stifling competition, reducing innovation, and cutting privacy protections,” New York’s attorney general Letitia James said, according to The New York Times. “We can no longer allow Facebook to profit off of exploiting consumer data.”

The suit, which was filed in December, alleged that Facebook created a monopoly and illegally stifled competition through its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Judge James E. Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that too much time had gone by since the mergers were approved for the case to proceed.

On the same day he dismissed the AGs' suit, Boasberg tossed a similar case from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency is expected to file an amended suit next month.

The FTC lawsuit was initially filed in December while Trump administration appointee Joseph Simons led the agency. Big Tech critic Lina Khan was appointed FTC chair last month. Facebook has asked the agency to recuse her from antitrust decisions involving the company.

Facebook has argued against both suits, claiming much of the evidence in the cases was submitted to the FTC before the purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp were rubberstamped. It also claims it doesn't have a monopoly, partly due to competition from the likes of Snap and Twitter, as well as messaging apps.