Skullcandy isn’t a name that usually comes to mind when you think of premium headphones. The Utah-based company has primarily made its name in the budget space, selling more on low prices and loud, sports-heavy marketing than the promise of excellent sound quality. With the new Method 360 ANC, the audio maker is trying to change that by latching onto another brand entirely. Skullcandy proudly boasts that its latest wireless earbuds feature “sound by Bose,” which is to say that Bose has supplied the acoustic tuning, ear tips and overall shape of the device. In fact, the new buds look quite similar to Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds from afar. But that upscale pair retails for $299 and the Method 360 ANC only costs $130 (or as low as $100 at third-party stores of this writing). So has Skullcandy managed to capture the best of Bose at a more affordable price? Kind of. Design and features The Method 360 ANC is indeed roughly as comfortable as the QuietComfort Ultra. Each earpiece is slightly heavier and more plastic-y — and Bose’s pair was already on the bulky side — but the soft ear gels and stability fins help them fit snug without creating too much pressure. I had no issues with them coming loose over several weeks of testing. The earbuds have an IPX4 water-resistance rating — not the best, but enough to survive most people’s workouts. The larger frame creates more space for the side touch panels, and all the controls do work reliably, which isn’t a given in the $100 range. These earbuds also come with most of the features you’d want from a modern pair. There are active noise cancellation (ANC) and ambient sound modes. Battery life is fine at eight to 11-ish hours, depending on ANC usage. They can dependably connect to two devices simultaneously, and they work with Google’s Fast Pair tech on Android devices. They support wear detection, too, and there are three different sets of ear gels and fins in the box. Any settings tweaks I’ve made in Skullcandy’s Skull-iQ app have taken effect quickly, and in general the software is easy to navigate. The only major omissions here are the lack of wireless charging and a short one-year warranty. The Method 360 ANC is almost identical to Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds in terms of design. For this review, we mainly compared the new Skullcandy buds against the QC Ultras and Anker's Soundcore Space A40, the top pick in our budget earbuds buying guide. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Sound quality Once you start listening to the Method 360 ANC, though, you start to see why it’s priced under $150. The default sound signature is extremely V-shaped: The bass is massive, the treble is bright and everything in between is recessed. Bass lovers should appreciate this with hip-hop, dance music and many pop songs. A track like Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA” becomes particularly easy to rock to: The low-end is deep and impactful, while a giant spike around the upper midrange keeps the vocals clear throughout. In general, the Method 360 ANC is a step up from the Anker Soundcore Space A40, the longtime top pick in our guide to the best earbuds under $100. That pair is far more muffled in the treble, whereas the Skullcandy pair’s crisper, more extended highs tend to make songs feel less closed-off. That said, it’s very easy to see how this kind of signature could get fatiguing over time. It’s consistently intense, and the recessed mids cause it to lose details in moderately intricate compositions. An indie rock track like Hop Along’s “The Knock” is a bit of a mess, as the bassline and crunchy rhythm guitar overwhelm the lead guitar riffs and rob the raspy vocals of air. With America’s “Ventura Highway,” the folksy acoustic guitar comes through clearly, but the overemphasized treble makes “ess” sounds a touch too sharp. The QuietComfort Ultra doesn’t exactly sound neutral, but it always comes off as more balanced by comparison. Skullcandy has also omitted support for higher-quality Bluetooth codecs, so it only supports the basic SBC and AAC. All of this is still better-than-average for bassheads shopping in this price range — just don’t expect it to compete very far beyond that. Thankfully, you can rein in some of the default profile’s excesses with a custom EQ in Skullcandy’s app. The charging case is on the larger side, to put it mildly, and uses a sliding mechanism to open and close. Jeff Dunn for Engadget ANC, ambient sound, call quality and one funky case Skullcandy’s ANC is perfectly respectable for $130, and it’s great you can customize the intensity of the noise-canceling effect via the app. But it’s not on the level of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds or even the step-down QuietComfort Earbuds. It cuts out a fair chunk of the bassy rumble of an NYC subway train, but higher-pitched screeches and stop announcements are very much audible with music playing at moderate volumes. The “Stay Aware” (ambient sound) mode, meanwhile, is passable but nothing more; it’s one of those deals where you need to keep the volume somewhat low to ensure you can hear yourself clearly. Call quality isn’t great, either: The mic does well to limit background noise, but it struggles with wind and makes your voice sound noticeably thin and processed. My testing partner said it made me sound like I was in an elevator. My biggest complaint, however, is with the ginormous tube of a case. It’s comically large next to pairs like the QuietComfort Ultra or Space A40, so much so that I have to question just how spacious Skullcandy thinks most people’s pockets are. There is a built-in clip that lets you hook the case to a bag or belt loop, but as a resident of New York City, I will never be comfortable sauntering around with anything of value dangling on my person. Actually snapping the earbuds back into the case is cumbersome as well: You have to slide the case open, then flip the earpieces upside down and insert them on opposite sides. I can understand wanting to make something unique, but this is an instance where boring would’ve been better. The Method 360 ANC's case has a built-in clip for attaching to bags or belt loops. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Wrap-up The Method 360 ANC has its problems, but most of them aren’t too surprising for a relatively affordable pair of wireless earbuds (oversized case aside). Don’t be fooled into thinking the Bose branding means you’re getting a Bose-level product — the real-deal QuietComfort Earbuds are better if you’re willing to pay more. But this is still a tier above most budget pairs we’ve tested. It has nearly all the features we’re looking for (unlike, say, the Beats Solo Buds), it’s comfortable and the sound signature will hit right if you’re hungry for bass. At its normal $130, it’s well worth considering for bassheads who can go one rung above the bargain bin. For $100 or less, it’s a great value. Just make room for that case.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/skullcandy-method-360-anc-review-a-cheaper-version-of-boses-best-earbuds-with-a-few-key-sacrifices-130047025.html?src=rss

Remember when the first terabyte-sized external hard drives hit the market and blew everyone’s minds with how huge they were? How quaint. They were also as ginormously expensive as we thought their capacity was. Fast forward to current times, and there’s a 24TB drive from storage giant Seagate available at Amazon for just $280, which is a considerably lower per-terabyte price than those 1TB drives of old. The Seagate Expansion 24TB External Hard Drive is smaller, faster, and more reliable, and it works equally well with PC and Mac computers. See at Amazon So Much Storage The Seagate Expansion 24TB External Hard Drive isn’t pocket-sized, but at just 3 inches tall and a bit under 3 pounds, it is most definitely portable. The day will almost certainly come when there are pocket-sized 24TB drives, but until then, this is about as compact as they come. The USB 3.0 interface of the Seagate lets you move data on or off the drive at a blistering-fast 4800 MB/s, which you’ll be more than thankful for if you’re doing a full-computer backup for the first time, or getting everything off one machine to move onto a new one. Creators and photo and video enthusiasts will deeply appreciate the enormous 24TB capacity of the drive, as well as the speed with which it writes those huge files. See at Amazon Backup for the Backup The Seagate Expansion 24TB External Hard Drive is pure plug-and-play, able to come out of the box and immediately become your trusted backup drive. Mac users will have to reformat the drive in order to use it with Apple’s time Machine, but that’s an exceptionally easy and fast procedure. Seagate external hard drives have a well-earned reputation for reliability, and the 250,000-plus Amazon reviewers who give this model an average 4.6 star review are solid proof. But, as they say, things happen, and in that event Seagate’s Rescue Data Services are at the ready. This service is included in the price of the drive, and should your hard drive become corrupted or suffer physical damage, you can ship it to Seagate and their expert techs will either repair the drive or salvage the data and move it onto a new device to send back to you. You might be surprised at just how many files you have to back up, or maybe you have several smaller backup drives lying around and you’re looking for a way to consolidate them. The Seagate Expansion 24TB External Hard Drive is a perfect solution, and the $280 price running right now at Amazon is unbeatable. See at Amazon

After facing his samurai iteration, you can recruit Darth Vader to your squad in Fornite, though be aware that he’ll now talk to you with an AI-recreated version of James Earl Jones’ iconic voice. The Chapter 6 Star Wars season of Fortnite, called Galactic Battle, is bringing famous characters and seasonal items themed around a galaxy far, far away. But no Star Wars-themed season could ignore the most famous Sith Lord of them all, Darth Vader. If you’re interested in having one of the most powerful characters of the Star Wars universe in your squad, we’ve got you covered. In this Fortnite guide, we explain how to recruit Darth Vader and where you can find him. Where to find Darth Vader in Fortnite Darth Vader can be found in following locations, some of which don’t have official names, though we’ve marked all three on the map above: Vader Samurai’s Solitude The mountains west of Masked Meadows The fields east of Foxy Floodgate According to our testing, he’ll only appear in one of those spots, so you may have to check all three. If you don’t find him, he will end up getting marked on the map after some time has passed. You can see his ginormous ship, the foldy-winged Imperial Shuttle, from above if you glide over these areas, but if you’re unable to do so due to the battle bus’s pathing, you can land between these three points and check each one manually (yuck). You’ll need to look for the Imperial Shuttle on one of the three docks pointed out above. If there’s no Imperial Shuttle there, that means he’s somewhere else. How to recruit Darth Vader in Fortnite Since Darth Vader is a boss in Fortnite, you must defeat him first before you can recruit the Sith Lord. As usual when it comes to dropping on these types of bosses, the greatest difficulty here is going to be taking out other players who also want to recruit him. That said, come moderately geared up — you’ll need to earn your spot alongside Darth Vader first. He’ll use his usual slew of attacks from previous seasons: Force Pull, which brings you close to him so he can dish our lightsaber melee damage A lunge towards you, which does the same thing as above (though just the other way around) A lightsaber spin that reflects bullets back You’ll want to keep your distance, jumping back the second he pulls you or lunges at you to minimize the damage you take. You’ll also need to stop shooting when you notice him spinning his lightsaber. After taking him out, he will open a portal to Mustafar and a text prompt will appear asking you to join him or not. If you agree, you’ll walk in (and promptly out) of the portal with a new lightsaber and some abilities — along with Darth Vader on your team. What you get from recruiting Darth Vader After accepting Darth Vader’s proposal, you’ll get a Sith Apprentice Lightsaber that also lets you throw the saber (the way that he does). New to Fortnite with this specific boss, you’ll also be able to talk to him using whatever button the right side of your screen prompts you with. (For keyboard/mouse players, it’s the Y key.) Yes, you can just have a conversation with an AI version of Darth Vader, which is… bizarre, but OK. Note that other players seemingly can hear him talking — we hid in a bush with him to play with the AI feature a bit, but once he started talking, other real-life players were able to find us hiding (unless that was just all a weird coincidence?).

RT Humanoid HistorySyd Mead poster art for the 1983 World Sports Fair in Japan, imagining a pack of ginormous mechanized dogs racing in a mega-coliseum.