Headphones were the original piece of wearable technology and they remain as essential today as ever. But they are starting to change rapidly now, as things like noise cancelling and Bluetooth wireless technology enable the dream of completely cable-free living. What will the best headphones of the future look like?
In addition to improved AI capabilities that are better at understanding and translating longer multilingual conversations, Timekettle’s new $379 W4 Plus earbuds can translate videos from YouTube, Netflix, and other platforms while you’re wearing just one of the buds. Last year’s W4 required you to wear both, with one playing the original audio while the other played the translation.
The $53 Open Sport 2’s semi-in-ear, open-ear design is sleeker than the $80 Open Sport, with a thinner capsule while keeping the ear hooks. They’re IP55 rated, have nearly twice the battery life as the Open Sport — JLab claims over 44 hours — and will be available later this year.
They’re closed-back cans with 45mm drivers and active noise cancellation. A separate upgrade package includes a low-latency USB-C dongle and detachable boom mic, which sounds like a nice option for gamers. The Aventho Y are $150 and come in black, blue, light green, and peach.
Following a teaser earlier this week, Nothing’s CMF sub-brand has revealed the Buds Neo wireless earbuds with 12.4mm drivers, active noise canceling, Bluetooth 6.0 support, and up to 11 hours of battery life on buds alone, 52 hours with their charging case, or up to 30 hours with ANC. They’re priced at 1,999 Indian rupees, or around $21.
AirPods with cameras showed up in a video found in a release candidate of the upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.7 update, but Bloomberg reports that the headphones aren’t in the cards for 2026.
Buds Neo, that is, which are being teased by Nothing’s budget-friendly CMF sub-brand, just two weeks after it launched the CMF Clip Pro open earbuds. It posted the below image on X yesterday as a “hint of what’s next.” A new video posted today also shows colorful Smart Dial charging case configurations, and a short message: “Buds Neo. 20 August.”
It’s not a brand-new set of earbuds, but in addition to a new olive color, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will get a firmware update that can improve ANC based on how the buds sit in your ears. Expect the update to roll out sometime in September.
Snyder on the company’s move into luxury audio, licensing the Bose brand, and what happens to great sound in the AI era.
Sony’s quest to bring good cybersecurity practices to its headphone names continues with the rumored WH-1000XM4C.
Zack Simpson:
My biggest gripe with the WH-1000XM4 was that it didn’t have enough letters and numbers in its name. Big fan of this change!
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Leaker OnLeaks has shared renders of the second generation QuietComfort headphones, which appear to be launching in six colors with contrasting ear cups and more synthetic leather detailing. More worrying: I can’t spot a headphone jack anywhere on these, suggesting that wired audio might be limited to USB-C.
Right now, I can see two images and a video on CMF by Nothing’s X feed about its Clip Pro earbuds that include hard-to-see disclosures about the use of AI: “Contains AI-generated imagery. Any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.” 9to5Google reports that some other images have been deleted as well.
Android Authority points to a report from Smartprix that says Nothing’s “repositioning itself as an AI-first company,” with a slate of upcoming devices that includes AI-enabled earbuds and a smart speaker from its CMF brand. Nothing’s also reportedly planning to launch a new smartwatch and second-generation Nothing headphones.
Company announces clever modular or replaceable hardware; company uses proprietary tech for the purpose; the hardware becomes obsolete when replacements dry up. Let’s hope Glorious’ hot-swappable headphone batteries don’t suffer the same fate.
bennyfactor:
if these batteries could be the exact same shape as either one of the skinnier sony infolithiums, or one of the long-running pager / dumbphone battery formats, so that there would be a definite aftermarket of batteries for it, it’d be perfect. My concern with something like this is if you don’t buy like 3 spare batteries at the same time you get the headphones, you won’t be able to find any for sale a few years later.
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The new affordable earbuds will launch alongside the Phone 4B, but WinFuture has published what appear to be official promo shots of the buds in all four colors: yellow, pink, white, and black. Will we see a return of the odd charging case microphone Nothing introduced in the more premium Ear 3?
A new firmware update for the Sony WH-1000XM6 and 1000X The Collexion headphones is now available through the Sony Sound Connect mobile app. In addition to performance improvements the update adds support for the low-latency Bluetooth Gaming Audio Profile, but keep in mind the device you’re pairing with needs to support GMAP, too.
Following the recent debut of its Momentum 5 headphones, Sennheiser is joining companies like Bose and Sony with a new pair of open earbuds worn on the back of the ear. The Accentum Clip offer up to nine hours of battery, and while they won’t launch in the US, they’ll be available in Canada starting July 23rd for $269.95 CAD.
Your headphones’ microphone matters. A lot. And yet we never know how we sound to others, or whether we’re clear to our AI assistants! So every once in a while, we like to grab a bunch of headphones and put their microphones through some tough real-world tests. This time, with the help of The Verge’s John Higgins, we discover the best-sounding mic we’ve ever tested. And no, it’s not on a pair of AirPods. Not even close.
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If you’re in the US, you can now find the Nothing Phone 4A Pro, Phone 3, Headphone A, and Ear 3 in person at over 500 Best Buy stores across the country, giving you a chance to toy around with the devices before you buy one.
An on-the-record chat about Apple Intelligence.
AI Siri, take two? Definitely everything coming to iOS 27, macOS 27, and more.
As spotted by Android Authority, the Pixel Buds app is getting updated with a new icon in the same style as the recently-updated Google Workspace icons. Google is also tweaking the app’s landing page, which will now show all the Pixel Buds headphones paired with your phone on one screen.
