Tech

The 16 best portable Bluetooth speakers for 2026

Published

3 weeks ago

19 February 2026

Portable Bluetooth speakers have become an easy default for listening away from your desk or living room. They’re the kind of tech you grab without thinking, whether you’re heading outside, cleaning the house or packing for a weekend away. The best portable options manage to sound bigger than they look, delivering clear audio without weighing down your bag.

Battery life and durability matter just as much as sound quality now. Many modern speakers are built to survive splashes, dust and the occasional drop, while still offering quick pairing and stable connections. Some are designed for solo listening, others are meant to fill a space with music and keep going for hours.

We’ve tested a wide mix of portable Bluetooth speakers to see which ones are actually worth carrying around. Whether you want something small and simple or a speaker that can anchor a get-together, these are the models that stood out.

Quick Overview

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $50 to $200

Soundcore

If you’re looking to spend as little as possible and get a speaker that will free you from using your smartphone to blast out tunes, the Soundcore Select 4 Go is a good option. It has decent sound quality for a speaker its size, and it’s loud enough to fill a standard-sized living room, bedroom or desk area outside. You can even pair two of them together to get bigger sound, too. It’s IP67 water- and dustproof, and it’s designed to float so it can handle an accidental dunk in the pool without any issue. And with a battery life of 20 hours, it’ll provide music for the entirety of your next party without breaking a sweat. — Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor

JBL

JBL made a handy, convenient little speaker in the Go 4. It gets decently loud and doesn’t sound too distorted at those higher volumes. Will it stand up to more expensive speakers on this list in terms of sound quality? No, but it sound good for its size, which is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Made in part with recycled materials, the Go 4 is IP67 water- and dustproof, and you can pair two of these speakers together to get an even wider sounstage. — V.P.

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

If you’re just looking for a small Bluetooth speaker that can kick out some decent volume, the Tribit StormBox Micro 2 fits the bill. The audio quality here is fine; it doesn’t stand out in terms of fidelity, but the volume you get from this affordable little speaker is what makes it a good choice. If you’re bopping about outdoors on your bike or chilling in the park, it’s usually more about portability and volume anyway. The rubbery rear strap works well on relatively thin things like belts, backpacks and bike handlebars.

While it’s small and affordable, this mini speaker features a USB-C charging port for your devices in a pinch and you can wirelessly connect two of them for party mode or stereo sound. It also supports voice assistants for both iOS and Android users, and if you want to take calls on your phone via speakerphone, that’s easy to do as well.

Soundcore

Soundcore has been releasing some very able speakers lately and one of its newest is a quality personal portable. The Motion 300 is of the pint-sized variety, but offers 30-watts of punchy and bright output. It’s IPX7 rated so it can handle a bit of water, and it works with the Anker Soundcore app that allows a fair amount of customization from EQ settings to button brightness. It also supports hi-res audio using the LDAC codec for Android users with a compatible device.

The Motion 300’s size and frequency range don’t quite allow for a ton of bass, but it’s relatively loud and thumpy, especially when it has surfaces to reflect off of. Soundcore has even extended its high-frequency range to 40kHz, and while its utility is debatable, the Motion 300 does sound crisp in the high-end spectrum. You can also enable adaptive audio, which helps optimize its sound delivery depending on the speaker orientation (on its back, standing up or hanging from its removable button-fastened strap).

The speaker’s design merges a funky style with office-machine chic, from the playfully speckled soft touch exterior to the metallic, logo-emblazoned grille. Its 1.7-pound weight and clutch-purse size makes it better as a handheld or stowed in your bag rather than hanging from a backpack or bike handlebars. Ultimately, you get great sound in a small package with features you can tweak to your liking, all at an approachable $80 price tag.

Ultimate Ears

The latest version of a previous pick (the Wonderboom 3), the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 is a tiny yet powerful portable that can deliver big sound. It’s still a cute, barrel-shaped small speaker with a nubby little strap that probably needs a carabiner to help attach it to most things. It offers up to 14 hours on a single change, and underneath, you can easily access the protected USB-C port whenever you need to refill. With an IP67 rating on top of the company’s five-foot drop test durability, it can go with you almost anywhere and survive to tell the tale.

Although there’s no app support or connectivity with the rest of the Ultimate Ears speaker lineup, you can easily pair it with other UE speakers for stereo sound. There’s also an outdoor mode button on the bottom that boosts the mid and high range to help the audio carry over a greater distance — perfect for when you need a compact party speaker that still delivers the best sound possible in its class.

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

This nondescript wedge of a wireless speaker could easily slip under your radar, but it’s worth a listen. It has a bright and bassy output, which is helped along by Qualcomm aptX support for hi-res audio. This Anker Soundcore device has a solid, slightly heavy build with a metal front speaker grille, a soft-touch rubberized exterior (that loves your greasy fingerprints) and IPX7 water resistance. While it’s not the lightest or most portable, it has good sound, especially for the price. Plus the app offers EQ customization, so you can fine tune to your liking.

There’s also a 3.5mm aux input for wired connections. You can use it as a speakerphone when taking calls as well, or easily play music from your devices. That’s fortuitous, as we found that this small speaker works well as a mini soundbar alternative and the wired input offers a foolproof connection. Aside from that, you can easily charge the Motion+ thanks to its standard USB-C charging port and it should last up to 12 hours on a single charge.

JBL

We considered the JBL Flip 6 the best JBL speaker for most people (you can still find it available online), and the JBL Flip 7 only improves upon the previous model. Sound quality is solid from lows to highs, even with the volume up at high registers. The cylindrical shape works well on its side or even standing on its end to save desk space. It has a capable carrying (or hanging) strap and raised buttons you can discern in the dark.

The JBL Portable app gives you a 3-band EQ to customize the sound profile if desired and if you have two Flip 7 speakers, you can run them as a stereo pair. If you happen to have a mix-and-match assortment of different PartyBoost-enabled JBL devices, you can connect multiple speakers for a bigger sound. And with a USB-C charging port, it’s a versatile device that’s easy to take with you on the move.

Bose

While the $119 Bose SoundLink Micro is half the size, we found that it’s definitely worth the extra $30 if you trade up to the SoundLink Flex. While it’s still not a room filler, the speaker offers some bright, dynamic finesse to your tunes, along with a significant amount of bass for its size. It’s similar to the scale of a small clutch bag, with a very small strap for carabiner-type hanging. Much of the exterior is sheathed in soft-touch silicone, except for the powder-coated steel speaker grilles. Like others in this range, the speaker is IP67 rated so it can handle the elements and sound good doing it.

Setup and connecting to the speaker should be done from within the aptly named Bose Connect app. You can also turn off voice prompts (which can become annoying) and pair with similar speakers for either party mode or stereo.

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Read our full Beats Pill review

The new Pill has impressive bass performance due to the company’s decision to increase the size of the woofer rather than keep its previous arrangement that included two smaller ones. The speaker struggles at its loudest volumes, but it’s plenty loud enough well below that. The IP67 rating is more rugged than the Pill+ and over 24 hours of battery life will keep the tunes going for a long time. Plus, there’s lossless audio over USB-C and the ability to top off your phone or earbuds with the speaker’s battery.

This is a solid choice for anyone seeking crisp clarity with true low-end thump if a track demands it. The addition of lossless is also nice for times you’d like a little more quality in your tunes. And you can also put two Pills together for bigger sound or use them as a stereo pair. — Billy Steele, Senior Reporter

Marshall

The Emberton III Bluetooth portable from Marshall continues to iterate on a design we’ve loved for a while. This clutchable rectangular slab has a max output of 20 watts to deliver the brand’s signature sound. It may not be the loudest in its size range, but it focuses more on balanced output than raw power. There’s still 360 sound as well, making it a good companion for small get togethers.

The latest model has more than 32 hours of battery life and a rugged IP67 rating. There’s also a built-in microphone, so you can use it to take calls while you’re getting ready for the day or chilling out in the backyard.

JBL

If you’re willing to spend a little more for bigger sound and more hours of battery life, the midrange JBL Charge 6 is a great upgrade over the Flip 6 or Flip 7. It has the same bright output and capable low end, but in a slightly larger package. If you’re looking for a smallish portable speaker, but something capable enough to entertain a few guests, this works.

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $200 to $450

Ultimate Ears

Read our full UE Everboom review

The Everboom is a decent mid-range option in the Ultimate Ears lineup. The best features are its high durability and Outdoor Boost for better sound outside. You’ll get loud, 360-degree audio, but like a lot of UE speakers, there’s a lack of overall fidelity due to subdued mid-range tone. There’s plenty to like here, especially if you’re looking for something to take on an adventure that won’t weigh you down too much. The price is, however, a bit on the high side with the limited suite of features. But, all of the basics, and slightly more, are covered. Plus, it floats! — B.S.

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

Marshall launched the Middleton in January 2023 and positioned it as the new flagship for its portable Bluetooth speaker line. It’s the largest of the company’s IP67 rugged portables (measuring 4.3 x 9 x 3.75 inches) and offers a significantly louder output, with 50-watts of 360-degree sound. There are dual woofers and tweeters for the front and back, with passive radiators along each side. It also offers Stack Mode, which lets you pair with any other Middleton, Emberton II or Willen speakers nearby to expand your listening experience.

The Middleton can be managed through the Marshall Bluetooth app, but it also includes most of those same controls on the top. There’s a Bluetooth button (which doubles as the Stack Mode control) and a multi-use joystick for power on/off, volume control and track selection (forward or back). You also get bass and treble controls, which are a welcome addition and a first for one of Marshall’s speakers without physical knobs.

It has that traditional Marshall look, made with a soft-touch exterior composed of 55-percent post-consumer recycled plastic and is 100-percent PVC free. It also has a carry strap you can easily fit your hand through. Any dust, dirt or prints on the outside can be scrubbed off with a damp cloth, and even the exposed USB-C and 3.5mm input port components are waterproofed. That USB-C port can be used to recharge the speaker, or power up your other devices with its 9,600mAh battery.

Of course audio purists should know that it only supports SBC, but the sound quality is still top notch for most people. And while Marshall devices are usually priced at a slight premium, the good sound quality and decent low-end capability definitely makes this model worth checking out.

JBL

If you’ve enjoyed any of the smaller JBL speakers out there and are willing to spend a bit more, the Xtreme 4 is a good all-around choice. It’s big enough to warrant a shoulder strap, but still only about the size of a football. When we tested the previous version, the Xtreme 3, we found it to have pleasant dynamic sound, with hefty lows and a lively high end that seems slightly better balanced at this size than the smaller options from JBL in this range.

This is easily a favorite if you want something under $400 with a little more gusto than your average portable, but still being IP67 weatherproof. It has enough output to breathe life into a small soiree or backyard hang, although while it’s quite loud, it’s best when it’s close by or indoors where the bass can resonate to its fullest.

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $450 and higher

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

If you didn’t know about Marshall’s history in amplifiers and rock music, the design should clue you in. The Tufton is the largest portable Bluetooth speaker from the company, looking much like an amp itself (as do most of them). It has physical knobs at the top and a carry strap to help move it about. While it may appear as rugged as concert gear, it’s less impervious to the elements as some with just an IPX2 rating, so it’s protected from light splashes from above.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the brand, the rich and distinctly thumping output may make you one. We felt pulled into the sound while listening to the Tufton, a bit more than most other speakers we tested at this scale. It’s dynamic, warm and, dare we say, analog in its audio presence. It’s also multi-directional with a supplemental driver on the back along with a bass port.

There’s no app to adjust the EQ, just the physical controls including a Bluetooth connect button, a power/volume knob and two for bass and treble. Once powered on, you can use the volume knob to set a max headroom and adjust volume on the fly from your source. The bass and treble knobs help you choose the tone of your adventure, from a purely flat soundscape to an enhanced one. We just wish you could see the dial indicators in the dark. Other features include aptX support and quick-charge capabilities that provide four hours of listening time in just 20 minutes, plus great standby battery life.

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

The UE Hyperboom is an all-arounder with good looks, portability, plenty of connectivity options and a loud and punchy (albeit compressed) output. The technical fabric exterior (which now includes a white option) lets it live among your furniture without screaming “party box,” while the optical input offers a possible TV speaker alternative. The large capacitive buttons on top let anyone adjust the volume, pause or play the music and select from two concurrent Bluetooth connections or a hardwired input (3.5mm or optical). On the edge with the silicone carrying handle there are the wired ports, plus one for charging USB devices and another for power. You can expect to get up to 24 hours of battery life, and the Hyperboom is good at holding a charge on standby.

This capable and loud (roughly 100dB) speaker will please most people as long as the party is of primary concern over fidelity. The ability to remotely power your device on or off using the UE app is also a welcome feature. Plus you can easily expand the sound to other Ultimate Ears Boom speakers (except Wonderboom) using the PartyUp feature. The IPX4 rating means a few spilled drinks won’t hassle it, but it’s not the best Bluetooth speaker choice for all-weather adventures.

Factors to consider in a portable Bluetooth speaker

Weather-proofing

IP ratings (Ingress Protection) are the alphanumeric indicators you often see in a product’s spec sheet that define water and dust resistance. It’s usually a combo of two numbers with the first indicating solid object ingress and the second being water. The former goes from 0 (no protection) to 6 (dustproof). The water-resistance rating goes from 0 (no protection) to 9 (protected against immersion and high pressure jets). When an X is used instead of a number, that means the product wasn’t tested for resistance. If it’s a waterproof speaker, it may have some innate resistance to solids, but there’s no guarantee.

IP67 is a common rating these days indicating highly resistant and potentially rugged speakers often featured in audio products like outdoor speakers. These are safe for quick dunks in the pool or tub and should be more than OK in the rain or in the shower. They’re also good options for the beach, playground and other rough environs.

Additionally, speakers with ports and a high rating will often include a tight-fitting cover over the charging or auxiliary ports. If you plan on using the ports, that may limit the product’s rated ability to fend off the elements.

When looking for the best portable Bluetooth speaker, consider the IP rating and also how you plan to use your Bluetooth speaker when making your decision. It may be worth splurging on a better sounding model with a lower IP rating if you’ll mostly be using it indoors, for instance.

Battery life

The focus of this guide is on the best portable speakers, and while “portable” can be a relative term, these devices are generally for people who are likely to find themselves far from a power outlet. These days, around 12 hours of playtime seems to be the baseline but obviously, the more battery life you can get out of a speaker, the better, especially if you plan to listen to podcasts or music on the go.

That said, be careful when looking at battery specs, as they frequently list a maximum runtime (“up to” x amount of hours). This usually means they tested at a low to mid volume. If you like your tunes loud with punchy bass, it can often end up cutting the expected usage time in half or more. Luckily, some manufacturers also list the expected hours of battery life when used at full volume and that transparency is appreciated. Bear in mind, however, that not all of the best Bluetooth speakers use the same charging port. Some support USB-C charging, while others use micro-USB, and some may even come with an adapter for added convenience.

Additionally, if your audio system or mini Bluetooth speaker also happens to have Wi-Fi connectivity, they’re usually designed for always-on functionality. Unlike normal Bluetooth speakers that go to sleep after a short period without use, these will usually stay awake (to listen for your commands) and slowly run down the battery. If you’re out and about, you’ll want to remember to turn these speakers off manually when not in use to maximize battery life.

Range

Bluetooth 5 offers better range and more reliable connectivity than its predecessors, making it a great feature to look for in the best Bluetooth speaker. That said, Bluetooth range can still be tricky. Some companies list their product’s longest possible range, usually outdoors and in an unobstructed line-of-sight test environment. Other companies stick with a 30-foot range on the spec sheet and leave it at that, even though they may be running Bluetooth 4.x or 5.x. That’s likely underselling the speaker’s potential, but unpredictable environments can affect range and there’s little point in promising the moon only to get complaints.

I’ve seen signal drop issues when crouching down, with my phone in the front pocket of my jeans, and barely 30 feet away from a speaker inside my apartment. I ran into this issue across several devices regardless of their listed Bluetooth connectivity range.

If you’re hosting a patio party and duck inside, it’s wise to keep any wireless Bluetooth speakers relatively close by just in case. It’s hard to gauge what aspects of any environment may interfere with a Bluetooth signal. In general, take range specs around 100 feet or more as a perfect-world scenario.

Latency

This is a minor mention for those out there who use a speaker for their computer output, or as a mini Bluetooth soundbar solution for setups like a monitor and streaming box. It’s annoying to find that your speaker’s latency isn’t low enough to avoid lip sync issues. Luckily, it seems that most speakers these days don’t often have these problems. Only a handful of the few dozen speakers I tried had persistent, noticeable lip-sync issues. Aside from occasional blips, all of our picks worked well in this regard.

If you plan to frequently use a speaker for video playback, look for devices with the most recent Bluetooth 5 technology and lower latency codecs like aptX. Also make sure the speaker is close to the source device as distance can be a factor. To avoid the issue altogether, though, consider getting one with a wired auxiliary input.

Extra features

Some speakers don’t just play music — they bring the party to life with built-in LED light effects and a full-on light show that syncs to your music. If you love a bit of visual flair with your tunes, it’s worth checking out models that offer LED light customization options.

Sound quality also plays a huge role in picking the right speaker. The best Bluetooth speaker should deliver a balanced mix of punchy bass, clear highs and strong vocals. Many models also include customizable sound modes that let you tweak the EQ to better suit different genres — whether you’re blasting EDM, listening to a podcast, or just want a more immersive experience that would impress even an audiophile.

If aesthetics matter, many models come in a tiny size that makes them extra portable, with plenty of color options to match your personal style. Whether you want a sleek black speaker or a vibrant eye-catching design, there are plenty of choices to fit your vibe.

Other portable Bluetooth speakers we tested

Sonos Roam

While there’s a lot to like about the Sonos Roam, there are plenty of other Bluetooth speakers with more features and better battery life. In our review, we gave the Roam a score of 87, praising it for its good sound quality, durable waterproof design and ability to work well within an existing Sonos speaker ecosystem. But the price is just fine at $180, and we found Bluetooth speakers that offer more at lower price points. Plus, the Roam taps out at 10 hours of battery life, and all of our top picks can run for longer than that on a single charge.

Monoprice Soundstage3

The Monoprice Soundstage3 offers relatively big sound at a midrange $250 price, with a variety of inputs rarely found on a portable Bluetooth speaker. The boxy, minimalist design is no nonsense, even if it’s more of a less-rugged, bookshelf-styled homebody. While the speaker puts out crisp highs alongside booming lows, we found the bass can overpower the rest of the output, so it’s not for everyone. And after using the speaker for many months, we also found the low-slung, poorly labeled button panel along the top can be a bit annoying to use. If you want a speaker for road trips, favor mids and highs, and plan on using physical buttons for volume control and input selections, there are better options out there.

JBL Boombox 3

Fans of JBL’s bluetooth speaker sound profile who want to crank up the volume, but also want a rugged and portable option, may enjoy the JBL Boombox 3. It’s a decent grab-and-go speaker with a very loud output, although it’s not as good as some of the loud-speaker styled options for long-throw sound and big outdoor areas. However, the price for this speaker line remains prohibitively expensive compared to other options with big sound that cover a bit more ground. If the JBL brand is your thing and you like the rugged, portable form factor, we recommend looking for discounts, or shopping around and exploring the available options including the (less portable) JBL PartyBox series.

Soundcore Motion X500

Soundcore speakers have generally been good and often reasonably priced. The Motion X500 loosely falls into that category. It has a tall, metallic lunchbox vibe with a fixed handle and pumps out a respectable 40 watts of crisp, clear sound for its size. It can get pretty loud and serves up a good dose of bass, although its primarily a front-facing speaker.

There’s LDAC hi-res audio support for Android users, but the main selling point on this is spatial audio. This is done through an EQ change and the activation of a small, up-firing driver. There’s a slight benefit from this if you’re up close and directly in front of it, but it’s not a total game changer for your listening experience. The original pre-order price of $130 made it a decent option in terms of bang for your buck. But it went up to $170 at launch, making it less appealing even if it’s still a good middle-of-the-road option if you want small-ish, clear and loud. If you can find one on sale for the lower price, it’s definitely worth considering. There’s also the larger and louder X600 ($200) if the overall concept is working for you.

Portable Bluetooth speaker FAQs

How does a Bluetooth speaker work?

Bluetooth technology lets devices connect and exchange data over short distances using ultra high frequency (UHF) radio waves. It’s the frequency range that’s carved out for industrial, scientific and medical purposes, called the 2.4GHz ISM spectrum band. This range is available worldwide, making it easy for companies to use with devices for global markets.

Bluetooth speakers include this tech, which lets them communicate with source devices like smartphones, tablets or computers in order to exchange data. The two devices pair by sharing a unique code and will work within the proscribed range for the device and Bluetooth version.

Ever since Bluetooth 4.0 was released over a decade ago, new iterations usually improve on range, use less power and offer expanded connectivity with features like multipoint (allowing more than one device to be connected at the same time, for instance).

Who should buy a Portable Bluetooth speaker?

If you want to play music while you’re out-and-about on something other than headphones, a portable Bluetooth speaker is probably what you want. There’s a broad range of devices for all types of circumstances. Many adventurous people will want a relatively lightweight portable that’s rugged enough to handle the elements while also packing enough charge to play for hours on end. Others may simply need a speaker they can move around the house or use in the backyard. In this case, you can choose larger less rugged models that may offer better sound.

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What Is A Computer? | Hackaday

Published

34 seconds ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

On the podcast, [Tom] and I were talking about the new generation of smartphones which are, at least in terms of RAM and CPU speed, on par with a decent laptop computer. If so, why not just add on a screen, keyboard, and mouse and use it as your daily driver? That was the question posed by [ETA Prime] in a video essay and attempt to do so.

Our consensus was that it’s the Android operating system holding it back. Some of the applications you might want to run just aren’t there, and on the open side of the world, even more are missing. Is the platform usable if you can’t get the software you need to get your work done?

But that’s just the computer-as-a-tool side of the equation. The other thing a computer is, at least to many of our kind of folk, is a playground. It’s a machine for experimenting with, and for having fun just messing around. Android has become way too polished to have fun, and recent changes on the Google side of things actively prevent you from installing arbitrary software. The hardware is similarly too slimmed-down to allow for experimentation.

Looking back, these have been the same stumbling blocks for the last decade. In 2018, I was wondering aloud why we as a community don’t hack on cell phones, and the answer then was the same as it is now – the software is not friendly to our kind. You can write phone apps, and I have tried to do so, but it’s just not fun.

The polar opposites of the smartphone-as-computer are no strangers in our community. I’m thinking of the Linux single-board computers, or even something like a Steam Deck, all of which are significantly less powerful spec-wise than a flagship cell phone, but which are in many ways much more suitable for hacking. Why? Because they make it easy to do the things that we like to do. They’re designed to be fun computers, and so we use them.

So for me, a smartphone isn’t a computer, but oddly enough it’s not because of the hardware. It’s because what I want out of a computer is more than Turing completeness. What I want is the fun and the freedom of computering.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, March 15 (game #1008)

Published

14 minutes ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Saturday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, March 14 (game #1007).

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

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Rise of model context protocol in the agentic era

Published

27 minutes ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

We have all heard about model context protocol (MCP) in the context of artificial intelligence. In this article, we will dive into what MCP is and why it is becoming more important by the day. When APIs are already available then why do we need MCP? Although we have seen a large rise in popularity of MCP, is there staying power in this new protocol? In the first section, we will look at the parallels between APIs and MCP and then start to explore what sets it apart.

From APIs to model context protocol

A single isolated computer is limited in the amount of data that it can access and that has a direct impact on its usability. APIs were created to enable data transfer between systems. Just like APIs, Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the protocol for communication between AI agents that are using large language models (LLMs). APIs are primarily written for developers while MCP servers are created for AI agents (Johnson, 2025).

What is MCP?

MCP was introduced by Anthropic on November 25, 2024 as an open source standard to enable communication between AI assistants and external data sources. AI agents are constrained by the fragmentation of data in isolated systems (Anthropic, 2024). The protocol defines how agents can interact with external systems, elicit user input and enable automated agents.

At its core MCP utilizes the client server model and there are three main features for clients and servers.

MCP servers: tools, resources, and prompts
MCP clients: elicitation, roots, and sampling

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To keep this article concise, focus will be kept on the most important feature of both client and server. For MCP servers, tools are the primary way to perform complex tasks and clients utilize elicitation to enable a two way communication between the agent and the user.

Instead of explicitly calling APIs, agents select and use the appropriate tools (functions) based on the input they receive from the user. If a tool requires certain parameters the agent will use elicitation to get the data from the user. This allows for a more responsive workflow where two way communication between LLM and the user is possible.

Why do we need MCP now?

A very valid question to ask is if APIs are already present then why is there a need for MCP? APIs are designed to connect fragmented data systems and SaaS applications already enable a two way communication with a user. So, why do we need MCP now?

The main need for MCP is that the user of external data has changed from developers to AI agents. A developer will usually program an application using APIs that behaves in a deterministic fashion. Whereas, AI agents will use the user prompt and make autonomous decisions to execute on the user request. By nature, the execution of a workflow by an AI agent is not deterministic.

APIs are a machine-executable contract which acts in a deterministic fashion. APIs work if the users of APIs know what action needs to be taken next (Posta, 2025). AI agents run on top of probabilistic LLMs which do not consistently deliver repeatable results across all tasks (Atil, 2024). Variance in a LLM’s response is expected and this poses a problem for autonomous execution.

MCP to the rescue

MCP solves the problem of variance in agent execution by providing high level abstraction that wraps functionality rather than API endpoints. Tools enable LLM models to perform actions like searching for a flight, booking a calendar and more (Understanding MCP Servers, 2026).

One common misconception for tools is that they are just an abstraction over existing API calls. Tools are not designed to be an abstraction over API calls but rather abstraction over functionality. If a lot of APIs are just exposed as tools it will increase the cost and context size for the agent which is not ideal (Johnson, 2025).

A tool may include multiple API calls in its implementation to achieve the desired outcome. An agent will review the list of available tools to automatically select the most appropriate tools and determine the appropriate order of execution.

MCP adoption boom

Since its release in 2024 MCP has seen a steady rise in popularity. The following chart from Google Trends showcases the relative interest in MCP since its launch.

A lot of companies have launched their own MCP servers to facilitate building autonomous agents. As of February 2026, the official MCP registry has over 6400 MCP servers already registered. This number of MCP servers is only expected to grow in the near future. The official registry for MCP servers is still in preview and the ecosystem has grown massively in less than a year.

Other major players in the market have adopted MCP and added support to their clients. OpenAI added MCP support to ChatGPT in March and Google added support a few weeks later in April 2025. This showcases the staying power of the protocol and the fast pace of adoption.

What lies ahead?

MCP is still in the early stages of widespread adoption where a lot of applications need to mature and start hitting production. Leonardo Pineryo from Pento AI summarized it the best “MCP’s first year transformed how AI systems connect to the world. Its second year will transform what they can accomplish” (2025).

Guardrails around tools is an area that will see further development as trust is one of the biggest concerns with AI agents. With better guardrails in the tools, an AI agent can be allowed to perform with more autonomy. Over the next year, MCP is certain to see continued growth, both in the sophistication of its capabilities and the volume of its application.

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NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, March 15 (game #742)

Published

41 minutes ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Saturday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, March 14 (game #741).

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

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Tech

Don’t Get Used To Cheap AI

Published

55 minutes ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

AI services may not stay cheap for long, as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are currently subsidizing usage to rapidly grow market share. As these companies move toward profitability and potential IPOs, Axios reports that investors will likely push them to increase prices and improve margins. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Flashback: Silicon Valley has seen this movie before. The so-called “millennial lifestyle subsidy” meant VC money helped underwrite cheap Uber rides and DoorDash deliveries. Before that, Amazon built its base with low prices, free shipping and, for years, no sales tax in most states. Eventually, all of these companies had to charge enough to cover costs — and make a profit.

Follow the money: The current iteration of AI subsidies won’t last forever. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are widely expected to go public. Public investors will demand earnings growth and expanding margins. Even as chips get more efficient, total spending keeps rising. Labs need more capacity, more upgrades and more supply to meet demand.

The bottom line: The costs of AI will keep going down. But total spend from customers will need to keep going up if AI companies are going to become profitable and investors are ever going to get returns on their massive investments.

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Spotify launches Taste Profile editor

Published

1 hour ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

The feature, announced at SXSW by co-CEO Gustav Söderström, lets Premium listeners see and shape the data model powering their recommendations, starting with a beta rollout in New Zealand

For a decade, Spotify’s recommendation engine has worked largely in silence. It watched what you played, noted what you skipped, inferred meaning from the time of day and the tempo of your commute, and it never told you what it had concluded. On Friday, at SXSW in Austin, the company decided to change that.

Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s co-CEO, announced Taste Profile: a new feature that surfaces the algorithmic model the platform has been building about each listener, and crucially lets users modify it directly. The beta will begin rolling out to Premium subscribers in New Zealand in the coming weeks.

The premise is straightforward enough. Taste Profile aggregates a listener’s behaviour across music, podcasts, and audiobooks into a single view: the genres explored recently, the artists listened to most, the patterns that define a listening day.

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Where a user notices the profile is wrong, too heavy on music they played years ago, or missing a phase they have been quietly working through, they can flag it. They can ask for more of a particular vibe, or less. They can describe a current context, training for an event, commuting on weekdays, and the system will factor that in when deciding what to surface on the Spotify homepage.

“This is the next step in our vision to make personalization more transparent, responsive, and truly yours,” Söderström told the SXSW audience.

Spotify cited an internal figure that more than 80% of its listeners name personalisation as what they value most about the service. The claim, which the company has referenced in various forms since at least 2023, positions algorithmic curation not just as a feature but as the primary reason people stay.

The competitive logic behind Taste Profile follows directly from that: if personalisation is the product, giving users more control over it is a way to deepen their investment in it.

The announcement comes roughly two months after Spotify expanded Prompted Playlist, a separate but related feature that lets users generate playlists by describing what they want in natural language, from its initial New Zealand testing to Premium users in the US and Canada in late January 2026, and subsequently to subscribers in Australia, Ireland, Sweden, and the UK in February. The sequencing is deliberate.

Both features push the same underlying argument: that the future of streaming personalisation is collaborative, not passive.

Where Prompted Playlist is generative, it creates something new from a description, Taste Profile is corrective. It works with the model that already exists, giving users a chance to audit and adjust what years of listening have written about them.

Whether someone has been an accidental customer of the algorithm (playing whatever appeared on the homepage, not particularly caring) or has strong views about the direction their recommendations have taken, the feature is designed to accommodate both. “You can shape your Taste Profile as much as you’d like,” the company said in its announcement, “or leave it and enjoy Spotify as usual.”

The beta will start in New Zealand, a market Spotify has used repeatedly for early-stage testing of AI-adjacent features, including the initial Prompted Playlist launch. No timeline was given for a broader global rollout. Taste Profile will be available to Premium subscribers only; there was no indication of when, or whether, it might reach free-tier accounts.

Spotify is marking 2026 as its 20th anniversary year, and its SXSW presence this week has been calibrated accordingly, concerts, a headline session with Söderström, country artist Lainey Wilson, and podcast host David Friedberg.

The Taste Profile announcement landed on the last day of the company’s main SXSW programming, providing a product note to accompany the celebration.

What the feature represents, beyond its functionality, is a shift in how Spotify frames its relationship with listeners. The algorithm has always existed; the company is now making the case that knowing it is there, and having some say in what it does, is a feature in itself.

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U.S. State Bans on Lab-Grown Meats Challenged in Court

Published

1 hour ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Last June Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement that Texans “have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.”

But California company Wildtype sells lab-grown salmon — and is suing Texas over its ban on cell-cultivated meat, the Austin Chronicle reported this week. The company’s founder says lab-grown salmon eliminates the mercury, microplastic, and antibiotic contamination commonly found in seafood. And one chef in Austin, Texas says lab-grown salmon is “awesome” and “something new”– at the only Texas restaurant that was serving it last summer:

Just two months after the salmon hit the menu, Texas banned the sale of cell-cultivated meat…
A lawsuit from Wildtype and one other FDA-approved cultivated meat company [argues] it’s anti-capitalism and unconstitutional… This law “was not enacted to protect the health and safety of Texas consumers — indeed, it allows the continued distribution of cultivated meat to consumers so long as it is not sold. Instead, SB 261 was enacted to stifle the growth of the cultivated meat industry to protect Texas’ conventional agricultural industry from innovative competition that is exclusively based outside of Texas….” [according to the lawsuit]. It was filed in September, immediately after the ban took effect, and cell-cultivated companies are awaiting judgment.
That Texas ban would last two years, notes U.S. News and World Reports, adding that
Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Nebraska have also passed bans, some temporary “on the manufacturing, sale or distribution of cell-cultured meat.” Meanwhile, a new five-year moratorium on lab-grown meat was signed this week by the governor of South Dakota “after rejecting a permanent ban last month,” reports South Dakota Searchlight:

The new law bars the sale, manufacture or distribution of “cell-cultured protein” products from July 1 this year through June 30, 2031. Violations are punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.
“But supporters of lab-grown meat are not going down without a fight,” adds U.S. News and World Reports, with another lawsuit also filed challenging a ban in Florida:

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the ban in Florida, he described it as “fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals.” He added that his administration “will save our beef.”

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Amazon's ad-free Prime Video tier gets a new name, and a new price

Published

2 hours ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

Amazon’s streaming service is getting a significant upgrade as the company transitions its ad-free tier to the new “Prime Video Ultra” branding. And with that branding, comes a price hike.

Prime Video Ultra

Launching April 10, the Ultra tier expands existing features, making it ideal for larger households. Beyond removing ads, the updated plan increases the concurrent stream limit to five devices, doubles the offline download capacity to 100 items, and gives users the option to watch in 4K/UHD.
Amazon is also increasing the benefits for those who have the ad-supported video plan that comes gratis with a Prime membership. Those customers will be allowed to watch 4 concurrent streams, up from three, and download 50 items for offline viewing, up from 25.
Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Proof over promises: a new doctrine for cybersecurity

Published

2 hours ago

14 March 2026

NewsAdmin

For years, third-party cybersecurity relationships between vendors and customers have relied on contracts and trust. That model is now showing its age. In the past year alone, 51% of UK organizations have reported a third party-related breach, while vendors have become ideal attack vectors for hostile actors.

Sam Kirkman

Director of EMEA Services at NetSPI.

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Peter Gabriel “Taking the Pulse” Blu-ray Review: Symphonic Concert in a Roman Amphitheater with DTS-HD Master Audio

Published
2 hours ago
on
14 March 2026

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NewsAdmin

I’ll admit that when I first started watching the recently released Blu-ray Disc of Peter Gabriel’s Taking the Pulse, it all felt very familiar. If you saw his orchestral tour around the time of Scratch My Back, or already own New Blood: Live in London on Blu-ray, a sense of déjà vu might set in. Look a little closer, however, and the differences start to emerge. What initially feels like a continuation of the same orchestral concept reveals a number of subtle but meaningful changes that aren’t immediately obvious.
In fact, the Blu-ray Disc packaging and frankly most of the press materials I had read, don’t offer much reason why fans should rush to add this show to their Peter Gabriel collection. Fortunately, I found more clues on Mr. Gabriel’s website, where his daughter Anna, who directed the film, offers some insight into her approach:

“When I spoke to my dad about shooting one of his shows I jumped at the chance of shooting at the Roman amphitheatre in Verona, Italy. Italians have always been very enthusiastic audience and give a lot back to the performer and to the camera. I made this film with my friend Andrew Gaston who was truly my collaborator throughout the process. It is always fun for me to shoot my father as I know the material and his performances so well I feel that I can capture a side to him that feels more personal. I also wanted to shoot the orchestra in an exciting way and along with Andrew’s editing I think we really captured the energy of the entire performance. I look forward to sharing this film.”

Indeed, Taking the Pulse offers a fresh visual perspective on this remarkable music when compared to New Blood: Live in London. Happily, it also delivers a different sonic experience, with a more immersive 5.1 surround sound presentation that better envelops the listener.
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Presented in 24-bit/48 kHz resolution, the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is generally quite rich. But my appreciation grew once I realized that the surround channels were being used for more than just crowd noise and venue ambience. One of my recurring complaints about many concert videos is that the surround mixes often feel lazy, failing to take full advantage of what the technology can actually deliver.

While most of the action resides in the front channels, the audio for Taking The Pulse nearly wraps around the listener. I imagine this perspective is bit more like what I’d like to think the orchestra conductor was hearing on stage or — perhaps better still — Peter Gabriel himself!
The sometimes dark, moody lighting looks great (expect lots of blues and reds as well as bursts of light and sparkle). In general, I think I preferred the intercuts and perspective offered in Taking The Pulse over New Blood Live In London (which, mind you, I’ve long enjoyed!).
All in all, Taking The Pulse is a winner Blu-ray video and for $18.29 on Amazon it seems to be an easy decision to pick this up if you are a fan.

Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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