Tech
HiFiMAN HE1000 WiFi Review: Can Wireless Planar Headphones Finally Replace Cables?
HiFiMAN helped turn planar magnetic headphones into a serious personal audio category, and the company has never been shy about taking weird swings. Nanometer-thin diaphragms, Stealth Magnets, and open-back designs that look like they escaped from an engineering lab with no adult supervision — this is familiar territory. But the HiFiMAN HE1000 WiFi is not just another wireless headphone with a luxury badge and a bigger invoice.
The high-performance wireless headphone market has already moved well past “good for Bluetooth.” The Focal Bathys MG pushed wireless ANC into more serious audiophile territory at $1,499, while the DALI IO-12 went even higher at $1,750 with its SMC driver technology and hi-fi-first tuning. Mark Levinson’s No. 5909 also helped prove that premium wireless headphones could be more than airport jewelry for people who alphabetize their boarding passes.
HiFiMAN, however, has taken a bigger and riskier step. At $2,699, the HE1000 WiFi is an open-back planar magnetic headphone with built-in WiFi streaming, Bluetooth, USB audio, Stealth Magnet drivers, and support for high-resolution playback well beyond what conventional Bluetooth headphones can deliver. It is less “wireless ANC rival” and more “high-end headphone system with the cable surgically removed.”
The question is whether WiFi streaming actually moves the HE1000 closer to wired high-end headphone performance, or whether HiFiMAN has spent two years building one of the smartest ideas in wireless headphones and left just enough unfinished to make the price sting.
Specifications and Technology
The HE1000 WiFi is more than a passive planar magnetic headphone with wireless connectivity added on. HiFiMAN has integrated a complete playback chain inside the earcup, including its HYMALAYA Mini DAC, headphone amplifier, and WiFi streaming platform. The HYMALAYA Mini DAC measures only 8mm, which makes the internal packaging impressive given the limited space available inside a headphone.
The DAC section is specified with THD+N of 0.0055% and 105dB of channel separation. Via USB-C, the HE1000 WiFi supports up to 768kHz/32-bit PCM and DSD512, which is far beyond the resolution of most commercially available music files. Those figures are technically impressive, but the more relevant question is how well the DAC, amplifier, wireless platform, and planar drivers work together as a complete system.
As expected from a headphone carrying the HE1000 name, the driver section includes HiFiMAN’s nanometer-thickness diaphragm and Stealth Magnet technology. These are designed to reduce unwanted acoustic interference, improve transient response, and preserve clarity. The engineering is familiar from HiFiMAN’s higher-end planar magnetic headphones, but the WiFi implementation makes this version meaningfully different from the passive HE1000 models.
The main feature is WiFi streaming. Bluetooth has improved, and the HE1000 WiFi still supports it, but Bluetooth remains limited by codec bandwidth and compression. WiFi gives the headphone a wider path for high-resolution and lossless playback over a home or office network, which is the core argument for this product. The goal is straightforward: deliver more of the sound quality associated with a wired planar headphone while retaining the freedom of wireless listening.
That does not automatically make the HE1000 WiFi better than every premium Bluetooth headphone, nor does it remove the usual questions about app support, setup, stability, battery life, and daily usability. But it does give HiFiMAN a different technical angle in a category where most wireless headphones are still built around Bluetooth first. At its asking price, that difference needs to be clearly audible and easy to live with.
They can also be used over standard Bluetooth, with a Qualcomm QCC5181 chip that supports LDAC for up to 96kHz playback. That is more than enough for Spotify, YouTube, and most casual listening sessions where convenience matters more than chasing every last bit. Bluetooth also gives the HE1000 WiFi a meaningful battery life advantage over WiFi mode, but we’ll get to battery longevity shortly.
Design & Comfort
A quick word on what comes in the package. Technically, it is not really a box, but the same kind of faux leather-wrapped display case HiFiMAN has used with other HE1000 models. It looks the part, although the previous hardback owner’s manual has been replaced by a more ordinary paperback version. Accessories are also minimal: one six-foot USB-C to USB-A cable. That is about it. When the headphone is wireless, HiFiMAN clearly decided the accessory drawer did not need to audition for Hoarders.
HiFiMAN has used its Gen. 2 headband on the HE1000 WiFi, which is a bit of a mixed bag. The upside is weight reduction, with the newer design shaving roughly 20 to 30 grams compared to some older HiFiMAN headbands. The trade-off is that it does not offer the same 360-degree earcup swivel found on the wired HE1000 and Arya models. It does feel reasonably sturdy, however, and should survive the occasional knock without requiring a grief counselor.
The earcups retain the familiar egg-shaped profile used across the HE1000 and Arya lines, but they are slightly deeper here to accommodate the internal circuitry. That extra depth does not hurt comfort. One of the long-standing advantages of this design is the amount of space inside the pads, with little risk of the driver or earpad pressing against the outer ear.
Materials are a mix of metal and plastic, which helps keep weight under control while still giving the HE1000 WiFi some visual connection to HiFiMAN’s higher-end models. At 452 grams, or almost exactly one pound, it is not especially light, but it is manageable for an open-back planar headphone with built-in amplification, DAC, Bluetooth, and WiFi streaming hardware.
The catch is that the build quality and finish do not fully communicate a $2,699 asking price. It feels solid enough, and comfort is generally strong, but this is not the kind of physical object that immediately makes the near-three-grand number feel self-explanatory. The HE1000 WiFi is clearly betting that the sound quality and wireless execution will do the heavy lifting. At this price, they need to.
The color? I like it, although I can see it being somewhat divisive. It is more interesting than another safe silver or black finish, and there is a faint luxury-car interior vibe to it — Rolls-Royce or Bentley from a distance, with the understanding that nobody from Crewe is losing sleep over the upholstery.
Comfort is far less debatable. The suspension strap distributes the weight evenly across the head, making longer listening sessions easy to manage without obvious hotspots or fatigue. Clamp force is on the firmer side, but I actually prefer that here. The HE1000 WiFi stays put when you move your head, which is rather important when the whole point is wireless freedom.
The controls are sensibly arranged and easy to understand. From top to bottom, there is a volume rocker, a function button that switches between WiFi, USB, and Bluetooth modes, and a power button. The function button includes an indicator light for the selected mode, while the power button uses colored lighting to show charging and battery status. The volume control could use finer adjustment, but the overall layout is simple and practical, which is exactly how it should be.
Battery life, unfortunately, is where things get less flattering. In my testing, the HE1000 WiFi managed roughly five hours over WiFi and about 12 hours over Bluetooth, the latter falling well short of HiFiMAN’s quoted figure of up to 23 hours. Charging takes around the claimed four hours, which is not exactly a rapid turnaround. In daily use, that means you need to charge them at the end of the night or risk starting the next day with a very expensive pair of silent earmuffs.
HE1000 WiFi Setup: Brilliant Idea, Clumsy Execution?
Most wireless headphones are easy to get running. Power them on, open the Bluetooth menu on your phone, select the model, and you are usually listening within seconds. Not exactly NASA.
The HE1000 WiFi is different, and not always in a good way. Connecting the headphones to my home network proved more troublesome than expected, and the process feels less polished than it should for a product at this level.
HiFiMAN seems aware of the issue, because the company has released several setup videos to guide users through the process. That helps, but it also says something. Getting the HE1000 WiFi online requires users to navigate local network pages that look rather basic, follow multiple steps, and make sure the headphones are properly connected before WiFi playback becomes available. For some audiophiles, especially those comfortable with networking and streaming hardware, this may not be a major obstacle. For everyone else, it could be the point where the WiFi promise starts to feel more like homework.
That matters because the HE1000 WiFi’s best argument is its WiFi mode. If setup friction pushes owners toward Bluetooth or wired use out of frustration, the product loses some of its reason for being. Bluetooth works, and it is useful, but nobody is spending $2,699 on these because they needed another Bluetooth headphone.
There is also the issue of software support. Not every music app can cast over WiFi in the way the HE1000 WiFi requires, and some services reserve that functionality for paid tiers. Spotify and YouTube Music, for example, require premium subscriptions for casting support. That does not make the HE1000 WiFi unusable, but it does mean buyers need to understand exactly how they plan to stream before assuming WiFi playback will be seamless across every app they use.
Firmware updates are another sore spot. Bluetooth updates run through HiFiMAN’s GAIA app, but WiFi module updates require manually downloading files and uploading them through a browser-based local interface. That feels clumsy for a headphone built around WiFi.
HiFiMAN needs to fold the entire update process into one app. These issues do not ruin the HE1000 WiFi, but they do make the experience feel less polished than the hardware concept deserves.
Listening
The HiFiMAN HE1000 WiFi delivers a listening experience that very few headphones currently offer. Being able to listen to lossless music without being tied to a desk, or dealing with a cable brushing against your shirt every time you move, is genuinely liberating. You can walk around the house or office and still listen at a level that feels closer to a serious headphone rig than a typical wireless setup. Yes, you could plug a passive headphone into a DAP and get some of that mobility, but not carrying anything at all is a different proposition.
That is the HE1000 WiFi’s strongest argument. It gives you real freedom without reducing the experience to background listening. That alone helps offset some of the complaints about setup, build quality, and day-to-day usability. The better news is that the headphones also sound very good on their own terms.
The jump from Bluetooth to WiFi is not subtle. Detail retrieval improves, staging opens up, and the presentation feels more composed. To give the HE1000 WiFi the best possible chance, I spent most of my listening time in WiFi mode, playing lossless FLAC files from my phone.
What became clear rather quickly is that the HE1000 WiFi does not simply follow HiFiMAN’s older house sound. There is still plenty of planar speed and openness, but the tuning has moved in a slightly different direction. Let’s start with the bass.
Bass
Throughout the review process, I compared the HE1000 WiFi with the HE1000 Unveiled, which I had on hand and know well. The first meaningful difference showed up in the bass.
The HE1000 WiFi does not deliver the kind of exaggerated low-end weight found in many wireless headphones, especially ANC models, but there is a subtle midbass lift that gives music some added warmth and body. It is not overdone, and it helps the headphone sound a little fuller without turning the presentation thick or sluggish.
Sub-bass extension is also strong, with only a slight sense of roll-off below roughly 30Hz. On Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s “Why So Serious?,” the deep 20Hz rumble was still present enough to be felt, not merely heard. That is not something every open-back planar handles convincingly, and it gives the HE1000 WiFi more low-end authority than expected.
Midrange
A bass lift usually comes with a trade-off, and with the HE1000 WiFi, that shows up in the midrange. Compared again with the HE1000 Unveiled, the wireless model sounds a little more restrained through the mids and does not deliver the same top-tier clarity or immediacy. Vocals are smooth and well controlled, but they do not step forward with the same transparency, and guitar solos do not quite dig in with the emotional pull you get from the HE1000 Unveiled or Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000.
That is not a deal-breaker. The HE1000 WiFi has a relaxed, easygoing midrange that many listeners may actually prefer, especially for longer sessions. It is not trying to spotlight every breath, string scrape, or studio chair creak like a detective with a grudge. It is more forgiving than that.
The context matters as well. We are comparing the HE1000 WiFi against serious wired audiophile headphones that live in rarefied air. The fact that HiFiMAN’s wireless implementation can stay in the conversation at all is impressive. It may not match the best passive models for midrange openness or resolution, but it gets close enough to make the cable start looking less essential.
Treble
Some previous HiFiMAN headphones, including the Arya Organic, could lean a little hot in the upper frequencies. The HE1000 WiFi avoids that trap. There is still plenty of treble energy and sparkle, but it walks the line between excitement and sharpness without turning cymbals into dental work.
Extension is excellent, with enough air and control to give woodwinds, hi-hats, and upper harmonics real presence. L’Impératrice’s “La lune” was a good example, with the faint triangle hits cutting through the mix cleanly and sounding natural rather than etched for effect.
There are no obvious peaks or dips that call attention to themselves, which helps the HE1000 WiFi maintain a more natural and cohesive presentation. HiFiMAN got the treble balance right here: lively, open, and detailed, but not aggressive enough to make you start bargaining with the volume control.
Soundstaging & Imaging
The HE1000 WiFi does not throw an especially wide soundstage, but what it does inside that medium-sized space is far more important. Imaging is impressively precise, especially for a wireless headphone, and placement feels stable rather than vague or artificially stretched.
As with other egg-shaped HiFiMAN designs, the tall driver geometry helps create a convincing sense of height when the recording calls for it. The center image is clearly locked in, and individual layers remain easy to follow even during busier passages.
TOOL’s “Chocolate Chip Trip” is a useful stress test here, because the track is basically Danny Carey throwing percussion, electronics, and spatial chaos around the room to see what survives. The HE1000 WiFi keeps those sounds organized, with effects appearing from distinct positions rather than collapsing into a confused blob. It may not be the widest presentation HiFiMAN has ever produced, but the focus and positional accuracy are excellent.
The Bottom Line
The HiFiMAN HE1000 WiFi is one of the more compelling wireless headphone concepts to come along in years because it does something most premium wireless models still do not: it treats sound quality as the main event, not a bonus feature hiding behind ANC, app tricks, and faux-luxury packaging.
What makes it unique is the WiFi streaming implementation. The ability to walk around the house or office listening to lossless music through an open-back planar headphone without a cable hanging off your body is not a small thing. It changes how and where you listen. The HE1000 WiFi delivers much of the speed, openness, bass control, treble refinement, and imaging precision listeners expect from a serious HiFiMAN planar design, but without chaining you to the desk like a suspect in a bad procedural.
It is not perfect. The setup process is clumsy, firmware updates feel less polished than they should, battery life is underwhelming, and the build quality does not fully sell the premium positioning. The midrange is also smoother and less immediate than the HE1000 Unveiled, so those expecting the same level of transparency from HiFiMAN’s best passive designs should temper expectations.
But taken as a complete product, the HE1000 WiFi is still a bold and largely successful swing. It is for listeners who want high-end planar sound with real freedom of movement, who mostly listen at home or in an office, and who are willing to tolerate some early-adopter friction for a genuinely different experience.
The bigger question is whether the less expensive Arya WiFi, which we are also reviewing, can deliver enough of the same magic for a lot less money. If it gets close, HiFiMAN may have an even more interesting problem on its hands.
Pros:
- Excellent sound quality for a wireless headphone
- WiFi streaming delivers a clear step up over Bluetooth
- Lossless playback without being tethered to a desk
- Strong bass extension with tasteful midbass warmth
- Smooth, non-fatiguing midrange
- Treble is lively, airy, and well controlled without getting sharp
- Precise imaging and strong layer separation
- Comfortable for long listening sessions
- Secure fit with firmer clamp force
- Supports WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB modes
- LDAC support over Bluetooth
- Clever all-in-one design with built-in DAC, amplifier, and streamer
Cons:
- Setup process is more complicated than it should be
- WiFi firmware updates require an awkward browser-based process
- Battery life is disappointing, especially in WiFi mode
- Charging time is slow
- Build quality and finish do not fully feel premium
- Volume control could use finer adjustment
- No 360-degree earcup swivel like some wired HiFiMAN models
- Midrange lacks the clarity and immediacy of the best passive HE1000 models
- Not all music apps or free service tiers support WiFi casting
- Early-adopter product that still needs software polish
Our Ratings
★★★★★★★★★★ Sound Quality
★★★★★★★★★★ Comfort
★★★★★★★★★★ Usability
★★★★★★★★★★ Build Quality
★★★★★★★★★★ Value
Where to buy:
Related Reading:
If you’ll excuse the pun, skillets seem to always be a hot topic.
More than in other sections of cookery, there is a continual quest to find the best one, or at least the best one you can afford. I’ve seen cycles of fetishization come and go for copper, cast-iron, and carbon steel.
At the Mall of New Hampshire in the 1980s, I remember watching a miraculous cooking-store demonstration of omelettes effortlessly sliding out of a Teflon pan. Then, only a few years ago, the industry pretty much dropped the whole Teflon category like a hot potato due to the pans’ propensity to give off harmful fumes if they get too hot. Less durable ceramic immediately filled the void, and we’re already realizing how quickly it can lose its nonstick magic.
All this time, stainless-steel pans have been waiting in the wings. They are durable, and lighter and less fussy than cast iron and carbon steel. They’re not nonstick, but that’s often fixed with a pat of butter. They sear well, and with a bit of TLC, they’re built for a lifetime of hard work.
All-Clad has been one of the great brands in stainless for years, but I wondered if other slightly more expensive skillets were worth a look, particularly as some are new to the market and others have been flying under the radar. Along with a 10-inch All-Clad, I called in similar-sized pans from Hestan, Viking, and Heritage Steel. Testing all these sounded like fun at first, but things got weird and stayed weird for a while, and only with a bunch of hands-on data gathering and time at the stove did I understand which pans I could recommend.
Pans Labyrinth
A smart and easy cheat for someone like me is to use All-Clad’s 10-inch D3 Fry Pan as a baseline. (“Fry pan” and “skillet” are used interchangeably in this category.) The D3 has been an America’s Test Kitchen and Wirecutter darling for years, with advocates seeking out traits like uniform heating across its surface, a comfortable handle, and cladding (layers of different metals). It’s $170 with a lid and $150 without, which is a good chunk of change, but it feels like a fair price for buy-it-for-life durability.
I own and love one of All-Clad’s 4-quart D5 Essential Pans, which is like a high-sided skillet, and it has a perfectly flat cooking surface. But the cooking surface on the D3 skillet All-Clad sent to me for this story was a bit domed–high in the center and low around the outside—not horribly so, but surprising to me, and among the dozen or so pans I called in, it was among the furthest out of whack. I also noticed that the rivets that hold the handle to the pan weren’t fully squished on there. It felt fine and didn’t wobble, but an All-Clad representative confirmed this wasn’t right. They sent another pan, and the rivets were as they should be on that one, but the bottom was pretty much the same. I learned that this amount of doming is within All-Clad’s tolerance range, but not within mine. What can I say? I like flat pans, I thought, looking wistfully at my perfect D5.
I had a similar level of trouble with another pan I had high hopes for. The new 10-inch Viking Pure Glide Pro, which I had seen at my favorite trade show, has a textured titanium layer for the cooking surface above an aluminum core and stainless-steel bottom layer. Impressively, this combination of materials created a capable nonstick competitor that I’d be a lot more excited about if it was part of a better, sturdier pan. The Viking had some temperature management issues that I’ll get to in a moment, and it either warped or arrived warped to the point that heating oil would form a moat around the center of the pan. If Viking fixes this, the Pure Glide Pro has the potential to be a hell of a pan, but it’s not there yet.
Recorded from the show floor at AXPONA 2026, this episode features Kendall Costello, Sales Operation Analyst at Loewe, and Amir Hejazi, Senior Engineer at Loewe. Topics covered include details about Loewe’s latest Stellar TVs and Leo headphone lineup, along with their return to the U.S. market. The conversation focuses on design priorities, key features, and how Loewe is positioning its products in a competitive premium market, with insight into how engineering and product strategy come together across both categories.
Sponsors: Thank you SVS for sponsoring this episode, along with Audeze for supplying all guests LCD-S20 Headphones, and Loewe and T10 Bespoke for sharing lounge space at AXPONA 2026.
This episode was recorded on April 12, 2026 (the third day of AXPONA 2026).
Where to listen:
On the Panel:
- Kendall Costello, LOEWE Sales Support Manager
- Amir Hejazi, LOEWE Sr. Engineer
- Chris Boylan, eCoustics Editor-at-Large
- Brian Mitchell, eCoustics Founder & CEO (Host)
AXPONA 2026 Podcasts:
Related Links:
Credits:
The BMPS Grand Finals have just concluded, and what an action-packed three days they were. We saw the rise of new titans like Divine Gaming, who, up until today, were the favorites to win the title. Sadly, veteran GodLike had other plans, who just had a stellar day in every single match. Another big surprise was the return of OG, who also qualified for the EWC in Paris by defeating SouL in the overall team standings. Here’s what the final BMPS rankings look like.
BMPS Grand Finals Rankings After Day 3
| Rank | Team | WWCD | Finish Points | Position Points | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GODL | 2 | 104 | 58 | 162 |
| 2 | DIVINE | 2 | 96 | 56 | 152 |
| 3 | VS | 2 | 79 | 54 | 133 |
| 4 | GDR | 1 | 93 | 35 | 128 |
| 5 | TAG | 2 | 95 | 28 | 123 |
| 6 | iQOOxOG | 1 | 78 | 41 | 119 |
| 7 | iQOOxTT | 1 | 78 | 38 | 116 |
| 8 | VASISTA | 2 | 76 | 37 | 113 |
| 9 | iQOOORGE | 2 | 68 | 43 | 111 |
| 10 | NBE | 1 | 73 | 34 | 107 |
| 11 | iQOO8BIT | 0 | 73 | 30 | 103 |
| 12 | GENS | 0 | 70 | 29 | 99 |
| 13 | iQOOSOUL | 1 | 66 | 30 | 96 |
| 14 | 7GODS | 1 | 64 | 31 | 95 |
| 15 | iQOORNTX | 0 | 67 | 19 | 86 |
| 16 | MYTH | 0 | 50 | 13 | 63 |
Apple’s wearable future is starting to come into focus, and cameras appear to be at its center. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that camera-equipped AirPods and Apple’s first smart glasses are currently on the roadmap for 2027. While they may look like ordinary accessories on the surface, both products could play a crucial role in helping Apple Intelligence understand the world around its users in real time.
Your AirPods might start paying attention
When most people think of AirPods, they think of music, podcasts, and phone calls. Cameras aren’t exactly high on the wishlist. But Apple has a different vision. The cameras wouldn’t be there for recording videos. Instead, they’d help gather information about the world around you and feed that data into Siri and Apple’s AI systems.
Imagine asking Siri about a building you’re looking at, identifying an object in front of you, or getting contextual information without ever pulling out your phone. So, your AirPods could become another set of eyes for Apple’s AI; that’s a dramatically different role from what earbuds do today.
Glasses to see, not just display
Then there’s Apple’s smart glasses, arguably one of the company’s most anticipated future products. Unlike the bulky Vision Pro headset, smart glasses could bring AI into a form factor people might actually wear all day. While details remain scarce, cameras are expected to play a crucial role, helping the device understand its surroundings and deliver real-time, useful information.
What’s particularly interesting is how these products fit into Apple’s broader AI strategy. Most companies are trying to make AI more useful through apps and chatbots. Apple appears to be exploring something more ambient — AI that observes the world around you and responds when needed. Whether consumers are ready for camera-equipped wearables is another question entirely. But if Gurman’s report is accurate, 2027 could be remembered as the year Apple stopped thinking about AI as software and started turning it into something you wear.
It’s virtually impossible to live in modern society and not be tracked in some way. Websites track you, the apps you need and use every day could be the worst offenders in privacy invasion, and the devices you use it is tracking you, too. And even if you turn off the phone and go outside, you could being watched by the widespread Flock cameras that might be in your neighborhood. We know that tracking devices are all around every single one of us, all the time, every day. But sometimes you don’t even realize a device can track you in the first place.
Now, to walk things back a bit. We’re not out to terrify you into thinking your smart toaster is equivalent to the “1984” telescreen. Oftentimes, tracking is inevitable and even benign. Most electronic devices connected to the internet and receiving updates need basic usage telemetry to help the manufacturer fix bugs and optimize performance. With that in mind, these are five everyday tech devices that might be tracking your activity — for better or for worse.
Wi-Fi routers
In recent years, we’ve seen a scary news headline that says that Wi-Fi routers can be used like sonars to “see” inside buildings. Sadly, it’s no exaggeration. A Wi-Fi router can be utilized to map its surroundings. The technology is so sensitive it could theoretically track someone’s gait when walking, and possibly their breathing, even in another room.
What’s worse, a bad actor wouldn’t even have to compromise the network or buy a $10,000 frequency analyzer tool to do it; They’d only need a cheap smartphone kept in the network’s vicinity. Victims wouldn’t know when they were being tracked, either, and the more devices victims have, the more accurate the tracking gets. We already have concerns about mass surveillance with cameras, but now imagine the thousands upon thousands of Wi-Fi networks in every city and state retrofitted into a tracking apparatus that has x-ray vision — and imagine what dark forces out there would love to get their hands on said apparatus.
Now for a dose of reality. We’ve seen that this works, in theory, but so far we haven’t found documented cases where this has been abused. There are certainly concerning trends in that direction, like court cases arguing that that authorities should be able to track you with WiFi-based location, and consumer devices made by shady companies that boast Wi-Fi motion detection. On the flip side, a lot of the research around Wi-Fi sensing has been focused on potentially good use cases. We’d probably all be okay if grandma’s Wi-Fi network was leveraged to alert us in the event she takes a fall. For the possible unsavory uses of the tech, it may be possible to mitigate them by polluting the real data with false data.
Smart TVs
Let’s not beat around the bush: your smart TV could be spying on you. It’s something most people never think of, and yet at the same time, it’s completely unsurprising. Tech companies are some of the biggest privacy abusers. Why wouldn’t they take the big screen situated in your living room, the locus of your home’s activity, and track its behavior? Consumer Reports explains how smart TVs use ACR (automatic content recognition) to track you. Basically, ACR is “watching” what you watch, compiling and analyzing that info, and then using it to recommend further content. That Consumer Reports article also has a guide on how to disable ACR in most major TV brands.
In the past, we’ve seen companies do all sorts of spooky things with smart TVs. Samsung was once caught saying that it would collect personal data unrelated to a voice command query over your microphone (the clause has since been removed from Samsung’s privacy policy). There was also that thoroughly dystopian UAB (unique audio beacon) tech that allowed advertisers to figure out who exactly was watching their ads by pinging nearby smartphones with inaudible, ultrasonic noise. Case in point, tech companies have stooped to some disturbing stuff before, and they might try again.
However, we’re not saying you should throw away your fancy OLED panel in favor of an old CRT. Just do some digital hygiene. Go into your smart TV’s settings and disable analytics and ACR; disable features you never use, like the microphone for voice commands; learn how to disable ads on your TV, if possible. If you do all your watching through a streaming box, then you might even disconnect the smart TV from Wi-Fi entirely, since the streaming box is the only thing that needs to be connected.
Smart glasses
Smart glasses with cameras seem like a cool way to film things hands-free… except when they enable loathsome individuals to secretly film others in public. We’ve already discussed at length where Meta Ray-Bans and their ilk should and shouldn’t be used, and laws are already in the pipeline to curb their misuse, but it’s not just unsavory people using the glasses for unsavory purposes — It’s the companies, like Meta. They’re not as concerned with filming other people as much as filming you, the user.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports how Meta’s smart glasses in particular don’t have any strictly-offline functionality. AI voice chats and media recordings get pumped into the cloud and may in some cases see employees annotating them for AI training. It would appear, according to a Svenska Dagbladet investigation, that users may not always control what’s recorded and uploaded. Imagine going to the bathroom with the glasses on — but not recording — and someone on the other side of the world seeing the whole thing. One of the workers quoted in the aforementioned report said that the stuff they see on a daily basis would unleash “enormous scandals.”
While you might think that the same privacy risk applies to a smartphone, it’s important to remember that a smartphone isn’t sitting on your face, pointed at your surroundings whether or not you’re using the camera. Smart glasses inherently introduce a new class of privacy risk. Considering Meta is up to its neck in a huge class action lawsuit as a result of everything we’ve mentioned, we’d say this is the one device on this list most should avoid entirely.
Doorbell cameras
It’s impossible to deny the benefits of a doorbell camera. You can see who’s at your door — even when not at home — as a security measure, a means to avoid unwanted visitors, and a way to keep tabs on anyone who’s entered your property line. As you can probably guess, however, having a camera in your home that’s owned by a tech company requires trusting that only you will be able to see the footage. We’re not just fearmongering baselessly. Ring — one of the most popular doorbell camera makers in the U.S. — was accused by the FTC of spying on users without their consent.
There’s also been growing concern in recent years that the Ring cameras belonging to your neighbors are surveilling and tracking you. We all know that one curmudgeon who makes everyone’s life miserable at the HOA meeting, who spends half their day with a drawn curtain in one hand and a phone dialed to 911 in the other. Now that curmudgeon has a camera that’s on even when they sleep, a camera which footage they can pass along to the police and get them involved even when you’re innocent. And there are probably a lot of these cameras in your neighborhood.
Again, we wouldn’t necessarily advocate for getting rid of your Ring camera. Instead, go into the settings and change a few. Some of the things we’ve mentioned — like Ring Neighbors — can be disabled entirely. Of course, Ring is just one company on the market making these doorbell cameras. It doesn’t matter which brand you’re using. Limit what privacy settings you can, and be wary of any camera-enabled device that’s filming continuously in the background, 24/7.
Smart home devices
Once you get used to controlling your lights verbally with your smartphone’s AI assistant, it’s painful to go back to the olden days of getting up off the couch and switching lights on manually. Now, you can fill your home with an army of smart devices that make things more secure and convenient — and affordably so. Once again, we extend a gentle reminder that these tech devices are made by companies that may not respect your privacy, or even adhere to their own privacy policy. There’s ample evidence to suggest they’re listening in constantly, gathering information, and potentially sharing it. And if they’re not listening, the devices themselves may be vulnerable to hackers.
First we’d say, use common sense. Don’t put an indoor camera in your bedroom, for example, and be careful what brands you buy from. You only have to Google a device’s manufacturer name paired with keywords like “security vulnerabilities” to quickly find the ones to avoid. Don’t make common Wi-Fi mistakes like using weak, outdated encryption for your home network, since it’s the bedrock of your smart home. Consider keeping some “dumb” devices, like a non-smart front door lock, to limit the attack surface.
In truth, most of this stuff is basic security practice that you should already be doing on your PC and smartphone anyway. Things like setting strong passwords for smart home platforms, like Google Home, and keeping all devices updated to the latest software. Hackers love an easy, low-hanging fruit, so even doing the bare minimum makes you a much less desirable target.
John Ternus has been talking about focusing on Apple’s core strength of design once he takes over as CEO, and a now a questionable report extrapolates that this means he’ll shake up the design team.
John Ternus is now best known for taking over as Apple CEO from Tim Cook, but as recently as January 2026, he took control of the firm’s design team. Now according to Bloomberg, far from leaving that because of other CEO duties, he is planning to continue working on Apple’s whole design philosophy.
Reportedly, Ternus told staff that under him, Apple will “keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do in Apple.”
He said that Apple has brought “truly incredible design” to customers, and done so more than any other firm. Ternus claims that the best-designed item that most customers have, is an Apple product.
“We’re going to make sure that stays the case,” he said.
There are no further details, although the report echoes claims from January 2026 that Ternus plans a shakeup of the design teams. What is clear, though, is that this is going to mark a clear difference between Ternus and his predecessor, Tim Cook.
Cook was once criticized by Steve Jobs for not being a product person, in the way that Jobs or Jony Ive would obsess over them. It’s repeatedly been reported that Cook did not often visit the design teams, and now it’s said that Ternus has already devoted a lot of his time to the design division.
The first products to come out under Ternus’s aegis will be the iPhone 18 range in September 2026, the month he officially takes over. It’s said that Apple is aiming to mark the 20th anniversary of the original iPhone with a series of new devices, including a new iPhone Fold, and AirPods with cameras, in 2027.
Even those, though, are already at the testing stage. So while Ternus has been involved with them, it could take a couple of years before Apple releases a device that was made entirely on his watch.
This week the Ubuntu desktop’s director of engineering announced they’re bringing speech-to-text dictation to Ubuntu Desktop, aiming for an experience “that feels like a natural part of the desktop while respecting user privacy and running entirely on local hardware.”
“Speech recognition has become a common feature on modern platforms, and we think it should be a first-class experience on Ubuntu Desktop as well.”
More details from the blog It’s FOSS:
For Ubuntu 26.10, the initial version of Myna is expected to be a desktop dictation tool built around GNOME on Wayland with a push-to-talk mechanism gatekeeping when your microphone accepts input. Using it means holding a hotkey, speaking, and letting go. A small activity indicator shows while it is listening, and the transcribed text lands wherever the cursor was sitting when dictation started.
Recognition itself happens inside a sandboxed component called the Canonical Inference Snap, while a Speech Orchestrator manages the session and an Audio Adapter handles whatever the microphone picks up, denoising and chunking it before it ever reaches the model… Speech recognition will happen locally, and an internet connection is not needed once the appropriate model is installed… The audio data won’t be sticking around either, being stored in a small in-memory buffer that gets discarded the moment the session ends. Features like dictation into password fields, wake words, continuous listening, voice assistants, voice commands, translation, speaker identification, and automatic language detection are all off the table…
You should also know that Canonical is looking for feedback before the specs for Myna are finalized, especially from people who already rely on dictation or assistive tools on Linux.
If you bought an iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 when they launched, you may be able to claim some of the money from a class action lawsuit against Apple. It’s all tied to the new Apple Intelligence features the company previewed during launch — features that ultimately didn’t arrive on time, but were finally unveiled more extensively this month at WWDC 2026.
Apple settled a shareholder lawsuit in May, agreeing to pay $250 million to customers who bought the iPhone 16 and some iPhone 15 models during a specified period. The lawsuit alleged that Apple misled customers by promising AI features that didn’t ship when the new devices did. Payouts between $25 and $95 per eligible device are expected.
In a statement to CNET Managing Editor David Lumb, an Apple spokesperson said, “Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features. We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”
Why is there a lawsuit over Apple Intelligence?
When Apple advertised its new iPhone 16 lineup, it emphasized how they were optimized for AI features such as an enhanced Siri that could act as an intelligent agent. When the phones did arrive, Apple Intelligence wasn’t yet ready; its first features didn’t arrive until iOS 18.1, five weeks later.
According to the proposed settlement, “Apple allegedly saturated the market with deceptive ads, inducing consumers to purchase iPhones based on the promise of certain enhanced Siri features.”
Some features of Apple Intelligence did ship soon after the introduction of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18, including Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, Writing Tools, Genmoji and Clean Up. But those weren’t the advanced features Apple highlighted.
Who is eligible for the $250 million settlement?
Customers who purchased one of the following devices between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025, are eligible to receive a settlement payment:
- iPhone 16
- iPhone 16E
- iPhone 16 Plus
- iPhone 16 Pro
- iPhone 16 Pro Max
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are included because they had the processor and memory to run Apple Intelligence features.
It’s estimated that there are approximately 36 million customers eligible for this settlement.
Watch this: What iPhone Users Actually Want From the New Google-Powered Siri
How to claim your portion of the settlement
For now, you need to wait.
As set forth in the settlement, Apple will provide a list of eligible customers and their contact information to a settlement administrator.
After the data has been verified, the company Verita will send email and postal notices to those customers directing them to a settlement website. That site has not yet been created. The deadline for filing your claim will be 90 days after your notice arrives.
When can you expect to receive a settlement payment?
According to the settlement, Apple must provide the information about affected customers within five days of the settlement approval, which was scheduled for June 17, 2026.
When the data is provided and verified, a 45-day notice period begins to inform potential consumers that they’re eligible for a payment.
The actual payment of claims will occur within a 60-calendar-day window after the final details, such as exclusions and objections, have been worked out. That puts the first checks or deposits arriving sometime after September 2026, depending on court dates and possible extensions.
A group of companies that specialize in tracking international shipments of sensitive technologies is backing a Capitol Hill bill that would require America’s most powerful AI chips to incorporate stronger security mechanisms aimed at preventing the chips from reaching China and other adversaries. The letter, signed by six companies, says the Chip Security Act (CSA) would increase American chip companies’ competitiveness and close key loopholes in the U.S. export control regime.
The move clashes with claims from semiconductor lobbying groups that the requirements would constrain America’s booming chip industry. Sent to congressional leadership Thursday morning and seen by NBC News, the dispatch instead argues that more robust security verification would assure chip customers and manufacturers that they are abiding by sensitive restrictions on chip sales. The companies argue that the boosted confidence will “lead to increased sales, faster export approvals, larger transactions, greater access to new markets, and more expansive chip deals.”
Despite U.S. export control laws banning sales of advanced AI chips to certain countries, including China, loopholes in current requirements have allowed billions of dollars’ worth of America’s best AI chips to be sold to entities in third-party countries that can then forward them to China. In just one case in March, the Justice Department charged three people with conspiring to forward $2.5 billion of AI chips to China. The CSA aims to address those loopholes, mandating that chip exporters better track where advanced chips are sent, via either bespoke location-verification hardware or software that can run on existing hardware. That, bill proponents claim, would ensure that sensitive chips could be sold to countries like Malaysia or Indonesia without fear of further transfer to China… Experts say that because chips perform the advanced computations required for frontier AI systems, cutting off access to the chips is crucial to prevent geopolitical rivals from using AI systems for military or economic purposes.
Forward-looking: The next version of HDMI is mainly about pushing bandwidth higher to carry better video and audio, not small, incremental tweaks. HDMI 2.2, teased at CES 2025 and formally released by the HDMI Forum in June of that year, raises maximum bandwidth to 96Gbps, twice that of HDMI 2.1, allowing more uncompressed video data to move between devices.
HDMI 2.2 can carry uncompressed 4K video at up to 240Hz, something that currently requires Display Stream Compression (which as we’ve shown however, is not a big limitation). It can also reach 4K at 480Hz using 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, and handle uncompressed RGB 8K at 60Hz.
The added bandwidth cuts down on the compression and other tricks current hardware has had to rely on to push high frame rates. For gamers, that extra headroom makes it easier to drive high refresh rates at 4K and beyond without leaning as heavily on compression or workarounds.
With compression still in the toolkit when needed, the spec allows for more extreme modes, too, including 1440p at refresh rates above 1,000Hz – numbers that, for now, sit well beyond everyday use.
That leap is tied to FRL2, the updated signaling technology underpinning HDMI 2.2. The transition is already underway at the hardware level. “We’re hearing chip manufacturers will start to sample their FRL2 chips this year,” Rob Tobias, CEO and president of the HDMI Licensing Administrator, told ARMdevices at Computex 2026. “And so we should start to see some 96 or up to 96 gigabit HDMI 2.2 products next year.” Certification efforts are ongoing, and the first wave of compatible devices is expected in 2027.
Still, the headline number – 96Gbps – doesn’t tell the whole story. HDMI 2.2 rolls out in multiple tiers, including 64Gbps and 80Gbps versions, and certification doesn’t require manufacturers to hit the top speed. That means two devices both labeled “HDMI 2.2” could perform very differently depending on how they’re built. For buyers, that puts more weight on spec sheets than branding.
In the PC space, the timing is complicated by the fact that DisplayPort 2.1 already delivers up to 80Gbps and is widely used in high-end monitors. For enthusiasts running multi-display setups, HDMI hasn’t been the primary interface for some time, and that’s unlikely to change overnight. Licensing costs may also factor into how quickly HDMI 2.2 gains traction compared with DisplayPort.
Where HDMI continues to hold ground is in the living room. Features like ARC, CEC, and ALLM are already deeply integrated into TVs and home theater systems, and HDMI 2.2 adds another layer with Latency Indication Protocol, or LIP, aimed at tightening audio-video synchronization – a persistent issue with soundbars and AV receivers. It’s a small but practical upgrade, and one that targets a problem many users encounter even in otherwise high-end setups.
Even so, there’s a gap between what the specification allows and what current content actually demands. Most games and video still operate well below the limits of HDMI 2.1, and 4K at 120Hz – already supported – remains underutilized. It’s easy enough to imagine future consoles taking advantage of higher refresh rates, but widespread use will depend on both hardware and software catching up.
That lag is likely to show up in the rollout. GPU support isn’t expected until late 2027 or later, and early adoption will likely be confined to premium hardware. On the TV side, HDMI capabilities often depend on the underlying processing chips, which have historically led to uneven feature support even among top-tier models. There’s little reason to expect a cleaner transition this time around.
For now, HDMI 2.2 is more about preparing for future hardware than something people need to upgrade to right away. The spec sets a high ceiling, but it may take several product generations before most users see a tangible benefit. In the meantime, its presence will likely be felt more in product positioning than in everyday performance.
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