The specifications for AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7 9800X3D have leaked ahead of its scheduled release on November 7 – and it’s good news for gamers.

The leak remains consistent with the previous marketing description leak regarding a performance boost over its predecessor, the 7800X3D. As spotted by VideoCardz, the leak originates from Geizhals, a price comparison tool used by retailers in Europe. While the veracity of the information can’t be fully determined at this point, it’s likely to be accurate; leaks that stem from retailers tend to be more reliable than anonymous claims made on social media, after all.

Seemingly overnight, we’ve seen a new wave of headphones, earbuds, and portable speakers that tout “Auracast” compatibility as one of their features. Some of these products even have a dedicated Auracast button.

That’s because Auracast (or “Auracast broadcast audio” as it’s officially known) is about to become a pretty big deal. As one of the biggest advances in how we use wireless audio, Auracast will change the way we share our favorite music, get critical information in airports and other public venues, workout at the gym, watch movies, and power our parties.

Want to know more? You’ve come to the right place. We’ll discuss what Auracast is, how it works, and the gear you’ll need to start using it right now.

What is Auracast?

In January 2022, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) — the organization of professionals that oversees Bluetooth technology — released the Bluetooth LE Audio specifications. It’s a sweeping update to the way Bluetooth devices transmit audio, aimed at reducing energy use, reducing latency, and increasing the ways in which both manufacturers and buyers of audio gear can use Bluetooth. One of the changes is an optional set of protocols for broadcast audio, which enables a new form of audio sharing.

With broadcast audio, you don’t have to go through the traditional process of opening up Bluetooth menus and pairing two devices together, like a phone and a set of wireless earbuds. Instead, Bluetooth devices broadcast or receive audio, just like traditional terrestrial AM or FM radio.

Given the potentially enormous impacts of this one aspect of LE Audio (and to raise awareness and help folks recognize compatible products), the Bluetooth SIG to give it a name and brand: Auracast broadcast audio.

How does Auracast work?

Types of Auracast devices

Some devices, like the JBL Tour Pro 3 wireless earbuds, have a built-in touchscreen on the charging case, which can act as an Auracast Assistant. The Tour Pro 3’s case can also be used as an Auracast transmitter (when plugged into a wired source of audio), making these JBL earbuds one of the few products currently on the market that can fulfill all three Auracast roles.

Scan or tap

Auracast assistants will likely be the way most folks tune in to broadcasts, but the Bluetooth SIG says there are other ways to do it that don’t necessarily require the use of an assistant. Near Field Communication (NFC)-compatible devices could receive the details of an available Auracast broadcast by tapping on an NFC tag.

When attending a live lecture or a movie, audience members could tap their headphones to the NFC tag that corresponds to their preferred language.

Scanning a QR code with your phone could be used as a shortcut, letting you bypass the full assistant process and connect directly to your chosen broadcast. When your phone is being used as the transmitter, it may be able to generate a QR code to display on your screen or share with friends via messaging platforms.

Create your own radio station

Auracast can broadcast more than just audio. Metadata (info about the audio) can also be included, letting listeners see information like song title and artist, and the name of your broadcast e.g., Simon’s Saturday Morning Spectacular — much like you’d see when listening to satellite radio or via the radio data system (RDS) attached to some FM radio stations.

Playlist metadata could include song, artist, album art, and any other relevant info. Livestreams could include the current speaker’s name, their profile photo, and perhaps the title of their presentation.

Public and private

Auracast broadcasts can be either public (anyone with an Auracast receiver can find them and listen in) or private, where only select individuals can join. Private broadcasts may be visible to those with an Auracast assistant, but to access them, you’ll need to enter a PIN or other type of password, similar to protected Wi-Fi accesss points.

Private broadcasts may also be hidden. This is something of a special circumstance, typically reserved for when companies want to use Auracast to connect multiple wireless speakers together. We’ll discuss this more in moment.

One device, multiple broadcasts

When folks want better sound from their TVs, they typically buy a soundbar or an AV receiver. These devices almost always require a wired HDMI connection to the TV, even if some of the accessory speakers (subwoofers, surrounds) work wirelessly.

With Auracast, a smart TV could create separate broadcasts for each channel in a surround sound setup. This would let audio companies create wireless speakers that work with any compatible TV, and it would give buyers complete freedom of placement for those speakers. Dolby Labs has announced a similar (and possibly related) feature called Dolby Atmos Flex Connect.

The same capability could be used with wireless headphones, for movies or shows with different language options: One Auracast broadcast could provide the English soundtrack, while a second could be set to deliver Spanish, and a third could offer descriptive audio.

High quality, low latency

Can I start my own Auracast broadcast?

Yes! In fact, Auracast is seen by the Bluetooth SIG as the way most people will choose to share their personal audio with a friend. As long as your phone and any headphones you choose to use are all Auracast-compatible, you can use the technology like a wireless headphone splitter. In theory, you and your friend could watch and listen to a YouTube video, Netflix movie, or TikTok video from the same phone.

Can I broadcast anything?

Yes? No? Maybe. The big unanswered question is how will content providers react to Auracast’s one-to-many capabilities? Right now, there are several ways to transmit audio and video wirelessly between two or more devices. Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast are two of the most common ways to do it. But these technologies are inherently non-public. You need to set up each receiving device on the same Wi-Fi network as the transmitting device. The person doing the transmitting must select each receiving device manually.

Auracast is the opposite. You don’t need a Wi-Fi network of any kind. There’s no limit to the number of devices that can receive an Auracast broadcast. And the broadcaster can’t even see how many devices are receiving their transmission, because the technology is 100% one-way.

Given the highly public and unfettered aspects of Auracast, we can certainly see streaming services having something to say about what you can broadcast. Amazon’s terms of use for its Amazon Music service make it very clear that the company isn’t down with broadcasts of any kind:

We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use Purchased Music, Music Service Content, and any additional Music Content we provide you access to through the Services only for your personal, non-commercial purposes, subject to the Agreement. Except as set forth in the preceding sentence, you may not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, repurpose, modify, adapt, edit, license or otherwise transfer, or use Purchased Music or Music Service Content. We do not grant you any synchronization, public performance, public display, promotional use, commercial sale, resale, reproduction, or distribution rights for any Music Content.

— From the Rights Granted section of Amazon Music’s Terms Of Use.

Legal policies aside, we haven’t seen individual streaming apps blocking access to Auracast yet. It’s not clear if operating systems like iOS and Android will give apps the ability to opt out, given that Auracast is designed to share a device’s audio output — whatever that might be — just like regular Bluetooth.

Will my existing equipment work with Auracast?

Technically speaking, many phones, tablets, etc., built during the last few years already have Bluetooth chipsets that can be firmware upgraded to support Auracast. Unfortunately, this capability is no guarantee that companies will update existing products to do so.

Apple doesn’t support LE Audio (a prerequisite for Auracast) on its iPhones, and has made no announcement regarding future compatibility, though iOS apps can still act as Auracast assistants for compatible products.

Samsung already supports Auracast on select Galaxy smartphones with the version 6.1 of the company’s One UI software. Google’s mobile software, however, is expected to feature expanded Auracast functionality for all Android handsets that use version 15.

On the headphone/earbuds/speaker side of the equation, things are more complicated. Firmware-upgradable chips in these devices exist, but they’re much less common. Tons of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds, especially in the lower sub-$100 price range, don’t offer a companion app for iOS or Android, so there’s simply no way to update them even if their chips could handle the new code.

Hearing aids that use Bluetooth chips are also a prime example of a product that could benefit from Auracast compatibility, but the same caveats apply — some might already have the necessary hardware, but most will not.

How do I know which devices support Auracast?

The only way to know for sure is to check the manufacturer’s listed features. If a product says it specifically supports Auracast, that’s a solid indicator. When you’re shopping in a store, look for the Auracast logo on the product box.

But here’s something to keep in mind: Even though Auracast works with the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard, it is not a requirement of the LE Audio standard. In other words, just because a device says it supports LE Audio, or even the LC3 Bluetooth codec, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will support Auracast. If it doesn’t specifically list Auracast as a feature, be cautious.

Here’s another very important caveat: An Auracast logo isn’t a guarantee that a product supports the Auracast features you may want to use. For instance, JBL’s new Bluetooth speakers have a dedicated Auracast button, but it’s purely for setting up a party mode where the speaker getting the audio from a smartphone can then share that audio via Auracast to other compatible JBL speakers. It can’t be used for tuning into public or private broadcasts, or for sharing the speakers’ audio with non-JBL products (even if they’re Auracast compatible).

Once again, reading the specifications and professional product reviews becomes your best defense against making a purchase that doesn’t meet your needs.

When will we start to see Auracast devices online and in stores?

The first Auracast-compatible devices trickled out toward the tail end of 2023. So far, 2024 has been much more promising. We’ve seen Auracast-compatible wireless earbuds from JBL, Earfun, Samsung, and Sennheiser, and we expect more before the end of the year.

Wireless headphones seem to be taking longer to arrive. So far, no major brands have announced support.

Though they’re still hard to find, some dedicated Auracast transmitters are now available, like this MoerLink USB transmitter for computers and the ReSound TV Streamer+ from Danish hearing aid company (and Jabra’s parent) GN Audio.

What kinds of things can be done with Auracast?

The ability to broadcast audio via Bluetooth creates an almost unlimited number of applications, but here are the scenarios we expect to see in the near future:

Say goodbye to TV transmitters

Until now, if you wanted a way to listen to a TV’s audio at home or at the gym or airport, your choices were limited. At home, you could try Bluetooth, but as Digital Trends’ Andy Boxall discovered the hard way, this isn’t always optimal. Alternatively, you could buy a dedicated radio-frequency transmitter, but these require dedicated headphones, and they don’t always support multiple headphones. In a gym, you might see a low-power FM transmitter attached to a TV, but since most people don’t have FM radio reception on their phones, that hasn’t proven very popular.

Auracast solves all of these problems. TV’s that are Auracast-enabled can be accessed through the Auracast menu on your phone or the QR/NFC options we discussed earlier. Because Auracast uses Bluetooth LE Audio, latency should be minimal, so the lip-sync problems that have plagued some TV Bluetooth solutions should be a thing of the past.

Eventually, we expect all new TVs to have Auracast built-in, but in the meantime, you’ll be able to upgrade an older TV using an external Auracast transmitter.

Use your own headphones at conferences

It’s common for big, in-person events like shareholder meetings, product launches, and seminars, to feature a real-time translator. In the past, if you wanted to hear the translation, you’d have to grab one of the purpose-built infrared headphones provided by the event, and return it when you were done.

With Auracast, you’ll be able to simply look for the language you need on your phone, and start listening using your own headphones or earbuds.

Never miss an airport announcement

Similar to the conference scenario, it’s likely that we will no longer be reliant on those often hard-to-understand announcements when waiting for our flights at an airport gate. Each gate could maintain its own Auracast broadcast(s), in as many languages as the airport or airline chooses to provide. This was the scenario the Bluetooth SIG used to demo Auracast for CES 2024 attendees.

Better assisted listening

If you think those airport announcements can be hard to understand as someone without any hearing impediments, imagine what they’re like for someone who needs help in that department.

Auracast could be used in a wide variety of situations: Public transit, sporting events, movie theaters, concerts, and even shopping malls, are all places where those who have trouble with traditional, powered speaker-based or P.A. systems, could receive their own personal version of important information.

Airplanes too

As more and more people use wireless headphones, being able to connect to an airplane’s in-flight entertainment system has become more of a hassle. If your cans support wired use, that’s great (as long as you remember the airplane adapter), but if they don’t, you’ll need a solution like the AirFly, Master & Dynamic’s MW01 Bluetooth transmitter, or earbuds that come with transmitter smart cases like the JBL Tour Pro 3, Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2, or Bowers & Wilkins Pi8.

With Auracast, each seatback could have its own audio broadcast, with no pairing procedure needed. Better yet, if you and your travel companion would prefer to watch one screen instead of two, you can both listen in on the same broadcast. Is the person sitting in the row in front of you watching something that is piquing your curiosity? Drop in on their Auracast broadcast and listen along for a while.

And so much more …

These examples are really just the tip of the iceberg. Pretty soon, we expect to see Auracast popping up in all kinds of places.

Apple is officially rolling out iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 today. The highlight of the latest update for eligible iPhones, iPads, and MacBook computers is Apple Intelligence.

Apple has started to roll out Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 update

Popular Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini’s, and X’s (formerly Twitter) Grok will finally be joined by Apple Intelligence. Apple showed off Apple Intelligence during WWDC 2024 in June, and the company has included small components in developer and public beta releases of the iOS 18 operating system.

Apple is now rolling out the stable version of iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence to eligible iPhones. It is a customized Gen AI platform for Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook computers.

Certain iPhone users can now access some Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools, and a more natural and capable Siri. Apple Intelligence will summarize notifications, make the Photos app smarter, and intelligently sort messages in the Mail app.

Apple has reportedly assured that Apple Intelligence is designed with privacy in mind. The latest Apple iPhones will be able to run the Gen AI locally. However, on older iPhones, Apple will send requests to Private Cloud Compute. In this remote space too, Apple will ensure privacy and security. Simply put, Apple has assured it won’t store or share user data needed for its Gen AI.

Which Apple devices will be the first to get Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence will first make its way to the latest iPhone 16 series. Incidentally, all the iOS smartphones in the latest lineup are eligible to get Apple’s Gen AI.

Only the Pro models from last year’s iPhones, such as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will get Apple Intelligence. Apple is including its Gen AI in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. Hence, Apple iPads powered by the A17 Pro or M1 chip and newer, will support Apple Intelligence. MacBook computers with M1 and later should support Apple’s Gen AI.

To experience Apple Intelligence, users will need to update their compatible Apple devices to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS Sequoia. It is, however, important to note that Apple has released just a fraction of Apple Intelligence features. More AI tools should be included in iOS 18.2, which is currently in beta.

Microsoft is accusing Google of funding a proxy campaign designed to discredit it in the eyes of regulatory authorities and policymakers in the European Union and beyond. In a blog post penned by Rima Alaily, the company’s deputy general counsel, Microsoft claims the search giant has gone to “great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding and control” of the Open Cloud Coalition, a group of “cloud service providers, industry leaders and stakeholders” that says it’s committed to advocating for a “fair, competitive, and open cloud services industry across the UK and EU.”

According to Microsoft, Google hired a lobbying agency in Europe to create and operate the organization, and recruited “a handful of” European cloud providers to appear as the public face of the soon-to-launch campaign. The company says that Google plans to “present itself as a backseat member” of the Open Cloud Coalition, rather than its leader and primary funder. As one example, Microsoft points to a recruitment document (PDF link) that makes no mention of the group’s claimed affiliation to Google. It also notes the involvement of Nicky Steward, who co-wrote a complaint against Microsoft and Amazon Web Services as part of the UK’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the cloud services market.

“It remains to be seen what Google offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts,” Microsoft says. It adds that one of the cloud providers Google approached about joining the Open Cloud Coalition claims that the company will direct the group to attack “Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the European Union and the United Kingdom.”

Engadget was unable to independently verify Microsoft’s claims.

“We’ve been very public about our concerns with Microsoft’s cloud licensing. We and many others believe that Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices lock-in customers and create negative downstream effects that impact cybersecurity, innovation, and choice,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget, and pointed us to four separate blog posts on the matter.

As for why Google would potentially go to the extraordinary lengths of funding an astroturf campaign, Microsoft points to the recent uptick in regulatory scrutiny of the company’s search, advertising and mobile app store businesses. By Microsoft’s count, Google faces at least 24 antitrust investigations globally, including a Department of Justice probe that could see the potential break up of the company.

“Never in the past two decades have Google’s search, digital advertising, and mobile app store monopolies faced such a concerted and determined threat as they do today.” Alaily writes. “At a time when Google should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others. It is disappointing that, with the foundation of their business facing jeopardy, they have sought to bolster their cloud computing service – Google Cloud Platform – by attacking ours.”

The accusations come after Google had reportedly attempted to derail an antitrust settlement Microsoft had negotiated with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE). In July, Bloomberg wrote that Google had offered the group €470 million to go forward with litigation against its rival, an overture CISPE ultimately rejected.

As revenue growth from digital ads has slowed for Google in recent years, the company has increasingly turned to the cloud market to pick up the slack. In 2023, Google’s cloud business broke even for the first time. More recently, the unit generated a $900 million profit in the first quarter of this year.

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DGLegacy, a company that’s designed a digital legacy planning and inheritance app, pitched today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield to detail how it’s helping people ensure that their loved ones inherit their assets. 

Founded by husband-and-wife duo Ana Mineva and Peter Minev, DGLegacy allows users to proactively inform their beneficiaries of their assets and ensure they are aware of their passwords and other information in order to claim them. The idea behind the app is to minimize the chance of an unclaimed asset. 

Unlike traditional asset protection tools like trusts and wills, which can become outdated soon after their creation, DGLegacy lets you keep a continuously updated catalog of your assets and ensures that beneficiaries will always have access to it. 

With DGLegacy, you can catalog your assets and upload relevant files to the respective asset. You can then invite beneficiaries and trustees to ensure that they will be informed about their designated assets.

The app features multi-layer encryption to ensure that all of the information is stored securely.

“The most important thing about DGLegacy is that it allows you to not only catalog very securely and easily your digital assets, but also has a proprietary protocol for detecting a fatal event,” Peter told TechCrunch. “Only when a fatal event is detected, then we trigger the digital inheritance.”

DGLegacy detects a fatal event through several different measures. If you connect the app to your social networks, it monitors your public posts to ensure you’re alive. If you have given the app access to biometric logins, DGLegacy monitors your logins. If the app notices a pause in both of these things, DGLegacy sends you an email to check in on you. If the company still doesn’t hear from you, it will give you a call. 

After a fatal event is confirmed, DGLegacy supports your beneficiaries in the process of identifying, locating, and claiming assets. 

Ana and Peter believe that their app can help the everyday person protect their assets and ensure their loved ones can access them once they pass away. 

“Let’s be honest, if someone is very rich, they have private bankers,” Peter said. “Our solution is for the middle class, for the regular people, and also people in war zones. We were super surprised when the war in Ukraine started and we had so many signings from Ukraine. We also have quite a lot of sign-ups from Gaza.” 

Ana came up with the idea for DGLegacy 15 years before the startup’s official founding in January 2021. 

She recalls being nervous before every trip she and Peter took, as she was concerned about what would happen to their children if something terrible were to occur on their travels. 

“I invited my mother-in-law to show her all of the files and folders at home and said: ‘If something happens to us, I know you don’t have the money to take care of our kids, please know that we have this and that. So if something happens to us, you have our money to continue to keep the quality of life of our kids’,” Ana told TechCrunch. “This was the very beginning of the ideation of DGLegacy.” 

As she was doing this, she remembers thinking to herself that there must be a better way of doing so. While people with high net worths have contingency plans to protect their assets, Ana believed there should be a solution for middle-class families as well. 

After doing some research, Ana and Peter discovered that there are tens of billions of dollars of unclaimed cash and benefits in the United States alone in the form of abandoned bank accounts, stock holdings, unclaimed life insurance, and more. 

The duo also heard personal stories from people around them who had needed a solution like DGLegacy. For instance, they knew someone whose partner passed away in Dubai and received zero transparency about their partner’s assets and bank account.

Fast-forward to 2017, Peter pitched Ana’s idea to a friend he met at a TechCrunch event in Berlin. Peter told his friend, who worked at Facebook, about Ana’s idea and asked if he had heard of anyone in Silicon Valley working on something to solve the issue. After his friend told him that he was looking for a solution himself and wasn’t aware of anyone working on one, Peter and Ana decided that it was time to bring Ana’s idea to life. 

DGLegacy operates on a freemium model. Free users can protect up to three assets and assign one beneficiary per asset, while Gold users get unlimited assets and beneficiaries for $6.99 per month or a one-time fee of $199. For people who want additional protection, DGLegacy offers a Platinum plan with cyber breach monitoring of your assets, the ability to manage assets with your family, dedicated beneficiary support and more for $8.99 a month or a one-time fee of $299. 

The startup has been bootstrapped until now, and plans to raise its first VC round later this year or early next year.

DGLegacy is available on iOS and Android.