Earphones can do more than just play music these days. Some have more built-in smart technology features than rival wearables. One such pair, the Buy Now — currently discounted 23 percent on Buy Now to $230 — provide listening, communication, and tracking features all in one package.
The Dash earphones are billed by their creators as “the world’s first truly wireless smart earphones.” Boasting bilateral balanced armature speakers, the earphones act as an integrated music player, allowing you to play music without a secondary device — or by streaming via Bluetooth from your smartphone, tablet, or computer. As a music player, the earphones can provide 4 GB storage and can hold up to 1,000 songs. Intuitive audio features allow you to tune in or tune out the outside world. As soon as the Dash are inserted into your ears, passive noise cancellation begins to make for a better listening experience. Alternatively, you can initiate audio transparency with a swipe of the left earphone, which better allows you to hear the world around you, or better hear that call you’ve just picked up.
One of the real highlights of the earphones is the built-in smart biometric tracking. Right now, The Dash measures heart rate, steps, cadence, strokes, duration, and more, but future software updates could go a step further — the company has developed a unique OS that makes the earphones essentially an expandable platform for future applications.
The earphones last about three hours on a single charge but come with a handy, portable charging case that can be used up to five times a day, giving you 15 total hours of audio enjoyment. The Dash is waterproof up to 3 feet, meaning you can casually swim with them in, and feature a ‘PerfectFit’ design that ensures the earphones securely stay in your ears, even in extreme situations or during strenuous activities. The company went as far as to use three-dimensional scans of hundreds of ears to determine the perfect sizes for its extra-small, small, medium, and large options.
Buy Now normally retail for $299, but are currently marked down to only $230 on Amazon, giving you a $69, or 23 percent, discount.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.