Surface headphones come in a non-ridiculous case that hasn’t inspired countless memes. This is the black variety; the deal is for the gray ones.
David Carnoy / CNET
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At the end of last year, Apple revealed the Ridiculously expensive AirPods Max headphones. I think it goes without saying that few people will spend $ 549 when there are perfectly good alternatives for less.
In some cases, manner least: just today, and while stocks last, Woot has the Microsoft Surface headphones (gray) for $ 111 – the lowest price ever recorded. (Last time, they cost $ 150 – and sold out very quickly.) You could literally buy five them for the same price as an AirPods Max. (Here are some other things you could buy instead.)
Originally at $ 350, Surface headphones were aimed at competing with models like Bose and Sony in the same range. How did they do? According to David Carnoy of CNET, the sound quality and battery life were not at the same level, but overall he found them “almost great”. Read his Surface Headphones review learn more. (Also note that they have been replaced with a slightly better and a little cheaper Surface headphones 2.)
Some things to consider: these have touch controls, dials at the ear to adjust the volume and active noise cancellation levels, a voice assistant always on (Cortana), USB-C charging and automatic pause / resume when you take the headphones off by ear and put them back.
In other words, they are easy to use. Many headphones seem to overwhelm you with controls that are difficult to find or operate. Automatic pause, in particular, is one of my favorite features.
So if you’re buying a premium headset and don’t have hundreds of dollars left, take a look at it.
Your thoughts?
See this:
Microsoft Surface headphones: surprise noise cancellation …
02:38
Turn an old laptop into a new Chromebook
CloudReady adds the Chrome operating system to almost any laptop. You can run it entirely from a flash drive or overwrite the existing operating system.
Sarah Tew / CNET
Can’t find a good deal on a Chromebook? Consider reusing that seemingly slow and useless old Windows laptop in your closet. It is a free and quite easy operation; all you need is a tool called CloudReady.
Josh Goldman of CNET covered this about a year ago, when parents were struggling to find Chromebooks for their children who had just left home. I will not reinvent the wheel, except to say that I recently performed this resurrection on an old laptop of mine. (Crazy coincidence: it was the exactly same HP model Josh wrote about.)
Anyway, it worked perfectly, and now that slow-running Windows 7 machine of the past looks like a new Chromebook. I do not have totally He kicked the tires, but there’s no reason to think it won’t work – especially for, say, an elementary or high school student with modest needs. And I’m donating to a child like that.
All you need is a formatted USB flash drive (preferably not a SanDisk, for reasons) with at least 8 GB of storage. In the chance that you don’t have a draw, here it is a 64 GB drive for $ 10.
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