We all have days when we use our phones right before going to bed, even though we know we shouldn’t. Admit it. We know our phones keep us awake. Some people try to mitigate the negative effects on sleep with blue-light glasses, which claim to block out rhythm-affecting blue tones in screen light, but if you’re using a fitness tracker (and if you are, it’s probably one of the best sleep trackers or best fitness trackers from our lists) you’ve likely had at least one morning when you’ve woken up, checked your stats and seen exactly how little sleep you had the night before.
It turns out, it’s not the blue-light effect from your phone that’s keeping you awake at night, according to sleep scientist Dr Sophie Bostock. I met Dr Bostock at an event to celebrate the launch of the OnePlus Watch 2 Nordic Blue in Helsinki, and she was able to answer a few burning questions about late-night phone use.
“There are several aspects of light which affect your circadium rhythm. Brightness of light is really important. If you get very bright light it’s going to activate the receptors, which contain a pigment called melanopsin, in the back of your retina. This sends a message to the clock in your brain which tells you to be alert.
“This pigment is more sensitive to light in the blue visible end of the spectrum, true, and when you look at a phone, it tends to be rich in blue wavelength light. But that is completely irrelevant if the light from your phone is very dim.
“The light you typically get from your phone is about 80 lux. Usually, in the studies used to look at impact on your circadian rhythm, you expose someone to at least 2000 lux, perhaps 5,000 lux. A SAD lamp is usually 10,000 lux. The light from your phone’s impact on circadian rhythm is negligible.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
So if it’s not the blue light beaming from your phone, what’s actually keeping you awake? Dr Bostock had the answer.
“Research has found using the bright light element of your phone only delays sleep for around 10 minutes. People getting locked into losing track of time, delaying sleep because of what they’re doing on their phone, probably delays sleep by closer to an hour. Relative to that sleep displacement, the blue light exposure is negligible.”
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Fear around phones comes from massive large-scale studies that state people who use phones before bed sleep really poorly, so the conclusion was always ‘phones must be causing poor sleep’.
“There are two more aspects to consider. One is that people leave their phone by their bed, while it pings and alerts during the night… but phones can be helpful, some people use it as a distraction. Audiobooks are phenomenally popular.”
While Dr Bostock’s main advice is to keep your phone out of the bedroom to avoid the temptation to doomscroll, if you use it to play sleep-aid content, it’s perhaps worth keeping it across the room on another surface, out of arm’s reach.
Ocushield has a range of medically rated screen protectors that are designed for for the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Ocushield specializes in blue light reduction, so all of its screen protectors cut down on the amount of blue light that you’re exposed to when using your devices.
Blue light can cause eye strain, headaches, dry eyes, fatigue, and blurry vision in some people, and it is hard to avoid between work on the computer and day-to-day iPhone and iPad usage. Blue light can also impact sleep because it affects the production of melatonin and your body doesn’t naturally produce enough to tell you when to go to sleep.
Ocushield’s iPhone Screen Protector comes in sizes that fit all devices dating back to the iPhone 5. It comes with a kit for cleaning the iPhone and an applicator tray for alignment purposes, both of which make for a no-flaw application process.
The iPad Screen Protector features a similar kit, and it is available for the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Pro, and iPad Air. Each one comes with a screen cleaner, tray for application, sticker to remove dust, and a cleaning cloth.
The blue light filters block up to 99 percent of UV and blue light emissions between 300-400nm, and up to 54 percent of harmful blue light between 400 to 470nm. Ocushield says that its iPhone and iPad screen protectors are meant to preserve the natural colors of the device for a clear picture.
The iPhone and iPad Screen Protectors are both made of thin, tempered glass, which also offer screen protection. They come with an anti-bacterial coating, oil resistance, and an anti-reflection coating that cuts down on fingerprints. Ocushield says that the screen protectors are able to prevent eye strain, improve sleep, and protect the eyes and skin from harmful blue light.
While the iPhone and iPad Screen Protectors are permanent and attach with no-damage adhesive, Ocushield’s MacBook Anti-Blue Light Filter works a little differently. Apple does not recommend closing a MacBook with a screen protector attached, so the Blue Light Filter for Mac is removable.
It adheres using silicone or magnets depending on your Mac model, and it can be put on when you’re using your Mac and then taken off when you need to close the display. It offers the same blue light protection as the iPhone and iPad Screen Protectors, but it also has a built-in privacy filter. When attached, the display of a Mac viewed from the side is near black, preserving privacy. It also has an anti-bacterial coating and an anti-glare coating that cut down on glare and reflections.
Ocushield recently acquired EyeJust, a company that creates blue light blocking glasses, so it is expanding its product lineup with stylish glasses that will work for all devices, and improving its presence in the United States (it is based in the UK).
It is worth noting that Apple has added built-in blue light reduction features to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac with Night Shift, but the functionality only works at night. It also has a greater impact on color accuracy because it uses display color temperature for blocking blue light. Ocushield also has a wider feature set, including anti-drop protection for the iPhone and side-angle viewing restrictions on the Mac, plus glare reduction across all devices. To celebrate spring, Ocushield has a 15 percent discount on all products right now with the promo code BLOOM2024.
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Part of a brain organoid made using human stem cells (purple).Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library
Researchers have hailed organoids — 3D clusters of cells that mimic aspects of human organs — as a potential way to test drugs and even eliminate some forms of animal experimentation. Now, in two studies published on 24 April in Nature1,2, biologists have developed gut and brain organoids that could improve understanding of colon cancer and help to develop treatments for a rare neurological disorder.
“In the last ten years, people spent a lot of time to develop and understand how to make organoids,” says Shuibing Chen, a chemical biologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. “But this is the time now to think more about how to use” the models.
Organoids open fresh paths to biomedical advances
Organoids — particularly those made from human stem cells — sometimes reveal things that animal models can’t, says Sergiu Pașca, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California and a co-author of one of the studies1. Pașca’s group studies Timothy syndrome: a genetic disorder involving autism, neurological problems and heart conditions that affects only a few dozen people in the world. Timothy syndrome is caused by a single mutation in a gene called CACNA1C, which encodes a channel through which calcium ions enter cells including neurons.
Pașca says that there are no good animal models for Timothy syndrome because the underlying mutation doesn’t always cause the same symptoms in rodents. “It became very clear to us we’d need to find a way of testing in vivo,” he says.
Cultured cells
The researchers turned to brain organoids to recreate the disorder. They took stem cells from 3 people with the mutation that causes Timothy syndrome and cultured them for about 250 days, treating the cells with signalling molecules that encouraged them to turn into brain organoids containing every type of neuron found in the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain. To create a more lifelike environment for the organoids, the team then injected these structures into the brains of rats, where the cells formed connections with the rodents’ own neurons. This made a system in which the researchers could test potential treatments for the disorder.
Human neurons have four different forms of this calcium channel, but only one of them is defective in Timothy syndrome. Getting rid of the mutated channel, the researchers suggest, would allow the other, healthy channels to take over.
Organoids grown from amniotic fluid could shed light on rare diseases
To do this, they identified short pieces of nucleic acids called oligonucleotides that can stop cells producing the mutated form of the protein by interfering with genetic transcripts. Around two weeks after the researchers injected these oligonucleotides into the rats’ brains, most of the defective calcium channels in the organoids and the surrounding rat neurons had been replaced by other versions of the protein. The neurons in the organoids had also changed shape — from small, less complex forms similar to those in people with Timothy syndrome to larger, more complex shapes typical of healthy neurons. “To be honest, I didn’t think it would work so well,” Pașca says.
He adds that his group hope to test the therapy on people in clinical trials eventually, although they will first need to prove that the oligonucleotides are safe by testing them in non-human primates. The researchers think that the treatment would be effective for about three months, so people would need to receive frequent injections. The advantage, Pașca says, is that the biological effects of the treatment would be reversible and any side effects would be short-lived.
Miniature colon
In a separate paper2, bioengineer Matthias Lütolf at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues used mouse stem cells to model tissue from the other end of the body: the gut tissue that makes up the colon and rectum. Organoids tend to grow in tight balls, so the researchers grew the cells on a scaffold to recreate the tube structures seen in real gut tissue.
To make a model of colon cancer, they engineered the cells to contain light-sensitive proteins attached to cancer-causing genes. This allowed them to use a blue laser to switch on the genes and trigger the growth of tumours at specific sites in the organoid, then watch how the tumours changed over the course of weeks.
Researchers grew tumours inside a model of gut tissue created using mouse stem cells.Credit: Matthias P. Lutolf et al/Nature
When the researchers injected the cancerous cells into mice, the tumours looked similar to those seen in human colorectal cancer. The organoids accumulated fewer tumours when the researchers restricted calories in their medium, which also happens in people with colorectal cancer.
Lütolf was struck by the difference between the tumours triggered throughout the organoid. It would be difficult, he says, to use the organoids to screen a large number of new drugs, because of the differences and because they take a long time to produce. But he says organoids could be useful in investigating how drugs or immunotherapies kill tumours, and how factors such as a person’s environment and immune system affect the development and progression of colorectal cancer.
The mini lungs and other organoids helping to beat COVID
Lütolf and his group plan to manipulate the gut organoids to better reflect the human system, and hope that they could eventually replace animal models in some instances. Future organoid models, Lütolf says, could include bacteria that live in the gut or could be exposed to different levels of oxygen that mimic those available in various anatomical regions of the gut.
The two studies are “very well-designed”, Chen says. She adds that the organoid models seem particularly useful in showing the complexity of diseases such as Timothy syndrome and colorectal cancer, and how they progress over time. Now that researchers have found good ways to make organoids that model different organs, she says, the next steps will be learning how to scale up production for drug development, and making them more complex so that they reflect real human biology.
If you like the idea of turning on a light just by talking, here’s an affordable smart home starter bundle. For those already comfortable with the automated life, this deal will give you one more thing to control and one more receptacle for your demands. Amazon’s smallest smart speaker, the Echo Pop, bundled with a TP-Link Kasa smart bulb is now $23. The speaker goes for as much at $40 at full price, though the lowest we’ve seen it drop is $18 for Black Friday last year. The bulb has a $23 list price, but dropped to $15 a few times before. In all, the bundle marks a $40 discount off the full price and a $22 savings over the two items’ current sale prices. The Kasa bulb made the cut in our guide to smart bulbs.
Amazon
The Echo Pop goes for $40 on its own and the bulb sells for as much as $23 at full price, so this bundle represents a $40 discount off the list prices.
The larger Echo Dot speaker is also on sale, bundled with the same bulb. The set is down to $40, a 45 percent discount over buying the two items separately and at full price. Since they’re both on sale individually right now, getting the set saves you $22 over current sale prices. The Echo Dot is our top pick for a smart speaker under $50 because it puts out big sound for its size, has handy physical controls and grants access to Alexa’s helpfulness — a selling point if you prefer that assistant’s capabilities over another.
Customers and independent repair services can include used Apple parts in repairs for the first time beginning in fall 2024 with select iPhones, the company said Thursday.
This-coming fall is when a new parts calibration process will launch. And it includes an Activation Lock to prevent use of parts from lost or stolen devices.
Apple will launch process allowing used parts in self-repairs
Apple said the new process launches in fall 2024 and will work initially with select iPhone models. Self repair with genuine used parts will increase product longevity and minimize environmental impact while maining user privacy and security, the company added.
Apple said the new process ensures used genuine Apple parts — just like new ones — get full functionality and security from the original factory calibration.
“At Apple, we’re always looking for new ways to deliver the best possible experience for our customers while reducing the impact we have on the planet, and a key part of that means designing products that last,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
“For the last two years, teams across Apple have been innovating on product design and manufacturing to support repairs with used Apple parts that won’t compromise users’ safety, security or privacy. With this latest expansion to our repair program, we’re excited to be adding even more choice and convenience for our customers, while helping to extend the life of our products and their parts.”
The importance of ‘pairing’ used parts in Apple repairs
You’ll be able to get in there with genuine used replacement parts. Photo: PBK Reviews
Apple cited “pairing” to confirm a part is genuine as crucial to the new process to keep iPhone private, secure and safe to use. And for many repairs, no device serial number will be needed:
Apple teams … enable the reuse of parts such as biometric sensors used for Face ID or Touch ID. And beginning this fall, calibration for genuine Apple parts, new or used, will happen on device after the part is installed. In addition, future iPhone releases will have support for used biometric sensors.
And in order to simplify the repair process, customers and service providers will no longer need to provide a device’s serial number when ordering parts from the Self Service Repair Store for repairs not involving replacement of the logic board.
Activation Lock comes into play
Apple existing Activation Lock feature, designed to block iPhone activation when a device is stolen, comes into play here, too. It will help keep stolen iPhones from being disassembled for parts.
“If a device under repair detects that a supported part was obtained from another device with Activation Lock or Lost Mode enabled, calibration capabilities for that part will be restricted,” Apple said.
Tracking parts in service history
Apple said it wants subsequent owners of devices to have access to histories listing parts and repairs, so it’s expanding the feature:
With Parts and Service history, located within Settings on iOS, Apple is the only smartphone company that transparently shows owners whether their device has been repaired and provides information about the parts used. This fall, Apple will expand Parts and Service History to additionally show whether a part is a new or used genuine Apple part.
Apple noted it recently “nearly doubled the number of service locations with access to genuine Apple parts, tools and training to more than 10,000 Independent Repair Providers and Apple Authorized Service Providers.”
And Self Service Repair “gives access to the manuals, genuine Apple parts and tools used at Apple Store and Apple Authorized Service Provider locations. Launched in 2022, Self Service Repair now supports 40 Apple products in 33 countries and regions, and 24 languages.”
The new Thread- and Matter-enabled Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 came out Tuesday for use with HomeKit and other smart-home platforms, the company said.
“In the rapidly expanding global market for Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors, Aqara has achieved remarkable success, distributing over 100,000 units last year,” noted Cathy You, Aqara’s senior VP of Global Business and Strategy.
“The launch of the Motion and Light Sensor P2, which combines our renowned sensor technology with the latest in connectivity protocols and standards, encapsulates our forward-thinking approach and our commitment to delivering smart home solutions that are ready for tomorrow’s advancement,” she added.
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Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2
The new motion and light sensor from Aqara contains an ultra-wide angle PIR motion sensor with a standalone illumination sensor. That technology enables detection up to 23 feet away and across 170 degrees horizontally.
So you can use the sensor to automate lighting, enhance security and help manage climate control. For example, you could automate a temperature change after dark.
Unlike some sensors on the market, Aqara’s P2 measures light intensity and motion separately. So it won’t interfere with the lighting- and window-covering control you put in place for comfort and energy efficiency.
The sensor’s battery lasts for up to two years, Aqara added.
Native Matter support and Thread border router functionality
You can control the sensor using Aqara’s app or the Home app on your iPhone. Photo: Aqara
Here’s more from the company about the device:
As a Thread-enabled device, the Motion and Light Sensor P2 connects to any Matter controller with Thread Border Router functionality. And [it] allows use across multiple compatible platforms thanks to Matter’s multi-admin feature.
Furthermore, the sensor offers a few Aqara Home exclusive features such as customizable sensitivity and detection timeout settings for tailored performance.
Users can fine-tune both parameters through the Aqara Home app. [It] requires Aqara’s Thread-enabled Matter controller, for example the upcoming Hub M3.
Aqara also mentioned it will release additional Thread devices in the coming months. Those should include Hub M3 mentioned above and Smart Lock U200. Aqara said in February Home Key support would come to the lock with software updates.
You can pick up Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 for $33.99 on Amazon.
In the last few decades, technology has created a modern digital workforce that is technically skilled and adept at finding innovative solutions that would help them succeed at work. However, with 95% of employees struggling with digital friction in the workplace – including a lack of access to the right tools – ambitious employees who are hungry for results have often needed to explore fixes outside the scope of existing systems provided by their employers.
On top of that, the popularity of cloud-based apps has resulted in business processes often ending up fragmented across various systems, requiring workers to devote time to manual maintenance. This has accelerated the spread of (the unnecessarily ominous sounding) ‘shadow IT’, or applications that savvy workers use without official authorization to help them bypass limitations and get work done. In a perfect world, a balance can be struck between giving these technically skilled workers freedom to integrate and optimize processes while ensuring IT remains in charge of technology at the architectural level.
The traditional approach of tightly controlled IT landscapes within organizations doesn’t work as well as it once did given the proliferation of systems for just about every task, which has made it unsustainable for IT to do it all in many cases. Shadow IT is a natural evolution born from workers growing more comfortable with digital tools and looks like it’s here to stay, with Gartner finding it makes up 30-40% of all IT spending across large enterprises even though research shows nearly seven in ten organizations have been compromised as a result of it.
That said, there is ample opportunity to take advantage of and nurture a new generation of strategic business technologists. Organizations that can master this shift will benefit in a bevvy of ways en route to better business outcomes and positive impact on customer and employee experience.
Gert-Jan Wijman
Flipping the narrative
For tech and business leaders, shadow IT is not only a risk, but also an opportunity to take off the strain of IT departments. The possibility of adept workers identifying and resolving application issues relieves IT of the need to develop solutions and integrate them on an organizational level. Rather than bearing the burden of finding or building new solutions on their own, tech leaders can instead take a more strategic, supervisory role by overseeing how applications recommended by workers are integrated with existing enterprise architectures.
This is especially critical to take into account the generational differences emerging within the modern workforce, given that digital natives (those who have grown up in a tech-led world) are starting to play a larger role. Business leaders can empower these younger workers to be part of decisions about the technology business uses and help upskill less technically adept colleagues. This also helps in addressing skills gaps that the IT industry is facing.
A transparent approach, where employees aren’t secretly leaning on unauthorized applications out of sight, will help shore up cybersecurity vulnerabilities while also providing these de facto business technologists (those who sit outside IT but have the skills to ensure their organization gets the most value from its technology investments), the freedom to find and implement solutions that truly work.
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Creating an integration-first culture
As a next step, business leaders need to focus on uncovering the underlying motivations behind the use of shadow IT. Often, it’s about effectively finding workarounds to common data integration problems, like systems not being updated in real-time and needing manual inputs. Companies should work on developing a cohesive plan for recommending, testing, and finally adopting IT applications that align with their strategy, goals and existing application portfolio.
The repercussions of imprecise and mismatched data can be significant, with The Alan Turing Institute estimating that poor data quality costs the UK economy £10-20 billion annually. Organizations will increasingly rely on data to inform decision-making, particularly as they scale, however, data silos create barriers that hinder collaboration, creativity, and progress. Once, as a result of great transparency, IT teams become aware of applications being used and their purposes, they can work on integrating them more efficiently.
This enhances the speed and precision with which business decisions can be made, owing to better availability and timeliness of data.
Emerging from the shadows
Taming shadow IT will increase in importance as it becomes more widespread: Gartner predicts 75% of all employees will use some form of it by 2027.
Leveraging business technologists is an essential way for companies looking to stay ahead of the curve. With many already adept at automating workflows, they have the potential to fill the tech skill gaps so many businesses are struggling to address. While they may not possess all the necessary abilities, considering a lack of options on the market an effective middle-ground would be to pair these technically proficient employees with low- or no-code platforms, easing the burden on stretched IT teams. IT teams will stay at the helm of wider tech strategy, but as business technologists will ultimately have the most hands-on experience and will know where gaps in technology lie within the business, they will be invaluable in finding solutions if their skills are nurtured correctly.
As businesses adopt more and more cloud-based applications, the biggest winners will be those that can stay ahead of the curve and look at shadow IT as a fast-track to a more innovative and integrated approach to business technology
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
Having a fancy webcam is all well and good, but another thing you might need to seriously upgrade the quality of your video calls and livestreams is a decent key light. It will illuminate your face to help you stand out from the background and help the camera discern your features more clearly. You don’t need to break the bank to get a decent key light either. is currently $10 off at $90. That’s only $5 more than the lowest price we’ve seen for it.
Logitech
Logitech’s Litra Beam is a solid key light for a decent price.
looks a bit like an LED reading lamp and it would be a fairly stylish addition to many setups. It has a three-way adjustable stand, allowing you to tweak the height, tilt and rotation as needed, while its ability to run on either USB or AC power gives you more placement options.
The device uses TrueSoft tech, which, according to Logitech, provides “balanced, full-spectrum LED light with cinematic color accuracy for a natural, radiant look across all skin tones.” A frameless diffuser helps mitigate harsh shadows, according to the company.
You’ll be able to adjust the Litra Beam’s brightness, color temperature, presets and other settings through the Logitech G Hub desktop app, which also allows you to manage multiple lights at once. In addition, the key light has five physical buttons on the rear for quick switching between brightness and color temperature settings.
T3 sells a range of standard and compact-size hair dryers, with the T3 Afar design marketed as the brand’s travel hair dryer. Having reviewed both the T3 Fit and T3 AireLuxe models, I was interested to see how different an experience the T3 Afar would deliver.
While the Afar model is very different from the T3 AireLuxe in terms of settings and shape, it does share some similarities to the equally compact T3 Fit. However, the T3 Afar’s foldable handle makes it far more suitable for traveling, and it’s easily one of the best hair dryers for that reason.
Overall, the T3 Afar feels sturdy, which isn’t true of many travel hairdryers. The handle, too, shows no signs of flimsiness, instead feeling smooth, solid and comfortable in the hand.
Inside the box, you get one concentrator nozzle that clicks onto the body of the T3 Afar and can be adjusted to direct the airflow as you wish. Like both the AireLuxe and Fit models, the Afar has an ion generator that saturates the airflow with negative ions to create a smooth and silky finish when drying hair. I found that while the T3 Afar doesn’t dry hair as quickly as a standard hair dryer, it does produce satisfying results, limiting flyaway hair in the process.
A travel pouch is also included in the box; it’s made from vegan leather and feels well-crafted and is easy to wipe clean, and sufficiently roomy for storing the folded hair dryer and the styling nozzle. In fact, it even has space for the hairbrush or diffuser attachment, which are sold separately.
(Image credit: Future)
T3 AFAR: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
Free 30-day returns
Luxury travel pouch included
2-year warranty
The T3 Afar is significantly pricier than the average travel hair dryer you can buy from Amazon, but its ergonomically designed features place it a step above and make it easy to achieve great results.
At the time of writing, you can buy the T3 Afar for $179.99 | £150, which includes a luxury travel pouch and one concentrator nozzle. If you have wavy, curly or coily hair, you may want to add the T3 Afar diffuser attachment, but this is sold separately and costs an extra $25 | £20.
Rating: 4/5
(Image credit: Future)
T3 AFAR: SPECS
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Price
RRP $179.99 / £150
Heat settings
3
Speed settings
2
Cord length
75in / 190cm
Accessories
1 concentrator nozzle included and T3 Afar diffuser sold separately
(Image credit: Future)
T3 AFAR: DESIGN
Stylish satin blush finish
Foldable handle makes it easy for transporting
Controls are easy to use
A soft pink, satin blush finish and lightweight design make the T3 Afar both easy to hold and easy on the eye. At 381g, it’s much lighter than your standard hair dryer; however, this not only limits arm ache over prolonged use, but also makes it a great option to pop in your hand luggage when travelling.
In fact, the T3 Afar’s USP is that it’s 25% lighter and 30% smaller than a full-size T3 hair dryer such as the T3 AireLuxe. Size-wise, it’s similar to the T3 Fit, which weighs in at 400g. It’s as compact as the Dyson Supersonic, which is considerably heavier at 659g. As a regular user of the Dyson Supersonic, I found the T3 Afar did feel far lighter in hand and offered a very different drying experience, which took me a few attempts to become used to. However, the results were just as satisfying.
(Image credit: Future)
In particular, I welcome how cleanly the T3 Afar’s handle folds in and out, clicking into place each time. The heat and speed settings are well positioned, again clicking into position so there’s no risk of accidentally adjusting the settings while in use.
The T3 Afar’s cord length is ample at 6ft 2, which delivered more than enough flexibility to move around freely when drying my hair at the dressing table. For context, with a cord length of around 8.4ft, the Dyson Supersonic is rather more generous.
The T3 Afar is missing a hanging hook with which to store the hair dryer upside down, but since it’s been designed for travel, it may have been deemed unnecessary. However, in the box you do get a vegan leather travel pouch for storage purposes. And since the hair dryer has auto dual voltage, you only need to add a plug adapter when travelling abroad.
Design: 4/5
T3 AFAR: PERFORMANCE
Ion-infused airstream for fast and gentle drying
Reduces frizz and smooths hair
Flexible heat and speed settings
As someone who has wavy hair that’s prone to frizz, having a hair dryer that can smooth my hair quickly and easily is a priority. In general, travel hair dryers have a reputation for being flimsy in design and underpowered; but I found the T3 Afar surprisingly powerful, and sturdy and comfortable to use. At 1,500 watts, this may not provide as powerful an airflow as a standard hair dryer such as the 1,875-watt T3 AireLuxe, but it can still pack a punch to deliver stylish results. However, like the AireLuxe, the T3 Afar comes with “IonAir” technology. This creates a wide, ion-infused airstream that gently dries hair, while smoothing the hair cuticle to minimize frizz and enhance shine.
Three heat and two speed settings provide plenty of flexibility to style with confidence. I found that switching between the two speed and three heat settings was easy, and while I preferred to ramp up to the highest speed and heat setting to get faster drying results, I can appreciate that the lower settings are beneficial for those drying shorter hair or even children’s hair.
It took me a while to figure out how to use the cool shot – it needs to be clicked into place rather than simply held down – but once familiar, I found that this actually made the whole process of setting a style easier.
Both the concentrator nozzle and diffuser fit cleanly into position on the head of the hair dryer. I welcome the fact that I could click and turn the concentrator nozzle, meaning I could easily adjust the airflow to suit my styling needs. Being able to channel the airflow more definitively helped me to achieve smoother results when blow-drying and styling more difficult to reach locks at the back of my head. I watched the T3 video on how to create a bouncy blow out and was pleased with the results. The trick is to use a 2-inch round brush and direct the airflow downwards.
Overall, those used to using a standard hair dryer such as the GHD Helios are likely to find that the T3 Afar will take some getting used to since it doesn’t feel as satisfying for power. However, as a travel hair dryer capable of producing smooth and stylish results, I found the T3 Afar impressive.
Performance: 4.4/5
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the T3 Afar?
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Attribute
Comment
Rating
Design
Smooth and stylish, satin blush finish feels premium while the foldable handle feels robust. The T3 Afar is light in the hand, too.
4 / 5
Performance
With three heat and two speed settings, plus a cool shot, the T3 Afar packs a surprisingly powerful punch for a travel hair dryer. The cool shot is particularly easy to use since it clicks on and off as opposed to having to hold it down.
4 / 5
Value
Above the average price for a travel hair dryer, but it includes many of the features you’d expect to find on a standard hair dryer.
Testing was done during winter months in the United Kingdom
To test the T3 Afar, I used it for several weeks to dry my hair from wet. I tried both the included concentrator nozzle as well as the additional diffuser, trying different styles and techniques as well as measuring the sound output.
As it’s a travel hairdryer, I also put the design through its paces in order to see how durable it is as well as how easy it would be to travel with.
I’ve been testing lifestyle devices for years, and have been drying my hair for even longer, so I make sure to prioritise the right things when it comes to reviewing hair dryers; performance, value and design.
Edifier’s new desktop speakers put on a light show and charge gadgets. Photo: Edifier
Edifier’s new QR65 Active Monitor Speakers pack 70 watts of power with hi-res audio certification, put on a light show and act as a fast gallium nitride (GaN) charger for your other gadgets, too.
And the value-oriented Chinese audio brand brings all that and more across for $369 per pair.
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Edifier QR65 Active Monitor Speakers
Edifier QR65 Active Monitor Speakers bring 70W RMS total audio output plus 65W of TurboGaN charging power via two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, along with lighting you can customize. These aren’t Edifier’s first speakers to light up, but they may be more advanced than previous efforts.
And regarding sound quality, Edifier said QR65 features a high-quality acoustic architecture with Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications and support for the LDAC codec.
So each speaker packs a 15W 1.25-inch silk dome tweeter and a 20W mid-low 2.75-inch long-throw aluminium diaphragm driver. Frequency response is 55Hz to 40kHz. For connectivity, you get Bluetooth 5.3 plus USB and RCA line in.
Want more bass? Plug in a subwoofer. Photo: Edifier
65W TurboGaN charger
The built-in charger offers 65W power delivery via three USB-C ports and 60W via one USB-A port, when one port is used. Using more than one port at a time alters the wattage. Used simultaneously, the two USB-C ports put out 40W and 20W, for example.
TempoAbyss lighting effects
And Edifier QR54 active speakers offer 16 million lighting effects through the company’s TempoAbyss system. You can experiment with 11 presets and create your own effects through Edifier’s ConneX app.
These desktop computer speakers feature a 65W GaN fast-charger function, 70W RMS of audio power, Bluetooth 5.3 or wired connectivity, certified hi-res 24bit wireless audio, subwoofer out and light effects (in white or black colors).
