Earbud-based translators are the next game changer. These are over-ear devices that come in a pair—one for you, one for your conversation partner. Each of you wears one earbud, and the software on your phone handles the translation, both ways, behind the scenes. The best earbud translators make for the most natural way to communicate with someone in a foreign language that I’ve found to date, though handhelds tend to have more capabilities. (Earbud-based designs seem to be the direction the industry is heading.)
When shopping for a handheld translator, watch out for expensive subscription plans. Many devices come with free service, but only for a time, and re-upping after the trial period ends can be pricey. Check the fine print before you buy. Also, make sure the translator you’re considering covers all the languages you need. Note that while some translators support hundreds of languages, they may be limited in the language pairs they can translate between.
Who Really Needs a Handheld Language Translator?
Again, if you only need casual translation for occasional or emergency use, you can definitely get by with a free translation app on your phone. Translation devices are best for frequent users who expect to carry on multiple sustained conversations with speakers of other languages over time.
Those scenarios could include attending a reunion with your Swedish wife’s extended family or a lengthy workshop series with colleagues from other parts of the world. These tools are also often marketed to first responders who need to quickly assess a situation when human translation services aren’t available.
In situations where you may need to communicate with several speakers, each speaking a different language, a portable translator can make even more sense. If you expect your journeys to take you to far-flung areas or off the grid entirely, where internet service may be poor or nonexistent, a translator can be a helpful tool in your travel bag, even if you only expect to use it for emergencies.
Which Handheld Language Translators Are Best?
After testing numerous handheld translators, I recommend this trio. Which one you pick will depend on how you expect to use it—and your budget.
Best Stand-Alone Translator
Timekettle
T1 Handheld Translator Device
The Timekettle T1 is a reasonably affordable and very pocketable device that makes for an easy addition to your travel kit. Built for two users to communicate, each with access to half the screen, the T1 translates each side of a conversation—written or spoken—into that user’s own language. Using it can be a little tricky: a color-coded button on the side of the device or a virtual one on the 4-inch touchscreen must be held down to tell the T1 which language to listen for. But once you get the hang of it, the system works pretty well.
Accuracy is solid, and translations are fast, popping up in well under a second. One challenge I had with the device relates to its small screen. Like most translators, the T1 supports photo-based translations via its 8-megapixel camera, but the 540 x 1080-pixel screen is too small to display much text at once. Also, while the unit includes a global eSIM with two years of free service included ($50/year after that), I encountered plenty of signal gaps, even in my own home. The good news is that if Wi-Fi’s available, that works too. The unit also supports 31 offline language pairs (10 in combination with English), so if you plan ahead, service woes may not be an issue at all.
Best Translator Earbuds
iFLYTEK
iFLYTEK AI Translation Earbuds
If you want to upgrade your translation experience and make it more immersive, you’ll want to invest in a pair of earbuds, which give you a more personal and natural way to communicate. As described above, the iconic way to use these is to pop one on yourself and give the other to your friend. An app on your phone handles two-way translation, back and forth.
These 12-gram on-ear earbuds are the best I’ve tested, primarily because once they’re configured, they work completely hands-free. No clicking buttons or tapping the side of your head every time you’re ready to speak: The earbuds understand who’s talking and when, and they work with remarkable speed, almost like a professional interpreter whispering in your ear.
Boot up the C64U, and you’re greeted by a re-creation of the C64’s menu. Here, you can type in operation commands just as you would back in the day, using the BASIC programming language. Problem: I don’t have the first clue about BASIC. However, in what is possibly the greatest throwback of all, the C64U comes with a spiral-bound, 273-page user guide. It is an absolute tome. Somewhat surprisingly, it’s not a reprint of anything that came with the original, but rather a tailored guide to what the C64U does, where it differs from the C64, and how to get to grips with the computer’s capabilities. Equal parts history book and instruction manual, it starts out teaching you some simple commands and builds up to teaching you how to code. I’m still very much working my way through it, but that tactile approach—referring to the book, trying something out on the computer, back and forth—is a great touch.
Hidden Upgrades
If you don’t fancy having to do homework, the C64U’s own default menu, accessed at any time with a flick of the multifunction power button on the right-hand side of the unit, is a simple list of options and settings. Hit RETURN to go into any section—say, “Video Setup” to adjust whether the C64U outputs in original resolution, in PAL or NTSC modes (surprisingly important, given some games will only work with one display standard or the other), or a crystal clear 1080p with scanlines removed—and back out to save any changes to the system’s flash memory. It’s still a minimalist approach, but feels fairly intuitive.
This is also where you can start playing around with some of the other modern touches of the C64U, like how to leverage its far greater power. Well, “greater” in comparison to 1982. Spec-wise, this isn’t going to threaten any more modern machine, but running on an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip and packing 128-MB DDR2 RAM—compared to the 64 KB of the C64—it blows its inspiration out of the water. While at baseline it replicates the performance of the 1982 hardware, meaning it operates as if there’s only the original 64 KB were there, you can menu-dive to activate a virtualized RAM Expansion Unit, or activate a “Turbo Boost” to accelerate the clock speed to a lightning-fast (in this particular context) 64 MHz.
I enquired about the weight, and a DJI spokesperson sent me the following statement: “The DJI Mini 5 Pro has a design weight of 249.9 grams. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the actual weight of the product may vary slightly within a range of ±4 g. Minor weight fluctuations are normal. We recommend that when UK users are operating the drone, local regulations are complied with, which can be found here.”
The company refers to it as a “near-250g drone”—terminology I’d never encountered from DJI. Frankly, it feels a little evasive. This isn’t just pedantic nitpicking over a few grams. I live in the UK, and the 250-gram threshold determines whether you can fly a drone in public parks, on beaches, in towns and cities, near people, and in countless other scenarios without additional certification. Previous Mini models have been just under this limit, and it seems like an oversight during the design process to not keep this one comfortably below it, too.
There’s good news, though: With UK drone rules set to change at the beginning of 2026, I don’t have too long to wait until the Mini 5 Pro (and, interestingly, the much bigger DJI Air 3S) becomes completely legal to fly in built-up areas, public parks, and close to people.
The tidings for US-based pilots aren’t so cheery, though. As with all of its recent products, DJI isn’t officially launching the Mini 5 Pro in the US. You can blame the impending DJI ban, and it’s a real shame, because, weight issues aside, this is a fantastic camera drone.
Big Camera Upgrades
Photograph: Sam Kieldsen
The Mini 5 Pro’s slight weight increase comes with genuine benefits. The main improvement is the camera, which now features a 12-MP (or 50 MP in Quad Bayer terms) 1-inch sensor, a significant upgrade from the smaller sensors in previous Mini models. The image quality is edging towards DJI’s Air range, which is remarkable for a drone this size. You’re getting professional-level image quality in a pocketable drone.
From the start, Nothing was designed to be an antidote to Apple and its omnipresent AirPods. While Apple focused on a sort of all-purpose minimalism, Nothing adopted a hallmark transparent look that, if not altogether disparate (both pairs of wireless earbuds have a similar stem design), at least gave its Ear products a unique design language. That quest for being different extended into features, too. In 2023, Nothing introduced personalized EQ, giving it a visual and technological difference over Apple’s AirPods and eventually a ChatGPT integration, which was a first in the category.
But a lot happens in a few years, especially in a space as saturated as wireless earbuds, and while Nothing’s Ear are still a solid pair of earbuds, they feel… a little less of an earful. Apple now has its AirPods Pro 3 with high-tech features like real-time translation and heart rate monitoring, while non-Apple competitors in the same price range, like OnePlus and Google, aren’t pulling any punches with their own entrants into the space that offer personalized EQ, AI features, and noise-canceling that compete with pro-level gadgets.
Nothing Ear 3
The Nothing Ear 3 have solid sound, but flub the one thing that makes them unique.
Pros
Great sound
Solid ANC
They look very cool
Case feels premium
Cons
Super Mic is a super letdown
May not be worth the premium over last gen
But just in the nick of time, as Nothing’s flagship wireless earbuds seem to be falling behind, the company is back with its $180 Ear 3 that offer a new look and one truly unique feature for improving voice calls. As usual, Nothing is taking some chances, and not just in the visual department. For me, some of those risks are really paying off, but others… well, they’re not so super.
So much of Nothing is about looks. That’s not a knock on the company. This is technology that you wear, and because of that, appearance can be make-or-break. Chances are, if you’ve bought Nothing products in the past, you agree, which also means, if you saw Nothing teasing its Ear 3 wireless earbuds before its release, your eyebrows may have been raised.
I’m going to get straight to the point: the Ear 3 look great. I was worried at first that the Ear 3 may scale back on the transparent part of its wireless earbuds, but that’s not the case here at all. Sorry for the alarm bells, anyone who reads my blogs. Instead of a homogeneous black look on the outside of the stems, the Ear 3 goes with a metallic silver that really makes them look like a capital “G” Gadget. As Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, noted to me, this thing has big Talkboy vibes (shout out to Macaulay Culkin). There’s still a transparent shell that lets you see the internal components through the sides and back of the earbud stems.
The case also adopts the same metallic look, shedding the white version (there’s also still black) for an aluminum that both looks and feels genuinely different. The “Talk” button (more on that later) is also nice and shiny, inviting you to push it. This case now has some weight in your hand, and I really love that. No one wants to carry around heavy gadgets, but Nothing did a good job here of balancing the weight to make the case and buds feel premium without making it feel chunky.
The design language also feels more aligned across flagship audio products now, bringing together the Ear 3 and the Headphone 1, which have an aluminum finish. If you’re a fan of the Headphone 1, or prior Nothing buds, you’ll love the look of the Ear 3. Another thing you’ll love? The sound.
A much-needed audio upgrade
I thought the Ear were nice wireless earbuds when I first listened to them in 2024, but I’ve tested a lot of newer earbuds since then, and in that testing, my opinion has shifted. The Ear still hold it down, but the sound and ANC aren’t quite as premium as I’d like them to be, especially with a slight cost premium over brand new buds like the OnePlus Buds 4. In short, it was time for an upgrade.
According to Nothing, the Ear 3 now has a redesigned 12mm dynamic driver and “patterned diaphragm surface” that is meant to “lower total harmonic distortion from 0.6% to 0.2% versus the previous in-ear generation.” Nothing also says that the redesigned architecture increases bass response and delivers a wider soundstage. That’s all rhetoric, though, and at the end of the day, what you really want to know is, “Do these sound better than the last generation?” and in my anecdotal testing, they definitely do.
I tested the Ear 3 back to back with the Ear (which is actually newer than the Ear 2) and found that there was a lot less distortion when listening to C.W. Stoneking’s “Desert Isle”. There’s more spatiality in the Ear 3 than the Ear, making guitars and vocals sound like they’re in their own place instead of muddled together competing. Vocals in particular sound clear and natural, which is great if you’re like me and tend to listen to a lot of rock music. One vast improvement over the Ear is in the bass department. As I’ve said many times, I don’t particularly care about having a ton of bass in wireless earbuds, but I do appreciate a pair that can still provide low end without sounding over-compressed or super simulated. I’d say the Ear 3 do just that, especially after testing bassier music by listening to Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”.
As usual, I also dove into the Nothing X app and used Nothing’s personalized audio test to tune the Ear 3 to my specific hearing. I can’t overstate this enough: stop sleeping on your wireless earbuds’ companion app. There’s a big difference in the sound before using the personalized EQ and after, and while this won’t be the case with everyone, I’m 33 years old and a couple of decades of going to shows and listening to loud music means I could probably use a little assistance in the hearing department. The Ear 3 sound great out of the box, but personalized EQ really sends the audio over the top. In short, Nothing is still holding it down with its flagship-level sound, and the Ear 3 is an even bigger improvement generation-to-generation than its jump from Ear 2 to Ear.
Active noise cancellation (ANC), however, I found a little less improved generation-to-generation. Though to be fair, Nothing isn’t touting better noise canceling this time around. I gave the Ear 3 the obligatory subway test, and while they passed, they weren’t quite as formidable as my favorite noise-canceling wireless earbuds, Bose’s Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). They’re still much better than the similarly priced Galaxy Buds 3 FE from Samsung that I recently tested. I do think they’re slightly more noise-canceling than the last generation, though that could be due to Nothing’s redesign of the buds, which are meant to provide a better and more comfortable fit in your ears—that could create better passive noise cancellation and the illusion of stronger ANC.
Battery life is also only slightly improved. Nothing says the Ear 3 will get 5.5 hours of listening with ANC on, while the Nothing Ear was rated for 5.2 hours. This is nowhere near the best battery of wireless earbuds in this class; in fact, it’s a little under. Six hours is generally the standard nowadays. In my testing, I went from 100% to 80% battery in a little over 1 hour of listening at 70% volume with ANC on high.
So, that’s the good, pretty good, and just okay news about the Ear 3. But there are some things I really don’t like, so let’s talk about them.
Super Mic? More like soupy mic.
There’s one aspect of the Ear 3 that can’t be compared, since Nothing is the only company really trying it. I’m talking about the “Super Mic,” a new exclusive feature in the Ear 3 that lets you use microphones in the case for clearer calling and voice recording. By pressing the “Talk” button on the case, you can activate the feature and get recording or calling—one push activates the feature until you release the button, while a double-tap will turn the feature on until you turn it off.
According to Nothing, there are two Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) mics inside the case that use beamforming to zero in on your voice and cancel out environmental noise at the same time. The Ear 3 also take advantage of bone-conducting capabilities that detect “microvibrations” in your jaw that are meant to detect speech. The process of relaying the results of your Super Mic voice is a bit convoluted. Nothing says your voice is “sent to the case antenna, relayed to the earbud antenna over Bluetooth, then passed to the phone.”
Per Nothing, Super Mic “focuses on your voice, cutting through surrounding noise (up to 95 dB) for clearer calls and voicenotes.” In theory, I love the idea. Wired earbuds are a big thing again, and a major part of that (outside the superior audio quality) is that they usually come with an on-cable mic for clearer calls. This theoretically makes the Ear 3 a best of both worlds situation, giving you wired earbud-level mics for calling (or better) while not having to deal with annoying wires.
The only problem is… the Super Mic doesn’t work as advertised. I ran the feature through a few different tests, and the results were varying degrees of muddy. At first, I played background music while using Super Mic to record my voice through my iPhone’s Voice Memo app. Instead of canceling out the background music (lo-fi beats playing at 75% volume from a Chromebook about a foot away from me), it mixed my voice and the beats together, creating a kind of muddled amalgam that wasn’t very pleasant to listen back to.
Similarly, I simulated subway noise (something more “environmental”) on YouTube at the same volume and distance, and the results were similar. My voice was still mixed in with the ambient sound that I hoped it would filter out. Super Mic did seem to work better out on the street near my office (a fairly busy part of downtown Manhattan), though I still wouldn’t describe the results as “super” in any way. Even when Super Mic effectively filters out environmental noise, I find the fidelity to be choppy and compressed-sounding at times. It’s nowhere near as pleasing to listen to as recording through the native mic on my iPhone 13.
Super Mic did filter out noise effectively while walking on the street next to ongoing construction and in a fast casual restaurant that was playing music, but it still picked up other people’s voices in settings where people were talking nearby, which would make using the feature in an environment with other people potentially problematic.
There’s also the issue of compatibility. Nothing says Super Mic is designed for voice calling in apps like Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, WeChat, and is also supported in native voice memo apps on iOS and Android. However, Nothing makes it clear that the feature “isn’t optimized” for in-app voice messaging through third-party apps like Snapchat or native voice features in iOS Messages and the like. This is a long way of saying that your mileage may vary when it comes to Super Mic, and while compatibility can’t be blamed on Nothing—it’s up to Apple and Android to allow third-party mic access, and in what apps—it still limits the Super Mic feature, making its use a lot more restricted than it ought to be.
I reached out to Nothing about the issue I had with Super Mic, but haven’t yet determined if there’s an issue with the wireless earbuds or a problem with the feature. (Yes, I was using the right firmware and Nothing X build). Other reviewers have reported their own issues with Super Mic, too.
Good buds, but a little (ear)itating
When you make a big bet, you might lose a little money—no risk, no reward. No matter your rote idiom of choice, that sentiment tends to be true. Super Mic could be a cool feature if it’s refined, but for now, I would file it firmly in the “undwhelming” folder. Maybe it will improve with future software, but I can’t really guarantee that, so all I have to work with is what we have right now, which is to say a Super Mic that seems to be plagued by a serious case of Kryptonite.
The annoying part is that everything else about the Ear 3 is pretty solid. They look great, they sound great, and ANC is sturdy. The battery life leaves something to be desired, but it’s not so bad that it’s disqualifying. But this is what happens when you try to do something different sometimes, you gotta take the hits with the misses. Alright, I’m done with the corny euphemisms now, I swear.
The Ear 3 might falter out of the gate with a shoddy Super Mic feature, but if you like the way Nothing wireless earbuds look and you want solid sound and ANC, the Ear 3 are still worth a look. Just don’t expect to be taking any Zoom calls from a construction site with these things just yet.
One of my biggest gripes about the sex toy industry—and the tech industry for that matter—is that there’s a lot of iteration. New versions of already great products arrive every few years, with very minor changes, and you’re left wondering what the latest brings to the table outside of a higher price. Many sex toy brands are guilty of this, from Womanizer and We-Vibe to Dame.
Lelo’s new Sona 3 Cruise falls into this camp as well, even if its predecessor arrived five years ago. This vibrator doesn’t bring much new to the table. For anyone who’s a fan of the Sona line and feels their existing model is failing in some way—maybe the battery is conking out, or it doesn’t charge properly—the Sona 3 Cruise is a natural upgrade. Or you could save cash and stick with the older tried-and-true Sona 2 Cruise.
Minimal Changes
Courtesy of Lelo
Like its predecessors, the Sona 3 Cruise is made of body-safe silicone and ABS plastic. It’s ultra-smooth to touch, and when paired with water-based lube, it glides over whatever area you’re stimulating. Fun fact: The Sona line may have been designed with the clitoris in mind, but if you like nipple stimulation, it feels wonderful there too.
When fully charged, which takes about two hours, the Sona 3 can deliver two hours of run time. That’s in line with most Lelo products. Similarly, the device is 100 percent waterproof and features the company’s Cruise Control function (it’s in the name!), so when you press the vibrator down harder on your body as you get close to climax, the motors don’t slow down but actually offer a bit of a boost.
The only “big” difference with the Sona 3 Cruise is in the vibration settings. The original Sona Cruise had eight, the Sona 2 Cruise had 12, and the Sona 3 Cruise bumps that up to 16. I’m no Nostradamus, but if Lelo releases a Sona 4 Cruise, I’m willing to bet it will have 20 vibration settings. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—I know, but it’s OK to shake things up a bit. There doesn’t seem to be much here to warrant a whole new product.
Oh, and the Sona 3 is app-controlled, a standard feature on most Lelo products today, and it enables long-distance play. If you’re using the app solo, not only do you have the intensities and patterns to choose from on your phone, but you can also adjust the intensity by rotating the phone. If you want to delve into advanced mode, you can let the Sona 3 take over by choosing one of the following options: Out of Control or Finish Me Off. For the record, Out of Control is exactly that. It bounces all around with intensities and patterns, and how anyone could find such mayhem enjoyable is beyond me.
The Sona 3 debuts what Lelo calls SmoothRise Technology, meant to create a smooth transition between intensity levels. I’ve always felt like older Sona Cruise products moved fairly seamlessly from one intensity to the next, so I’m not exactly sure what the latest generation is doing differently. Annoyingly, the vibrator’s charger is still proprietary. Is it so hard to add a USB-C port?
Underwhelming Update
Courtesy of Lelo
I’ve always liked the Lelo Sona line quite a bit. I can’t say I was disappointed with the Sona 3 Cruise, but it didn’t leave me with a memorable experience. The sonic pulses feel good, the extra intensities are nice ot have, but I’m not running around town recommending this vibrator to everyone I meet. The Lelo Dot, on the other hand, is a whole other story. I can’t stop talking about that clitoral vibrator; it’s going to ruin me for everything else that comes my way.
If you’re a big fan of the Lelo Sona Cruise line and have been waiting for it to be app-controlled, then the Sona 3 is for you. If you’ve felt that the older models weren’t intense enough, then that’s another good reason to buy the Sona 3. But if you already have a Lelo Sona Cruise, whether it’s the original or Sona 2, and you love it, there’s no need to upgrade, especially if it gets the job done. Save your money or invest it in something new and exciting. You know, like the Lelo Dot.
I’ve never had particularly sensitive nipples—except for the first time I went to a clothing-optional beach and failed to use enough sunblock—so I was excited to give the Lovense Gemini a try.
No, it has nothing to do with Google’s AI chatbot. These are vibrating nipple clamps from Lovense, and I’ve had great experience with many of the company’s sex toys. Many of my partners have had sensitive nipples, so I was curious if I could join the ranks with the Gemini. Usually sold for less than $80, they’re an inexpensive way to spice up the bedroom.
Great for Enthusiasts and Beginners
Courtesy of Amazon
After I fully charged the Gemini, which takes about an hour or so, I used it on myself. What I love is that I can clip the base of the clamps to my bra (there’s also a cord you can put around your neck if you don’t wear a bra), making them 100 percent hands-free.
The Gemini is app-controlled (Android, iOS), so I can lie back and play with the slew of intensities and patterns—surprisingly fun even though I was solo. When I added a bullet vibrator to the mix, the vibrations all over made everything even more exciting in a low-key, kinky sort of way. I also appreciate that the clamps are adjustable, so if you love a tight squeeze, a barely there hold, or somewhere in between, you have options.
Unlike some of the more intimate toys I’ve reviewed, like the Luxus Couples Vibrator or the Lelo Ora 3, I was able to get input from a handful of people with the Gemini. Especially people I know who really (like, really) love nipple play. As much as I enjoyed the vibrations and found the sensation interesting, the Gemini made me realize that, ultimately, I prefer that my nipples get attention from a partner’s tongue or with a slight graze of their teeth.
Of the three nipple-play aficionados I used the Gemini with—one straight and two gay men—all of them became immediate fans of the toy. They liked the hands-free design and the simplicity of the Lovense Remote app. To paint a picture of this experiment, I had the app in hand, and three men sat on the couch across from me, waiting for their turn to try the Gemini. (It’s the closest I’ll probably ever get to an orgy.) Each man had a different preference in intensity and patterns, as well as the tightness of the clamps, so I was able to see just how much the Gemini can be the perfect fit for anyone who’s into nipple play.
Easy to Use
The Gemini is well-built, too. Not only is it waterproof—for all those times you’re craving a proper buzz on your nips while in the shower—but you also get a whopping two hours of run time when it’s fully charged. The device is discreet, in case you’re into public play where one partner enjoys the vibrations, while the other controls what they want you to feel.
Insta360’s X-series 360-degree cameras have long dominated the market. They have great video quality, an easy-to-use interface, and simple editing software, which makes these the most beginner-friendly 360 cameras around. The latest version, the Insta360 X5, continues that tradition while bringing larger sensors with even better-looking video.
The X5 is a worthy upgrade; video quality is better, battery life is improved, and new features like the PureVideo lowlight mode and replaceable lenses make the X5 the most compelling 360 camera on the market.
What’s New
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
The big news in the X5, and the reason to consider upgrading even if you already have the X4, are the new twin 1/1.28-inch sensors. They’re a considerable step up from the 1/2-inch sensors in the X4. At the same time, the video specs have not changed much at all, with 8K 30 fps and 5.7K 60 fps at the high end. A larger sensor with the same resolution means more detail in that footage, which is exactly what you get here. This is without a doubt the best-looking footage I’ve seen from a 360 camera.
Keep in mind that the 8K refers to the overall 360-degree shot. When you actually frame that footage in the app, the highest resolution you’ll be able to export is 4K. But the 4K footage you’ll get is markedly better than what the X4 delivers.
The footage coming out of the X5 is great for a 360 camera. Bear in mind, though, that almost any other newer action camera is going to have somewhat better video quality. The appeal of the 360 camera is that it can capture what’s behind you, whereas Insta360’s traditional action cam, the Ace Pro 2 (8/10, WIRED Recommends), cannot. This makes 360 cameras perfect for filming when you don’t know exactly how you want to frame your shot, for example while riding a bike, skiing, skateboarding, and so on. In the past, to get this kind of shoot-everything, frame-later flexibility, you had to give up some video quality. While that’s still true to an extent, with the X5 you’re giving up very little in terms of video quality.
The M4 also gives the MacBook Air its AI boost with Apple Intelligence. The 38 TOPS of local AI processing through the faster 16-core Neural Engine makes the M4 MacBook Air closer to the 48 TOPS on Intel’s Lunar Lake chips and 45 TOPS of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.
This is difficult to judge, because Apple Intelligence is very much still unfinished, but there are some new third-party apps that Apple is showcasing that use Apple Intelligence right out of the box in third-party applications, such as the note-taking app, Bear. You can now do things like automatically format text into tables or summarize a report. It also comes with Image Playground, the updated version of Siri with ChatGPT integration, and lots more. On the other hand, you’ve never needed fast local AI processing to get Apple Intelligence, as AI tasks on older devices just get run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system.
The raw performance bump you’ll see on the M4 MacBook Air over last year’s M3 is 22 percent faster GPU, 31 percent multi-core, and 18 percent single-core, as measured in Cinebench R24. That’s a really solid step up for one generation, particularly in single-core performance, where Apple silicon continues to dominate the competition. In terms of the graphics, that’s also over double the performance from the M2. Whether you’re photo-editing or doing 3D modeling, that’s enough to feel the difference if you’re coming from an M1 or M2 MacBook Air.
As with all MacBook Airs, it’s a completely fanless machine. That feels incredible at certain points, especially when you’re in heaving applications like a game. I whipped out Baldur’s Gate 3, and while it’s far from ideal performance, the utterly silent system means you won’t even need headphones to play. But at 1200p, medium settings, and upscaling, it wasn’t too hard to find a balance of performance and image quality that felt enjoyable. Achieving that performance without fans is something that can’t be done on any other laptop right now.
The downside of being fanless, of course, is you’re not getting quite as much out of the M4 as you would on a system with active cooling, namely the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The Air’s system has to throttle frequencies down to prevent a meltdown, and even still, I recorded CPU temperatures as high as 102 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, the surface temperatures never got unbearable in my time with it, even while running under full load.
Finding the right temperature in bed can be tricky. Feeling too hot or cold makes it tough to drop off and can wake you prematurely. Since our mental and physical health depends on sleep, that’s a problem. Eight Sleep has the answer. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 is a temperature-regulating mattress cover that tracks your body as you snooze, with a hub that pumps cooled or warmed water into the cover to help you stay in the land of nod for longer.
When I tested its predecessor, the Eight Sleep Pod 3 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), I was wary of the billionaire biohacking buzz, but it won me over. Aside from the increased comfort, the best sleep trackers all told the same story: My wife and I slept longer and got more deep sleep and REM with the Eight Sleep Pod than without. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 brings some welcome improvements, including greater comfort, quieter operation, and handy tap controls, so you don’t have to reach for your phone at night.
Photograph: Simon Hill
Sadly, better sleep does not come cheap. A Pod 4 Cover and Hub for a queen-size bed costs $2,599, but you must also take a year’s subscription to Autopilot for an extra $199. If you already have a subscription, you can transfer it to a new Pod, but you can no longer buy an Eight Sleep Pod without taking the Autopilot subscription. The UK Super King I tested costs £2,699, with a year of Autopilot at £199. It’s a real investment, but sleeping soundly can be transformative.
Hitting the Hay
The Eight Sleep Pod 4 Cover and Hub come in two large boxes. The mattress cover has rubber tubing inside and a soft, plush, dark material on top. It is elasticized for a snug fit on your mattress, and tubing must be routed from the top to plug into the hub. The hub is about the size of a desktop PC, with a fabric front and a big 8 logo. The hub is the brain of the operation, and it cools or heats water and pumps it around the cover.
Setup with the Pod 4 was similar but much quicker than the Pod 3. You pull the cylinder out the top of the hub and pour water up to the fill line. The priming process has dropped to around 10 minutes from a couple of hours for the previous version. You connect the hub to your Wi-Fi using the mobile app. The Pod 4 cover is much comfier than the Pod 3, and the hub is far quieter. It never broke 30 decibels when measured. It makes a subtle hum, like a white noise sleep sound.
Introduced in 2002, the MicroKorg became one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time. But a lot has changed since then. In the last 22 years Korg has actually tried to update this early 21st century classic a few times, but they haven’t caught on the way the original did. The oxymoronically named MicroKorg XL, the MicroKorg S (which added speakers and not much else), and the MicroKorg XL+ (just a MicroKorg XL with a facelift) all failed to usurp the OG. But Korg is hoping the MicroKorg 2 will be the true successor to the crown.
The MicroKorg 2 is an improvement on the original in almost every way, that much is clear. What’s less clear is whether or not Korg has a winner on its hands, or if the MicroKorg 2 is an uninspired attempt to cash in on a classic. There are so many great smaller synths these days, I’m not sure that this will be the answer for everyone.
Modern Sound
One of the biggest changes from the original MicroKorg is the sound engine. At its core, the MicroKorg 2 is a virtual analog synth (it’s digital but aims to sound analog), just like its predecessor. But the scope of its sound-shaping power is much broader. In addition to standard waveshapes like sine and saw, the MicroKorg 2 has a configurable noise source and access to a library of PCM samples that can be used to add a transient to the start of a patch, similar to what you might find on classic ’80s Roland synths like the D-50. The MicroKorg 2 also has three oscillators (instead of two on the original) and a continuously morphing multimode filter.
The MicroKorg 2 is also a multitimbral synth with double the number of voices (eight versus four), compared to its predecessor. This gives it the ability to create complex layered patches (say, an arpeggio and a pad simultaneously) or lush expansive chords. Add to this an expanded six-slot mod matrix with many more sources and destinations, plus a broader selection of effects, and you’ve got an instrument that clearly outclasses its namesake.
Photograph: Terrence O’Brien
What’s truly impressive is that it manages to be far more powerful, but also much easier to program than the original. While the big-knob and genre-based patch browsing remain, gone is the obtuse system where you’re forced to look up parameters on a giant table when trying to tweak presets or craft a sound from scratch. The MicroKorg 2 is nowhere near knob-per-function, but the 2.8-inch screen and contextual buttons make it much easier to find your way around.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say building patches on the MicroKorg 2 is actually fun. This is definitely not something anyone would have ever said about the original.
Not Great Navigation
The genre-based patch navigation does feel outdated, though. It was questionable in 2002 and now seems downright bizarre. The way it’s broken up—four categories with eight banks and eight programs in each bank—feels unnecessarily convoluted. Plus, of the 256 slots, only 64 are reserved for user patches, which is annoying for folks who like to customize for live shows. That being said, if there isn’t a giant knob with the words “hiphop” and “trance” around it, is it really a MicroKorg?
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