To say I’m familiar with Sony’s 1000X line of headphones would be an understatement. I’ve tested every pair thus far, except the OG: the MDR-1000X. With each successive model, the company managed to add new features, develop better technology and expand the sonic capabilities of its flagship headphones. And with each new release, Sony kept its spot atop our best wireless headphones list.

This time around, Sony made us wait longer than usual. The first three sets of 1000X headphones each arrived a year apart. Then it was two years between the WH-1000XM3 and WH-1000XM4, perhaps delayed in part by the COVID pandemic, and then nearly two more before the redesigned WH-1000XM5 debuted. We’re three years out from that last model and today Sony is finally revealing the follow-up: the WH-1000XM6 ($450).

The extended interval is understandable once you consider the number of updates Sony has included to overhaul its pride and joy. There’s a new processor, more microphones, improved active noise cancellation (ANC), refined design and a retuned sound platform. Those changes join the long list of features Sony has amassed on the 1000X line over the years, a number of which automatically adapt when enabled, and many that provide great convenience in daily use. Other companies may have surpassed Sony in audio quality (at least until now), but none of the competition offers a collection of tools that even comes close to the WH-1000XM6.

Design updates

At first glance, the WH-1000XM6 might not look much different from the M5, but there are some notable tweaks that improve comfort and storage. First, there’s a wider, asymmetrical headband that makes these headphones even easier to wear for long periods of time. The previous model was already lightweight, and that continues here. Together with the new headband, it provides a comfy fit that beats every other wireless headphone.

Next, Sony returned to its folding design that older 1000X models used to have. With recent models, the company opted to just let the ear cups rotate before the headphones went in the case. They still do that, but they also fold in for easier storage. Due to this change, the company designed a smaller case, and instead of a zipper, Sony chose a magnetic closure.

One complaint I have about the design is how the ear cups rotate. When you take the WH-1000XM6 off, the cups rotate inside up to lay flat. To me, it should be the opposite, with the ear pads flipping down, because that’s how you’re going to put them in the case. This is a change from the M5, where the ear cups turn in what I’d consider the correct way, which makes this switch an even more confounding choice for this new model.

Sony mostly kept the controls on the WH-1000XM6 the same, save for a couple of small revisions. First, the company still uses a mix of physical buttons and touch panels on the outside of each ear cup. With the former, the only two options there are power (which doubles as Bluetooth pairing) and the noise control button that cycles through ANC, ambient sound and off.

That power button was redesigned so it’s now larger, round and concave. This makes it easier to find by touch and differentiates it from the noise control button. What’s more, Sony has added the ability for users to mute/unmute the microphones on the M6 during calls by double pressing the noise control button. This is handy when you don’t want to reach for your phone or keyboard during a voice or video chat.

Improved sound quality

Billy Steele for Engadget

The 1000X line has never been a slouch when it comes to sound quality, and Sony has made strides to continually improve audio performance over the years. With the WH-1000XM6, the company made changes in three areas to further boost the sound profile. First, Sony developed new drivers for the M6, which it says deliver “richer details and clearer vocals.” That’s due to what the company describes as smoother, extended high frequency reproduction created by perforations in the driver’s voice coil. And there’s better overall balance in the sound too, thanks to a more rigid dome for these components.

The company also enlisted mastering engineers from three recording studios to help tune the sound profile of the 1000XM6. They all contributed various quotes praising the audio quality of these headphones, but the general goal here was to deliver results that were closer to the artist’s intention. That includes more immersive sound and finer details. To further aid this, Sony also added 360 Spatial Sound upmixing for stereo content on the M6. Essentially, this feature can turn regular content into spatial audio. It’s something similar to what Bose does on its QuietComfort Ultra headphones, and it’s separate from both 360 Reality Audio support and DSEE Extreme compression upscaling.

On Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia, the WH-1000XM6 provides boomy bass when tracks call for it, like the loud, crunchy guitars and thundering drums in “Look To Windward.” Throughout the album, treble and mid-range cut through cleanly, providing ample separation so you can hear all of the elements clearly. And that’s no easy feat, given the genre-bending production the band employs. Plus, the big, soaring, loud parts of these songs seem to completely surround you with sound.

The recently remastered The Musings of Miles by Miles Davis exhibits a different side of the M6. Here, the textures of the instruments are what stand out, where you can hear the subtle nuances of the trumpet, piano, bass and drums. I’m not sure there would be much more clarity if you time-traveled back to Rudy Van Gelder's home studio in 1955. The audio is pristine here. There’s a similar vibe given to Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton’s Live At The Legion, where the two bluegrass virtuosos lend only two acoustic guitars and their voices to the show. Listening to this album with the M6, I might as well be sitting between them.

New chip, more mics and a dash of AI

Billy Steele for Engadget

Inside the WH-1000XM6, the star of the show is the new QN3 processor. Sony says it’s seven times faster than the QN1 used in the M5, a chip that first debuted on the WH-1000XM3 in 2018. Given that’s the main power behind noise cancellation, it was definitely time for an update.

With the QN3, Sony was able to add four additional microphones for its ANC setup, bringing the total on the 1000XM6 to 12. More mics means the company can more effectively detect and block noise. Alongside the new hardware, Sony upgraded the Auto NC Optimizer on the M5 to what it now calls the Adaptive NC Optimizer on the M6. This technology accounts for changes in fit and air pressure, automatically adapting the ANC coverage as needed. What’s more, the company says the M6 can block more mid-to-high-range frequencies than the M5, putting all of that power to good use.

There’s a noticeable improvement in ANC performance on the M6 — it’s not just marketing hype. I can easily tell the headphones are blocking more background noise than their predecessor, which isn’t always the case across 1000X generations. Particularly with human voices, this model does a better job of reducing the sound of chatty neighbors in the office than much of the competition. Even though it doesn’t entirely silence them, this still constitutes an upgrade in performance. The company has been giving Bose a run for its money for a while now, and the M6 further cements the fact the noise-cancelling arms race is closer than ever.

Like it did on the M5, Sony employs AI-based noise reduction on the M6 to reduce background noise during calls. The company says it trained its model on 500 million voice samples so the system can properly extract the user’s voice. What’s more, Sony now utilizes two additional microphones for voice performance (with a smidge more AI on them) that are better positioned for speech pickup.

In practice, call performance is a mixed bag. First, the M6 does an excellent job of blocking background noise. It rendered a loud fan completely silent during one of my tests. However, that processing impacts overall clarity, so you won’t sound nearly as good as you do in quieter locations. Plus, the results in noiseless conditions aren't pristine, but it’s good enough to get the job done for most call scenarios.

Sony brought back the convenient automation features that have made its flagship headphones the best option for years. Adaptive Sound Control can automatically adjust settings based on activity or location, like when you arrive at the office or when you’re out for a walk. Ambient sound still has pleasant, natural quality and is helpful to have on during calls. Speak-to-Chat continues to reduce the volume and activates that transparency mode when it detects your voice, though it’s still far too easily duped by coughs and when you clear your throat. You can also use head gestures to accept (nod) or reject calls (shake). There’s plenty more, but suffice it to say Sony is still ahead of the pack for the sheer volume of features it packs into its 1000X headphones.

Battery life

Billy Steele for Engadget

One of the few things that’s unchanged on the WH-1000XM6 is battery life. Just like the M5, this model offers up to 30 hours of use with ANC on or up to 40 hours with it off. The quick charge function is also the same: three minutes gives you three hours. I had no problem hitting these stated figures during my tests, which were primarily conducted with ANC on as well as Sony’s DSEE Extreme audio upscaling enabled. I would occasionally switch to transparency mode for calls, but 80 percent of the time I was in noise-blocking mode. After 25 hours of use, I still have 50 percent left in the tank.

There is one item Sony tweaked when it comes to battery and charging performance. On the M6, you’ll be able to listen to music while the headphones are charging. This functionality wasn’t available previously, and it’s sure to provide some added convenience in a pinch — like when you’re waiting for your flight in a raucous airport terminal.

The competition

Whether it’s Bose, Bowers & Wilkins or Sennheiser, there are a number of companies that inch closer to Sony’s crown with each product cycle. I’m convinced Sony has surpassed Bose in terms of pure noise-cancelling performance, but the QuietComfort Ultra headphones are still plenty good and can regularly be found for less than their $449 suggested retail price. I don’t care for the design of Sennheiser’s Momentum Wireless 4, but the headphones have nearly double the battery life of the M6 with plenty of audio and ANC performance to boot. And they do so for less money than the WH-1000XM6.

This leads me to the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3. The company’s Px7 S2e had been my pick for best sounding headphones for a while, and were only recently bested by Noble Audio’s pricey FoKus Apollo ($649). The S3 edition supposedly offers improvements to sound and ANC performance, but I haven’t tested them yet and there’s no clear indication how much they’ll cost or when they’ll arrive. Still, if you’re not in a hurry, the Px7 S3 may be worth waiting on as they should be slightly more affordable than the M6 and Bowers & Wilkins has a strong track record for sound quality.

Wrap-up

With the WH-1000XM6, the three-year-long wait was well worth it. The company has made significant gains in both sound quality and noise-canceling performance, thanks in part to a powerful new chip. Subtle, but impactful design tweaks increase comfort, while spatial audio upmixing further expands the sonic abilities of the 1000X line. The only real downside is the price continues to go up: the M6 is $50 more than the M5 was at launch. When you combine their performance with Sony’s ever-growing list of features, the 1000XM6 are the best headphones you can buy right now.

PlayStation 3 system software update 4.92 improves overall performance and updates the Blu-ray player encryption key, making it essential for users who rely on the console as a Blu-ray player.

For those of you who have been waiting for the opportunity to jump into PlayStation VR2 and experience what this generation’s innovative virtual reality system has to offer, we are happy to share some great news! Starting in March, we’re reducing the recommended retail price (RRP) of PS VR2.

Below are the new PS VR2 prices. The starting date of the new prices and bundle availability may vary by country/region, so be sure to check your local retailer for details.

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PlayStation VR2

$399.99 / €449.99 / £399.99 / ¥66,980 recommended retail price (includes tax for EUR, GBP, and JPY)

• Includes PS VR2 headset, PS VR2 Sense controller, and stereo headphones 

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PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle

$399.99 / €449.99 / £399.99 / ¥66,980 recommended retail price (includes tax for EUR, GBP, and JPY)

• Includes PlayStation Store voucher code for Horizon Call of the Mountain, PS VR2 headset, PS VR2 Sense controller, and stereo headphones 

With recently released hits like Alien: Rogue Incursion, Skydance’s Behemoth, and Metro Awakening VR, and exciting new game launches on the way including Aces of Thunder, Dreams of Another, Hitman World of Assassination, and The Midnight Walk, it’s never been a better time to jump into the action with PS VR2. Using the PS VR2 PC Adapter, players will also have access to browse, buy and play thousands of virtual reality games on Steam. Title release dates and regional availability may vary.

In addition, with a recent update to PS VR2, it now supports low-latency hand tracking, which allows developers to create games that tracks a player’s hand position and movement through the cameras embedded on the PS VR2 headset. Through this new feature, players will be able to experience intuitive controls in supported games such as Waltz of the Wizard. 

It’s a fantastic time to dive into the exciting world of PS VR2, with more immersive experiences still to come. What’s your favorite PS VR2 game so far?

It’s been more than a hot minute since we’ve seen some new Sega Genesis classics in the Nintendo Switch online library, but we’re finally getting some today. The Switch Online Expansion Pack brings the frantic platformer VectorMan, the run-n-gunner Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCS and the totally awesome ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron to the Switch’s classic games library.

VectorMan from BlueSky Software is a 2D platformer with impressive graphics for its time that often gets overlooked in the long hallway of the Sega Genesis’ legacy. The protagonist is a robot made of floating left on a resource ravaged Earth to clean up the mess humanity made when one of the supervisor robots named WarHead connects to a nuclear weapon and holds the planet hostage. VectorMan must blast his way through waves of enemies to free the Earth from WarHead’s clutches. So just think of VectorMan as Wall-E with a deathwish. The game has a pretty notorious degree of difficulty, but the slick graphics and fast pace of the gameplay makes VectorMan an underrated gem.

Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCS is a top-down military style shooter that started in the arcade before migrating to Sega’s Mega Drive and the Genesis in the early 90s. The concept is simple: run across the screen and shoot everything that moves before it shoots you. MERCS also has a huge arsenal of special weapons and some really cool boss battles that pit your puny mercenaries against a big ol’ battleship and even a harrier jet.

If you don’t know the names ToeJam & Earl, then welcome to one of the greatest slices of joy from gaming’s history. The most 90s video game duo ever got the sequel treatment with Panic on Funkotron in 1993. The second ToeJam & Earl title took its titular alien heroes away from the unique isometric map that made the first game so memorable to a more traditional 2D platform game but they are just as vibrant, goofy and animated in their second outing.

This is the first Sega Genesis update for the Nintendo Switch in over a year. The previous Genesis pack was released in June of 2023 and came with four games including Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, The Revenge of Shinobi, Landstalker and Crusader of Centy.

For as long as law enforcement has sought a way to monitor people's conversations—though they'd only do so with a court order, we're supposed to believe—privacy experts have warned that building backdoors into communications systems to ease government snooping is dangerous. A recent Chinese incursion into U.S. internet providers using infrastructure created to allow police easy wiretap access offers evidence, and not for the first time, that weakening security for anybody weakens it for everybody.

Subverted Wiretapping Systems

"A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of U.S. broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests," The Wall Street Journal reported last week. "For months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data."

Among the companies breached by the hacker group, dubbed "Salt Typhoon" by investigators, are Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies. The group is just one of several linked to the Chinese government that has targeted data and communications systems in the West.

While the Journal report doesn't specify, Joe Mullin and Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believe the wiretap-ready systems penetrated by the Chinese hackers were "likely created to facilitate smooth compliance with wrong-headed laws like CALEA." CALEA, known in full as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, dates back to 1994 and "forced telephone companies to redesign their network architectures to make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap digital telephone calls," according to an EFF guide to the law. A decade later it was expanded to encompass internet service providers, who were targeted by Salt Typhoon.

"That's right," comment Mullin and Cohn. "The path for law enforcement access set up by these companies was apparently compromised and used by China-backed hackers."

Ignored Precedents

This isn't the first time that CALEA-mandated wiretapping backdoors have been exploited by hackers. As computer security expert Nicholas Weaver pointed out for Lawfare in 2015, "any phone switch sold in the US must include the ability to efficiently tap a large number of calls. And since the US represents such a major market, this means virtually every phone switch sold worldwide contains 'lawful intercept' functionality."

Two decades ago, that mandatory wiretapping capability was subverted by hackers targeting Vodafone Greece. They intercepted phone conversations of the country's prime minister and high political, law enforcement, and military officials, among others.

Which is to say that nobody appears to have learned anything between the 2004 hacking of government-mandated wiretapping capabilities at a Greek telecom and the 2024 hacking of government-mandated wiretapping capabilities at U.S. internet service providers. Well, unless we're counting the Chinese hackers. They seem to have learned quite a bit from the earlier experience.

It should be needless to say, but let's say it anyway: this was all predictable and preventable.

'The Problem With Backdoors'

"The problem with backdoors is known—any alternate channel devoted to access by one party will undoubtedly be discovered, accessed, and abused by another," David Ruiz of the internet security firm Malwarebytes Labs wrote in 2019. He noted that cybersecurity researchers had been making that argument for years. They've been repeating themselves for years because their warnings appear to fall on deaf ears.

Even some believers in backdoors on specific devices concede that building wiretapping into whole communications systems is too dangerous to contemplate. A 2019 paper from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace's Encryption Working Group thought "some forms of access to encrypted information, such as access to data at rest on mobile phones, should be further discussed," but cautioned that compromising the security of what it called "data in motion" (communications networks) "would create a massive target for criminal and foreign intelligence adversaries."

Such foreign intelligence adversaries, for instance, as hackers sponsored by the Chinese government to penetrate U.S. internet firms.

So, just how dangerous was the Salt Typhoon hack?

'A Potentially Catastrophic Breach'

"The widespread compromise is considered a potentially catastrophic security breach," adds The Wall Street Journal. "It appeared to be geared toward intelligence collection."

China's state-sponsored hackers are continuously targeting U.S. infrastructure, including water-treatment facilities and the electricity grid. They've also penetrated pipeline systems. "The PRC's targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting," FBI Director Christopher Wray warned in April, referring to the People's Republic of China.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency cautions that "PRC state-sponsored cyber actors are seeking to pre-position themselves on information technology (IT) networks for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States."

And yes, the U.S. government is probably returning the favor by hacking systems in China and elsewhere. But that will be cold comfort if the lights go out here because the feds essentially rolled out the red carpet for foreign infiltration of American networks.

The debate over information security has raged for years with people like Edward Snowden pointing out that law enforcement agencies can't be trusted with access to our communications, or to abide by the rules that theoretically define when and how they can snoop. Now we know that they aren't competent custodians of wiretapping systems that privacy advocates warned were open invitations to bad actors.

Salt Typhoon may have done enormous damage to American security by penetrating internet systems relied on by private individuals, businesses, utilities, and government agencies. If it leads to the end of government-mandated backdoors that offer easy access to hackers, some good could come of this.

The post Chinese Hackers Used U.S. Government-Mandated Wiretap Systems appeared first on Reason.com.

Microsoft is in the midst of a deal that would bring the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant back to life, according to reporting by The Washington Post. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because the Pennsylvania plant was home to a partial meltdown of one of its reactors back in 1979.

The deal would make Microsoft the plant’s sole customer for 20 years, meaning it’ll hoover up 100 percent of the power all for itself. Why does the company need so much juice? You can guess. It’s for AI, which is notoriously power hungry. Look, if it takes an entire nuclear power plant so we can ask Bing to whip up an image of Steve Urkel in space riding a skateboard, then we gotta do it. It’s the future… or whatever.

Let’s break it down further. If this deal is approved by regulators, Three Mile Island will provide Microsoft with enough energy to power 800,000 homes. Again, no homes will be getting that energy, but don’t worry. Microsoft will be able to hold a live streaming event to show off some ghoulish new AI video generation tools or something.

I know I’m coming off as a real troglodyte here, but there is a silver lining. This could help Microsoft meet its pledge to power AI development with zero emissions electricity. It’s not as if these companies would give up on AI if there wasn’t a decommissioned nuclear power plant sitting around, so this move could help alleviate some of the strain that’s already being placed on our power grid due to ye olde artificial intelligence.

If approved, this would be a first-of-its-kind deal for a couple of reasons. A commercial power plant has never worked exclusively for one client before. It’ll also be the very first time a decommissioned power plant has come back online. It’s worth noting that the plant shut down five years ago for economic reasons, which has nothing to do with the partial meltdown from 1979. The current plan is for it to resume operations by 2028.

“The energy industry cannot be the reason China or Russia beats us in AI,” said Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation, the company that owns the plant. I’d take his jingoistic language with a grain of salt, however, as Constellation stands to make an absolute boatload of cash from this deal.

Let’s do some math. Yearly profits from a nuclear power plant averages $470 million. Microsoft will be the exclusive buyer of this energy for 20 years, which totals $9.4 billion. Constellation is spending $1.6 billion to get the plant going again, along with federal subsidies and tax breaks provided by the Inflation Recovery Act. This leaves $7.8 billion in sweet, sweet profit. That’s just a guesstimate, but you get the gist. The company does promise $1 million in "philanthropic giving to the region" over the next five years. That's $200,000 a year.  

This isn’t a done deal. There are many regulatory hurdles that Constellation will have to jump over. This includes intensive safety inspections from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has never authorized a plant reopening. There’s also likely to be an inquiry into those aforementioned tax breaks, as all of the energy is going to one private company and not serving entire communities. But come on. Steve Urkel on a skateboard in space.

On the plus side, Constellation will need around 600 employees to run the plant, according to the New York Times. Jobs are good. Also, the company says it won’t be seeking any additional subsidies from Pennsylvania. The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan is also looking to reopen for business, but it plans on servicing the local grid and not the gaping maw of AI. 

Enlarge / A screen capture of landing video of a Falcon 9 rocket just before it tips over on Wednesday morning. (credit: SpaceX)

Early on Wednesday morning, at 3:48 am ET local time, a Falcon 9 rocket booster making its 23rd launch took off from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The mission successfully delivered 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 of the larger vehicles with direct-to-cell capabilities, before attempting a landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas. However, the experienced booster had a shortfall of stability and tipped over shortly following touchdown.

Prior to Wednesday's landing failure, SpaceX had landed 267 boosters in a row. The company's last failure occurred in February 2021. The cause of the failure was not immediately clear, and SpaceX said "teams are assessing the booster's flight data and status." Based on video of the landing, it is possible there was an engine burn timing issue.

Fleet leader

This particular first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket made its debut in November 2020, launching the GPS III-04 mission for the US Space Force. By making its 23rd launch on Wednesday morning, Booster 1062 briefly became the fleet leader of SpaceX's collection of first stages that perform most of the company's launches.

Booster landings are considered secondary objectives to a launch's primary mission of delivering payloads into orbit. However, in recent years, SpaceX has delayed launches due to poor recovery weather conditions, as it does not want to lose the first-stage hardware, which probably costs at least $20 million to $30 million to manufacture, test, and deliver to the launch site.

The landing failure had one immediate consequence for the company's launch manifest. A second Starlink launch planned for early Wednesday morning, from the other side of the country at Vandenberg Space Force Base, was scrubbed so that SpaceX could assess the cause of the landing issue with the Florida launch.

Implications for Polaris Dawn

It is unclear whether the landing problem will impact the high-profile Falcon 9 launch of the Polaris Dawn mission, carrying Jared Isaacman and three other pilots and engineers on an adventurous mission to an orbit more than 1,200 km above the Earth before performing the first private spacewalk.

A planned launch of this mission on early Tuesday morning was scrubbed after a helium leak was discovered in the ground systems that support the rocket. Then, a second launch attempt of the vehicle on early Wednesday was scrubbed several hours before liftoff due to weather issues. Meteorologists are concerned about sea states for the Crew Dragon vehicle's landing three to five days after liftoff when the spacecraft returns to Earth in the seas near Florida.

"Our launch criteria are heavily constrained by forecasted splashdown weather conditions," Isaacman wrote on X on Tuesday evening. "With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support consumables, we must be absolutely sure of reentry weather before launching. As of now, conditions are not favorable tonight or tomorrow, so we’ll assess day by day."

The earliest that the Polaris Dawn mission could launch is now Friday morning, at 3:38 am ET (07:38 UTC) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But that is dependent on both weather and, now, SpaceX becoming comfortable with understanding the landing failure of Wednesday morning's Starlink launch.

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Comic: July 5, 2024