Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 4 earbuds can monitor your heart rate

Anker’s Soundcore audio brand has revealed yet more products. Among them are the Liberty 4 earbuds, which can track your heart rate. The heart rate sensor is in the right earbud, so you’ll need to wear that one to use the feature. When it’s measuring your blood oxygen levels, the earbud will emit a red light. Soundcore hasn’t disclosed the waterproof rating, which is odd given that heart-rate tracking functions are closely linked to workouts.

Soundcore says an algorithm can tune the spatial audio function depending on whether you’re watching a movie or listening to music. The earbuds offer dynamic head tracking too. Soundcore is using a gyroscope to ensure sound always surrounds you. In addition, Liberty 4 offers adaptive noise canceling (which automatically adjusts noise cancellation levels based on environmental audio) and personalized sound.

You’ll get up to nine hours of use on a single charge, Soundcore claims, and 28 hours in total before you need to top up the charging case’s battery. These figures drop to five and 15 hours with spatial audio on, and seven and 24 hours when ANC is enabled. That said, Soundcore says you’ll get up to three hours of use after charging for 15 minutes.

In addition, there’s multipoint connectivity, so you can pair Liberty 4 to your computer and phone at the same time over Bluetooth. The $150 earbuds come in white or black colorways. You can buy Liberty 4 direct from Soundcore now and other retailers in October.

Anker Sleep A10 earbuds
Soundcore

Soundcore has also unveiled new sleep earbuds. It says the Sleep A10 buds can block out up to 35dB of noise thanks to a four-point noise masking system.

Unlike Bose Sleepbuds 2, which only allow you to listen to sleep sounds from a certain app, you can play any audio through Sleep A10 via Bluetooth. Soundcore says its earbuds have dynamic drivers designed to deliver low-frequency sound that induces sleep. Crucially, the earbuds are seemingly comfortable for folks who sleep on their side. They have ear wings and twin seal ear tips to help keep them snug in your ears during the night.

Other features include sleep monitoring and a personal alarm clock. Anker claims the buds have a battery life of up to 10 hours, so they should be able to help wake you up in addition to lulling you to sleep. The Sleep A10 buds, which cost $69 less than Bose’s Sleepbuds 2, are available from Soundcore’s website for $180.

Anker Sleep A10 earbuds
Soundcore

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 falls to $250 plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals

The week may be almost over, but there are still plenty of offers to be found. Apple’s 512GB MacBook Air M2 has hit a new low price, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is down to just $250, you can pick up an Xbox controller from $45 and Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential with Alexa is at an all-time low of just $35. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

MacBook Air M2

Apple MacBook Air M1
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The MacBook Air M2 with 512GB of storage is $150 off and down to $1,150 right now, a new low. We gave the updated laptop a score of 96 for its excellent performance, gorgeous display and ultra-thin design. If you don’t need all that storage, the 256GB model is also on sale at $1,050.

Buy MacBook Air M2 at Amazon – $1,350

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 falls to a new low of $250
Engadget

If you have your eye on Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 5 but were waiting for a deal, one has already arrived. Amazon’s Woot portal is selling the 40mm model in several colors (Grey, Pink Gold and Silver) for $250, a savings of $30 or 11 percent off the regular price. We gave the Galaxy Watch 5 a score of 85 in our review, praising its design, build and comprehensive tracking features, with the biggest downside being battery life.

Buy Galaxy Watch 5 at Woot – $250

Xbox Core Wireless Controller

Microsoft's new Series X console and its accessories.
Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

Amazon is selling the Xbox Core Wireless Controller for up to 26 percent off. The white model is the most affordable of the bunch at $45 (normally $60), but you’ll also find significant savings for the blue, red and Electric Volt (read: neon green) variants. If you own an Xbox Series X or Series S, you know what to expect. The Core Wireless Controller largely offers Microsoft’s years-old layout, just with an Elite-style circular directional pad, a share button and better grip. 

Buy Xbox Core Wireless Controller at Amazon – $45

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa

Lenovo's new Smart Clock with Alexa is 29 percent off at Amazon
Engadget

If you’re looking to add some digital smarts to your bedroom without buying a device that features a camera, smart clocks are the way to go. One of the better options out there is the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa, and it’s currently on sale. Amazon has discounted the device by 50 percent, making it $35 at the moment. We’ve seen the Smart Clock Essential go on sale frequently in the past. However, $35 matches an all-time low for the device.

Buy Smart Clock Essential at Amazon – $35

Samsung T7 Shield

The 1TB model of the Samsung T7 Shield SSD is still on sale for $100, which is just about the best we’ve ever seen. This rugged drive has a tough exterior that can withstand drops from nearly 10 feet, plus an IP65 rating for dust- and water-resistance. It also has the same read/write speeds of the other T7 models and works with a bunch of devices including PC, Mac, Android and even some game consoles.

Buy T7 Shield (1TB) at Amazon – $100

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

The Galaxy Z Flip 4, closed, held in mid-air.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Another holdover from last week, Samsung’s Z Flip 4 has a discount of $100, so you can pick it up for as low as $900. This foldable came out just a few weeks ago and we gave it a score of 86 in our review, mostly for its still-innovative formfactor, improved battery life and useful hands-free functionality.

Buy Galaxy Z Flip 4 at Amazon – $900

HBO Max

HBO Max has discounted its annual plan, so you can save 30 percent if you sign up and pay for one year upfront. If you can deal with ads, the service will cost $70 for 12 months, down from the usual $100. To get an ad-free experience, you’ll pay $105, which is $45 off the usual rate.

Subscribe to HBO Max

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USB branding could become a little easier to understand

The group that oversees USB wants to make it easier for you to understand what various cables and ports can actually do. It’s trying to ditch branding like SuperSpeed and USB4 in an attempt to simplify matters, but manufacturers may not necessarily adopt the changes.

The steps are part of a broader drive by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) to rebrand USB standards. The group brought in new logos for cables, ports and packaging last year. The updated branding is about helping people understand what the standards are capable of in terms of data transfer speeds and performance, as well as charging speeds, USB-IF president and chief operating officer Jeff Ravencraft told The Verge.

SuperSpeed (also known as USB 3) has been around over a decade. You may have seen it on USB cable boxes. Going forward, USB-IF wants cable makers to use “USB 10Gbps” instead of “SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps” and “USB 20Gbps” instead of “USB4 20Gbps.” Meanwhile, USB-C cables certified by the USB-IF will need to list both data transfer speeds and charging wattage.

The changes recently came into effect, and the updated branding could start appearing on labels and packaging by the end of the year. The branding guidelines apply to products with any type of USB port except for USB 1.0, which you won’t see much these days anyway, and USB 2.0 (aka USB Hi-Speed). The USB-IF reckons that, in the latter case, using “USB 480Mbps” may create confusion for those who might see that on packaging and believe it to be faster than USB 5Gbps, simply because of the larger number.

The rebranding requirements only apply to devices and cables certified by the USB-IF. But, because USB is an open standard (unlike, say, Thunderbolt 4), there’s nothing really to stop manufacturers from using SuperSpeed and USB4 branding if they really want to, as The Verge notes. As such, it remains to be seen how much these measures will actually clear things up for people who just need a cable for their device.

Knowing which cable you need is already complicated enough. Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 connectors and ports look exactly the same as USB-C ones, for instance. The updated guidelines won’t do much to help you understand if a cable supports DisplayPort or a certain fast-charging standard either.

On the surface, at least, these seem like positive moves to reduce confusion and get rid of unnecessary verbiage. Still, it’s unclear whether abandoning the SuperSpeed moniker, which was arguably less commonly used than USB 3 in any case, will actually help clarify things for most users. It may not matter much anyway given the increasingly widespread adoption of USB-C as a more universal standard — which is the whole point of USB in the first place.

House, Senate Democrats ask FTC to fight Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot (updated)

Amazon might face some political opposition in its bid to acquire iRobot. Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren and House Representatives Jesus Garcia, Pramila Jayapal, Mondaire Jones, Katie Porter and Mark Pocan have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to oppose the purchase of the Roomba creator. iRobot is a “powerful” incumbent in robot vacuums, according to the politicians’ letter, and Amazon would allegedly reduce competition with the resources it could pour into the market.

The members of Congress pointed to Amazon’s history of technology buyouts to support their case, arguing that the company snaps up competitors to eliminate them. Amazon killed sales of Kiva Systems’ robots after the 2012 acquisition and used them exclusively in its warehouses, for instance. The 2017 and 2018 acquisitions of Blink and Ring reportedly helped Amazon dominate US video doorbell sales, while the internet retailer has also faced multiple accusations of abusing third-party seller data to launch rival products and promote them above others.

We’ve asked Amazon for comment. The online shopping giant frequently denies anti-competitive practices, and has even called for the recusal of FTC chair Lina Khan in Amazon-related cases over claims she’s biased against the company.

The Commission hasn’t said if it will take action against the iRobot deal. Reports circulated that the FTC reviewed Amazon’s purchase of MGM, but didn’t challenge it. Khan didn’t have a party majority at the time, however, and movie studios aren’t the same as robot vacuum makers. iRobot is estimated to have 75 percent of the American robovac market by revenue, according to Statista. It’s already difficult for challenges like Shark and Eufy to thrive, and it wouldn’t get easier with Amazon involved.

Update 9/30 1:40PM ET: An Amazon spokesperson claimed the politicians’ letter had a “number of falsehoods,” and that it would “cooperate” with regulators in a deal it felt would encourage competition. It wouldn’t elaborate the allegedly false claims on-record.

Fixing inefficient oil field flaring could drastically reduce methane emissions

Oil and gas companies regularly use flaring (that is, burning unwanted methane) to limit the amount of natural gas escaping into the atmosphere, but the practice might not be as kind to the planet as previously thought. Scientists at the University of Michigan, Stanford and elsewhere have discovered that flaring is much less effective than the industry assumes, and puts out five times more methane (a strong greenhouse gas) than predicted.

Companies and governments act on the belief flares are always lit and burn off 98 percent of methane. However, aerial surveys of three US basins (where 80 percent of American flaring takes place) have revealed that the flares aren’t lit up to 5 percent of the time, and operate inefficiently when they’re active. In practice, the flaring efficiency is just 91 percent. That may not sound like a big dip, but it signifies that there’s a large volume of unaccounted-for methane contributing to climate change.

There is an upside to the findings. Flaring’s problems are “quite addressable” with better management, lead researcher Genevieve Plant said, and a solution would offer an equivalent emissions reduction to removing 3 million cars. To put it another way, this could be one of the easiest ways to keep methane in check and limit global warming. The challenge is to have companies and governments work in harmony — that’s not guaranteed, even if the fix is relatively straightforward.

NASA and SpaceX will study the possibility of using a Dragon capsule to boost Hubble’s orbit

NASA and SpaceX have signed an agreement to study the possibility of using a Dragon spacecraft to lift the Hubble telescope to a higher orbit. The Hubble telescope’s orbit decays over time due to atmospheric drag, and reboosting it to a more stable one could add more years to its life. SpaceX proposed the idea several months ago in partnership with the Polaris Program, the human spaceflight initiative organized by billionaire businessman, Jared Isaacman. If you’ll recall, Isaacman funded Inspiration4, the first mission to launch an all-civilian crew to orbit back in 2021. 

The space agency said it’s not going to spend any money for the study and there are no plans to fund a mission to reboost the Hubble with a Dragon spacecraft at the moment. According to The New York Times, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said during a news conference: “I want to be absolutely clear. We’re not making an announcement today that we definitely will go forward with a plan like this.” NASA and SpaceX didn’t even enter an exclusive agreement, which means other companies can propose studies with their spacecraft as the model. At this point, this partnership is all about looking at the possibilities. 

The teams will spend six months collecting technical data from both Hubble and the Dragon spacecraft. They’ll then use that information to determine whether it’s safe for the capsule to rendezvous and dock with the telescope, as well as to figure out how it can physically raise Hubble to a higher altitude. At the same conference, SpaceX VP of customer operations Jessica Jensen explained: “What we want to do is expand the boundaries of current technology. We want to show how we use commercial partnerships as well as the public-private partnerships to creatively solve challenging and complex problem missions such as servicing Hubble.” In addition to potentially adding years to the 32-year-old telescope’s life, the servicing solutions the study finds could also be applied to other spacecraft in near-Earth orbit.

Engadget Podcast: Diving into Amazon’s latest gadgets and the Apple Watch Ultra

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into the massive amounts of news from Amazon’s recent event. There’s a Kindle you can write on! And Amazon also wants to track your sleep on bed. We discuss what’s interesting about all of this gear, as well as why we still don’t trust Amazon with some of our data. Also, Cherlynn tells us what she likes (and doesn’t) about the Apple Watch Ultra, and Devindra explains why the Sonos Sub Mini is a pretty great value.

Stay tuned to the end for our chat with Josh Newman, VP of Mobile Innovation at Intel. He discusses Unison, Intel’s new app for sending texts and taking calls on your PC via your iPhone or Android phone. It’s something PC users have been waiting for, and it sounds like Intel is serious about making it work smoothly.

Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

Subscribe!

Topics

  • Amazon hardware event unveils a writable Kindle, QLED Fire TV, and Alexa improvements – 1:19

  • Google’s Search On event details new features for search and maps – 26:29

  • Apple Watch Ultra, Fitbit Sense 2, and Sonos Sub reviews – 39:54

  • Intel and Samsung debut a PC with a slidable screen – 58:37

  • Intel’s 13th gen CPUs look impressive – 59:54

  • NASA’s Dart mission might have smacked an astroid out of orbit – 1:05:32

  • Oura releases 3rd generation smart ring – 1:06:42

  • Working on – 1:07:34

  • Pop culture picks – 1:08:24

  • Intel Unison interview – 1:15:26

Livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh

Twitch will charge you $100 to pin your chat message for 2.5 minutes

Twitch is testing a new feature that gives viewers a way to make sure their favorite streamer (and their fellow fans) can see their message in the chatbox. The livestreaming platform has given select channels access to an experimental feature called “Elevated Chat,” which pins a viewer’s message for visibility if they’re willing to pay for it. Similar to YouTube’s Super Chat, the more people pay, the longer their message stays highlighted. A payment of $5 will elevate their message for 30 seconds, while $10 will get them a minute. If they want 1.5 minutes, they’ll have to pay $25. Two minutes? That’s $50. And if they want their message to stay highlighted for 2.5 minutes, they better be prepared to pay $100 for it. 

Paying $100 on YouTube’s Super Chat is typically enough to highlight a message for an hour. That said, while the features are similar, their implementations aren’t exactly the same. YouTube adds markers to the top of the chatbox for each Super Chat, and clicking on them will take viewers to the donor’s message. Meanwhile, Twitch is testing two potential locations for elevated chats. Streamers who’ve been chosen to participate will see the highlighted messages appear either at the top of the chatbox or at the bottom of the video. Also, it sounds like there can only be one highlighted message at a time, since Twitch said in the feature’s support page that viewers will enter a queue if multiple people pay for elevated chats at the same time.

Twitch
Twitch

Of course, $100 for 2.5 minutes of visibility sounds pretty outrageous no matter what — especially if you can just pay for five 30-second elevated messages for $25. The experiment will last for four weeks, after which Twitch will likely look at data from the test to decide whether to give the feature a wider rollout.

The Morning After: Google is shutting down Stadia, its game streaming service

Despite denials until mid-2022, Stadia is winding down. The technically impressive game streaming service, which delivered current-gen games through smartphones, PCs, tablets and even Chromecast, is the latest victim of Google’s long list of service casualties. Google said the service “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected.” That’s entirely true. Google closed its internal game development studios early last year, and the company sadly failed to turn things around, even as rumors swirled that Stadia wasn’t long for this world. It’s a shame, as the service worked incredibly well, especially at the nascent beginnings of cloud gaming.

The good news is if you invested in the standalone games, Google “will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store.” This was outlined by Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison in a blog here.

If you subscribed to Stadia Pro and built up a catalog of games, there are no reimbursements. You’ll be able to play your games until January, but it’ll serve as a reminder that streaming services, if they go, can leave you with nothing. Except maybe a Chromecast.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

James Webb and Hubble captures pictures of NASA’s spacecraft−asteroid collision

The first time both telescopes observed the same celestial target at the same time.

NASA made history this week when it slammed its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly seven million miles away. Now, we can see the test from afar, thanks to the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. JWST and Hubble picked up different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively), and NASA says that observing data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if big chunks of material left Dimorphos’ surface or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test: The ultimate aim is to develop a system that can divert incoming asteroids away from Earth. Like 1998’s Armageddon, just with less Bruce Willis and Aerosmith.

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Sonos Sub Mini review

The practical sub we’ve been waiting for.

TMA
Engadget

Finally, after only 10 years, Sonos has launched the Sub Mini, and at $429, it’s relatively affordable. It’s perfectly sized for apartments and small rooms, and it’s a simple upgrade to your Sonos Beam or Ray. Finally, you have a viable, moveable way of beefing up your sound, which isn’t obscenely expensive. Check out our full review.

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Meta’s new Make-a-Video AI can generate quick movie clips from text prompts

Even more complicated AI-generated art.

Meta unveiled its Make-a-Scene text-to-image generating AI in July, which, like Dall-E and Midjourney, can create fantastical depictions based on written prompts. On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Make-a-Scene’s more animated contemporary, Make-a-Video. Functionally, Video works the same as Scene – combining natural language processing and generative neural networks to convert non-visual prompts into images – it’s just pulling content into a different format.

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Teenage Engineering’s PO-80 Record Factory both cuts and plays vinyl

Why not both?

TMA
Teenage Engineering

The Swedish brand, best known for electronic music toys and tools, has released the decidedly more analogue PO-80 Record Factory. As the name implies, it can cut vinyl records as well as play them back. The orange and white design is cute, as is the simplicity. You just need to plug an audio device into the 3.5mm jack and start recording. You’re limited to monophonic sound, and you won’t be cutting more than a single with a B-side. The Record Factory is available for $149.

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Musk’s texts with Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal detail tumultuous Twitter negotiations

Dorsey asked Musk to join Twitter’s board long before he tried to buy the company.

A tranche of Elon Musk’s private messages has been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court filing Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s leadership, discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and how Musk talks with CEO Parag Agrawal quickly soured. The messages include the moment Musk tells Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board, as well as Agrawal confronting Musk about an April 9th tweet questioning if “Twitter is dying.”

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