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The Sony WH-CH720N ANC headphones are on sale for $98 via Amazon. That’s a discount of 35 percent, which is nothing to sneeze at. We loved these headphones at the original price of $150, so we most definitely recommend them now.

In other words, the features here are stellar for the price. This is no surprise, as Sony has a fantastic track record when it comes to budget-friendly cans. The WH-CH720N headphones offer great sound quality, capable ANC, decent battery life and a comfortable fit. What else is there?

Specifically, the battery lasts around 35 hours per charge, which is a decent metric. It’s a pretty huge bummer to be in the middle of a walk, totally lost in a jam, when you hear that annoying “battery low” warning immediately followed by a shutdown. There are some physical controls, including a power/pairing button, volume buttons and a noise canceling button that cycles between ANC and transparency modes. These headphones also work with all of the major voice assistants.

We were especially impressed with the comfort and fit, saying that we could easily wear them for “hours at a time,” thanks to ample cushioning in the ear pads. The overall sound quality is, however, the standout feature. The bass is on-point and there’s great clarity in the other frequency ranges. It just sounds good.

On the downside, the plastic exterior isn’t going to be winning any design awards and it’s missing some of the advanced features found with pricier Sony headphones. There’s no automatic pausing when you take them off or when you start talking. Other than that, though, these are some dang good headphones.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/these-sony-anc-headphones-are-even-better-for-98-185146475.html?src=rss 

Twitch is joining Spotify, Max, Peacock, Crunchyroll, EA and other content services in everyone’s favorite corporate trend of raising subscription prices (almost as fun as the parallel trend of Big Tech layoffs). The Amazon-owned company said on Tuesday that Twitch Tier 1 subscriptions in the US will increase from $4.99 to $5.99 on July 11. This is the first time the monthly cost has gone up for American subscribers.

“As part of our efforts to help creators build and grow their communities worldwide, the following countries received subscription price adjustments as a part of Local Subscription Pricing,” the company wrote in a support article.

In a separate X reply, the company clarified that streamers will still earn the same 50 to 70 percent through Twitch’s revenue-sharing program, so they will earn more per subscription (likely the rationalization for the questionable “It’s for the creators!” framing). However, streamers’ earning extra revenue depends on Twitch’s subscriber numbers staying the same or increasing. An unpopular price hike could lead to a loss of paying subscribers if enough people shirk the increase.

Twitch had warned this day would come. When the company raised subscription prices in Canada, Australia, Turkey and the UK in February, Chief Monetization Officer Mike Minton added that a US subscription increase would “probably” arrive sometime this year. And here we are.

The company has had a rough 2024, and we aren’t even at the halfway point. Twitch laid off a reported 500 employees in January to “cut costs” and “build a more sustainable business” as CEO Dan Clancy admitted the company wasn’t profitable. For good measure, it cut how much creators earn from Prime subscriptions. Then, late last month, it removed every member of its Safety Advisory Council, replacing them with “Twitch Ambassadors,” which sounds an awful lot like community volunteers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitch-is-raising-us-subscription-prices-for-the-first-time-193204538.html?src=rss 

There’s a new exploit making its way through TikTok and it has already compromised the official accounts of Paris Hilton, CNN and others, as reported by Forbes. It’s spread via direct message and doesn’t require a download, click or any form of response, beyond opening the chat. It’s currently unclear how many accounts have been affected.

Even weirder? The hacked accounts aren’t really doing anything. A source within TikTok told Forbes that these impacted accounts “do not appear to be posting content”. TikTok issued a statement to The Verge, saying that it is “aware of a potential exploit targeting a number of brand and celebrity accounts.” The social media giant is “working directly with affected account owners to restore access.” 

Semafor recently reported that CNN’s TikTok had been hacked, which forced the network to disable the account. It’s unclear if this is the very same hack that has gone on to infect other big-time accounts. The news organization said that it was “working with TikTok on the backend on additional security measures.” 

CNN staffers told Semafor that the news entity had “grown lax” regarding digital safety practices, with one employee noting that dozens of colleagues had access to the official TikTok account. However, another network source suggested that the breach wasn’t the result of someone gaining access from CNN’s end. That’s about all we know for now. We’ll update this post when more news comes in.

Of course, this isn’t the first big TikTok hack. Back in 2023, the company acknowledged that around 700,000 accounts in Turkey had been compromised due to insecure SMS channels involved with its two-factor authentication. Researchers at Microsoft discovered a vulnerability in 2022 that allowed hackers to overtake accounts with just a single click. Later that same year, an alleged security breach allegedly impacted more than a billion users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/malicious-code-has-allegedly-compromised-tiktok-accounts-belonging-to-cnn-and-paris-hilton-174000353.html?src=rss 

A group of current and former employees from leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic has signed an open letter asking for greater transparency and protection from retaliation for those who speak out about the potential concerns of AI. “So long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public,” the letter, which was published on Tuesday, says. “Yet broad confidentiality agreements block us from voicing our concerns, except to the very companies that may be failing to address these issues.”

The letter comes just a couple of weeks after a Vox investigation revealed OpenAI had attempted to muzzle recently departing employees by forcing them to chose between signing an aggressive non-disparagement agreement, or risk losing their vested equity in the company. After the report, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he had been genuinely embarrassed” by the provision and claimed it has been removed from recent exit documentation, though it’s unclear if it remains in force for some employees.

The 13 signatories include former OpenAI employees Jacob Hinton, William Saunders and Daniel Kokotajlo. Kokotajlo said that he resigned from the company after losing confidence that it would responsibly build artificial general intelligence, a term for AI systems that is as smart or smarter than humans. The letter — which was endorsed by prominent AI experts Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell — expresses grave concerns over the lack of effective government oversight for AI and the financial incentives driving tech giants to invest in the technology. The authors warn that the unchecked pursuit of powerful AI systems could lead to the spread of misinformation, exacerbation of inequality and even the loss of human control over autonomous systems, potentially resulting in human extinction.

“There is a lot we don’t understand about how these systems work and whether they will remain aligned to human interests as they get smarter and possibly surpass human-level intelligence in all areas,” wrote Kokotajlo on X. “Meanwhile, there is little to no oversight over this technology. Instead, we rely on the companies building them to self-govern, even as profit motives and excitement about the technology push them to ‘move fast and break things.’ Silencing researchers and making them afraid of retaliation is dangerous when we are currently some of the only people in a position to warn the public.”

OpenAI, Google and Anthropic did not immediately respond to request for comment from Engadget. In a statement sent to Bloomberg, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company is proud of its “track record providing the most capable and safest AI systems” and it believes in its “scientific approach to addressing risk.” It added: “We agree that rigorous debate is crucial given the significance of this technology and we’ll continue to engage with governments, civil society and other communities around the world.”

The signatories are calling on AI companies to commit to four key principles:

Refraining from retaliating against employees who voice safety concerns

Supporting an anonymous system for whistleblowers to alert the public and regulators about risks

Allowing a culture of open criticism

And avoiding non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreements that restrict employees from speaking out

The letter comes amid growing scrutiny of OpenAI’s practices, including the disbandment of its “superalignment” safety team and the departure of key figures like co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who criticized the company’s prioritization of “shiny products” over safety.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-openai-google-and-anthropic-workers-are-asking-ai-companies-for-more-whistleblower-protections-175916744.html?src=rss