“Future moon astronauts may find water more accessible than previously thought,” writes Space.com, citing a new NASA-led experiment:

Because the moon lacks a magnetic field like Earth’s, the barren lunar surface is constantly bombarded by energetic particles from the sun… Li Hsia Yeo, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, led a lab experiment observing the effects of simulated solar wind on two samples of loose regolith brought to Earth by the Apollo 17 mission… To mimic conditions on the moon, the researchers built a custom apparatus that included a vacuum chamber, where the samples were placed, and a tiny particle accelerator, which the scientists used to bombard the samples with hydrogen ions for several days.

“The exciting thing here is that with only lunar soil and a basic ingredient from the sun — which is always spitting out hydrogen — there’s a possibility of creating water,” Yeo said in a statement. “That’s incredible to think about.” Supporting this idea, observations from previous moon missions have revealed an abundance of hydrogen gas in the moon’s tenuous atmosphere. Scientists suspect that solar-wind-driven heating facilitates the combination of hydrogen atoms on the surface into hydrogen gas, which then escapes into space. This process also has a surprising upside, the new study suggests. Leftover oxygen atoms are free to bond with new hydrogen atoms formed by repeated bombardment of the solar wind, prepping the moon for more water formation on a renewable basis.

The findings could help assess how sustainable water on the moon is, as the sought-after resource is crucial for both life support and as propellant for rockets. The team’s study was published in March in the journal JGR Planets .

NASA created a fascinating animation showing how water is released from the Moon during meteor showers. (In 2016 scientists discovered that when speck of comet debris vaporize on impact, they create shock waves in the lunar soil which can sometimes breach the dry upper layer, releasing water molecules from the hydrated layer below…)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot reader itwbennett writes: Personal health information on 4.7 million Blue Shield California subscribers was unintentionally shared between Google Analytics and Google Ads between April 2021 and January 2025 due to a misconfiguration error. Security consultant and SANS Institute instructor Brandon Evans points to two lessons to take from this debacle:

Read the documentation of any third party service you sign up for, to understand the security and privacy controls;Know what data is being collected from your organization, and what you don’t want shared.

“If there is a concern by the organization that Google Ads would use this information, they should really consider whether or not they should be using a platform like Google Analytics in the first place,” Evans says in the article. “Because from a technical perspective, there is nothing stopping Google from sharing the information across its platform…

“Google definitely gives you a great bunch of controls, but technically speaking, that data is within the walls of that organization, and it’s impossible to know from the outside how that data is being used.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Curiosity Mars rover covers a lot of ground for a robot that only moves at a max speed of .1 mph. A photo snapped recently by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides a pretty cool visualization of what the rover has been up to so far this year, showing the tracks Curiosity left behind as it journeyed from its previous science target — an area called the Gediz Vallis channel — to its next destination. The rover itself is just a tiny speck at the front of the roughly 1,050-foot-long trail, and according to NASA, this snap “is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the Red Planet.”

The image was captured on February 28 by the orbiter’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, and shows Curiosity’s movement over 11 drives starting at the beginning of that month. While a few weeks might seem like a long time for tire tracks to stick around in the dirt, this is normal for Mars. The tracks are “[l]ikely to last for months before being erased by wind,” NASA says. Curiosity is expected to reach its next science destination, which is home to formations thought to have been created long ago by groundwater, in the coming weeks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-mars-orbiter-snapped-this-image-of-curiosity-trucking-along-down-at-the-surface-211404950.html?src=rss

“Google-owned YouTube’s revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion,” reports the Los Angeles Times, “which would make it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to a recent report from research firm MoffettNathanson, which called YouTube ‘the new king of all media.'”

YouTube, run by Chief Executive Neal Mohan since 2023, accounted for 12% of U.S. TV viewing in March, more than other rival streaming platforms including Netflix and Tubi, according to Nielsen… More people are watching YouTube on TV sets rather than on smartphones and computer screens, consuming more than 1 billion hours on average of YouTube content on TV daily, the company said on its website.

When YouTube first started its founders envisioned it as a dating site, according to the article, “where people would upload videos and score them. When that didn’t work, the founders decided to open up the platform for all sorts of videos.” And since this was 20 years ago, “Users drove traffic to YouTube by sharing videos on MySpace.”

But the article includes stories of people getting rich through YouTube’s sharing of ad revenue:

Patrick Starrr, who produces makeup tutorial videos, said he made his first $1 million through YouTube at the age of 25. He left his job at retailer MAC Cosmetics in Florida and moved to L.A…

[Video creator Dhar Mann] started posting videos on YouTube in 2018 with no film background. Mann previously had a business that sold supplies to grow weed. Today, his company, Burbank-based Dhar Mann Studios, operates on 125,000 square feet of production space, employs roughly 200 people and works with 2,000 actors a year on family friendly programs that touch on how students and families deal with topics such as bullying, narcolepsy, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and hoarding. Mann made $45 million last year, according to Forbes estimates. The majority of his company’s revenue comes through YouTube.
He tells the Times “I don’t think it’s just the future of TV — it is TV, and the world is catching on.”

And then there’s this…

“My mom would always give me so much crap about it — she would say, ‘Why do you want to do YouTube?'” said Chucky Appleby, now an executive at MrBeast. His reply: “Mom, you can make a living from this.” MrBeast’s holding company, Beast Industries, which employs more than 400 people, made $473 million in revenue last year, according to Business Insider. In the last 28 days, MrBeast content — which includes challenges and stunt videos — received 3.6 billion views on YouTube, Appleby said.

Appleby, 28, said he’s since bought a Jeep for his mom.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ZDNet’s reviewer says “I tested this affordable E Ink phone for two weeks, and it rewired my brain (for the better).”

It’s Mudita’s new Kompakt smartphone with a two-color E Ink display — which ZDNet calls “an affordable choice” for those “considering investing in a so-called ‘dumbphone’…”

Compared to modern smartphones, the Mudita Kompakt is a bit chunky at half an inch thick and five inches long. It’s still rather light, though, weighing just 164 grams and covered in soft touch material, so it feels good in the hand. The bezels around the 4.3-inch display are rather large, with three touch-sensitive buttons for back, home, and quick settings, so navigating to key elements is intuitive, whether you’re coming from Android or iOS.
The phone features a fingerprint sensor to lock and unlock, and it’s housed on the power button in the middle of the right side. I’m a huge fan of consolidating these two purposes to the same button, and it works flawlessly…. You can charge via the USB-C, but surprisingly, it also supports wireless charging. All in all, the battery is quite good. Mudita says it can last for up to six days on standby, with around two days of standard use. In my testing, I found this to be about accurate.

On the left side of the device is a button that houses one of its key features: offline mode. Switching to this mode disables all wireless connectivity and support for the camera, so it truly becomes distraction-free.. [T]here is undoubtedly some lag in certain apps — such as the camera — due to the E Ink display technology and processor/RAM specifications. You will also likely notice some lag in text messaging if you tap quickly on the keyboard, often resulting in getting ahead of the spell-checking feature. As far as apps go, in addition to phone calls and text messages, the Kompakt includes an alarm, calculator, chess game, maps, meditation, weather, and a voice recorder.

Phone calls “sounded great on both ends,” according to the review. (And text messaging “works well if you don’t tap too quickly on the keyboard.”) But the 8MP camera produced photos “that look like they were taken over ten years ago.” (And accessing the internal storage “requires connecting to a Windows PC and launching File Explorer,” although “you can also just share photos via text messaging, as it’s much faster than using a computer.”) But ZDNet calls it an “attractive — if very simplified — E Ink display.”

Mudita is asking $369 now for preorder customers, according to the article, while the phone will be available in May for $439.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Siri is struggling. It’s struggling to respond to simple questions or create simple calendar events. And the end still isn’t in sight, now that Apple has mostly delayed Apple Intelligence’s “smarter Siri” until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Perplexity AI’s new Voice Assistant is here now, trying to capitalize on Apple’s mess. In addition to answering questions, the AI’s new Voice Mode is able to create calendar events and reminders, play music, and more. It can hold conversations, and even perform some web-based tasks. These are things that Siri just can’t do, at least not yet.

How to use Perplexity Voice Assistant on iOS

Download and open the latest version of the Perplexity app. In the Ask Anything bar, you’ll see an animated Waveform icon to the right. That’s the shortcut to the Voice Assistant.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Simply tap on it and start speaking. Perplexity will show an animation when you’re speaking, and when it’s responding to you. There’s also an option to Mute the microphone for longer chats.

This is more of a conversational space, so you can keep talking as Perplexity responds. Tap the Gear icon up top for settings. Here, you can disable the transcript feature, or enable a push to talk mode. You can also change the Assistant’s voice.

The Voice Mode works in the background, and only stops when you hit the X button in the app. So you can start the Voice Mode, switch to a different app, and continue talking to Perplexity in the background, if you wish.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

For quicker access, you should add the Medium Perplexity widget to your home screen, since it has a shortcut to the Voice Mode. Alternately, you can create a shortcut and add it to your Home screen, Lock screen, Control Center, or even the Action button (to set that up, follow this guide.)

What Perplexity Does better than Siri

Perplexity integrates directly with Apple’s default apps like Calendar, Reminders, Mail, Contacts, and more. As long as you give it permission, Perplexity can add events to your calendar, remind you of something, and even draft emails and text messages.

As it stands, Perplexity also has a better knowledge base than Siri, as it’s connected to the web. So asking something like “when was the Pixel 4a launched” brings up an instant response, while asking Siri requires a confirmation via ChatGPT.

In my testing, I found Perplexity was reliable at creating calendar events and reminders, more than I often get with Siri.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Drafting an email shows a stark difference between the two approaches. I used the same prompt with both Siri and Perplexity: Draft an email asking Pranay if he’s up for a Pickleball match this weekend. Siri took this literally, and drafted an email saying “if he’s up for a Pickleball match this weekend.” That’s it. Perplexity, on the other hand, expanded this into a coherent sentence, added a Subject, and showed a compose box. All that was left for me to do was switch out my name and hit Send (Siri also doesn’t send an email without your confirmation).

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

My experience with text messaging was more iffy. Perplexity couldn’t just draft a message to Pranay, even though I gave it full access to my contacts (if you don’t want to do that, you can dictate the email address or the phone number instead). Hopefully, this is a day-one issue and gets sorted out later on.

Perplexity’s Voice Assistant can also play music directly from Apple Music, using voice commands. And because Perplexity integrates with YouTube, it’s quite quick when finding YouTube videos. I asked it to find a soothing video about the hidden art of ceramics in Japan, and in a couple of seconds, Perplexity started playing the video inside the app.

What Perplexity Does that Siri just can’t do

Perplexity’s Voice Assistant can converse with you with ease. There’s a very smooth back and forth, where the assistant remembers the details that you asked before, knows the context to your prompts, and replies accordingly. It simply doesn’t need to ask follow-up questions.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

This is great for asking general questions, and for learning things. Instead of a 500 word response, Perplexity’s AI assistant will give you a couple of sentences and will prompt you to ask further, sometimes even giving you clues about what you might want to ask about next.

Perplexity can take actions on the web too, thought you have to be the one to take the final action, which is fair (and, honestly, appreciated).

For example, I asked Perplexity to book a table at White Olive at 8 PM in New York City, and it opened Open Table with all those details already filled in. I had to confirm the details, and finish the booking myself. Then, I asked if Perplexity can call me an Uber, and it opened the Uber app with the location of the White Olive restaurant mapped in.

These are the things that Siri with Apple Intelligence is supposed to be able to do for you, but we won’t see these features until at least the end of the year, and we have no idea how exactly they will work.

It’s the transparency and consistency that matters

In my limited hands-on testing, I noticed that Perplexity’s responses were more consistent than Siri’s, and since Voice Mode stays active by default, I asked nuanced questions without feeling like I need to hurry myself, like I do with Siri.

Siri is sometimes great, and sometimes it just doesn’t respond. Perplexity takes care of that issue. Of course, there were times with Perplexity ran into a wall, like with my text messaging question. Here too, it calmly told me it wasn’t able to accomplish the task, and that it could try again if I wanted. Hopefully, these small issues will get sorted out with more updates.

Of course, Perplexity can’t replace Siri in the true sense, because Apple won’t allow for it. Only Siri can access OS level features like changing toggles, settings, calling someone, replying to text messages, setting alarms, and so on. But for all the other things, if you’re feeling frustrated with the limitations of Siri, Perplexity’s Voice Assistant is definitely worth a try.

While the Switch 2 has backwards compatibility, Nintendo is releasing upgraded versions of its old games with enhanced framerates and resolution, as well as extra content. It’s also selling upgrades cheaper than full games, which you can get for titles you already own. The upgrades for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will set you back $10. Now, the company has started revealing more upgrade prices for old games, and it looks like the ones for Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Party Jamboree will cost you twice as much at $20. 

NintendoLife first posted about the upgrades’ potential prices based on their eShop listings for Europe. The company has updated its US eShop since then to show that they’re also being sold for $20 in the country. If you buy the upgrade for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, you’re getting access to a new part of the game called Star-Crossed World, wherein you have to uncover the mystery surrounding the meteor that struck the world. Meanwhile Super Mario Party Jamboree comes with Jamboree TV, a game show hosted by Toad. The Switch 2 version of the title uses the console’s Joy-Con 2 and microphone, and if you use its camera, you can also put your face into the action during mini-games. 

Super Mario Party Jamboree for the Switch 2 will be available on July 24, while Kirby’s Switch 2 edition will be available on August 28. Both games will set you back $80 if you buy the full Switch 2 version instead of upgrading an old copy. Nintendo has yet to release the prices for the Switch 2 editions of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which will be available later this year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-charges-20-for-mario-party-jamboree-and-kirby-switch-2-upgrades-140031152.html?src=rss

Legacy search brand Yahoo has been working on its own web browser prototype, and says it would like to buy Google’s Chrome if the company is forced by a court to sell it. From a report: The information came out during the fourth day of the Justice Department’s remedies trial to rectify Google’s search monopoly. The DOJ has — among other proposals — requested Judge Amit Mehta break up Google by requiring it sell its Chrome browser, which the agency says is a key distribution channel for its popular search engine that’s amassed too much power for anyone else to compete. Yahoo isn’t the only company interested in buying Chrome. While DuckDuckGo’s CEO said they wouldn’t be able to afford it, witnesses from Perplexity and OpenAI both expressed interest in the popular browser on the stand this week. Yahoo obviously isn’t worth Chrome’s estimated price tag of tens of billions of dollars. So the company is saying that its owner, the hedge fund giant Apollo, will help bankroll the purchase should the opportunity present itself.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple may shift all of its US iPhone production from China to India in an effort to avoid Trump’s tariffs, according to a report from The Financial Times. The goal is to manufacture all 60 million iPhone devices sold to American customers in India by 2026, doubling current production numbers in the nation. That would be a stark shift, as Apple has manufactured the majority of its iPhone products in China since they debuted in 2007. 

Apple first started building iPhones in India back in 2017 and late in 2023, pledged to build up to 50 million iPhones in the nation within three years with suppliers Foxconn and Tata. With that in mind, it would only have to boost that number by 10 million to achieve the new 60 million unit goal. 

Those tariffs of up to 145 percent announced earlier this month have thrown electronic manufacturing into turmoil, despite announced exemptions for smartphones and computers. India, by contrast, has only been subject to a 10 percent US tariff. However, the nation could still be subject to a 26 percent tariff once a 90-day grace period is lifted, particularly as Trump has called India a “tariff abuser” and “tariff king.”

Apple reportedly airlifted $2 billion worth of iPhones to the US from India in March to bypass impending China levies. Trump’s stated goal with tariffs has been to shift more manufacturing to the US. However, many experts have said that would be virtually impossible, particularly in the electronics industry. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-may-shift-all-us-bound-iphone-production-from-china-to-india-133049630.html?src=rss

You might not be familiar with the phrase “peanut butter platform heels” but it apparently originates from a scientific experiment, where peanut butter was transformed into a diamond-like structure, under very high pressure—hence the “heels” reference.

Except this never happened. The phrase is complete nonsense, but was given a definition and backstory by Google AI Overviews when asked by writer Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios, as per this Threads post (which contains some other amusing examples).

The internet picked this up and ran with it. Apparently, “you can’t lick a badger twice” means you can’t trick someone twice (Bluesky), “a loose dog won’t surf” means something is unlikely to happen (Wired), and “the bicycle eats first” is a way of saying that you should prioritize your nutrition when training for a cycle ride (Futurism).

Google, however, is not amused. I was keen to put together my own collection of nonsense phrases and apparent meanings, but it seems the trick is no longer possible: Google will now refuse to show an AI Overview or tell you you’re mistaken if you try and get an explanation of a nonsensical phrase.

If you go to an actual AI chatbot, it’s a little different. I ran some quick tests with Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT, and the bots attempt to explain these phrases logically, while also flagging that they appear to be nonsensical, and don’t seem to be in common use. That’s a much more nuanced approach, with context that has been lacking from AI Overviews.

Now, AI Overviews are still labeled as “experimental,” but most people won’t take much notice of that. They’ll assume the information they see is accurate and reliable, built on information scraped from web articles.

And while Google’s engineers may have wised up to this particular type of mistake, much like the glue on pizza one last year, it probably won’t be long before another similar issue crops up. It speaks to some basic problems with getting all of our information from AI, rather than references written by actual humans.

What’s going on?

Fundamentally, these AI Overviews are built to provide answers and synthesize information even if there’s no exact match for your query—which is where this phrase-definition problem starts. The AI feature is also perhaps not the best judge of what is and isn’t reliable information on the internet.

Looking to fix a laptop problem? Previously you’d get a list of blue links from Reddit and various support forums (and maybe Lifehacker), but with AI Overviews, Google sucks up everything it can find on those links and tries to patch together a smart answer—even if no one has had the specific problem you’re asking about. Sometimes that can be helpful, and sometimes you might end up making your problems worse.

Credit: Lifehacker

Anecdotally, I’ve also noticed AI bots have a tendency to want to agree with prompts, and affirm what a prompt says, even if it’s inaccurate. These models are eager to please, and essentially want to be helpful even if they can’t be. Depending on how you word your query, you can get AI to agree with something that isn’t right.

I didn’t manage to get any nonsensical idioms defined by Google AI Overviews, but I did ask the AI why R.E.M.’s second album was recorded in London: That was down to the choice of producer Joe Boyd, the AI Overview told me. But in fact, R.E.M.’s second album wasn’t recorded in London, it was recorded in North Carolina—it’s the third LP that was recorded in London, and produced by Joe Boyd.

The actual Gemini app gives the right response: that the second album wasn’t recorded in London. But the way AI Overviews attempt to combine multiple online sources into a coherent whole seems to be rather suspect in terms of its accuracy, especially if your search query makes some confident claims of its own.

With the right encouragement, Google will get its music chronology wrong.
Credit: Lifehacker

“When people do nonsensical or ‘false premise’ searches, our systems will try to find the most relevant results based on the limited web content available,” Google told Android Authority in an official statement. “This is true of Search overall, and in some cases, AI Overviews will also trigger in an effort to provide helpful context.”

We seem to be barreling towards having search engines that always respond with AI rather than information compiled by actual people, but of course AI has never fixed a faucet, tested an iPhone camera, or listened to R.E.M.—it’s just synthesizing vast amounts of data from people who have, and trying to compose answers by figuring out which word is most likely to go in front of the previous one.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale right now for $179, which is a discount of $50. Just head on over to Wellbots and pop in the code ENGAD50 to score the deal.

This is Google’s latest and greatest audio product and easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. They are smaller and more comfortable than the previous version, which is great. Despite the product shrinkage, the sound has also been improved. The bass is punchy and the highs are crisp.

The battery life is also slightly improved when compared to the original earbuds. You can expect eight hours of use with ANC on, but this increases to 30 hours when you consider the included charging case. These are the company’s first earbuds with a Tensor chip, which allows for ultra-low latency audio processing and multi-path signal handling.

Other perks include conversation detection, multipoint Bluetooth and the ability to customize what long-pressing the button does. These earbuds can also automatically switch between devices linked to a Google account, which is great for Android users but doesn’t do much for Apple fans.

For those on a serious budget, the Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds are also $50 off via Wellbots. Enter the same ENGAD50 code to bring the price down to just $49.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/googles-pixel-buds-pro-2-are-50-off-right-now-130054223.html?src=rss

For earbuds in the $150 range, there’s usually not a lot to get excited about. Sure, those models typically offer the basics with decent sound quality, but very few have a stand-out feature that leaves a lasting impression. For its ATH-CKS50TW2 ($149), Audio-Technica sought to do this with extremely long battery life and a neat trick that will help you make the most of it. There’s a lot more to like on this set, including a list of tools that rival more expensive alternatives, but the ATH-CKS50TW2 is far from a complete package. The satisfying audio performance and ability to use them for over 20 hours on a charge might be enough to entice you to overlook those shortcomings.

The good: battery life, magnets and sound quality

When Audio-Technica announced the ATH-CKS50TW2 at CES, the first item on the spec sheet that struck me was the battery life. The company says you can expect up to 25 hours on a full charge without active noise cancellation (ANC) and up to 40 more hours from the charging case. With ANC enabled, you’ll still get a whopping 15 hours of listening time, which is about double what a lot of the competition offers these days. Importantly, those claims actually held true during my tests.

To maximize those numbers, the company equipped the ATH-CKS50TW2 with so-called Magnetic Switch technology. Specifically, the earbuds snap together with magnets to turn off before you put them in the case. Much of the competition doesn’t power down until the earbuds are inside of the case, but with the ATH-CKS50TW2, you don’t need to worry about that extra step. Simply take them off and snap them together, then you’ll know you’re no longer wasting precious battery power while the buds are resting on your desk. This also means the ATH-CKS50TW2 won’t always be charging in the case when you’re not using them, which should help extend battery longevity.

I’m also happy to report that Audio-Technica brought its trademark warm, inviting sound profile to the ATH-CKS50TW2. More specifically, the stock audio isn’t overly tuned, so bass remains pleasantly thumpy when needed and dialed down when it’s not. The bassline of Kendrick Lamar’s “tv off” booms while the hi-hats, claps and vocals cut through clear. When you switch over to something more mellow with less low-end bombast like Turnpike Troubadours’ “Be Here,” you get the full gamut of the acoustic instruments and light drums without bass overpowering the mix.

It doesn’t deliver the enhanced clarity and pristine detail that more expensive, flagship-level earbuds do, but the ATH-CKS50TW2 is plenty good for $150. In fact, this may be the best option in terms of sound quality in this price range. On Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow, for example, the acoustic guitar — the lone instrument on the album — doesn’t have the expressive nuance as it does on Technics’ AZ100 or Bowers and Wilkins’ Pi8. But I’ll admit the ATH-CKS50TW2 holds its own against similarly priced competition. That, and the extended battery life alone make these earbuds a compelling package.

The not so good: design, controls and a missing feature

By 2025 standards, the ATH-CKS50TW2 earbuds are big and bulky. They also feel unbalanced, with much of the weight sitting well outside the curves of your ears. This means they’re not as comfortable as smaller models and feel unsteady. I never had issues with them falling out, but they feel like they could, which isn’t great. Perhaps Audio-Technica needed the extra space for bigger batteries, which I’m guessing will be an acceptable trade-off for users searching for longer listening times between charges.

Audio-Technica gave the ATH-CKS50TW2 physical controls, which is usually a good thing. Like some of the company’s previous models, the buttons are small, positioned along the top edge of the earbuds. Due to the design of the ATH-CKS50TW2 though, you have to hold the earbuds in place while pressing those buttons. It’s cumbersome, mostly due to the size and weight of each bud. The bulky, unbalanced construction has trickle-down effects on other aspects of the listening experience.

Billy Steele for Engadget

The ATH-CKS50TW2 is missing a crucial feature — wear detection. But the company has done well to include ANC, Hear-Through (ambient sound) mode, a five-band EQ, soundscapes, media controls and battery updates in its app. There’s also a “private timer” and low latency mode for games and video. You can even adjust how many steps volume adjustments will jump and test your microphone to see if optional noise reduction is needed during calls. Additionally, a quick-attention, Talk-Through mode that reduces volume and activates ambient sound for brief chats too. But you won’t find the simple, and handy, automatic pausing when you remove the earbuds from your ears.

The final verdict on the ATH-CKS50TW2

My initial assumption was correct: the main reason to buy the ATH-CKS50TW2 is the extremely long battery life. I don’t think the Magnetic Switch feature is necessary to hit the promised runtime, but it’s nice to know the earbuds are off without having to put them in the case where they’ll recharge even when you don’t need them to. Audio-Technica’s sonic prowess is on display here as well, albeit to a lesser degree than some of the company’s other earbuds and headphones.

The design isn’t the most comfortable and the controls are awkward to use, but the full list of the ATH-CKS50TW2’s features is quite long. Despite a few flaws, there’s plenty to like here, including the two most important things for a lot of users: sound and battery life.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/audio-technica-ath-cks50tw2-review-long-battery-life-and-satisfying-sound-for-150-130042531.html?src=rss