Yamaha may not be one of the first names that comes to mind when discussing earbuds or headphones. But the company has a number of models under its belt, ranging from affordable to premium and pricey. Following its TW-E3A true wireless earbuds, Yamaha has announced the TW-E3B: a set that it describes as its smallest and lightest option yet. 

While that may be true, based on the product images, the TW-E3B still has considerable size compared to the truly tiny options like Jabra's Elite 3 and Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2. Nevertheless, they're 25 percent smaller than the TW-E3A, which is an improvement. Besides the size, debossed logos and charging indicator lights on the case, the overall look of the new model is quite similar to that of it's predecessor. There are more color options available on the E3B, but overall, Yamaha didn't opt for a complete redesign here. 

Yamaha

Battery life is the same: six hours on the buds with three additional charges in the case for 24 hours total. The new version is still IPX5 rated for water and sweat resistance while on-board controls return to assist with audio playback, calls and activating your chose voice assistant. Yamaha brought back Listening Care, a feature that the company says will still give you "full-range sound" at lower volumes to help preserve your hearing. Like the TW-E3A, the TW-E3B works with Yamaha's app for Android and iOS that gives you a degree of customization for certain settings. 

The TW-E3B will be available in late October for $99.95 — $30 less than the TW-E3A's debut price. When it arrives, you'll be able to choose from black, grey, green, blue, pink and purple color options. The TW-E3A is still available at a discount, going for $49.95. That's less than half of the original asking price of $129.95.

Amazon announced new Fire HD 10 tablets at the end of last month and now it seems the company is trying to get rid of previous models in a one-day closeout sale. The main device is the 64GB, 2019 Fire HD 10, which is nearly half off at $96. That's even better than its Prime Day price of $100 that we saw back in June, and considering the 2021 version of the tablet isn't too different, this is a good way to get one of the most capable Fire tablets for less.

The 2019 model and the latest Fire HD 10 have a lot in common: both have 10.1-inch 1080p touchscreens, although the new version's is 10 percent brighter, and both run on 2.0GHz octa-core processors. The max amount of built-in storage you can get on either is 64GB, but both can be expanded with a microSD card slot. The 2019 version can hold up to 512GB of storage while the new model has a 1TB capacity. Both also have a 12-hour estimated battery life and both charge via USB-C.

Arguably the biggest differences between the two are in design and RAM. The 2021 model has a slightly more refined design with thinner bezels, and it comes in new colors as well as configurations like the "Productivity bundle," which includes one year of Microsoft 365 and a keyboard case. Also, the previous version had 2GB of RAM while the new model has 3GB. 

The increased RAM will likely make the biggest difference in the overall experience of the new Fire HD 10 compared to its predecessor. But if you're willing to skip that extra gigabyte of memory and the other small upgrades, the 2019 Fire HD 10 remains a solid budget tablet.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

When it comes to affordable wireless earbuds and headphones, Skullcandy cranks out new models at a rapid pace. The company is well-known for its collection of true wireless and noise-cancelling gear that offers solid performance for much less than a lot of the competition. Today, Skullcandy is announcing two more sets of true wireless earbuds — the Grind Fuel and the Push Active — both of which offer a compelling set of features starting at $80. The company is also debuting its own voice platform, Skull-IQ, that allows you to do much of what your phone's voice assistant can handle, but with more of an audio focus. Get ready to say "Hey Skullcandy" a lot. 

With Skull-IQ, Skullcandy has built a voice platform specifically catered to controlling music and its earbuds — and presumably its future headphones. In addition to a new command, you'll have the ability to play/pause, skip tracks, adjust volume, answer/reject calls, activate Stay Aware mode (ambient sound) and summon your device's built-in assistant. The company says it has also cooked up something novel. Skullcandy explains that it's the first to offer access to Spotify via voice command. Plenty of other companies give you one-tap ability to launch the service (these do that as well), but Skullcandy says it's the first to allow you to do it by speaking. Lastly, the company promises more features are coming in the future via over-the-air updates through the Skullcandy app.

Skullcandy

In terms of the new earbuds, some specs are the same for both models. Obviously, there are design differences as the Grind Fuel is a more "traditional" true wireless earbud while the Push Active is an over-the-ear hook option for a more secure fit. However, both feature the new Skull-IQ voice setup as well as "supreme sound," that Stay Aware mode and what Skullcandy describes as noise-reducing mics for calls. The two new models are both IP55 rated sweat and water resistant with Tile tracking tech built-in. They are also both equipped with on-board controls and a quick-charge feature that will give you two hours of listening time after 10 minutes in the case. 

The Grind Fuel offers a few things the Push Active doesn't. Wireless charging and personalized sound via an in-app audio test are the two main ones. The Grind Fuel also has 9 hours of battery life on the buds with another 31 hours in the case. The Push Active will last 10 hours on a charge, while the case packs 34 more hours. Battery life isn't quite the same for both, but it's pretty close. 

The Push Active will cost $79.99 while the Grind Fuel is $99.99. Both are available now from the Skullcandy website and other retailers. 

Since 2019, Sign in with Apple has allowed iPhone and Mac users to protect their privacy by allowing them to generate random email addresses when they need to access a new website, service or app. It’s one of those small features that can have an outsized impact, and now something similar is coming to 1Password.

The company has partnered with email host Fastmail to introduce a feature called Masked Email. Like its Apple counterpart, the tool allows you to create unique email addresses for your logins. You can create the aliases directly within the 1Password app, which means you can access the tool on all platforms where the password manager is available.

Just how much the ability to hide your email can do to help safeguard your online privacy can’t be overstated. The vast majority of privacy breaches start with phishing emails. You’re far less likely to click on a suspicious link or inadvertently share your personal information if you don’t get one of those messages in the first place.

I’ve admitted before that I am a sucker for strange, and often gimmicky, musical devices. A giant touchpad with swappable silicone playing surfaces? Sign me up. A bisected grapefruit that you tilt and smack? I’ll take two. So, an app that lets you play a synthesizer simply by humming a melody was clearly going to grab my attention.

Dubler first debuted last year as a packaged deal: a custom designed USB microphone and an app that turned your beatboxing, singing or any other audio really into MIDI data. With the launch of Dubler 2, Vochlea is making the special mic optional. The new app allows you to quickly and easily calibrate it to work with any microphone or audio source of your choice. But I want to be frank about something right off the bat: Dubler works best with its own special microphone.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

When I tested Dubler using both an SM57 and an SM58 run through a Focusrite 2i4 the results were decidedly mixed. The MIDI data was always a little messier, there was more noticeable latency and the pitch tracking just wasn’t as good. The latency was mostly an issue when using Dubler to trigger drums. With the buffer size in my audio settings at 128 samples it was almost impossible to keep a rhythm as the drum hits came just a little too slow and kept throwing me off.

If you use the dedicated mic sold by Vochlea, though, the story is a bit different. In fact, Dubler 2 is quite impressive. There is basically no noticeable latency. Pitch tracking is surprisingly accurate. And the resulting MIDI data is reasonably clean… or at least as clean as the source. Which I suppose is one of the first things I should lay out: If you can’t carry a tune, Dubler is only going to be so useful. My vocal skills are borderline nonexistent under the best of circumstances. But the onset of fall allergy season has made things significantly worse. (I would describe my current vocal style as chain-smoking donkey.) Could I get Dubler to spit out something resembling a melody? Sure. But it wasn’t always easy and I had to clean up a lot of MIDI after the fact.

So, I did what any smart person would do: Enlist the help of their sister who has spent a good chunk of her life singing and training with vocal coaches.

Vochlea

The difference was immediately obvious. Where Dubler often struggled to figure out what was going on with my flat unsteady humming it was generally able to follow my sister’s vocal histrionics without much issue. You can tell Dubler to automatically snap notes to a particular scale which I highly recommend regardless of your skill level. But even in chromatic mode the app was able to pretty accurately identify notes my sister sang and even follow along the vibrato of her voice fairly well.

To get truly usable results out of Dubler though, you’ll need to learn to use it properly. While it’s fun to belt out a melody or clumsily beatbox your way through a drum part there are a lot of tricks to making the most of the app. For one, you’ll need to tailor your vocal sounds so that the app can recognize them easier. This is especially true of the drum triggers. Simple beatboxing is probably going to trip up the software unless you’re really good. Sounds like “ti” “ts” and “ta” will often get mixed up, so it’s better to use more distinct sounds that you might not reach for if you were actually trying to beatbox, like “ka”. It’s also best if you keep the number of triggers you use to three or four. You can program up to eight, but it’s hard to make varied enough sounds for it to be useful.

The same is true for melodies too. If you just hum with your lips closed, Dubler will struggle more to tell when you’ve changed notes and you’ll end up with messier data. It’s better to go with percussive sounds like “da” to help separate notes from each other.

Vochlea

You can also put Dubler in chord mode which I actually found was a fun and interesting way to come up with new progressions when I was feeling stuck. But perhaps my favorite feature is the ability to turn vowel sounds into MIDI CC information. That means that if you held a note and slowly shifted it from an “ooo” to an “aaa” you could cause the filter to open up. It’s difficult to control these features though, and it was better for creating strange and interesting noises than actual music.

If you’re vocally inclined then Dubler holds a lot of promise as a musical sketch pad. I sometimes struggle to turn what I hear in my head into melodies on a keyboard or guitar and humming it might be the quickest and easiest way to get an idea out.

While the ability to use the app with your own mic is appealing, right now the calibration seems like it could use a little work. That being said, my microphones are old and have seen a lot of abuse. And it’s not like the SM57 is known for its perfect vocal fidelity. I’d probably have better luck if I had SM7B fresh out of the box to test with. But I had to make due with what I had. And, what I had, wasn’t as good as Vochlea’s Dubler Studio mic when it came to capturing clean MIDI data. The software is pre-tuned for that mic and there’s fewer variables to contend with.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

Which leads us to our final point: price. Dubler is not cheap. And that’s not surprising. While Vochlea isn’t the first or only company to try turning audio into MIDI, it’s still not a simple task. So you’d have to be pretty committed to the idea of singing to control your synths to drop $329 on the Dubler Studio Kit or even the $249 for the app on its own ($78 to upgrade if you own the original Dubler already). For someone like myself, it’s a tough sell. But for a vocalist who wants to start dabbling in the world of music production and synthesizers (even just for idea generation) without having to learn a whole new instrument I can certainly see the appeal.

You haven't had much choice for compact keyboards these days — many of them are mechanical keyboards aimed at gamers and hobbyists, and Apple's Magic Keyboard doesn't make much sense for non-Apple users. Logitech might have a more viable alternative for some people, however. It just introduced an MX Keys Mini wireless keyboard that shrinks the original MX Keys design into a tiny, minimalist footprint.

The MX Keys Mini doesn't include a number pad or other perks from a full-size keyboard, but it does preserve the "Perfect Stroke" system that combines non-mechanical switches with dished keys that can improve your typing accuracy. There are even a few new functions you won't get in the larger keyboard, including a dictation key for Macs and Windows PCs, a microphone mute toggle and an emoji key.

The Mini supports Android, ChromeOS, Linux, iOS and iPadOS using either Bluetooth or a USB receiver, with pairing for up to three devices. USB-C fast charging will help if you need a few more hours of typing in a pinch.

The MX Keys Mini is available now for $100 in dark gray, pink and silver colors. That's not a huge drop from the $130 price of the full MX Keys, but it's on par with the no-frills Magic Keyboard. It's arguably a better buy if you prefer the ergonomics of Logitech's keyboard, don't like the feel of mechanicals or just want a keyboard you can easily shuffle between platforms.

Skype has some significant changes in the works. It offered a peek at what's coming later this year, with a focus on speed, reliability and design, as well as other improvements. For one thing, video calls (on what Skype calls the "call stage") are getting a visual overhaul. New layouts and themes are on the way. You'll be able to see yourself on the main view while you're on a call, though you can hide your feed if you'd rather not look at your own face.

Video feeds are being rearranged into a grid to avoid relegating folks to a minimized view. Instead everyone on the call, including those who aren't sharing video, will be visible. You'll see larger video feeds in the top bar too.

Skype

There are several viewing options for the call stage, including speaker view, grid view, a large gallery and Together Mode (which makes seem like everyone's in the same space). You can also opt only to include people who are sharing video in the grid or switch the video stream off completely. Audio-only participants can use one of the app's background replacement images while on a call, rather than grey nothingness.

More colorful themes are in the pipeline, with features including gradients for buttons and for users without avatars. Meanwhile, "the beauty of the left side panel screams art, balance and lightness," says Skype, giving perhaps its best Apple impression.

Skype

Skype is also redesigning Meet Now, which allows people to join calls without signing up or installing the app. Invitation links are getting a new look, as invitees will see the name and avatar of your call. The service says it will soon support all browsers as well.

In addition, Skype is working on performance. It claims it has boosted performance "in key scenarios" by almost a third on the desktop app and by over 2,000 percent on Android. Also new or on the way are custom notification sounds, and an updated reactions window that lets you respond more quickly by searching or using pinned reactions.

Elsewhere, you can use Office Lens on the Skype mobile app to share scanned documents, photos and videos. A new feature called TwinCam will let you add a video feed from a second device to your call. That could be handy if you want to show off your pet, or let students see your textbook and your face at the same time. Just scan a QR code with your iOS or Android device to get started.

Skype

You don't need to use the official Stadia Controller if you want to use Google's game streaming service on your TV — or any dedicated controller, for that matter. Google is rolling out a feature that lets TV-bound Stadia players use their Android phone or iPhone as a virtual gamepad. You can also use third-party gamepads by connecting them to your phone through Bluetooth or USB.

The widened controller support requires Android TV, Google TV or a Chromecast Ultra. In most cases, you'll need to either add a controller or enable the touch gamepad through the Stadia mobile app, and promptly choose "play on TV." Android TV and Google TV owners will also need to enable a controller through the avatar section on the big-screen Stadia app.

This might help boost Stadia's adoption. While it has long given you the flexibility of where you can play, you haven't had many choices for that setup. It's now relatively easy to use a favorite gamepad with your TV or, if you prefer, save a little money and use no gamepad at all. It won't be perfect, however. A phone's touchscreen can only do so much, and using your phone as a go-between is bound to add a little latency.

Nearly five years after Twitter shut down Vine, TikTok has reached the coveted 1 billion monthly active user mark. The company announced the milestone in a blog post on Monday. Attracting 1 billion users to any platform is a significant feat. However, TikTok’s rise in popularity is especially impressive when you consider almost exactly a year ago the Trump Administration was threatening to ban the app if ByteDance, TikTok’s Bejing-based parent company, didn’t sell it to an American buyer.

Then you have the speed at which TikTok achieved the feat. The app has only been widely available since 2018 — though you could download it in select markets as early as 2017. It took Instagram nearly eight years after its initial release and almost six years after it was acquired by Facebook in 2012 before it passed the 1 billion user threshold. Granted, the internet was a smaller place then with fewer people connected to it through their phones, but none of that takes away from TikTok’s ascent.

YouTube Music is rolling out to some Wear OS 2 smartwatches starting today. Gen 6 smartwatches from Fossil and Michael Kors will be able to stream music from the service, as will Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, Pro 3 Cellular/LTE and E3 models. The app was previously released for Wear OS 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.

It's the first YouTube Music smartwatch app that supports offline listening. If you're a YouTube Music Premium subscriber, you can download songs you can listen to offline and without ads. You'll be able to leave your phone at home and still listen to music while you work out or go for a walk.

The app includes the Smart Downloads feature, which updates the songs on your device when it connects to WiFi. Google says Premium subscribers can listen to more than 80 million songs and thousands of playlists from their wearable. The app, which is available through the Google Play Store, will hit more Wear OS 2 devices later this year.

Spotify rolled out an updated version of its Wear OS app last month. It also lets users download music to their smartwatch and stream tracks without the need to have a phone nearby.