Tag Archives: apple

Wish you could listen to Spotify without your phone? Until now, you had precious few options. There’s the Mighty Vibe, an iPod Shuffle-style portable music player that can suck up your Spotify playlists for offline listening. It’s $100. Then there are various high-end smartwatches, like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and certain Garmin ForeRunner …

Google had big ambitions with its wearable software, Wear OS. But for the past few years, it’s stagnated and Apple has taken an even bigger lead in the global smartwatch market. A new partnership with Samsung announced on Tuesday at Google I/O could give Wear OS the attention it needs to stay relevant. But it won’t catch up to Apple …

Microsoft has launched its playbook for hybrid work, outlining how it believes the office of the near future will be able to incorporate in-person and remote employees with help from devices such as smart cameras. “In this new era of hybrid work, we will no longer rely solely on shared physical location,” writes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a post Friday …

Forget Bluetooth dongles. The wave of the future is Wi-Fi music, and in the absence of Google’s discontinued Chromecast Audio we look instead to Belkin’s new Apple AirPlay 2 add-on, the $100 Soundform Connect. Like the Chromecast Audio, the Soundform Connect is designed to connect any system with an aux or optical digital input to Wi-Fi. AirPlay 2 is a multiroom …

If you’re on Spotify and have an Apple Watch, you’ll soon be able to listen on the go without an iPhone. On Friday the music streaming giant announced that it’s begun rolling out the ability to download playlists for offline listening to Apple’s wearable, bringing the Apple Watch on par with devices from Fitbit, Samsung and Garmin. It means runners, for …

Twitter is preparing to launch its Ticketed Spaces feature in the next couple of weeks, the company announced Friday, enabling people to host live, paid shows on the platform. The recently launched Twitter Spaces is a competitor to the popular audio meetup app Clubhouse, which lets people visit virtual rooms and listen to and participate in conversations. Twitter rolled out the feature …

Google is taking a step outside the digital realm to open a physical retail store, in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. Its doors will open this summer, the company said in a blog post Thursday. You’ll be able to check out and buy products like its Pixel phones, Nest smart home accessories and Fitbit devices, or pick up items you’ve …

Facebook on Wednesday published a trove of information detailing its latest enforcement efforts on everything from hate speech to COVID-19 misinformation to counterfeit products. The company also introduced a new Transparency Center to house all of its reports. One thing the social network didn’t have many details on: exactly how it plans to handle former President Donald Trump’s suspension.  Earlier …

HBO Max‘s cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 a month and launch in the first week of June, owner WarnerMedia said Wednesday. A $5 discount to HBO Max‘s ad-free subsciption, it’ll arrive the week after — possibly just days after — HBO Max premieres its highly anticipated Friends reunion special on May 27. The new tier, called simply HBO Max with Ads, is …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. I recently highlighted a good deal on Enacfire’s E90 buds, which are surprisingly good for their low price — around $25. Now here’s one for the EarFun Free Pro buds, which are a little more expensive but also good value (and have active noise canceling). They’re …