Tech
These Are the Best Noise-Canceling Headphones We’ve Tried
Honorable Mentions
Now that the majority of new headphones and earbuds offer at least a modicum of noise canceling, it’d be impossible (and unproductive) to list everything we like above. If you haven’t yet found your fit, here are more favorites worth considering.
Beyerdynamic Amiron 300 for $280: These simple-looking earbuds are a great way to experience quiet luxury. They have 10 hours of battery life with noise canceling engaged, and they have some of the best-sounding drivers for vocals I’ve heard in any earbuds.
Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds for $298: Sony’s fifth-generation flagship earbuds slim down while stepping up. These buds are smaller and slicker (maybe too slick when it comes to grabbing them) than the previous XM4 buds. As before, they provide great sound and noise canceling that outduels plenty of options, with a cost to match. In true Sony style, they serve up a truckload of adaptive features and EQ controls while retaining a solid eight hours of playback time per charge with ANC and 12 hours without it. —Ryan Waniata
Soundcore Life Q30 for $60–$85: Anker’s Soundcore line is nothing if not value-conscious, and the Life Q30 provide an embarrassing list of extras for their bargain-basement pricing. You’ll get clear and warm sound, great features, tons of battery life, and noise canceling that gets the job done even on a long flight, though it can’t keep up with flagship pairs. It’s hard to complain when they cost hundreds less, especially with sale pricing that sometimes drops to around $50.
Sony WH-1000XM4 for $250–$350: Sony’s WH-1000X lineup has produced some of the best noise-canceling headphones for nearly a decade, and the aging WH-1000XM4 are no exception. They periodically go on sale for under $300, but it’s getting harder to find them below full price, which is tough for a five-year-old model.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Earbuds for $400: Bowers & Wilkins’ Pi8 offer a sleek, comfortable design, solid (albeit not Bose-beating) noise canceling, and great sound. Call quality is also excellent, which makes these perhaps the perfect business-class earbuds, though their hefty price won’t appeal to everyone.
Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S2e for $400: The Px7 S2e feature upgraded audio quality for fantastic sound in stylish and sophisticated design. They’re also among the most comfortable headphones we’ve tested, but their noise canceling doesn’t rise to the level of the top players for the money.
Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 for $400: These over-ears from Beyerdynamic have the brand’s classic studio sound, with a tight crisp high range and punchy lows. The downside is that they don’t cancel noise quite as well as models from Sony, Bose, and others above. Still, they sound great and are worth considering, especially if you can snag them on sale.
Soundcore Space A40 for $60: Another top value buy from Anker’s Soundcore brand, the Space A40 are some of our favorite cheap earbuds, especially as their price continues to fall. You’ll find a classy design, lots of features, quality sound, and great noise canceling for their class.
Apple Beats Fit Pro for $199: The Beats Fit Pro are an aging but still knockout pair of wireless buds, with great sound, easy-access physical buttons, and solid noise canceling to boot. Add to that six hours of battery life, spatial audio compatibility with Apple Music and other services, and you’ve got one of the best pairs of earbuds ever “designed in California.”
Epos/Sennheiser Adapt 660 for $210: Want excellent sound, a comfortable fit, and high-quality noise-canceling tech for less than what you’d pay for Sony or Bose headphones? Check out this collaboration between Epos and Sennheiser. The Epos/Sennheiser Adapt 660 sound fantastic and are some of the lightest noise-canceling headphones I’ve ever worn. They also feature excellent microphones for great silence on calls and Zooms.
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Tech
AI Has Flooded All the Weather Apps
You may have noticed a drop of AI in your weather app lately. As companies race to infuse artificial intelligence into every product, the wave has come for the humble weather app.
The Weather Company, operator of the Weather Channel, today released a revamped version of its Storm Radar app, featuring an AI-powered Weather Assistant that lets users customize how they view forecasts and weather maps, toggling between layers like radar, temperature, and weather conditions like wind and lightning.
It can also sync with other apps, like your calendar, to send text notifications and weather summaries that tie info about the upcoming weather into your daily plans. You can stick a voice on it to talk like an old-timey radio weatherman, if you’re into that. Like most weather apps, it gets the data comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
The app costs $4 per month. It is available on iOS only for now, but the company says an Android version is coming eventually.
“We wanted to build an experience that would be a weather level-up for anybody, really, from a casual observer to a seasoned storm chaser,” says Joe Koval, a senior meteorologist at the Weather Company. “If you’re looking for advice on when the weather will be good to walk your dog tomorrow, you no longer have to look at a bunch of different disparate weather data elements and try to figure out the answer to that question yourself.”
You can find the weather on your phone already, of course. Android and iOS devices typically place the weather prominently beside the time. Google and Apple have both fused their weather apps into their smartphones directly. AI features have since been infused, offering insights and summaries about the day to come.
But there are third-party weather apps galore, like Storm Radar, Carrot Weather, Rain Viewer, and Acme Weather—an app from the former Dark Sky app creators. New weather apps like Rainbow Weather aim to be AI-first. Weather services are also being integrated directly into AI chatbots, like Accuweather, which recently launched an app directly in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“Everyone has their idea of what they want in a weather app, what data they’re interested in, how they’re interested in it being presented,” says Adam Grossman, a founder of the DarkSky app. “How do you build a single weather app that works for everybody?”
DarkSky, one of the most popular iOS weather apps, was bought by Apple in 2020 and merged into its Apple Weather service. Grossman eventually left Apple to start Acme Weather, with the goal of making a weather prediction service that better telegraphs the uncertainty of forecasting.
“No matter how good your forecast is, you’re going to be wrong,” Grossman says. “That’s something that weather apps traditionally haven’t done a great job of doing. Our approach is trying to figure out how to add those pieces of context back in.”
Repositories of weather information usually come from government sources, like NOAA or other global weather services that collect data from weather satellites, radar, weather balloons, and on-the-ground instruments. All that data is fed into weather prediction models that simulate the physics of the atmosphere. Those predictions are often generated by resource-intensive supercomputers, but machine learning models have trimmed that processing down, making predictions quicker. (Though sometimes less accurate, which can be accounted for by comparing multiple models.)
Weather apps like Storm Radar and Acme Weather translate that bounty of information by corroborating and compiling the models, then helping to create high-resolution maps and a visual representation of the data, an area where AI can also be particularly useful.
Tech
This App Makes Even the Sketchiest PDF or Word Doc Safe to Open
Word documents, and even PDF files, aren’t necessarily safe. These normally innocuous files can be injected with malicious “poison” code or simple scripts of code that can be a serious security risk.
You probably already know it’s dangerous to open files from sources you can’t necessarily trust. If you’re an activist or journalist—or anyone who occasionally depends on anonymous tips to do their jobs—you might run into a situation where potentially useful information is inside a Microsoft Word document or PDF file that you can’t exactly vouch for. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open those files and read them without exposing your device to potential security risks?
Dangerzone is a free and open source tool built for this purpose. Originally built by journalist and security engineer Micah Lee, this application opens files in a sandbox environment with no internet access, then converts the file to an image-based PDF with no scripting enabled. The resulting PDF has any malicious code stripped out and should be safe to open—at least, as safe as anything can be.
“You can think of it like printing a document and then rescanning it to remove anything sketchy, except all done in software,” explains the about page, which includes a lot of fascinating details about how the application works.
To get started, download and install Dangerzone. There are downloads for Windows, macOS, and various Linux systems. The first time you run it there will be a brief setup, after which you can simply drag files to the window.
Photograph: Justin Pot
The application can open and convert PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Open Office, EPUB, and image files. You can drag and drop multiple documents at once, if you’d like.
After adding documents you will be asked a few questions: where you’d like the resulting files to end up, whether they should open after the conversion is done, and whether you’d like to use optical character recognition (OCR) in order to make the document searchable. You can also move the original, potentially unsafe documents into a subfolder named “unsafe,” helping ensure you don’t confuse them with the newly made safe ones.
Photograph: Justin Pot
Tech
Litter-Robot Promo Codes: $150 Off Bundles, $50 Off the Starter Bundle, and More
I always tell people that the best thing I’ve ever tested for my job here on the WIRED Reviews team is my automatic litter box from Litter-Robot. I recommend every cat owner invest in an automatic litter box. If they can swing it, the Litter-Robot is the best one to invest in. You’ll be able to say goodbye to the days of scooping and smells while this nifty machine does the grunt work for you.
Litter-Robot is the OG automatic litter box, and the name itself has become synonymous with the concept. And that’s not by accident, as the brand makes incredibly well-made, ergonomic products to help the lives of pet parents everywhere. Along with their famous automatic litter boxes, they also make a super sleek automatic pet feeder that I’ve also tested (and loved). These gadgets are an investment, and can be pricey, but we here at WIRED love the brand so much that we’ve rounded up some of the best Litter-Robot promo codes, coupons, and deals to make these life-changing pet machines more affordable. Because your pet (and you) deserve it.
Get $150 Off Litter-Robot Bundles This Month: No Promo Code Needed
One of the best ways to save big without needing a Litter-Robot promo code is to buy in a bundle. Litter-Robot has several bundles that give you all the essentials you’ll need to get started using your automatic litter box, like a litter trapping mat, replacement waste bags, odor eliminators, litter, and more. A bundle is a great way to save money on the purchases you’ll already have to make, without needing a Litter-Robot coupon. You can get $150 off several different bundles, including Litter-Robot 4 models, as well as the newly released Litter-Robot 5 and Litter-Robot EVO models.
Get the Best Deals on the Litter-Robot 4
I’ve tested well over a dozen models of automatic litter boxes from different brands, including several models from Litter-Robot. The one I keep coming back to is my personal favorite, the Litter-Robot 4. Even though the 5 is the newest model (I’ve tested it and I’m in the process of writing the review now), I just can’t quit you, Litter-Robot 4! I still think it’s one of the best automatic litter boxes you can buy: it has a user-friendly, intuitive connected app that isn’t overcrowded or confusing, the drawer is easy to pull out to remove waste, it has buttons on the top to manually change, and it doesn’t take up a large footprint on the floor. Plus, with a variety of discounted bundles to choose from, you won’t even need a Litter-Robot promo code.
Litter-Robot 5 Pro Insights Bundle Discount: $150 Off
As previously mentioned, I just tested the Litter-Robot 5 Pro, part of Litter-Robot’s recently released line of brand new models. I was seriously impressed with this model, which looks super similar to the Litter-Robot 4, but has a built-in camera to see what’s going on inside and outside of the box. The newest model isn’t cheap, but right now, the Litter-Robot 5 Pro Insights Bundle is only $999 ($152 off). This bundle includes the newest Litter-Robot 5 Pro with built-in camera, plus a litter tracking mat and waste drawer liners to get you started. And as an added bonus, Litter-Robot has a 90-day in-home trial, one-year warranty, and free shipping to the lower 48.
Take $50 Off the Litter-Robot EVO Starter Bundle
The Litter-Robot EVO is another newly released model from Litter-Robot, but this one is a more pared-down, basic version that’s streamlined and compact. I personally love the simpler models (hence my paragraph-long love letter to the Litter-Robot 4 above). If you’re someone who doesn’t need to watch a camera feed of your cat peeing and pooing, the EVO is a more affordable, basic option that gets the job done efficiently. Right now, the Litter-Robot EVO Starter Bundle is $782 ($50 off), and has everything you need to get settled with your new auto box, including waste drawer liners, a litter trap mat, a bag of litter, and odor traps to keep things smelling fresh.
Save 35% on Cat Essentials With a Litter-Robot Discount Code
If you live in a big city like me, there’s nothing worse than carrying heavy litter down icy streets or in hot, packed subway cars. Autoshipping my (often heavy) cat essentials has been a game-changer. If you choose autoship, you’ll save 35% on cat essentials like litter, waste drawer liners, odor traps, filters, and more with this Litter-Robot discount code.
{Get 35% Off Litter-Robot Accessories
I love my Litter-Robot 4, but I highly encourage everyone to spring for the Litter-Robot-branded accessories to accompany the device. This automatic litter box works excellently as is, but things like a ramp for senior cats, filter replacements, and odor traps will keep the device running like new for longer. Keep your investment in tip-top shape for way less with discounted accessories and bundles, for up to 35% off.
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