Audio-Technica’s new true wireless earbuds come with all the specs you could want, including a 50-hour battery life, noise cancellation, and spatial audio support - but they cost half the price of similar models.
The ATH-CKS50TW are the latest in a line of successful audiophile-focused wireless earbuds from the Japanese company, and cost £149.99. Global pricing is yet to be announced, but that works out at around $200 / AU$280.
For anyone that’s used to sticking a pair of cheap wired earbuds in their ears, that price might seem steep. However, compared to models that boast similar specs, the ATH-CKS50TW are remarkably cheap. By way of comparison, the Sony WF-1000XM4 , our pick for the best true wireless earbuds of 2022, cost $279.99 / £250 / AU$449.95.
So, what do you get for your money? Audio-Technica says its new noise-cancelling earbuds combine advanced acoustic technology with a secure and comfortable fit to deliver “phenomenal sound with deep, powerful bass”.
Large 9mm dynamic drivers should offer a well-rounded bass response, while aptX Adaptive support means you’ll be able to enjoy hi-res audio files. If the ATH-CKS50TW sound anything like their predecessors, the ATH-CKS5TW , you can expect a neutral, well-balanced soundstage with excellent dynamism and detail.
Battery life for days
The ATH-CKS50TW come with a 50-hour battery life, which is one of the longest playback times we’ve heard of for wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC is usually a big drain on battery life). That’s 20 hours of playback from the buds themselves, which is reduced to 15 hours with ANC turned on - again, that’s a longer on-board battery life than we’d expect from true wireless earbuds.
In a similar way to the Sony WF-1000XM4 and the Apple AirPods Pro , the Audio-Technica earbuds have a hear-through function, so you can quickly tap into your surroundings when needed; for example, if you need to order a coffee but don’t want to remove your earbuds.
Like Sony and Apple’s in-ear headphones , the ATH-CKS50TW come with support for spatial audio. Audio-Technica’s buds are Sony 360 Reality Audio-certified, so you’ll be able to listen to compatible tracks in virtual object-based surround sound, putting you at the heart of your favorite songs.
If you want to use the earbuds while you game or watch movies, Audio-Technica has kitted them out with a Low Latency Mode, which the company says will minimize sound delay, while a multipoint pairing feature should make it easy to swap between devices. Or, if you’re taking the ATH-CKS50TW on a run, an IPX4 water resistance rating should protect the earbuds from a little sweat or rain.
All those specs certainly sound impressive - especially when you consider the relatively low price of these Audio-Technica true wireless earbuds. We’ll have to test them for ourselves to see if the earbuds live up to the company’s claims, but we’re eager to see whether Sony and Apple have a new, budget rival to contend with.
Westworld season 4: everything we know
Westworld season 4 was confirmed a couple of weeks before the season 3 finale aired in May 2020, suggesting that – despite a drop-off in viewers – HBO still has plenty of faith in its big-budget sci-fi drama.
"From the western theme park to the technocratic metropolis of the near future, we've thoroughly enjoyed every twist and turn from the minds of master storytellers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy," said president of HBO programming, Casey Bloys in a company statement. "We can't wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next."
Showrunners Nolan and Joy are back to continue their epic tale – originally based on the 1973 movie directed by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton – and, going on past form, it's probably best to expect the unexpected.
In its third year, the drama took a hard turn away from the android theme park setting at the heart of the first two seasons, spending most of its time in the human world. Westworld season 4 seems likely to continue in the same vein, picking up existing storylines and, possibly, finding new roles for familiar faces.
Spoilers for the season 3 finale follow , so make sure you're all caught up before reading any more information on Westworld season 4's release date, cast and story.
Release date: HBO has confirmed that Westworld season 4 will begin streaming via HBO Max on June 26, 2022.
Cast: Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright and Thandiwe Newton will all reprise their roles in Westworld season 4. Evan Rachel Wood will also be returning, even though her character, Dolores Abernathy, was killed off in the season 3 finale. Prodigal Son's Aurora Perrineau has reportedly joined the cast for a few episodes, too.
Story: Westworld season 3 essentially ended with the beginning of a revolution, led by Aaron Paul's Caleb. We're expecting that plot strand to continue, alongside Bernard's quest to understand the Sublime.
HBO confirmed Westworld season 4's release date, June 26 , in a cryptic teaser trailer prematurely shared to YouTube in May. We've embedded the footage below.
Season 4 will comprise eight episodes, and stream on HBO Max in the US and Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the UK.
Showrunners Lisa Joy (who directed the Hugh Jackman-starring Reminiscence last year) and Jonathan Nolan are traditionally spoiler-phobic, so specifics on the Westworld season 4 story are currently thin on the ground. That said, Joy did give Deadline ’s Hero Nation podcast a couple of small teases.
Asked for a word to describe the show’s return, she said “Inversion”, and also promised that, “You’re going to see some new worlds that I think are really fun, and you’re going to see someone who I kidnapped from Reminiscence in a funny way.” (Before you get too excited about a Marvel -style shared universe, it’s important to note that Joy stated there was no “crossover” between Westworld and her movie debut, so the connective tissue may not stretch any further than the fact Thandiwe Newton and Angela Sarafyan starred in both.)
One thing we’re pretty sure about is that we won’t be seeing a certain maniacal trillionaire again – Serac (Vincent Cassel) is now dead, and his ridiculously advanced AI are longer controlling humanity.
What's less clear is the fate of Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood). Technically she won't be truly dead until all the hosts perish, as she was revealed to be the template machine on which all others were based. However, the femme fatale version of Abernathy bent on taking down the human world order appears to be no more: Serac deleted her memories in search of the keys to the Sublime, a secret server to which some hosts have escaped.
The thing is, humans and robots return from death with such regularity in Westworld that there’s always a chance that characters can come back as hosts.
Wood implied that Dolores as we know her may properly be finished this time in an interview on The Tonight Show: “I think obviously it's been proven, you know, it's quite hard to get rid of characters, but I do think certain things are final.” How final?
“Dolores is gone,” Nolan told Variety in 2020, but we see the character in season 4's first trailer, so we're confident of her appearance in new episodes.
“From the beginning Lisa and I wanted to make a show that constantly reinvented itself, that could be a different show every season,” he continued. “I think it’s important with a show in which death can be impermanent – these are robots, after all – to mark the occasion with Dolores. We love Evan Rachel Wood and we haven’t [sighs] started talking publicly about exactly what the show looks like going forward. But it looks very different.”
So, while Dolores may be finished, Wood could be playing an entirely different character in Westworld season 4.
Back to the Sublime, and Bernard’s (Jeffrey Wright) final scene suggests that we may be heading even further in the future, perhaps to find “an answer to what comes after the end of the world”. Once we discover that it’s he, not Dolores, who holds the keys to the android afterlife, he puts on a mysterious headset. Then we see him covered in dust, as if he's spent many years stuck in the same spot.
“Bernard is still trying to solve it all and he is still very much part of the struggle,” Wright told Deadline . “The struggle goes on, and Bernard is still right there at the center of it. It’s going to be fun.” He also added that, “Season 4 is going to be more of the Westworld you’ve come to expect and more digging down into some issues and some technology that is going to look familiar to us, as always.”
Since humanity is descending into anarchy, there's still plenty to be resolved in the present. As Caleb (Aaron Paul) continues the revolution in Dolores' stead, Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) searches for her daughter and Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) builds her host army alongside an android version of the Man in Black (Ed Harris), could we experience different timelines with Bernard in the future? Or a far-future world where the hosts are the dominant force?
Whichever way it goes, Deadline reported in August 2021 that we'll see Caleb encounter Charlotte Hale in this season.
While no cast details have been confirmed beyond the addition of Prodigal Son's Aurora Perrineau, we'd predict these key characters will return for season 4 – especially Paul, Newton and Harris, who all appeared in the HBO sizzle reel.
After the show's promising premise was established in season 1, the second became much too complex. With characters dying and returning all over the place, the stakes became ever lower, and it was easy to lose track of who was alive, dead, or Dolores.
Season 3 was a soft reset as the action mostly unfolded in a more digestible single timeline. Westworld season 4 should continue this approach: we don't want to have to pull out a pen and paper just to stay on top of what's going on.
Windows 11 Settings app to get even better with Sun Valley 2
Microsoft continues to improve parts of Windows 11 in the run-up to its first major update, with the Settings app gaining new icons, a more colorful look, and the handy Storage Spaces tool moving over to the app.
Since the release of Windows 11 in June 2021, we’ve seen plenty of refinements that have modernized iconic apps such as Paint and the return of Windows Media Player .
After the launch of Windows 98, Control Panel became the go-to in finding the right settings for your PC, whether it was for changing the display resolution or checking user accounts. However, Microsoft has recently focused on replacing Control Panel with the Settings app, first introduced in Windows 10 .
While Storage Spaces is moving over to Settings, the move from Windows 10 to 11 has seen colorful icons to better showcase which options are available, alongside rows in each section that better explain how you can use the accessibility options for example.
But with more updates coming to the app, it gives the impression that Settings is almost ready for Sun Valley 2 , the next major update for Windows 11.
Analysis: Making life easier in Windows 11
Microsoft appears to be aware that parts of Windows are starting to show their age, such as Task Manager and user interface elements in Explorer. There’s been a renewed effort to redesign apps to better fit in with Windows 11’s new look, as well as introducing and improving tools to help you better manage your workflow, thanks to the newly-renamed Focus feature, previously called Focus Assist .
Changing settings on a Windows PC has always been confusing for some people. Back in the days of using Windows XP to Windows 10, you would click on the Control Panel app in My Computer or My PC, and be greeted with loads of icons, not knowing where to go for your query.
But Settings is already a step in the right direction, and the coming improvements in Sun Valley 2 look to go further. This is the first major update to Windows 11, similar to the six-month updates that would appear with Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft is aiming for a big yearly release with Windows 11, showcasing a better Task Manager, better controls for the taskbar, and much more.
Small touches such as splashes of color, refreshed icons for the sidebar, and more prominent descriptions of the settings you’ve selected to manage will be a big help for everyone, and this also gives the app plenty of room for more settings to move over from the Control Panel app in the future.
While we’re also going to see stickers to place on your wallpaper for some reason, all of these refinements are a step in the right direction. With Sun Valley 2 tentatively scheduled for the second half of 2022, we may still see more improvements to existing apps and Settings in the coming weeks and months.
Via WindowsLatest