WiiM Intros Sonos-Killing Smart Speaker and Apple and Google Get More Accessible—Gear News of the Week

Global Accessibility Awareness Day was Thursday, truthful it's fitting that some Apple and Google person announced a raft of caller accessibility features for their devices this week, each slated to onshore successful nan coming year.

First up, let's talk Apple. The headline is Magnifier support for Mac. This is integrated pinch Accessibility Reader, truthful you tin usage your iPhone camera to zoom successful connected a distant whiteboard aliases motion and magnify it connected your MacBook screen, tweak opposition and colors to make it much legible, aliases extract nan matter into your preferred format.

For deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Apple has beefed up Live Listen by adding Live Captions support and extending it to nan Apple Watch. You tin usage your iPhone’s microphone to boost audio for AirPods aliases proceeding immunodeficiency pinch Live Listen, but pinch Live Captions, you tin get instant transcription connected your wrist. The Apple Watch tin besides service arsenic a distant power for capture, truthful you tin time off your iPhone adjacent to nan speaker (ideal for a meeting, classroom, aliases speech hall). You tin besides rewind if you missed thing and reappraisal nan transcript later.

Other noteworthy additions see Braille Access, which turns your Apple instrumentality (iPhone, iPad, Mac, aliases Vision Pro) into a braille statement taker, enhanced oculus and caput search for iPhone and iPad, positive caller Accessibility Nutrition Labels successful nan App Store, which will let group to spot astatine a glimpse what accessibility features an app aliases crippled supports. You tin find nan full database connected Apple’s website. —Simon Hill

Google Has Accessibility Updates for Android and Chrome

Google's accessibility update focuses successful connected existing Android and Chrome features, arsenic good arsenic immoderate caller ones aimed astatine Chromebooks successful nan classroom.

The relentless thrust of AI has seen Google’s Gemini heighten respective existing services for illustration Android’s Talkback surface reader, which offers AI-generated descriptions of images for low-vision and unsighted folks. The institution is expanding that integration, truthful you tin now inquire questions astir those images, possibly nan worldly of a pictured dress aliases learning nan make and exemplary of a car. Google is besides relying connected AI to heighten its Expressive Captions to convey much emotion and tone.

Improvements to nan Chrome browser alteration you to usage your surface scholar to interact pinch PDFs to read, highlight, search, and transcript matter conscionable arsenic you would pinch immoderate different page. Page Zoom has besides been improved for Chrome connected Android, truthful you tin summation matter size without affecting nan webpage layout and customize your preferred zoom levels for different pages, bringing it into statement pinch Chrome connected desktop.

For students utilizing Chromebooks successful nan classroom, Google has enabled hands-free navigation pinch Face control, which uses nan webcam to way facial movements. The caret browsing mounting enables folks pinch ocular impairment to navigate and interact pinch web pages utilizing a keyboard alternatively of a mouse. ChromeVox is simply a built-in surface scholar that tin publication onscreen matter aloud and will soon beryllium capable to output audio captions successful braille erstwhile nan Chromebook is connected to a braille display. Chrome besides now features much natural-sounding voices for text-to-speech.

Finally, nan College Board’s Bluebook testing app (where students tin return nan SAT and Advanced Placement exams) tin entree each of Google’s built-in accessibility features, including ChromeVox, Dictation, and nan College Board’s integer testing tools. —Simon Hill

Watch Out Sonos! WiiM’s First Smart Speaker Is Here

Ever since Sonos bungled its app update past year, Sonos stans person been clamoring for a whole-home streaming replacement that reliably works. Chinese audio marque WiiM makes easy-to-use audio devices that support virtually each awesome streaming service. I’ve been enjoying nan company's streaming subordinate and stand-alone streaming speaker for months, pinch nary issues playing euphony successful different zones, starting Spotify jams pinch my woman connected her telephone and maine connected mine, and mostly imbuing our location pinch music.

WiiM's latest is simply a smart speaker and wireless subwoofer that tin return your strategy to nan adjacent level. The speaker, called nan Sound, looks remarkably acquainted to anyone who has seen an Apple HomePod and features a small, information show connected nan beforehand to thief you cognize erstwhile it’s listening (and what is playing). It’s tin of a room-filling 100 watts of sound and tin beryllium configured arsenic a stereo brace if you person two. The subwoofer adds a spot of low-end hold and should beryllium awesome for folks who want to usage this strategy to substance a creation party.

In summation to nan 2 speakers, WiiM besides announced a caller streaming amp called nan Amp Ultra which features a touchscreen and ample beingness measurement knob. It looks for illustration a great, affordable competitor to options from Cambridge Audio, Naim, and others. This amp has a dedicated subwoofer output and HDMI, truthful you tin usage it and your caller subwoofer pinch your TV too. –Parker Hall

Sony Is Back With Another Xperia

Sony hasn't sold an Xperia smartphone successful nan US for 2 years, which doesn't look to beryllium changing pinch nan caller Xperia 1 VII. The niche, costly flagship Android telephone continues nan creation connection of erstwhile Xperia devices, while combining nan prowess of Sony's various hardware brands, from its Bravia TV and Alpha camera teams to nan Walkman euphony department. For example, nan caller Xperia adds an artificial intelligence-powered Auto Framing mode to admit humans during video capture—it records nan full scene, but it'll besides supply a cropped close-up position of nan person, truthful you tin intermix footage contempt utilizing 1 camera.

From nan Walkman team, Sony says nan Xperia now has “high-quality sound components,” from adding golden to nan solder connected nan audio jack to minimize transmission nonaccomplishment to upscaled euphony value pinch DSEE Ultimate support. The phone's speakers person besides been upgraded, pinch amended treble and mid-bass output.

The Xperia 1 VII has flagship specs for illustration immoderate different high-end Android, from nan Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset to 256 GB of soul storage. However, unlike nan competition, Sony's telephone retains nan microSD paper slot for retention description and still has a headphone jack. It's disposable successful the UK and Europe for £1,399 (€1,499).

Nothing Teams Up With KEF, Confirms First Over-Ear Headphones

Nothing announced this week that it is moving pinch British hi-fi wizards KEF connected “several acoustically co-developed” audio products that it said are already successful advancement and launching later this year. A fewer days later, it dropped a video connected its YouTube channel announcing it was releasing its first brace of over-ear headphones this summer. The KEF business wasn't mentioned directly, but it feels safe to presume it is astir apt involved.

Some of nan things nan designers look keen to reside successful nan forthcoming cans see a better, easier-to-use design, much absorbing and unsocial features, and a cheaper value than comparable headphones—all pinch a “better than AirPods Max” performance. Amen. —Verity Burns

Audio-Technica Debuts a Transparent Turntable

We tin spot right through Audio-Technica’s caller turntable. Quite literally. Unveiled astatine High End Munich this week, nan AT-LPA2 transparent platform has been branded arsenic nan brand’s “finest turntable yet,” delivering not conscionable a striking creation but nan committedness of a high-end analogue capacity too. That's helped by a number of features—the acrylic platter and chassis purpose to supply top-notch resonance power and minimize unwanted vibrations, there's an optical velocity sensor positioned nether nan spindle for ensuring nan astir meticulous playback speeds, and an outer powerfulness proviso to forestall immoderate electrical interference affecting nan turntable's delicate audio components.

The AT-LPA2 will besides travel fitted pinch Audio-Technica’s well-regarded AT-OC9XEN dual moving coil cartridge alongside a recently designed consecutive carbon-fiber tonearm and adjustable anti-skate mechanism. The interchangeable 110-gram and 130-gram counterweights should let for broader cartridge compatibility, futureproofing it should you ever want to upgrade. It’s disposable now for $2,000 (£1,699). —Verity Burns

Huawei Unwraps Sleek New Wearables

Folks successful nan UK whitethorn beryllium willing successful Huawei’s caller wearable lineup (they won’t travel to nan US). I’ve been wearing nan headline-grabbing Huawei Watch 5 for nan past fewer days, a luxurious caller entrant to nan smartwatch scene pinch a sleek creation that combines sapphire solid pinch titanium aliases stainless steel. It runs Huawei’s HarmonyOS but besides useful pinch Huawei’s app connected Android aliases iOS to bring notifications to your wrist (there’s moreover an eSIM option). It boasts coagulated wellness and fittingness tracking, partially acknowledgment to a unit sensor you tin property pinch your different fingertip for ECG and PPG measurements, making it easy to way your bosom wellness and humor oxygen levels. The show is bully and bright, and I’ve been getting astir 3 days betwixt charges pinch it group to always-on. (You tin get astir a week pinch it off.)

Elsewhere, nan Huawei Watch Fit 4 and 4 Pro are nan much affordable entries successful Huawei’s smartwatch lineup. With a rectangular creation reminiscent of nan Apple Watch, they operation sapphire solid and an aluminum assemblage pinch a titanium alloy bezel. They look nice, but nan heavy bezel astir nan surface detracts a small from nan design, and it’s not very responsive, sometimes needing a mates of taps aliases swipes. Both are coagulated fitness trackers, but nan svelte (9.3-mm) 4 Pro adds h2o sports search and a caller Air Pressure Sensor. Neither requires regular charging, and they are comparatively affordable.

Huawei besides announced open-fit earbuds, nan FreeBuds 6 and nan MatePad Pro 12.2-inch 2025, an OLED tablet that tin beryllium paired pinch Huawei’s Glide Keyboard. The Huawei Watch 5 (£400), Huawei Watch Fit 4 (£150) and 4 Pro (£250), and nan Huawei Freebuds 6 (£140) are disposable now. There’s nary connection connected nan value aliases merchandise day for nan tablet. —Simon Hill

Rewind’s Boombox Is a Modern Twist connected an Old Classic

French retro tech marque Rewind is releasing a boombox to beryllium alongside its fantabulous Walkman-style portable cassette player. In beforehand of its debut astatine nan High End audio show successful Munich, nan institution posted a video of nan caller GB-001 earlier this week—the GB apparently, and alternatively questionably, opinionated for “Ghetto Blaster” if nan original, now deleted Instagram station is thing to spell by. It's a single-deck instrumentality pinch cleanable lines that showcase 2 bright, backlit VU meters. There are 4 speakers onboard, pinch nan institution aiming for a neutral sound alternatively than an 1980s-style bass monster. The GB-001 will besides usability arsenic a Bluetooth speaker and has artillery power. —Martin Cizmar

Google I/O Is Almost Here

Google I/O, nan yearly developer convention wherever we study what's caller from nan hunt giant, kicks disconnected connected May 20 successful Mountain View, California. (You'll beryllium able to watercourse it here.) We're expecting to perceive astir nan company's mixed reality plans astatine nan show, but Google made respective announcements this week. That includes a caller creation connection for Android and an description of nan Gemini adjunct onto caller platforms for illustration Wear OS and Android Auto. Google's Find My Devices app is besides rebranding to Find Hub, since it's now much than conscionable a instrumentality to find mislaid gadgets. You tin publication more astir these updates here.

Android is besides getting immoderate fancy caller information and privateness boosts. For example, Google is expanding its Scam Detection AI instrumentality successful nan Google Messages app to flag much types of integer fraud, and there's a caller Advanced Protection mode successful Android 16 that offers other security for at-risk users.