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Recommended Reading: Plz vote 4 me
Campaigns enter texting era with a plea: Will u vote 4 me? Kevin Roose, The New York Times Political candidates have a number of tools at their disposal to try and win your vote. Slick branding, TV commercials and social media ads are just the beginning. The New York Times dives into how campaigns in 2018 are hitting us up via the good ol' text message and the questions that arise from that method of outreach.
Assistive hearing is the next big thing for wireless earbuds
The number of companies that sell true wireless earbuds has exploded in the last year. B&O, Bose, Sony and Samsung all joined the craze Bragi started back in 2014. Thanks to a bill signed into law last year, some hearing aids and assistive audio devices will be available over-the-counter without the need for a prescription. Headphone companies are also using their tech to help people with hearing problems, especially those suffering from tinnitus.
You can't talk about accessibility without talking about diversity
Over the past few years, we've been seeing more and more products at CES meant to assist the elderly and disabled. In fact, last year was the first year we added an accessibility category to the official Best of CES awards -- and the finalists in that category were indeed some of our favorite things we saw at the show. This year was no exception, with four finalists in the accessibility category, and a whole bunch of other products we didn't have room for on our shortlist. When and how did accessibility tech come to be so prominent at the world's biggest consumer-tech show? And where is the technology headed from here? To help make sense of the bigger picture, I sat down with KR Liu, who was diagnosed with severe hearing loss at age three and went on to head up sales and marketing with audio pioneer Doppler Labs. Most recently, she teamed up with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Grassley on the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, which passed with almost unanimous bipartisan support. In our all-too-brief talk, we delved into the technological advancements, of course, but also the social ones -- the issue of accessibility tech ultimately isn't just a question of what's technically possible, but about diversity: Who is allowed in the drawing room? And for whom are we creating tech in the first place? Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.
Smart earbud maker Doppler Labs shuts down
Doppler Labs unveiled its Here earbud line in 2015 with dreams of being at the vanguard of smart audio: you could control how much you heard of the outside world, and there were plans for translation and other voice-guided features. Unfortunately, that vision of the future isn't coming to pass. Doppler is shutting down after struggling to raise funds for its next project (an "alternative to traditional hearing aids") and otherwise keep the lights on. Support will keep running until December 1st, and the company will release a rough version of its next-generation Here One iOS app as a going-away present, but there won't be more than that.
Earbud translators will bring us closer: The Future IRL
The moment Google Pixel Buds were used earlier this month to demonstrate real time translation from Swedish to English, people started freaking out about potential use cases for this kind of technology. But the thing is, Google isn't the only company taking this on.
Doppler Labs sues Bose over 'Hearphones' name and tech
When the Bose Hearphones first came out, we noted that they looked like Bose's QuietControl 30 with the technology of Doppler Labs' Here One earbuds. Apparently Doppler Labs also noticed the similarity in technology, look and name (it calls its product "Here Buds") and is taking its rival to court. As Business Insider noticed, it alleges that Bose took several meetings under the guise of forming a partnership, but instead used the secret information it learned to develop a similar product with a similar name.
Doppler's smart earbuds coming to sports events and museums
Dopper Labs is partnering with the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco fine arts museums on new experiences for its Here One earbuds. They use "smart" active listening tech to intelligently block outside sounds or blend them with music. For instance, you can listen to tunes while walking, but still hear cars; or hear live on-field action with reduced crowd noise, all while streaming stats and play-by-play.
SXSW showed me Here's Active Listening buds are a sound idea
"SXSW is all about the big ideas." I've been saying it all week long. It's true. Here in Austin is not the place to launch a phone, it's where you show an idea about how to get people to Mars, or how to feel g-force in mobile VR. This is where apps like Twitter and Foursquare breakthrough and gain mainstream popularity. It's where vaporous ideas can crystalize into something people understand. Here -- a pair of earbuds that modify the audio around you -- had me struggling to understand them. Until this weekend, that is.
These smart earbuds are volume knobs for the real world
Your choices for filtering the sounds around you are typically quite limited: you either have to drown it out (such as through earplugs or headphones) or let all the annoyances in. Doppler Labs might soon have a way to be more selective, though. Its crowdfunded Here Active Listening earbuds are meant solely to control what you hear in the real world. You not only decide how much gets through, but how it gets through. There's an equalizer if you want to tweak certain sound frequencies (toning down the bass at a badly-mixed concert, for example), and there are preset filters designed to tune out common noises or add effects. Want to silence the background hum of your office without completely shutting out your coworkers? You probably can.
