Not that there’s a dearth of Minecraft-themed products in the world today — but if you’re looking for something for your favorite gamer, Beats by Dr. Dre just unleashed a special Minecraft edition of its new Beats Solo 4 headphones.
If you’ve already read our Beats Solo 4 review, these are for all intents and purposes the same headphones. Good (but not great) sound, lacking active noise cancellation, but bringing a lower price than the Beats Studio Pro. And, obviously, there’s the Minecraft theme, with metallic green hinges and the iconic Creeper character in plain view.
The bag that comes with the headphones is the same, too, with the included green Minecraft design. (We were hoping for a green USB-C cable, but no luck.)
The Beats Solo 4 improve on their predecessors with better audio, “UltraPlush” cushions (they are pretty comfy), and up to 50 hours of battery life on a single charge. That’s about 25% better than the Beats Solo3. And they work with Apple’s Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. They also support Android just as well as they do iOS, including both platforms’ “find my” systems, and quick pairing. Though if you’re on Android, you’ll definitely want to install the Beats app for access to settings and firmware updates.
The “Beats x Minecraft Special Edition Solo 4” run $200 at retail and will be available starting July 18 on the Apple and Target websites, at select Apple stores in the U.S., and EE stores in the U.K. And if you snag one, you’ll get a unique code for an in-game Minecraft headphone character creator item. Minecraft content creator TinaKitten will also curate a Spatial Audio playlist available exclusively on Apple Music.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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