Sony’s best ANC headphones are up to 46 percent off right now

With both immersive sound and powerful active noise cancellation (ANC), Sony’s WH-1000XM4 are some of the most desirable wireless headphones out there — but at $350, they’re pretty expensive. If you’ve been looking for a deal, you can now pick up a pair at Amazon for $278, or a solid 21 percent ($72 off the regular price. And if that’s still too much, Sony’s mid-range and budget ANC wireless headphones are also on sale. 

Buy Sony WH-1000XM4 at Amazon – $278

The WH-1000XM4 attained an exceptional 94 score in our Engadget review for good reason. They offer great sound quality with punchy bass, plus ANC that blocks out noise better than other wireless headphones we’ve tested. They also offer multi-device connectivity and Speak-to-Chat, which automatically pauses audio when you talk, along with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio that offers a similar surround-sound experience to Dolby Atmos. You’ll get around 30 hours on a charge and you can eke another five hours from a quick 10-minute charge.

Sony WH-XB910N
Sony

Sony’s mid-range WH-XB910N headphones (above) are also on sale at Amazon for $148, near their all-time low price. They’re obviously not quite up to the level of the much more expensive WH-1000XM4, particularly with the ANC, but they still deliver excellent sound quality and look great. You get clear mids and highs, powerful bass and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio surround sound. Other features include “Precise Voice Pickup” that amplifies your voice on calls, on-board controls, an ambient sound mode and 30-hour battery life.

Buy Sony WH-XB910N at Amazon – $148

Finally, if you’re looking for a budget ANC model, Amazon has another good deal on Sony’s WH-CH710N model. They’re now available for $98 or a solid 46 percent off the regular $180 price. They earned a best alternative spot in our buyer’s guide last year, thanks to the very good sound quality with decent range and clarity. They also feature ANC that can automatically adjust cancellation based on the level of ambient noise, an ambient sound mode and 35 hours of battery life.

Buy Sony WH-CH710N at Amazon – $98

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Samsung halts product shipments to Russia

Samsung has stopped shipping its products to Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the company told Bloomberg News. The tech giant said it’s monitoring the “complex situation,” and that it’s donating $6 million, which includes $1 million worth of consumer electronics, to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. According to the publication, the shipment suspension affects all Samsung products, including its smartphones, chips and other consumer electronic devices. 

By halting all exports of its products to Russia, Samsung has joined the growing list of companies that had paused sales of products and services in the country. Apple halted all product sales in response to the invasion and after receiving a request from Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The company also limited Apple Pay, pulled the apps for Russian state-backed media outlets from its store and disabled traffic data for Maps in Ukraine to avoid putting residents in danger. Microsoft suspended all new sales of products and services in Russia, as well. 

The Korean tech giant is the top smartphone brand in the country and has a 30 percent market share, according to Counterpoint Research data. That’s much higher than Apple’s 13 percent market share, as of the fourth quarter of 2021. In addition, Samsung has a TV plant in Russia, though it’s unclear if it has also stopped production in the factory.

Its decision to halt shipments to Russia comes after Fedorov sent Jong Hee Han, the CEO for Samsung’s SET division, a letter similar to what he sent Tim Cook. In it, he asked the Korean tech giant to stop supplying the country with its products, as well as to block Samsung Pay, Samsung Galaxy Store and Samsung Shop.

As Bloomberg notes, South Korean smartphones were an exemption to the export bans recently imposed by the US government. But even if Samsung did want to continue shipping products to Russia, it would have a hard time sending products to the country anyway due to airlines and shipping services halting their activities in the region.

Samsung will add phone performance throttling controls through an update

Samsung will at least partly address complaints that it’s throttling the performance of apps on some Galaxy phones. As The Vergereports, the company has promised an update to its Game Optimizing Service to give users more control over throttling. In a statement to Engadget, Samsung said the option was coming at an unspecified point in the future in response to both feedback and “careful consideration.” You can read the full statement at the end of this article.

However, Samsung disputed claims GOS was throttling as many as 10,000 apps across numerous categories. The service “does not manage” apps beyond games, the company said. Users have accused Samsung of throttling the performance of non-gaming software like Netflix and TikTok while disabling the restrictions for benchmarks like 3DMark and GeekBench, skewing expectations for real-world speed.

GOS is now known to be present on the Galaxy S22 series. While the exact range of phones with GOS isn’t clear, the software is known to exist on older phones like the Galaxy S21 lineup and S20 FE.

Samsung isn’t alone. In 2021, OnePlus admitted that it throttled the OnePlus 9 while popular apps were in use. This was ostensibly meant to preserve battery life, but didn’t include benchmarks. Huawei, Oppo and other phone makers have been caught cheating on benchmarks in the past, but those methods relied on ramping up performance when a test app was in use, not slowing down for other apps.

It’s difficult for phone vendors to completely avoid throttling. Chips like the Galaxy S22’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Exynos 2200 can run hot, and Samsung even introduced vapor chamber cooling to the S22 to manage that heat. As Apple learned years ago, though, at least some users want more control and transparency for throttling — they’re willing to sacrifice battery life and heat to see devices reach their full potential.

“Our priority is to deliver the best mobile experience for consumers. The Game Optimizing Service (GOS) has been designed to help game apps achieve a great performance while managing device temperature effectively. GOS does not manage the performance of non-gaming apps. We value the feedback we receive about our products and after careful consideration, we plan to roll out a software update soon so users can control the performance while running game apps.”

The biggest MWC 2022 news you might have missed

We’ve come to the end of Mobile World Congress 2022, which, despite the pandemic and a war in Europe, went on as planned. While it’s typically a show full of phone launches from companies like Sony, Huawei, TCL, Xiaomi, Oppo and more, this year there w…

The Morning After: Nintendo’s Switch turns five

Nintendo’s return to form, after the miss that was the Wii U, has been impressive. The Switch, equal parts home console and handheld, has been a huge hit for the company and recently surpassed the Wii to become Nintendo’s best-selling console. The hardware — underpowered in specs compared to the competition — has proved flexible and powerful enough, and Nintendo has crushed it with the games. With Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which landed shortly after the console launched, players got not only the best Zelda game in years but arguably (don’t come for me) the best Zelda game. Period.

To celebrate its fifth birthday, we’ve pulled together the best games that have cemented the Switch as the versatile, family-friendly console that’s still going strong. Who needs a Switch Pro?

(Me, I do.)

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

‘Star Trek: Picard’ enters the 25th century only to promptly ignore it

This season is for all those time-travel fans.

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Paramount

The first season of Picard was controversial, to say the least. Many fans were happy to see old friends again; others weren’t so thrilled at the bleak future of Starfleet and the Federation. So Star Trek did what Star Trek does: time travel! Our early preview contains moderate spoilers for the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard season two.

Continue reading.

Another Netflix production was robbed, this time on the set of ‘Lupin’

Twenty masked thieves reportedly made off with $330,000 worth of equipment.

Netflix has been the victim of two big on-set robberies in two days. On February 24th, $200,000 worth of antique props were reportedly stolen after thieves broke into vehicles used for production of The Crown. And just a day later, 20 thieves with covered faces broke on to the set of Lupin, in a northwest Paris suburb. The thieves apparently set off mortar-style fireworks before making off with the equipment.

Continue reading.

Samsung may be throttling apps to save battery life on Galaxy phones

The company says it’s looking into reports.

Samsung may have limited the performance of a large number of apps on its Galaxy smartphones. There are claims it’s been using something called the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) to throttle up to 10,000 apps (likely to save battery life), including many that have nothing to do with gaming, like Netflix, TikTok and, er, Microsoft Office. However, it isn’t throttling benchmarking apps.

Continue reading.

A ‘molecular drinks printer’ claims to make anything from iced coffee to cocktails

Thousands of beverages at the press of a touchscreen.

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Cana

A company called Cana has revealed what it’s calling the planet’s first “molecular beverage printer.” The idea is that, using a single cartridge of flavorings, the machine can mix one of thousands of beverages, including juice, soft drinks, iced coffee, sports drinks, wine and cocktails. The notion seems to be it can manufacture most drinks from a water base, adding in what differentiates orange juice from, say, a latte. The system uses a “novel microfluidic liquid dispense technology” to mix the beverages. The pricing is unusual, too. After paying for the machine (early adopters can bag one for $499), you have to pay for each drink. Each costs between 29 cents and $3, though Cana claims the average price will be lower than bottled beverages at retailers.

Continue reading.

Sony and Honda announce plan to build EVs together

Sony and Honda have signed a memorandum of understanding to design and market electric vehicles together, the companies announced. The deal isn’t final, but the aim is to establish a joint venture this year and start selling vehicles by 2025.

Honda would design, manufacture and market the first model, with Sony creating the mobility service platform. The idea is to marry Honda’s car building and sales chops with Sony’s infotainment, mobile and image sensor expertise. 

“Although Sony and Honda are companies that share many historical and cultural similarities, our areas of technological expertise are very different,” said Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe. “Therefore, I believe this alliance which brings together the strengths of our two companies offers great possibilities for the future of mobility.”

For Honda, the joint venture might help it achieve its goal of shifting its entire lineup to EVs by 2040. As it stands now, the company has one of the sparsest EV lineups of any automaker, with its only true EV sold in the west being the nichey, Europe-only Honda E.

Sony pitched the partnership as a bid to “fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology.” That likely means you can expect high-tech interiors and fancy entertainment systems designed to help you forget that you’re stuck in rush-hour traffic. It added that it wants to create a mobility system “centered around safety, entertainment and adaptability.”

The news doesn’t come as a complete shock, as Sony has already showed not just one but two electric vehicles of its own design, the Vision-S EV and Vision-S 02 electric SUV. When it first appeared, the Vision-S was a showcase for all of Sony’s strengths, packing 33 different sensors for 360 Reality Audio tech, wide-screen displays, autonomous driving and other features. Sony promised to debut a new company called Sony Mobility sometime this spring, but it looks like the Honda alliance will serve that purpose instead.

CD Projekt Red will no longer sell games in Russia and Belarus

CD Projekt Red says it will stop selling its games until further notice in Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine. People in those two countries will no longer be able to buy the publisher’s own games — such as Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — or any title from CD Projekt’s GOG store.

“Today, we begin working with our partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries of CD PROJEKT Group products, as well as all games distributed on the GOG platform, to the territories of Russia and Belarus,” CDPR wrote in a statement on Twitter. The publisher’s games are sold on several digital platforms, including the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch stores, as well as Steam, Epic Games Store and Google Stadia.

In a note to investors, CD Projekt said that Russia and Belarus accounted for around 5.4 percent of revenue from its own games and 3.7 percent of GOG sales over the last 12-month period.

CDPR said it “stands firm with the people of Ukraine.” The day after the invasion started, CD Projekt donated approximately $242,000 to a humanitarian group in support of the conflict’s victims.

“While we are not a political entity capable of directly influencing state matters, and don’t aspire to be one, we do believe that commercial entities, when united, have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people,” CDPR said. It acknowledged the decision will impact gamers in Russia and Belarus who aren’t involved in the invasion and perhaps oppose it, “but with this action we wish to further galvanize the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe.”

Bloober Team, the developer of games such as The Medium and Blair Witch, is blocking sales of its titles in Belarus and Russia on all platforms too. “We want to be a part of a world that doesn’t turn a blind eye to warmongering. And we won’t stay neutral when human lives are at stake,” the studio said. Like CD Projekt, Bloober Team is based in Poland, which borders Ukraine.

The moves by CDPR and Bloober Team follow a request from Ukraine’s vice prime minister for gaming companies to temporarily block player accounts in Russia and Belarus. EA Sports said on Wednesday it’s removing Russian and Belarusian teams from FIFA and NHL games.

Update 3/3 12:56PM ET: Added details about Bloober Team removing its games from sale.