Clip-on earbuds have arrived in a big way, giving another versatile way to enjoy music whether you’re in the gym or making your way to the busy metro station. Rather than shoving the eartips deep down the ear canal, these buds are more comfortable and keep you aware of the environment at all times.

Huawei FreeClip 2 arrived late last year to turn up music lovers’ interest in this form factor, followed by the swanky CMF Clip Pro’s. Sennheiser jumped on the bandwagon with the Accentum Clip, and recently Bose came up with their second generation clio-ons. Predictably, Samsung has pulled the trigger with its first-ever clip-on wireless earbuds dubbed Galaxy Buds On, and they look impressive.

Designer: Samsung

So how are the Galaxy Buds On different from the other flagship clip-on buds in the tightly contested market? Do they have what it takes to bring to the active audio community what they desire out of such open-ear earbuds?

Clip-on design that takes comfort seriously

Samsung’s approach for this form factor is focused on rethinking how the bud sits on the ear. The Galaxy Buds On use an open-ear clip design that leaves the ear canal unobstructed, allowing wearers to listen to music while staying connected to conversations, traffic, or other sounds around them.

Samsung says it studied different ear shapes and ran simulations to determine the positioning of the speakers and battery. A larger contact area helps distribute pressure, while the elasticity of the connecting band is tuned to keep the buds stable during movement. That makes the design particularly relevant for walking, commuting and workouts where awareness matters as much as audio.

Bass that packs a punch

The audio hardware is also more considered than the unusual silhouette might suggest. Samsung has fitted the Buds On with TwinBoost speakers designed to emphasize lower frequencies, addressing one of the perennial challenges of open-ear audio – producing convincing bass without sealing the ear canal. An Audio Leakage Reduction system is intended to keep music from spilling excessively into the surroundings.

In conjunction, the automatic volume control adjusts playback according to the environment. Samsung claims up to 9.5 hours of continuous music playback from the earbuds, which puts the focus firmly on everyday usability rather than making the clip form factor a novelty.

Galaxy AI adapted for the open-ear formula

The more interesting bit happens when the Buds On are paired with a compatible Galaxy device. Samsung has integrated several Galaxy AI features, turning the earbuds into something closer to a hands-free interface. Users can launch Gemini Live through a voice command, while Quick Voice Memo allows a long press on the earbud to start recording without reaching for the phone. Those recordings can subsequently be searched through Bixby, provided the required Galaxy AI-supported device, Voice Recorder, and Bixby setup is in place.

Head Gestures take the hands-free idea further. Nodding or shaking the head can be used for actions such as answering or ending calls, dismissing alarms, or interacting with message notifications. For calls, the Buds On use three microphones alongside a bone-conduction-based Voice Pickup Unit and machine learning to isolate the wearer’s voice from surrounding noise. They are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 Sound Platform and a Class-D amplifier.

Samsung will launch the Galaxy Buds On in South Korea on October 27 in black for 299,000 won (roughly $220). A wider international rollout is planned, although regional pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

The post Samsung Galaxy Buds On let you listen to music without blocking your ears first appeared on Yanko Design.

After almost two years of a lull, Bose has finally released a new version of the Ultra Open Earbuds, along with a new pair of fitness-focused open earbuds. While I’m still a sucker for ANC earbuds that isolate me from the ambient world for deep focus moments, Bose’s new Open earbuds are tempting enough to consider for my walks and outdoor activities.

The hardware for the second-generation Open Ultra has been updated for better audio, while the all-new Sports Open Earbuds explore new territory for hardcore active individuals who trust the brand with their audio requirements. Both these open-ear audio accessories take on the competition with a strong set of specifications, features, and pricing to keep everyone interested.

Designer: Bose

The timing of this release is perfect, as the open-ear earbuds are trending amongst individuals who need to be aware of the environment and, more importantly, suffer from occlusion triggered by ANC earbuds. Sure, those buds have transparency mode for situations where you need to hear what’s happening around, but the open-ear options are ideal for runners, cyclists, or public transport users. The two of them will support Bluetooth 5.4 multipoint connectivity for two devices and Google Fast Pair. Both these open-ear buds will be available for pre-order from 19 September, and available from October 1 in Black and White Smoke along with other respective limited edition colors.

Ultra Open Earbuds 2^nd Gen

The flagship Ultra Open Earbuds arrive in the second generation to create “more listening moments across active pursuits and everyday life.” The buds are reengineered with better drivers to deliver deeper bass and a higher volume compared to the outgoing version. This has been the major complaint of existing users, and Bose has listened to the feedback and delivered the fix. The look and feel of the buds have been upgraded as they get a refined metallic cap with a beveled finish, while the case also benefits from a renewed design that makes them stand upright. As a welcome addition, the case is now wireless charging compatible. On the buds, you’ll now get 9 hours of battery life, with an additional 19.5 hours on the case. The buds support quick charge to deliver two hours of playback with just 10 minutes of quick charge.

High-quality audio is the main USP, as the open-ear buds get the aptX Adaptive codec and Snapdragon Sound support. For a better calling experience, the buds benefit from the Speech Clarity tech to adjust the listening volume automatically based on the environmental noise. Of course, this is AI-driven to smoothly transition the volume step. For those who love to watch movies and shows in surround sound, there is the Cinema mode that employs Bose’ TrueSpatial tech to envelope you in a 3D sound capsule. Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen) will arrive in limited-edition Olive Green, Cherry Chocolate, and Sky Pink colors for $299.

Sport Open Earbuds

The new kid on the block is the Bose Sport Open Earbuds, which are designed for a secure fit and rated IP54 for dust and splash resistance. Compared to the big brother, these clip-on earbuds sport a more roundish hinge to stay in place even with the most rigorous activities like playing sports, running, or working out in the gym. According to Bose, the Sport Open Earbuds stay in place even with headshakes, cartwheels, and other activities.” For these open-ear wireless earbuds, Bose has opted for the tactile physical buttons since fiddling for touch controls is not practical.

For a sportier design, the earbuds get a translucent case lid that is textured for better grip. Each of the buds weighs 10 grams for all-day wearing comfort and touts 7 hours of listening time, with 29 hours total with the case. The Sport Open Earbuds will be available for $199 in limited-edition Eucalyptus Green, along with the aforementioned color options.

The post Bose Ultra Open 2nd Gen and Sport Open spice-up the clip-on earbuds options first appeared on Yanko Design.

Bose's new open-ear earbuds cost $199 and $299. The extra $100 buys longer single-charge battery life and more audio features, but not better durability.

The post Bose Sport Open vs Ultra Open 2: Is the $100 Upgrade Worth It? appeared first on TechRepublic.

For three years, Plaud made very good tape recorders with a PhD. You pressed a button, it captured a meeting, and mere minutes later a summary showed up. The Plaud One, launched at IFA 2026 for €249.90, reverses that arrow. Its charging case now holds four beamforming mics, a speaker, an agent button and a built in eSIM, so it stays online without a phone nearby. Hold the agent button and the AI talks back, asks what you meant, then builds the deck or drafts the email while you get on with your day.

That flip from recording to doing needed hardware nobody had built yet. Not a pendant, not a pin, not another app crammed onto a phone you were already staring at. Plaud built a palm sized aluminum box with a fluted lid that looks like a Rimowa suitcase went through a shrink ray, sitting on a table, listening across a room, and talking back like a colleague who never needs coffee. The Explorer Edition opens for pre order now, capped at 2,000 units worldwide, with deliveries landing in Q4. A public version follows in 2027, once Plaud has watched two thousand early adopters put the thing through its paces.

Designer: Plaud

The original Plaud Note clipped onto a phone and did one job, listen to a meeting and hand back a transcript once it ended. The Note Pro added a screen and better mics. The NotePin S shrank the format onto a lanyard clip. Every generation stayed reactive by design, a smart recorder waiting for you to press stop before it did anything useful. That business built Plaud’s 2.5 million user base and reportedly crossed $100 million in annual software revenue by June, which is exactly the kind of runway that lets a company gamble on reinventing its own hardware category from scratch.

Vertical fluting runs down the case’s aluminum lid, the same visual trick Rimowa has stamped into cabin luggage since the 1950s, giving a 62 gram object a sense of density it has no right to carry. Flip it open and the earbuds sit half in ear, silver capped, in a tray that reads closer to a jewelry box than a charging dock. A speaker grille, a record button and a separate agent button line the case’s edge, the three controls that turn a charger into a device you actually talk to. None of it apes a phone. It reads like furniture for a desk, not gear for a pocket.

Earlier Plaud devices leaned on your phone for both processing and connectivity, so the intelligence always sat one hop away from the microphone. Plaud One’s case carries its own 4G LTE connection through a built in eSIM, closing that gap entirely. Capture, transcription and agent response now run in one box, independent of any other screen in your life. Leave your phone in a bag, walk into a cafe, and the case still records the table’s conversation, answers a question out loud through its speaker, or fires off a follow up email on command. Every pendant and pin that came before this quietly depended on a phone doing the real work behind the scenes. Plaud One is the first in the category that genuinely does not.

Plaud Agent drafts a follow up email the moment a client call ends. Feed it a meeting and it builds a slide deck while you sit through your next call, then drops the finished file straight into Notion with zero copy pasting. The platform connects to Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Slack and Notion today, with more integrations promised as the software matures. Set it loose on a standing task, a monthly competitor scan for instance, and it runs quietly in the background, waiting with a finished report the next time you check. This is the actual bet Plaud is making, that an assistant worth having has to act, not just remember.

Pre orders for the Explorer Edition are open now at €249.90, with the first 2,000 units shipping in Q4. Buyers get $200 in Plaud Credits toward the heavier agent features on top of a starter transcription plan, so the price buys a running start on the software as much as the hardware. Calling this an Explorer Edition rather than a finished release is the honest move, an open beta wearing genuinely sharp industrial design. Plaud spent three years building the best possible way to listen. Plaud One is its first real attempt at building something worth talking to.

The post Plaud One Hands-On at IFA 2026: AI Earbuds That Transcribe Meetings, Then Draft Emails And Decks For You first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sennheiser’s $299.95 Momentum True Wireless 5 adds user-replaceable batteries to both the earbuds and charging case, plus longer battery life and Bluetooth 6.0.

The post Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5: Key Features and Price appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple patched a Beats Studio Buds Bluetooth flaw that could let nearby attackers listen through the microphone during pairing.

The post Apple Patches Beats Studio Buds Flaw That Could Enable Wiretapping appeared first on TechRepublic.