ICYMI: We spend a few nights with the Bose Sleepbuds 2

This week, we put Editor Terrence O’Brien and Editor-in-Chief Devindra Hardawar to review a variety of new devices. Terrence, along with senior video producer Brian Oh, tested Bose’s Sleepbuds 2 to see if they could help them get better rest at night. He also chose Fender’s innovative Acoustasonic hybrid guitar, which can produce both electric and acoustic sounds. Meanwhile, Devindra liked Dell’s 40-inch ultra-wide monitor very much, except for its performance during gaming. He also tested AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT and found it ideal for gamers running at 1080p or 1440p (i.e. assuming you can get your hands on it). And for those of you who have your own podcasts, James Trew has listed a number of ways to improve your recording skills with microphones, mixers, and kits.

Bose Sleepbuds 2 are soft-touch plastic earbuds designed to enhance your sleep by playing soothing sounds and audio tracks. However, they don’t stream music or podcasts and can’t answer calls – in short, the $ 250 headphones are a one-time gadget. Terrence O’Brien and Brian Oh both tested the Sleepbuds 2 over a period of a few weeks and both said they were generally comfortable to wear overnight, although they both had issues with the sleepbuds 2. buttons remaining in place. They also said that it might be difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position so that the heads do not sink into their ears.

Sleepbuds 2 can play any of 50 sounds from Bose’s library in the companion mobile app, ranging from nature sounds to white noise to ambient tracks. Again, it does not stream, so all tracks must be transferred to the device before you touch the bag. Terrence said that while the app is simple and functional, it also lacks a master list or preview option so you can see what sounds are already on your buds. He also had issues with alerts, which would ring if a call was received but not ring if he had alarms set on his phone. Overall, Terrence felt that the Sleepbuds could be a great investment – if they were at least $ 100 cheaper.

Terrence O’Brien admits he was skeptical of Fender’s Acoustasonic hybrid guitar. But after approaching the instrument with an open mind, he says he has a better appreciation for what the company is trying to accomplish. Terrence reports that the design quickly convinced him and that the materials are clearly top quality. He adds that it’s best to first think of the $ 2,000 guitar as an acoustic guitar, which can sometimes pinch like an electric guitar.

When playing unplugged, Terrence said the Acoustasonic was quieter than real acoustics and lacked some depth, but it was a great guitar for a trainer. It has three different electric microphones, which can be combined with the on-board DSP to create different acoustic and electric tones. Because the Acoustasonic comes with acoustic strings, Terrence reports that it doesn’t play quite like an electric although it does pair with great reverbs and delays. He still believed that the guitar was a remarkably versatile instrument and that Fender was successful in pushing the boundaries.

In uncertain times for GPU production, Devindra Hardawar admits it’s difficult to look at a component that could vary in price and availability. However, it calls AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT a capable new entry. The card has 12GB of RAM, a 2.4GHz gaming clock speed, and is capable of solid speeds of 1440p. At $ 479, the RX 6700 XT can compete with NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti.

While the RX 6700 XT can handle a bit of 4K, it doesn’t perform very well with ray tracing performance. Plus, since it’s a shorter GPU, it only has two cooling fans, which makes it noisy – loud enough to interfere with Devindra’s podcast recording. During the tests he passed Destiny 2 in 1440p between 75 and 100fps but the GPU struggled while playing Control. Still, he felt it was a good choice for gamers running 1080p or 1440p displays with high refresh rates – as long as you don’t worry about ray tracing.

After using Dell’s new $ 2,100 40-inch ultra-wide monitor for a few months, Devindra Hardawar was impressed with the stunning color accuracy, generous screen area, and crisp 5K2K resolution. The screen can render 1.07 billion colors with 140ppi pixel density, supports 100% SRGB gamut, and achieves 300 nits of brightness. Devindra found it ideal for full screen video editing, preparing long podcast recordings and full screen videos.

However, he was less impressed with the game’s performance in cases where the resolution was too high for his system to natively render modern games (despite having an RTX 3080 GPU). He was sometimes forced to play at lower settings with black bars on the screen. And the screen size made things awkward sometimes, like when recording podcasts or balancing a webcam to one side during video calls. Despite this, Devindra has always believed that the UltraSharp 40 is ideal for professionals who can take advantage of its vast screen space and impeccable color accuracy.