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Daily Authority: 🎧 Sony's next headphones

All about Sony's next XMx headphones, plus your fave ...spoon?
By
May 5, 2022

🥄 Good morning! Read on for some fun about spoons.

Sony’s next XM5s

Sony’s WH-1000XMx series of over-ear headphones has been consistently super popular, battling against Bose and Beats for top consumer-grade noise-cancelling headphones.

  • The current XM4 model is still regarded as a top option for a set of noise-cancelling headphones, with enough improvements to be considered a top option.
  • Though it’s worth noting our colleagues at SoundGuys say the older XM3 model is still worth buying if you find it at a good price.

But, the next model is around the corner, with leaks starting to pick up around the Sony WH-1000XM5 edition:

  • First, a week or two ago, came renders of the XM5 with some specs, showing a sleeker design.
  • The specs list included Bluetooth 5.2, support for a headphone jack, and an on/off slider instead of a button.
  • Battery life was listed as 40 hours, with active noise cancellation (ANC) enabled.
  • Now, someone on r/headphones and r/sony has posted a picture of the box of the Sony WH-1000XM5 in silver.
  • The user who posted them explained why they had them, saying “My uncle works at Nintendo,” which makes no sense, but hey!

What we see:

  • The images, if true, show a few things: A new design for the headband and ear cups. That’s both in the overall look but the feel is different too if the ear cushions pics are accurate — thicker cushions and without texture.
  • Battery life is a bit trickier to figure out. The box we see says 30 hours of battery life, which would be less than the XM4s and XM3s. But is it more complicated than that?
  • The battery life could be while using ANC, and so with ANC off, you’ll get the same or similar battery life to the previous models at 40 hours. Or, a handful of other possibilities.
  • There are also no details on price or a release date yet, but FCC confidentiality appears to expire on August 8 — so retail availability then, perhaps?

Roundup

🔧 33Gbps Wi-Fi 7 speeds coming to a router near you in 2023: Qualcomm starts early (Android Authority).

👉 Android 13 is getting new sideloading restrictions, but they’re good: attempting to stop malware abusing Accessibility APIs (Android Authority).

🥽 Google has acquired Raxium, which makes MicroLED displays, ideal for AR and VR, maybe for around $1 billion (blog.google).

🔥 Mozilla releases Firefox version 100 this week (Ars Technica).

🔊 You may be saying “Hey Sonos,” a new Sonos Voice Control function, from June 1 (The Verge).

😬 The company behind celebrity cameo videos has laid off a quarter of its workers (The Verge).

🙊 Creepy data broker says it will no longer sell Planned Parenthood visitors’ location history, following a recent Vice report (Gizmodo).

🟩 Wordle helps the NY Times achieve record revenue: The popular daily puzzle (are you still doing it, by the way?) cost a million bucks or so, and millions of new users are playing it (Engadget).

🚀 SpinLaunch is trying to launch stuff into orbit using a giant centrifuge, and there’s footage of it doing so, for the first time, including onboard cameras, which is fun. The aim is for it to be as much as just 1/20th the cost of a full rocket launch (YouTube).

😬 This CCTV footage in Seattle shows people struggling to manage an offramp, apparently from the I-5 to Union St (r/idiotsincars).

🧖‍♂️ “ELI5: Why is it that we can breathe in steam/water vapor, and not worry about small amounts of water getting into our lungs?” (r/explainlikeimfive).

Throwback Thursday

spoons

Here’s a weird throwback for you: Do you have a favorite spoon? Maybe a wooden one? A family heirloom that’s been in every pasta sauce, or stew, or for scooping out rice?

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this wandering article on The Guardian: “I thought it was weird to have a favourite spoon. Then I realised I wasn’t alone …” (Forgive all the British English here).

It’s all about the feeling you get from your fave spoon:

Quotes:

  • “I surveyed my spoon drawer and considered my feelings. I was disappointed to see I have no fewer than 17 wooden spoons. Disappointed because this implies a certain shallowness, as if I’m some kind of spoon lothario, collecting notches on my bedpost, focusing on quantity rather than quality. Stirring without love is just exercise, after all. 
  • “But sorting through them, I realised I do have a favourite. It’s more of a spatula than a spoon, but it suits me very well. I had always looked out for it without knowing I was doing so and felt a twinge of disappointment if it didn’t come to hand. If ever I lost it for good, I now understood, I would miss it for ever.”
  • It goes on and on. And I like it a lot.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.