There was a time when every airplane seat had a headphone jack and every passenger had a tangled pair of cheap earbuds. Today, most of us carry excellent Bluetooth headphones, but the seat-back entertainment system still expects us to plug something in. It’s an annoying little problem that has spawned an entire category of travel gadgets.

British audio company iFi thinks it can do better with the UP Travel Max, a $129 Bluetooth transmitter and receiver that promises CD-quality wireless audio in a package smaller than a USB stick.

The interesting part isn’t just that it works on airplanes. It’s that it can bring Bluetooth to practically anything with a 3.5mm audio jack, including that old iPod sitting in your drawer.

A Little Adapter That Does Both Jobs

The UP Travel Max is essentially two devices in one. In transmit mode, it takes audio from a wired source and sends it to Bluetooth headphones. Plug it into an airplane entertainment system, for example, and you can watch a movie using your own wireless headphones instead of the airline’s terrible complimentary pair.

Flip a switch and it becomes a Bluetooth receiver. Plug it into your car’s auxiliary input and you can stream music from your phone to an older stereo that doesn’t support Bluetooth.

This isn’t a new concept, but iFi has made a few interesting design decisions. The 3.5mm connector flips out of the body like an old-fashioned car key, eliminating the need for a dangling adapter cable. The whole thing weighs just 25.7 grams and promises up to 10 hours of battery life.

It’s also an interesting accessory for the growing number of people rediscovering dedicated music players. If you’ve got an old iPod Classic or another MP3 player with a headphone jack, the UP Travel Max can turn it into a Bluetooth music player without modifying the hardware.

That’s arguably more interesting than its airplane functionality. There’s something appealing about carrying an old iPod loaded with thousands of songs while still enjoying modern wireless headphones.

The Audiophile Approach to Bluetooth

Most inexpensive Bluetooth adapters are built around a single chip that handles practically everything. iFi has taken a different approach, pairing a dedicated Qualcomm Bluetooth processor with a Cirrus Logic MasterHIFI digital-to-analog converter.

The company says this arrangement provides better sound quality than conventional all-in-one adapters.

The UP Travel Max supports several Bluetooth codecs, including aptX Lossless, LDAC and aptX Adaptive. The headline feature is aptX Lossless, which can deliver CD-quality audio under suitable conditions when paired with compatible headphones or speakers.

There is a catch, of course. Both ends of the connection need to support the appropriate codec, and the source audio and wireless conditions also matter. Plugging this into an airplane entertainment system won’t magically improve the quality of the movie soundtrack. Likewise, if your headphones don’t support aptX Lossless, you won’t get lossless transmission.

Still, the flexibility is welcome. LDAC provides another high-quality option, while aptX Adaptive offers a low-latency mode intended to keep audio synchronized with video.

A button on the adapter allows users to switch codecs, and holding it down identifies the active codec.

iFi has also included JVCKENWOOD’s K2 Technology, which uses digital processing to reconstruct some of the high-frequency detail and harmonics lost during audio compression. Whether that sounds better will depend on your ears and your source material, but it’s an unusual feature for a travel adapter.

Two Headphones, One Movie

One of the more practical features is support for two pairs of Bluetooth headphones simultaneously.

That means two passengers can watch the same airplane movie without sharing earbuds or carrying a headphone splitter. Anyone who has tried to watch a film with another person on a long flight will appreciate the idea.

The adapter also supports Auracast, the Bluetooth broadcasting technology that allows compatible headphones and speakers to join a shared audio stream. iFi says this can support an unlimited number of listeners, although everyone needs compatible equipment.

Auracast and several other features are managed through iFi’s Nexis smartphone app. The app also handles firmware updates, codec settings, K2 processing and battery optimization.

In receiver mode, the device includes a built-in microphone with Qualcomm noise and echo suppression for hands-free calling. That makes it potentially useful for older cars with auxiliary inputs but no integrated Bluetooth calling system.

Is It Worth $129?

The obvious question is whether a $129 Bluetooth adapter is necessary when inexpensive alternatives already exist.

For someone who just wants to connect wireless headphones to an airplane seat once or twice a year, probably not. Basic transmitters can handle that job for considerably less money.

The UP Travel Max makes more sense for someone who regularly switches between different audio setups. It can connect wireless headphones to an airplane screen, bring Bluetooth streaming to an older car stereo and give an old iPod a new lease on life. It also offers more sophisticated codec support than many basic adapters.

The dedicated DAC, dual-headphone pairing and Auracast support make the package more interesting, although the real-world sound benefits will depend heavily on the devices connected to it.

I particularly like the idea of using it with an old iPod. There is a growing appetite for music players that don’t require notifications, subscriptions or a cellular connection. Adding wireless audio without changing the experience seems like a sensible upgrade.

The iFi UP Travel Max is available beginning October 29, 2026, for $129 in the US, £129 in the UK and €139 in Europe, through iFi Audio.

It’s a fairly expensive solution to a small problem. Then again, if you’ve ever found yourself on a 10-hour flight staring at a headphone jack while holding a perfectly good pair of Bluetooth headphones, you already understand why it exists.

Carbon fiber is usually associated with racing cars, expensive bicycles and aerospace equipment. Now Fosi Audio is putting it inside a pair of $150 earphones. The company’s new Carbon12 in-ear monitors (IEMs) use an ultra-thin carbon diaphragm, a titanium housing and a forged carbon fiber faceplate, combining some fairly exotic materials in a surprisingly affordable package.

The main attraction is the Carbon12’s 12mm dynamic driver, which uses Fosi Audio’s proprietary Ultra Thin Ply Technology (UTPT). The company claims this is the first IEM to use the technology, which produces a thin, rigid carbon diaphragm designed to move quickly and accurately. In theory, the combination of low weight and high stiffness should improve transient response, allowing the driver to reproduce quick changes in music with less unwanted vibration.

The earphones also feature a dual-chamber acoustic design. An open front chamber helps relieve pressure inside the ear while creating a more spacious soundstage, while damping foam in the rear chamber is designed to reduce standing waves and unwanted reflections. Fosi describes the resulting sound signature as warm and full-bodied, with slightly forward midrange frequencies that should suit vocals and pop music.

The construction is equally interesting. Each earbud uses a TC4 titanium alloy shell with a forged carbon fiber faceplate, giving every pair a slightly different pattern. Despite the materials, each earpiece weighs just 7.5 grams. The rounded housing is designed to sit comfortably in the ear during extended listening sessions, although actual comfort will depend on the fit.

Fosi includes a detachable four-core silver-plated oxygen-free copper cable with standard 0.78mm two-pin connectors and a 3.5mm plug. That means owners can replace the cable or upgrade to a 4.4mm balanced connection without replacing the earphones themselves. The package also includes ear tips in three sizes and interchangeable nozzle tuning foams with three density options, allowing listeners to adjust the treble response.

The Carbon12 has a claimed frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz, an impedance of 37 ohms and a sensitivity of 108dB/Vrms. Fosi also specifies total harmonic distortion of no more than 0.5% at 1kHz. Those figures suggest the earphones should work with a portable digital audio player or a reasonably capable USB-C dongle DAC without requiring a large desktop amplifier.

At $149.99, the Carbon12 sits in a competitive part of the wired IEM market, where buyers have plenty of choices from established audio brands. The carbon diaphragm is an intriguing feature, but exotic materials don’t automatically guarantee better sound. Driver tuning, acoustic design and fit will ultimately matter more than the carbon fiber itself.

Still, the Carbon12 is an interesting addition to Fosi Audio’s growing lineup of personal audio equipment. The combination of a carbon diaphragm, titanium housing, detachable cable and adjustable sound tuning makes it worth a look for anyone interested in wired listening without spending several hundred dollars.

The Fosi Audio Carbon12 is priced at $149.99, with preorders listed as shipping from October 30, 2026.

SteelSeries is bringing ultra-wideband wireless technology to gaming mice with the launch of its new Sensei Pro and Rival Pro series. The company claims the new mice can maintain an 8,000Hz polling rate without the interference associated with traditional wireless connections, while a hot-swappable battery system lets players keep gaming without stopping to recharge.

The new lineup includes four models: the Sensei Pro, Sensei Pro Mini, Rival Pro and Rival Pro Mini. All four cost $179.99, come in black or white and are available in stores beginning October 13.

The big change here is the wireless connection. Most wireless gaming mice use the crowded 2.4GHz spectrum, which is also used by keyboards, headsets and numerous other devices. SteelSeries argues that interference on this band can prevent high-performance mice from consistently delivering their advertised polling rates.

Its solution is ultra-wideband (UWB), operating between 6.4GHz and 9.056GHz. According to SteelSeries, this gives the mice access to roughly 20 times the bandwidth of traditional 2.4GHz wireless connections. The system can also use multiple wireless channels simultaneously, which the company says improves connection stability in environments crowded with competing devices.

That extra bandwidth is designed to support a true 8,000Hz polling rate. A mouse running at 8K can report its position to a computer up to 8,000 times per second, compared with 1,000 times for a conventional gaming mouse. In theory, that reduces the delay between a physical movement and the computer registering it, although the practical benefit will depend on the game, hardware and player.

SteelSeries has also introduced a Max Performance Mode that keeps the new TrueMove 42K optical sensor operating at its highest performance settings. The sensor supports 20,000 frame captures per second, tracking speeds of up to 800 inches per second and acceleration of up to 70G. The mice also use optical switches rated for 100 million clicks, with a claimed click latency of 0.35 milliseconds.

Of course, running a mouse at 8,000Hz consumes considerably more power than running it at 1,000Hz. SteelSeries addresses this with what it calls the Infinite Power System, which is essentially a pair of rechargeable, hot-swappable batteries.

Each battery provides up to 16 hours of use at 8,000Hz or 60 hours at 1,000Hz. With both batteries, users get up to 32 hours at 8K or 120 hours at 1K before needing to recharge. The idea is to keep one battery charging while the other powers the mouse, allowing players to swap batteries rather than plug in a cable.

The new mice are also relatively light. The full-size Sensei Pro and Rival Pro weigh 53 grams, while the Mini versions weigh 49 grams. SteelSeries has retained the general shapes of the original Sensei and Rival mice, which debuted in 2011 and 2013, respectively, while updating the internals for modern competitive gaming.

Software customization comes through the SteelSeries GG suite. Players can adjust lift-off distance, sensor rotation and scroll behavior, as well as use tools to find appropriate sensitivity settings. A sensitivity converter helps translate DPI preferences between games, while a 3D aim trainer provides practice for competitive shooters such as Counter-Strike 2, Valorant and Fortnite.

The interesting part of this release is that SteelSeries is trying to address two of the practical limitations of high-polling-rate wireless mice: connection reliability and battery life. An 8,000Hz polling rate looks impressive on a specification sheet, but maintaining that performance consistently is more important than simply reaching the number under ideal conditions.

Whether UWB produces a noticeable advantage over existing high-end wireless mice remains to be seen. The technology promises a cleaner connection, but the difference between 1,000Hz and 8,000Hz is already small enough that many players may struggle to notice it during normal gameplay. Independent testing will be needed to establish how consistently the mice deliver their claimed performance.

The Sensei Pro and Rival Pro series went up for preorder on September 29 and reached retail stores on October 13. All four models are priced at $179.99 in the US, €199.99 in Europe and £169.99 in the UK. SteelSeries also offers a separate wireless travel dongle for $24.99.

For competitive players who want the fastest possible wireless connection without being tied to a charging cable, the new SteelSeries mice offer an interesting approach. The real question is whether the move to UWB makes enough of a difference to justify the premium price.

Buying records is the fun part. Cleaning them is the chore. Record Doctor’s latest machine, the XI, is aimed at making that second part a little less annoying.

Billed in the launch announcement as a 25th-anniversary model, the Record Doctor XI is a $599.95 vacuum record cleaner. The announcement says it will ship in October. Its main pitch is straightforward: clean both sides of an LP at the same time, and make less noise doing it.

According to Pangea Audio, the XI uses dual vacuums and two-way automatic rotation. Cleaning fluid, felt cleaning strips and suction do the work of removing residue from the grooves. The company recommends applying fluid to both sides of the record, so this isn’t a drop-it-in-and-walk-away machine. You’re still part of the process.

The hardware includes a direct-drive, high-torque motor, an aluminum top and a large clamp designed to protect the record label. Pangea lists a goat-hair cleaning brush and a 4.5-ounce bottle of its RxLP cleaning fluid among the included accessories.

The more interesting claim is the noise. Pangea calls this its quietest Record Doctor yet and says it can clean an LP in under a minute. Those are manufacturer claims, not results from a hands-on test. There is no measured noise level on the product page, so “quieter” doesn’t tell us how pleasant it will be to use in a small room.

At nearly $600, this is a purchase for someone who takes record care seriously, rather than an impulse accessory. The appeal is easy to understand: two-sided cleaning could cut some of the handling out of the routine. Whether it does that well enough to earn a place beside your turntable is the question a review needs to answer.

For now, the XI looks like a practical update built around a familiar annoyance. Less flipping and less vacuum racket would be welcome. We’ll need more than a launch announcement to know how well it delivers.

Home security company Vivint has announced something super cool. It’s a product called Comfort IQ and it uses a central thermostat and the company’s motion sensors, door sensors, and other security devices to tell their app how and when to turn on your HVAC system.

Other smart thermostats aren’t very smart. Because these wall warts usually hang out in one room or in the middle of a hall, they can “see” only a small portion of your house. Busy in the basement and your thermostat is upstairs? Many thermostats would simply turn off because they think the house is empty. Vivint’s system would sense you moving around and note that you hadn’t left the house and keep you toasty or cool as needed

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That makes sense because heating and cooling are among the biggest energy expenses in a typical home. A thermostat programmed to keep the house at 72 degrees until 5 p.m. doesn’t necessarily know that everyone left at noon. Vivint already has sensors throughout many of its customers’ homes, so Comfort IQ essentially gives the thermostat access to more of that information.

Vivint says the system works with existing gas or electric HVAC equipment and runs largely in the background. Users set their preferences in the Vivint app and Comfort IQ handles the adjustments rather than requiring them to build and maintain a thermostat schedule.

The company is making some substantial savings claims. According to Vivint, an independent year-long study by Tierra Resource Consultants looked at 50,000 Vivint households across five U.S. climate zones and found that Comfort IQ reduced HVAC runtime by an average of 13%. Cooling runtime fell by nearly 16% and heating by almost 12%.

Vivint says that translated into average annual household energy savings of about $210, with savings reaching as much as $300 in some areas. The company also says homes using Comfort IQ produced three times the energy savings of the average ENERGY STAR-certified smart thermostat. Those figures come from the study commissioned around Vivint’s system, so your actual savings will depend on the house, climate, energy prices and how you already use your HVAC system.

There are a few other practical touches. Comfort IQ can track actual HVAC runtime and use it to remind you when an air filter needs replacing rather than simply nagging you every few months. It can also connect with virtual power plants and utility demand-response programs, potentially allowing HVAC use to respond to conditions on the electrical grid.

Vivint says more features are coming, including cameras, better occupancy and scheduling models, additional HVAC intelligence, personalized energy capacity scores and tools for tracking savings over time.

You won’t need a new air conditioner or furnace to try it, but you will need a Vivint Smart Thermostat and, naturally, you’re going to get more out of the system if you already have other Vivint hardware feeding it information. Current Vivint thermostat customers can opt into Comfort IQ for free through the company’s app.

The interesting part here isn’t really the AI label. Smart thermostats have been trying to automate temperature control for years. Comfort IQ’s advantage is potentially the amount of information it can use to make those decisions. If your security system already knows whether people are moving around the house, it makes sense to let the thermostat know too.

This is literally the first time I’ve seen anything like this which is wild. After a decade of smart thermostats that claim to save energy and keep tabs on who’s in the home, Vivint has finally pulled it off.

Wired earbuds are supposed to be obsolete. Bose is betting that they are ready for another run.

The company has introduced the Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds, a $99 pair of USB-C earphones that combine old-school wired audio with active noise cancellation. They go on sale October 15 in black, white and a limited-edition mint green.

It is an interesting reversal for Bose. The company discontinued its last wired noise-canceling earbuds in 2022, as AirPods and other true wireless headphones became the default. But corded headphones have quietly returned, particularly among younger users attracted to their simplicity, retro appeal and reliable microphones.

Bose is giving the format a significant technical update. Four microphones, two in each earbud, monitor outside noise for the active noise cancellation system. The earbuds plug directly into a device over USB-C and draw power from it, eliminating batteries, charging cases and Bluetooth pairing entirely.

There are other benefits to staying wired. A physical connection supports lossless audio, while virtually eliminating the latency that can appear when gaming or watching video over Bluetooth. Bose has also put playback, volume controls and a microphone directly onto the 4.2-foot cable.

The tradeoff is that the $99 earbuds do not match the noise cancellation of Bose’s more expensive wireless models. Early testing found they could noticeably reduce subway and cafe noise, but not to the same degree as the company’s $299 QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds.

Still, Bose is making a different argument here. These are not $19 EarPods dressed up as a nostalgia product. They are an attempt to take what people once liked about wired headphones, no charging, no pairing, low latency and dependable audio, and add one of the features that helped convince everyone to go wireless in the first place.

Maybe the headphone cable wasn’t dead. It just needed an upgrade.

Epson is expanding its Home Cinema range with three new 4K HDR laser projectors aimed at people who want a very big screen without stepping up to the company’s $4,500 LS11000.

The new Home Cinema LS5000, LS6000 and LS7500 start at $1,999 and use Epson’s 3-Chip 3LCD projection system paired with a laser light source. Depending on the model, brightness ranges from 2,500 to 3,500 lumens for both color and white brightness.

All three use Epson’s 4K display technology to produce an 8.29-million-pixel image and can project images up to 300 inches. They also support HDR10 and HLG, with 10-bit HDR processing and Epson’s Automatic HDR Scene Correction.

The biggest differences between the models come down to brightness, contrast and where you can put them.

The $1,999 LS5000 is the entry point, while the $2,199 LS6000 moves further up the range. Both use Epson’s Cinema lens. The $2,699 LS7500 gets a short-throw lens that allows it to sit closer to the screen than a conventional projector. That could be particularly useful if you want a large image but don’t have a room deep enough to mount a traditional projector far behind the seating area.

Installation flexibility is a big part of the design. The projectors have front-exiting airflow, which should make them easier to place in cabinets or tighter spaces, along with manual lens shift of up to 59 percent vertically and 21 percent horizontally. They support both conventional 16:9 content and wider cinematic formats including 21:9.

Epson is also clearly going after gamers with this generation.

Both HDMI ports can handle 4K HDR signals at up to 120Hz, and Epson claims input lag below 20 milliseconds. Auto Low Latency Mode is included, while one of the HDMI connections supports eARC for sending audio to a compatible receiver or sound system.

That combination makes these considerably more interesting for a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X or gaming PC than an older home theater projector designed primarily around 24 or 60 frame-per-second video.

There’s also Bluetooth 6.0 for two-channel wireless audio. That means you can connect Bluetooth headphones directly to the projector for late-night viewing rather than running everything through a separate audio system.

The move to laser is probably the bigger reason for owners of older projectors to pay attention. Lamp projectors gradually lose brightness and eventually require replacement bulbs. A laser light source removes the recurring lamp replacement from the equation while providing the brightness needed for a large HDR image.

And Epson is making an increasingly compelling argument for projection as televisions continue getting larger.

An 85-inch or 98-inch television is now relatively easy to buy, but once you start talking about 120, 150 or even 200 inches, projection remains one of the few practical ways to get there. A retractable screen also disappears when you’re finished watching it, rather than leaving a giant black television dominating the wall.

There are compromises. These are still projectors, so room lighting, screen choice and installation will have a major effect on the final image. And while Epson quotes dynamic contrast ratios ranging from 800,000:1 to 1,200,000:1 across the new models, manufacturer contrast specifications rarely tell the entire story about actual black-level performance.

Still, Epson has pushed several features that used to distinguish more expensive home theater projectors further down its lineup. Laser illumination, 4K HDR, 120Hz input, lens shift and large-screen support now start at just under $2,000.

The Home Cinema LS5000 will cost $1,999.99, the LS6000 $2,199.99 and the short-throw LS7500 $2,699.99. All three are scheduled to go on sale in late September.

The existing LS11000 remains at the top of Epson’s Home Cinema lineup at $4,499.99.

For someone still running an aging lamp projector, the LS5000 may be the most interesting number here. You can now get into Epson’s 4K HDR laser lineup for less than half the price of its flagship.

Most video doorbells are very good at showing you who stole your package. SimpliSafe would rather stop them before they get that far.

The company has launched the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Series 2, a $199.99 wired video doorbell that combines a new 2K camera with AI detection and, if you’re willing to pay for SimpliSafe’s higher-end monitoring plans, a live security agent who can step in when something looks wrong.

That last part is what makes the Series 2 interesting.

When connected to SimpliSafe’s Active Guard Outdoor Protection service, the doorbell can detect a potential threat and alert one of the company’s U.S.-based security agents. The agent can view the camera feed, talk through the doorbell and activate its siren. If things get bad, the agent can also request police dispatch while the system records what is happening.

In other words, instead of getting a notification that someone is standing on your porch and deciding what to do yourself, you’re paying SimpliSafe to have someone else watching too.

That’s a significant change from the basic video doorbell model.

A better camera, too

Even without the live monitoring service, SimpliSafe has given the Series 2 some useful hardware upgrades.

The camera now records at 2K resolution and has a wider head-to-toe field of view. That second part should be especially useful for packages since a conventional doorbell camera can give you a great shot of the delivery driver’s face while completely missing the box sitting a few feet below it.

There’s also up to five seconds of pre-event recording, so the camera can save what happened immediately before it detected an event. Enhanced two-way audio handles conversations at the door, and dual-band Wi-Fi adds support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

SimpliSafe has also added what it calls Smart AI. The system can distinguish between people and packages, with vehicle detection promised soon. Activity Zones let you tell the camera which parts of the image matter so you’re not getting alerts every time somebody walks down the sidewalk or a car passes your house.

The hardware itself has been changed as well. There’s a black face surrounded by a white LED ring, with different status lights showing who’s using the camera. Amber means a SimpliSafe monitoring agent is speaking, while blue means it’s the homeowner.

It’s a small detail but a smart one. If a voice suddenly starts coming out of your doorbell, the person standing outside should probably know whether they’re talking to you or a security company.

Security ain’t cheap

The Video Doorbell Series 2 costs $199.99, but getting its most interesting feature costs considerably more.

Active Guard Outdoor Protection is available through SimpliSafe’s Pro plan at $49.99 per month or Pro Plus at $79.99 per month. That’s $600 or nearly $960 a year before considering the cost of the hardware.

You also can’t simply buy the Series 2 and stick it on the door. It requires a SimpliSafe Base Station and Keypad, plus an existing wired doorbell setup with a compatible transformer and mechanical or digital chime.

The doorbell can still be used as part of a SimpliSafe system without professional monitoring, but at that point you’re losing much of what separates it from the growing pile of smart doorbells already on the market.

Still, SimpliSafe is making a good point about where home security cameras are heading. Recording a thief walking away with your package is useful evidence, but it’s not particularly good security.

The Series 2 tries to move the camera from recording an event to actually responding to it.

Whether having a human security agent living somewhere inside your doorbell is worth $50 to $80 a month is another question. When it comes to protecting a $1,000 TV Amazon just delivered, however, that 50 smackers might be worth it.

SteelSeries has been making gaming gear for 25 years, and its latest controller is aimed squarely at players willing to pay for just about every feature you can fit into a gamepad.

The new SteelSeries Aeon Pro is a $259.99 wireless controller for Xbox and PC built around something the company calls its QuickSwitch Dock System. SteelSeries says it is the first system of its kind, but the more useful part may be what sits inside the dock: a second battery.

The Aeon Pro ships with two hot-swappable batteries. Keep one in the controller and the other charging in the dock. When the first battery runs down, swap it for the charged one and keep playing. SteelSeries calls this its Infinite Power System. The name is a little grand, but the idea makes sense. As long as you remember to put the dead battery back in the dock, you shouldn’t have to plug the controller in during a game.

The dock also acts as storage for the Aeon Pro’s interchangeable thumbsticks. Players get standard concave, tall concave, and short convex options, letting them change the feel of the controller without keeping a bag of loose parts around.

SteelSeries went hard on the controls as well. The Aeon Pro uses Hall Effect thumbsticks designed to avoid the stick drift that can develop in traditional analog sticks. Mechanical switches are used throughout the controller for quicker, more tactile button presses, while contoured rear buttons can be remapped for commonly used functions.

There’s even a small OLED screen built into the controller. It lets players switch profiles and change settings without having to jump back into a PC application every time they want to make an adjustment.

For those who do want deeper control, the Aeon Pro works with the SteelSeries GG software on PC. Users can remap controls, adjust triggers, set the strength of the controller’s four rumble motors, change power settings, and set up GG and Sonar integrations.

A wrap-around textured grip rounds out the hardware, and the controller comes in either black or white.

The obvious catch is the price. At $259.99, the Aeon Pro costs considerably more than a standard Xbox controller and sits firmly in premium controller territory. SteelSeries is betting that serious players will pay the difference for hot-swappable batteries, Hall Effect sticks, mechanical controls, an OLED display, and a dock that keeps the whole system together.

At least there’s one problem you probably won’t have to deal with anymore: reaching for a cable in the middle of a boss fight.

The SteelSeries Aeon Pro is available beginning September 8, 2026, for $259.99 in the US, £229.99 in the UK, and €259.99 in Europe.

Gaming hardware spent years looking like gaming hardware. Black plastic, sharp angles, and enough RGB lighting to make your desk visible from space.

SteelSeries is going in another direction with its new Cozy Collection.

The company has released its Arctis GameBuds in two new colors, Matcha and Yuzu, alongside matching No-Slip Performance Thumb Grips from KontrolFreek. The new versions arrive September 1, with the GameBuds starting at $199.99 and the thumb grips at $12.99.

The colors are new. The more interesting part is what SteelSeries has been doing with the earbuds themselves.

Earbuds Made for Consoles

The Arctis GameBuds are designed to work across Xbox, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC, depending on the model, while still serving as regular wireless earbuds for music, calls, and everything else you do with headphones.

That sounds obvious until you start trying to use ordinary Bluetooth earbuds for gaming.

Latency is the problem. A slight delay between what happens on screen and what reaches your ears might be tolerable during a podcast. It becomes annoying very quickly when you’re playing a game.

SteelSeries gets around this with a 2.4 GHz wireless connection designed for low-latency gaming. The idea is to provide the convenience of earbuds without giving up the fast wireless connection normally associated with a dedicated gaming headset.

The GameBuds also received updated firmware for 2026. SteelSeries says the update increases wireless power for a more stable connection and adds listen-before-talk, or LBT, which helps the earbuds choose channels and avoid wireless interference. The firmware is available for existing GameBuds as well, so these changes aren’t limited to the new colors.

Matcha or Yuzu?

The Cozy Collection is mostly about aesthetics.

Matcha gives the GameBuds a muted green finish, while Yuzu goes for a brighter yellow. Both move away from the usual gaming peripheral palette without turning the earbuds into something that looks out of place when you leave your desk.

That’s important because the GameBuds aren’t really being pitched as headphones you use only while gaming.

SteelSeries wants them to move between your console, computer, music, entertainment, calls, and work. In other words, they’re supposed to replace the separate gaming headset and everyday earbuds many people carry around.

Whether they actually can will depend heavily on comfort and sound quality, but the concept makes sense. Gaming has moved well beyond the desk, while gaming accessories have been slower to follow.

The Gaming Headset Is Shrinking

The GameBuds are part of an interesting change in gaming audio. For years, serious gaming audio meant a large over-ear headset with a boom microphone. Those aren’t going anywhere, particularly for long sessions, but earbuds are becoming a credible alternative.

They’re smaller. They’re easier to carry. You can use them away from your console without looking like you’ve just left a Call of Duty lobby. SteelSeries is trying to make that transition without giving up the low latency and platform support gamers expect from dedicated hardware.

The Matcha and Yuzu versions don’t fundamentally change the Arctis GameBuds. They’re the same basic $199.99 earbuds with some updated firmware and considerably less black plastic. And, thanks to the branding, they might make you a little cozier as Summer ends.

As we enter the era of AI-infused hardware, things are going to get a little weird. As we saw during the Chinese robotic Olympics, we’re getting really good at mimicking the magic of living beings in plastic and silicon, but the cost of humanoid robots is still prohibitive. Enter, then, the Microduck.

This $399 open-source device is basically a little duck with a camera eye, a flappy mouth, and two legs. It can dance, skate, run around, and even sing. What’s more important, however, is the total range of motion and programability.

Like the Chumby, the Microduck is more proof-of-concept than a useful tool. The company, which is part of Huggingface, has been building these kinds of robots since 2016, but presumably the hardware and software have finally come together to allow for something far more interesting to emerge.

Standing just 25 cm tall and weighing 800 grams, the little robot has 15 motors, a camera, LiDAR, and two cameras. It arrives with seven trained movements, including walking, sitting, kicking, grabbing objects, and even getting back onto its feet after falling over. You can even play with the little guy on the Microduck website before you buy.

What makes the Microduck especially interesting is that owners can train their own behaviors in a physics simulator and then run those same policies on the physical robot. Its SDK, simulator, and reinforcement-learning stack are all open source, so this is as much a small robotics development platform as it is a very strange robotic pet. Because you can simulate training in a virtual environment, you can even let the robot teach itself, a feat that was nearly impossible a few years ago.

This thing is silly and expensive, like most cutting-edge hardware should be. It’s a fascinating little toy that hides a lot of smarts inside, and I’d be curious to see what happens when we get more and more devices like this little duck in our homes.

For years we’ve heard that OpenAI wanted to build hardware. Now we’re finally getting a better idea of what that hardware might look like.

According to a Bloomberg report, the company’s first consumer device won’t be a phone or a pair of glasses. Instead, it will be a battery-powered AI companion about the size of a hockey puck, complete with microphones, speakers, a camera, sensors, lights, and even moving parts designed to make it feel more alive.

If the report is accurate, it sounds less like an Echo Dot and more like someone tried to build ChatGPT into Pixar’s Luxo Jr.

The device is reportedly being developed with Jony Ive’s LoveFrom studio and is expected to launch in 2027 with a price somewhere between $300 and $400. That’s well above the cost of most smart speakers, which suggests OpenAI sees this as something much more personal than another Alexa sitting on a kitchen counter.

Interestingly, there’s no display.

Instead, everything happens through conversation. Imagine ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode living inside a portable object you can carry from room to room. The device is said to learn about you over time, remember context, and respond in a more natural way than today’s voice assistants. Lights indicate when it’s listening, while mechanical movement is apparently meant to give it some personality.

That’s a fascinating design decision.

We’ve spent decades adding bigger screens to everything. OpenAI seems to be betting that AI might let us move in the opposite direction. If the computer understands speech well enough, perhaps a screen becomes optional instead of essential.

Of course, that raises another question.

Do people actually want another device listening to them all day?

Amazon and Google have spent years trying to convince us that smart speakers belong in every room. Millions of people clearly agree, but just as many have unplugged their Echo or Nest speakers after the novelty wore off. OpenAI’s challenge won’t be building better AI. It will be convincing people that this deserves permanent space on the kitchen counter.

The reported camera adds another wrinkle. Voice assistants already make some people uncomfortable. Add an always-available camera and you’ll need an awful lot of trust before people welcome it into their homes.

The industrial design sounds equally unusual. Bloomberg describes a doughnut-shaped object with premium metal construction, speaker grilles, microphones, and moving components. Rather than copying Apple’s minimalist slabs, OpenAI appears to be trying something with a little more character. That’s probably intentional given the ongoing legal dispute between Apple and OpenAI over alleged design and manufacturing trade secrets, allegations that OpenAI strongly denies.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report isn’t the hardware itself. It’s what it says about OpenAI’s ambitions.

This isn’t being described as a smart speaker. Internally, it’s reportedly viewed as an AI-first computer, the beginning of a family of devices that could eventually replace the smartphone altogether.

That’s a bold claim.

We’ve heard similar promises before. Humane’s AI Pin promised to replace your phone. Rabbit’s R1 suggested you could stop opening apps. Neither came close. Both suffered from immature software, confusing user experiences, and the simple fact that smartphones already do almost everything people need.

OpenAI does have one important advantage those companies lacked. Millions of people already use ChatGPT every day. If anyone has a chance of convincing consumers to carry a dedicated AI device, it’s probably the company that built the software they already talk to.

Whether that’s enough to justify carrying one more gadget is another matter entirely.

I’m looking forward to seeing this thing, if only because it sounds genuinely different. Hardware has become a sea of black rectangles. A pocket-sized AI companion with moving parts, no screen, and a personality sounds delightfully weird.

And if there’s one thing the gadget world could use right now, it’s a little more weird.