The clip-on buds form factor is here to stay and not merely a fad. Samsung has joined the bandwagon with its first-ever clip-ons that compete in the flagship segment. The South Korean giant’s Buds4 Pro earbuds have already impressed us with their excellent call quality, ANC, and comfort. So we expect the same from the new Galaxy Buds On.

With Bose Ultra Open, Sony LinkBuds, Huawei FreeBuds 6, Nothing Ear (open), and CMF Clip Pro giving outdoor audio lovers plenty of options, the Samsung clip-ons have a strong case with the features on offer. Their first-ever clip-on wireless buds sit inside the ear, while the ergonomic shape comfortably hugs the ear for a snug fit even while working out. According to Samsung, the buds were developed after analyzing different ear shapes to optimize speaker placement and the built-in battery.

Designer: Samsung

Galaxy Buds On are focused on spatial awareness without losing out on the music quality, thanks to the TwinBoost speakers that deliver low-frequency performance. The automatic volume control toggles the audio level depending on the outside ambient noise, so that you don’t miss out on any of the important audio streams or call conversations. The introductory video clearly highlights the fact that the buds seamlessly integrate into daily life and personal listening space. Unlike some buds that have left and right distinction, these don’t have one, which is both a downside and an advantage when it comes to freedom of use.

The IP54 buds are powered by the Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 Sound platform paired with the high-efficiency Class-D amplifier, which optimizes things at the hardware level for final performance. This ensures a nonstop 9.5 hours of continuous music playback after a single charge. The buds come with a bone conduction vibration sensor that helps detect if the wearer is speaking to someone, so that the transparency mode can be enhanced and background noise reduced. As seen in the launch video, the buds can be triggered hands-free with the “Hey Google, let’s talk live” command for natural AI conversations.

Head gestures are also a part of the mix and more reliable given the bone conduction tech is at the helm. You can take or reject calls, read message notifications, dismiss alarms, or even adjust volume or equalizer on Galaxy devices. Samsung has also addressed the audio leakage issue, which is common to most clip-ons, with the Audio Leakage Reduction tech. The accompanying case brings the total battery life to an impressive 38 hours. With each of the buds weighing 6.65g and the case at 41g, the Buds On have a strong case for people in the Galaxy ecosystem. For a price of $229, they are flush in the flagship dominance race, and it will ultimately boil down to the real-world performance of the buds.

 

 

 

The post $229 Galaxy Buds On arrive with hands-free AI operation and smooth gestures first appeared on Yanko Design.

There’s something satisfying about choosing a CD, even if most of us have become accustomed to tapping a screen instead. The trouble is finding audio equipment you’d actually want to leave on display. km5’s newly announced Sp1 speaker and Mp1 mixer give its Cp1 CD player some equally minimalist company, letting you listen to favorite albums or try your hand at mixing them.

Both borrow the Cp1’s flat, frame-like format, with black or white finishes that let the pieces sit together without looking like an assortment of unrelated electronics. The Sp1 puts a perforated grille where the player displays its disc, while the Mp1 fills that space with knobs and sliders. They share the same size, but each makes its purpose clear through its front surface.

Designer: km5

The speaker has a few surprises behind that otherwise quiet appearance. A dot-matrix display sits beneath the grille, showing the time and playback information without carving out a separate screen on the front. Physical buttons occupy the top edge alongside a retractable metal antenna. That last detail gives away the Sp1’s other role as an FM radio that doesn’t need to borrow your phone.

Inside are two 1.77-inch full-range drivers and two passive radiators, though their presence alone doesn’t tell us how convincing the bass will be. Bluetooth and microSD playback offer other ways to listen, and you can record radio programs, too. Pairing two Sp1 units provides stereo playback, letting a single speaker become part of a larger arrangement rather than something you’ve outgrown.

The Mp1, meanwhile, invites you to do something with the music beyond pressing play. Its two channels have separate level sliders, with a crossfader below for blending between sources. Three-band EQ controls adjust the bass, midrange, and treble, while filters change the sound further. Loop buttons repeat sections of a track, giving a favorite passage permission to stick around a little longer.

Two Bluetooth inputs let the mixer receive music from sources such as a Cp1 and a smartphone, then send the combined sound wirelessly to a compatible speaker. You aren’t required to own an entire matching set, thankfully. Line inputs and outputs also accommodate wired connections, though the published information doesn’t establish how much delay the completely wireless arrangement introduces when you’re trying to mix.

Built-in batteries make it easier to move the arrangement away from a desk, with km5 quoting approximately 12 hours for the speaker and six for the mixer. Optional wall-mount accessories offer another way to free up a surface. The mixer can even be operated on the wall, an unusual invitation to get up from the sofa and fiddle with the music yourself.

Preorders are scheduled to open on November 16, 2026, with km5 expecting shipments in February 2027 or later, though pricing remains unconfirmed. There’s also a practical limit to that portable party setup. The speaker’s quoted battery life is twice the mixer’s, so it might be ready for another album when your DJ booth is looking for a charger.

The post km5’s Sp1 Speaker and Mp1 Mixer Give CD Listening a DJ-Style Twist first appeared on Yanko Design.

The back of Teenage Engineering’s EP-35 opens to reveal a compartment for cables and accessories. It’s a wonderfully unglamorous feature to put on a music gadget. An amp can look perfectly composed in a product photo, but taking it anywhere means figuring out where the supporting cast goes. Giving those loose pieces a home inside the speaker feels like an acknowledgment of how people actually use their equipment.

That practical streak extends beyond storage. Listed for sale at $399, the EP-35 combines a portable speaker, an instrument amplifier, and a USB audio interface. It accepts guitar, microphone, line-level, Bluetooth, and USB audio, with multiple sources able to play together. The problem it addresses is straightforward: playing guitar over a backing track, or adding vocals, shouldn’t require assembling a small equipment department. Here, those connections meet in one box.

Designer: Teenage Engineering

Visually, the EP-35 has the charm of equipment that might belong in a very stylish school science lab. Its gray body, square grille, integrated handle, and orange accents are deliberately matter-of-fact. I like that the speaker drivers remain visible behind the grid. They give the front a slightly awkward, almost characterful expression. Nothing about the proportions suggests an object desperate to disappear into your decor, which is part of its appeal.

The controls make a similar impression. There are physical dials for choosing effects and adjusting their intensity, with eight presets each for guitar and microphone. That’s an approachable arrangement: select a sound, turn a control, hear what changes. I’d rather see that direct relationship on something intended for casual playing than a screen full of options. The microphone effects even include presets called “robo choir” and “frog,” which gives you a fair idea of the intended mood.

The USB audio interface is less visually entertaining but potentially more useful. Connect the EP-35 to a computer and it can serve as a recording interface, giving the same object a role at a desk after it comes home. That continuity makes sense to me. A portable device earns its shelf space more easily when it doesn’t become redundant the moment you’re near a power outlet and a laptop.

Inside the storage compartment, Teenage Engineering has also included a small camp light. It can illuminate the compartment automatically when opened, stay on, or react to incoming audio in disco mode. Tilting the speaker backward makes those LEDs display the battery level. Some of this is useful, some is cheerfully unnecessary. I’m happy with that balance. Checking a battery through a small physical gesture is a more memorable interaction than another tiny percentage readout.

Portability does need a little perspective, though. At about seven pounds, the EP-35 is something you carry by its handle, not casually toss into a small shoulder bag. Teenage Engineering rates battery life at 12 hours with the volume set to five, so that figure shouldn’t be treated as an all-day guarantee at any loudness. It’s also splash-resistant rather than waterproof. Those distinctions matter if the appealing camp light has you mentally packing it for a weekend outdoors.

There’s room to expand the setup, too. Two EP-35s can play Bluetooth audio in stereo through broadcast mode. Teenage Engineering’s instructions let you assign left and right channels by tilting each speaker before starting that mode. Connected instruments take a different route: linking their sound between speakers requires a line-out-to-line-in cable. That’s worth understanding before imagining a completely wireless mini stage. The wireless convenience applies specifically to Bluetooth playback.

For me, the $399 price makes the most sense if those musical connections will get regular use. Someone who only wants background listening would be paying for considerable capability they might never touch. Sound quality still needs a listening test; clever packaging can’t settle that question. But I appreciate the attention paid to what happens between sessions. The music stops, the cables come out, and the EP-35 gives you somewhere to put them. That’s a modest design decision with a very recognizable payoff.

The post Teenage Engineering’s EP-35 Amp Has a Hidden Cable Compartment first appeared on Yanko Design.

An album can be a folder you keep, a disc you lend, or a cassette you record yourself. That is a useful starting point for choosing audio equipment: what happens to the music after you press stop? The most interesting designs here give a collection a place to live, a way to travel, or a reason to come off the shelf. Their appeal starts with what you want to play.

These eight picks approach ownership from different directions, from carrying digital files to displaying album artwork and making recordings. You don’t need to abandon streaming to appreciate any of them. The selection includes an upcoming player alongside established products, chosen for their documented features and design decisions rather than hands-on sound testing. The question throughout is simple: what does this object let you do with the music you have chosen to keep?

1. Sudo Music Player

New Matter’s Sudo puts an iPod wheel beneath a small touchscreen, giving a familiar interaction a contemporary home. The upcoming player has an expected price of $ 249 and a straightforward appeal: carry your library on an object dedicated to listening. In the Tangerine version, black controls interrupt the orange body, making the wheel the obvious focal point. The layout gives playback its own physical territory, rather than asking a touchscreen to handle every interaction. It’s a promising starting point for a pocket music player.

New Matter lists 64GB of storage, microSD expansion up to 1TB, a 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth, and USB-C charging. It also lists streaming, so this isn’t a strictly offline machine. The reservation terms deserve equal attention: a refundable $50 deposit goes toward the expected purchase price, with shipping projected for the beginning of Q4 2027. Sudo leads this collection because of its design proposition, not proven performance. It remains something to watch, rather than a player to buy for immediate listening.

What we like

• A dedicated wheel gives playback a clear physical interface.
• Expandable storage accommodates a growing personal library.

What we dislike

• Shipping is still projected for Q4 2027.
• The $249 price is an estimate, not final pricing.

2. CD Jacket Player

The CD Jacket Player gives album packaging a job after you’ve removed the disc. Its frame accommodates the jacket artwork, letting the record you’re listening to become the player’s face. That makes particular sense for a collection assembled with some affection for sleeves, typography, and photography. Instead of letting those details disappear into a storage rack, the design brings one album forward. It turns choosing what to hear into choosing what to display, without requiring a separate picture frame.

The player offers Bluetooth output for wireless speakers or headphones and a 3.5mm jack for wired listening. A rechargeable battery and USB-C charging let it move between listening spots, while the shop includes a wall bracket. You’ll still need headphones or a speaker, and the display stand is sold separately. For someone who already owns a suitable listening setup, the attraction is the frame itself: the player gives an existing CD collection a visible place in the room.

Click Here to Buy Now: $170.00

What we like

• Album artwork becomes part of the player’s appearance.
• Wired and Bluetooth outputs provide listening flexibility.

What we dislike

• It requires separate headphones or speakers.
• The display stand costs extra.

3. FiiO DM15 R2R

FiiO’s DM15 R2R has a useful answer to the divide between collecting CDs and carrying digital files: it can rip tracks to external storage in WAV format while you listen. That makes it more than a destination for a disc. It can also be a step toward building a portable library from albums already on your shelf. For a collector who wants both formats, this is a more consequential feature than simply giving an old playback format a new enclosure.

Physical buttons and a volume knob keep the main operations accessible, with 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone outputs accommodating different wired setups. The copying workflow has boundaries worth knowing before buying. FiiO specifies FAT32 storage, recommends a USB-C flash drive of 32GB or smaller, and requires external power for ripping. Its support documentation also excludes Enhanced CDs from that function. Think of it as a disc player with a specific copying facility, rather than a replacement for every part of managing a digital collection.

What we like

• WAV ripping connects a CD collection with digital playback.
• Physical controls and two headphone outputs broaden its usefulness.

What we dislike

• Ripping requires external power and compatible storage.
• Enhanced CDs aren’t supported for ripping.

4. Side A Cassette Speaker

The Side A Cassette Speaker borrows the appearance of a mixtape, but its place here comes from a less conspicuous feature: microSD playback. Put MP3 files on a card, and the speaker can play your selection without using a phone as the source. The transparent shell and Side A graphics supply the visual joke, while the included clear case doubles as a stand. At $49, it’s an approachable way to give a small, personally assembled collection its own playback object.

Its limits are worth stating plainly. This is a cassette-shaped digital speaker, not a machine that plays tapes, and card playback supports MP3 files only. Bluetooth offers another source option when you want it. The case becoming a stand is the more thoughtful detail: something needed for storage also supports the speaker on a desk. It suits a deliberately edited selection of tracks, although the format restriction makes it less appropriate for someone hoping to play an existing library of lossless files unchanged.

Click Here to Buy Now: $49.00

What we like

• microSD playback gives personal files a phone-free route.
• The protective case doubles as a display stand.

What we dislike

• Card playback is limited to MP3.
• Despite its appearance, it cannot play cassettes.

5. Audio-Technica Sound Burger AT-SB727

Audio-Technica’s Sound Burger makes a compelling case for keeping a record player small without pretending records themselves are small. Its narrow clamshell body leaves much of the disc exposed during playback, creating an unmistakable silhouette. The regular-line AT-SB727 follows the limited anniversary model, bringing the design into the company’s continuing lineup. A belt-driven platter plays 33⅓ and 45 RPM records, while a spring applies stylus pressure through the tonearm. The compact mechanism is the story here, not merely the retro colors.

Bluetooth and a wired line output let it connect to suitable listening equipment, and Audio-Technica rates the rechargeable battery for up to 12 hours of playback. Portability needs a little interpretation: you can carry it between places, but the manual requires a level surface and warns against moving it while playing. You’ll also need an external listening device. For a smaller home, that tradeoff can make sense. The player is compact enough to put away, while your record collection remains the substantial part of the arrangement.

What we like

• A distinctive compact mechanism accommodates full-size records.
• Bluetooth and line output support different listening setups.

What we dislike

• It needs external audio equipment.
• Portable doesn’t mean usable while moving.

6. Shanling Q2

Shanling’s Q2 concentrates the personal-library argument into an 83g player measuring 80 by 50 by 13.5mm. Its microSD slot supports cards up to 2TB, giving a substantial collection somewhere to travel without requiring a phone. The rounded body, small touchscreen, and circular control make it visually approachable, but the interaction deserves clarification. Shanling identifies the touchscreen as the navigation interface and the touch wheel as a volume control. That distinction matters if its appearance has you expecting the full browsing behavior of an old iPod.

The Q2 includes both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone outputs, making it relevant to listeners who already own wired headphones. It also supports network features, including Tidal streaming, so owning files and accessing a service aren’t mutually exclusive here. Shanling specifies that Tidal playback is online only, without offline downloads. For this collection, the microSD slot remains the reason to choose it: the player provides a compact home for music files you manage yourself, with streaming sitting alongside that function rather than replacing it.

What we like

• Up to 2TB of card storage suits large libraries.
• Two headphone outputs accommodate different wired connections.

What we dislike

• The wheel controls volume rather than full menu navigation.
• The 2.09-inch screen gives browsing limited space.

7. We Are Rewind GB-001 Blaster Curtis

The GB-001 Blaster Curtis brings recording into a collection otherwise dominated by playback. We Are Rewind’s boombox plays and records Type I and Type II cassettes, with backlit VU meters helping you monitor levels. The design puts the cassette mechanism between substantial speaker sections and adds dedicated controls for volume, bass, treble, and balance. It gives tape an appropriately physical interface. For someone interested in making recordings as well as collecting releases, the deck has a purpose that its retro appearance alone couldn’t supply.

A stereo line input and microphone input provide routes for recording, while Bluetooth allows the unit to work as a speaker for another source. The rechargeable battery is replaceable, a worthwhile provision in such a substantial object. And substantial it is: the manufacturer lists 6.81kg, or roughly 15 pounds. At $579, this is a deliberate commitment to cassette listening and recording. The carrying handle makes it transportable, but the weight suggests choosing its everyday home with more care than you would a pocket player.

What we like

• Recording makes it useful beyond playing purchased tapes.
• The rechargeable battery is replaceable.

What we dislike

• Roughly 15 pounds limits casual portability.
• The $579 price demands a serious interest in tape.

8. ClearFrame Speaker CD Player

ClearFrame lets the owner decide how much of the player to reveal. Insert album artwork into its included tray and the sleeve becomes its face; leave it out, and the clear body exposes the disc, circuitry, and mechanism. That choice gives it a different emphasis from the CD Jacket Player earlier in this list. The artwork can take center stage, but the hardware is also allowed to be interesting. At 27mm thick, the player makes those layers visible within a relatively shallow enclosure.

The built-in speaker is the practical distinction, allowing CD playback without a separate audio setup. It lists a 40mm driver with a bass diaphragm and up to 3W output, alongside a headphone jack and Bluetooth transmission. That last word matters: ClearFrame sends CD audio to compatible headphones or speakers but cannot receive music from a phone. Starting at $240, it offers a self-contained place to play and display discs, although the upright stand and wall-mount hardware are optional purchases rather than standard equipment.

Click Here to Buy Now: $240.00

What we like

• Built-in audio avoids a separate speaker setup.
• Artwork and exposed mechanics offer two distinct appearances.

What we dislike

• Bluetooth cannot receive audio from a phone.
• The display stand and wall mount cost extra.

Choose for the Music You Already Own

Start with the collection you actually have, rather than the format you feel you ought to love. A drawer of CDs calls for a different purchase from a carefully tagged folder of downloads. Think about where listening happens, too. Headphones on a train, a shelf beside a desk, and a shared living room ask different things of an object. Choose for the place where you’ll actually press play most often.

Leave room for the less photogenic parts of the decision: organizing files, keeping backups, finding suitable headphones, or making space for the media itself. Those tasks are part of maintaining a collection, and no attractive enclosure removes them. Good audio design should make that effort feel worthwhile by keeping the music within reach. Buy the object that helps you use your collection, rather than one that merely matches its aesthetic.

The post The 8 Best Audio Designs for People Who Want to Own Their Music first appeared on Yanko Design.

Japanese audio brand Final has introduced Porta, a pair of wireless on-ear headphones that rethink one of the most familiar elements of headphone design – the headband. Unlike most headphones with a conventional padded arch, the Porta uses a minimal, single-wire structure called AirWire, reducing the headphones’ weight to approximately 40 grams while aiming to make extended listening more comfortable.

The AirWire design minimises the area of contact between the headphones and the wearer’s head. According to Final, this approach reduces pressure on the top of the head, a common source of discomfort with traditional headphones. The lightweight construction also gives the Porta an unusually stripped-back appearance, with a thin metal-like frame connecting two compact earcups. The pair of cans is a minimalist accessory that goes well with your other no-nonsense gadgets.

Designer: Final

Porta’s aesthetic draws on the visual language of older portable audio equipment. Its orange ear pads recall the bright accents associated with classic Sony Walkman headphones, while a black version offers a more understated alternative. Both variants share the same main body, with the ear-pad colour providing the visual distinction. Final also plans to sell replacement ear pads separately in 2027, giving owners the option to refresh the look without replacing the entire product.

Despite its lightweight construction and retro appearance, the pair of cans incorporates modern wireless connectivity. Bluetooth 5.4 enables connection to compatible devices, while support for the SBC and AAC audio codecs provides compatibility with a broad range of smartphones and other Bluetooth audio sources. The headphones have a stated frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz.

Final says the Porta has been tuned to deliver a lively presentation, with a sense of depth and substance in the midrange and lower frequencies. The company highlights vocal weight as a particular consideration in its sound design, addressing the challenge of maintaining a full listening experience in a lightweight headphone enclosure. These are manufacturer claims rather than independently verified performance results.

A 57mAh lithium-ion battery provides up to eight hours of music playback on a charge. Recharging takes approximately 90 minutes through USB-C, keeping the charging process straightforward. The headphones also carry an IPX4 rating, indicating resistance to water splashes, which offers some protection during everyday use and light exercise.

The design does involve trade-offs. The Porta does not offer active noise cancellation, a feature found in many contemporary wireless headphones. Its modest battery capacity and eight-hour rated playback time also place the emphasis on everyday convenience and low weight rather than extended listening between charges.

Final has priced the Porta at ¥12,800 (approximately $80), with availability in Japan scheduled for October 23, 2026. International availability has not been confirmed, although the brand sells products through its Amazon storefront.

The post Final’s Porta wireless on-ear headphones strip back the headband to just 40 grams first appeared on Yanko Design.

I’ll say it: Nothing launched the Ear (open) under the wrong logo. The open-ear buds debuted in 2024 at $149, wrapped in Nothing’s signature transparent look, and they were good enough to win a Red Dot Product Design award. Still, every time I looked at them, my brain kept whispering “CMF.” Open-ear buds are the casual, colorful, sweat-friendly second pair you toss in a gym bag, which describes CMF’s entire personality. Even Nothing seems to have noticed, since the Ear (open) now comes in soft blue for $99 in the US. That’s CMF money in a CMF color, wearing a Nothing name tag.

Apparently I’m not alone in this conspiracy theory. Industrial designer Shreyansh Onial, whose CMF Flip foldable concept got a reaction from Carl Pei himself, built the CMF Ear (open) that Nothing never released, and it looks like it rolled straight off CMF’s assembly line. The over-ear hook stays, but the transparent panels give way to solid Coral, Light Grey, and Dark Grey. Each bud gets a chunky physical button, and the pill-shaped case borrows the knurled Smart Dial from CMF’s $99 Clip Pro. It’s the alternate-universe launch I didn’t know I was waiting for.

Designer: Shreyansh Onial

Trading Nothing’s see-through shell for CMF’s candy-colored hooks

Coral, Light Grey, and Dark Grey carry the whole concept, and they match the Clip Pro’s palette exactly. Transparency is Nothing’s calling card, though on the Ear (open) much of the surface is a silicone ear hook anyway. Onial goes fully opaque, with a soft matte finish on the hook and a glossier coat on the round acoustic pod that sits by your ear canal. The outer face is a rounded pill panel with a single round button and a tiny glyph made of a circle, a dot grid, and a filled dot. The battery tail picks up a fine stippled texture, which gives sweaty fingers something to grip.

A real button on each bud fixes the biggest workout annoyance with the Ear (open), which relies on pinch controls that get fiddly with slippery fingers. CMF already gave the Clip Pro physical buttons for exactly this reason, so the move fits the brand’s own playbook. Flip the bud around and you’ll find a perforated metal grille shaped like a little kidney bean, plus two pogo pins on a short collar for charging. That bean grille is my favorite detail, because it gives the bud an oddly cartoonish face. It also mirrors the soft circles of the dial on the case. The whole thing feels friendly and approachable, which suits a pair built for sweat and sidewalks.

The Clip Pro’s Smart Dial case meets a hook built for runners

The case comes straight from CMF’s Clip Pro, a deep pill-shaped capsule with a knurled metal dial set into one end of the lid. On the Clip Pro, that Smart Dial adjusts volume, controls playback, answers calls, and triggers pairing. CMF put the same dial on its Buds Pro 2, and it has since become the brand’s signature move. Onial adds a dot-matrix “cmf” wordmark on the lid, a front status LED, and a USB-C port on the side. Inside, molded cradles hold the two hooks in a neat V, with a charging pocket waiting for each acoustic pod.

Over-ear hooks anchor behind the ear, which keeps them planted through runs, burpees, and sprints for the bus. The Clip Pro’s C-shaped clip hugs the ear’s outer edge instead, a format better suited to commutes and long desk days. That leaves the runner with a CMF-shaped hole in their gym bag, since CMF currently offers nothing for them (lowercase n). A dial makes even more sense here, because twisting a knob on the case beats digging through phone menus mid-stretch. Pair it with real buttons on the buds and you get a workout setup that never asks for a precise touch gesture.

Where a CMF Ear (open) would land in a crowded open-ear market

Open-ear audio got crowded fast, with Bose’s Ultra Open sitting at the top for $299 and Sony’s LinkBuds Clip, Huawei’s FreeClip, and Shokz’s hook-style buds filling out the field. The Clip Pro landed at $99 with LDAC support, a 10.8mm driver, and up to 32.5 hours of total battery. The Ear (open) counters with a bigger 14.2mm driver, 8 hours per charge, and 30 hours with its case. Each Ear (open) bud weighs 0.29 oz (8.1 grams), while each Clip Pro bud weighs 0.21 oz (5.9 grams). A CMF hook could split the difference, pairing the Ear (open)’s stable fit and big driver with the Clip Pro’s dial, buttons, and price.

The blue Ear (open) already sells for $99 in the US, the same price as the Clip Pro, so Nothing has basically priced its own product at CMF level. Moving it under the CMF badge would make that price tag look like a plan instead of a markdown. It would also free Nothing to return later with a pricier transparent sequel, flipping the usual order where the premium brand gets the good stuff first. CMF became an independent Nothing subsidiary headquartered in India last year, and a signature sport bud would give the young brand another reason to stand apart from its parent. Onial’s renders already look ready for the shelf. Sometimes the little sibling deserves the new toy first.

The post Nothing’s Ear (open) should have been a CMF product all along… Here’s proof first appeared on Yanko Design.

David Guetta just won DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll for a record sixth time, and I have a very specific idea for his trophy shelf. Somebody on the internet has turned a Pioneer DJ setup into Korean blue-and-white porcelain, tigers and all. Two decks and a four-channel mixer, glazed bone white and hand-painted (well, AI-painted) in cobalt blue. It looks like something you’d find behind glass at the Met, right before a security guard asks you to step back. It’s also the most Guetta-coded object I’ve seen all year, because a guy who headlines weekly Ibiza residencies deserves a rig that looks as expensive as the bottle service.

The setup comes from creators patchkims and takitani.lab, who posted it as the “Joseon Baekja Prototype,” complete with a “1 of 1, no restock” caption that reads like a sneaker drop. It’s an AI render, so nobody’s shipping it to Guetta’s villa anytime soon. The idea still lands, though. Each jog wheel carries a tiger and a magpie under a pine tree, lifted straight from Korean folk painting, and the screens swap waveforms for misty mountains and waterfalls. Suddenly your DJ gear graduates from booth equipment to living room centerpiece, which is a fun flex for anyone, let alone the world’s No. 1 DJ.

Designers: patchkims & takitani.lab

Kkachi horangi is a genre of Korean folk painting where a deliberately goofy tiger, nicknamed the idiot tiger, plays the aristocratic yangban, and a smug magpie in a pine tree speaks for the common people. Both jog wheels here carry that exact scene, with the cat prowling below and the bird looking unbothered above. The two decks get different tiger poses, so the platters work like a call and response. Joseon painters used the setup to poke fun at the ruling class, and now it sits under the palms of whoever runs the dance floor. That is either delicious irony or very on-brand for a king of the booth.

The screens trade waveforms for misty peaks, a waterfall, a pavilion, and a pair of moons, echoing Irworobongdo, the sun, moon and five peaks painting that stood behind the king’s throne in Joseon palaces. The sun and moon stood for the king and queen, so the painting doubled as a majesty backdrop. A headliner on a raised stage occupies similar real estate, so the throne comparison writes itself. The original sun burned red, and going cobalt turns it into a second moon, which suits a room that wakes up after midnight. Calling a DJ booth a throne room is a stretch, but watch a stadium crowd hang on a Guetta build-up and the royalty comparison stops feeling silly.

Joseon Korea made white its signature after the green celadon era of Goryeo, and cobalt-painted porcelain sat at the top of the pile. The pigment was rare and imported from China, so when supply dried up, court kilns improvised with iron-brown, and some banquet wares wore painted imitations of blue-and-white called gahwa, literally fake painting. A porcelain Pioneer rig conjured by AI is a 2026 gahwa, a convincing stand-in for an object nobody has actually fired in a kiln. I’m weirdly fine with that, because the Joseon court got there first. Meanwhile, Christie’s has estimated a genuine 15th-century cobalt jar at roughly $2 million to $3 million, so the real thing sets the bar high.

The real-world version of this lineup runs two AlphaTheta CDJ-3000X players at $2,999 each plus a Pioneer DJ DJM-A9 mixer at $2,899, roughly $8,900 in the US. The render looks closer to the older CDJ-2000NXS2 generation, disc slots and all. Pioneer did sell a limited white CDJ-2000NXS2-W run in 2017, so colorway flexes are old news for the brand. I imagine if such a product were to exist, it would probably cost in the hundreds of thousands. That being said, I’m sure an enthusiastic deejay with money to throw could acquire this for their den. Guetta, SHM, heck even Shaq… I’m looking at y’all.

The post This porcelain Pioneer DJ setup belongs in a museum, not an Ibiza nightclub first appeared on Yanko Design.

Adjusting your headphones shouldn’t mean searching for a tiny button or guessing where to tap a touch-sensitive surface. TUNE X3 explores a more hands-on approach, using knurled dials and physical switches that let users feel their way through everyday audio adjustments. Designed by Pressec Design as part of a fictional product family, these concept headphones make tactile interaction a defining feature of their industrial design.

The headphones pair a brushed aluminium chassis with high-contrast orange textile padding across the ear cushions and headband. The raw metallic finish recalls mid-century studio equipment, while the saturated fabric creates a bold visual contrast. Exposed fasteners and a wide-profile headband reinforce the utilitarian character, giving TUNE X3 the appearance of precision equipment. This is a detour from the currently trending minimalist consumer gadgets. It’s like bringing in a muscle car in the era of Tesla EVs.

Designer: Pressec Design

The physical controls are the core of the niche concept. Dedicated dials and tactile switches handle volume, treble, and active noise cancellation (ANC), giving users distinct controls for common listening toggles. Their knurled surfaces provide texture under the fingers, making the interface feel more deliberate than a smooth touch panel. The design suggests a listening experience in which users can reach for a control, recognize it by touch, and make adjustments without navigating an onscreen menu. While the concept does not establish how the controls perform in practice, it places physical interaction at the heart of the headphone experience.

TUNE X3 is part of the same fictional product family as the CINE X3. The designer developed both concepts around a consistent visual language, carrying shared characteristics across the collection without simply repeating the same shapes. Materials, proportions, finishes, and hardware details establish continuity while allowing each product to retain its own identity.

The project also explores how Vizcom can support product-family development by using previous designs as references. This approach helps designers preserve a recognizable character across multiple concepts while continuing to explore distinct forms and functions.

TUNE X3 remains a conceptual design, with no confirmed release date, price, or technical specifications. Its core idea is straightforward – physical controls can make headphone interaction feel more immediate and intentional, while giving the product a distinctive identity shaped by the way users handle it.

The post These retro-modern Headphones put audio adjustments on physical dials and tactile switches first appeared on Yanko Design.

2026 is the year when Trainers everywhere celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, so we expected a lot of new merchandise, themed events, and collaborations with other well-known brands. We’ve seen footwear and apparel rollouts with adidas and PUMA, LEGO sets, even a partnership with the European Space Agency, and food collaborations like Pokémon-themed Hershey’s Kisses. If you’re looking for audio equipment featuring your favorite monster, you’re in luck with this newly announced collaboration.

The Pokémon Beats Pill is a Bluetooth speaker announced by audio brand Beats in partnership with The Pokémon Company International. It features two familiar Pokémon characters, the ubiquitous Pikachu and the more mysterious Mimikyu. It brings the bright yellow and minimalist gray associated with these characters to a portable speaker with what Beats calls its signature sound. Both Beats collectors and Pokémon Trainers may want to have this special-edition collaboration to bring their music and other audio content to life.

Designers: Beats x Pokémon

The speaker’s design is a contrast between the electric yellow most identified with Pikachu and a grayscale interpretation of Mimikyu, with the latter hiding beneath a cloth that resembles the former. More than just attaching a logo to the Bluetooth speaker, this is a character-driven design. Both Pokémon appear on the grille, while the speaker itself remains compact and elongated like other Beats Pill devices.

According to Beats, this is also the first Pill release that comes with charms. Trainers who like collecting accessories get the iconic Poké Ball, Pikachu-inspired lightning bolts, and the equally recognizable Beats “b.” The color-matched gray carry lanyard is removable, so there’s a practical carrying accessory alongside the collectible details. It also comes with interactive packaging, which Beats says includes a movable piece, plus special-edition stickers. The exact packaging mechanism isn’t explained in detail on the collaboration page.

The familiar shape has a practical side, too. Its 20-degree upward tilt is designed to direct sound toward your ears when it sits on a table, while the soft-grip silicone backing is intended to make it easier to hold. At 8.6 inches long and 24 ounces, it’s portable enough for a bag, although not pocket-sized. Keeping the existing Pill shape also means the Pokémon treatment doesn’t turn it into a bulky character figurine that needs its own dedicated space.

Specs-wise, the speaker has a bespoke acoustic system that Beats says delivers room-filling sound and deep bass for your favorite tunes, podcasts, or audiobooks. It offers up to 24 hours of battery life and has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. That battery figure is a manufacturer claim, not a guarantee for every listening session. You can also charge a compatible phone from the speaker via USB-C, using some of its battery in the process.

You can listen over Bluetooth or plug in a compatible device via USB-C for high-resolution lossless audio. The wired connection matters here; lossless playback isn’t being promised over Bluetooth. You can even pair two Beats Pills together in Amplify Mode or Stereo Mode. The former synchronizes playback across both speakers, while the latter separates the left and right channels. You’ll need a second Pill for either option.

The speaker also supports both iOS and Android devices, so you don’t need an iPhone to use it. One-touch pairing and supported device-location features add to its everyday usefulness. It can also serve as a speakerphone, letting you take calls through the paired speaker rather than reaching for your phone every time. The Pokémon Beats Pill is scheduled to become available in the United States for $149.99 on October 15, 2026, at 8 a.m. PDT, through Apple and Target online and at select Target stores.

For Pokémon fans, the appeal is having a collectible that doesn’t have to stay on a shelf. The collaboration’s announced changes focus on appearance, accessories, and packaging, rather than a Pokémon-specific audio upgrade. If you already own a Pill, the reason to choose this one is mainly the character treatment. For someone looking for a portable speaker, though, Pikachu and Mimikyu give a familiar everyday device some personality.

The post Pokémon Beats Pill Adds Charms Without Raising the Price first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple’s design team apparently raided four different family albums and stitched the best bits into one object. HomeView has the iMac G4’s floating-screen silhouette, Apple Watch-style faces, the iPad’s slab of glass, and a speaker base that recalls the HomePod. I have a soft spot for that sunflower-lamp iMac, so seeing a dome and a tilting display make a comeback in 2026 made me unreasonably happy. Somehow the pile of parts works visually. It looks like a lamp, has a tablet’s touchscreen, and doubles as a speaker.

Apple announced HomeView on October 13, 2026. It pairs a 7-inch Liquid Retina screen with a domed aluminum speaker base and a stainless steel hinge that lets you tilt the display. An A18 chip and the rebuilt Siri AI run the show, and Apple says it recognizes up to six enrolled users, each with a personalized experience. A wall-mounted version offers the same screen and core functions, though its speaker hardware differs. Both models cost $299 in the U.S., with preorders open and availability scheduled for November 13, 2026.

Designer: Apple

The iMac G4’s Dome and Personality Make a Comeback

The iMac G4 arrived in January 2002 with a 15-inch flat panel hovering over its base. Its sunflower-inspired form emerged from Steve Jobs and Jony Ive’s design discussions; Walter Isaacson’s account credits Ive with suggesting that the screen be separated from the base like a sunflower. HomeView echoes that silhouette but swaps the long swinging arm for a compact hinge, which suits a counter where nobody wants a lamp neck knocking over the olive oil. The tilt adjustment gives you some latitude on a low nightstand or a tall kitchen island.

The G4 showed how much personality a computer’s shape could carry. HomeView’s similar stance makes a box packed with a camera and microphones look friendlier, at least to my eye. A dome with a head-on-neck posture reads more like a desk pet than a gadget, which is a handy trick for something that recognizes faces. The thick black bezel is a taste call I’m happy to defend: it gives the Photos face a proper picture-frame border.

Apple Watch-Style Faces and iPad Glass Decide What You See

The screen looks like it comes from the iPad side of the family: a square slab of glass with rounded corners and a front camera for FaceTime. Center Stage adjusts the framing as people move or join the call. Apple lists a brightness range from 500 nits down to 0.3 nits, allowing the display to dim substantially at bedtime. True Tone adjusts the white balance to ambient lighting. Selected interface elements also respond to your distance, showing simpler information across the room and more detail as you approach.

The faces feel distinctly Apple Watch-like. Photos offers Portrait-style depth effects, while Flow reacts to movement in the room. Snoopy’s animations respond to the time of day, weather, and sporting events, a very Watch way of being useful and adorable at once. Home Modular puts favorite accessories on one dashboard, and Home Camera can stream up to nine video feeds at once. Fan designers were exploring this territory years ago. Justin Latham’s HomePod Nano concept, which we covered in 2023, imagined a speaker with a display running a proposed watchOS fork. It was a fan concept, not an Apple product or working software announcement. HomeView’s Live Activities surface the current song, an active timer, or an incoming Intercom message, bringing that glance-and-go logic to a household screen.

The Speaker Base Does the Heavy Lifting

The base recalls the HomePod, although Apple’s images show a perforated, color-matched exterior rather than the HomePod’s fabric mesh. Small grille holes also run along the display’s lower edge. A down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators sit in the base, while two full-range drivers occupy the display.Apple says computational audio uses its silicon and onboard sensors to adjust loudness and bass response in real time.  The wall-mounted model has two full-range drivers but no base-mounted woofer or passive radiators, so the two versions shouldn’t be treated as acoustically identical. HomeView supports multiroom audio alongside HomePod, HomePod mini, and AirPlay-compatible speakers. Intercom also reaches HomeView and HomePod speakers elsewhere in the house.

The original HomePod was announced in 2017 at $349, when we dubbed it Apple’s “tune-busting Fabergé Egg.” Against that historical price, $299 for a speaker, screen, camera, and face recognition looks tempting on paper. You can pre-order HomeView on Apple’s site now, with both the tabletop and wall-mounted models arriving November 13. The tabletop unit ships with a color-matched USB-C cable, while the wall version relies on Schneider Home’s power mounts, which start at $59.95 and are sold separately. Siri AI launches in beta and in English, and Apple is not selling HomeView in the EU for now. Every ancestor in this object was Apple’s bet on a different decade, and HomeView is the first time they all share one counter.

 

The post Meet Apple HomeView: A weirdly genius combination of the iMac, Watch, iPad, and HomePod first appeared on Yanko Design.

Everyone has held a milk carton, which is exactly why CMF’s new speakers are so hard to stop looking at. CMF, the budget sub-brand of Nothing, shaped its first Bluetooth speakers like gable-top cartons, a form that toy manufacturer John Van Wormer of Toledo, Ohio, patented in 1915 as the Pure-Pak. Your brain files that silhouette under breakfast, fridge door, and home before it even registers the grille. Then the colors and a deliberately mismatched knob finish the job. Black cylinders and bricks have run the speaker aisle for a decade, so a carton is practically a plot twist.

The CMF Speaker S ($59) and Speaker M ($109) launched October 12 at nothing.tech and select retailers, in white, dark grey, turquoise, and orange. CMF’s own product pages cite a carton’s sharp geometry as the inspiration, so the resemblance is deliberate. A sloped roof carries the knob where a carton’s screw cap would sit, and the M’s top fin doubles as a carry handle. The front panel and knob pop off, which turns each speaker into a base for swapping or 3D printing. Both are IP68 too, so the carton can sit on a patio table without a worry.

Designer: CMF by Nothing

The carton’s anatomy, rebuilt as a speaker face

A carton has three recognizable parts, and CMF kept all three. The sloped gable roof becomes the top edge of a folded color panel that wraps over from the front face. The sealed top seam becomes the M’s raised fin with a handle cutout, while the S settles for a round cutout in the corner. The screw cap, a carton upgrade Elopak dates to 1991, becomes a knob you press and turn. On the orange and turquoise models, a dark grey body sits behind the panel, so the color reads like printed paperboard around a core.

The grilles do the decorating. On the turquoise model the mesh is a deeper teal, on the orange it turns brick red, and on white and dark grey it goes black, so each face is a flat field with big circles punched in. The M stacks two of them, the S gets one, and a small pixel-style cmf wordmark sits above like a tiny brand stamp. An oval button with a white light bar is the only other mark besides the knob. That is very few elements, all of them deliberate.

Pint-and-quart proportions and a color system with a mismatched knob

The S measures 5.1 by 3.3 by 1.7 inches (130.5 by 85 by 44mm). The M stretches to 8.7 inches (220mm) tall at the same 85mm width, so the pair reads like a pint and a quart of the same product. Helen Sanematsu’s 1999 AIGA Journal essay on milk packaging argued that cartons get their punch from standing in rows, with color separating the varieties. CMF’s launch imagery lines up four colors across two sizes, which plays that exact game. Put them on a shelf together and you get a dairy case designed by someone with great taste.

Each colorway gets its own knob: a black X on orange, a white ring on turquoise, a red paddle on dark grey, and a teal paddle on white. That deliberate mismatch gives every speaker a single accent, like a bright cap on a carton. Pop it off and you can mix freely or 3D print your own, a habit that follows the CMF Phone 1, whose community printed everything from Lego-friendly backs to a foam dart launcher. We once featured a fan concept for a CMF speaker that went retro radio. The carton is the braver call.

Drivers, battery life, and durability behind the carton

The S pairs a 1.8 inch (45mm) driver with two passive radiators, unpowered diaphragms that beef up bass, for 10W. The M adds a 2.8 inch (70mm) woofer and 0.6 inch (16mm) tweeter for 35W RMS, a continuous power rating. Both claim 18 hours at 50 percent volume with Ultra Bass on, enough for a workday and the commute. A 10 minute charge buys an hour while you hunt for your keys. They survive 30 minutes in nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water and passed a 30 inch (0.76 meter) drop test.

The S costs $59 and the M $109, and both are on sale now at nothing.tech and select retailers. That puts a distinctive object within impulse-buy range, which is unusual for a design this committed. It is the rare budget speaker that makes you want to rearrange a shelf. Van Wormer’s carton survived a century by being easy to hold, stack, and carry, and a portable speaker wants the same three traits. Somebody finally noticed a great speaker shape was sitting in your fridge door all along.

The post Why CMF’s New Milk Carton Speakers Are So Irresistible To Look At first appeared on Yanko Design.

Gaming soundbars became popular in the 2017s, but the trend faded; in the last couple of years, this category of audio accessories has seen renewed interest. Razer kicked off the new wave, with several mainstream brands and some offbeat makers releasing their own versions. Creative recently launched their B3 soundbar for gamers at a very affordable price, and now Edifier is upping the ante with an even sweeter deal.

The China-based audio accessories maker, known for high-end bookshelf speakers, has come up with a very cool-looking soundbar for gamers. Dubbed the Hecate G2000 Bar, the desktop audio boomer is all set to be available from 16 October onwards for a price tag of 349 yuan ($52), which is an introductory price slashed from the normal price of 387 yuan ($58).

Designer: Edifier

The G2000 Bar combines a compact footprint with an angular, mecha-inspired design intended to fit into a gaming setup without taking up much desk space. It will be available in black and white, with a built-in five-degree upward tilt that directs sound toward the listener rather than across the desktop. Five interchangeable themed stickers let users customize the front panel, while 12 RGB lighting effects, including rainbow and flowing-light patterns, add some visual flair. Lighting can be adjusted via the Edifier Connect mobile app or Hecate PC software.

Under the hood, the soundbar uses two 56mm full-range drivers with copper-clad aluminum wire voice coils, paired with two 60mm passive radiators. The arrangement is designed to deliver fuller audio and reinforce low frequencies without requiring a separate subwoofer. Output is rated at 3W per channel, or 6W in total, with peak power reaching 12W. The stated frequency response spans 67Hz to 20kHz.

For gaming, the G2000 Bar supports THX 7.1.4 spatial audio processing, which aims to create a more immersive, surround-like listening experience from a desktop soundbar. Six dedicated audio presets cater to different gaming genres, including first-person shooters, role-playing games, and racing titles. These modes give players a way to tailor the sound to different types of gameplay without manually adjusting equalizer settings.

The other notable addition is a detachable microphone mounted on top. It uses AEC 2.0 acoustic echo cancellation, a dedicated digital signal processor, and AI-assisted noise reduction to limit background sounds and reduce audio feedback from the speakers. This could make voice chat more convenient for players who prefer open speakers to a gaming headset, although performance will depend on the surrounding environment.

Connectivity includes Bluetooth 6.0 and USB sound-card input, allowing the soundbar to work with compatible PCs, laptops, mobile devices, and consoles. An independent 9V DC power adapter supplies power, while physical controls on the top metallic panel provide access to volume adjustment, microphone muting, and audio-mode switching.

With its compact design, customizable lighting, spatial audio processing, and integrated voice-chat features, the Hecate G2000 Bar brings several gaming-focused conveniences to an affordable desktop soundbar. Its initial pricing makes it an interesting option for players looking to simplify their setup without committing to a separate speaker system and microphone.

The post Edifier’s $52 gaming soundbar lets you ditch your headset without losing voice chat first appeared on Yanko Design.

Desktop speakers usually have a pretty straightforward job and an equally straightforward appearance. That makes sense when all you want is music, but it doesn’t leave much room for personality. Divoom’s Astrotoo takes a different approach, putting a display and oversized physical controls into a speaker that looks like a tiny computer terminal. It definitely gives your desk something playful and personal, and your friends something to be jealous of.

The rounded housing and recessed side panels give Astrotoo the appearance of equipment from an imagined future, albeit one with chunky buttons. White, pink, and green finishes offer different levels of restraint. At roughly 4.2 by 4.3 inches across its base, it won’t need the space of a computer, although its upright screen certainly makes it harder to overlook than a conventional speaker.

Designer: Divoom

Of course, those buttons aren’t simply there to complete the retro disguise. Three raised mechanical keys, a joystick, and an orange Back button handle music and display functions. You can reach over to control playback without opening another app, though customizing the display still involves your phone. It’s a familiar division of labor, with physical controls for everyday actions and software for the changes.

Despite the pixel art theme, Astrotoo doesn’t limit you to blocky characters and low-resolution graphics. Its 3.95-inch IPS display has a 480×480 pixel resolution, accommodating photographs and detailed clock faces as well. That means you can keep a family photo beside your monitor without making room for another frame. Music visualizations are also available, if you’d rather have your speaker put on a show.

The Divoom app lets you change visual content and clock faces, giving the device something to do when the music stops. Weather and stock information bring a more practical side to that small screen. That said, another dashboard isn’t necessarily what a busy desk needs. A favorite picture might be a better companion than financial numbers quietly competing for your attention all afternoon.

Divoom positions the 20W speaker for listening nearby, so the desktop proportions aren’t entirely about appearance. Playing music while answering emails or listening to a podcast during a break fits that purpose. Of course, the power rating doesn’t tell us how balanced the sound will be. The styling is easier to judge than the audio, which needs listening rather than a specification sheet.

Bluetooth 6.0 handles wireless audio, while microSD playback lets you bring a collection of stored music along without keeping a phone connected. Wi-Fi supports the connected display features. There’s also a battery, with Divoom claiming up to six hours of operation. That’s enough to move it between rooms for a while, but don’t expect it to stay unplugged through an entire workday.

The $199.99 US price makes this a considered desk accessory rather than a casual decoration. Divoom lists approximately 3.5 hours for USB-C charging, so it probably makes sense to leave a cable nearby. You can dress the screen as a futuristic control panel, but there’s nothing futuristic about discovering that your tiny computer needs plugging in before the afternoon playlist.

The post Divoom Astrotoo Is a Desktop Speaker Dressed as a Retro Computer first appeared on Yanko Design.

A lot of people spend the entire eight hours of a working day just sitting in front of their screens. You probably have your speakers on or put on your headphones to listen to some background music or for online meetings. But for those of us who don’t want to spend one-third of the day like this, we go through different “phases,” which means that the audio that accompanies us throughout the day also changes. From commuting to work to sitting down at your workstation to going on a dinner date and finally relaxing at home, you don’t want the same setting all day.

That’s the more interesting way to look at the StillFrame Headphones. Rather than asking them to create one uninterrupted listening session, imagine taking them through a day full of stops and starts. They offer Noise Cancelling and Transparency modes, Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, a USB-C wired option, and dual microphones with noise control. Each feature has a place in that routine, even if no two days follow quite the same route.

Click Here to Buy Now: $245

The first part of the day for most of those who go to a regular office is the morning commute. You might be on a noisy train with a lot of people talking or walking along a busy street with a lot of city noise. StillFrame’s Noise Cancelling mode will help you focus on what you’re listening to and drown out some of the chaotic noise around you. It is always there as an option for times when you want to immerse yourself in your playlist or the next chapter of the book you’re listening to.

When you do need to let the world back in, you don’t have to turn off your podcast episode at a crucial moment. The headphones have a Transparency Mode option that’s there with a tap for moments when you need to order a coffee or you’re walking somewhere that requires your full attention. Just tap between the two modes for what you need at the moment without having to pause or stop what you’re listening to. It’s also a good reminder that the world isn’t always a distraction.

When you finally reach your office, you might have a scheduled meeting sometime during the day. StillFrame is useful even for work things, as it has dual microphones with noise control so you can shift from consuming audio to communicating with others using the headphones. That doesn’t mean every conversation will sound perfect in every environment. It does mean you can move from a podcast or playlist to a meeting without reaching for a separate pair of headphones just because your role in the audio has changed.

When you finally get home to your cozy bed, you sometimes still want to continue listening to that audiobook, start a new podcast episode, or let some soothing music lull you to sleep. You can choose to continue using your StillFrame headphones over Bluetooth 5.4 or use the USB-C wired option if you’d rather plug in. Either way, the wired option is an alternative to wireless listening and not a reason to assume the headphones will work after their battery runs out.

A few other details help round out the picture. StillFrame weighs 103 grams and has a stainless-steel headband, a minimalist frame, and 40mm drivers. Its ear cushions attach magnetically, making them easy to swap; the white model comes with extra pairs in light gray and turquoise. Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours per charge, though actual use may vary. Those details aren’t the main story here, but they help explain what you’re carrying from one part of the day to the next.

No pair of headphones can make a commute quiet, a meeting short, or a busy day slow down. What StillFrame Headphones offer is a set of ways to respond as those moments change. You can focus, let the world in, take a call, or settle into an evening listen. The best setting isn’t one you choose in the morning and keep all day. It’s the one that fits where you are now.

The post 4 Times a Day the StillFrame Headphones Switch Jobs For You first appeared on Yanko Design.

A Tokyo court recognized voice protection in an AI cloning case. Learn what the ruling means for businesses using synthetic voices and digital identities.

The post Japan Court Recognizes Voice Protection in TikTok AI Dispute appeared first on TechRepublic.

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.

Being an audiophile and owning an Apple phone can be a strained relationship at times. While owning Apple’s AirPods 5 or the AirPods Max 2 ties you deep into the ecosystem of AAC and SBC codecs that produce respectable sound quality, stepping out of the ecosystem for better options usually comes with a big caveat.

Choosing Bluetooth headphones or earbuds that support high-resolution codecs like LDAC or aptX Adaptive doesn’t make sense since the Apple device playing the music doesn’t support the codecs and defaults to the normal codecs that are lossy. iFi Audio wants to eliminate the frustration Apple device users have lived with for ages when enjoying wireless audio with the $89 UP Play Max dongle.

Designer: iFi Audio

By getting the source device (iPhone 18 Pro Max, for instance) and the audio playing accessory (Sony WH-1000XM6) to have the desired handshake, you finally have the option to break free from the predatory Apple ecosystem and open up to the world of high-resolution lossless audio. The iFi Audio UP Play Max USB-C Bluetooth transmitter overlays the device’s default codec support and lets you connect high-end audio listening accessories and play the music in HD. That means if you have LDAC-supported headphones, you’ll be listening to music with 24-bit/96kHz at a maximum bitrate of 990 kbps when connected via Bluetooth.

The UP Play Max dongle plugs directly into the iPhone’s USB-C port, and using the compatible Nexis app, you can pair wireless headphones or earbuds from brands like Edifier, Sennheiser, Technics, Sony, or Bose. The transmitter comes with the proprietary K2HD processing tech that restores the track’s original resolution for listening to favorite music without any underlying compromises. It can also restore any harmonic information lost during the digital processing, which is great for audiophiles who love to go into the technicalities of the output sound.

Stepping beyond this native functionality, the dongle comes with low-latency mode for competitive gaming where lag is a strict no-no. Everyday usage is also kept in mind with the built-in mic for taking calls just in case your headphones or IEMs don’t have the calling feature. UP Play Max comes with an interesting feature that lets two headphones connect to a single device, which is great for shared listening with buddies. However, in this function, the codec is defaulted to SBC. A future update will let Auracast-compatible headphones or earphones connect seamlessly with as many headphones as desired.

Weighing just 3 grams and measuring no more than a compact memory stick, this audio accessory is a must-have for music lovers who have to always juggle around, or even worse, live with a pair of high-end headphones with no option to play the music in high resolution wirelessly. Beyond Apple connectivity, you can also plug the dongle into your tablet, computer, or any other compatible device to enjoy high-res wireless audio that otherwise wasn’t possible.

The post iFi Audio UP Play Max lets you enjoy high-end wireless headphones in lossless when connected to iPhone first appeared on Yanko Design.

A parking lot does not care how good your speaker sounded in the store. Too quiet for an open sky, too fragile for a cooler lid, too generic to earn a second look from anyone walking by. These five are built differently. Each earns its place in the setup before you even hit play, and holds it comfortably long after the sun disappears behind the stadium.

The best tailgate speaker is not the loudest one or the most expensive one. It is the one that handles the full arc of a Saturday outdoors without asking you to manage it. Good battery life, real weather resistance, and a design identity strong enough to start a conversation are the only criteria that matter when the truck is parked, and the grill is on. These five clear all three.

1. RetroWave 7-in-1 Radio

The RetroWave is not trying to look vintage. It simply does, because the people who designed it understood that warm tones and a tactile tuning dial carry a feeling that modern hardware cannot replicate on its own. For you, that distinction matters at a tailgate, where every object on the truck bed shapes the atmosphere of the whole setup whether you intended it to or not. The RetroWave earns its spot before a single note plays.

Seven functions live inside a body that reads as a single cohesive object, not a spec sheet assembled into hardware. AM/FM and shortwave radio, Bluetooth streaming, a USB charging port, and a built-in flashlight all coexist without crowding the design or complicating the interface. For you, that means one piece of gear that moves cleanly from pre-game energy to late-night wind-down without ever needing to swap anything out. It carries the whole day without announcing it.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89.00

What we like:

• Analog character translates immediately in outdoor settings
• Seven functions in one body removes the need to bring anything else

What we dislike:

• The retro aesthetic will not appeal to everyone
• Battery life under sustained outdoor use has not been independently verified at publication

2. Brane X

Most portable speakers fake their bass. They boost the low end digitally and call it sub-bass, and it fools you indoors but gets swallowed by open air the moment you step outside. The Brane X does not fake anything. Its proprietary Repel-Attract Driver cancels internal air pressure to deliver genuine sub-bass from a body barely nine inches wide. For you, that means a speaker that actually fills a parking lot instead of politely suggesting it could.

Five drivers and four class-D amplifiers push past 200 watts combined, backed by a 72-watt-hour battery rated for twelve hours of runtime. IP57 waterproofing handles rain and the inevitable cooler spill without breaking stride. Wi-Fi streaming and Bluetooth 5.3 cover both strong and spotty signal scenarios across a large lot. For you, the ability to group up to eight units means the sound scales with the size of your crowd rather than capping out at the wrong moment.

What we like:

• Genuine sub-bass output from a compact enclosure
• Twelve-hour battery life clears even the longest tailgate

What we dislike:

• Two hundred-plus watts at full volume will cut into runtime considerably
• Wi-Fi streaming depends on stable network access in the parking lot

3. Beosound Explore

Bang & Olufsen built the Beosound Explore from hard-anodized aluminum instead of the polycarbonate most competitors default to, and that single decision changes how the speaker ages. Polycarbonate scratches and scuffs into a reading of neglect. Aluminum picks up honest wear and keeps looking considered. For you, that means a speaker that still belongs in your setup on its twentieth outing, rather than one that starts looking disposable before the season is halfway through.

Twenty-seven hours of battery life removes the anxiety that follows every other portable speaker through a long weekend outdoors. Dual full-range drivers produce True360 sound with no preferred listening axis, so there is no bad seat at your tailgate. IP67 water resistance covers submersion up to one meter for thirty minutes, handling every realistic outdoor scenario without fuss. For you, the carabiner strap means it travels without ceremony and arrives looking like it belongs wherever you set it down.

What we like:

• Twenty-seven hours of runtime covers a full day and night without a second thought
• Hard-anodized aluminum ages honestly with outdoor use

What we dislike:

• The Bang & Olufsen premium is real and unavoidable
• 360-degree output reduces directional volume control in loud open environments

4. Battery-Free Amplifying iSpeakers

The premise sounds like a trick: a speaker that amplifies sound without drawing a single watt of power. The iSpeaker uses passive acoustic geometry instead of electronics, channeling audio through a precisely shaped horn that physically increases volume without a battery or Bluetooth chipset. For you, that means zero charging anxiety at a tailgate where outlets are not a given. It works the moment you set your phone inside it and keeps working until you leave.

The design reads as furniture as much as audio hardware, which earns it a different kind of presence at a tailgate than a traditional plastic cylinder would. It sits on the table as a deliberate object, not a forgettable gadget. For you, that matters because it communicates something about the setup before a single note plays. No cords, no app, no pairing ritual. You place it, drop your phone in, and the afternoon takes care of itself from there.

Click Here to Buy Now: $179.00

What we like:

• Zero battery dependency removes the most common outdoor-speaker anxiety
• Passive horn amplification produces real volume with no electronics involved

What we dislike:

• Output ceiling is physically limited by the horn geometry
• Works only with phones that fit the cradle dimensions

5. Muzen Wild Mini

The Muzen Wild Mini looks like it was pulled from a gear locker rather than designed for a product page, and that is exactly the point. The all-metal body carries a military character that communicates durability before you ever pick it up. For you, that matters in a setting where gear gets moved, stacked, and occasionally dropped between the cooler and the truck bed. The Wild Mini does not ask to be handled carefully, which means you never have to think about it.

Bluetooth 5.0 handles the streaming, and a built-in flashlight with three lighting modes earns its place once daylight fades on the lot. A single charge delivers six hours of runtime at full volume, covering the core of a game-day schedule without needing a top-up. For you, the clip system means it attaches to a bag, a belt loop, or a tent frame with equal ease, keeping the speaker accessible without requiring a dedicated surface to set it on.

What we like:

• All-metal build shrugs off drops and rough handling
• The built-in flashlight adds genuine utility once the sun goes down

What we dislike:

• Six hours is the shortest runtime in this group
• The compact body limits total output volume compared to the larger enclosures here

The Right Speaker Makes the Saturday

None of these five ask you to compromise. The RetroWave brings analog warmth to a setting that usually defaults to generic plastic. The iSpeaker removes the charging question entirely. The Brane X delivers the bass a parking lot actually requires. The Beosound Explore brings luxury-grade materials to outdoor conditions they were genuinely built for. The Wild Mini goes anywhere without asking permission. Each pulls its weight differently, and that range is exactly the point.

A good tailgate speaker is the one you stop noticing because it never gives you a reason to worry about it. The battery holds, weather is not a factor, the sound fills the space, and the object earns a second look from whoever walks by. All five of these clear that bar. Pick the one that fits how your Saturdays actually run, and it will handle the rest without asking for much in return.

The post 5 Tailgate Speakers Built to Survive a Full Saturday Outdoors first appeared on Yanko Design.

Compare Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 and Nuance Audio Plus on hearing support, microphones, battery, price, and smart features to see which fits your needs.

The post Ray-Ban Meta vs Nuance Audio Plus: Which Smart Glasses Are Better for Hearing? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Meeting Recorder , c'est un enregistreur de réunions pensé pour Omarchy, la distribution Linux de DHH basée sur Arch et Hyprland. Et y'a pas besoin d'inviter à bot chelou dans votre visio puisque l'app se contente d'écouter votre micro et ce que joue votre ordinateur. Donc ça fonctionne avec n'importe quel logiciel de réunion, et tout est ensuite transcrit sur votre machine, 100% en local

Le micro et le son de l'ordinateur sont ainsi enregistrés sur deux pistes séparées, et deux jauges vous montrent avant de lancer que les deux arrivent bien. C'est comme ça que l'outil sait qui parle... ce qui passe par le micro, c'est vous, et ce que joue l'ordinateur, ce sont les autres. Et s'il y a plusieurs personnes en face, Nemotron 3 Diarization, un modèle de NVIDIA qui tourne en local, sépare simplement leurs voix en "Remote 1", "Remote 2"...etc, que vous pouvez ensuite renommer.

L'écran de fin, Maya au micro, Tom côté ordinateur, et les deux pistes dans la forme d'onde

À la fin de l'appel, c'est whisper qui transcrit tout ce basar, avec le modèle large-v3-turbo par défaut (environ 1,6 Go à télécharger une seule fois), pendant qu'une animation façon années 90 vous fait patienter. Et pas besoin de carte graphique puisque d'après l'auteur, le processeur d'une machine récente boucle un appel court en quelques secondes. Ah et puis trop cool, le français fait partie des langues proposées, donc vous pouvez l'utiliser si vous avez séché les cours d'anglais.

Vous récupérez ensuite le texte, avec l'heure et l'intervenant sur chaque ligne, et un lecteur audio au-dessus. Cliquez alors sur une ligne et la lecture repartira de là. Et si whisper s'est gourré, vous survolez la ligne pour la corriger, la donner à l'intervenant suivant ou la supprimer. Chaque réunion finissant dans un simple dossier de ~/Documents/Meetings, avec l'audio et un fichier transcript.md, vous pouvez tout récupérer et même glisser sur la fenêtre un vocal ou un appel enregistré ailleurs, et Nemotron pourra y détecter jusqu'à 8 voix sans problème.

Pour les réunions de trois minutes ou plus, il y a aussi du chapitrage et c'est l'agent de code réglé par défaut dans Omarchy (Claude Code, Codex...) qui découpe la transcription une fois que c'est terminé. Donc, si vous ne voulez pas que ça parte dans le cloud, il faut prendre le temps de ne régler aucun agent par défaut sur Omarchy.

Et n'oubliez pas non plus de prévenir les gens en début de réunion, car l'article 226-1 du Code pénal punit l'enregistrement de paroles privées sans leur consentement. Hé ouaiiiis !

Côté installation, l'outil est dans le dépôt de paquets d'Omarchy, pour l'instant uniquement sur le canal edge. Sinon, en attendant la prochaine version d'Omarchy, ce script d'une ligne installera le même paquet.

Bref, c'est l'un ou l'autre :

yay -S omarchy-meeting-recorder
ou
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jankeesvw/omarchy-meeting-recorder/main/install.sh | bash

Attention, au moment où j'écris ces lignes, la version 1.1.1 plante dès la première transcription sur les processeurs sans AVX-512, un Ryzen 5 5500 ou un Core Ultra 9 285K par exemple. L'audio est bien enregistré, mais vous n'aurez pas de texte, parce que le binaire publié a hérité des instructions AVX-512 de la machine qui l'a compilé. Heureusement, un contributeur a déjà proposé un correctif, donc, soyez patient. Mais si vous êtes vraiment pressé, il faudra juste compiler vous-même l'appli (cargo build --release, les étapes sont dans le README).

Et si vous n'êtes pas sous Omarchy ? Faut chialer ?

Non, car l'app prendra alors l'apparence standard de libadwaita, mais sans l'agent par défaut d'Omarchy. Donc adieu les chapitres. Sous Windows, l'application Meetily fait le même genre de travail en local, Avec mon application macOS Kassis , on peut faire ça aussi. Il suffit de glisser-déposer l'enregistrement de la réunion sur l'appli. Les interlocuteurs sont reconnus et on obtient un transcript en quelques secondes. Enfin, pour transcrire vos enregistrements directement sur un serveur, il y a Speakr, dont je vous ai déjà parlé .

Voilà, en tout cas, je trouve que son dev a bien bossé ! Meeting Recorder c'est sous licence MIT, et le code est sur GitHub pour ceux qui ont un Omarchy sous la main !