Comprehensive sleep, recovery and health tracking without a smartwatch appeals, but cost and fit won’t suit everyone Smart rings are having a bit of a moment with the Oura seen adorning the fingers of celebrities and elite sportspeople alike. It promises the health-tracking features of a smartwatch squeezed into a much smaller, less techie device focused on sleep, recovery and resilience. But can it deliver for regular people, too? Now several years into its third iteration, the Oura Gen 3 is the most popular smart ring on the market, available in a range of attractive colours, metals and sizes. It looks and feels like an attractive piece of jewellery, and is priced accordingly, costing from £299 (€329/$299) and requiring a £6-a-month subscription on top. Keeping up with celebrity crazes has never been cheap. Continue reading...

New running headphones combine bone conduction and open-air speakers for more rounded sound So-called bone conduction headphones are a runner’s best friend, allowing you to be fully aware of the outside world while you listen to your motivational tunes. But the technology simply can’t generate decent bass – a problem that the open-ear headphone firm Shokz thinks it has solved with its latest OpenRun Pro 2. The follow-up to the popular OpenRun Pro and OpenSwim lines, the OpenRun Pro 2 cost £169 (€199/$175/A$299) and resemble most competitors, with bone conduction pods held in place in front of the ear by two loops and a band that runs behind your head. Water resistance: IP55 (spray resistant) Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (SBC) Battery life: 12h Dimensions: 30.9 x 21.7 x 24.3mm Weight: 30.3g Drivers: Air and bone conduction Charging: USB-C Continue reading...

… but impressive, boundary-pushing device is priced so far out of reach for most that it isn’t yet the next big thing On a sweltering summer’s day in London, I sat working in the middle of a snow-covered Yosemite national park surrounded by an array of floating apps and browser windows. Later I stared across a windswept Oregon beach reliving a holiday from years ago, and spent an evening sitting in a speeder on Tatooine watching Rogue One in 3D, before retiring for the night with some guided meditation. These are the sorts of immersive experiences that Apple’s latest, most expensive gadget offers by blending the real and virtual world, all controlled by your eyes and hands. The Vision Pro may resemble virtual reality headsets such as Meta’s Quest series but it is attempting to be so much more. Continue reading...

New Pixel phones, foldable, watch and earbuds feature Gemini Live for free-flowing conversations with AI bot Google is launching four phones, one of them foldable, two smartwatches and a set of earbuds packing its latest AI tech including the new advanced Gemini Live conversational experience, as the Android maker tries to outdo Apple and Samsung. The array of new Pixel products, announced at an event in California, mark the latest evolution of Google’s own-brand Android devices as it attempts to prove its integrated AI and devices work better than rivals. Continue reading...

The most obvious function is for watching 3D movies or TV shows, but it may wind up being most useful at work * Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The Vision Pro has landed in Australia five months after the US launch, retailing at $5,999. At that price, it’s perhaps no surprise that Apple staff present it on a wooden platter like we’re in a five-star restaurant. Next, the staff at Apple’s Chadstone store in Melbourne fit the device to your head, match your glasses prescription and get it up and running. Continue reading...

Asus machine is best yet at being a laptop on the go and a dual-screen productivity beast at the desk Portable computers with multiple touchscreens have long been a feature of sci-fi films. But while several manufacturers in the real world have tried to make dual-screen laptops, none of them have really worked out. Typically this is because they have tried to do too much with too many compromises. Now Asus thinks it has cracked it with a new dual-screen machine that also has a full-size detachable physical keyboard. Continue reading...

Cut-price Bluetooth Beats are small, comfortable and last a long time, with great Android and iPhone support Apple’s latest Beats-branded earbuds offer the sound, fit and Android-loving features of its popular Studio Buds but in a smaller, much cheaper and longer-lasting package. The Solo Buds follow in the footsteps of last year’s Buds+, offering full integration with Apple’s various devices and Google’s Android, making the best of both platforms. Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AAC Battery life: 18 hours Water resistance: none Drivers: 8.2mm Earbud weight: 5.7g each Earbud dimensions: 16.7 x 18.5 x 18.9mm Case weight: 22g Case dimensions: 34.7 x 66.1 x 23.7mm Charging: USB-C Continue reading...

Company’s long-awaited headphones deliver top sound, long battery life, supreme comfort and killer home-cinema feature The wifi hi-fi maker Sonos has finally released its much-anticipated first set of headphones, the Ace, which combine the best elements from Bose, Apple and other high-end rivals with supreme comfort, sleek styling and a killer party trick for owners of the company’s soundbars. The hi-tech noise-cancelling headphones cost an eye-watering £449 (€499/$449/A$699) and rub shoulders at the top of the market with a range of extremely accomplished competitors such as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 and Apple’s AirPods Max. Weight: 312g Dimensions: 191 x 160 x 85mm Drivers: 40mm Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint, wifi, USB-C audio and charging Bluetooth codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive with Lossless Battery life: 30+ hours with ANC over Bluetooth Continue reading...

Smart display is the control centre for Alexa-connected devices anyone in the home can use Amazon’s latest Alexa device feels like the missing piece in making a home fully smart and acts as a hub for controlling lights, doors, cameras, timers and heating. The Echo Hub arrives ready to be the touchscreen controller for your smart home, and is a cut-price option for a device that usually has to be either professionally installed, costing thousands, or a DIY job that requires more than a little expertise. Continue reading...

Funky transparent design backed by good sound and noise cancelling make these budget buds winners The tech firm Nothing’s latest set of cut-price Bluetooth earbuds offer great sound and noise cancelling for an even more competitive price, while continuing to stand out from the crowd through cool design. The London-based firm has launched the budget Ear (a), which keep almost everything that was great about previous Nothing earbuds and cost £99 (€99/$99). That is £30 less than its previous offering and the new £129 (€149/$149) Ear, which offer a few more customisations for sound and other features. Continue reading...