Nothing has a new pair of earbuds for you: the Ear 3. These AirPods-style buds cost $179 and are available now, following the Nothing Phone (3) and Headphone (1) the company released this summer. While they share the stem design aesthetic of Apple’s popular earbuds, the blend of aluminum and plastic sure makes them look unique.
The key feature in the noise-canceling earbuds is called Super Mic. Except it’s not in the earbuds at all—there are two microphones in the charging case. It supposedly cuts background noise, and you can talk into it by pressing the Talk button on the case, like a walkie-talkie. A double-press keeps the mic on continuously. (Keep an eye out for free Nothing earbuds case product placement in influencer videos soon.)
The earbuds still feature a three-mic array, but utilizing the Super Mic in the case should enhance your voice. Naturally, you can also use it to record voice memos, which are saved in the company’s Essential Space app on its phones.
These flagship Ear 3 earbuds also feature improved noise canceling, enhanced audio quality, a stronger signal connection, and longer battery life—5.5 hours with noise canceling enabled and 10 hours with it turned off. We’ll be giving them a spin soon, so stay tuned for our review.
Amazon’s Fall Hardware Event Is Coming
Courtesy of Amazon
It’s that time of year again. Not Halloween season, but fall gadget season. Apple kicked things off earlier this month, Meta unveiled new smart glasses this week, and now Amazon will close the month with its own hardware event. The company sent out press invites this week for an event on September 30 in New York City.
If the design on the invitation is anything to go by, we can expect new Echo speakers, potentially a new color Kindle, and a Fire TV Smart TV. There are a few blue rings that are the hallmarks of an Echo, which may mean we’ll finally get a timeline for when Amazon’s souped-up Alexa+ will exit early access and officially roll out.
The other intriguing addition is the photo of a Kindle with a color screen. Amazon just announced new Colorsoft Kindles earlier in July, and it’s a little too soon to see yet another Colorsoft. It’s most likely a color version of the Kindle Scribe, just in time to compete with ReMarkable’s new Paper Pro Move. We’ll be on the ground on September 30 to relay the details. —Nena Farrell
ExpressVPN Debuts a Free VPN
ExpressVPN recently changed its subscription tiers, and now it has something else cooking: EventVPN. It’s a free VPN service available on Apple devices, including iOS and macOS. What makes it different? There isn’t a paid plan. EventVPN runs exclusively off ads.
Ads and online privacy are basically oil and water, but EventVPN claims it has an ad model that will allow it to stay afloat without compromising user privacy. It’s also operating entirely on RAM-based servers, which means that, even if it wanted to log your data, it would disappear the moment it’s flushed from memory.
