The new Gen. 2 QuietComfort Ultra earbuds reinforce everything Bose active noise cancellation does right. We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Washington-Dulles airport, red-eye to Berlin, time to kill and batteries to fill. Time was that would force a hard choice, because time was that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Bluetooth earbuds didn't charge wirelessly. Drop the new QC Ultra Gen. 2 case on the Qi pad, however, and it blinks to life, no awkward adapters or extra plugs required.

Modern noise-cancelling headphones have significantly improved users' auditory experiences by removing unwanted background noise, but they can also block out sounds that matter to users. Machine learning (ML) models for sound event detection (SED) and speaker identification (SID) can enable headphones to selectively pass through important sounds; however, implementing these models for a user-centric experience presents several unique challenges. First, most people spend limited time customizing their headphones, so the sound detection should work reasonably well out of the box. Second, the models should be able to learn over time the specific sounds that are important to users based on their implicit and explicit interactions. Finally, such models should have a small memory footprint to run on low-power headphones with limited on-chip memory. In this paper, we propose addressing these challenges using HiSSNet (Hierarchical SED and SID Network). HiSSNet is an SEID (SED and SID) model that uses a hierarchical prototypical network to detect both general and specific sounds of interest and characterize both alarm-like and speech sounds. We show that HiSSNet outperforms an SEID model trained using non-hierarchical prototypical networks by 6.9 - 8.6 percent. When compared to state-of-the-art (SOTA) models trained specifically for SED or SID alone, HiSSNet achieves similar or better performance while reducing the memory footprint required to support multiple capabilities on-device.

The Sony WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones are on an incredible discount right now at Amazon. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. Black Friday week is here, and though we're just a few weeks beyond Amazon's Prime Day 2020 savings event, the retailer has a ton of new deals to check out. Amazon Black Friday deals started on November 20th and new deals are dropping all the time. Current deals include streaming sticks (get the all-new Fire Stick, Fire Stick lite or Fire Stick 4K for up to 40% off), brand-name French cookware, self-cleaning Roombas, Ring doorbells, and the best deal: Sony's spectacular noise-cancelling headphones.

Bose's excellent 700 wireless noise-cancelling headphones have dropped to an all-time-low price on Amazon. Now you can get the arctic white model for $299, which is $100 off their normal price. The silver luxe and triple black models are technically also on sale as they're both priced at $339, but arctic white is the way to go if you want the best deal. While not the hands-down best noise-cancelling headphones, the Bose 700 earned a score of 90 from us. They take all the good things about Bose's QuietComfort line and make them better, and stick all of it in a more modern package.

Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. As a grad student, I'm one of the many people who unexpectedly went from in-person to virtual classes in the face of COVID-19. This is a big adjustment for those of us who usually like to work from libraries and cafes--but the good news is, pretty much any home can turn into a productive workspace with just a few adjustments. Maybe you're where I was a few months ago, stacking cardboard boxes to make a structurally questionable standing desk, or blasting white noise through raggedy earbuds to drown out your roommate watching The Circle. Luckily, HP is here to help. HP is one of our favorite sources for computers, software, and tech accessories, and they're making both working and studying from home that much smoother.

Coping with lockdown life is hard enough without having to listen to other members of your household while you are trying to work. If you can't get away physically, a set of noise-cancelling headphones could be just the ticket to isolate you just enough to concentrate. Most cheaper noise-cancelling headphones are terrible, but the Lindy BNX-60 are actually pretty good. They're a little old, originally released in 2016, but having been reduced to just £50 they offer incredible value. The noise-cancelling handles background drone fairly well, while the ear cups enclose your ears to help quieten the rest of the world.

We said last year that Sony had put Bose "on notice" when it comes to active noise-cancelling headphones. Our review of Sony's WH-1000XM2 reported that Sony not only delivered incredible audio quality, but that the company offered some high-tech features Bose couldn't match. These headphones are superior to the Bose QuietComfort 35 II in almost every way. Sony retained all the features that we liked in the previous iteration, including adaptive sound control, gesture recognition, and great audio reproduction (at least when powered), and made significant improvements to its active noise-cancellation technology. Sony's new headphones are also more comfortable to wear for long listening sessions.

Sony is bringing technology from its popular Bravia OLED television range to the small screen for the first time with the launch of its new Xperia smartphone. The Xperia XZ3 boasts a six-inch display the Japanese technology firm says can display'more vibrant colours' and higher quality images by leveraging the award-winning OLED technology found in the high-end Bravia TV line. The new handset is able to upscale content on the screen to high dynamic range (HDR), which can improve resolution as well as the range of colours seen on-screen. Sony unveiled the new smartphone during its annual press conference at the IFA technology tradeshow in Berlin, which runs from August 31 to September 5. The Xperia XZ3 will go on sale October 5 for £699 ($900), with pre-orders for the next-generation handset available from tomorrow, August 31.

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here. At $400, this is the lowest price we've seen for the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080 in over a year. While we saw some great pricing around Black Friday of 2016, we didn't note similar drops this year as this projector, for whatever reason, has largely hovered around $500.