Super Mario Run’s ‘Biggest Update Ever’ Arrives on the iOS App Store One Day Early

Super Mario Run’s “biggest update ever” has arrived one day early, with many players noticing the version 3.0.4 update is available to download as of this morning. One of the biggest new additions is “Remix 10,” which lets players run through 10 super-short courses in a row to try to find and add Daisy — the new playable character — to their roster.

There’s also new full-size courses in the game, inhabiting “World Star,” including a forest, a ship, and an airship armada. New customization items can be earned from playing Remix 10, and the game has been tweaked so that Toad Rally won’t pit you against players whose Toad population is “significantly different” from your own.

Nintendo has also added a subtle visual detail, giving Mario and his playable friends a pair of headphones any time you listen to your own music while playing the game. With the new update, Super Mario Run [Direct Link] is 50 percent off its full price of $9.99 from today until October 12, meaning you can unlock all six worlds for $4.99.

The game is still free-to-start and lets you play the first world for free, with the in-app purchase unlocking the rest of the game’s content. If you’re looking for more iOS apps and games on sale, be sure to check out our Deals Roundup where we’ve listed some of the latest discounts happening now on the App Store.

Tag: Super Mario Run
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Rescue drones can help when disaster strikes, but only when they’re allowed to

In the midst of Hurricane Harvey’s historic rampage, the Federal Aviation Administration restricted drone pilots without special authorization from flying near or around Houston and surrounding areas.

The reason was fairly straightforward: The FAA wanted rescuers and first responders to have as much free airspace as possible without a bunch of buzzing drones in the way. Even though the FAA made it easier for people to be certified to fly drones in 2016, the flight restriction demonstrated how drones are still not a top priority for search and rescue.

Now, after Hurricane Maria — the fourth major hurricane in a month — has finished it’s rampage, it’s a good time to start thinking about how rescue drones can help out more effectively when the next storm rolls through. Digital Trends spoke to a few drone experts who helped with disaster relief efforts during Hurricane Harvey about the help unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provided — and the hurdles they faced.

Drones to the rescue

Drones have some obvious advantages when it comes to disaster relief. Due to their small size, UAVs can fly in tighter spaces than helicopters, and hover closer to the action. They can also fly autonomously and carry out missions without the aid of a dedicated pilot. And let’s not forget that they’re also drastically cheaper, and are already owned by a relatively large portion of the population.

Drones have some obvious advantages when it comes to disaster relief.

Their lifesaving potential isn’t just speculation either. In a recent study of news reports, DJI, one of the global leaders in the drone market, concluded that drones were responsible for helping save one life per week.

There are even specific instances where drones have legitimately saved lives. In 2013, an injured driver stranded in a snowy area of Saskatchewan, Canada, was located by Canadian police using a Draganflyer X4-ES drone with an infrared camera after a helicopter search turned up nothing. In a separate case in 2015, the Auburn (Maine) Fire Department used a DJI Phantom 3 to drop down life vests to an 18-year-old man stranded in the middle of the river.

“There’s already tons of proof points. This is not theory,” UAV expert Mike Winn told Digital Trends in an interview. “Drones have already helped save lots of people by doing things like providing dropping ropes to people so they can secure a way across. They can provide proper resources during flood situations where there’s lots of water but no fresh water. Drones can drop things like fresh water and food.”

Winn is the CEO and founder of DroneDeploy, a drone mapping software company that allows people to send a drone to autonomously survey a predetermined area and then come back — all without any input from a pilot. DroneDeploy then turns the images your drone captures into a detailed 3D map. This software is generally used by farmers looking to survey acres of land, or construction managers looking to get a quick aerial check of building sites, but during this year’s brutal hurricane season, DroneDeploy got a chance to flex its muscle as a disaster-relief tool.

Bots vs. bureaucrats

Following Hurricane Harvey, a collective of drone experts known as Humanitarian Drones used DroneDeploy to map damaged areas for the National Guard and the city of Houston. The group, formed solely to help with Harvey relief efforts, was initially tasked with helping the American Red Cross with post-Harvey aid — but its efforts were hampered by an unnatural force that often wreaks havoc on innovative ideas: bureaucracy.

“Don’t attach yourself to any one organization. We learned that with the Red Cross,” Humanitarian Drones member Ty Audronis told Digital Trends. “I’m sure they’re a fantastic organization, but they’re really big, and with a big organization comes a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of opinions. So, while they were figuring out whether or not they wanted us to help them, we should’ve been out helping other people at the same time instead of waiting on them.”

“While they were figuring out whether or not they wanted us to help them, we should’ve been out helping other people.”

Using Winn’s DroneDeploy technology and a small fleet of DJI Phantom 4 Pro drones, the group was able to photograph an astonishing 1,650 homes in Rockport, Texas, and help local authorities apply for U.S. disaster assistance. Humanitarian Drones member Brian Scott told Bloomberg the group’s six drones had “essentially done in two-and-a-half days what it would have taken [the local government] two weeks to do on the ground.”

Clearly, these machines have a lot of lifesaving potential — but the legal and technological hurdles they face are myriad.

The FAA’s flight restrictions during Harvey served as bureaucratic roadblocks for numerous drone operators who wanted to help out immediately. In the first six days after Harvey hit Texas, the FAA issued just 43 authorizations to drone operators wishing to fly in and around areas in Texas deemed off limits. This is just a small fraction of the number of operators that applied.

“Now, you can imagine there are thousands of people in the Houston area, that have drones, that were ready to help to collect information,” Winn said. “To identify if there were property and houses where it looks like there may be people the National Guard should check on. This is what the drone industry wanted to offer that it couldn’t during Hurricane Harvey.”

“The FAA is working actively with drone groups and one of the things we’d like to see, for drones to be used effectively, is some real clear policies and processes around incidents like these emergencies on how a drone can be used,” Winn said. “With policies and technology, we can absolutely enable drones to be used in [emergency] situations.”

Not strong enough

Bureaucrats and policies may hamper drone rescue attempts, but something that also limits how much aid drones can provide is the technology they run on.

For starters, today’s drones just aren’t strong enough to physically rescue someone by airlift. Most drones on the market can only carry up to 10 pounds and are not sturdy enough to withstand extreme winds. “You can’t drop a rope down and pick someone up out of a flood that’s drowning with a drone. You’d need a really, really big drone,” Audronis said with a laugh.

Another factor that limits how much drones can help out during disasters is their inability to be located in the sky by other aircraft. When normal planes fly, they keep track of each other with an aviation technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B), which allows an aircraft to broadcast its location, speed, direction, and altitude to both other aircraft and U.S. Air Traffic Control. Those pings are then viewed on a map, ensuring that planes don’t fly into each other, and can quickly switch paths if a collision is imminent. Unfortunately, ADS-B transponders are currently absent from nearly every major drone on the market.

But these gripes may soon be things of the past. Norwegian drone maker Griff Aviation is making a fleet of drones capable of carrying upwards of 1,100 pounds — enough to lift a few people at one time. The company’s Griff Saviour almost seems made for hurricane rescue efforts, with its 440-pound lift capacity, water-resistant motors, and ability to deploy lifesaving equipment. The drone’s price tag — a whopping $250,000 – will likely make this bird prohibitively expensive for hobbyists and local governments alike.

Griff Aviations Drone concept

On top of that, ADS-B location reporting tech might soon make its way into consumer UAVs. DJI’s Matrice 200 drone boasts the company’s own ADS-B transponder, called Airsense. If more companies follow suit, air traffic controllers would be able to track drones just like they track full-sized aircraft — and more importantly, help them avoid collisions during disaster relief efforts.

Good Samaritans; bad pilots

Before Humanitarian Drones had a single drone propellor spinning in the sky, Audronis was a normal citizen trapped at his home in Katy, Texas, with water rising up to his garage during Hurricane Harvey. Audronis saw many civilians drones flying in the face of the FAA’s restrictions during Harvey, and the former member of a Navy helicopter squadron was “quite frankly impressed and amazed there weren’t any accidents.” He was impressed, because not everyone with a drone is ready to navigate unfriendly skies to save lives.

There are thousands of people in the Houston area, that have drones, that were ready to help to collect information.”

“It’s extremely dangerous to let people in the air that are not educated,” Audronis says. “Civilian drone pilots don’t have their Part 107 from the FAA, so that means they have not demonstrated an ability to read airspace maps.” Humanitarian Drones enlisted the help of 10 volunteer drone pilots for mapping, and a Part 107 certification was one of the requirements, along with having their own DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone.

Part 107 is an aspect of the FAA’s unmanned aerial vehicle rules, and it stipulates a drone pilot must be at least 16 years of age and pass an FAA-approved aeronautical knowledge test. Those who apply are tested on information such as FAA flight restrictions, emergency responses, and which airspace is reserved for other (bigger) aircraft. Someone without that certification could easily fly into a rescue pilot’s trajectory, and not get out of the way until it’s too late, causing one — or both — aircraft to have to divert from its path to avoid a collision. Every second is as valuable as gold during rescue missions, and an uneducated good Samaritan could end up doing more harm than good.

The way forward

Clearly, we need a better system in place. Days after Harvey touched down in Texas, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta predicted “the hurricane response will be looked back upon as a landmark in the evolution of drone usage in this country.”

His prediction is already coming true. The American Red Cross recently announced it will fly a drone for the first time to assess damages as part of its new drone program for disasters. Similarly, the Air National Guard recently deployed military drones normally used for combat to help survey disaster areas. So while the ball might have been dropped as far as using UAVs to help out during the 2017 hurricane season, we’re already learning from our mistakes.

As soon as lawmakers and UAV manufacturers embrace the legitimate lifesaving potential of drones, the world will be a safer place.

The Morning After: Thursday, September 28th 2017

Hey, good morning! Roll out!

Thursday morning starts with more Amazon products than you could ever possibly want. Remember how the retailer found success with its Echo speaker? Well, it’s really running with that idea.

Everything gets a voice assistant.
Amazon Alexa blowout 2017

Amazon might not have YouTube on Echo anymore, but the devices are coming in several new shapes and sizes. Our three-minute wrap-up video from the big event shows everything you need to know, or you can dive in to check out our impressions of the new Echo speakers (now in regular or tall size), its small-screened Echo Spot or the latest Fire TV device, which puts 4K video streaming in a dongle. Plus, Alexa’s voice commands are coming to new apps like Hulu, and even in cars next year, starting with BMW. Finally, just to get maximum coverage, Amazon even has an Echo device for people who still have a landline phone.

Still a few issues to work out.
Apple TV 4K review

The Apple TV 4K is the streaming box Devindra Hardawar has been waiting for. He still loves its interface, while Apple has slightly tweaked the box’s remote, and it’s competitively pricing 4K movies. All good right? Well, there are a few drawbacks, like overly aggressive video processing, no YouTube 4K and no Dolby Atmos audio.

Off Netflix, on Hulu.
Hulu adds ’30 Rock,’ ‘Parenthood’ and other NBC shows

30 Rock is the latest battleground in the streaming wars. After spending some time in Netflix’s library, the show is jumping over to Hulu next month, along with a few other NBC shows like Parenthood. The only question now is if that’s enough for you to change your subscription.

The 4C Nano is as small as you’d think it would be.

Get ready to lose the tiniest USB-C authentication key in the world

Small is secure, right?

Two very different sci-fi games, two similar cyberpunk philosophies.
The evolution of video-game cyberpunk: ‘Ruiner’ and ‘Tacoma’

“What does it even mean, cyberpunk?” It’s a strange question coming from Magdalena Tomkowicz, the narrative designer of Ruiner, a top-down action game that takes place in an anime-inspired cyberpunk world. The thing is, its creators never intended to create a cyberpunk game. They’re simply products of the 1980s, pulling inspiration from their favorite childhood stories — Alien, Die Hard, Ghost in the Shell — to create something of their own. Ruiner isn’t the only game reinterpreting cyberpunk’s roots.

Like a tiny Transformer.
MIT CSAIL’s origami-bot wears foldable exosuits

MIT CSAIL’s latest fold-up robot is called Primer. It changes shape and function by donning different exoskeletons. It starts the process by moving to the center of the exoskeletons that start as flat sheets. After applying a bit of heat to the sheets, they fold into specific shapes using Primer as a core, turning into a boat, a glider or a wheel.

Marrying robots with humans is no easy task.
Wandercraft’s exoskeleton was made to help paraplegics walk

You don’t see fully autonomous exoskeletons that help disabled people to walk because building one is crazy hard. But the founders of a Paris-based startup called Wandercraft are uniquely qualified to do it. Now, after years of development, they’re nearly ready to show it to the public.

But wait, there’s more…

• Comcast quietly introduces Xfinity Instant TV streaming beta
• James Cameron-led ‘Terminator’ sequel will hit theaters July 2019
• Mark Zuckerberg ‘regrets’ saying it’s ‘crazy’ to think fake news on Facebook influenced the election
• Scientists record a fourth set of gravitational waves

DoorDash adds group ordering to its food delivery app

On-demand food delivery service DoorDash has been adding some cool new features over the years. You can get ice cream and beer delivered right to your door now, which is all kinds of perfect. The company has delivered voter registration kits, too, and has tested robot-powered delivery in select areas. It has also offered group ordering features on its website for a couple of years now, making grabbing takeout with a bunch of picky friends a lot easier. Now the DoorDash app will have the same group feature with its latest update on both iOS and Android.

You can create a group order with any store menu or cart in the app. You can also set a monetary limit for much each person who’s ordering (perfect for those company lunch orders) and then send a link to everyone who’s going to add to the group order. The order originator and participants will both get delivery status updates — directly via iMessage if you’re using iOS.

The company claims that it’s the “first and only app to offer mobile group orders,” and that it has more than 40,000 menus across more than 450 cities in the US and Canada. The app also lets you set favorite orders to reorder meals from restaurants and schedule your deliveries for when you need them.

Source: DoorDash

Yomee turns dissolvable culture pods into fresh yogurt

Yogurt is at its best when it’s freshly made and additive-free, which is why the more health-conscious folks prefer making this tasty snack at home instead of buying it. But yogurt-making is a messy job: you have to first heat the milk up to at least 161°F or 72°C for pasteurization separately, as pretty much all yogurt makers can’t reach that temperature; and you also have to measure how much bacterial culture to put in.

This is where Food-X-backed Hong Kong startup Lecker Labs comes in. Its first product, Yomee, is a machine that takes care of the entire yogurt-making process, covering high-temperature heating (reaching 185°F or 85°C), stirring, culture loading, fermentation and chilling (down to 50°F or 10°C). When ready, simply pop the cup out and enjoy.

The coolest part about Yomee is actually its culture pods. Think of it as the Nespresso or Keurig of the yogurt world, except these “pods” don’t come with plastic or metallic containers; they are fully dissolvable, thus leaving no waste behind. Better yet, they come with natural flavoring and have a six-month shelf life.

As simple as the pods look, it’s not easy packing the live bacteria into such form factor without crushing them, but Lecker Labs eventually found a New Zealand lab that got this right. The company also offers non-diary pods for folks who seek vegan yogurt, which is often hard to find in the market.

To make a batch of yogurt (10 oz each time), first pour in milk or any non-diary alternative into the double-insulated cup (polycarbonate on the outside, glass on the inside), then mount the cup into the Yomee machine, load your culture pod from the top of the machine (it can store up to three pods), choose your preferred type of yogurt (pain, Greek or stirred) via the touch panel on the base or mobile app over Bluetooth, and then hit start. Six hours later, the yogurt will be chilled and ready.

While the Yomee pods will initially be available in vanilla, strawberry and blueberry flavors, you can obviously add actual bits of fruits or even oat to plain yogurt instead. And you can do this later by using the cup’s lid which doubles as a container. The app also comes with a variety of recipes with detailed nutritional breakdown, and if you’re on iOS, it’ll link up to Apple’s HealthKit for a more precise dietary tracking.

Another benefit of making yogurt at home is the cost savings, and this is particularly true with Yomee. According to Lecker Labs CEO Ashok Jaiswal (formerly of EzeeCube fame), each diary culture pod will cost around $0.65 at retail, whereas the vegan version will be about $1.50 each. Even if you include other ingredients such as milk and toppings, this is still a lot cheaper than buying mass-produced yogurt from the shops (and do bear in mind that each pod produces two servings of yogurt).

Much like Jaiswal’s previous project, the Yomee has taken the crowdfunding route, except this time it’s on Kickstarter. The base package costs $99 and includes one Yomee machine plus 20 pods (diary or vegan); or you can go for the “Twin Pack” with double of everything for $189. If all goes well, you can expect delivery in April next year.

Source: Kickstarter

ESPN iOS App Now Lets Users Stream Shows On Demand

ESPN yesterday announced an update to its iOS app that will let users stream their favorite sports shows on demand from their mobile device.

Previously, users of the ESPN app were out of luck if they missed the live video streams of popular shows such as Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. But that’s set to change, according to the channel’s latest press release.

“Our mission at ESPN is to serve sports fans, and now more than ever, they expect to stream their favorite shows on the device and time of day they prefer,” ESPN vice president of digital media programming John Lasker said. “With today’s launch, fans can now access an array of ESPN’s most popular, award-winning shows – with more to come in the near future – anytime, anywhere.”

Full episodes of select studio shows are now available to stream on demand under “Latest Episodes” within the Watch tab on the ESPN App. The shows will be accessible shortly after the conclusion of their live on-air telecasts. The full list includes:

• Around the Horn (weekdays at 5 p.m. ET)
• College GameDay Built by the Home Depot (Saturdays at 9 a.m. ET)
• College Football Countdown (most Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET)
• College Football Live (weekdays at 5:30 p.m. ET)
• College Football Final (at the conclusion of the Saturday games/post-game show on ESPN2 during the season)
• The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry (weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2)
• The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (weekdays at 10 a.m. ET on ESPNU)
• Jalen & Jacoby (weeknights at 1 a.m. ET on ESPN2)
• The Jump (weekdays at 3 p.m. ET)
• Pardon the Interruption (weekdays at 5:30 p.m. ET)
• The Paul Finebaum Show (weekdays at 3 p.m. ET on SEC Network)
• SEC Nation (Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET)
• SEC Now (nightly on SEC Network)
• Thinking Out Loud (Mondays at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network).

The studio shows add to the ESPN app’s expanded offering of long-form VOD content that includes 30 for 30 films, E:60, Outside the Lines and SC Featured episodes. The ESPN app is a free download available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: ESPN
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Google Drive Updated to Play Friendly With Apple’s Files App

Google Drive no longer hijacks file opening duties in Apple’s Files and iCloud Drive apps on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

The app was updated today with a fix for the issue. Microsoft Word documents and other file types can now be viewed directly in in Apple’s Files and iCloud Drive apps on iOS 11 and iOS 10 respectively.

Since a previous update to Google Drive earlier this month, the app became the default opener for many file types due to an open-in-place issue.

When users with the Google Drive app installed attempted to open a DOCX file in Files or iCloud Drive, for example, the Google Drive app would automatically open and prompt the user to save the file in that app.

Google Drive version 4.2017.37510 is available on the App Store [Direct Link].

Tags: iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Files
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Japan Display to Supply Apple With ‘Full Active’ LCD Panels for Some 2018 iPhones

Apple has expressed interest in buying advanced liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Japan Display for use in some of its iPhones next year, according to a new report today from The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this month, Apple announced the iPhone X, its first smartphone to adopt OLED screen technology. OLED displays offer sharper contrast and brighter colors than traditional LCD panels, but cost and supply issues are an ongoing concern for Apple, and are likely to slow down any full transition to the technology.

However, Japan Display’s advanced LCD panels, which it calls Full Active LCDs, are said to match or exceed some of OLED’s advantages at a lower cost, and Apple is interested in procuring them for use in at least some iPhones set to debut in its 2018 smartphone line-up, according to people familiar with the matter.

In Full Active panels, the bezel or border space around each edge of the screen has been trimmed to 0.5 millimeters, the Japanese maker says, compared with as much as several millimeters on older LCDs. Current OLED smartphone panels have a bezel of about one millimeter, which makes them easier to be curved or angled. The Full Active panel has already been used by several Chinese mobile makers, including Xiaomi for its Mi Mix 2 phone, according to Kazutaka Nagaoka, chief of Japan Display’s mobile unit. 

News about Japanese Display’s advanced LCD panels first emerged in January of this year, when they were referred to simply as “flexible LCDs”. The panels were said to be bendable enough to manufacture smartphones with the same screen design as Samsung’s Galaxy Edge series, thanks to a layer of plastic inside the glass. At the time, the company claimed mass production would begin from 2018.

Last month, Japan Display said that its Full Active displays would account for more than 70 percent of its business in panels for smartphones and other smart devices in the year ending March 2019. People at companies that work with Japan Display said interest about Full Active LCDs came directly from Apple, which is why the display maker is predicting rapid uptake for Full Active. Apple declined to comment on the report.

Apple’s line-up of iPhones next year will introduce a larger-screened LCD model, measuring more than 6 inches, according to a rumor earlier this week. Based on the same part maker sources, Apple’s supply of LCD screen from Japan Display already includes panel orders for the new larger screen size. Meanwhile, a switch to OLED-only iPhones is not expected until 2019.

Tags: Japan Display, Full Active LCD panels
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Tenikle is a super-versatile flexible tripod that sucks (in a good way)

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for a multi-functional tripod for your smartphone, GoPro, or other device, the Tenikle could be it.

The Tenikle is a small tripod with flexible arms that let you wrap it around an object when you go to take a photo so you can get everyone (yes, that means you, too) in the shot.

If that sounds a lot like the popular Joby GorillaPod, you’d be right. But the Tenikle also features multiple suckers that provide extra security and stability, and can hold your smartphone in place, too, when you go to take a photo.

The Tenikle is impressive for both its versatility and speedy set-up process. Besides acting as a regular tripod for taking snaps, you can also use it as a GoPro mount, selfie stick, car mount, and guitar stand. It also works as a stand for your smartphone if you’re watching videos or simply want to prop it up.

The all-important suction cups “stick strong, easily, and for long periods of time,” so your pricey smartphone should be just fine when you attach it to a Tenikle wrapped around a bar or post some way off the ground. Greater peace of mind can be had with the solid phone mount (also useful if your phone case doesn’t like the suckers) that comes with the optional Shutterbug Kit. The kit also offers a GoPro adapter, Bluetooth selfie clicker, and a screw adapter to help you attach even more devices.

Another great feature is its portability — the Tenikle rolls up into a little ball so you can pop it in your pocket or bag till you need it.

Described by its creator, Hans Dose, as “a 3-legged accessory that looks like a starfish and an octopus had a one night stand,” the Kickstarter project has blasted through its $15,000 funding target and is getting close to raising $100,000 for an imminent October launch.

The Tenikle has just a couple of days left to run on Kickstarter, though there are still some early-bird deals left if you’re real quick. If you have to wait for its general release, you’ll find it with a $25 price tag.

With a career in graphic design and being “a lover of all things creative,” Dose says on his Kickstarter page that he was keen to design the Tenikle all by himself, throwing his heart and soul into the project.

“I learned 3D CAD software, designed the product, wrote a patent, 3D printed molds, tested different materials, learned mold-making, created almost 100 different prototypes in my tiny garage, built a website, found a U.S. manufacturer, got a business loan to purchase the molds, and filmed/edited the videos with my best friend from high school,” the inventor said.

RHA’s new budget-friendly Universal earphones offer complete control

Why it matters to you

RHA is known for building solid earphones at reasonable prices. Its newest offerings even have universal inline remotes.

Inline remotes have long been an integral feature for earphones and headphones, allowing the user to control music playback or manage phone calls with a few quick button presses. It can be rather frustrating, though, if your device won’t work with the remote, rendering it a useless plastic decoration on your cable.

English audio manufacturer RHA recognizes this and decided to do something about it. The new RHA MA390 Universal and S500 Universal earphones are — as the name suggests — uniformly compatible with mobile devices, so you can complete control no matter what kind of phone you’re using.

Based out of Glasgow, Scotland, RHA has cultivated a reputation for crafting quality earbuds with a subtle, understated aesthetic, and the newest additions to its collection are no different. Both the MA390 and the S500 are primarily black, featuring gold-plated connections and aluminum housings with clear silicone ear tips.

The MA390, outfitted with dynamic model 130.8 drivers tucked within Aerophonic rounded silver housings, will most likely replace RHA’s currently available MA350 earphones at the $30 level (the company’s cheapest price point).

Meanwhile, the S500 — built with micro dynamic model 140.1 drivers and compact, ergonomic housings in space gray — will take the place of the S500i (which are identical, but whose remote only works with Apple devices). The S500 are designed to fit comfortably in any ear canal.

Both pairs of earphones come with seven sets of replacement tips in differing sizes and styles; while this is fairly standard for earbud purchases today, it’s nice to see, given the modest price point of the Universal series. The name “Universal” is derived from the inline remote you find on both the MA390 and the S500.

The past couple of years have been quite productive for RHA. In August 2016, it announced its high-end CL earphone series (alongside its first headphone amp/DAC, the Dacamp L1), and its flagship CL1 Ceramic was named a CES Best of Innovation Honoree this January.

RHA currently only offers in-ear headphones, along with a number of different accessory options. If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds, try perusing our top picks.