Electronics
TV, audio, mobile, smart home & wearables · 3 stories
Your Next Pair of Headphones Might Also Be a Health Tracker: Powerbeats Pro 2 and Apple AirPods Pro 3
Headphones were once passive accessories. They played music, handled calls and blocked unwanted sound. The most important upgrades involved audio quality, battery life and noise cancellation. That definition is beginning to break down. In February 2025, Apple-owned Beats launched Powerbeats Pro 2 with built-in heart-rate monitoring. Later that year, Apple introduced AirPods Pro 3, bringing heart-rate sensing directly into its flagship earbud line.
The Smartwatch Feature That Tells You Whether to Rest or Push Today: Inside Amazfit HybridCharge
Smartwatches are excellent at producing data. They can report heart rate, sleep stages, steps, workout load, stress and heart-rate variability. The problem is that most consumers do not know what to do with all those numbers. Amazfit HybridCharge is designed to provide an answer.
The Flagship Phone That Refuses to Drop the Headphone Jack: Inside the Sony Xperia 1 VIII
The modern flagship smartphone is supposed to remove things. The removable battery disappeared. Then manufacturers eliminated the microSD card slot, encouraging buyers to pay more for internal storage or use cloud subscriptions. The 3.5mm headphone jack followed, replaced by wireless earbuds and USB-C adapters.