From streaming music and audiobooks to live audio rooms and podcasts, every major player in tech is trying to own a chunk of the listening experience. Spotify is expanding beyond music streaming, YouTube is becoming an audio-only destination, and Apple Music is hoping to stand out with spatial audio while Tidal, Pandora, SoundCloud, and so many more scramble to set themselves apart.
ChatAI will help other headphone brands quickly add wake words or button shortcuts to talk to an OpenAI-powered assistant.
Bragi was once one of the most exciting earbud manufacturers itself, but quit making hardware in 2019 with grand ambitions to sell audio AI instead.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Google’s Pixel 10 range has leaked. This time Evan Blass did the honors, sharing images of the 10 Pro and Pro XL, the Watch 4, and our first look at the Buds 2A.
This week we’ve seen repeated leaks of the phone designs, the Watch 4’s new charger, and even an official tease, so there won’t be much left to tell when everything launches on August 20th,
Our friends over at Switched on Pop just did a fun episode about the history of the way podcasts sound. The Grateful Dead is in there, as is the infamous Breakmaster Cylinder, who wrote the theme for every podcast ever. Including ours! It’s fascinating — and a good combo listen with this Vergecast episode from last year. It also might have ruined podcast jingles for me, forever.
[Switched on Pop]
It looks nearly identical to the original, but Marshall’s new $ 329.99 Middleton II Bluetooth speaker has been upgraded with two 3-inch woofers, two 0.6-inch tweeters, and a pair of passive radiators to improve its bass performance. Battery life also gets a boost to up to 30 hours, and the speaker is still waterproof.
Marshall also improved the Middleton II’s controls with a redesigned multidirectional knob that can be used to adjust volume, control playback, and answer calls.
In the ‘80s, Maxell was a brand synonymous with audio and cassette tapes thanks to an iconic ad. With the popularity of cassette tapes on the rise, Maxell is once again making cassette players but with upgraded features including Bluetooth connectivity, USB-C charging, and a rechargeable battery. But it still includes a headphone jack for the full retro experience.
The MXCP-P100 is only available in Japan right now for ¥13,000, or around $90.
The collaboration between Koons and Lexon Design sees the artist’s most iconic creation turned into a wireless speaker with touch controls delivering 360-degree sound and a lamp that uses tubes filled with color-changing LEDs to recreate the appearance of neon lighting.
Pricing isn’t known, but both will only be available in limited quantities later this month and hopefully be much cheaper than the 10-foot Balloon Dog sculpture Koons sold in 2013 for $58 million.
That’s when the company’s first over-ear headphones are launching, on July 1st at 1PM ET, the same time it plans to launch the flagship Phone 3.
The $109.99 Arctis Nova 3 Wireless is now the company’s cheapest wireless headset. It supports every console, and basically anything else with a USB-C port, and has impressive fast-charging: 15 minutes plugged in gets you nine hours of game time. Like last year’s GameBuds it also supports the Arctis mobile app, with over 200 EQ presets for specific games.
In addition to better ANC and the return to a folding design, Sony quietly improved access to the battery in its recently-launched WH-1000XM6 wireless headphones.
During a teardown iFixit discovered the battery is now held in place by two screws instead of double-sided tape like Sony used on previous models, making it relatively easy to access and replace if you’re comfortable disassembling a $450 pair of headphones.
As with the company’s wireless speakers and headphones, the Heston 120 soundbar features the same design aesthetic as Marshall’s iconic guitar amps, including knurled metal knobs and leather trim.
Inside the $999.99 soundbar you’ll find 11 drivers, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and support for Dolby Atmos and DTS-X. It’s also compatible with Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect, and can stream directly from Spotify and Tidal when used to listen to just music.
And... that’s all we know about them. The company is following up its now extensive range of earbuds with bigger headphones coming this summer. “I think they’re better than AirPods Max,” says Nothing designer Tom Ridley as he and the design team tease what to expect while critiquing the competition, but we’ll have to wait to learn more than that.
0Better sound, better noise cancellation, and some design improvements, but a higher price.
The next generation of Sony’s noise canceling headphones is almost here. Sony has a placeholder YouTube stream counting down to the WH-1000XM6 launch on Thursday at noon ET, which will finally flesh out the real information after some recent leaks.
Instead of just including a library of pre-recorded samples captured from percussion instruments like marimbas and xylophones, Korg Berlin’s Phase8 features eight “replaceable and tunable metal resonators” that are played using electromechanical triggers.
Originally developed as a collection of prototypes, Korg Berlin says the finalized version of the Phase8, demonstrated in a recent video, will go on sale some time in the first quarter of 2026.
