Technology

Here's an unexpected bit of news: the AirPods Max 2, which pretty much everybody was certain weren't going to get an update at today's big Apple event (you can even follow the build-up, thanks to our 'It's Glowtime' Live Blog) apparently are going to get an update today. Don't expect something dramatically different, mind, but the new AirPods Max will reportedly come with improved ANC and Adaptive Audio as well as the now-obligatory USB-C.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. If you're thinking "hang on, isn't that the same Mark Gurman who said that there wouldn't be new AirPods Max at the Apple event?" you're right. Gurman did say both a few days ago and also back in February that AirPods Max 2 this year was "Not possible. There is no AirPods Max 2. It's the same as current but USB-C. That's the only change." And that's why technology journalism is so exciting.

Gurman's news was posted to X last night, where he said that the new Max headphones would launch alongside the "low-end" AirPods 4. So, come on, what can we expect?

Apple AirPods Max 2: what to expect

To be fair to Gurman, his Apple news is apparently based on what sources tell him – and if their information isn't accurate, isn't complete or is out of date he can't exactly call up Tim Cook to get the inside track. But while the updates are supposedly more than just a USB-C port, we're still looking at a relatively minor upgrade. Personally, I'm hoping for the end to the horrible AirPods Max case, which I think is up there among the very worst things Apple has ever designed, but the changes are are likely to be internal.

The AirPods Max remain a superb pair of headphones, but upgrades are definitely due. USB-C was always going to be in the second generation AirPods Max, because EU regulators demand it. But it sounds like Apple has also taken the opportunity to upgrade the audio chip to deliver better ANC features. And that's welcome, because in the three years since the AirPods Max launched the technology, and the competition, has improved considerably.

The downsides of the AirPods Max are likely to remain, though: they'll still be heavy, they'll still be very expensive and they're not going to be a great option for Android users. As we said in our most recent update to our original AirPods Max review, in 2024 "they're definitely still among the best wireless headphones for certain buyers. However, it partly depends on what price you can get them for – we wouldn't recommend buying at full price" when "The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones sound just as good and cost a lot less, and have far better noise cancellation (and are lighter)." The new Max are likely to be the best Apple headphones, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the best value.

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Our iPhone 16 event live blog is up and running ahead of the big show later on today, but it seems that one expected device might be missing: a well-placed source says the Apple Watch Ultra 3 won't be launching alongside the new iPhones.

This comes from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who is usually one of the more well-informed reporters on the Apple beat. Considering that we got the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in 2023, it would be a surprise if there wasn't a new version of the premium smartwatch for 2024.

That said, there will be a new version, sort of, according to Gurman: a black titanium option will apparently be unveiled for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Right now it's only available in a single natural titanium color as far as the casing goes.

As you can gather from our Apple Watch Ultra 2 review, it wasn't a huge leap forward from the original Apple Watch Ultra, which would make the lack of a third-generation product this year even more disappointing for premium smartwatch buyers.

Watch this space

I don’t expect Apple to announce an Apple Watch Ultra 3 tomorrow. Instead, I expect the Ultra 2 sticks around and — finally — gains a black color option. I also wouldn’t rule out a delay to the new Watch SE.September 9, 2024

Gurman also goes on to say there could well be a delay to the successor to the more affordable Apple Watch SE 2, which launched in 2022. We were expecting an updated model to show up at some point this year.

What isn't mentioned is any reason why these smartwatch refreshes aren't appearing today, so we can only speculate as to the reason. Perhaps Apple doesn't think there will be any significant boost in sales, or perhaps there are new Apple Watch Ultra 3 features that haven't quite been finished in time.

The Apple Watch 10 is virtually guaranteed to make an appearance, however. New features apparently on the way for this wearable include a refreshed design, upgraded sensors, and the ability to detect potential sleep apnea problems.

It all means the Apple Watch Ultra 3 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2 debate just got more interesting. The Apple 'It's Glowtime' event gets underway at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone), and as mentioned you can follow along via our Apple event live blog.

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There's seemingly more bad news for Sonos. New reports say that the new Ace headphones, which the company expected to be a huge hit, have been doing disappointing numbers: where Sonos expected to make 2,500 headphones per day to cope with huge demand for its high-end cans, it's allegedly only doing a fraction of that: just 250 pairs a day. That means instead of expected sales of around 1 million units per year, it's on track to do around one-tenth of that.

That's according to reports from both Mark Gurman at Bloomberg and NotebookCheck. And the bad news keeps on coming: both reports also claim that Sonos has laid off employees "likely in part to cope with the mounting costs and loss of sales", and that its codename Pinewood, a Roku-style set-top-box, has been delayed once more. After initially being put back to January 2025, it's now scheduled for March.

This isn't the arc Sonos wanted

It's fair to say that 2024 has been disastrous for Sonos, and there's still plenty of 2024 to go. What was supposed to be a triumphant year with significant revenues from brand new product categories – such as the Ace headphones and the Pinewood project – as well as key updates to core products such as the Arc soundbar has instead been spent dealing with the ongoing fallout from the Sonos app update. 

That app was released way back in the spring, but Sonos is still working on fixing it; it apologized to customers back in July and has been working on a fortnightly app update cycle for months now, but as we said after the most recent update "there's still a lot of work to be done before users are going to be happy again."

As Bloomberg reports, it's hitting Sonos in the pockets – and in the pockets of its shareholders. Bloomberg says that Sonos's stock is down 32% this year while the rest of the S&P 500 Index is up by 13%, and instead of raking in cash from new products it's spending huge sums on the app issues.

There's no doubt that the firm makes superb soundbars that are among the very best in the business, but the app issue isn't the only software concern we've seen: in 2023, Sonos eventually admitted that there was a problem with Dolby Atmos on its Arc soundbars after many months of upset customers talking about it on forums; the initial response to concerns over the app issues was similarly dismissive. 

These are dangerous waters for Sonos to be swimming in. Sonos isn't just selling interchangeable audio kit here: it's selling an ecosystem of premium-priced products in an intensely competitive marketplace. That means it's not good enough to make great hardware. The software and any response to customer concerns deed to be top-notch too. It does look like the damage to Sonos's brand reputation will take even longer to repair than its app.

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If you’ve been playing Star Wars Outlaws, then chances are that you’ve already been frustrated by its overly punishing stealth sections. Being spotted by an enemy will cause your current mission to instantly fail, often sending you right back to the start of an area and erasing minutes of progress at a time.

It can be incredibly annoying but, luckily, developer Ubisoft Massive seems to agree and intends to fix the problem. Speaking in a recent interview with our sister site GamesRadar+, the game’s creative director Julian Gerighty said that the punishing difficulty “is a mistake, and [...] something that we’re going to work on improving.”

As for what this could mean, he clarifies that: "I don't think it means removing the fail state completely, but I do think there are millions of low hanging fruits where we can make it so much more enjoyable and understandable."

Many of the worst offenders are located right at the start of Star Wars Outlaws, in the opening world of Mirogana, which doesn’t make for a very good first impression when you’ve just installed the sprawling open-world game. Thankfully, it appears as though players won’t have to wait long for a fix.

“We just don't want it to feel unfair. And today, I think it feels unfair. And believe it or not, this wasn't our intention. This is more of something that crept in in the last week or so, and that we're correcting already for a patch that's coming out maybe in 10 days,” Gerighty explained.

This will be great news for anyone thinking of picking up the game, or those eager to get started on a second playthrough.

Although we flagged these frustrating stealth sections as one point of friction, Managing Editor Rob Dwiar was otherwise very impressed with everything that the title brings to to the table in our Star Wars Outlaws review. He praised its impressively authentic world, which is filled with breathtaking landscapes and movie-accurate details that are sure to be a treat for any long-time series fans.

Star Wars Outlaws is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

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Get ready for some fresh hardware. Follow along live as Apple debuts the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watches, and a few other surprises.

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We’re now just hours away from the launch of the iPhone 16 line – you can follow the build-up at our iPhone 16 event live blog – with Apple set to unveil these phones later today (September 9). The leaks haven’t stopped rolling in even at this late hour, and one last-minute leak contains several pieces of potentially good news.

In a post on X, reputable leaker Mark Gurman (via 9to5Mac) claimed that the iPhone 16 Pro’s starting price isn’t likely to be raised above the $999 of the iPhone 15 Pro. He didn’t talk about pricing for other regions, but for reference the current model starts at £999 / AU$1,849 in the UK and Australia, so it might be that Apple sticks with those prices too.

We weren’t specifically expecting a price rise prior to this leak, but we certainly hadn’t ruled one out either, so it’s encouraging to hear that Apple’s most expensive new phone after the iPhone 16 Pro Max might not come with a price hike.

I expect the touch sensitive camera button to be on all iPhone 16 models tomorrow. The slimmer bezels on the Pro line are noticeable, as are battery life improvements. I don’t expect the Pro entry price to be raised from $999. Big focus will be on AI & A18 chip across the board.September 9, 2024

Gurman also claimed that we'll see noticeable battery life improvements for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and that their bezels will be noticeably smaller than on the current models.

That’s in line with previous leaks which suggested the iPhone 16 Pro Max could have the smallest bezels of any phone, and that the Pro models could both have bigger batteries than their predecessors.

Echoing reports we've heard repeatedly from other sources, Gurman also said that all four iPhone 16 models will probably gain the widely rumored Capture button, for controlling the camera, and that Apple’s focus at the launch event will be AI and the new A18 chipset.

We'll find out very soon

While we should take all of the above with a pinch of salt, Mark Gurman has a superb track record for Apple leaks, and most of this is in line with things we’ve heard previously anyway.

We’ll know for sure soon enough, as Apple’s iPhone 16 launch starts at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, which is 3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone. 

We’ve already got an Apple ‘Glowtime’ event live blog up and running, where you can read about any more late leaks ahead of the event followed by all the announcements as they happen. And if you want to tune in yourself, here’s how to watch the iPhone 16 launch event live.

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As Oasis almost sang, if you're looking for a cute portable speaker with Auracast compatibility, you gotta Miniroll with it. The new Ultimate Ears Miniroll is a go-anywhere portable Bluetooth 5.3 speaker from one of the best-known audio brands, and unlike an Oasis ticket, it's not going to treble in price when you try to buy it.

The key selling point here is the small size and light weight: it weighs less than a pound (it's 279g, just under 9oz) and it's just 48 x 122 x 105mm high, long and wide, which makes it smaller than the vast majority of the options in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. It has a couple of hooks on the back that can attach it easily to your hiking gear, your clothing or anything else of a suitable size, including rods with diameters from 20mm to 35mm.

The speaker's small dimensions means there's room for just one active speaker, a 45.6mm full-range dynamic driver, but it's teamed with a passive radiator to boost the low end for a bit of extra bass. But the most important feature may be this speaker's sociability, because it's made with multi-speaker sound in mind.

Ultimate Ears Miniroll: key features, availability and pricing

The most interesting bit of tech here is what Ultimate Ears calls PartyUp with Auracast. It's a way of connecting multiple speakers together over Bluetooth, and here it enables you to connect an unlimited number of Miniroll speakers together – handy if you have multiple Minirolls or if your friends do. And with a promised 12 hours of playback between charges it's long-lasting enough for a day at the beach, a hike in the woods or just a day under the duvet.

The Miniroll is drop-proof to 1.2 meters and it uses more recycled materials than before: it's made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and at least 40% recycled plastic parts. 

The Ultimate Ears Miniroll is available in four colors (depending on regional availability) – Gentle Black, Majestic Blue, Revive Grey and Calming Pink – from today, 9 September. The price is $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$119.99, and that means it has stiff competition in the apparently-growing 'speakers you can hang off your bag' market from the excellent JBL Clip 5, which costs around the same. We look forward to putting them head to head!

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AI can't do your job for you. But it can make you more productive -- if you use it in these ways.

If you’re a guitar player then you've probably heard about, or used, the Ultimate Guitar app for Android and iOS, for finding the chords and lyrics to thousands of popular songs. If you produce podcasts or record your own songs, then you’ve probably also heard of Audacity too, which we named the best open-source audio editor in our best audio editor of 2024 round up. Muse Group, the creator of both these apps, has been one of the early adopters of AI technology, and it's using AI right now to turn people into better guitarists.

As a keen amateur guitarist I’ve often used the Ultimate Guitar website and app for its catalogue of tabs for popular songs. While not quite proper musical notation, tabs are one step up from simple lyrics and chords listings. Tabs show you where to put your fingers on the strings in a visual way, without having to know how to read music. So, if you want to know how to play Wonderwall, you search for it in Ultimate Guitar and you’ll find the lyrics and chords, or the tab versions people have submitted.

Trying not to look back in anger, searching for Oasis tabs (Image credit: Ultimate Guitar/Google)

Usually it’s up to you to work the song out next, but Ultimate Guitar subscribers have access to an AI-powered Practice Mode which can detect if you’re hitting the right notes at the right time, and give you feedback. It can also adjust the scrolling speed of the musical notation on screen as you play, using AI to determine where you are in the song. We asked Martin Keary, VP of Product at Muse Group, about how the company was using AI to help people learn instruments and if its listening mode signaled the end for traditional guitar teachers.

“At Muse Group we’ve taken the approach that you can never really replace a guitar teacher with AI”, Martin told us, “but what you can do is get AI to help them teach. If you think about it, what a lot of a guitar teacher gives you as homework, it’s scales, it’s playing chords, all those things the AI can help you get better at by telling you if you’re doing it right. But so much of playing guitar is physical, it’s fixing your hand position, it’s fixing your posture as you play. You’ll always need a teacher for that.” 

The AI tools in Ultimate Guitar require a subscription, which costs $39.99 / £39.99 / AU$59.99 a year. Can it, I wondered, teach a tone-deaf person to play guitar?

“Well, tone-deaf, I’m not so sure, but I’m going to say, yes!“ says Martin. “I think with the help of Practice Mode you get such direct feedback on what you’re playing that over time you’d have to improve”.

'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

AI has also been used in other Muse Group products, like the popular Audacity audio editor. Audacity is much loved, because it has always been a great free option for recording audio on your Mac or PC. There’s a plug-in called OpenVINO that will use AI to take any recording and separate the different instruments out into different tracks, which you can turn on or off. So, if you wanted to jam along to something on the drums you could remove the drum track from a song, then play along to it. The plug-in runs 100% on your local PC using your processor, rather than calling on servers from the cloud for help.

Something Martin is keen to stress is the strong ethical position Muse Group is taking with AI. “One thing we’ve done is to build our own AI technology ourselves, and make sure it’s only trained on music that has no copyright associated with it.”

As the recent RIAA lawsuit involving popular AI music creation software Suno has proved, we are in uncharted waters when it comes to the legality of AI and its use of copyrighted material for training purposes. ChatGPT is encountering similar issues.

Another thing AI does very well is imitate famous people in the form of chatbots. What does Martin think about, for example, the idea of getting guitar tips from an AI-generated Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain?

“This is something we’ve discussed a bit," he says. “It’s certainly possible, but it would have to be done with the complete agreement from the individual artists, or their estates. I'd imagine it would be incredible if somebody like Jimi Hendrix could demonstrate how he'd approach playing a given piece of music you're trying to learn. I should mention at this point that we are not actively developing this idea right now.“

If all the legal agreements were in place, I personally, would love a guitar lesson from AI Jimi Hendrix. I can just imagine him saying, “Well, you could play it like that man, but I think this way is much more beautiful, here let me show you how...”

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Hybrid smartwatch maker Withings has just announced a couple of fresh color options for the ScanWatch Nova and with it, a slightly new name in the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant. Intended to be more of an elegant, dress watch – as opposed to the more diver-centric style of the current ScanWatch Nova – customers in the US and Australia (UK availability is TBC) have the choice of titanium silver or “bicolor silver and gold” finishes. 

To coincide with the new color options, Withings has also bestowed a white dial upon the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant, with a white sub-dial at 6 o’clock to track progress towards a goal you define in the companion app, and the now-customary OLED display at 12 o’clock to show notifications and other health-related information. 

Adding to its dress-watch nature is a smaller watch face of 39mm compared to the standard Nova’s 42mm, making it not only easier to slip under a shirt cuff but making it better suited to smaller wrists, too. It’s also not quite as water-resistant, being good for up to 50 meters (5ATM) compared to the 100 meters (10ATM) of the Nova. 

Inside, it’s very much business as usual for Withings, with a number of health tracking and monitoring features – which can also be found on the ScanWatch 2 – including a heart rate monitor, SpO2 sensor and an on-demand medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG), which can help to detect irregular heartbeats. It once again misses out on built-in GPS, but can use the capabilities of your phone to track distance travelled during workouts. 

It also boasts a 30-day battery life and launches at the same price as the ScanWatch Nova in the US ($599.99) and Australia (AU$799.99). 

Hybrid design, now a little less hybrid-ey

I’m a big fan of Withings smartwatches. I think the hybrid design is clever and a great option for anyone who wants health-tracking smarts, but without the obvious all-digital face on their wrist. I appreciate traditional analog watches, and so the current Nova is a perfect smartwatch – as you’ll find out in my Withings SmartWatch Nova review – but I’m not quite sold on the Withings ScanWatch Nova Brilliant for one glaring reason. 

It certainly does look like an analog watch – the Rolex Day-Date is an immediate comparison that comes to mind – and I like the use of a white dial as a means to offer customers something different to the black of the Nova. But the digital display at 12 o’clock remaining black is a slight faux pas in my opinion. 

The black dial on the Withings ScanWatch Nova does a better job at hiding the OLED display (Image credit: Future)

The appeal of Withings watches to me is that they hide the fact they have a digital brain, something that is amplified by the use of black dials to camouflage the OLED screen. But having the obvious contrast of both white and black dials in the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant ruins that illusion. Something I think Withings could have done was produce a sort of ‘panda’ watch, a term in the world of horology to reference watches with white dials and black sub-dials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. 

In the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant, there could have been a black sub-dial at 6 o’clock to balance the overall look. Of course, with many ‘panda’ watches falling into the sports or aviation-style watch categories, and the Nova Brilliant being more of a dress watch, this may not have worked.

The Breitling Premier B01 is a classic example of a 'panda' watch. (Image credit: Breitling)

The other option would be to give the digital display at 12 o’clock a white background with black numbers and characters. It’s an OLED display after all, so it’s something that can definitely be done. At the very least, it would have been nice to have seen an option in the companion app that allows you to change the background in a similar fashion to how we can change the theme of other smartphones to light or dark. But, there’s no mention of this in the official press release, and there’s currently no such option available for the ScanWatch Nova, so I’m not expecting it to show up for the Nova Brilliant. It’s also not possible to make the display white on the white-dialled ScanWatch 2, only adding to the expectation the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant will also go without.

I think it’s a shame, because as much as I enjoy Withings’ watches, I personally can’t see myself wearing the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant to a formal event. I’d prefer to wear something a little more understated, or at the very least attract attention for the right reasons. Having an obvious black OLED screen on show isn’t such a good look in my book. But, maybe I’m a watch snob?

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The launch of the iPhone 16 is less than 24 hours away, but according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter, Apple's Glowtime event won't be its last major unveiling of the year – more announcements are expected in October.

We’ve already been teased by the potential arrival of a redesigned Mac mini, as well the possibility of seeing M4-powered MacBooks, but now Gurman expects an October reveal of a new iPad model as well.

The iPad mini 7 has been rumored for quite some time. While initially expected to debut alongside the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 at today’s (September 9) event, Gurman’s prediction makes sense as we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's Glowtime event. 

No matter when the rumored iPad mini is announced, this is good news as the last model was the iPad Mini (2021), so a refresh is long overdue.

iPad Mini 7: what to expect

We have a wishlist of what we want to see from the iPad mini 7, but the key rumors suggest a new chipset and a more compact design than its predecessor. While we’re not expecting the rumored M4 chip to power an iPad mini like it does the iPad Pro models, Gurman speculates that it might include Apple Intelligence support, which means it could be powered by the A17 Pro chip at the very least.

Gurman's use of "iPad models" in his speculations also makes us question the whispers of a larger 8.7-inch iPad mini with an OLED screen (compared to an 8.3-inch LCD display in the standard model), which we had previously written off as early iPad mini 8 rumors. But do we really need multiple iPad mini models?

There’s a reason we’ve questioned whether the iPad mini can survive. With plus-sized iPhones, the iPad 10.9 (2022) and the 11- and 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro already having carved a place for themselves, most use cases are covered. Still, a mid-sized and mid-priced tablet around eight inches might just be the sweet spot for users who want a decent tablet for gaming, streaming and reading – while still being able to hold in one hand.

October’s announcements, potentially featuring a whole new Mac lineup and new iPads, are certainly something to look forward to but, before that, there’s still a big event happening today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (or 3am AEST September 10 AEST) that will see the debut of the latest Apple flagship phones and wearables. As always, we’ll have boots on the ground covering the event, and you can follow along with our live blog to ensure you don't miss a thing.

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