SummaryA triple play of talent: MLB The Show 25 features three cover athletes for the first time ever with Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, and Gunnar Henderson.MLB The Show 25 launches March 18, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S; early access begins March 14.Check out the Gameplay Trailer next Tuesday, February 4, at 9:00 am PT on San Diego Studio and MLB The Show social channels.In 2025, MLB The Show is celebrating its monumental 20th anniversary, a milestone that honors two decades of baseball history, innovation, and unforgettable memories for baseball fans around the world.To mark this special occasion for San Diego Studio and PlayStation Studios, MLB The Show 25 proudly features not one, nor two, but three cover athletes for the first time ever: Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, and Gunnar Henderson. These rising stars join a rich history of legendary cover athletes, symbolizing the future of baseball as we celebrate 20 incredible years of the franchise. Heres some more information about each of our cover athletes:Paul SkenesPaul Skenes journey began in high school and continued throughout college, where he cemented his status as one of most talented young pitchers in baseball by winning a national championship before being selected as the No. 1 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2023 MLB Draft. The following season, Skenes made his MLB debut and became the first player in MLB history to start the 2024 MLB All-Star Game just one year after being drafted. He capped off an incredible 2024 season by earning National League Rookie of the Year honors and being named to the All-MLB First Team. His story and skillset align perfectly with Road to the Show, where you can chart your own path to greatness.Elly De La CruzElly De La Cruzs meteoric rise from the minors to the majors perfectly captures the excitement of working up to a big league debut and becoming a star. Since making his Major League debut in 2023 with the Cincinnati Reds, Elly has consistently proven to be one of the most electrifying players on the field. He became one of the youngest players in MLB history to hit for the cycle and is renowned for his blazing speed on the bases and his cannon-like arm, further cementing his status as one of the leagues most promising talents. The 2024 All-Star showcases an impressive five-tool skillset and a dynamic switch-hitting approach exactly what MLB The Show fans dream of when developing or acquiring their starting shortstop in Franchise mode.Gunnar HendersonRounding out this triple play of talent is the 2023 American League Rookie of the Year, Gunnar Henderson. Selected 42nd overall in the 2019 MLB Draft, Gunnar quickly ascended through the Orioles farm system, making his MLB debut late in the 2022 season. Heading into 2023, he was named the #1 prospect on MLBs Top 100 list. In his first full season in the majors, Gunnar became a cornerstone of the Orioles young core, helping lead the team to its first postseason appearance in seven years. His outstanding performance earned him AL Rookie of the Year honors and a Silver Slugger Award. Gunnars star continued to rise in 2024, as he was selected to start in the MLB All-Star Game and compete in the Home Run Derby. His MLB journey resonates deeply with MLB The Show fans who strive to dominate head-to-head competition in their pursuit of greatness on the diamond.Play Ball Starting March 18, 2025, on Xbox Series X|SWe are also thrilled to announce that MLB The Show 25 will launch on March 18, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S. Early Access begins on March 14, 2025, for anyone who purchases the Digital Deluxe Edition on the Microsoft Store for Xbox. Pre-orders for all editions (Standard Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition) will open on February 4 at 6:00 am PST on TheShow.com and Microsoft Store for Xbox.Well also have a first-look at our first Gameplay Trailer next Tuesday, February 4 at 9:00 am PT on San Diego Studio and MLB The Show social channels. You can also look forward to even more weekly feature reveals, including Feature Trailer Deep Dives featuring MLB Network host Robert Flores, and the return of Feature Premieres from the development team at San Diego Studios.For all the fans, make sure to sign up for the MLB The Show Scouting Report to stay updated on all the latest features, updates, and legends coming to MLB The Show 25, while unlocking amazing rewards along the way. Starting in April 2025, subscribers will receive an exclusive pack every month through December 2025 (internet connection required), packed with incredible in-game rewards. Plus, the Golden Ticket Sweepstakes will return in 2025, with winners selected every month for amazing prizes like Packs, Stubs, clothing, autographed items from Elly De La Cruz, Gunnar Henderson, and Paul Skenes, along with even more surprises we cant wait to reveal. Dont miss out sign up today on TheShow.com!While youre there, dont forget to also set up your MLB The Show account and prepare for Opening Day. MLB The Show 25 allows you to easily move from platform to platform and keep access to your entire inventory of cards (learn more here). Head over to https://account.theshow.com/ and create your MLB The Show Account. After creating your MLB The Show account, login with your platform account and link it to your MLB The Show account, and you are all set.For all the latest information on MLB The Show, be sure to head over toTheShow.com, sign up forThe Scouting Report, and follow ourX,Facebook andInstagram accounts.

The first month of 2025 is almost over, moving us closer to the first Apple product launches of the yearand several strong ones are coming. Heres a look at five new products expected to arrive in the next few months.M4 MacBook AirApples most popular Mac is about to get its next upgrade. Heres what to expect from the new MacBook Air:M4 chip16GB RAM standardNano-texture display option12MP Center Stage cameraSupport for two external displays with lid openLikely improved battery performance thanks to M4Same design with 13-inch and 15-inch sizesOverall it should be a solid update for the MacBook Air. As for timing, signs point to a February or early March releasesome time around when the M3 MacBook Air launched in early 2024.iPhone SE 4Apples next iPhone will be the one most people should probably buy. Its the new iPhone SE 4, which is expected to debut in March.The new iPhone SE will feature: an iPhone 14-style design, with OLED and no Home ButtonFace ID and a notchthe A18 chip just added to the iPhone 16Apple Intelligence support, which is otherwise exclusive to 16 and 15 Pro models8GB of RAM48MP main camera, likely similar to the iPhone 16sUSB-C portand the first ever Apple-designed 5G modemAll of this at a compelling, budget-friendly price pointlikely under $499.The product Im personally most excited about is Apples forthcoming HomePad smart display.Mark Gurman detailed the forthcoming product extensively in a recent Bloomberg piece, which should bring fresh energy to Apples Home product lineup. Expected features, per Gurman, include:Focus is on Siri, Communication, and Home controlRuns Safari, Music, Notes, and several other Apple apps but no App StoreDevice is touch, but will mostly be operated by voice through Apple Intelligences new App IntentsNew OS is a blend of watchOS and iOS StandBy mode; dynamic UI shifts based on user distanceSize is roughly two iPhones side-by-side, with about a 6-inch screenDevice has speakers, FaceTime camera, and batteryApple is working on wall attachments, plus a speaker base for desks, tables, kitchens, and nightstandsHeavy security focus as well as video/audio intercom feature that works with other home devicesHome Screen is customizable with the classic Apple widgets and Home controlsTaps into video doorbells and video cameras, with support for security alertsI cant wait to see Apples renewed push into Home products come to fruition. Gurman originally said the HomePad was coming in March, but later revised expectations by saying it could be delayed a bit.After a barren 2023 for iPad, Apple was originally expected to update its entire iPad lineup in 2024. We did get new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini models, but the base iPad was ultimately left unchanged.Very soon though, the iPad will get updated to an 11th generation device. We dont know much about the new iPad, other than that it will get a faster A-series chip, likely one with 8GB of RAM that supports Apple Intelligence. It will potentially feature Apples new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networking chip too.Mostly, it sounds like a standard iterative update for Apples most affordable iPad.M3 iPad AirThe base iPad wont be the only tablet launching soon. Despite Apple just revving the iPad Air last May with the M2 chip, rumors indicate an M3 upgrade is coming before long.Not much else is known about the M3 iPad Air except that it should support some updated keyboard accessories from Apple. Otherwise, its likely just a spec bump for the same 11-inch and 13-inch sizes we have already.Wildcard: Apple Watch SE 3Finally, theres a possible sixth product that could arrive soon: an Apple Watch SE 3.The last Apple Watch SE arrived in 2022, and leading up to Apples September 2024 event, rumors pointed to a launch for the SE 3but it never materialized.Except for the MacBook Air, these are products that no one cares about. Most would rather hold an iPad in their hands and use it, rather than a 6" HomePad from across the room. What a complete waste. Most are waiting on the new Mac Studio with M4 Max and M4 Ultra, a product that Apple has neglected, since it still uses a 2 year old CPU. View all commentsPrevious Apple Watch SE models have debuted in September, but there are two reasons to believe the new SE might arrive this spring instead.if the device was indeed targeting September 2024 but just missed it, Apple has little reason to wait a whole extra yearan Apple Watch SE launch could pair nicely with the iPhone SE 4s releaseApples upcoming products: wrap-upApples plans could always change, but if these five or more products do arrive in the early part of the year, it will make for an especially strong start to 2025 for the company. All leading up to whats sure to be an exciting WWDC and fall product launch season.Which of Apples products coming soon are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Silo just wrapped up its second season on Apple TV+, but if you werent ready to leave silos 17 & 18 just yet, Apple just shared a new way to explore the shows dystopian world.Silo set tour video runs almost 24 minutesApple TVs YouTube account today published a unique video designed to draw you back into the world of Silo following its season two conclusion.Per the videos description:Experience an unprecedented look at the sets of Silo with this meditative tour of silos 17 and 18.The nearly 24-minute video tour takes you slowly room by room throughout the massive sets that Silo is set in.Although no word has yet been shared on an expected release date for Silo season 3, we do know that Apple TV+ has renewed the show for both seasons 3 and 4.Those next two seasons are expected to bring the series to completion, with the full story of the three novels Silos based on wrapped up.Silo seasons 1 and 2 are available to watch now on Apple TV+ with an active subscription.What do you think of the new Silo set tour video? Do you want to see more content like this from Apple TVs YouTube account? Let us know in the comments.Best Apple TV and Home accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

A "wake-up call."Deep TroublePresident Donald Trump has responded to the rapid rise of the Chinese startup DeepSeek, whose recently released AI model has him and his Silicon Valley pals looking like a bunch of chumps."The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win," Trump said Monday at a GOP event in Florida.It's a relatively measured take from Trump, considering his usual though occasionally wavering hawkishness on China, complete with a metaphorical stern glance to the domestic tech sector.The Republican president also added that he viewed the model's low-cost as a "positive development.""Instead of spending billions and billions, you'll spend less and you'll come up with hopefully the same solution," Trump said.Stars MalignReleased last week, DeepSeek's open-source R1 model rivals the West's best at a fraction of the cost. It was developed using older Nvidia AI chips, for purportedly under $6 million. Despite these limitations, R1 matches up to leading chatbots like OpenAI's o1 model, and in certain benchmarks, even surpasses them.For Trump and his tech allies themselves often recent convertees to his political enclave the timing couldn't have been worse. The new administration had just announced its Stargate deal, which would raise $500 billion of private capital towards building AI infrastructure in the US. Its backers included OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and Emirati state-run investment firm MGX.That staggering sum is emblematic of the outrageous amounts of capital and processing power that the industry talking heads have been insisting is necessary to develop large AI models.Thus far, the preferred way of making AI more powerful has been through scaling, or leveraging more data and adding more AI chips. In other words, making the AI models bigger which isn't very efficient, money or energy-wise.All Caught UpWith DeepSeek riposting without anywhere near the same amount of resources, Stargate's half-trillion dollar price tag now looks like a ridiculous monument to the tech industry's arrogance.And generally, the stock market agrees. The buzz stirred by the Chinese AI model wiped out over $1 trillion from leading US tech stocks, or about two Stargates worth. Roughly $600 billion of those losses came from Nvidia.That said, big names like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have tried to keep a cool head amidst the chaos, praising Deepseek's achievements.And Trump's own AI and crypto czar David Sacks opined on X that R1 "shows that the AI race will be very competitive," stressing that the US "can't be complacent."Share This Article

China-based AI startup DeepSeek has been absolutely liquidating the AI tech bubble since trading opened Monday.Basically, the company's powerful new AI model, known as R1, seems to demonstrate that filling schools with Anne Frank chatbots doesn't need to be the massive energy sink that AI industry has long insisted.That's rattled tech stocksin AI-adjacent industries, with the semiconductor company Broadcom down over 17.5 percent over two days, and Nvidia continuing to fluctuate after shedding nearly $600 billion in one day, dragging the NASDAQ down by an astonishing 3 percent.Now joining them are energy and utility corporations, as investors reel from DeepSeek's more efficient model seeming to use considerably less power than OpenAI to achieve similar results. Essentially, fossil fuel outfits had been banking on huge new datacenters needing tons of energy."Natural-gas producers EQT and Antero Resources each declined more than 9 percent. Pipeline giants Kinder Morgan and Williams Cos. ended 9.3 percent and 8.4percent lower, respectively," the Wall Street Journal reported. "Nuclear-plant owner Constellation Energy and Vistra, which runs one of Americas largest fleets of gas-fueled power plants as well as solar farms, were some of the top performing stocks in the S&P 500 last year. On Monday, they dropped 21percent and 28 percent, respectively."The timing of DeepSeek's reveal was astonishingly unfortunate, coming to prominence right after Donald Trump announced a $500 billion government-led AI venture, with the newly-minted president musing that the awesome potential of AI might require power plants hooked up directly to datacenters.Even worse timing which is saying something, under the circumstances might have been Chevron announcing a huge new partnership to build natural gas plants in the United States with the express purpose of running energy-hungry new datacentersafter DeepSeek's reveal and subsequent AI stock implosion.In a more rational world, DeepSeek's efficiency which was achieved through an open-source development model would be a universal cause for celebration.Unfortunately for our new tech oligarchy, the announcement flies directly in the face of the tech sector's preferred narrative of AI scaling: the idea that simply adding more computing power will lead to better and better AI, even if the environmental impact is grim.Investors have taken this financially convenient hypothesisinflated market valuations for startups, energy conglomerates, and big tech companies eager to spill untold lakes of oil, coal and uraniumstay ahead of China."Thus far OpenAI and its peer scaling labs have sought to convince the public and policymakers that scaling is the best way to reach so-called [artificial general intelligence]," AI reporter Karen Hao wrote on X-formerly-Twitter. "This has always been more of an argument based in business than in science."As such, tech critics are enjoying a bit of schadenfreude, given that the entire American model for AI development hinged on the tech's ability to replace nearly all knowledge workers in the US, accounting about 12 percent of the US labor force. Now that DeepSeek claims todo OpenAI's job more efficiently than it can, the American for-profit tech corporation is getting a taste of its own medicine."OpenAI has been burning through staggering sums of cash to keep up its scaling paradigm and has yet to figure out how to balance its checkbooks," Hao continued, "and it turns out it didn't need to spend so much cash."More on AI stock bubble:Trump Embraced AI and It Exploded Spectacularly in His FaceShare This Article

Big news, 90s kids Blockbuster may be coming back!But not quite in the way you'd expect.According to a post on Instagram, Blockbuster Video could be reincarnated as a nightclub, bar, restaurant and amusement park.Yes, you heard that right. You could be experiencing a Blockbuster-themed amusement park in the near future.The post revealed that the owner of the Blockbuster trademark filed an application to use the brand in several new ventures.A publicly viewable application confirmed reports of a Blockbuster comeback and lists night clubs; amusement centers; entertainment services in the nature of an amusement center attraction as well as bar and restaurant services; snack bar services as potential uses of the brand in its new iteration.READ MORE:Big Lots Selling More Than 500 Store Leases in These 47 StatesThis isn't the first time Blockbuster has tried to expand its brand.In the 90s, Blockbuster operated an indoor theme park called Block Party, where, according to Park Rovers, guests could enjoy a city-street theme with high-tech attractions designed for 18-to-45-year-olds, including a motion simulator ride and a high-tech maze.The venture was tested in Albuquerque and Indianapolis under the leadership of ex-DisneyexecutivesBill Burns and Fred Brooks.According toReviewTyme on YouTube, the adult theme parks were marketed as a place where grown-ups go to kid around.ReviewTyme's video noted that not only did Block Party have games and various attractions, but also a giant play center for the young at heart.Ultimately, the Block Party theme parks were a flop and didn't revitalize the brand as theyd hoped.Instead, they became a hot spot for rowdy 20-somethings, according to ReviewTyme.Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and closed most of its stores as movie watchers transitioned to streaming.One Blockbuster store remains in Bend, Ore., owned by Debbie and Ken Tisher.Get our free mobile app10 VHS Tapes You Totally Owned As A 90s KidThese movies were part of every 90s kid's VHS collection.Filed Under: Blockbuster, Fast FoodCategories: Movie News

We are looking for a Senior Frontend Engineer who considers themselves a Product Engineer, excels in a fast-paced remote environment, is enthusiastic about building quality software, and enjoys tackling a diverse range of problems.HighlightsWe are a remote-first Series A and VC-backed software company with ~40 team members distributed across the Americas and Europe.Looking for a Frontend Engineer with 4+ years SaaS experience living in the US, Canada, or Brazil to join our product teamSalary range for this role is $120-180k per annum (offer will be based on your seniority, equity and geography)Essential Skills needed for this role4+ years working full-time as an Engineer and 2+ years of React experience.Fluency and comfort in core web technologies (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and common libs/frameworks (React, TailwindCSS, Vite, Tanstack Query, etc.).Test-driven mentality during your code production process.Engineers work closely with QA, but we expect our Engineers to write tests prior to the QA process.Familiarity with the best practices around UX, accessibility, frontend performance and feature-flagging.Experience with building up and from a component library.Other requirementsA home office, a stable high-speed internet connection, and the ability to work independently in a remote environment (well send you a new M3 Macbook Air with 16GB ram).You are geographically located in the US, Canada or Brazil and likely enjoy many aspects of working remotely.Note: Even if you are willing to work these hours we unfortunately cannot consider your application for this role.Fluency (written and verbal) in English.Responsibilities as an Engineer at ChameleonProduct Engineering: youll be evolving and maintaining our codebases, including:Our Dashboard, where our customers manage their usage of Chameleon, their Experiences, audiences, etc.Our Experience Editor, a browser extension used by our customers to create seamless, multi-purpose Experiences for their end-users.chmln.js, our JS library loaded in our customers web apps, responsible for loading and displaying Chameleon Experiences to many end-users.Project Management: you will collaborate and be responsible for keeping a tight feedback loop with our Product Team, by discussing details, providing feedback, helping defining and shaping specifications of the features and projects youll be working on, while ensuring alignment with technical best practicesProject Leadership: We value and encourage input and action beyond just the technical aspects. From specification to release, youll be responsible for keeping a tight loop with the rest of the team, ensuring that you rapidly reach out to your team to solve blockers, and ensuring a smooth rollout of new features for our customers.Engineering culture & teamOur engineering team consists of ~10 Engineers, 3 QAs, 1 PM, and 2 designers. Learn more about our team, culture, and vision on our About pageWere an async-first company. But what does that mean?Our recurring meeting cadence is low and we default to async discussions (via Slack threads, Linear ticket comments, Loom videos, etc.).We value and encourage self-management. Trust is a key element to our success as individuals.Proactive communication, collaboration and action on blockers. We encourage messages in public channels, so we can have visibility if someone needs help.Engineers use Tuple for pairing, to work together on projects/featuresEach person adjusts their work schedule according to what best works for themselves, considering work <> life balance.No daily meetings:We do not have daily standup meetings. Instead, we offer optional office hours time slots through the week, and also encourage ad-hoc Tuple pairing sessions.Everyone records a ~5min loom video at the end of each week, to recap what theyve been working on all week. The entire team has visibility of work in progress, can chime in with questions/comments, and provide feedback.We have a weekly Show & Tell meeting for exchanging knowledge, learnings, and questions, showcasing work in progress among ourselves, or just hanging out and bounding.The product team works in small pods focused on a specific feature/product (Quality, UX, Better, Bets, etc.). Check out the full description on our website here

Our Picks Best HP laptop overall HP Spectre x360 14 View details $1,465 at HP View details Best HP laptop with long battery life HP OmniBook X 14 View details $1,200 at HP View details Best HP budget OLED laptop HP Pavilion Plus 14 View details $650 at HP View details Best HP big-screen midrange laptop HP Envy x360 16 View details $850 at HP View details Best compact HP laptop for gamers and creatives HP Omen Transcend 14 View details $1,600 at Best Buy View details Best HP laptop for business HP Dragonfly G4 View details $1,400 at HP View details Best HP laptop with a foldable display HP Spectre Foldable PC View details $4,500 at Best Buy View details Table of Contents This year will mark a big transition for HP laptops as the company shutters longtime brand names like Pavilion, Envy and Spectre and fills out its new OmniBook line of consumer laptops and its new commercial EliteBook series. (The Omen gaming line will continue into 2025.) I liked the first OmniBook I reviewed and look forward to checking out the new EliteBooks that HP announced at CES 2025. While we await the release of new OmniBook and EliteBooks this year, now is a great time to find a deal on models from the outgoing lines.What's the best HP laptop overall?HP's new OmniBook X 14 set a new high-water-mark for battery life, but our favorite HP laptop remains the HP Spectre x360 14. It was one of the first laptops with Intel's new Core Ultra CPU that promises AI capabilities that will become more important in the future with improved performance that you can feel today. It also boasts a gorgeous OLED display wrapped in a beautiful and durable all-metal chassis. Even better, HP is discontinuing the Spectre line and offering the Spectre x360 14 at a deep discount. Even more of these models see major discounts during Cyber Monday laptop sales. Back to the OmniBook X 14: It's HP's first Copilot Plus PCs based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X mobile processor. It lacks the striking design of the Spectre x360 14 as well as its OLED display, but what it does offer is unprecedented battery life. Thanks to its Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite CPU, it can literally run around the clock on a single charge.Year after year, we have reviewed every type of HP laptop, performing benchmark testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and conducting extensive hands-on tests to thoroughly evaluate each product. With decades of experience, CNET's laptop experts have done the testing and research to find the best laptops that HP has to offer. And here they are.Best HP laptops of 2025 Photo Gallery 1/1 $1,465 at HP Pros CPU delivers good performance and future-proofing Intel Arc GPU offers performance bump Beautiful, all-metal chassis Strong AV output with OLED display, quad speakers Super-sharp 9-megapixel webcam Cons Always-on LED on power button gets annoying GPU upgrades not offered Limited port selection Battery Life/Runtime 595 minutesWeight 3.2 poundsDisplay size/type 14-inch 2,880x1,800 120Hz OLEDProcessor tested Intel Core Ultra 7 155HGraphics tested Intel Arc Graphics Full Review Read full review 9.0

Our Experts Written by David Carnoy Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement How we test Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Kobo e-books and audiobooks. Expertise Headphones, Bluetooth speakers, mobile accessories, Apple, Sony, Bose, e-readers, Amazon, glasses, ski gear, iPhone cases, gaming accessories, sports tech, portable audio, interviews, audiophile gear, PC speakers Credentials Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer See full bio What to Consider Budget Determine how much you're willing to spend on wireless earbuds and how that lines up with quality and functionality. Fit Your headphones should offer a comfortable, secure fit. Ensuring the headphones you choose fit your head help minimize any discomfort from extended wear. Return Policy In case the headphones aren't a great fit for your ears, it's important that the retailer offers a good return policy. Features Premium earbuds should offer best-in-class noise cancelling as well as have great microphones for phone calls. Durability If you're going to spend a lot of money, you should have a good idea how long the headphones are expected to last. Table of Contents vs Compare Back to selection While there are plenty of decent-sounding wireless earbuds on the market, the list gets a lot shorter when you're looking for truly great-sounding earbuds. Alas, based on my 20 years of testing audio gear, most of the best-sounding wireless earbuds tend to have rather premium price tags. And that's the case for many of the buds on this list. However, I've tried to include some more affordable picks that sound very good for their modest price points. Note that I've personally used all the earbuds on this list and fully reviewed several of them. I'll update these picks as new, great-sounding earbuds hit the market. Our Picks Best-sounding wireless earbuds overall Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 View details $399 at Crutchfield View details Best for noise-canceling Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds View details $299 at Bose View details Best Sony earbuds Sony WF-1000XM5 View details $298 at Amazon View details Excellent-sounding wireless earbuds from Beyerdynamic Beyerdynamic Amiron 300 View details $280 at Amazon View details Best wireless earbuds for Samsung users Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro View details $250 at Samsung View details Best earbuds for Pixel smartphone and Android users Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 View details $229 at Amazon View details Best-sounding Sennheiser wireless earbuds Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 View details $220 at Amazon View details

January 28, 20253 min readPristine Ancient Forest Found Frozen in Time in Rocky MountainsA melting ice patch in the Rocky Mountains uncovered an ancient forest, and these trees have stories to tell about dynamic landscapes and climate changeBy K.R. Callaway & LiveScience Long-frozen whitebark pines emerge from a melting ice patch in the Yellowstone region. Daniel Stahle, Montana State UniversityMelting ice high up in the Rocky Mountains has revealed an impeccably preserved forest, frozen in time for thousands of years.Beartooth Plateau, which sits at an altitude of over 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), is a barren, tundra-like landscape. But it hasn't always been that way; an ancient forest lies beneath layers of ice.Cooling temperatures about 5,500 years ago quickly encased this whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forest in ice, preserving the trees in nearly perfect condition. Now, as ice patches frozen for millennia melt due to climate change, researchers are finding clues about what this ancient landscape was once like, and how it was preserved. They detailed their findings Dec. 30, 2024, in the journal PNAS.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today."No one had any idea that these patches of ice had been around for thousands of years," David McWethy, an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University and co-author of the study, told Live Science. "Things looked dramatically different than they do today."This ancient forest of whitebark pines thrived for centuries at much higher elevations than the same tree species that can be found in the region today. This is because the global climate went through a warm period between the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, and the time when these whitebark pines died over 5,000 years ago.This high-elevation forest was once an active ecosystem, likely sustaining animals and the humans who hunted them. From the same ice patch, Craig Lee, an assistant professor at Montana State University and co-author of the study, has recovered a wooden shaft dating back 10,000 years. This wooden shaft was likely part of a spear used by humans to hunt.At the margins of an ice patch on the Beartooth Plateau, a forest is frozen in timeJoe McConnell, Desert Research Institute"We don't think about how dynamic that alpine ecosystem has been through time: people were using it, animals were using it," Cathy Whitlock, director of the Paleoecology Lab at MSU and senior author of the study, told Live Science. "You go there now and it's beautiful it's a very dramatic landscape but it's a little stark."The trees likely died because of the gradual cooling of the climate at the end of the warm period described above, McWethy said. Very soon after the trees perished, a series of volcanic eruptions released ash and other materials into the atmosphere, which led to further cooling. This volcanic cooling was abrupt enough that ice quickly surrounded the trees and preserved them until the present day.The trees revealed by the melting Rocky Mountain ice patch look "like trees that you would see up in a windswept area," McWethy said missing their bark but otherwise pristine. Until now, the ice patch has never melted, so the ice has protected the trees from deteriorating.A frozen forest emerging "is not something I've heard of before," Philip Mote, an Oregon State University professor who was not involved in this study, but has studied snow conditions in the western United States for almost 25 years, said in an interview. "I'm sure all sorts of things got buried under the ice."Climate change driven by human activity has accelerated the warming of high-elevation areas like Beartooth Plateau. As more ice patches melt, there is the potential to learn more about the past, but Whitlock said these discoveries are bittersweet."These kinds of discoveries are scientifically really interesting, but they're also a sad reminder of how fragile these alpine ecosystems are to climate change," Whitlock said.Copyright 2025 LiveScience, a Future company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.