6 best alternatives to the Jaybird X4

The Jaybird X4 offers a modest upgrade from its predecessor, but if you’re in the market for workout earbuds, there’s no shortage of options available. The truly wireless Jabra Elite Active 65t in particular is a standout choice as it offers great sound quality, a comfortable fit, and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. Here are the best alternatives to the Jaybird X4.

Our pick

Jabra Elite Active 65t

The active variant of Jabra’s Elite 65t share the same great sound quality and secure fit as the standard model, but come with IP56 rating (versus IP55) and a 2-year warranty against sweat and dust ingress. You get Bluetooth 5.0, 5-hour battery life with the case offering a further 10-hour charge, and Alexa or Google Assistant connectivity.

$189 at Amazon

Excellent sound quality

Bose SoundSport Wireless

The sound quality of the SoundSport Wireless is a notch above what you get with the X4, and the range of wingtips provided ensure you get the perfect fit. The earbuds don’t fully isolate noise, so you’ll be able to hear your surroundings when you’re out running. They’re good for six hours’ worth of use, and are sweat-resistant.

$149 at Amazon

Bone conduction tech

AfterShokz Trekz Titanium

Unlike the rest of the headphones on this list, the Trekz Titanium use bone conduction tech to deliver sound through your cheekbones to the inner ear. These headphones sit outside your ear, allowing you to hear ambient noise when you’re working out, and the neckband ensures they stay on even during extended running sessions. The Trekz Titanium is also IP55 rated and has a battery life of six hours.

$98 at Amazon

Ideal for runners

Jaybird Tarah

Jaybird’s $100 Tarah is designed for runners. The earbuds come with an IPX7 rated design, fast charging, 6-hour battery life, customizable EQ, and a range of silicone ear gels that ensure you get a comfortable fit. They cost $30 less than the X4 and offer a similar design, so if you’re looking to save some cash, the Tarah is a great alternative.

$100 at Amazon

Great budget pick

Anker SoundBuds Surge

Retailing for $24, you can pick up five of these for the price of a Jaybird X4. The SoundBuds Surge offer a lightweight design with wingtips that ensure a tight fit, aptX codec for great sound quality, IPX5 water resistance, a 3-button remote, and 6-hour battery life. Oh, and the earbuds have magnetic connectors at the end, so they snap together just like OnePlus’ Bullets Wireless.

$24 at Amazon

A versatile option

Plantronics BackBeat Fit

The best thing about the BackBeat Fit is that they stay in place regardless of the workout. They offer an IP57 rating and a sweatproof nano-coating for added durability, and you can also access an on-demand coaching feature to get you motivated to hit your fitness goals. With an 8-hour battery life, the BackBeat Fit can also help keep you motivated no matter how long your race or workout runs.

$106 at Amazon

Whether you work out at the local gym or prefer running on the road, there are several options in the market today to suit your needs. The Jabra Elite Active 65t gets our vote because of the freedom you get with the truly wireless earbuds. They provide a secure fit that ensures they don’t fall out, and the 5-hour battery life should be more than adequate for marathon running sessions.

Google Assistant integration is an added bonus that lets you change tunes or switch to your favorite podcast directly with your voice. At $189, you’re getting your money’s worth with the earbuds.

Should you buy a Nest Protect?

Best answer: The Nest Protect is the best smart smoke detector you can buy. It ties in seamlessly with other Nest products as well as the Google Home ecosystem. It also outperforms other models in controlled testing because of it’s superior sensing abilities. It’s also very expensive, but a smoke detector is one of those things worth spending more on to get the best. So, yes, you should buy a Nest Protect.

Amazon: Nest Protect ($125)

Why do I want a smart smoke detector?

It seems like everything is smart these days. While some things are unnecessarily smart — and we all have our definitions here — some make us curious. A smart smoke detector is one of them.

Besides the obvious — you can get an alert on your phone when the detector goes off — there are other really good reasons to have a smart smoke detector. Most of us have witnessed a smoke detector going off because someone burnt dinner, or have dealt with having one too close to the bathroom door and hearing it wail when our hot shower has gone on a little long. Having a way to instantly silence the alarm can be a godsend, and so can knowing exactly which detector is going off, or hearing a spoken alert describing everything if you’re driving.

Because Nest works with Google Assistant and Alexa, you can also extend the capabilities. For instance, if an alert would trigger late at night you could have smart lights throughout your home turn on or your doors automatically unlock. You can even make sure the window blinds are raised in case things call for more drastic measures and you need to climb out a window. All the while, the Nest app is making sure whoever needs to know about the alert is hearing their phone ring.

On its own, the idea of a smart smoke detector doesn’t seem compelling, but when you tie it to the other smart products in your home and factor in the remote alerts it can give via the app, having a smart detector like the Nest Protect makes sense.

What makes it worth the price?

A smart smoke detector is going to be more expensive than one that’s not connected. There are more parts that needed installed and the development of the product wasn’t cheap. We should expect a smart device to cost more than its “dumb” counterpart. But there is another reason a Nest Protect is more expensive. It’s supposed to do one thing — let us know if something dangerous is happening — and it does it better than any other device of its kind.

Tom’s Guide tested the Nest Protect in its testing lab and found it’s not only the best smart detector but that it is the only detector that passed every one of its tests.

In our lab, we tested the Nest Protect (as with all smoke detectors) by spraying an aerosol smoke-detector-tester spray from 5, 10 and 15 feet away, and timing how long it took each alarm to go off. At the 5- and 10-foot mark, the Nest Protect sounded after 18 seconds. At 15 feet, the alarm activated after 28 seconds. Moreover, it was the only device to pass all of our tests.

This is because of the types of sensors the Nest Protect uses. Besides the carbon monoxide, heat, humidity, and occupancy sensors it has (a package you won’t find elsewhere) it houses a split-spectrum photoelectric sensor to detect a fire. Photoelectric sensors are really good at detecting smoldering fires, but ionization sensors are better at detecting flames. The problem is that ionization sensors give a lot of false alarms. Nest solves this by using a separate secondary wavelength in its photoelectric sensor to detect flames, which doesn’t trigger so many false alarms.

You get the accuracy you want in a smoke detector without the nuisance false alarms you don’t. You get the ability to tie an important piece of safety equipment into the rest of your smart home to make getting out easier if there is a fire or other emergency. And you get to be able to notify yourself if you’re away, or up to 19 other people any time the alarm goes off.

Bottom line

A smoke detector is one of the most important things you can have in your home. The Nest Protect is the best one you can buy, and the features it brings make it well worth the price.

Our pick

Nest Protect

$125 at Amazon

Keep safe the smart way

The Nest Protect is not only great at detecting dangerous conditions in your house. It also can be an integral part of your smart home and that makes things easier if you need to leave in a hurry. It’s one smart product that is well worth its price.

The Oontz Angle 3 Ultra Bluetooth speaker is down to just $27 today

It lasts for a long time!

Amazon has the Oontz Angle 3 Ultra Bluetooth speaker down to just $26.99 today as part of its daily deals, which is the lowest it’s ever sold for. This splash-proof speaker normally sells for around $40, and has even sold for as high as $50 this year. It has 14W speakers, 100 feet of range, and you can even connect two of them together to bring some awesome stereo separation to your tunes.

It’s IPX6 certified, which means that you can get it wet but not submerge it, making it great to use by the pool, while camping, in the bathroom, and more. Each charge will give you about 20 hours of battery life, and with its latest update you can now activate Siri from a connected iOS device by just pressing the speaker. The company also makes a nice carrying case with carabiner that you can use to store the speaker to keep it safe while traveling.

This price is good or today only, so be sure you don’t miss out.

See at Amazon

These truly wireless earbuds have a charging case that doubles as a speaker

These headphones are more than meets the ear.

Everyone needs a gimmick. In the case of truly wireless earbuds, the gimmick is the lack of wires themselves. Or at least that was the gimmick before every headphone maker on earth decided it needed its own version to compete with Apple’s AirPods.

Phiaton is one of the more underrated headphone companies out there, in my humble opinion. The company’s made some excellent noise-canceling buds over the years, even earning a recommendation from The Wirecutter for the inexpensive BT 100 neckbuds — a pair that I also love.

Now, the company is venturing into the lucrative truly wireless earbud market with the Bolt, a very decent pair of headphones on their own — pretty good sound, awesome battery life and, most important for me, excellent comfort — with a sizeable gimmick: the charging case doubles as a Bluetooth speaker.

Available for $89 on Kickstarter for a limited time before shooting up to $139 when it hits retail later this year, should you consider buying them?

Better in the ears than out

Phiaton Bolt

$89+ at Kickstarter

A great pair of earbuds let down by an unnecessarily massive case

Phiaton’s first truly wireless earbuds hit all the right marks as headphones themselves, with excellent sound, great battery life, and superb comfort. They’re well worth the Kickstarter discount, even if the oversized speaker case is disappointing.

Pros:

• Awesome sound quality
• All-day comfort
• Decent battery life
• Google Assistant / Siri support
• High-quality connection
• Great price

Cons:

• Case is big and bulky
• Case speaker sounds like a tin can
• Earbuds sync issues aren’t great for video
• Volume buttons are squishy and hard to press
• Lacks aptX codec support

Phiaton Bolt What I like

There’s a lot to like in the fundamentals of the Bolt as earbuds: the design, while relatively bulky, is extremely comfortable — perhaps more so than any other pair that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried most). The company provides four silicone tips of varying sizes in the box, and like the ginormous animal I am, the largest was most comfortable in my earholes.

There’s also something Phiaton calls RightFit+, a permanent wingtip that helps the buds remain in the ear during movement. I was skeptical of this design, especially since most wingtips are removable for a reason, but either I’m one of the lucky few with compatible ears, or Phiaton’s claim that it “tested this design with hundreds of testers during the engineering phase” is actually true.

Getting the fit right is key to allowing the earbuds’ sound to come through properly, but that would all be for naught if the quality wasn’t any good. Thankfully, the company pulls a win there, too. These don’t sound as good as Jabra’s excellent Elite 65t buds or Bose’s Soundsport Free, but for the price they don’t have to.

What you get is a healthy helping of bass, with a narrow soundstage, recessed but not unpleasant mids, and a lack of harshness in the high-end. That’s all good for how I generally use my headphones: during workouts or walking outside. With a good seal, there’s enough natural isolation that I don’t feel affronted by the lack of active noise cancelation, would have naturally added considerable cost to this product.

Along with excellent sound, the five-hour battery life per charge is decent, and the included charging case comes with three additional charges when full. It’s also easy to dock the buds in the case, which closes with a solid thunk. (Unfortunately, that’s about the only good thing about this disastrous case.)

Each earbud comes with two microphones — one to cancel external noise, and another for calls and dictation — and the side of each is touch-sensitive, allowing for handy gestures that actually work. The right earbud operates as a play/pause button when double-tapped. The left one activates “ambient” mode, which uses the two microphones to pick up outside noise so you can (theoretically) carry on a conversation. I’ve used ambient modes on other headphones like the Samsung Gear IconX and Sony WH1000MX2, and this one pales in comparison, but it sort of works.

Using Google Assistant on the go is a lot more useful than I thought it would be.

Holding down both volume buttons on either earbud (yes, each one has independent volume controls because Phiaton expects people to use them on their own for calls or podcasts) activates either Google Assistant or Siri, depending on the platform, and in my testing the integration worked flawlessly.

Finally, the headphones support Bluetooth 5.0, and in my time with them they never cut out or went out of sync. Perhaps it’s because of the relatively large antennas inside each bud, but they remained rock solid throughout my testing period.

Phiaton Bolt What I don’t like

There’s a lot to like about Phiaton’s first foray into truly wireless headphones, but there’s almost as much to dislike and nitpick, and that’s a problem.

Let’s start with the most egregious of issues: the carrying case. Phiaton touts the case as a Bluetooth speaker, which contributes to its added size and bulk, but if I had to choose to make that compromise, I’d throw the speaker feature into the garbage.

This case is an affront to good design, even by wireless headphone standards.

This thing sounds plain bad. Like worse-than-the-crappiest-phone-speaker bad. Tinny, shrill, and barely audible, there’s almost no situation I’d choose to use the Bolt’s built-in speaker over my phone’s.

Worse, the case is huge. At nearly four inches long and an inch and a half tall, the case is barely pocketable, making it unlikely that I’d want to bring it with me on an outing. Because the earbuds themselves have separate power controls, and a reliable auto-off feature, that’s not really a problem — I don’t have to worry about a depleted battery if the case isn’t nearby — but in my opinion, the point of truly wireless earbuds is for the whole package, buds and case together, to be portable.

Call me spoiled by the AirPods which, thanks to its diminutive casing end up in my pocket whenever I go on a walk, I don’t necessarily want to separate the earbuds and case. In such a situation, I’d rather just wear some neckbuds like Phiaton’s great BT 100s.

At the same time, I can also understand Phiaton’s position here: the case carries extra separate charges, totaling 20 hours of usage overall, and I can imagine there will be people who value portability less than an accumulation of features. For them, Bolt will be perfect. The oversized case charges with Micro-USB, too, not something that I want to be seeing in 2018 despite its lower manufacturing and licensing costs. I’m not happy about it, but not surprised.

Similarly, to keep costs down, Phiaton didn’t license Qualcomm’s high-quality aptX streaming codec, relying on the free and lower-fidelity AAC and SBC codecs built into iOS and Android.

Phiaton Bolt Should you buy?

The reality is that, despite a wealth of criticism-worthy flaws, I really like Phiaton’s first attempt at a truly wireless headphone. I can easily get over the minor issues, and even the case size isn’t an issue most of the time; in Canada, with the weather going down, I rarely leave the house without a coat or bag.

At its Kickstarter-backer price of $89, the Bolts are a steal. Hell, buy two and give one as a gift. At the impending $139 retail price, however, we’re only $30 away from the superior Jabra Elite 65t, and there are plenty of months remaining in the year for other companies to release standalone earbuds, too.

3.5
out of 5

There’s just under a month left in the campaign, and at the time of writing it just surpassed its $50,000 goal, so suffice it to say there are few impediments to success for Phiaton here. While the flaws are plentiful, the overall product is sound, and if you can get them for $90, the Phiaton Bolt headphones are a no-brainer.

See at Kickstarter

Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4 Launches With Limited Quantities Available in Store

The new Apple Watch Nike+ officially launches today and early pre-orders are being delivered to customers, with pick-ups available in stores in limited quantities.

The new Apple Watch Nike+ devices come with all the features new to the Series 4 models, including a larger screen, thinner body, a (currently U.S-only) ECG reader, fall detection, and more.

In addition, the Nike+ collection features redesigned Nike watch faces that match to the new band colors, including a Pure Platinum/Black Sport Band and a Summit White Sport Loop with reflective yarn.

Apple Watch Nike+ comes in four styles in both 40mm and 44mm sizes, with both cellular and Wi-Fi + GPS only models to choose from:

• Silver Aluminum Case with Pure Platinum/Black Nike Sport Band
• Space Grey Aluminum Case with Anthracite/Black Nike Sport Band
• Silver Aluminum Case with Summit White Nike Sport Loop
• Space Grey Aluminum Case with Black Nike Sport Loop

Apple Watch Nike+ models are priced between $399 and $499 in the United States. Additional Nike+ bands are $49 each.

Launch countries include Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macau, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, the U.K., and the U.S.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 5Tags: Nike+, Apple Watch Nike+ EditionBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Amazon Alexa App Gains Redesigned Interface for Controlling Devices and Groups

Amazon is currently rolling out an updated version of its companion app for Alexa-enabled devices that includes a significantly redesigned user interface.

The visual changes are immediately apparent on firing up the app, and center around a new Devices and Groups tab located in the lower right of the screen.

With the new menu selected, the devices are listed in a horizontal strip along the top of the interface, allowing users to control individual smart lights, audio devices, and power outlets all from the same screen.

Below that, Alexa devices are also grouped by room indicated by colored cards, which have on/off buttons and can also be tapped to control and edit included devices.

Elsewhere, users can add new devices by tapping a plus button in the upper right of the interface, while the original clunky sidebar menu remains available via a button in the upper right.

The changes to the app come on the heels of Amazon’s recent additions to its ecosystem of Alexa-powered devices, which include new Echo speakers, a subwoofer, amplifiers, a microwave, wall clock, and more.

The Amazon Alexa app is a free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

Tags: Amazon, Alexa
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Vending machines that do your laundry arrive at London subway stations

Time-pressed Londoners now have an easy way to get their laundry done thanks to a new vending-machine service launching there this week.

The brainchild of local startup VClean Life, the first “VDrop” machines are being installed at subway stations across the capital where your deposited dirties will be cleaned, folded, and ready for pickup within 24 hours.

To use the service, you need to sign up online to receive a QR code unique to you. When you reach the VDrop machine, all you do is flash your code to receive a bag, shove your garments inside, and drop it into the machine (or hang it up if it’s something more delicate).

In the following 24 hours, the garments will be collected and taken to VClean Life’s depot where they’ll be gently cleaned using biodegradable detergent and conditioners before being returned to the machine for collection, again by using your QR code.

VClean Life has even incorporated a tracking system into the process, so if you’re keen to learn about the status of your shirts and pants, you can log into the app and find out exactly how they’re doing and when they’re ready for pickup.

A standard-sized garment costs 3 British pounds to clean — that around $3.90 according to current conversion rates.

VClean Life

“There is nothing else like this on the market,” said Nick Harris, managing director and founder of VClean Life. “In just 24 hours, customers will receive a premium service at ridiculously cheap prices, with 200 machines being rolled out across London in the coming months, before going national.”

Many of the new VDrop machines will be appearing in the parking lots of subway stations rather than actually inside the premises. The first one has just started operating at Epping station in north-east London, with imminent launches lined up for others in Woodford, South Woodford, Loughton, and North Greenwich. More of its vending machines will soon be found at gyms, shopping malls, and offices, the company said.

VClean Life is going up against brick-and-mortar laundromat and dry cleaning services, as well as those that provide home collection. It’s hoping its convenience and environmentally friendly cleaning methods will help it to quickly win fans.

To help give it the best launch possible, VClean Life has produced (or over-produced) an absurdly dramatic promotional video in which the protagonist apparently reveals his penchant for a spot of cross-dressing. Or have we got the wrong end of the stick here?

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Samsung forecasts all-time record profit of $15.5 billion in Q3 2018

After a downturn in Q2, Samsung is once again back to shattering profit records.

Samsung is on track to beat the $14.6 billion in profits it netted in Q1 2018. In its Q3 2018 earnings guidance, Samsung is forecasting an operating profit of $15.5 billion (17.5 trillion won) on the back of revenues of $57.5 billion (65 trillion won).

That’s a 20% uptick from the $12.8 billion it recorded in profit during the same period last year, and 6% more than Q1 2018. The launch of the Note 9 wouldn’t have hurt the bottom line, but we’ll have to wait until the last week of October to get a detailed breakdown of where the profits came from.

For now, it’s safe to say that Samsung’s chip business is a key growth driver — as it has been for a few quarters now.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review
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• Join our Galaxy Note 9 forums

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Instagram Testing Feature That Would Provide Location History to Facebook

Facebook-owned social network Instagram is testing a feature that would allow location data collected by Instagram to be shared with Facebook, reports TechCrunch.

A prototype Location History being tested within Instagram suggests that a Location History stored when Location Services is turned on in the Instagram app will be used to bolster Facebook’s ad targeting. From the setting:

Allows Facebook Products, including Instagram and Messenger, to build and use a history of precise locations received through Location Services on your devices.

The feature was discovered by a TechCrunch reader who often digs into new functionality that Instagram is testing.

Instagram’s Location History test option collects GPS coordinates even when the app is not in use and adds them to Facebook’s Activity Log. It appears that the Location History setting defaults to “On” rather than being an opt-in feature.

This means that if Instagram does implement Location History in a future update without changing anything, Instagram customers could have their location data uploaded to Facebook without their knowledge. The feature is further explained in a “Learn More” button within the Instagram app:

“Location History is a setting that allows Facebook to build a history of precise locations received through Location Services on your device. When Location History is on, Facebook will periodically add your current precise location to your Location History even if you leave the app. You can turn off Location History at any time in your Location Settings on the app. When Location History is turned off, Facebook will stop adding new information to your Location History which you can view in your Location Settings. Facebook may still receive your most recent precise location so that you can, for example, post content that’s tagged with your location. Location History helps you explore what’s around you, get more relevant ads, and helps improve Facebook. Location History must be turned on for some location feature to work on Facebook, including Find Wi-Fi and Nearby Friends.”

A Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch Facebook often tests features that are not released and that Instagram does not store Location History at the current time.

“To confirm, we haven’t introduced updates to our location settings. As you know, we often work on ideas that may evolve over time or ultimately not be tested or released. Instagram does not currently store Location History; we’ll keep people updated with any changes to our location settings in the future.”

As TechCrunch points out, location data sourced from Instagram could allow Facebook to target users with local ads across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, showing ads for nearby restaurants or frequently visited locations.

It’s not clear if and when Instagram plans to launch this feature, but many other prototype features discovered by TechCrunch’s source have launched within a few months of being uncovered.

Tags: Facebook, Instagram
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Philips Hue bulbs can now seamlessly synchronize with Siri Shortcuts

Philips Hue bulbs and light strips are some of the most popular smart lighting options on the market. Their easy setup and straightforward operation make them a logical entry point into the world of smart home technology. Philips Hue bulbs are compatible with Apple Homekit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa.

Thanks to iOS 12 and watchOS 5, Philips Hue lights now work with Siri’s new Shortcuts functionality. If you aren’t familiar with this function, it allows Siri to perform multistep routines with a single word or command phrase. Shortcuts replaces the Workflow app that Apple picked up last year and operates as an integrated IFTTT (If This, Then That) for Apple.

Siri Shortcuts do not add any more functionality to your smart lights, but they do make it easier to access the most commonly used tasks. The app also allows Siri to learn your habits over time. As you interact with Siri and give various commands, she will begin to learn what time you like to change your lights, the colors you prefer, and other data about you.

If you have a certain setting you use often, such as purple and blue lights for gaming sessions, or the “Relax” lighting preset for yoga, you can set up custom phrases to activate these. When you create the shortcut, you will record a voice phrase that Siri will respond to. These settings can be accessed quickly from your lock screen, through a Siri search, or from your watch face. If you sat down on the couch to dig into the latest Call of Duty, you could say, “Hey Siri, gaming mode,” and the lights would switch to your predefined colors.

Shortcuts can also be used to link your smart lights to music and other expanded functions. While these features can already be used, they require multiple steps to make work. For example, to sync your lights with music, you need to use Hue Sync on a laptop or a third-party app on a smartphone. The Shortcuts app lets you link all of these commands together so that a single phrase can have your lights pulsing to the beat.

The Shortcuts app is still new, but there are already a lot of user-generated shortcuts you can save to your device directly from the app. Create your own or browse the gallery to find the shortcut that works for you.

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