Tag: News

• TikTok announced layoffs in its operations and marketing departments, staffers told The Information.
• It's unclear how many employees will be impacted.
• TikTok also laid off dozens of employees earlier this year.

The tech layoff wave appears to be continuing with major cuts at TikTok.

TikTok informed employees this week it plans to lay off a large number of people from its operations, content, and marketing departments, unnamed staffers told The Information, which on Tuesday was the first to report the news. Impacted employees will be notified on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, according to The Information's report.

It's unclear how many people will be laid off, but unnamed employees told the outlet TikTok is scrapping its global user operations team and that the team members who are not laid off will join other departments.

The video-sharing app already laid off dozens of employees at the top of the year, but The Information noted TikTok rarely carries out large-scale layoffs like those that have been more common at other tech companies.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Tony Marciante is weaning his Maryland restaurants off of popular food-delivery apps.
• Marciante said the apps were cutting too far into his margins and had quality control issues.
• He now uses a white-label delivery service to take orders directly and pay a flat fee per delivery.

Tony Marciante has run Chef Tony's Seafood in Bethesda, Maryland, since 2007. When the food-delivery apps like DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub came out, he signed up, like many restauranteurs.

"They were a necessary evil," Marciante, 55, told Business Insider.

But now he's weaning his restaurants off the apps. Marciante, who now has a second Chef Tony's location in Rockville, Maryland, and a couple of pizza concepts, said the tide appears to be turning and that other restaurant owners are also looking for alternatives.

Food delivery apps have also come under scrutiny for charging customers high fees and underpaying drivers. A recent study found customers who order takeout via Postmates or DoorDash could be paying twice as much for their meal. Meanwhile delivery drivers previously told BI's Alex Bitter that the job isn't as lucrative as it once was.

From a restaurateur's perspective, Marciante said there were two main drawbacks to using the apps.

He said one issue was quality control, adding that the food-delivery apps don't always do enough to vet drivers.

When customers dine in, the chef and restaurant staff can control the speed, presentation, and delivery of a meal from kitchen to table. But with the delivery apps, once the food goes in the takeout bags and into the hands of an intermediary, the restaurant no longer controls if the driver drops or spills the food, has three stops before it gets to the customer, or forgets half the order.

Even though the driver may have made a mistake, Marciante said some customers blame the restaurant.

"The drivers are a representation of the restaurant to some degree," he said.

Cost was another major factor that turned Marciante off from the apps.

During the pandemic, food-delivery apps gained even more popularity, and customers started ordering food for delivery that they may not have considered getting to-go in the past. With more people ordering delivery from Marciante's seafood restaurants, it started taking a significant toll on his margins.

"It's a very thin margin business," he said, adding, "every dollar matters."

It's common for the apps to take a commission fee of 20% to 30% per order from the restaurant, Marciante said.

But delivery and ordering online have become a big part of his business. Marciante said that at one of his locations, take-out orders often account for 22% to 30% of their business.

"I started looking at the fees that we were paying and all that money, and I said, as they say, 'There's got to be a better way,'" he said.

An alternative to the usual food-delivery apps

To wean off the apps, Marciante now uses a white-label delivery service. Customers place their orders directly on the restaurant's website, and a third-party delivery service picks up and delivers the order.

Marciante uses Owner.com, a startup that has raised millions in funding to help restaurants ditch the food-delivery apps. The company helped Marciante build out his website and his own app to take orders directly and has its own network of delivery drivers.

He said he pays about $500 per month per location for all the services and that Owner.com charges a flat delivery fee of $7 per order, which can be paid by the restaurant, charged to the customer, or split between them.

Marciante said he'd been using Owner.com for less than two months but was already super pleased with it and that he'd recommend it to other restauranteurs looking to get out from under the popular food-delivery apps.

It's worth noting that some of the apps, like Uber Eats and DoorDash, also offer white-label delivery services, where customers can place orders directly with a restaurant but they can be delivered by the app's drivers. This option will typically save the restaurant money compared to when customers order in the app itself, so it may be another option for restauranteurs to explore.

Marciante said DoorDash reached out to him after being contacted by BI and that they "offered to up their game" working with him and assigned him a sales executive.

The other food-delivery apps did not respond to requests for comments from BI.

The apps are useful for restaurants to get discovered

While the apps can be costly to restaurants, Marciante said they are still useful tools for restaurants to connect with first-time customers.

"A lot of people will just pull up their phone and go to Uber and just figure out what they want to eat," he said.

But after being in business for 17 years, Marciante has plenty of repeat customers, many of whom order takeout or delivery on a regular basis. Now, those customers can go straight to Chef Tony's website or app and place their orders rather than give a third-party app an increasingly high cut each time.

For now Marciante plans to maintain his presence on the apps in order to keep reaching new potential customers. But now, when those people find him and want to order from him again, they can go straight to his site and cut out the middleman.

Are you a restaurant owner who wants to share your experience using food-delivery apps? Have you stopped using the apps or are you trying to get off them? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

• An Egyptian spy ruined a potential cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
• The intelligence official added more of Hamas' demands after Israel had already agreed to the deal, CNN reports.
• Israel, the US, and Qatar were reportedly blindsided by the secret changes.

An Egyptian spy torpedoed a potential cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas earlier this month by secretly changing its terms before handing it between the warring sides, CNN reports.

The intelligence official, Ahmed Abdel Khalek, changed the deal after Israel had already agreed to it by adding in more of Hamas' demands to the framework to clinch their approval, according to the report.

Abdel Khalek works for Abbas Kamel, according to CNN, who is the head of Egypt's general intelligence service.

One of the biggest points of contention in the deal was a call for "sustainable calm" to be reached in its second phase, according to CNN. Israel is opposed to discussing an end to the war until Hamas is defeated and all of its hostages are freed, the outlet reports.

If it had been passed, the deal could have seen the release of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and temporarily paused combat. US officials have pushed for a temporary cease-fire in the hopes that a stop to the fighting could open the possibility to a more lasting peace.

Officials involved in the talks from Qatar, the US, and Israel were blindsided and angered by the spy's secret changes, according to CNN.

Neither the CIA nor the State Department immediately responded to Business Insider's requests for comment.

Hamas announced it had agreed to the deal on May 6, which Qatar and Egypt helped negotiate. At the time, an anonymous Israeli official told Reuters the announcement was a "ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal."

Mediators had hoped the deal would stave off Israel's incursion into Rafah, which is now expanding.

The scuttled cease-fire also dashes a priority for US President Joe Biden. Biden is locked in a tight race with rival Donald Trump, but the Democrat is facing a revolt from left-wing voters who accuse him of supporting the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by sending Israel weaponry.

• Donald Trump's presidency began with business leaders eager to help him in building up the economy.
• Many business leaders praised his tax overhaul, which lowered the corporate tax rate.
• But after the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Trump was widely criticized for his response to the violent event.

When Donald Trump first ran for the presidency, he pledged to run the United States like a business.

"If we could run our country the way I've run my company, we would have a country that you would be so proud of," he said during an October 2016 debate with his then-opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

After Trump was elected to the White House, he brought along key figures like financier and film producer Steve Mnuchin, who became his Treasury secretary; onetime Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn, who became the director of the National Economic Council; and businessman Wilbur Ross, who served as Commerce secretary.

Leaning in to his pro-business ideology, Trump worked to cut regulations across the federal government and signed into law his signature $1.5 trillion tax plan that Republicans were able to muscle through Congress as the majority party. The plan, which was opposed by congressional Democrats, was the broadest overhaul of the tax code in decades.

For much of the business community, the law, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, was a long-awaited achievement.

But Trump's presidency also featured some high-profile clashes that, over time, caused him to become a polarizing figure among leaders who often agreed with him on many policy issues. As Trump touts his past stewardship of the economy ahead of November, here's a look at his relationship with the business community during his first term:

One of their own

Decades before Trump went into national politics, he rose to national prominence as a wealthy real estate developer and businessman. As a presidential candidate, Trump's background was unique in that he had neither served as a governor or as a member of Congress, nor did he have a military background.

But in a presidential year when many GOP voters were looking for a change agent, his business background gave him a major boost as a political outsider.

For many in the business world, Trump was essentially one of their own. His relationship with top corporate leaders started off on a high note, especially after he hosted a dozen chief executives (which included Tesla founder Elon Musk) at the White House during his first week in office, where he emphasized his desire to enact tax cuts.

However, Trump's relationships with many of these leaders disintegrated in the aftermath of the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalist groups unleashed a wave of violence. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old woman who was assembled with a crowd of counter-protesters in downtown Charlottesville, was killed after a white supremacist drove into the group.

Trump, days after the incident, sought to highlight that some attendees were protesting the removal of a Confederate statue and weren't in Charlottesville to cause trouble, but the remarks backfired spectacularly.

"You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides," he said. "I've condemned neo-Nazis. I've condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch."

After the comments, Kenneth Frazier, then the chief executive of Merck, stepped down from Trump's manufacturing council.

"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," he said at the time.

Under Armour's Kevin Plank, 3M's Inge Thulin, and Intel's Brian Krzanich, among others, resigned as well.

Trump then abruptly disbanded the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum.

The infrastructure plot

Trump in July 2017 signed an executive order for the creation of an infrastructure advisory council, similar to his other councils, but he eventually nixed it.

The inaction regarding the infrastructure council mirrored Trump's eventual inaction in advancing a comprehensive infrastructure plan, despite his contention that he would rebuild America's roads and bridges, especially in the hard-hit Rust Belt communities that were struggling to recover from factory closures and declining tax bases.

Even the promise of an "Infrastructure Week" became a long-running punchline. Trump put forward plans to spend between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion on infrastructure in both 2017 and 2018.

But he became sidetracked whenever he sought to lay out a plan.

During a Rose Garden event in June 2017, Trump accused the former FBI director Jim Comey of lying under oath before Congress — taking him away from his intended focus on infrastructure. In August 2017, a Trump Tower event meant to provide updates about Trump's infrastructure plan became dominated by his response to the violence in Charlottesville. And in February 2018, Trump's infrastructure proposal took a back seat amid accusations of misconduct by two close aides.

Trump's plans to repair the nation's bridges, ports, and railways didn't move forward in 2018 — even though the GOP had full control of Congress until January 2019.

"We have a very important election coming up, and they don't like the wins we've been getting," Trump said in 2018, seeking to shift blame on the infrastructure inaction to Democrats.

Even after the 2018 midterms — when Democrats retook the House but Republicans retained control of the Senate — Trump never got a major infrastructure plan through Congress.

That task became a rallying call for his successor, President Joe Biden, who in November 2021 signed into law a landmark $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which funded everything from port upgrades and Amtrak grants to critical bridge repairs and high-speed broadband.

Turning to tech

During the 2016 presidential race, many top tech executives threw their support behind Clinton's campaign.

But after the election, Trump invited a broad array of tech leaders to Trump Tower and expressed a desire to work with them on innovation. During the December 2016 meeting, the group spoke about job creation, trade, and infrastructure, according to Trump's then-transition team.

One of those leaders in attendance was Musk, years before he'd go on to acquire Twitter and rebrand it as X.

In June 2016, Trump met with top tech executives including Apple's Tim Cook and Amazon's Jeff Bezos to devise a solution for overhauling the federal government's information technology systems. But the meeting came as many leaders remained staunchly opposed to Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord earlier that month. (Biden rejoined the agreement in January 2021.)

Cook at the time told Apple employees that he tried to convince Trump to remain in the accord, but said his appeal "wasn't enough."

In 2020, several tech leaders — including Cook — were critical of Trump's visa restrictions that would impact highly-skilled foreign workers in the industry. The Trump administration at the time said the move was made to afford positions to American workers during the pandemic.

Cook at the time said he was "deeply disappointed" by the move.

"Like Apple, this nation of immigrants has always found strength in our diversity, and hope in the enduring promise of the American Dream," the executive added.

Ahead of the November election, Trump is looking to Silicon Valley — where Biden has considerable support — as he looks to erase a sizable financial gap with his Democratic rival.

• Red Lobster fans clamored for sentimental items from the iconic chain, but they were out of luck.
• The contents of each shuttered location were only auctioned off en masse, winner takes all.
• The stockpile of equipment from 52 locations sold for between $10,000 and $35,000. 

Red Lobster superfans were desperate to get their hands on sentimental items from the iconic restaurant chain before dozens of locations were laid to rest.

Some love the restaurant so much that they wanted to buy their favorite tables before they were gone, according to a liquidator who auctioned off everything inside the stores.

Red Lobster, the largest seafood restaurant chain in the world, began abruptly closing stores across the country last week. As of May 15, at least 99 locations had closed in at least 27 states, ABC News reported.

Then, on Monday, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Among the reasons: its iconic endless-shrimp promotion cost the chain millions.

With so many locations shuttering their doors, the equipment inside had to go somewhere, so Red Lobster hired TAGeX Brands, a liquidation company charged with auctioning off the entire contents of 52 locations.

But rather than sell off all those lobster tanks and fish fryers piecemeal, TAGeX held one auction for each location — winner takes all.

TAGeX's founder and CEO Neal Sherman told Business Insider that only two groups of people participated in the auctions: wholesalers of used equipment and restaurant operators.

But that left out the superfans who just wanted a piece of the pie for sentimental reasons, and Sherman said hundreds of them reached out to his company.

"They wanted the table where the first date was of their spouse, a table where their high school buddies would get together every year at, you know, the sentimental value, which often happens," Sherman told BI.

"And then we just kept trying to tell 'em, look, it's like a truckload of equipment. Do you really want that in your backyard?" Sherman added.

Sherman said that even among the equipment wholesalers and restaurant operators, he was surprised by how much interest there was. Bidding wars even broke out, with each location getting between 12 and 25 unique bidders — much more than his company expected, Sherman said.

At the time the auctions closed, TAGeX's website showed that the entire contents of each location sold for between $10,000 and $35,000. That included everything from upright refrigerators and microwaves to fish tanks, furniture, and, in some cases, decor.

Winners didn't get any perishable items like food or leftover alcohol, or things like salt and pepper shakers, which Red Lobster redistributed to its still-operating locations, Sherman said.

Sherman said tens of thousands of people visited the auction website before it closed on May 16. The winning bidders only had one day to haul out their spoils from the now-dark locations.

"I knew that people really had a passion for Red Lobster. I didn't know it was this passionate," Sherman said. "The biscuits? I've never had them, but I got to go try some now. I was watching my weight, but I'm going to go try some."

• Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is airing an ad touting his position on abortion.
• Hogan, a Republican, has said he supports codifying Roe into law.
• His ad illustrates just how much the politics have changed on abortion rights since Roe reversal.

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is betting big that he can mollify the tidal wave Republicans have faced in the wake of Roe v. Wade's reversal in his bid to help the GOP retake the Senate.

In his first general election ad published on Tuesday, Hogan publicized his previous promise to codify Roe v. Wade into law if he's elected this November. President Joe Biden and Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to restore nationwide abortion rights since the Supreme Court issued its landmark reversal of Roe in 2022.

Hogan is taking on Prince George's County executive Angela Alsbrooks. Alsobrooks prevailed last week over Rep. David Trone after a bruising Democratic primary. Trone, who amassed a fortune thanks to co-founding Total Wine, spent over $60 million trying to defeat her.

Maryland's election will be one of most closely watched Senate races this November.

Hogan's position makes him one of the few prominent Republicans to support abortion rights. Both parties have seen the number of dissenters on abortion rights dwindle as views on the issue have hardened in recent years. In the Senate, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only Republicans who support codifying Roe into law. Anti-abortion advocates, who strongly support many other Republicans, spent decades laying the groundwork to overturn Roe.

Republicans have struggled nationally to figure out how to talk about abortion. Former President Donald Trump angered some of his allies by announcing that he would largely leave the issue up to the states.

Hogan is far from a vocal abortion rights supporter.

As The Associated Press pointed out, he vetoed a 2022 bill that proposed to expand abortion access in Maryland. When the legislature overrode his veto, Hogan used his power to block funding that would have supported training non-physicians on how to perform abortions. When he first announced his Senate run, Hogan initially said he needed to think more about his position on abortion rights. He then quickly came out in favor of codifying Roe.

A former two-term governor, Hogan has to navigate running for the Senate in a state that hasn't elected a GOP senator since 1980. Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell views Hogan as a prized recruit due to the former governor's proven ability to win.

Republicans are in a tough spot on abortion.

The Supreme Court's Dodds ruling triggered a backlash that hit Republicans particularly hard in the 2022 midterms. Some GOP officials have tried to support antiabortion rights groups when the issue has come on the ballot. That hasn't worked either. Abortion rights advocates are undefeated on ballot-related issues since Roe.

Democrats have already placed abortion rights on the Florida ballot this November. A similar effort is pending in Arizona, a key swing state. Recent history shows that ballot measures likely won't be a big boost for Biden. But the president's reelection needs all the help it can get when faced with his horrendous approval rating.

Hogan would also be outnumbered if he wins. His upset would almost certainly hand the GOP control of the Senate. No Republican Senate is going to make a serious effort to codify Roe, given the party's near-universal support to restrict abortion rights. Even if Hogan found a way to force a vote, the filibuster would kill it rather quickly. The reality is that if Republicans hold the House and retake the Senate and presidency in November, it's far more likely the GOP will face pressure to impose some sort of national abortion ban.

Trump has said he wouldn't sign such a ban into law, but a GOP-controlled House, along with anti-abortion activists, may find ways to test him. Some of Trump's allies have also theorized ways to use the White House's power to restrict access to abortion without needing to pass a law.

• A new report from Forbes Advisor ranked US states by risk of cat and dog illnesses.
• They analyzed 19 different diseases throughout the US, including Lyme Disease, rabies, and worms.
• Here are the top 10 riskiest states for your pet's health, and how you can protect them.

Spring has sprung, and with warmer weather comes the start of a far less pleasant time of year: tick season. As ticks become more active this spring, both humans and their pets will be at greater risk of diseases like Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis.

But a new science report from Forbes Advisor, the analysis arm of Forbes, could help you protect your pets from tick-borne diseases and other harmful infections.

The report analyzed 19 dog and cat diseases across the US from six pet health and infectious disease organizations, including the Center for Disease Control and the American Veterinary Medical Association. It uncovered the riskiest states for pets, and the data might just save your pet's life.

"As a pet owner, you want to do the very best job taking care of your pet," and this report will hopefully better equip pet owners to do exactly that by spreading awareness, Alexandria Cremer, a Forbes senior PR strategist involved with the report, told Business Insider.

Here are the 10 riskiest states for your pet, the most common diseases to watch out for, and some basic tips for keeping your pet happy and healthy.

Top 10 riskiest states for your pet

Forbes Advisor created its own ranking scale based on data from all 19 diseases. The scale ranges from zero to 100, and states with higher scores have a greater risk of these diseases.

These were the 10 riskiest states, according to the data:

1. West Virginia Score: 100
2. Rhode Island Score: 80.71
3. New Jersey Score: 74.1
4. Kentucky Score: 73.91
5. Maine Score: 71.3
6. Oklahoma Score: 70.15
7. New York Score: 66.23
8. Mississippi Score: 65.88
9. Indiana Score: 65.69
10. Pennsylvania Score: 64.75

Some key takeaways: Five of the top 10 riskiest states for your pet are on the East Coast (Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania).

Two of these 10 states, West Virginia and Maine, were also among the top three riskiest states for tick-borne diseases. And Pennsylvania recorded the most cases of rabies (237) in cats between 2017 to 2021.

The most common diseases to watch out for

Ticks

Tick-borne diseases like Lyme Disease, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis are especially common in the spring and summer months.

Arkansas, Maine, and West Virginia ranked highest in tick-borne diseases out of all 50 states. But regionally, the East Coast — and especially the Northeast — showed the highest risk of tick-borne disease.

These bacterial infections can turn deadly if not treated quickly, so it's important to watch your pet for symptoms. Fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, and joint stiffness or pain are all common symptoms of these three tick-borne diseases.

Parasites

Ticks aren't the only tiny critters that can get your pet sick. Parasites like worms can wriggle their way into your pets' bodies when they ingest contaminated substances like dirt or feces, or when an infected insect — like fleas and mosquitos — bite your pet.

Roundworms are the most common intestinal parasites in cats and dogs. The top three states with the highest risk of roundworm were South Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

This parasite poses the biggest risk to puppies and kittens, so it's important to deworm them every two weeks until they're three months old, according to Companion Veterinary Clinic. Watch for symptoms like a distended belly, weight loss, diarrhea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

Viruses

Cats and dogs can catch viruses too. The risk of dog flu, a highly contagious respiratory virus, was highest in New Mexico, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.

Most dogs recover from the flu in two to three weeks, but it's still important to look for the symptoms so that you can keep them properly hydrated, rested, and fed while they recover. Symptoms include a runny nose, fever, lethargy, runny eyes, and loss of appetite, according to the FA report.

Feline immunodeficiency virus is one of the most common diseases that infect cats. Kentucky and Mississippi showed the highest risk of this disease.

It's dangerous because infected cats may not display any symptoms for years, but all the while, this virus is causing lasting damage to their immune systems. Though the early signs are hard to see, you can catch them one to three months following infection if you know what to look for including swollen lymph nodes, fever, depression, and lack of appetite, according to Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

How to keep your pet safe

No matter where you live, there are some preventative measures that every pet owner can take to protect their pet's health.

Scheduling annual vet check-ups to make sure your pet is up to date on their vaccines is a great place to start, according to the animal rescue Brandywine Valley SPCA.

It's also important to keep up with preventative medication. Experts recommend giving your pet heartworm, flea, and tick medication once a month, all year round, and routinely checking your pet's fur and skin for ticks, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the FDA.

Trips to the vet can get expensive, especially if your pet needs emergency care or surgery. Emergency vet bills range from $150 to $5,000 on average in the US, MetLife reports. Consider purchasing pet insurance to help cover unexpected costs. Depending on your pet's breed, age, and other factors, pet insurance can range from $48 to $68 per month per dog and $28 to $40 monthly per cat, according to a separate report from Forbes Advisor.

And last, but certainly not least, making sure your pet gets proper nutrition, hydration, exercise, and mental stimulation is key to keeping them happy and healthy, according to the Animal Foundation.

• Scarlett Johansson says the voice for OpenAI's chatbot is "eerily similar" to hers.
• Between this and the fiasco last November when Sam Altman was pushed out, it seems like a mess.
• These are the people who are supposed to be bringing us the future? 

OpenAI's fight with Scarlett Johansson isn't just a PR disaster (and a big one at that). It also reveals a troubling attitude about people's intellectual property — and even their voice.

Most of all, it shows there's just really, really bad judgment going on at the highest levels of Sam Altman's company.

Let's say ScarJo had actually agreed to do the voice of "Sky" for ChatGPT instead of Altman's company hiring someone else to play the breathy, flirty female part. In this scenario, the voice would be not just vaguely reminiscent of the movie "Her" — a winky reference for those in the know — but literally an exact imitation of the movie, with Johansson playing the starring role.

But … stop for a second and imagine how truly stupid that idea would be from the start.

First of all, getting one of the highest-paid Hollywood actors to endorse your product is expensive. And getting her to reprise a role from 2013 is for what, exactly? Just a nerdy joke? Not even that many people saw "Her" (and I do worry our tech overlords forgot the ending).

Also, consider that maybe a voice assistant shouldn't necessarily be a sexy-breathy-flirty American female voice (yes, there are other voice options, but OpenAI chose "Sky" for the demo).

It's giving "let that sink in." It would be funny for a Super Bowl ad — not to develop into the flagship product that you're also claiming will change the world.

What actually happened, of course, was way worse. Scarlett Johansson declined when Sam Altman asked her to lend her voice to ChatGPT back in September when the SAG strike was going on, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, OpenAI hired a voice actress who the company said wasn't intended to be a voice mimic. But everyone immediately noticed that the "Sky" voice that ended up on ChatGPT reminded them of ScarJo.

And then Sam Altman, in one of the greatest self-own moves of the generative AI era, tweeted out "her" during the product demo last week. Doesn't that make it seem like OpenAI did want to evoke Johansson's character from the movie?

The company said in a statement that the voice wasn't intended to mimic Johansson's. Altman said in a statement to Reuters that the actor used for "Sky" was cast before he contacted Johansson to ask to use her voice. "Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products," Altman said. "We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better."

Now, Altman and OpenAI are tangling with an immensely popular celebrity, adored by a nerd army for her superhero role in the wildly popular Marvel franchise, with a husband whose job is to make fun of things in the news on TV each week, and a history of litigation against a big company.

Of course, it's also hitting a nerve because now there's a beautiful and popular face attached to something that the general public has been slightly nervous about: "Is AI going to steal our content and replace us?"

Altman tweeted himself into tech's biggest PR disaster since Facebook Beacon — completely avoidable. The OpenAI team used a Scarlett Johansson sound-alike voice — also completely avoidable.

It almost makes you wonder: Are these really the people we should believe are such geniuses and have such great judgment that they should be in charge of this potentially life-changing technology?

Just last week, several high-level OpenAI employees, including Ilya Sutskever, also a board member, left the company. This comes six months after what OpenAI and Microsoft employees internally referred to as the "Turkey-Shoot Clusterfuck" — the Thanksgiving week firing of Altman and his eventual return the next week. The details of what went down first were eventually revealed not to be a valiant fight of good and evil over controlling an all-powerful AGI, but apparent run-of-the-mill workplace gossip and alleged bullying.

This is all enough to make even the most optimistic ethical accelerationist pause and wonder, uh, what the hell is going on at this clown show? If AI is as powerful and world-altering as OpenAI is telling us it will be, are we not supposed to be mildly concerned that the people in charge keep stepping on rakes?

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When listening to music, there's nothing worse than annoying background noise drowning out your favorite songs. That's why noise-canceling headphones have become so popular. Using built-in microphones and audio processing, the best noise-canceling headphones block ambient sounds so you can focus on your playlist without pesky distractions.

We put several top models through our testing process to pick the six best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra over-ear headphones are a real standout and deliver the most impressive active noise cancellation (ANC) we've come across. For budget buyers, we recommend the affordable Anker Soundcore Life Q30, which offer ANC that's way better than we expected for such a low price.   

Below are all six of our recommendations for the best noise-canceling headphones. Each pick has been selected with different needs and budgets in mind, but they all provide a great listening experience.

Our top picks for the best noise-canceling headphones

Best overall: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Over-Ear – See at Amazon

Best on a budget: Anker Soundcore Life Q30 – See at Amazon

Best sounding: Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless – See at Amazon

Best features: Sony WH-1000XM5 – See at Amazon

Best for gaming: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless – See at Amazon

Best in-ear: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds – See at Amazon

Best overall

Bose has the upper hand in the race for the best noise-canceling headphones. The brand's over-ear QuietComfort Ultra provide class-leading audio suppression to go along with great features, a comfortable design, and the best sound we've heard from a pair of Bose headphones. 

The Ultra ooze luxury from the moment you pull them from their zippered case. The headphones use sleek and durable materials like dimpled aluminum along the arms and band and plush padding coated in soft protein leather. The ear cups are foldable and fully collapsible, making the headphones easy to pack for travel. Battery life is solid at 24 hours, though we would have liked them to last a bit longer, given the Ultra's price point.

As for performance, the Ultra's noise canceling is supremely powerful, edging out everything we've tested. It's fantastic at silencing low-end sounds like fans or street noise but also effective for higher frequencies, wholly eliminating sounds like keystrokes and muffling voice chatter, even without music playing. And when you do want to let in outside noise, the Ultra's transparency mode is among the most natural sounding we've heard. 

The Ultra's sound quality is also a step up for the series. Music comes through with deft precision, detail, and balance across genres, especially after bumping the bass down a notch or two with the Bose Music app's three-band EQ. As with other Bose headphones, instrumentals can sometimes sound slightly sharp and overly processed, but it's more toned down here for an overall pleasing presentation. Calls come through with crystal clarity as well.

The headphones also boast Bose's new spatial audio feature, which includes head tracking that can move the soundstage with you independent of your source device. We had mixed results with this, as the feature can sometimes create an echo effect, especially with video content. The headphones are otherwise well-appointed, with features like Multipoint Bluetooth to connect two devices simultaneously, customizable noise-canceling modes, and a wind buffering setting.

As for controls, the Ultra's mix of hard keys and a volume slider touchpad works well. We would have liked to see a dedicated key for noise canceling and transparency mode, but that's a minor complaint. Even with a price that goes beyond any pair of QuietComfort headphones before them, the Ultra are a worthy investment, offering a premium experience and noise-canceling that can't be beaten.

Best on a budget

Thanks to the latest advancements in noise-canceling technology, you don't have to spend a ton of money to get some decent peace and quiet. Anker's Soundcore Life Q30 are a great example, and at well under $100, they're a relatively easy investment. 

The Q30's noise canceling ranks among the best for their price point, doing an especially good job in the lower registers. It's certainly not as effective as the pricier models on our list, especially in the upper frequencies, but the Q30's ear cups also offer solid passive noise isolation, which helps to defray some of the ambient annoyances in your life.

Anker's Soundcore headphones consistently perform well in terms of audio performance, and the Q30s hold their own in this department, especially after a few tweaks to their hefty bass in the Soundcore mobile app for Android or iOS. There, you can also customize other settings, swap between three noise-canceling modes, and engage the available sleep mode to activate ambient sounds as you drift off on your commute. 

The Q30s fit comfortably thanks to their solid padding and collapse for travel. Convenience features like Multipoint Bluetooth pairing recall fancier models that cost double or triple the price, while their massive battery life is among the best you'll find.

However, there are some drawbacks. The earcups use cheaper plastic and are more prone to scratches than pricier models. We also ran into misfires when using the tap command on the right ear cup to toggle between noise canceling and transparency modes. But these small hiccups are far from deal breakers.  

If you're after a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones but simply can't stomach the high prices of other top models, Anker's Soundcore Q30 are a very enticing option.

Best sounding

Sennheiser's Momentum 4 Wireless headphones don't have the best or even the second-best noise-canceling performance on our list. That's OK, though, because once you hear them, you may not care. If you're an audiophile, the great sound quality you get here could be a more than acceptable tradeoff. 

It took Sennheiser three years to update its storied Momentum headphones, doing away with the retro styling that had defined the series up to now. But it was worth the wait and the redesign. The Momentum 4s deliver audio performance that rises above everything we've heard in their class, offering effortless presence, detail, and separation that lets you dig deep into each instrument's timbres and textures with remarkable clarity. 

The Momentum 4s are no slouches in the features department, either, with battery life that's double what you'll get from options like Sony's WF-1000XM5. You'll also get features like Multipoint pairing, the ability to adjust noise canceling and transparency modes based on your environment, a three-band EQ, and great wind buffering that also aids in call quality.

As mentioned, the Momentum 4s' noise canceling is good but not great for headphones at this price point. They do a swell job with lower frequencies but let higher register noises like voices slip through more easily than the other top noise-canceling headphones. Add a bit of music, and that shouldn't be much of an issue in most scenarios, but it's worth considering before you pull the trigger.

Although the headphones are quite comfortable, they're also heavier than some competitors, and they don't fold up completely, making them slightly harder to pack. That said, if sound is your compass, the Momentum 4s are well worth considering, offering a lush sonic experience.

Best features

The Sony WH-1000XM5 M5 (as in Mark 5) may not have the catchiest name, but they make up for it with a formidable mix of brilliant performance and a truckload of great features.

Sony wrote the book on modern headphone design with its WH-1000X series, putting you in the driver's seat for a dizzying array of options. It all starts with the brand's powerful Headphones app, letting you control your noise cancellation in multiple ways, including an option based on your environment. You can silence audio with your voice or let in the outside world with a simple hand gesture on the right ear cup. Alexa is available for smart control, and customization of Sony's 360 Reality Audio lets you unlock spatial sound with supported content.

Features aside, the XM5s are as polished as you'd expect a flagship pair of headphones from a market leader to be. Their touch controls are intuitive and responsive, and their noise canceling is incredibly effective across registers. Sound quality is sweet, smooth, and superbly detailed, to the point that you'll likely hear things you've missed in multiple previous listens. Their streamlined design and memory foam padding make them comfortable for hours (though Bose's Ultras are even comfier).

The only noteworthy issue we take with Sony's latest design is that, unlike the Bose Ultra and Sony's cheaper WH-1000XM4, the M5s don't collapse for travel, making them harder to pack.

Ultimately, we think the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones edge out the XM5s if you're specifically looking for the most effective noise-canceling performance on the market. But, when factoring in other features and general value, the XM5s are our top pick for the best over-ear headphones overall. 

Read our Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones review.

Best for gaming

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is a noise-canceling headset built for gaming. Unlike our other picks, it has a retractable boom microphone designed for voice chat, so you can better communicate with other players during online matches. 

And in addition to Bluetooth, it supports a wireless 2.4GHz connection. This feature isn't something you'll find on typical noise-canceling headphones designed for music, but it's an essential option for a gaming headset since 2.4GHz provides less audio lag. The Arctis Nova Pro can even support simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connections, so you can pair it with a phone and a compatible gaming console at the same time.

The headset comes with a cool wireless transmitter that also acts as a control hub and a battery charger. An OLED display is built into the hub, so you can monitor your settings and adjust things like volume, EQ, and noise cancellation. The headset includes two batteries that can each last 20 hours, and you can charge the spare battery in the control hub when not in use so you always have one ready to go. 

Sound quality is excellent for gaming, but like many headsets of this type, its audio profile favors a bass-heavy sound that gives extra oomph to deep effects like explosions in action games. If you want headphones with music playback in mind, we recommend opting for one of our other picks. 

The active noise-canceling feature also works well and is a nice inclusion for gaming since it can minimize background sounds so you can focus on your on-screen missions and multiplayer chats. However, the ANC here is more suited for dealing with moderate at-home noises and isn't as good at blocking out troublesome outside distractions. 

Various spatial audio options are fully implemented with a DTS:X license on Windows, support for the PS5's Tempest 3D, and Windows Sonic compatibility on PC and Xbox. You also get access to SteelSeries' audio software suite, Sonar, which allows you to customize the headset's EQ and surround sound functions.

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro is our pick for the best gaming headset. It's an excellent pair of headphones for gamers who want wireless support and ANC. SteelSeries sells a few different versions of this headset, but the edition we recommend here has full cross-platform wireless support for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.

Read our SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless gaming headset review.

Best in-ear

Though our previous pick in this category, the Sony WF-1000XM5, remain our recommendation for the best wireless earbuds overall, Bose has bested them in noise-canceling performance. Like their over-ear siblings, this in-ear version of the QuietComfort Ultra deliver best-in-class ANC. We've tested tons of noise-canceling earbuds, but none can match this model's ability to block out ambient distractions. 

In addition, the QC Ultra earbuds offer a natural-sounding transparency mode when you want to hear your surroundings. They can also reduce sudden loud noises to help keep your ears safe. General audio quality is impressive, too, with a dynamic and clear sound profile. And you have plenty of freedom to adjust the sound to your liking with a three-band EQ setting in Bose's mobile app.

You'll also get many of the same features that you'll find on Bose's over-ear version of these headphones, including spatial audio support with head tracking. Again, we prefer to listen to music without this mode engaged, but it's nice to have this option included for those who enjoy it. However, unlike the over-ear QuietComfort Ultra headphones, these earbuds do not support multi-point pairing. 

On the design front, the QC Ultra feature a more compact build than Bose's previous-generation QuietComfort earbuds. A volume slider is positioned on the earbud's stem for easy control, and they fit comfortably in ear with three different-sized ear tips and stability bands included. On the downside, the included charging case is a bit large, and it doesn't have wireless support unless you add on a $50 case cover. 

Still, despite any minor shortcomings, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds easily cement themselves as the best in-ear noise-canceling headphones you can buy.

How we test noise-canceling headphones

When testing contenders for the best noise-canceling headphones, we use each model as we would in our daily lives to understand how they'll perform for a typical listener. That includes evaluating features like ease of setup with different source devices, comfort, battery life, and general usability.

We assess sound quality by listening to music across multiple genres from the best music streaming services as well as in high resolution. We also play videos and listen to them with each model to test features like spatial audio and head tracking with stereo and Dolby Atmos content.

To evaluate noise canceling and transparency modes, we conduct real-world testing in natural environments and, whenever possible, in situations like plane flights or train commutes. We also incorporate a sound-treated room and professional stereo monitors to reproduce sounds like airplane noise, voices, and other effects. Battery testing includes putting the headphones on a stopwatch at medium volume to ensure they live up to their manufacturer's claims or come close.

Noise-canceling headphones FAQs

What is noise canceling?

Noise cancellation, also known as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or Adaptive Noise Cancellation, is a technology designed to suppress sounds in your immediate environment. Noise-canceling headphones are outfitted with tiny microphones which pick up ambient sounds. They then use onboard circuitry to analyze those sounds in real time, flipping the polarity of the frequencies (essentially reversing their waveforms) to "cancel" them. 

Noise cancellation is an imperfect science and, as of yet, it's not able to block out all the sounds in a given environment. That said, with each iteration, the best noise-canceling headphones increase how much sound they can block, especially at higher frequencies, which are generally the hardest to cancel. The better the noise cancellation, the more frequencies are blocked, and the more noise your headphones can reduce.

Which brands offer the best noise-canceling performance?

In the consumer headphones market, Bose and Sony are known for delivering top-notch noise-canceling performance. Though high-end models from both brands are nearly neck-and-neck, we give a slight edge to Bose.

Other solid brands include Soundcore, Sennheiser, JBL, Master and Dynamic, and Bowers and Wilkins. And though its models don't quite make this guide, Apple is also a notable option with its AirPods Pro earbuds and AirPods Max over-ear headphones. Check out our guide to the best Apple AirPods to learn more about the company's headphones.

Are over-ear headphones better than earbuds for noise canceling?

While the gap between over-ear headphones and earbuds was once more prominent, today's top noise-canceling earbuds are close to or on par with the best over-ear headphones with ANC. Both types offer good passive noise isolation, and both use a mix of advanced hardware and software, including multiple microphones. While it varies case by case, you can now get very effective noise canceling in either over-ear headphones or earbuds.

What is transparency mode?

Transparency mode, also called ambient audio (or sometimes hear-thru), is essentially the opposite of noise canceling. Using the same exterior microphones, instead of canceling the sound around you, transparency mode pipes ambient sound into your headphones in an effort to keep you aware of your surroundings. Transparency modes on most headphones can be easily toggled on and off, so you can go from listening to music with ANC to letting outside sound in. This is not only a great safety feature, but it can also be helpful for situations like flights or other forms of mass transit where you need to communicate quickly.

What is Bluetooth wireless connectivity?

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows for an exchange of data, for our purposes in the form of audio, across short distances. Most Bluetooth devices offer a range of around 33 feet, though some, such as Class 1 Bluetooth devices, can travel 100 feet or more. Improvements in Bluetooth over time have allowed for increased bandwidth and, among other things, higher sound quality that's more reliable. In general, having the latest Bluetooth version can mean speed, efficiency, and reliability improvements.

Best overall

Bose has the current upper hand in the ongoing race for the best noise-cancelling headphones. The brand's QuietComfort Ultra provide class-leading audio suppression to go along with great features, a comfortable design, and the best sound we've heard from a pair of Bose headphones. 

The Ultra ooze luxury from the moment you pull them from their zippered case. The headphones use sleek and durable materials like dimpled aluminum along the arms and band and plush padding coated in soft protein leather. The ear cups are foldable and fully collapsible, making the headphones easy to pack for travel. Battery life is solid at 24 hours, though we would have liked to see a bit more, given the Ultra's price point.

As for performance, the Ultra's noise cancelling is supremely powerful, edging out everything we've tested. It's fantastic at silencing low-end sounds like fans or street noise but also effective for higher frequencies, wholly eliminating sounds like keystrokes and muffling voice chatter, even without music playing. And when you do want to let in outside noise, the Ultra's Transparency mode is among the most natural sounding we've heard. 

The Ultra's sound quality is also a step up for the series. Music comes through with deft precision, detail, and balance across genres, especially after bumping down the bass a notch or two with the Bose Music app's three-band EQ. As with other Bose headphones, instrumentals can sometimes sound slightly sharp and overly processed, but it's toned down here for an overall pleasing presentation. Calls come through with crystal clarity as well.

The headphones also boast Bose's new spatial audio feature, which includes head tracking that can move the soundstage with you independent of your source device. We had mixed results with this, as the feature can sometimes create an echo effect, especially with video content. The headphones are otherwise well-appointed, with features like Multipoint Bluetooth to connect two devices simultaneously, customizable noise-cancelling modes, and a wind buffering setting.

As for controls, the Ultra's mix of hard keys and a volume slider touchpad work well. We would have liked to see a dedicated key for noise cancelling and transparency mode, but that's a minor complaint. Even with a price that goes beyond any pair of QuietComfort headphones before them, the Ultra are a worthy investment, offering a premium experience and noise cancelling that can't be beaten.

Best budget

Thanks to the latest advancements in noise-cancelling technology, you don't have to spend a ton of money to get some decent peace and quiet. Anker's Soundcore Life Q30 are a great example, and at well under $100, they're a relatively easy investment. 

The Q30's noise cancelling ranks among the best for their price point, doing an especially good job in the lower registers. It's certainly not as effective as the pricier models on our list, especially in the upper frequencies, but the Q30's ear cups also offer solid passive noise isolation, which helps to defray some of the ambient annoyances in your life.

Anker's Soundcore headphones consistently punch above their weight when it comes to audio performance, and the Q30s hold their own in this department, especially after a few tweaks to their hefty bass in the Soundcore mobile app for Android or iOS. There you can also customize other settings, swap between three noise-cancelling modes, and engage the available sleep mode to activate ambient sounds as you drift off on your commute. 

The Q30s fit comfortably thanks to their solid padding and collapse for travel. Convenience features like Multipoint Bluetooth pairing and the ability to activate transparency mode by holding your hand on the right ear cup recall fancier models that cost double or triple the price, while their massive battery life is among the best you'll find.

If you're after a solid pair of noise-cancelling headphones but simply can't stomach the high prices of other top models, Anker's Soundcore Q30 are a very enticing option.

Best sounding

Sennheiser's Momentum 4 Wireless headphones don't have the best or even the second-best noise-cancelling performance on our list. That's OK, though, because once you hear them, you may not care. If you're an audiophile, the great sound quality you get here could be a more than acceptable tradeoff. 

It took Sennheiser three years to update its storied Momentum headphones, doing away with the retro styling that had defined the series up to now. But it was worth the wait and the redesign. The Momentum 4s deliver audio performance that rises above everything we've heard in their class, offering effortless presence, detail, and separation that lets you dig deep into each instrument's timbres and textures with remarkable clarity. 

The Momentum 4s are no slouches in the features department, either, starting with battery life that's double what you'll get from options like Sony's WF-1000XM5. You'll also get features like Multipoint pairing, the ability to adjust noise cancelling and transparency mode based on your environment, a three-band EQ, and great wind buffering that also aids in call quality.

As mentioned, the Momentum 4s' noise cancelling is good-not-great for headphones at their price point. They do a swell job with lower frequencies but let higher register noises like voices slip through more easily than the very best noise-cancelling headphones. Add a bit of music, and that shouldn't be much of an issue in most scenarios, but it's worth considering before you pull the trigger.

Although the headphones are quite comfortable, they're also heavier than some competitors, and they don't fold up completely, making them slightly harder to pack. That said, if sound is your compass, the Momentum 4s are well worth considering, offering a lush sonic experience.

Best features

Sitting nearly even with Bose's QuietComfort Ultra when it comes to top-notch noise cancelling, Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are an excellent alternative and may even be a better option for some. The M5 (as in Mark 5) may not have the catchiest name, but they make up for it with a formidable mix of brilliant performance and a truckload of great features.

Sony wrote the book on modern headphone design with its WH-1000X series, putting you in the driver's seat for a dizzying array of options. It all starts with the brand's powerful Headphones app letting you control your noise cancelation in multiple ways, including an option based on your environment. You can silence audio with your voice or let in the outside world with a simple hand gesture on the right ear cup. Alexa is available for smart control, and customization of Sony's 360 Reality Audio lets you unlock spatial sound with supported content.

Features aside, the XM5s are as polished as you'd expect a flagship pair of headphones from a market leader to be. Their touch controls are intuitive and responsive. Their noise cancelling is incredibly effective across registers. Sound quality is sweet, smooth, and superbly detailed to the point that you'll likely hear things you've missed in multiple previous listens. Their streamlined design and memory foam padding also make them comfortable for hours (though Bose's Ultras are even comfier).

The only noteworthy issue we take with Sony's latest design is that, unlike the Bose Ultra and Sony's cheaper WH-1000XM4, the M5s don't collapse for travel, making them harder to pack. Frankly, the most convincing argument against these cans is made by Sony's cheaper M4 headphones, which offer a lot of what makes the M5s great for less cash. But if you want Sony's best and all the features that come along, the WH-1000XM5s are a great buy.

Read our Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones review.

Best in-ear

The WF-1000XM5 are our pick for the best wireless earbuds you can buy. They pack what we love about Sony's top-tier over-ear headphones into a micro-sized frame with an in-ear design, offering tons of features, great sound, and excellent noise cancelling in a sleek design that fits neatly in your pocket.

Even for earbuds, the WF-1000XM5 are remarkably small for their class, especially compared to their predecessors, the WF-1000XM4, and top rivals like Bose's QuietComfort II and Ultra buds. Their size is all the more impressive given their exceptional battery life and performance, with noise cancelling that knocks out low-end frequencies and effectively muffles high-register sounds like voices and clattering dishes.

Like their full-sized cousins, the WF-1000XM5 are also packed with features. Opening the Sony Headphones app, you'll find settings to adjust everything from ambient sound and noise cancelling to Multipoint pairing, speak-to-chat (pausing sound when you speak), head gesture controls, and a multi-band EQ.

Sound performance is crisp, punchy, and accurate across genres, with a penchant for instrumental definition. You can raise the sound quality further by activating Sony's DSEE Extreme audio upscaling engine, while supported Android devices can access high-resolution Bluetooth streaming with Sony's LDAC audio technology. The buds also provide good call quality thanks to bone conduction sensors.

With the XM5s, Sony has also improved the physical design of its top earbuds thanks to a more stable and secure fit to go along with basic water resistance for versatile use cases. One complaint about the redesign: these things are slippery, making it challenging to grip or nudge them out of the case. They're also quite expensive, but their fantastic performance and packed set of features make them an excellent option for anyone who wants a compact pair of noise-cancelling earbuds.

How we test noise-cancelling headphones

When testing headphones for consideration in our guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones, we use them as we would in our daily lives to get a sense of how they'll perform for a typical listener. That includes evaluating features like ease of setup with different source devices, comfort, battery life, and general usability. We assess sound quality by listening to music across multiple genres from the best music streaming services as well as in high resolution. We also play videos and listen to them with each model to test features like spatial audio and head tracking with stereo and Dolby Atmos content.

To evaluate noise cancelling and transparency mode, we conduct real-world testing in natural environments and, whenever possible, in situations like plane flights or train commutes. We also incorporate a sound-treated room and professional stereo monitors to reproduce sounds like airplane noise, voices, and other effects. Battery testing includes putting the headphones on a stopwatch at medium volume to make sure they live up to their manufacturer's claims or come close.

Noise-cancelling headphones FAQs

What is noise cancelling?

Noise cancellation, also known as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or Adaptive Noise Cancellation, is a technology designed to suppress sounds in your immediate environment. Noise-cancelling headphones are outfitted with tiny microphones which pick up ambient sounds. They then use onboard circuitry to analyze those sounds in real time, flipping the polarity of the frequencies (essentially reversing their waveforms) to "cancel" them. 

Noise cancellation is an imperfect science and, as of yet, it's not able to block out all of the sounds in a given environment. That said, with each iteration, the best noise-cancelling headphones and earbuds increase how much sound they can block, especially at higher frequencies which are generally the hardest to cancel. The better the noise cancellation, the more frequencies are blocked, and the more noise your headphones can reduce.

Are over-ear headphones better than earbuds for noise cancelling?

While the gap between over-ear headphones and earbuds was once more prominent, today's top noise-cancelling earbuds are close to or on par with the best over-ear headphones with ANC. Both types offer good passive noise isolation, and both also use a mix of advanced hardware and software, including multiple microphones. While it varies case by case, you can now get very effective noise cancelling in either over-ear headphones or earbuds.

What is transparency mode?

Transparency mode, also called ambient audio (or sometimes hear-thru), is essentially the opposite of noise cancelling. Using the same exterior microphones, instead of cancelling the sound around you, transparency mode pipes ambient sound into your headphones in an effort to keep you aware of your surroundings. Transparency modes on most headphones can be easily toggled on and off so you can go from listening to music with ANC to letting outside sound in. This is not only a great safety feature, but it can also be helpful for situations like flights or other forms of mass transit where you need to communicate quickly.

What is Bluetooth wireless connectivity?

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows for an exchange of data, for our purposes in the form of audio, across short distances. Most Bluetooth devices offer a range of around 33 feet, though some, such as Class 1 Bluetooth devices, can travel 100 feet or more. Improvements in Bluetooth over time have allowed for increased bandwidth and, among other things, higher sound quality that's more reliable. In general, having the latest Bluetooth version can mean speed, efficiency, and reliability improvements.

• Tensions are high between North and South Korea, and it could erupt into a crisis sooner than later.
• North Korea is expected to provoke conflict before the 2024 US election in November.
• It could drag the US into a clash on the peninsula, an expert says.

Tensions are flaring between North Korea and South Korea, and it could lead to conflict sooner rather than later.

While there's no indication full-scale war is coming, a provocation from North Korea — heightened in a South Korean and US election year — could prompt retaliation from South Korea's hawkish president, an expert says.

"The real nature of any forthcoming North Korean crisis is difficult to predict," Sue Mi Terry, senior fellow for Korea studies with the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs last week. "Nonlethal provocations," like cyberattacks against government and defense institutions, should be expected at the minimum.

But on the other end of the spectrum, North Korea could conduct more testing for its Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile or even a tactical nuclear weapons test, or even go beyond "saber-rattling," as Terry described, launching "an actual, if limited, military attack against South Korea," not unlike incidents in 2010 when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong and sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 crew members.

North Korea has many reasons to provoke. It could be to seize international attention and fear for negotiating leverage or to drive a wedge in the US-South Korea alliance; some provocations seem to be in defiance to US-South Korean military exercises, for example.

If such a clash between North Korea and South Korea occurred, it could quickly spiral into wider conflict. South Korea's current president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has taken a tougher stance on North Korea since his election two years ago, strengthening ties with the US and Japan much to Pyongyang's disapproval.

Yoon is, as Terry wrote, "an avowed hawk and has promised to respond forcefully to any North Korean attack." What that looks like remains unclear, but it sets the stage for growing pressure.

A notable shift came earlier this year, when North Korea declared South Korea "our principal enemy" and threatened to "thoroughly annihilate" it along with the US if provoked. While these may just seem like fighting words, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conducted a major shift in the background, removing any goal of unification between the two Koreas from the government's policies.

This included the very public demolition of the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, built by Kim's father Kim Jong-il as a symbol of peaceful Korean reunification. Government offices, documents, websites, and plans for reunification also went dark. The move was alarming and likely partially influenced by the Yoon administration's harder stance against North Korea than South Korea's previous president, Moon Jae-in.

Those larger issues are at play during an especially fraught time: a major election year for the US. South Korea also held legislative elections in April, which saw Yoon's party lose seats after his domestic policies have often faced strong opposition.

On the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Capital Cable episode focusing on the future of North Korean policy, Terry talked about a potential provocation coming before the 2024 US election, referencing CSIS research from earlier this year that found that North Korea stages more than four times as many weapons tests in US election years than other years.

Commentary on the analysis by Victor Cha, the senior vice president for Asia and the Korea chair at CSIS, and Andy Lim, an associate fellow with the CSIS Korea chair, noted that "North Korea exhibits a tendency to ramp up provocations during U.S. election years. While diplomacy could stave off some of the violence, Kim Jong-un has rejected all calls from the Biden administration to meet. Instead, the regime has more than doubled the number of tests since 2021, compared to under the previous U.S. administration."

This election, shaping up for a rematch between current president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump, could be notable for North Korea, but that doesn't mean it's the only thing Kim is thinking about.

Times are quite different from four years ago. Since talks at Hanoi with Trump failed in 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic further isolated the so-called Hermit Kingdom, Kim has taken a large step back from engagement with the US, instead turning towards the country's "more traditional" allies, Russia and China.

Allison Hooker, a former deputy assistant to the president and senior director for Asia on the National Security Council, said on CSIS' "The Capital Cable" show that there's a lot happening on the global stage for North Korea to exploit for its own gain, from the war in Ukraine, which North Korea has contributed weapons to Russia for, to China and Taiwan.

And there's a lot going on at home, too, from goals in missile and weapons tests to North Korea's nuclear program. Kim is hard at work in those areas, and Hooker noted Kim could be looking to reengage in foreign policy with the US and South Korea down the road.

"The point is to reengage from a position of great strength," she said.