LG has chosen will.i.am as its new “Experiential Architect,” and the Black Eyed Peas frontman’s first project will be to launch a rebranded set of Xboom products at CES 2025. The new lineup will include wireless earbuds and Bluetooth speakers, and they’ll sport a new name: “xboom by will.i.am.”
LG says the partnership “aims to transform xboom into a culture-forward brand with an urban aesthetic, providing an all-new audio experience.”
That new experience will include several will.i.am-developed characteristics, like “rich bass with a balanced and warm tone.” According to LG, there will be two “modes” for listening. One is described as stimulating, with powerful bass, while the second mode is soothing, with harmonious tones.
Easy-to-hold straps and interactive, music-synced lighting will also feature prominently, but perhaps the most will.i.am aspect is the integration of the musician’s Raidio.fyi (styled as RAiDiO.FYI), an AI-powered interactive audio experience built into his FYI AI messaging app. With Raidio.fyi, you can ask an AI music curator to dish up real-time playlists on the fly, and interrupt it at any time to ask music-related questions like, “Can you tell me about the artist that’s playing,” or almost anything else that’s on your mind, like, “What’s the weather like in LA?”
Will.i.am has a long history as a player in the tech space, though not all of his efforts have been a success.
In 2012, he developed a bizarre and expensive iPhone case called the foto.sosho that combined a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a 14-megapixel camera.
In 2014, shortly before the Apple Watch made its debut, he launched the i.amPULS, a wrist-worn computer. It was panned by one journalist as the worst product they’d ever reviewed, and was offered up as prime evidence by a Digital Trends contributor as to why celebs shouldn’t design tech.
Unsurprisingly, audio products seem to be a better fit. In 2018, his company I.am+ acquired wireless earbud pioneer Earin, and subsequently launched a set of tethered wireless earbuds called the I.am+ Buttons, which Digital Trends’ Andy Boxall hailed as some of the most comfortable he’d ever tried.
We’ll have to wait until next year to see if xboom by will.i.am follows this trajectory.
LG’s previous Xboom audio products include the Xboom XL7 party speaker, Xboom 360 portable, and Xboom ThinQ WK9 smart display.
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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