Notes are nested inside custom category tabs; think color-coded tags in a three-ring binder. You can attach specific notes to meetings via Outlook and prioritize them using urgency tags of various levels. If you’re looking for a “professional” notes app, OneNote is a great option.
Plus, if you have a subscription to Microsoft 365 on the desktop, you can then take advantage of Microsoft’s Copilot AI integration in OneNote. The AI helper can create summaries and to-do lists, collate information from various sources, or just rewrite your notes to make them more clear and coherent.
Apple Notes
Photograph: Apple
If you use an iPhone, then Apple Notes is an obvious choice. It comes installed on your phone, and, like Google Keep, it excels in its simplicity. While there are more advanced features, like the ability to add attachments and to clip text and images from the web, they don’t clutter things up.
Organization is also superb if you take the time to set up category folders and nest subfolders inside them. If you’ve already gotten used to Apple Notes, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with it. Oh yes, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can dictate notes to Siri—it’s not as knowledgeable as the other AI-powered assistants out there, but it transcribes speech pretty well.
Bear
Photograph: Bear
Meet Apple Notes’ more refined cousin. Bear notes offer a bevy of styling options that allow you to change themes, adjust formatting, and play with the typography of your notes. (It is available on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers only.) Functionally, Bear works the same as any of the other apps on this list, albeit with a lot more flair. It packages all its features in a warm, cozy style that won Apple’s design award in 2017.
One of Bear’s most helpful features is the ability to link notes together via tags. Just tag your thoughts with the appropriate category (work, wedding, books to read) as you jot them down, and Bear will sort them into their proper folders. If it feels like your thoughts come from all over the place, or if you’re bad at keeping things organized in folders, this can be a great way to keep your digital life in order.
Bear got a big version 2 update last year, which was a labor of love that gave it a bunch of new features. The updated app is better at organizing tables, has the ability to add footnotes, and offers better in-note search. It’s all wrapped in a more pleasant design too.
Bear is a free app, but a Pro version costs $30 per year and offers additional features like custom themes, the ability to sync with iCloud, and the option to export notes in more formats like PDF and HTML.
Evernote
Sorry to say, but we can’t recommend Evernote anymore. Once the most innovative of the cloud-based notes apps, Evernote has since evolved into a sad shadow of itself. The app now is a cluttered mess that has jammed together just about every feature imaginable: group chat, photo transcription, web clipping, and integration with other online services. As a result, it’s much more cumbersome to use than the others on this list when you just want to jot down a simple idea. We were also turned off by the sheer volume of pop-up ads that appear over and over to prompt you to subscribe to Evernote’s $130 per year premium tier. (Evernote’s current new parent company, Bending Spoons, laid off its entire US workforce last year.)
Unfortunately, lots of people still use Evernote, and probably feel locked into its now-degraded ecosystem. It may be hard to make that switch to a new app, but if you’d like to, it’s possible to remove your notes from Evernote. Sadly, exporting your stuff off the app has become almost as cumbersome as using the app itself. Still, if you plan to make the switch, here’s how to do it:
With all the talk of “AI laptops” (and, well, AI everything), it’s natural to wonder how much these advancements will cost you. The first laptops to include Intel’s new Core Ultra CPU and neural processing units, which help accelerate AI tasks, haven’t been cheap, with some models like the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra hitting as much as $3,000.
There’s good news though. The Acer Swift Go 14 (I tested the model SFG14-73T-75FA) is the least expensive Intel Core Ultra laptop I’ve tested to date, and at just $800 it’s the first to break the $1,000 barrier. Clearly, some sacrifices have been made to get there. The question is, are they dealbreakers?
The new Swift Go covers the basics at least. Its 14-inch touchscreen at 1,920 X 1,200 pixels is about the bare minimum acceptable resolution I’d consider today. The screen is moderately bright, though there are plenty of more eye-searing laptops on the market. Processing is courtesy of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU—a healthy step up from the pokier Core 5 entry-level chip. There’s 16 GB of RAM and a 1-TB solid state drive to back it up—acceptable specs.
Photograph: Acer
A tour around the device reveals a surprisingly robust collection of ports considering the smallish size of the laptop: two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, a full-size HDMI output, two USB-A ports, and a microSD card slot. All ports are located on the sides of the device, as the screen hinge is designed such that the back of the lid folds backward to cover the rear of the laptop’s base, eventually hitting the desk and raising the keyboard a couple of millimeters at an angle.
Performance is better than expected considering the Swift Go 14’s specs, turning in above-average benchmarks on general productivity and graphics work. For a laptop without a discrete graphics processor, it even performed well on AI-based benchmarks, besting other laptops with more advanced CPUs at the same tasks. How excited you’ll be then that the Swift Go 14 includes a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard, making it easy to quickly jump into Microsoft’s new (and still in beta) “everyday AI companion.” As for battery life, I achieved exactly 11 hours of rundown on a full-brightness YouTube test, a bit above average for the field.
Another innovation on the laptop is its new “multi-control touchpad,” which is made from Gorilla Glass and features backlit media controls that activate whenever you’re playing audio or video— such as when you’re in Windows Media Player or on YouTube in a browser window. It’s a handy way to interact with pause/play and volume controls if you’re using your laptop to watch a movie at arm’s length, but note that these controls don’t pop up for every website—including video previews that may play in the Chrome or Edge browser when you’re not actively in YouTube or another streaming platform.
You do, however, need to pay a monthly subscription fee to get accurate notifications and to be able to see the timeline of when the door is locked and unlocked, and by who. Otherwise, you’ll just get a notification that the lock was used without specifying what exactly it did. The app will show you if the lock is currently locked or unlocked, but vague notifications and lack of a history aren’t exactly helpful. I also had a connection drop at a random hour of the night. Seeing a vague notification that something happened at 12:30-something in the morning completely scared me that my home had been robbed overnight. It hadn’t, but I didn’t know that until I signed up for a subscription to see my history.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
After that incident, I chose the Standard Plan ($7 a month) that’s designed for self-monitoring my home. There’s also the Pro Plan ($25 a month) that includes a professional monitoring service, but that’s designed for Abode’s larger smart-home systems rather than just the lock.
Speaking of, while you don’t need to use the Abode Lock with Abode’s other security setups and hubs, it can add onto those as an accessory. Abode has three security hubs and starter kits to choose from: the basic Abode Kit ($140), the Smart Security Kit ($280), and the Iota All-in-One Security Kit ($330). Each of these has a different type of hub—the main differences are that the cheapest hub doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit, and the iota has a built-in camera. All three work with the same accessories, though, so you could upgrade down the line and reuse any accessories you received. Adding a hub lets you create automations within the Abode app, so I could set up the Abode Lock to unlock when I arrived home.
You can also use the Abode Lock with smart home systems without needing a hub, but you’ll still need one of the subscription plans. Amazon’s and Google’s ecosystems work with all three hubs, as do Sonos and Bose products, but you’ll need one of the more expensive hubs if you want it to work with Apple HomeKit.
Door Stoppers
Photograph: Nena Farrell
The Abode Lock, for all it can do, can’t tell you whether your door is closed–just if the lock is in the locked position. Some smart locks come with door sensors so you can see whether your door is both locked and closed in one place.
Abode’s lock can’t do this, but all of its hubs come with a Mini Sensor ($25) that can be used on doors and windows, so any hub package could help solve this issue to a certain degree. It certainly isn’t as seamless as being a single device that can do both, though, if it’s something you’re worried about. My door, crappy rental that it is, has a loose knob that sometimes doesn’t believe in closing until we re-screw it together, so this missing feature is a bigger issue for me than most folks with better (or just normal) doors.
Since Abode’s main business is its full security system, it makes sense to have some features you can access only by going all-in on Abode. Still, you can enjoy several features right out of the box with just the Abode Lock alone, and no one outside your home will be the wiser.
With all the chatter about the artificial intelligence features of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPUs, it’s easy to forget that AMD has been busy doing AI too. AMD has outfitted many of its Ryzen processors with neural processing units (NPUs) since mid-2023, and it’s continued to expand its AI offerings ever since.
Acer’s latest Nitro 17 gaming laptop (model number AN17-42-R9TH) is built atop an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, which sits near the top of AMD’s product line. If you’re engaging with AI on the desktop, you’ll probably bypass the CPU altogether. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics processor in the Nitro 17, everything from gaming to AI image generation gets a significant boost. Aside from the processors, Acer hasn’t exactly pushed the specs to the limit here: 16 GB of RAM and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive are more or less entry-level options today.
That’s just what’s under the hood. On the outside, the Nitro 17 is every bit the beast you are probably expecting, with a 17.3-inch screen (resolution limited to 1,920 X 1,080 pixels), a daunting 34-millimeter thickness, and a weight that tops 6.3 pounds. It is the heaviest and thickest laptop I’ve tested since 2018, and that’s without the power brick (another full pound).
Photograph: Acer
This laptop has been tricked out for gamers—arguably gamers from the ’90s, but gamers all the same. Sharp, angled corners abound from every angle. The screen is spaced away from the back of the laptop by about a centimeter and propped up on a small riser that feels like a separate device bolted on top of the chassis. It’s largely the same design as 2023, minus a few graphical flourishes.
The responsive keyboard rests in a beveled tray, and it’s color-backlit with four tunable zones and a variety of modes that let colors roll across the keys in various patterns. There’s a numeric keypad and full-size arrow keys along with custom keys, like a Copilot button and a Nitro key that launches Acer’s NitroSense software, which lets you tune every aspect of the laptop experience. Above the keyboard is a stand-alone button that cycles through four power modes, from Quiet to Turbo, all exactly what they sound like.
A tour around the sides and back of the laptop reveals plenty of ports, including two USB-C ports— one USB 3.2, one USB 4—an HDMI jack, a microSD card slot, a full-size Ethernet adapter, and three USB-A ports—one USB 3.2 and one USB 2.0. Why there’s a crusty old USB 2.0 port on the device I can’t fathom, but with this many connectivity options, it probably doesn’t matter much. Much of the rest of the space around the edges features various vents and grilles for the dual exhaust fans. When they run, which is any time there’s a moderate load on the machine, they can get a bit noisy, though I’ve encountered plenty of louder machines in recent years. I expected more from the speakers on the unit, though they’re fine for casual entertainment and gaming use.
Whether your mom keeps on top of the latest tech trends or still calls you for help logging into her email account, a carefully considered gadget can be a practical way to tell her thanks for, y’know, putting up with you. Sure, the usual flowers, breakfast in bed or complementary spa day will always be worthwhile Mother’s Day gifts, but if you want to take a different (and much nerdier) approach, a good piece of tech can make her life easier even after the holiday has passed. If you need some help brainstorming some gift ideas, we’ve put together a list of gadgets, services and other gear that should bring any mom a little joy.
Ember
Take your mother’s morning coffee routine up a notch with the Ember Mug, a self-heating smart mug that keeps beverages at just the right temperature for up to 1.5 hours or all day if the mug is kept on its charging coaster. It has a temperature range between 120 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit, which lets your mom dial in just how hot she wants her brew. There’s also a companion app which lets her save preset temps for her favorite drinks, track her caffeine intake, customize the color of the LED light on the front of the mug and more. The latest version comes in a pretty rose gold color as well as white, black, gold, silver and copper. — Nicole Lee, Commerce Writer
When I tested air purifiers for our guide, I found the best way to clear the air was by opening windows — but if the mom in your life deals with allergies or lives where the air quality can get bad, an air purifier can be the next best thing. The Levoit Core 400S Smart Air Purifier was one of the quietest models I tested and performed on a level with models three times as expensive. It has a three-stage filter (including an activated carbon layer and HEPA filter), and the internal particulate matter sensor can automatically adjust fan speed as air gets murkier. The companion app both shows historical air quality readouts and makes the unit itself easy to control and schedule. Plus, the replacement filters aren’t overly expensive like they are with other units. — Amy Skorheim, Reporter, Buying Advice
If you think mom would enjoy upgrading her morning cup of java, a Trade Coffee subscription can help. It offers a curated selection of more than 450 coffees from across the US and smartly personalizes which ones it recommends to each subscriber. Upon redeeming her gift, she’ll be prompted to take a brief quiz that asks about her flavor and brew preferences, information Trade will use to suggest a specific bag catered to her taste. Mom can then give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to any coffee she receives, which the company will use to hone its future recommendations. Managing her coffee queue online is easy enough, too. You can gift anywhere from two to 24 bags, and Trade says any gift subscriptions will not automatically renew so neither you nor mom will have any surprise charges to deal with down the line. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter, Buying Advice
So many of us take hundreds of photos with our phones and then never do anything with them. They’re left to languish in our camera rolls, only to be uncovered when you have to scroll back months to find that one image you’re searching for. If you want to give mom a more polished way to look back at her favorite photos, an album from Mpix will do the trick. You can customize your photo book from the ground up, choosing the best images of her family and friends and laying them out on each page in a neat way. You can also pick from different types of cover options and paper weights, making the final product as premium as you want it to be. With options starting at $20 per book, it’s pretty easy to make mom a gift she’ll want to revisit long after Mother’s Day is over. – Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor, Buying Advice
Some moms cook multi-course dinners every night. Others, like me, are proud when the evening’s meal is more elaborate than a PB&J. The microwave is a perfectly fine way to get food on the table but I’ve found an air fryer makes low-effort dinners feel fancy. Instant’s Vortex Plus crisps the exterior of the veggie corn dogs my kid loves and gives chicken nuggets a golden patina that looks nice next to my signature (microwaved) broccoli and cheese. There’s even a viewing window to peek at food’s progress and the replaceable filter does a good job tamping down odors and smokiness. I got my Vortex Plus because it tops our guide to air fryers and couldn’t agree more with my team’s assessment. — A.S.
After the past few years, your mom is likely excited to get out of the house more often – especially as the weather improves – and maybe she wants to take more regular walks and runs in her neighborhood. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a low-cost and easy-to-use way to track her steps and sleep, along with other stats that indicate our overall fitness level. New users can also snag six months of Fitbit Premium to add even more fitness guides and meditation features to the already-great app. — Kris Naudus, Commerce Writer
The Echo Show 15 is 2024’s answer to the tiny TV so many of us remember our parents having in the kitchen back in the day. It’s small enough to mount on the wall in even a tiny space, but the screen is big enough to do justice to a casual sitcom or silly reality show while you make pesto. In addition to smart TV duties, it can handle all the stuff Alexa can do: tell you the weather, set timers and remind you when it’s trash night. On top of that, it can control compatible smart home gadgets and check in on your connected cameras and video doorbells. When you’re not using it, the Photo Frame feature cycles through pics you upload to the Alexa Photo app. Since getting one as a gift from my own mother, washing dishes no longer feels like such a slog. — A.S.
If your mom already knows her way around the kitchen, a new toy like the Breville Control Grip could inspire her to experiment and try out new recipes. Our favorite immersion blender has a powerful 280-watt motor and comes with a separate bowl for chopping and mincing, as well as a larger jug for preparing soups and smoothies. It supports 15 different speeds, making it versatile enough to craft all kinds of dishes, and the included whisk attachment turns it into a makeshift hand mixer, too. It’s one of those unicorn-like multipurpose kitchen gadgets — it does a lot of different things and does them well. And, unlike a high-powered blender or stand mixer, it won’t take up too much space in a cabinet. — V.P.
If your mom doesn’t like to walk around the house barefoot or literally gets cold feet with any regularity, a set of OluKai slippers should make her day-to-day more comfortable. The Ku’una pair slip over the whole foot easily and have a delightfully soft interior. The understated leather exterior is attractive, and the sturdy rubber outsole makes it so mom can walk the dog or mosey around the backyard with minimal discomfort. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer
While a robot vacuum won’t eliminate all the cleaning your mom might already do around the house, it definitely makes one portion of it easier. The Roomba 694 is one of our favorite budget robot vacuums in part because it provides a ton of value for its $274 price. Most importantly, it does a great job cleaning both hard and carpeted floors and it runs long enough that it should get to most areas in your home before needing to recharge. It connects to WiFi so you can control it either with its companion mobile app, or using Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands. Your mom can even use the mobile app to set a cleaning schedule, so she doesn’t even have to think about the machine — it’ll scurry around the house, sucking up dirt and debris, all on its own time. — V.P.
The Apple Watch Series 9 will be the ultimate iPhone accessory for mom, and one that may actually reduce the number of times she has to pick up her phone during the day. It’ll deliver all of your texts right to her wrist, along with any other notifications that ping her handset throughout the day. She may also appreciate that it passively tracks her activity all day, every day, and she can use it to record almost any workout from yoga to HIIT. And then there are the features that are nice to have, but hope she’ll never have to use, like fall and crash detection. If you’re looking to gift your mom the best smartwatch on the market right now, the Series 9 is the way to go. — V.P.
The Beats Fit Pro may be our favorite wireless earbuds for working out, but your mom doesn’t have to be a regular running or pilates enthusiast to get a lot of use out of them. These buds have a comfortable, secure fit thanks to their flexible wing tips, plus a great sound profile out of the box thanks in part to Adaptive EQ technology. Active noise cancellation is solid as well, which will come in handy when she wants to block out distractions at work or while running errands, and she’ll be able to quickly jump into any conversation she deems important by using Transparency Mode. If your mom has an iPhone, she’ll benefit from the H1 chip inside the Beats Fit Pro, which enables things like quick pairing and switching between Apple devices and hands-free Siri. But Android toting mothers won’t be left out either — the Fit Pros have their own Android app that supports many of the same features. — V.P.
Nobody wants to be left with a dead smartphone, moms included, but having to carry a cable alongside a portable battery can be a hassle. This Anker Nano power bank fixes that with a built-in USB-C cord, giving your mom one less thing to take with her before leaving the house. She’ll need to own an iPhone 15 or Android handset to make use of that cable, and the battery itself isn’t the absolute fastest thing out there. But its 30W power output is enough to top up Apple’s latest phones at full speed, and its 10,000mAh capacity is enough to supply about two refills. There’s a little display that shows its current charging status as well, and at four inches tall and roughly half a pound, it’s easy to toss in a bag. A device like this isn’t the flashiest gift, but it should be practical. — J.D.
What is it with moms telling everyone to eat their vegetables? In my experience, it’s an involuntary response to motherhood. The Breville Juice Fountain Plus is a way for moms to make drinks loaded with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that actually taste good too. The Juice Fountain Plus’ titanium and steel extraction disc works with an 850 watt motor to squeeze a lot of juice from even tough root veggies. The three-inch chute accepts big chunks of produce, which cuts down on prep time, but even more importantly, the machine disassembles easily and isn’t a pain to clean. – A.S.
Nobody needs to pay for an app to practice better mindfulness and flush out bad vibes, but if your mom has expressed interest in guided meditation, Headspace is our favorite service of the bunch. It offers a buffet of exercises aimed at different life goals and situations, from boosting creativity to increasing relaxation to creating a soothing sleep environment. Most of the meditations let you choose between different instructors, and we’ve found the multi-step courses to gradually build on themselves well. All of it comes in an app that’s clean and easy to navigate. Headspace costs $70/year for an annual subscription, so it may not be something your mom wants to stick with forever. Still, it should be a welcome gift for those looking for a more structured way to get (and stay) in the mental self-care habit. — J.D.
Laundry, dishes, garden maintenance and garage tinkering all take place in different locations. JBL’s Flip 6 is about the size of a crowler and easily relocates with me so I can listen to music as I take care of what needs doing. The portable Bluetooth speaker made the list in our buyer’s guide because it puts out a good amount of volume for its size and delivers balanced sound with crisp highs and solid lows. I like how it fills a room but you can still pick out the layers in a Grouper track and enjoy the lows on a Low album without muddiness. The cylindrical design stands on its end or lays flat (without rolling around), so the mom in your life can plonk it down wherever she needs to be. — A.S.
Assuming the mom in your life has moved beyond the mother-of-a-newborn phase, she might be looking for ways to get better rest each night. The Hatch Restore 2 covers three areas: wind down, sleep sounds and a gentle wake up. Each segment is programmable through the app and offers choices like chillout routines, meditations and stories to help her fall asleep; white noise and nature soundscapes help her stay asleep; and lights, tones and guided stretches to wake up to. The device itself is an attractive domed shape with a textured linen face and a few subtle, yet easy-to-find buttons. Accessing the full library of routines requires a $5 monthly subscription, but there’s enough free, included content to make the device effective without it. – A.S.
A Universal Yums subscription is a way to make mom’s snack time a little more exciting. Each month, this service ships out a bundle of goodies from a different country (April’s was / is Belgium) alongside a tour guide-style booklet with little games and information about the highlighted nation. Not every treat will be a home run, but if your mom has a more adventurous palate, getting a literal taste of somewhere new can be fun. Gift packages are available in several different sizes and lengths of time. — J.D.
Like last year’s model, it also meets the TÜV Rheinland privacy and security certification. This is important, because it navigates via AI.See—a “visual recognition technology.” Basically, it uses a camera to steer around your house. It’s not upward-facing, and Eufy assures its customers that the photos are not stored in a server and are deleted before the next cleaning cycle. However, Eufy also doesn’t offer additional security features like two-factor authentication. This is just something to keep in mind if you feel squicky about having a camera in your home.
AI.See is interesting. Its estimates of its own accuracy seem generous—I forgot to screenshot all the instances where it identified my daughter’s various hair things as poop and warned me to “clean this area immediately.” I did think it helped the robot navigate seamlessly around my house. The few times it got stuck, I found that the roller brush had become ensnared in my daughter’s or my long hair. It’s understandably much harder to see hair than it is to identify and avoid shoelaces, which tend to trip up even the best robot vacuums.
My first floor has five rooms with a total of about 800 square feet of cleanable space, depending on how widely my children’s stuffed animals are scattered at any given moment. The mapping function works quite well; it stored multiple maps on multiple floors without a problem. The battery life is decent—it can finish a whole first-floor vacuum in about an hour and a half, using about 75 percent of its battery life. You can also raise or lower the cleaning intensity, from fast to deep, and the suction power has a range from Quiet to Max.
Photograph: Adrienne So
On Max, it has a suction power of about 8,000 pascals. I have a theory about suction power. As I learned from the founders of the robot vacuum Matic, the level of suction power may matter less than whether your roller brush is able to agitate the carpet thoroughly. In any case, I didn’t notice a huge difference in the cleanliness level on the frequently trod areas of my carpet when I upped the suction power from Standard to Max.
The Price Is Right
The mopping is particularly good. The X9 Pro was capable of cleaning up half a jar of spilled syrup, and the X10 Pro works just as well. As with last year’s model, it exerts about 2 pounds of downward pressure with two mops that rotate 180 times per minute. When my children inexplicably decided to throw bananas at the breakfast table and leave sticky banana mash on the floor, the X10 Pro cleaned it up in minutes.
Mopping is the most disgusting household chore and the one I would do the least frequently if I could. Mopping the hardwood and tiled areas of my first floor (about 230 square feet) takes about 30 minutes, including time spent washing the mops. An onboard water tank keeps the mops continuously wet for the entire cleaning time. The dirty water tank has to be emptied and rinsed out every three or four cleans. Emptying and rinsing the tank is, as always, a vile and terrible task, but at least it doesn’t happen that often.
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The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is undergoing its worst coral-bleaching event on record.Credit: David Gray/AFP via Getty
Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its fifth mass bleaching event in eight years — and this one is the worst on record. A report by the Australian government’s reef management agency analysed aerial surveys of 1,080 of the reef’s estimated 3,000 individual reefs, and some in-water surveys. Corals ‘bleach’ when stressed by warming waters brought on by climate change, expelling their colourful resident zooxanthellae. Marine biologist Terry Hughes says the solution to the bleaching problem is clear: “Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Full stop.”
The laboratory stalwart Caenorhabditis elegansforgets new information a couple of hours after learning it — unless it is quickly put on ice. Worms trained to dislike a smell retained their aversion while chilled for many hours. Worms given lithium also hung onto their memories for longer than normal. “Why do they forget, when the worms are perfectly capable of maintaining the memories longer?” ponders geneticist and study co-author Oded Rechavi. “Perhaps there’s a reason for holding memories for the particular duration that they do.”
Hopes that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would finally settle the debate over how fast the Universe is expanding were dashed after two teams that used JWST data calculated different values. Observations of the current Universe typically find the expansion rate — the Hubble constant — to be about 9% faster than predictions based on early-Universe data. Multiple techniques will need to agree before the disparity is resolved, says astronomer Wendy Freedman.
The top ten papers most-cited in policy documents worldwide are dominated by economics research: the number one most-referenced, with around 1,300 citations, is a 2003 study about the impact of trade. A list that excludes economics is topped by a 1990 book on the evolution of institutions by Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and a 1997 paper about Earth’s natural capital. Paediatrician Peter Gluckman, former chief science adviser to New Zealand’s prime minister, is not surprised that the list includes broad-brush papers rather than those reporting incremental advances. “The thing that worries me most is the age of the papers that are involved,” he says — more recent work on climate change, food security and similar areas hasn’t made it onto the list.
A coalition of scientists has published a declaration that there is “a realistic possibility of conscious experience” in all vertebrates and in many invertebrates, such as octopuses and insects. The group focuses on sentience — an aspect of consciousness often defined as being able to have subjective experiences — pointing to research suggesting that octopuses feel pain and that bees show play behaviour. “When there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal,” says the declaration.
Some people experience intense visual imagery, called hyperphantasia, that means they can replay memories or imagine scenes that are as vivid as real life. Once thought to be rare, research now suggests as many as 1 in 30 people have such vivid imaginations. At the other end of the spectrum are people with ‘aphantasia’, who have no visual imagery at all. Science is just catching up with this neurodiversity and how it influences memory, childhood, and even mental health.
Physicists are finally getting to grips with the mysterious strong force, which binds quarks into protons and neutrons and holds the nucleus together. The physicists who made the first measurements in the range of distances where the strong force becomes especially strong and difficult to calculate, and came up with theoretical predictions to match, describe their breakthrough. We at last have the ability to calculate aspects of quantum chromodynamics — the fiendishly complex theory that describes how the force works — from first principles, write Alexandre Deur, Stanley Brodsky and Craig Roberts. It could lead to progress on a unifying theory of the universe and help us discover how many dimensions exist.
As CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, researchers argue that its impact goes beyond its 23 member states and discoveries in particle physics. Advances made at CERN, including the development of the World Wide Web, have affected society as a whole. “I think it is a great model for international collaboration,” says physicist Rainer Wallny. “It has a lot of facilities available that are beyond the scope of individual user groups. No one has a particle accelerator in their backyard.” (Nature | 9 min read)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Psychologist Naa Oyo Kwate reviews two new books — physician-scientist Uché Blackstock’s memoir Legacy and evolutionary historian Constance Hilliard’s Ancestral Genomics — and explores how racism steals time from Black people in the United States, harming their health and well-being. (Los Angeles Review of Books | 14 min read)
With contributions by Katrina Krämer, Smriti Mallapaty and Sarah Tomlin
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Hearing aids: Not only for the near-deaf? We’ve already seen one product in the emerging category of hearing aids designed for users with relatively mild hearing loss—the Olive Union Olive Max. Now there’s Elehear’s Alpha Pro, another affordable over-the-counter product that aims to acclimate users to what hearing aids can do … before things reach crisis mode.
Elehear’s Alpha Pro doesn’t break any new ground in the design department, offering a traditional behind-the-ear design with a receiver connected to the primary device via a thin wire—perhaps just a bit longer than most. The units are available only in a dark gray color, which I find more aesthetically pleasing and unobtrusive than the more common silver or beige (yech).
Photograph: Elehear
The units arrive unconfigured, but new users get a free 30-minute online session with an audiologist if they need help setting things up and getting the lay of the land. If you’re a first-time hearing aid user, this is a good idea, as the audiologist can guide you through which settings and eartips are likely to work best for you, not to mention provide general usage and cleaning tips. The audiologist (there’s just one at Elehear) can also help later, on an ad hoc basis, via phone and email.
The Alpha Pro’s hardware controls are simple, with an individual volume rocker on the back of each unit. They will work out of the box, without Elehear’s app, but you’ll need to delve into said app if you want to get the most out of the hearing aids. While the app is simple on the surface, there’s a lot more to it underneath. Naturally, individual volume controls dominate the main screen, with selections for controlling the amount of ambient noise reduction plus the ability to opt between a forward-facing speech focus or a 360-degree listening mode. I also found the Mute button here handy, which cuts out all amplification and lets you work in silence should you need some peace and quiet.
The Adjust tab lets you drill down further, where you’ll find four presets that correspond to various levels of hearing loss, from Mild to Moderate II. Elehear’s audiologist told me these are all tuned based on common hearing loss patterns—boosting high-level frequencies more than lower ones—but you can tweak them further by tapping the Edit icon, which opens a rudimentary equalizer where you can set levels for Ocean Wave, World Sound, and Birds Chirping (i.e. lows, mids, and highs). All of the settings on this screen can be made globally or per-ear. There are also four environmental modes—General, Restaurant, Outdoor, and TV—which are fairly self-explanatory. Elehear says the only real difference among them is the amount of noise reduction along with the use of the directional focus mode.
Below that stretches a filter layer, which keeps the soil from getting into the next layer, a lightweight crate system that stores the water. And finally, below that you’ve got additional layers to keep water and plant roots from infiltrating the actual roof. “You have, in fact, a flat rain barrel on top of your roof,” says Kasper Spaan, policy developer for climate adaptation at Waternet, Amsterdam’s public water management organization, which is participating in RESILIO.
The water levels in the blue-green roof are managed by a smart valve. If the weather forecast says a storm is coming, the system will release stored water from the roof ahead of time. That way, when a downpour comes, the roof refills, meaning there’s less rainwater entering the gutters and sewers in the surrounding area. In other words, the roof becomes a sponge that the operator can wring out as needed. “In the ‘squeezable’ sponge city, you make the whole city malleable,” says Spaan.
This makes the traditional system of stormwater management more flexible, but also more complicated. So the RESILIO project used software from Autodesk to model the impact of blue-green roofs and the risk of flooding in Amsterdam, also adjusting for climate change.
“You can take a look at historical flood patterns, and then you can do simulations that will help you understand: If I could take this much capacity out of the drainage network, when the storm comes, I’m going reduce flooding by 10, 15, 20 percent,” says Amy Bunszel, executive vice president of architecture, engineering, and construction design solutions at Autodesk. “So our software allows them to do simulations and play with different trade-offs.”
Beyond the sponge-city benefits, blue-green roofs can cool the top floor of a building, essentially “sweating” off the stored water. With the right kinds of indigenous plants, they can also boost biodiversity by catering to native pollinating insects. Going a step further, scientists are also experimenting with growing crops on rooftops under solar panels, known as rooftop agrivoltaics. Theoretically, pairing that with blue-green systems might actually improve the efficiency of the solar panels by cooling them with the evaporating water.
A high-end wireless gaming headset designed for Xbox, the JBL Quantum 910X falls just short of earning a place among the best Xbox Series X headsets. That’s not to say that it isn’t still a formidable option, however, as it offers an excellent level of comfort that’s backed up by rich audio; it’s absolutely perfect for many of the best Xbox Series X games. In addition to Xbox, it’s also fully compatible with PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC, making it a strong multi-platform choice.
Unfortunately, the flagship feature of the JBL Quantum 910X, its head-tracking 360 degree spatial audio, is a mixed bag. The head-tracking itself is exceptional, simulating your head motion perfectly, but the audio quality takes a substantial hit whenever the feature is enabled. The bass becomes almost non-existent, completely ruining the punchy action of first-person shooter (FPS) titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, while the high end frequencies sound sharp and unpleasant. If your number one concern is high-quality spatial sound, no shortage of cheaper headsets like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X, offer far superior spatial audio.
The microphone is the only other major area where the JBL Quantum 910X falls behind the competition. It lacks adjustability and leaves your voice sounding grainy and quiet. It’s by no means unusable, but this is nowhere near the level of performance that you would reasonably expect for this price. Whether this is the headset for you is therefore going to depend on whether these two shortcomings are a total deal breaker but, if they’re not, there’s still an awful lot to like here.
(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future)
Price and availability
$299.95 / £219.99
Available in the US and UK
Better value in the UK
The JBL Quantum 910X costs $299.95 / £219.99 and is available in the US and UK directly from JBL or at retailers like Amazon. In the US, this comes in slightly cheaper than other high-end gaming headsets, such as the $329.99 / £279.99 Turtle Beach Stealth Pro, but is still firmly in premium territory. All things considered, it’s quite a reasonable price when you factor in the presence of high-end features such as active noise cancellation, not to mention customizable RGB lighting and the robust build quality.
Even so, UK price represents the best value of the two regions. At £219.99, the headset is a massive £60 less expensive than the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro, widening the gap between the two headsets and making the JBL Quantum 910X a much more tempting proposition.
Unfortunately, the JBL Quantum 910X is not currently available in Australia.
Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Price
$299.95 / £219.99
Weight
14.8 oz / 420g
Quoted battery life
37 hours
Features
Active noise cancellation, JBL QuantumSpatial 360 head-tracking spatial audio
Connection type
Wireless (USB-C dongle), wired (USB-C / 3.5mm)
Compatibility
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
Software
JBL Quantum Engine (PC)
(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future)
Design and features
The exterior of the JBL Quantum 910X is primarily constructed from a smooth black plastic. Its ear cups are covered in bright RGB lighting, illuminating in a ring around each ear in addition to an area with a small grill-like pattern and a prominent embossed JBL logo. The lighting is set to green by default which is perfect if you intend to use the headset with an Xbox out of the box. This lighting can be fully customized through the compatible JBL Quantum Engine software on a PC.
Each ear cup is connected to the headband with a clear plastic strip and a short braided cable, which is black with subtle green stripes. The clear plastic portion can be extended or retracted in order to customize the fit, engraved with numbers that indicate different sizing settings. The ear cups themselves then use soft black pleather cushions, which are a generous size and pleasantly soft.
The same cushioning is also found on the underside of the headband itself, which is topped with black plastic covered in a tactile grooved design. Although the JBL Quantum 910X is notably heavier than many other gaming headsets, weighing a hefty 14.8oz / 420g, the comfortable cushions makes it surprisingly easy to wear for extended periods without discomfort.
(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future)
The microphone is attached to the left ear cup and can be raised or lowered. It’s muted by default in its raised position, indicated by a small red LED light near its tip. There’s also a separate dedicated microphone mute button on the back of the ear cup, which is handy if you want to quickly mute the microphone without having to raise it. This is positioned below a volume dial, a volume mixer dial (which changes the balance between in-game audio and audio from a connected mobile phone), and a switch which enables or disables the headset’s active noise cancellation. On the bottom of the left ear cup you will also find the USB Type-C port, which can be used for both charging and wired play. It’s next to a 3.5mm headphone jack and superb braided cables for both are included in the box.
Controls on the right ear cup are simpler, with a power slider that doubles as a switch to enable Bluetooth connectivity and a simple button that alternates between standard audio, spatial sound, and full head-tracking. Although it can be used out of the box, spatial sound can be further calibrated for enhanced precision in the JBL Quantum Engine software.
This is a simple process with clear on screen instructions, but does require an included detachable microphone to sit in your ear. Factor in the wireless dongle, which comes alongside a compact USB Type-A to USB Type-C converter and that’s a lot of separate accessories to keep track of. Luckily, the headset comes with an absolutely lovely plush gray bag which is perfect for keeping everything in one place.
(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future)
Performance
In its standard mode, the JBL Quantum 910X performs excellently on the whole. It offers punchy, rich bass, clear mids, and detailed high-end frequencies. While its overall audio profile might be a little too bass-heavy for audiophile music listening, it’s absolutely perfect for gaming and the range of titles I tested sounded superb. Shots in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 packed some serious punch on Xbox Series S, while the streets of Sotenbori in the PC version of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Namefelt impressively life-like.
The emphasis on bass is also an excellent fit for rhythm games and I enjoyed quite a bit of success challenging myself with “JITTERBUG” on Extreme difficulty in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone on PS5. The JBL Quantum Engine software offers a range of useful equalizer modes and is, on the whole, some of the best companion software that I’ve ever tested. It offers an impressive number of functions, features an intuitive and attractive UI, and is lightning fast while taking up just 255MB of space. A mobile app or a native application for Xbox would enable those without access to a PC to benefit from its features, but otherwise there is nothing to complain about here.
(Image credit: JBL)
Returning to the headset, the on-board controls are well-spaced and responsive, while the active noise cancellation is a treat. It’s very effective and managed to block out almost everything that I could throw at it, ranging all the way from nearby conversations to loud passing vehicles. I also consistently managed to squeeze an impressive 32 hours of battery life out of the headset, which was more than enough for a full week of gaming sessions.
Unfortunately, the performance with the spatial audio mode enabled is a completely different story. The illusion of depth is there, but the bass instantly vanishes leading to an incredibly tinny sound that lacks any impact whatsoever. It’s like listening to a tiny pair of cheap speakers in a massive hall, an impression that is only further reinforced by the oddly echoey sound of any dialogue.
The optional head tracking, which sees the audio source shift as you look around, is incredibly accurate and well worth experimenting with for a few minutes, but the dramatic fall in audio quality means that it’s impossible to recommend using the spatial audio mode for any substantial length of time which is a huge shame.
The microphone performance is also disappointing. The physical microphone itself is unusually rigid and cannot be adjusted to be closer or further away from your mouth very easily. I found that this meant that my voice often sounded rather quiet and a little muddy. I was still easy to understand, once every participant of my calls had adjusted their volume accordingly, but this really shouldn’t be necessary with such an expensive peripheral.
(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future)
Should I buy the JBL Quantum 910X?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
If you’re not keen on the JBL Quantum 910X, you should consider these two compelling Xbox-compatible alternatives instead.
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
Software
JBL Quantum Engine (PC)
Turtle Beach Audio Hub (PC / Android / iOS))
SteelSeries Sonar (PC)
How I tested the JBL Quantum 910X
Used daily for over a month
Tested with a wide range of platforms
Compared to other premium gaming headsets
I tested the JBL Quantum 910X for over a month, using it as my main gaming headset. During that time, I tested the headset with Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch playing a broad range of titles. In addition to my usual favorites, I tried to focus on some modern games that offer rich sound, including the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Need for Speed Unbound, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Fortnite. In order to test the microphone, I used the headset for multiple online gaming sessions and recorded a number of audio files with Audacity.
Throughout my time with the headset, I was careful to compare the experience with my hands-on time with other high-end gaming headsets such as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X, Astro A50 X, and Turtle Beach Stealth Pro .
